I don't think I'm alone when I say that beacons are a bit confusing and more than a bit broken as far as game design goes. Many people have suggested new buffs or uses for beacons... but I'm more of the opinion that a complete overhaul is in order for the beacon. Are beacons a good game mechanic as they are? Or do they need some changes? Once again, I'm curious for feedback, and would love to have more input. I've posted this as a poll largely because I want to see what other people think of my take on the issue of beacons. In particular, I really like Simplysarc's take on the beacon problem, which you can find here:
Adding new mechanics for beacons could be difficult and needlessly complicated. On the other hand, many people agree that the existing beacon mechanics are broken and not worth the effort.
CONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As with any older game mechanic, even if it doesn't necessarily make sense, people can get very upset when things they're used to are changed. A major update that changed how beacons work in a fundamental way would doubtlessly make many players angry, considering how hard it is to make a beacon to begin with. Replacing diamonds as the top of the equipment tiers was a great example of this- and if the developers were to attempt such a change- like any change- it would have to be very carefully thought through.
Beacons don't need to be updated, as they already offer a useful game mechanic. The beacon encourages players to collect a large amount of resources and complete a difficult boss fight in order to obtain a suitable reward- a reward that also encourages them to build a base in which to live. The buffs for beacons make sense, and are a decent reward for the considerable difficulty of building them. The rewards are useful, and worth the effort.
PROS ~
The Beacon is seriously broken. For a small, not particularly useful buff, players need to gather a great deal of resources- if you want more effects, the amount needed to upgrade the pyramid to the next tier increases exponentially. A fully upgraded beacon costs 1,476 iron bars to make the pyramid, encouraging players to build an iron golem farm- arguably an exploit. What's more, the beacon can be made from any mineral block... but none of these blocks actually change the effects or increase its power- meaning it's pointless to use anything other than iron. Furthermore, it's not worth fighting the wither- a ridiculously overpowered boss- to get a beacon that can't be activated without a bunch more resources, and even then only provides negligible benefits at best.
There is so much more that could be done with the beacon, and in this respect players are really missing out- the beacon is so expensive, and so lacking in actual benefits that the majority of players will never actually use one outside of creative mode.
POTENTIAL USES FOR BEACONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ways in which beacons could be improved goes on and on. The simplest way would be to offer a wider selection of buffs, and different buffs for different mineral types, making it actually worthwhile to build a beacon. As mentioned above, I especially like Simplysarc's ideas regarding beacons- namely that each of the mineral types would provide a separate type of buff, and that multiple types of minerals could be used in a power pyramid in order to provide a combination of said buffs.
Some of the ideas for beacons I would consider in particular, summarized briefly:
-Mineral-Specific Buffs ~
Copper- (which I sincerely hope will be used with beacons) could be used for efficiency and productivity- offering some effects already present, (such as haste), as well as fortune and other industry- based benefits- like increasing the growth speed of crops. Since copper beacons are the cheapest and easiest to set up, this would make them ideal for mines or other areas in which productivity is useful.
Iron would have helpful defensive effects, giving mining fatigue to invaders, turning off mob griefing or spawning in a certain radius, and possibly providing a defensive shield at higher levels. This would be a really interesting mechanic for faction and anarchy games, in which building a beacon might offer new ways to more actively protect your base from enemy players.
Gold could offer unusual offensive effects- imagine a beacon that fires deadly lasers, generates lightning, summons magical defenders, or immobilizes enemies. A simpler way would just be for gold beacons to be able to harm or slow down mobs in a certain radius. Such a beacon could even be used as a weapon of mass destruction that would offer a new way of obliterating enemy bases- if at a considerable expense. The Gold beacon could act as a sort of boss fight of its own, requiring a considerably talented warrior to disable an enemy beacon.
Emerald would provide various quality of life benefits, or things that didn't really fall into any specific category. Perhaps emerald could provide more specific boons, such as luck, healing, or looting. I'm not really sure what sort of specific category this would fall into, particularly considering that emeralds are more difficult to obtain than most other ores, even if you're a fairly proficient trader. Maybe emeralds increase your reach or hot bar size?
And finally, Diamond might be able to be used for any category. Whereas other minerals would add points towards a specific category of buffs, diamond would provide a fair bit of points towards any category, making them by far the most useful and versatile.
In addition, Quartz might be used in beacons. Of course, Quartz is considerably easier to obtain than any other ore, so long as you have access to the nether... and yes, you obviously need access to the nether to obtain a beacon. My idea is that quartz should count as a mineral block, but not provide points towards any category. This way, you can still activate the pillar of light... just not any other benefits. This would also ensure that if you wanted to add points to certain categories, but didn't have enough to complete an entire layer of the pyramid, you could use Quartz to fill in the missing materials.
Redstone & Lapiz ~ These might make interesting mineral blocks- though I'm not sure what sort of effects they'd give. Any ideas?
-Different Beacon Types-
Going off of the above idea, the crafting recipe for beacons could be slightly tweaked. Instead of three obsidian, five glass, and a nether star; they might consist of three obsidian, a nether star, four glass... and a mineral type- diamond, emerald, iron, etc. This would determine the base power of the beacon, and what type of beacon it was- (Industrial, Defensive, Offensive, QOL, or Multipurpose.)
-Better Buffs-
As I mentioned before, a considerably simpler solution would be to just provide better buffs depending on which mineral type is used, in order to make beacons made of anything other than iron actually useful for anything other than a trophy. This might consist of adding more buffs to chose from, upgraded versions of existing buffs, or new buffs that unlock at higher levels. Buffs might also be combined into different categories- such as a 'Mining' Buff that adds mining efficiency, haste, and fortune; a 'Bloodlust' buff that adds Strength, Smite, and Knockback.
-Redstone Applications for Beacons-
It would be neat, (Again, in my opinion), if beacons could be used with redstone machinery in some way- though finding an application that would both be useful for redstone builders and survival players would be a challenge. Some ideas I have regarding this would be having a redstone beacon that gets rid of redstone signals weakening in a certain radius. This would certainly mess up some inventions, but could also be used to mitigate the need for repeaters delaying signals over long distances. Another idea is that redstone dust could be used to transfer the powers of a beacon over a larger area. A new 'transmitter' block could be connected to a beacon via redstone signal, and would provide the same effects in a smaller radius. The transmitter could be something like a slightly cheaper, similarly themed block, possibly also made with glass, obsidian, and... redstone? Diamond?
-Better Beam Effect-
Beacon beams look really cool, and are, (ironically), one of the main factors that makes me want to build a beacon, just because it makes it really difficult to get lost, and makes interesting noises. However, It could certainly be improved, seeing as beacons have been around since 1.4 of 1.5, it seems fair that we get a slight upgrade. I'm not entirely sure if it's possible for the beam to extend past 256 blocks, but this would certainly look a lot nicer. It would also be helpful if you could see the beacon from further away. On a more aesthetic note, a new particle effect could be added that makes arcane runes or glowing shards of minerals encircle the base of the beam.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What are your ideas regarding beacons? Are there pros or cons that I neglected to include? I'd definitely appreciate feedback.
I agree that beacons need some adjustments, and while I don't 100% agree with all the ideas you put in here, I do like the idea of the beacon's effects depending on what you make it out of.
Also, I feel like the "pyramid" of the beacon should be mostly internal and not constructed in a legit pyramid. As it is, pyramids are really gaudy right now, and it'd be a massive improvement if we could slot the mineral blocks into the beacon UI.
Yeah I agree that beacons need some form of update or adjustment. I think you have some good ideas for sure as I love the ideas that different materials could inherently change what the effect of the beacon is. Mostly what I would love is to see beacons allowed to be a different shape to better fit designs.
There was a livestream - I think two weeks ago - with Cubfan135, Xisuma, Etho, Ecko and Ulraf from the Mojang development team, they talked about that as well. Ulraf mentioned that he/Mojang plans to expand or overhaul the uses and status effects of a beacon in the long run.
This should be the link (In case you're interested - although beacons are just mentioned briefly and I don't have a time stamp):
I don't think I'm alone when I say that beacons are a bit confusing and more than a bit broken as far as game design goes. Many people have suggested new buffs or uses for beacons... but I'm more of the opinion that a complete overhaul is in order for the beacon. Are beacons a good game mechanic as they are? Or do they need some changes? Once again, I'm curious for feedback, and would love to have more input. I've posted this as a poll largely because I want to see what other people think of my take on the issue of beacons. In particular, I really like Simplysarc's take on the beacon problem, which you can find here:
TLDR (Summary) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adding new mechanics for beacons could be difficult and needlessly complicated. On the other hand, many people agree that the existing beacon mechanics are broken and not worth the effort.
CONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As with any older game mechanic, even if it doesn't necessarily make sense, people can get very upset when things they're used to are changed. A major update that changed how beacons work in a fundamental way would doubtlessly make many players angry, considering how hard it is to make a beacon to begin with. Replacing diamonds as the top of the equipment tiers was a great example of this- and if the developers were to attempt such a change- like any change- it would have to be very carefully thought through.
Beacons don't need to be updated, as they already offer a useful game mechanic. The beacon encourages players to collect a large amount of resources and complete a difficult boss fight in order to obtain a suitable reward- a reward that also encourages them to build a base in which to live. The buffs for beacons make sense, and are a decent reward for the considerable difficulty of building them. The rewards are useful, and worth the effort.
PROS ~
The Beacon is seriously broken. For a small, not particularly useful buff, players need to gather a great deal of resources- if you want more effects, the amount needed to upgrade the pyramid to the next tier increases exponentially. A fully upgraded beacon costs 1,476 iron bars to make the pyramid, encouraging players to build an iron golem farm- arguably an exploit. What's more, the beacon can be made from any mineral block... but none of these blocks actually change the effects or increase its power- meaning it's pointless to use anything other than iron. Furthermore, it's not worth fighting the wither- a ridiculously overpowered boss- to get a beacon that can't be activated without a bunch more resources, and even then only provides negligible benefits at best.
There is so much more that could be done with the beacon, and in this respect players are really missing out- the beacon is so expensive, and so lacking in actual benefits that the majority of players will never actually use one outside of creative mode.
POTENTIAL USES FOR BEACONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ways in which beacons could be improved goes on and on. The simplest way would be to offer a wider selection of buffs, and different buffs for different mineral types, making it actually worthwhile to build a beacon. As mentioned above, I especially like Simplysarc's ideas regarding beacons- namely that each of the mineral types would provide a separate type of buff, and that multiple types of minerals could be used in a power pyramid in order to provide a combination of said buffs.
Some of the ideas for beacons I would consider in particular, summarized briefly:
-Mineral-Specific Buffs ~
Copper- (which I sincerely hope will be used with beacons) could be used for efficiency and productivity- offering some effects already present, (such as haste), as well as fortune and other industry- based benefits- like increasing the growth speed of crops. Since copper beacons are the cheapest and easiest to set up, this would make them ideal for mines or other areas in which productivity is useful.
Iron would have helpful defensive effects, giving mining fatigue to invaders, turning off mob griefing or spawning in a certain radius, and possibly providing a defensive shield at higher levels. This would be a really interesting mechanic for faction and anarchy games, in which building a beacon might offer new ways to more actively protect your base from enemy players.
Gold could offer unusual offensive effects- imagine a beacon that fires deadly lasers, generates lightning, summons magical defenders, or immobilizes enemies. A simpler way would just be for gold beacons to be able to harm or slow down mobs in a certain radius. Such a beacon could even be used as a weapon of mass destruction that would offer a new way of obliterating enemy bases- if at a considerable expense. The Gold beacon could act as a sort of boss fight of its own, requiring a considerably talented warrior to disable an enemy beacon.
Emerald would provide various quality of life benefits, or things that didn't really fall into any specific category. Perhaps emerald could provide more specific boons, such as luck, healing, or looting. I'm not really sure what sort of specific category this would fall into, particularly considering that emeralds are more difficult to obtain than most other ores, even if you're a fairly proficient trader. Maybe emeralds increase your reach or hot bar size?
And finally, Diamond might be able to be used for any category. Whereas other minerals would add points towards a specific category of buffs, diamond would provide a fair bit of points towards any category, making them by far the most useful and versatile.
In addition, Quartz might be used in beacons. Of course, Quartz is considerably easier to obtain than any other ore, so long as you have access to the nether... and yes, you obviously need access to the nether to obtain a beacon. My idea is that quartz should count as a mineral block, but not provide points towards any category. This way, you can still activate the pillar of light... just not any other benefits. This would also ensure that if you wanted to add points to certain categories, but didn't have enough to complete an entire layer of the pyramid, you could use Quartz to fill in the missing materials.
Redstone & Lapiz ~ These might make interesting mineral blocks- though I'm not sure what sort of effects they'd give. Any ideas?
-Different Beacon Types-
Going off of the above idea, the crafting recipe for beacons could be slightly tweaked. Instead of three obsidian, five glass, and a nether star; they might consist of three obsidian, a nether star, four glass... and a mineral type- diamond, emerald, iron, etc. This would determine the base power of the beacon, and what type of beacon it was- (Industrial, Defensive, Offensive, QOL, or Multipurpose.)
-Better Buffs-
As I mentioned before, a considerably simpler solution would be to just provide better buffs depending on which mineral type is used, in order to make beacons made of anything other than iron actually useful for anything other than a trophy. This might consist of adding more buffs to chose from, upgraded versions of existing buffs, or new buffs that unlock at higher levels. Buffs might also be combined into different categories- such as a 'Mining' Buff that adds mining efficiency, haste, and fortune; a 'Bloodlust' buff that adds Strength, Smite, and Knockback.
-Redstone Applications for Beacons-
It would be neat, (Again, in my opinion), if beacons could be used with redstone machinery in some way- though finding an application that would both be useful for redstone builders and survival players would be a challenge. Some ideas I have regarding this would be having a redstone beacon that gets rid of redstone signals weakening in a certain radius. This would certainly mess up some inventions, but could also be used to mitigate the need for repeaters delaying signals over long distances. Another idea is that redstone dust could be used to transfer the powers of a beacon over a larger area. A new 'transmitter' block could be connected to a beacon via redstone signal, and would provide the same effects in a smaller radius. The transmitter could be something like a slightly cheaper, similarly themed block, possibly also made with glass, obsidian, and... redstone? Diamond?
-Better Beam Effect-
Beacon beams look really cool, and are, (ironically), one of the main factors that makes me want to build a beacon, just because it makes it really difficult to get lost, and makes interesting noises. However, It could certainly be improved, seeing as beacons have been around since 1.4 of 1.5, it seems fair that we get a slight upgrade. I'm not entirely sure if it's possible for the beam to extend past 256 blocks, but this would certainly look a lot nicer. It would also be helpful if you could see the beacon from further away. On a more aesthetic note, a new particle effect could be added that makes arcane runes or glowing shards of minerals encircle the base of the beam.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What are your ideas regarding beacons? Are there pros or cons that I neglected to include? I'd definitely appreciate feedback.
Cooking with Mindthemoods ~ Biomes ~ Archeology
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~ My Portfolio ~ Skindex ~ Test ~ Discs ~
I agree that beacons need some adjustments, and while I don't 100% agree with all the ideas you put in here, I do like the idea of the beacon's effects depending on what you make it out of.
Also, I feel like the "pyramid" of the beacon should be mostly internal and not constructed in a legit pyramid. As it is, pyramids are really gaudy right now, and it'd be a massive improvement if we could slot the mineral blocks into the beacon UI.
Yeah I agree that beacons need some form of update or adjustment. I think you have some good ideas for sure as I love the ideas that different materials could inherently change what the effect of the beacon is. Mostly what I would love is to see beacons allowed to be a different shape to better fit designs.
We germans like to share our mustard (opinion), especially when not so well informed.
Wich means i've only read the bold lines to understand what the thread is about in generall.
I'd love to see beacons compatible to redstone. Moveable beacons on top!
Another idea is that you have to power the beacon with redstone to activate it.
That would be a tiny downgrade but if you just use them for their lightbeam,
you could save much space and time. Apart from that i am against further downgrades.
My projects:
-are abandoned for now. I might pick 'em up in the future.
For now i'm working on a private modpack that suit's my own playstyle.
I am gonna stay in modded 1.12.2 untill my potato dies. No mercy! :Q
There was a livestream - I think two weeks ago - with Cubfan135, Xisuma, Etho, Ecko and Ulraf from the Mojang development team, they talked about that as well. Ulraf mentioned that he/Mojang plans to expand or overhaul the uses and status effects of a beacon in the long run.
This should be the link (In case you're interested - although beacons are just mentioned briefly and I don't have a time stamp):