Hardcore Beacons *SPOILERS, CHEAT FREE*

[andreinawolf]

I caught it before it was too late ;)

Damn! My plan to ruin your base failed! I guess I'll try Arad's base next :P

[odemarken]

Being a man who occasionally enjoys having his fun spoiled by too much information, I've been following this thread since the beginning, and I'm amazed by how all of you guys are reluctant to share actual spoilers in a thread with *SPOILERS* in its name. ;)
EDIT: If this trend continues, I'm gonna have to learn everything the painful way… well, my nether trap is halfway done, and just today I connected my stone generator deep in my mines (closest lava source) to my nether portal and railway line, making the elevator I made a few months ago actually useful and not just a nifty gadget - I can now haul massive amounts of stone to the construction site. FC, you're a genius, you made this game SO much more fun.

[andreinawolf]

Being a man who occasionally enjoys having his fun spoiled by too much information, I've been following this thread since the beginning, and I'm amazed by how all of you guys are reluctant to share actual spoilers in a thread with *SPOILERS* in its name. ;)

haha that is a good point. Some of the changes FC makes are just too good to give away, especially when its discovery scares the hell out of someone. Makes for some damn fun server chat :)

[FlowerChild]

Thanks guys! Although, I'm a little uncertain what is being called cool here :)

Would one of you care to PM me and let me know what it is you've discovered?

[nmarshall23]

Finally got a couple beacons built on my server at spawn, and was eager to do some full research on them with the help of friends. ..
I did some experiments as well. I detail our findings regarding the obsidian beacon below.

Experiment findings, spoilers within

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We have a massive amount of obsidian thanks to major excavation project, so one tier 4 beacon wasn't too hard to build. I felt it was important to test with friends due to the removal of the hardcore chests toggle. The changes are absolutely wonderful for a cooperative server!

The placement of the chest is absolutely critical.

Enderchest with no beacon: Behaves like a normal chest.
Placed on the 3x3 Tier: A publicly shared inventory.
Placed on the 5x5 Tier: A second publicly shared inventory, separate from tier 1.
Placed on the 7x7 Tier: A third publicly shared inventory, separate from tier 1 and 2.
Placed on the 9x9 Tier: The private storage inventory, unique to each player just like before.

So effectively we now have 2 double chests of potential item movement through these chests!

Oddly, I didn't have that much Obsidian blocks so I've been limited to Tier One, 3x3 Beacons.
My Observations of the Obsidian Beacon.

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First you should know that, for a beacon to work in the nether it has to be able to see the roof bedrock. Good thing I had built that tower up to the roof, for glowstone collection.

My primary usage of Ender chests has been to move stuff to and from the Nether. Thus once I collected two beacons I tried to relink my Ender chests. Well, the obsidian beacon's first tier, or channel, does not share Inventory from the Otherworld and the Nether. Hmm..
I also found neat behavior, when if you turn off a beacon. The shared inventory when it's on, is separate from the off inventory. This would let you hide stuff, in the off state.

Well, my nether storage room, now needs remodeling, so it might be a while, till I get around to building a bigger beacon and see if any of the higher channels link up across worlds..

[Battlecat]

Yeah, I found that as well nmarshall. I've also built 3 out of 4 tiers of my first SFS beacon. No signs of anything exciting yet but I'll be keeping an eye on it. :-)

In the meantime, here are some more discoveries about the Obsidian Beacon (including some stuff from nmarshall's post above that I didn't know yet)! Building these and discovering their properties has been an incredible amount of fun. Unless you really want to know, I have found it's worth finding some of these surprises the hard way. But for those who are curious, here's what I've found recently.

Obsidian Beacon

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So due to the scale of my city project, I built the second and third pyramids in the nether. I've got a network of 8 carefully tuned nether portals to help speed up access to remote locations so putting it in the nether seemed sensible. One of my friends is through my base regularly so he helped me check accessibility.

Enderchest alone or on an inactive beacon: Behaves like a normal chest (inventory preserved when beacon is active and can be accessed again later, thanks nmarshall!)
Channel 1 - Placed on the 3x3 Tier: A publicly shared inventory. This channel has separate shared inventories unique to main world, nether and probably the End (End is untested so far).
Channel 2 - Placed on the 5x5 Tier: A second publicly shared inventory, separate from tier 1. This channel has separate shared inventories unique to main world, nether and probably the End (End is untested so far).
Channel 3 - Placed on the 7x7 Tier: A third publicly shared inventory, separate from tier 1 and 2. This channel shares it's inventory across all worlds.
Channel 4 - Placed on the 9x9 Tier: The private storage inventory, unique to each player just like before.

Next on my list is building one in the End to see if there are additional quirks! It feels like I'm still missing something since I haven't found any significant differences between channels 1 and 2 yet. Also, there are the side effects that FC mentioned in his developer diary.

Also, I've got a few more surprises and details from building my now 100% complete gold beacon.

Gold beacon

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I don't know how I mined obsidian without this! I was only expecting the haste effect to increase in radius which would have been amazing by itself.

Gold Beacon Tier 1: Haste I, small radius
Gold Beacon Tier 2: Haste II, medium radius
Gold Beacon Tier 3: Haste III, large radius
Gold Beacon Tier 4: Haste IV, if you can see the beacon, you pretty much have this effect.

Dear gods, the haste IV effect is insane and awesome. I did some comparisons. An unenchanted mattock being used in combination with haste IV is comparable to an efficiency 4 diamond pick with no haste effect. To put it in perspective, mining obsidian with a mattock now is about as frustrating as mining stone with a wood pickaxe. Possibly a bit better, it's hard to tell but it's a lot less frustrating!

One final note for today, regarding a possible side effect of beacon use.

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I was working on doing some mining tests with my haste beacon at my city project. I've also got a fire resistance beacon in the same area. I'd be willing to swear I generate these chunks long before silverfish stone would spawn rarely in extreme hills, and certainly before it started spawning rarely all over the world. Besides, I'm not in an extreme hills biome. Anyhow, while mining I found and broke a silverfish block. When I attacked the silverfish, two more popped out from the same rock face!

If this is a side effect, I'm concerned! Particularly when combined with the recent developer diary entry! :-)

Risk and reward. That's just good game design!

[The great randomo]

Is it just me, or are more skeletons spawning with enchanted bows?
Edit: also I'm sure the obsidian beacon makes it thunder...

[Six]

Edit: also I'm sure the obsidian beacon makes it thunder...

That's no thunder ;)

[FlowerChild]

That's no thunder ;)

Hehe...I was wondering if anyone had noticed that :)

[nmarshall23]

Ok guys I might have a clue on beacon downsides..

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silverfish, they infested in my buildings, I think that they might be from ether the diamond, emerald or obsidian beacons. I've had those three up for a few days..

[TheGatesofLogic]

Oh no... soon hordes of silverfish will conquer our worlds and we will all be forced to retreat to the nether or End!

On a side note: I wonder how FlowerChild has made silverfish not detract from building out of Stone and Stone Brick...
or if he has at all...

[EtherealWrath]

Actually GatesofLogic- you may want to check the HC silverfish thread, they've been reported in the end as well.


Though I haven't done any testing*, I've had a fair bit of time to think out some of the mechanics mentioned here.
(I'm ignoring the wiki and threads which have been locked for cheating)

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Obsidian resonates power across dimensions, ripping open the extra channels seen in enderchests. Though holding these channels open may cause the different dimensions to gravitate towards one another, potentially opening other ...holes. Creatures which can naturally emulate this seem particularly effected, though if one could drive a big enough hole perhaps something else may get through....

A certain mineral can channel the Wither's fury into the raw earth, bringing riches beyond your dreams- though it appears to disturb the local wildlife dwelling within the rock.

*My world is fairly new, currently I'm in no position to even summon the wither, let alone fight him.

[BlackCat]

Has anyone figured out if the conc hellfire beacon has any destructive repercussions?

I've been scared shitless that something might catch fire if I leave it on for too long ;-;

[Padfoote]

Has anyone figured out if the conc hellfire beacon has any destructive repercussions?

I've been scared shitless that something might catch fire if I leave it on for too long ;-;

I had one running in the Nether for a bit and I didn't notice anything, although it wasn't around anything flammable.

[Syruse]

Has anyone figured out if the conc hellfire beacon has any destructive repercussions?

I've been scared shitless that something might catch fire if I leave it on for too long ;-;

I've had mine in the over world for quite some time now, my jungle is still intact :)

[RalphKastro]

Has anyone figured out if the conc hellfire beacon has any destructive repercussions?

I've been scared shitless that something might catch fire if I leave it on for too long ;-;

don't know about any side-effects of the beacon, but it may still put nearby things on fire, as a on fire concetrated hellfire block property.

[RalphKastro]

are the beacon efects like fortune afected by being on loaded chunks?

[SterlingRed]

I intend to do a timed test tonight, but last night after building a true sight beacon, I began to get the feeling that my health regen was slower. Anyone noticed that? Or is it just in my head as I happened to be hunting enderman at the time and paying more attention to my health bar?

[FlowerChild]

are the beacon efects like fortune afected by being on loaded chunks?

Beacons generally have to be loaded to be effective, yes. There are some obvious exceptions of course, like their effect on compasses is persistent whether they are loaded or not.

[SterlingRed]

Nope, I was wrong. True sight has no effect on health regen.

[RalphKastro]

I noticed that since I put up the my tier 1 SFS Beacon my mob trap output rised drastically.
did anyone else notice any relation between the SFS Beacon and mob spawn, or am I just getting lucky?

[Extreme Boyheat]

No, but I think I saw a group of mobs jumping around one of my beacons. Whether it's a side effect or I'm going mad it was pretty neat.

[SterlingRed]

Whether it's a side effect or I'm going mad it was pretty neat.

Maybe a side effect is supposed to be psychological? I'm noticing paranoia myself! I'm constantly asking myself "is this normal? Did that happen before?"

[wirer]

Maybe it's just me, but i tend to hear thunder when its not raining around my lapis beacon. no lightning in sight, though

[dawnraider]

endermen make that sound when they convert the block they're holding into endstone, so it may just be that.