They need to change it to where you power it with Potions instead of ingots. The effect you receive is based on the potion. So you could have constant Night Vision, Fire Resistance or Water Breathing around your home. This would allow for lots of new creative builds, like houses with lava doors, and underwater houses without the fear of drowning. Obviously certain potions wouldnt be allowed, such as instant health. That would make it worth it to me, being a customizable potion amplifier.
To me, there are major flaws regarding everything based around the Wither. The Beacon, to me, is simply too expensive and too weak for me to consider using it.
I like KingTrygon's idea about the material layers, but it's still incredibly expensive.
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Did something happen to you in your childhood to give you this unreasonable fear of rutabaga?
To me, there are major flaws regarding everything based around the Wither. The Beacon, to me, is simply too expensive and too weak for me to consider using it.
I like KingTrygon's idea about the material layers, but it's still incredibly expensive.
Yup.
Even JUST using it for the light beam still requires an absolutely insane amount of effort.
I've lost count of just how many blasted Wither Skeletons I've clobbered (at LEAST 200 at this point), and I have ONE damn skull to show for it. The Wither summoning brings up forced grinding, which is something I did NOT want to see in this game. But there's just no other way to go about getting the accursed things. And considering the low-ish spawn rate of the skeletons compared to the Blazes and the unending pigmen, well..... yeah. Not at all fun grinding is what results.
I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaate grinding.
And that's all JUST to summon the horrid thing ONCE. Since it's a gear-check fight, also gotta setup stupid diamond armor (normally, I NEVER use diamond armor, period) and things of that nature to actually take it down. And then, only then, could I make ONE damn beacon. One, singular, useless beacon.
I just dont understand HOW the thing came out being such a complete mess. Nor do I understand the original reason the devs gave for the thing's existence, which is "faction-based play". Because, you know, a very, very, very, VERY slow race to fight a boss and build a bloody stupid pyramid would be SUCH an exciting thing to add to PVP. Not that I play multiplayer myself, mind you.
For me, there's a massive cosmetic drawback to the beacon - If you are on "normal" video range (playing on XP, the game crashes if you leave it on "far"), the "distance fog" applies to the entire beam. For example, I put a beacon on the ground, then built a castle around the beam 150 meters up in the air.... and the beam gets foggier the higher you go and loses texture, matching color to the sky. At night, it turns black.
I have not gotten to create a beacon yet in survival, but checking it out in creative, I found it to be primarily aesthetic. For that reason, if I ever get up the attention span to kill enough wither skeletons to spawn a wither, I'm probably going to only use it aesthetically. Potions are more effective, particularly for exploration and mining, and the cost is kinda outrageous.
I agree with most everything that has been said; make the wither easier, or add more uses to nether stars. Add effects that correspond to pyramid materials and sacrifice materials, or even better, use potions.
The beacon definitely needs a lot of work...
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Shiny!->
I was gonna make a cool signature pic...But then I got bored and discovered Dragon Cave.
That's pretty cool actually. Having a beam of sky colour visible when you're underground lets you see at a glance what the time is on the surface. Though you could just look at a clock I guess.
Heh, unfortunately that effect only happens about 120+ meters above the beacon object - no chance of being underground for it
I just dont understand HOW the thing came out being such a complete mess. Nor do I understand the original reason the devs gave for the thing's existence, which is "faction-based play". Because, you know, a very, very, very, VERY slow race to fight a boss and build a bloody stupid pyramid would be SUCH an exciting thing to add to PVP. Not that I play multiplayer myself, mind you.
Bloody thing was never explained beyond that.
I can answer that: the Beacon was never seriously intended for use in vanilla SSP. The Beacon's sole practical application is to adventure maps where the play area is prebuilt and players participate in some activity in the generated area. In an arena fighting map, a Beacon Pyramid makes a lot more sense, since the mapmaker can scatter the necessary materials around the map for a Capture the Flag-style game or use Beacons as rewards for seizing control points and the like. If you're doing some kind of base/tower defense mission, a Beacon Pyramid is just what the doctor ordered.
Similarly, the Beacon Pyramid makes for a nifty element to adventure maps as an alternative to the old "find every colored wool block" objective. Story-based adventure maps can also scatter Beacon Pyramids strategically in order to give the adventurer location-based advantages in certain encounters, such as vs. a horde of zombies or the like.
The Beacon speaks to the differing priorities of the two generations of Mojang chiefs: Notch was all about exploration and vistas of new discovery, but didn't give a about fixing bugs or smooth implementations. Jeb, on the other hand, is a very professional coder who has distinctly "gameist" (linearist; non-sandbox) goals and intentions for Minecraft. There are advantages and drawbacks to both approaches - I mean, thank Christ for the hundreds of bugfixes Jeb is responsible for - but the Beacon and Wither demonstrate the weaknesses to Jeb's approach (most egregiously, the forced grinding involved).
I can answer that: the Beacon was never seriously intended for use in vanilla SSP. The Beacon's sole practical application is to adventure maps where the play area is prebuilt and players participate in some activity in the generated area. In an arena fighting map, a Beacon Pyramid makes a lot more sense, since the mapmaker can scatter the necessary materials around the map for a Capture the Flag-style game or use Beacons as rewards for seizing control points and the like. If you're doing some kind of base/tower defense mission, a Beacon Pyramid is just what the doctor ordered.
Similarly, the Beacon Pyramid makes for a nifty element to adventure maps as an alternative to the old "find every colored wool block" objective. Story-based adventure maps can also scatter Beacon Pyramids strategically in order to give the adventurer location-based advantages in certain encounters, such as vs. a horde of zombies or the like.
The Beacon speaks to the differing priorities of the two generations of Mojang chiefs: Notch was all about exploration and vistas of new discovery, but didn't give a about fixing bugs or smooth implementations. Jeb, on the other hand, is a very professional coder who has distinctly "gameist" (linearist; non-sandbox) goals and intentions for Minecraft. There are advantages and drawbacks to both approaches - I mean, thank Christ for the hundreds of bugfixes Jeb is responsible for - but the Beacon and Wither demonstrate the weaknesses to Jeb's approach (most egregiously, the forced grinding involved).
Adventure maps? No. This wasnt intended for adventure maps.
Think about it: Why in the flying hell would the Beacon require the PYRAMID if it was for ADVENTURE maps? Adventure maps are what they are because they are PRE-MADE. Think of how the Command Block works. It's not an item you have to make. It cant be crafted or found anywhere. It's JUST in creative, and you place it, and you have instant access to it's functions. THAT is a block that exists entirely for adventure mode. If the Beacon was REALLY for adventure maps, it would not require that pyramid (or an ore sacrifice) whatsoever. It would not require a wacky crafting recipe gotten by fighting a boss after killing 20 billionty special skeletons. The map designer would simply stick the block, BY ITSELF, into the map, change it's settings, and then probably use redstone to activate it. Using redstone (or whatever) they could come up with whatever requirements THEY want... they wouldnt HAVE to only use a metal pyramid, which can limit creativity. AND, the pyramid takes up ALOT of space, another fact which makes no sense whatsoever within the context of the mode. It'd be like taking the Command Block, and adding a requirement that you make a 15x15x15 giant cube of bricks and set the Command Block on top of that before it'd work. The ONLY thing that would do, is make it way more irritating to use. That sort of thing could limit it's uses, actually, as it might damage the aesthetics of any area it's in (due to the huge size), depending on how the area is structured.
I remember what Jeb's original answer to the "what the hell is it for" question was. He said: "Faction-based play". .....and never, ever elaborated on that. And it never DID make any more sense. Nobody uses the things in multiplayer; they take too much time to build! You would have to set them up BEFOREHAND for them to make sense in a PvP match, and yet again, that suddenly makes the pyramid itself completely pointless. And even if it was meant for some special, magical mode of gameplay that we dont have yet or something.... the rules for it in Survival mode could have simply been different from the rules in other modes. It'd make it a block that EVERYONE can use, not JUST people that play some obscure form of PvP.
.....also, the adventure mode idea doesnt make sense from the point of the Wither, either. A boss like that is a pure survival-mode sort of idea.
And forgive me if part of this seems not to make sense; I tried to edit part of it after noticing some text in your post that I had somehow missed, and then the browser went "BLAAAAAARRRRGGHHHHH", and things got all screwed up.... My point remains though. The command block already showed an optimal way to create a "for adventure maps" block. The Beacon's screwball design, where it's a giant hyper expensive metal pyramid ONLY, and this only AFTER defeating a boss, which comes only AFTER spending half a damn year killing magical special skeletons in a far off fortress in the depths of the Nether, is, well, that design is very restrictive, to the point of absurdity, for something like adventure mode, which should be all about unbounded creativity for the mapmakers.
Think of it like this.The beacon isn't a tool to help you dig your mine, or to help you go on mob hunting missions. it's not to be used offensively, so to speak. It's just for your base.
I used to think it was pointless, and I still think the range of the largest pyramid is a little too short. But after seeing etho's use of it I've really changed my opinion. It's not supposed to be there so you can go out and kill more stuff, it's to add the finishing touch to your fortress of death.
Granted, it's effects aren't astounding, but they are infinite. Most people have the resources lyring around and it makes a great centrepiece. I don't particularly care if it has few great benefits, the dragon egg does absolutely nothing but it's still a trophy.
I do however believe that since beacons are giant pilars of light, they shouldn't be affected by the y co-ordinate, but that's just a minor complaint.
If it provided TOTALLY different buffs, I could understand this. But it provides mostly buffs that aid in exploration. ....and there is NO EXPLORING in that small, tiny little range.
For anyone who DOESNT spend an absolutely insane amount of time in such a small area, it just doesnt make any sense. And even for those that DO.... ...... ........ it still doesnt make much sense. I can see the speed buff ALMOST making sense by making your base walk speed a bit faster, but.... that's it. Jump buff makes no sense, because why wouldnt you just use stairs? Combat buffs make no sense, because who the heck has monsters running around their base/home/castle? In my case, I DONT have a base that's all that big. Alot of players like to make ENORMOUS fortresses of ultimate doom. My base is SMALL compared to many...... yet the Beacon wouldnt even cover 1/4th of it. I would need FOUR of the accursed things, each with a max pyramid, to have it be any benefit. For a SMALL base. And even then ONLY the speed buff would provide any concievable beneficial effect, and even then..... that's not very much. It doesnt take THAT bloody long to walk between rooms. A speed buff MIGHT be nice.... if it didnt cost 1500 bloody ingots to get the max range version (or to get the level 2 version AT ALL).
Yes, the Beacon can be a "centerpiece"..... without the major pyramid. You just need the light beam, in that case, and that's it. Yet even then.... the Wither Skull farming is ALOT of effort to go to for ONE shiny beam. You could make something else that's much more impressive and interesting in the time that it takes just to summon the accursed boss.
As for the Dragon Egg.... it, at least, was never meant to be more than a trophy. And upon GETTING it, you dont have to then go feed it an insane amount of some resource before you can set it down somewhere to be a trophy. Not to mention that the dragon boss at the very least also gives you the game's ending, as well as giving you an enormous pile of XP; so that fight is still worth doing. The Wither is not. Right now, the Beacon is literally the ONLY reward, and it's a terrible one.
For many players, the Beacon probably IS going to just be a trophy, and used for the light beam, since the OTHER effects simply arent practical.
EDIT: Blarrrrrrrgh stupid text editing! Accidental deletion of paragraphs, very annoying.
Holy crap I just put down my first survival beacon in my strip mine.
Haste II on a effieciency V pick is insane. I don't see how anyone can think beacons are useless.
Maybe because you could have used your minerals that you mined on the things you need instead of using the materials you mined to help you mine a small area out a little better?
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Holy crap I just put down my first survival beacon in my strip mine.
Haste II on a effieciency V pick is insane. I don't see how anyone can think beacons are useless.
....because most people dont have a super-tiny mine that fits within the effective box of the beacon. Strip-mining and properly searching for the rarer ores like diamond and whatnot generally uses a very LARGE area. Hell, some mines I've seen in some players' worlds are downright enormous. Even mine are way, way too big to have the beacon have any effect on them, and my mines are SMALL compared to most, since I have no patience and prefer cave diving.
If the beacon's box was (alot) bigger? Then yes, that buff would be pretty darn neat. Again though.... simply not enough range. Not even close. And nobody wants to have to pick up and MOVE the silly thing over and over, which is the only way to use it in a large area. PARTICULARLY if you're digging really deep, as the thing must always have open sky over it, or it wont work.
And the time it takes to properly set up the thing in each spot, is time I could be using to simply mine more ores.
Until the beacon has a much, much, MUCH larger range of effect..... it's still pretty much useless. There's still not even one thing it does that cant be done better (and much more efficiently) by something else. And the sad part? Added range is ALL it needs. If the thing had such a range that it worked and gave you the buff if it was in a currently loaded chunk, THAT would make more sense for the extreme price of the thing. And would also make it's exploration-heavy buffs make more sense.
THAT much iron could instead be used on cart tracks; they'll sure as heck get you places MUCH faster, something the beacon cannot do. Could make quite a massive cart network for that, speeding up lots of things. Whereas the beacon only speeds up it's tiny box of effect.
....because most people dont have a super-tiny mine that fits within the effective box of the beacon. Strip-mining and properly searching for the rarer ores like diamond and whatnot generally uses a very LARGE area. Hell, some mines I've seen in some players' worlds are downright enormous. Even mine are way, way too big to have the beacon have any effect on them, and my mines are SMALL compared to most, since I have no patience and prefer cave diving.
If the beacon's box was (alot) bigger? Then yes, that buff would be pretty darn neat. Again though.... simply not enough range. Not even close. And nobody wants to have to pick up and MOVE the silly thing over and over, which is the only way to use it in a large area. PARTICULARLY if you're digging really deep, as the thing must always have open sky over it, or it wont work.
And the time it takes to properly set up the thing in each spot, is time I could be using to simply mine more ores.
Until the beacon has a much, much, MUCH larger range of effect..... it's still pretty much useless. There's still not even one thing it does that cant be done better (and much more efficiently) by something else. And the sad part? Added range is ALL it needs. If the thing had such a range that it worked and gave you the buff if it was in a currently loaded chunk, THAT would make more sense for the extreme price of the thing. And would also make it's exploration-heavy buffs make more sense.
THAT much iron could instead be used on cart tracks; they'll sure as heck get you places MUCH faster, something the beacon cannot do. Could make quite a massive cart network for that, speeding up lots of things. Whereas the beacon only speeds up it's tiny box of effect.
If I used my iron to get rails I would've ran out a long time ago, in my opinion rails are best to get from abandoned mineshafts.
OT: I feel the beacon simply needs to be instead of a cube, a cylindrical area, slightly bigger than now and also make it so the height is all the way to the height limit and vice versa.
My strip mine is completely encased by the beacon, down to bedrock. I had more than enough iron lying around to make it. If people have such massive mines I struggle to understand why they have so little iron.
And ice roads are much faster than minecarts.
Simple: It's because they're USING the iron.
I know some players get really obsessive about mining and spend AGES doing it, but not all do. Many will mine specifically until they have "enough", whatever they think that is. Or maybe until they have "some extra for later". Or something.
In my game, I have what I consider to be WAY TOO MUCH FREAKING IRON. In reality though, this comes out as being about 70 iron blocks worth. If I wanted to make a pointless beacon pyramid.... I'd have to waste more time getting more iron that I dont really want very much (or at all, actually). The mine is currently used mostly for getting coal, diamond, and gold; I dont really waste time digging up the iron right now.
And from a gameplay standpoint, even THAT much iron is, for many players, not what they're going to have. Some might have 20 iron blocks worth, and consider it more than enough. So they then focus on mining other things, ignoring iron seams, so as to not waste time. Which is pretty much what I've been doing; I sure as hell dont need MORE right now, so I've been mostly digging at everything that IS NOT iron.
....and really, it doesnt take a "massive" mine to outdo the size of the beacon's maximum range. Even a mid-sized one will far surpass that range. 80x80x80 doesnt even count as "mid-sized", honestly. "Small" or "tiny" is more like it, for a strip-mine. Particularly if you've got high-level enchanted picks.
If someone has 8 bazillion ingots and wants to make a beacon.... hey, knock yourself out. Have a blast with it. But that doesnt change it's immense under-powered-ness or lack of worth.
....and the ice thing sounds like a glitch. Not using that. I remember what happened with the last big "transport" glitches, the "boosters", and the seperated ladders. When those inevitably got FIXED, lots of people got to run around fixing huge sections of their world that suddenly stopped working right. I remember hearing lots of complaining from friends, who had worlds that very heavily depended on those glitches. I had refused from the start to use boosters OR the wierd ladders (or water ladders for that matter), so I never had to fix anything. I'll be continuing that trend. Especially as Mojang has entered a state of FOCUSING on the bug-fixes. Plenty of players also wont use glitches simply because they are glitches.
Not to mention that my cart tracks are mostly through the Nether, which ends up being faster (by alot) than ice roads (which only work in the overworld) anyway. Less effort and time to build, too. ....and stupidly, EASIER to build in: No night time, and ghasts arent much of a threat. Really shouldnt be the case, but that's a whole other topic.
If I used my iron to get rails I would've ran out a long time ago, in my opinion rails are best to get from abandoned mineshafts.
OT: I feel the beacon simply needs to be instead of a cube, a cylindrical area, slightly bigger than now and also make it so the height is all the way to the height limit and vice versa.
Aye, mineshafts are good for getting those. Depending on what the player is doing with them though, that might not be enough for them (or might take too long; it might simply be faster to just craft a few stacks of them). Not to mention depending on the RNG's placement of the mines. Mineshafts are pretty great, though, in general.
Anyway, I stick with my original opinion on this topic as a whole: The beacon either needs to be REALLY DRAMATICALLY BETTER, as in, much, much, MUCH bigger range (I mean, seriously: Exploration-focused buffs, within a range that UTTERLY DISALLOWS exploration), cost waaaayyyyyy less than it currently does, or be reworked entirely. The current implementation just doesnt make sense, cant do a whole lot, and yet takes 1500+ ingots, and potentially many.... many.... MANY hours of farming either the ingots, or the accursed skulls. When 20 seconds with a brewer, or a few levels of XP (and even 30 levels doesnt take long to get), can give you the same or better effects that work ANYWHERE.
EDIT: Oops, I had originally said 40x40x40 for the effect size up there, but no, it's 80x80x80. I believe I was originally thinking of the effect's range from center with the max pyramid (which is indeed 40).
It should not require as much ores to make it. I know it gives stats like "Holy ----, this is amazing!", but you have to beat the wither, hopefully get his nether star, make a beacon, and then get a couple 1000 ore.
It should be like this in power levels.
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 3
That's the thing about it though: It DOESNT give very good buffs. The speed buffs, for example. Same things you get from potions.... except that with the Beacon, it doesnt give you room to actually USE them. Whereas the potion's version can get you very far indeed... or even just use a pig & saddle. Each type of speed increase is dramatically better than that of the Beacon, since they can take you places. The jump buff is damn near useless: the level 1 version ONLY gets you over fences.... you need the level 2 version (with the max pyramid) to double your jump height.... in that tiny range. Just using blocks to get higher makes much more sense. Haste is better done with enchantments (and efficiency 5 can make it REALLY freaking fast... not that you need it, usually efficiency 3 is enough), strength is the same as from potions (except, again, ONLY useful if you're very close to the pyramid), and regen wont help you whatsoever if you're fighting any distance from the pyramid; bringing splash heal potions (*instant* heal, no delay whatsoever) or something like golden apples is a much better idea.
You're right though, the cost per level needs to be changed to reflect it's current effects. Though, honestly, even if it WERE changed, the necessity of doing the Wither fight to get the Star would *still* make it hyper-expensive in most cases: the difference is that summoning the boss mostly costs you enormous amounts of time, instead of enormous amounts of ore. .....though the current version costs enormous amounts of BOTH. Really dont know what they were thinking with this thing.
The beacon has alot of potential but yes 95% usless. I love how it looks on my castle pillars all 4 light right to the sky! but there are other areas where I would love my to put a beacon sideways or blocked off so it has aesthetics but I don't need the building being giving away by the 6+ beacons reaching out in to the night sky that I would preferr blocked... even if I had to place another beacon on the roof face down to "capture" the beam that would look awesome and sideways too.
untill the beacon gets the same update as the stair blocks it's not pratical for designs and completely useless as a USABLE pyrimad. just think of the possibilities we could in designs we could have with sideways beacons... think of black mesa the remake! that laser beam room that you had to connect all the beams in seperate rooms to join in to 1 beam. BEACONS COULD BE A NEW SOURCE FOR RESTONE POWER EMMITING if they are able to be placed sideways that it... think of it as fiber optics
new 1.5 redstone update FIBER-OPTICS
__
Edits: The least they could do is let use use the beam with out the buffs for aesthetics with just redstone or something..
I'm going to agree with Cubia, potions are cheaper and better than the beacon. I mean you're not going to be around the beacon the whole time but you can always bring potions with you.
IMO they should make another use for Nether stars. I'm not really going to build the beacon anytime soon because it'll require too much resource collecting for something that isn't very rewarding. I could probably get the first two tiers.
Also in creative there should be a way to change the distance of effect for adeventure maps.
@Cubia: ice roads are effective due to ice's slippery qualities. Sprint-jump down an ice road and it takes like 5 seconds to get where you're going. That's not a bug that's going to be fixed simply because it's not a bug.
I think the Beacon will be very good for things like Capture the Flag which notch has hinted at adding. If PvP games become an official supported thing, the beacon is huge, making home field advantage quite a big deal.
The only real problem I have with the beacon is that no matter what you build it out of, and what you put in, it still has the same effect. It's hard to justify using gold, diamond, or maybe emerald blocks, when iron is so plentiful and works just as well.
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▀▄▄▀ This creeper isn't happy with his birth defect.
█▀▀█ He made it so you couldn't have more than two lines in a signature.
I like KingTrygon's idea about the material layers, but it's still incredibly expensive.
Yup.
Even JUST using it for the light beam still requires an absolutely insane amount of effort.
I've lost count of just how many blasted Wither Skeletons I've clobbered (at LEAST 200 at this point), and I have ONE damn skull to show for it. The Wither summoning brings up forced grinding, which is something I did NOT want to see in this game. But there's just no other way to go about getting the accursed things. And considering the low-ish spawn rate of the skeletons compared to the Blazes and the unending pigmen, well..... yeah. Not at all fun grinding is what results.
I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaate grinding.
And that's all JUST to summon the horrid thing ONCE. Since it's a gear-check fight, also gotta setup stupid diamond armor (normally, I NEVER use diamond armor, period) and things of that nature to actually take it down. And then, only then, could I make ONE damn beacon. One, singular, useless beacon.
I just dont understand HOW the thing came out being such a complete mess. Nor do I understand the original reason the devs gave for the thing's existence, which is "faction-based play". Because, you know, a very, very, very, VERY slow race to fight a boss and build a bloody stupid pyramid would be SUCH an exciting thing to add to PVP. Not that I play multiplayer myself, mind you.
Bloody thing was never explained beyond that.
I agree with most everything that has been said; make the wither easier, or add more uses to nether stars. Add effects that correspond to pyramid materials and sacrifice materials, or even better, use potions.
The beacon definitely needs a lot of work...
Heh, unfortunately that effect only happens about 120+ meters above the beacon object - no chance of being underground for it
Praise be to Spode.
I can answer that: the Beacon was never seriously intended for use in vanilla SSP. The Beacon's sole practical application is to adventure maps where the play area is prebuilt and players participate in some activity in the generated area. In an arena fighting map, a Beacon Pyramid makes a lot more sense, since the mapmaker can scatter the necessary materials around the map for a Capture the Flag-style game or use Beacons as rewards for seizing control points and the like. If you're doing some kind of base/tower defense mission, a Beacon Pyramid is just what the doctor ordered.
Similarly, the Beacon Pyramid makes for a nifty element to adventure maps as an alternative to the old "find every colored wool block" objective. Story-based adventure maps can also scatter Beacon Pyramids strategically in order to give the adventurer location-based advantages in certain encounters, such as vs. a horde of zombies or the like.
The Beacon speaks to the differing priorities of the two generations of Mojang chiefs: Notch was all about exploration and vistas of new discovery, but didn't give a about fixing bugs or smooth implementations. Jeb, on the other hand, is a very professional coder who has distinctly "gameist" (linearist; non-sandbox) goals and intentions for Minecraft. There are advantages and drawbacks to both approaches - I mean, thank Christ for the hundreds of bugfixes Jeb is responsible for - but the Beacon and Wither demonstrate the weaknesses to Jeb's approach (most egregiously, the forced grinding involved).
Adventure maps? No. This wasnt intended for adventure maps.
Think about it: Why in the flying hell would the Beacon require the PYRAMID if it was for ADVENTURE maps? Adventure maps are what they are because they are PRE-MADE. Think of how the Command Block works. It's not an item you have to make. It cant be crafted or found anywhere. It's JUST in creative, and you place it, and you have instant access to it's functions. THAT is a block that exists entirely for adventure mode. If the Beacon was REALLY for adventure maps, it would not require that pyramid (or an ore sacrifice) whatsoever. It would not require a wacky crafting recipe gotten by fighting a boss after killing 20 billionty special skeletons. The map designer would simply stick the block, BY ITSELF, into the map, change it's settings, and then probably use redstone to activate it. Using redstone (or whatever) they could come up with whatever requirements THEY want... they wouldnt HAVE to only use a metal pyramid, which can limit creativity. AND, the pyramid takes up ALOT of space, another fact which makes no sense whatsoever within the context of the mode. It'd be like taking the Command Block, and adding a requirement that you make a 15x15x15 giant cube of bricks and set the Command Block on top of that before it'd work. The ONLY thing that would do, is make it way more irritating to use. That sort of thing could limit it's uses, actually, as it might damage the aesthetics of any area it's in (due to the huge size), depending on how the area is structured.
I remember what Jeb's original answer to the "what the hell is it for" question was. He said: "Faction-based play". .....and never, ever elaborated on that. And it never DID make any more sense. Nobody uses the things in multiplayer; they take too much time to build! You would have to set them up BEFOREHAND for them to make sense in a PvP match, and yet again, that suddenly makes the pyramid itself completely pointless. And even if it was meant for some special, magical mode of gameplay that we dont have yet or something.... the rules for it in Survival mode could have simply been different from the rules in other modes. It'd make it a block that EVERYONE can use, not JUST people that play some obscure form of PvP.
.....also, the adventure mode idea doesnt make sense from the point of the Wither, either. A boss like that is a pure survival-mode sort of idea.
And forgive me if part of this seems not to make sense; I tried to edit part of it after noticing some text in your post that I had somehow missed, and then the browser went "BLAAAAAARRRRGGHHHHH", and things got all screwed up.... My point remains though. The command block already showed an optimal way to create a "for adventure maps" block. The Beacon's screwball design, where it's a giant hyper expensive metal pyramid ONLY, and this only AFTER defeating a boss, which comes only AFTER spending half a damn year killing magical special skeletons in a far off fortress in the depths of the Nether, is, well, that design is very restrictive, to the point of absurdity, for something like adventure mode, which should be all about unbounded creativity for the mapmakers.
If it provided TOTALLY different buffs, I could understand this. But it provides mostly buffs that aid in exploration. ....and there is NO EXPLORING in that small, tiny little range.
For anyone who DOESNT spend an absolutely insane amount of time in such a small area, it just doesnt make any sense. And even for those that DO.... ...... ........ it still doesnt make much sense. I can see the speed buff ALMOST making sense by making your base walk speed a bit faster, but.... that's it. Jump buff makes no sense, because why wouldnt you just use stairs? Combat buffs make no sense, because who the heck has monsters running around their base/home/castle? In my case, I DONT have a base that's all that big. Alot of players like to make ENORMOUS fortresses of ultimate doom. My base is SMALL compared to many...... yet the Beacon wouldnt even cover 1/4th of it. I would need FOUR of the accursed things, each with a max pyramid, to have it be any benefit. For a SMALL base. And even then ONLY the speed buff would provide any concievable beneficial effect, and even then..... that's not very much. It doesnt take THAT bloody long to walk between rooms. A speed buff MIGHT be nice.... if it didnt cost 1500 bloody ingots to get the max range version (or to get the level 2 version AT ALL).
Yes, the Beacon can be a "centerpiece"..... without the major pyramid. You just need the light beam, in that case, and that's it. Yet even then.... the Wither Skull farming is ALOT of effort to go to for ONE shiny beam. You could make something else that's much more impressive and interesting in the time that it takes just to summon the accursed boss.
As for the Dragon Egg.... it, at least, was never meant to be more than a trophy. And upon GETTING it, you dont have to then go feed it an insane amount of some resource before you can set it down somewhere to be a trophy. Not to mention that the dragon boss at the very least also gives you the game's ending, as well as giving you an enormous pile of XP; so that fight is still worth doing. The Wither is not. Right now, the Beacon is literally the ONLY reward, and it's a terrible one.
For many players, the Beacon probably IS going to just be a trophy, and used for the light beam, since the OTHER effects simply arent practical.
EDIT: Blarrrrrrrgh stupid text editing! Accidental deletion of paragraphs, very annoying.
Maybe because you could have used your minerals that you mined on the things you need instead of using the materials you mined to help you mine a small area out a little better?
....because most people dont have a super-tiny mine that fits within the effective box of the beacon. Strip-mining and properly searching for the rarer ores like diamond and whatnot generally uses a very LARGE area. Hell, some mines I've seen in some players' worlds are downright enormous. Even mine are way, way too big to have the beacon have any effect on them, and my mines are SMALL compared to most, since I have no patience and prefer cave diving.
If the beacon's box was (alot) bigger? Then yes, that buff would be pretty darn neat. Again though.... simply not enough range. Not even close. And nobody wants to have to pick up and MOVE the silly thing over and over, which is the only way to use it in a large area. PARTICULARLY if you're digging really deep, as the thing must always have open sky over it, or it wont work.
And the time it takes to properly set up the thing in each spot, is time I could be using to simply mine more ores.
Until the beacon has a much, much, MUCH larger range of effect..... it's still pretty much useless. There's still not even one thing it does that cant be done better (and much more efficiently) by something else. And the sad part? Added range is ALL it needs. If the thing had such a range that it worked and gave you the buff if it was in a currently loaded chunk, THAT would make more sense for the extreme price of the thing. And would also make it's exploration-heavy buffs make more sense.
THAT much iron could instead be used on cart tracks; they'll sure as heck get you places MUCH faster, something the beacon cannot do. Could make quite a massive cart network for that, speeding up lots of things. Whereas the beacon only speeds up it's tiny box of effect.
If I used my iron to get rails I would've ran out a long time ago, in my opinion rails are best to get from abandoned mineshafts.
OT: I feel the beacon simply needs to be instead of a cube, a cylindrical area, slightly bigger than now and also make it so the height is all the way to the height limit and vice versa.
I'm quite the shady customer.
Simple: It's because they're USING the iron.
I know some players get really obsessive about mining and spend AGES doing it, but not all do. Many will mine specifically until they have "enough", whatever they think that is. Or maybe until they have "some extra for later". Or something.
In my game, I have what I consider to be WAY TOO MUCH FREAKING IRON. In reality though, this comes out as being about 70 iron blocks worth. If I wanted to make a pointless beacon pyramid.... I'd have to waste more time getting more iron that I dont really want very much (or at all, actually). The mine is currently used mostly for getting coal, diamond, and gold; I dont really waste time digging up the iron right now.
And from a gameplay standpoint, even THAT much iron is, for many players, not what they're going to have. Some might have 20 iron blocks worth, and consider it more than enough. So they then focus on mining other things, ignoring iron seams, so as to not waste time. Which is pretty much what I've been doing; I sure as hell dont need MORE right now, so I've been mostly digging at everything that IS NOT iron.
....and really, it doesnt take a "massive" mine to outdo the size of the beacon's maximum range. Even a mid-sized one will far surpass that range. 80x80x80 doesnt even count as "mid-sized", honestly. "Small" or "tiny" is more like it, for a strip-mine. Particularly if you've got high-level enchanted picks.
If someone has 8 bazillion ingots and wants to make a beacon.... hey, knock yourself out. Have a blast with it. But that doesnt change it's immense under-powered-ness or lack of worth.
....and the ice thing sounds like a glitch. Not using that. I remember what happened with the last big "transport" glitches, the "boosters", and the seperated ladders. When those inevitably got FIXED, lots of people got to run around fixing huge sections of their world that suddenly stopped working right. I remember hearing lots of complaining from friends, who had worlds that very heavily depended on those glitches. I had refused from the start to use boosters OR the wierd ladders (or water ladders for that matter), so I never had to fix anything. I'll be continuing that trend. Especially as Mojang has entered a state of FOCUSING on the bug-fixes. Plenty of players also wont use glitches simply because they are glitches.
Not to mention that my cart tracks are mostly through the Nether, which ends up being faster (by alot) than ice roads (which only work in the overworld) anyway. Less effort and time to build, too. ....and stupidly, EASIER to build in: No night time, and ghasts arent much of a threat. Really shouldnt be the case, but that's a whole other topic.
Aye, mineshafts are good for getting those. Depending on what the player is doing with them though, that might not be enough for them (or might take too long; it might simply be faster to just craft a few stacks of them). Not to mention depending on the RNG's placement of the mines. Mineshafts are pretty great, though, in general.
Anyway, I stick with my original opinion on this topic as a whole: The beacon either needs to be REALLY DRAMATICALLY BETTER, as in, much, much, MUCH bigger range (I mean, seriously: Exploration-focused buffs, within a range that UTTERLY DISALLOWS exploration), cost waaaayyyyyy less than it currently does, or be reworked entirely. The current implementation just doesnt make sense, cant do a whole lot, and yet takes 1500+ ingots, and potentially many.... many.... MANY hours of farming either the ingots, or the accursed skulls. When 20 seconds with a brewer, or a few levels of XP (and even 30 levels doesnt take long to get), can give you the same or better effects that work ANYWHERE.
EDIT: Oops, I had originally said 40x40x40 for the effect size up there, but no, it's 80x80x80. I believe I was originally thinking of the effect's range from center with the max pyramid (which is indeed 40).
That's the thing about it though: It DOESNT give very good buffs. The speed buffs, for example. Same things you get from potions.... except that with the Beacon, it doesnt give you room to actually USE them. Whereas the potion's version can get you very far indeed... or even just use a pig & saddle. Each type of speed increase is dramatically better than that of the Beacon, since they can take you places. The jump buff is damn near useless: the level 1 version ONLY gets you over fences.... you need the level 2 version (with the max pyramid) to double your jump height.... in that tiny range. Just using blocks to get higher makes much more sense. Haste is better done with enchantments (and efficiency 5 can make it REALLY freaking fast... not that you need it, usually efficiency 3 is enough), strength is the same as from potions (except, again, ONLY useful if you're very close to the pyramid), and regen wont help you whatsoever if you're fighting any distance from the pyramid; bringing splash heal potions (*instant* heal, no delay whatsoever) or something like golden apples is a much better idea.
You're right though, the cost per level needs to be changed to reflect it's current effects. Though, honestly, even if it WERE changed, the necessity of doing the Wither fight to get the Star would *still* make it hyper-expensive in most cases: the difference is that summoning the boss mostly costs you enormous amounts of time, instead of enormous amounts of ore. .....though the current version costs enormous amounts of BOTH. Really dont know what they were thinking with this thing.
untill the beacon gets the same update as the stair blocks it's not pratical for designs and completely useless as a USABLE pyrimad. just think of the possibilities we could in designs we could have with sideways beacons... think of black mesa the remake! that laser beam room that you had to connect all the beams in seperate rooms to join in to 1 beam. BEACONS COULD BE A NEW SOURCE FOR RESTONE POWER EMMITING if they are able to be placed sideways that it... think of it as fiber optics
new 1.5 redstone update FIBER-OPTICS
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Edits: The least they could do is let use use the beam with out the buffs for aesthetics with just redstone or something..
IMO they should make another use for Nether stars. I'm not really going to build the beacon anytime soon because it'll require too much resource collecting for something that isn't very rewarding. I could probably get the first two tiers.
Also in creative there should be a way to change the distance of effect for adeventure maps.
Feed my dragons please
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