Flower's Dev Diary (Week of November 12th)

[Mikko_blu]

I completely agree with you, FC - Beacons are way underdeveloped. I can think of a multitude of games where equivalents of the minecraft beacon are used, and used often. Most players develop a home base, and i feel that the beacon is a good way to strengthen that home base feel, as do walls and seperate buildings dedicated to one purpose.

When 1.4 came out, i immediately got to killing the wither, and building a beacon in my city. I found a cool spot for it, kind of in the outskirts, (I wanted it to have the shrine feeling, and i wanted to have some space around it to show it off). After i had completed it, i walked back through the gates and into the city, and the effects dropped off. I was really stunned, and surprised, and really really put down. Unfortunately, i had to demo a couple apartment buildings in the near center, and even then i had to partially build it underground, Just to implement the damn thing and still have walkable room around it for the Iron Golems to walk by.

TL;DR: Disappointment.

[FlowerChild]

Yup, it's a huge disappointment, and I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking that.

Basically, I intend to make them central features of your base, that you'll definitely want to have, while increasing the work involved in creating them so that powers are material dependent and actually play a role in their function.

Ideally, at max level, I want the beacons to cover the full size of a base you'd most likely want to build, which to my mind is 144 blocks (or thereabouts) around a central mob trap, as that covers the spawn distance on mobs. I also want to "flatten" the distance so that it covers the full vertical range of the map, so basically creating an area that's a huge square as opposed to cube around the beacon.

What this means, is say for example you build a beacon to boost your mining speed in the center of your base. Well then, that will cover the entire area you are likely to want to mine in as you explore for caves to light up for your trap or what have you.

Anyways, the long and the short of it is that they'll be more difficult to construct, and thus be more rewarding, more powerful in terms of providing an actual useful function for an established base, and will also be diversified so that you will conceivably want multiple beacons constructed out of different materials in your base to provide different bonuses.

Thus, they will become a much more important and rewarding aspect of the "end game" experience, and will likely give you many different in-game projects to work on in the process.

[Sarudak]

So the material of each beacon will determine what bonus it provides and the size will determine the radius?

[FlowerChild]

So the material of each beacon will determine what bonus it provides and the size will determine the radius?

Yup.

[dawnraider]

Man, this seems awesome. I, too, think that beacons are cool, but had terrible implementation. I am looking forward to your redesign.

[Stormweaver]

So the material of each beacon will determine what bonus it provides and the size will determine the radius?

Yup.

I like it; not only does it make sense (which always helps) but it removes the temptation to create compound beacons by sticking multiple beacon blocks on top of a slightly enlarged pyramid.

[Anbaric]

I can not wait for this! This kind of dynamic feature is something that is sorely missing from minecraft. Also, there will be even more challenge for those of us wolfaboos that are more focused on aesthetics. If different materials produce different effects, then we'll have to have multiple pyramids of different colors to properly place around our bases. Talk about a balancing act!

[johnt]

I actually really like that the beacon is visible from a distance, and it seems like they probably were thinking of doing something with it attracting mobs or enabling more powerful mobs, but didn't do it for some reason. Why else would you call it a 'beacon'?

It seems like placing a beacon should be a really high-risk, high reward proposition, but it's neither right now.

[Psion]

I love you FC. I love you.

Did I mention how much I love you?

I can't wait to see the love you give to beacons. The huge range boost sounds wonderful too, as my base plan actually does call for the mob trap at the center of it. Granted, it's going to be so huge that the outer edge might still not get full coverage... but it might. I'm not sure yet :P (I'm a sucker for megabuilds)

[Sarudak]

I wonder what power an SFS beacon will provide.... :)

[FlowerChild]

I wonder what power an SFS beacon will provide.... :)

Hehe...you can be assured that I've already considered that ;)

But yes, I will of course make some powers accessible through mod blocks. Heck, I'm even tempted to make the jump boost come from a dung-block pyramid given how entirely useless it is :)

I probably won't do that last one, but the thought definitely crossed my mind ;)

[johnt]

No you really should do a dung block pyramid :) and a companion cube one :)

[Sarudak]

Oh is the jump boost useless? I haven't actually tried it yet. I had hoped that it would provide fall damage reduction... :P

[KenLong]

with jump boost 1 you can't jump onto a 2 block wall. (and i'm not completely sure, but jump boost 2 might not even allow that either) it also makes it far easier to hurt yourself by hopping around off 1.5 or 2 block high ledges

[Anbaric]

It doesn't... Just increases the hight you can jump by half a block, a full block for JB2. :/

Of all the effects, I think the Speed 2 is my favorite. I love being able to run anywhere in my base super fast. Of course, Regen might be useful if mobs are becoming more vicious, and Haste is obviously awesome for mining... All the other boosts don't really give a noticeable effect on gameplay.

[walker_boh_65]

This sounds really interesting to me since shortly after I found out more about the beacon, and how much of a waste of time it was, I never bothered to make one. It seemed like far too much work for some mediocre enhancements.

I'm thinking you are going to change that thinking. :)

[Sarudak]

Hm... I wonder how much work it would be to replace the jump boost with a fall damage reduction...

[FlowerChild]

Hm... I wonder how much work it would be to replace the jump boost with a fall damage reduction...

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I doubt I'll limit myself to the powers already in there.

And btw, no suggestions in the dev diary ;)

[Mikko_blu]

It doesn't... Just increases the hight you can jump by half a block, a full block for JB2. :/

Of all the effects, I think the Speed 2 is my favorite. I love being able to run anywhere in my base super fast. Of course, Regen might be useful if mobs are becoming more vicious, and Haste is obviously awesome for mining... All the other boosts don't really give a noticeable effect on gameplay.

Oh god. I turned speed 2 off to convert some obsidian (I needed haste) And i tried walking back to the storage vault - it was horrible. it felt like i was on soul sand x5

Spoiler

Show

Yup, it's a huge disappointment, and I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking that.

Basically, I intend to make them central features of your base, that you'll definitely want to have, while increasing the work involved in creating them so that powers are material dependent and actually play a role in their function.

Ideally, at max level, I want the beacons to cover the full size of a base you'd most likely want to build, which to my mind is 144 blocks (or thereabouts) around a central mob trap, as that covers the spawn distance on mobs. I also want to "flatten" the distance so that it covers the full vertical range of the map, so basically creating an area that's a huge square as opposed to cube around the beacon.

What this means, is say for example you build a beacon to boost your mining speed in the center of your base. Well then, that will cover the entire area you are likely to want to mine in as you explore for caves to light up for your trap or what have you.

Anyways, the long and the short of it is that they'll be more difficult to construct, and thus be more rewarding, more powerful in terms of providing an actual useful function for an established base, and will also be diversified so that you will conceivably want multiple beacons constructed out of different materials in your base to provide different bonuses.

Thus, they will become a much more important and rewarding aspect of the "end game" experience, and will likely give you many different in-game projects to work on in the process.

Well my first though is the Range; that's a wonderful improvement. As i said, i originally placed it in the outskirts (To be specific, it was in the water, it had a bridge going out to it) and that 40 range didn't even reach city center, but the 144 would be enough and then some, granting me the ability to have flexibility inside the city where space is a real issue, since it's hard to move stuff around (Villagers get curious :P)

My second thought is on the practicality of Mineral specific beacons. I think this is a great idea - not just for diversity, but revisiting the wither. I've fought the wither 3 times, and each time I've had fun doing it. I also like the idea of doing remodeling in my city center, and having different beacons creating a monument, and adding priceless decor to the city as a whole, while still having practicality. Really, the possibilities are endless.

TL;DR: I'm excited to see how they're buffed!

[Anbaric]

So, would it be 144 from the beacon? Or 144 wide total? And adding in the "full vertical range, that's a good sized area!

It doesn't... Just increases the hight you can jump by half a block, a full block for JB2. :/

Of all the effects, I think the Speed 2 is my favorite. I love being able to run anywhere in my base super fast. Of course, Regen might be useful if mobs are becoming more vicious, and Haste is obviously awesome for mining... All the other boosts don't really give a noticeable effect on gameplay.

Oh god. I turned speed 2 off to convert some obsidian (I needed haste) And i tried walking back to the storage vault - it was horrible. it felt like i was on soul sand x5

In some ways I think the speed potions and sprinting have spoiled us. ^w^ We become addicted to the speed!

[Sarudak]

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I doubt I'll limit myself to the powers already in there.

And btw, no suggestions in the dev diary ;)

Wasn't meant as a suggestion man. Was actually wondering if it was something I could do myself. :)

[walker_boh_65]

The drastic change in peoples opinions when you are giving them more power is. . .interesting.

[SterlingRed]

Well I have but one response. To the mines!

Seriously in love with the idea of beacons boosting areas of my base. I'm also seriously lacking in the necessary raw materials for this.

[htothetml]

I can not wait to see what you do with this FC you are making the beacon what it should have been originally. Also I can not wait to see what will happen when I put a gold block pyramid beacon on the top of my large sandstone pyramid :)

[Wafflewaffle]

I need to stop reading beacon as Bacon... my sanity is on the line!

I was actually kind of expecting this feature to be axed as its probably the most useless feature in 1.4 (that and bats), but im glad you decided to fix it.

Im looking foward to build my Dung block Bacon... fuck!