Guys. Seriously? Let's all be nice to each other, there is absolutely NO reason to hate on other people or comment and single out certain people for their comments to this post. And I think the folks doing it know who I'm talking about, alright? If you have any comments or concerns, please PM me them.
-Will
I'll apologize for some of that myself. I'm sorta irritable and fiery by default, which never helps with this sorta thing. And then the ranting begins. And I'm not always good with communication of any sort. I didnt intend to insult or anger anyone with all that rambling, but it does happen at times, so if that's the case, I apologize.
On the topic,
All this arguing aside, there's one gigantic question that occurs to me regarding this entire thing: What are the devs actually intending with this block? I mean, when you think about it, this is a REALLY strange addition to the game. All I've heard is "faction-based" related to this, which inevitably means PVP or online play of some sort, but..... it seems so ridiculously out of place, when most things the devs add have all sorts of crazy, creative uses. And even the idea of doing this online doesnt make all that much sense.... is it supposed to encourage players to have contests between teams to see who can get silly amounts of iron the fastest? Wouldnt it make much more sense to have something a bit similar to the command block, that admins and whatever can add to the map very easily in strategic places? I dunno too much about that bit though, as I dont play online.
Not to mention the bit about spending hours gathering skulls in the Nether to fight the incredibly-powerful boss that you must defeat to make even ONE of these blocks.
So yeah, that's the question, what in the world are they thinking with this block? .....and for that matter, IS it going to be tweaked at all? The thing seems to be mostly meeting with negative responses, which is sorta a sign that it NEEDS changes, but.... they implemented it, and havent touched it since (unlike something like the Wither, which DID recieve some key tweaks to balance it out a bit better).
--Once I think about it, I stay around my base about 70% of the time, whether it's growing my farm or building my house. The rest is going to another biome to collect things or going down and mining. I just used the bed for the first night to set spawn and from then on keep it night. If any mobs starting wandering around the edges I take them out.
--Also, I'm sticking to using leather armor, since leather armor doesn't last very long, I put lv1 enchants on it. Since that's relatively low protection, that defense buff would be pretty nice. Adding this all up, the speed buff(going between plant farm<>house<>animal farm) and all the combat buffs (def/atk/regen defending the perimeter) would all be very useful to me.
--Why don't I wear better armor or use potions instead? Because I can dye the leather, iron armor makes the game too easy, and because whenever I start going on a potion fest I tend to use about 10 potions then stop bothering simply because I feel it's almost a waste of time. I mean sure, I'll use potions against wither, but I feel it's a waste of time always brewing speed/atk potions to kill things, I tend to skip the process after a while.
I also get 'elixir' syndrome. In rpg's I tend to stack up valuable items and always feel I need to save them for 'the right time' but then never use them.
I guess the beacon can be for people who are lazy in a way and use spare resources so they don't have to go through the brewing redundancy.
Yeah, that's the only use I've thought of as well, is for players that hardly ever leave their base. Of course, even THAT is extremely situational, as the wrong shape or size of base structures can immediately prevent the thing from being of use. .......and still need to kill the boss AND pay 1500 stuffs for it...
Also, you're right about the iron armor; it's a little OP right now (which is something I've repeated OFTEN on the forums here). Either needs to be weakened, or we need more challenging/damaging mobs. Remember the days when you'd enter the Nether and there'd be like 5 squillion ghasts everywhere? Something like that. Need more of that kind of challenge. Hard mode should be hard!
.....and I get "elixir" syndrome myself as well, haha. So many double-chests of crap but cant discard ANY of it because it may or may not be useful at some point in the very distant future.
All this arguing aside, there's one gigantic question that occurs to me regarding this entire thing: What are the devs actually intending with this block? I mean, when you think about it, this is a REALLY strange addition to the game. All I've heard is "faction-based" related to this, which inevitably means PVP or online play of some sort, but..... it seems so ridiculously out of place, when most things the devs add have all sorts of crazy, creative uses. And even the idea of doing this online doesnt make all that much sense.... is it supposed to encourage players to have contests between teams to see who can get silly amounts of iron the fastest? Wouldnt it make much more sense to have something a bit similar to the command block, that admins and whatever can add to the map very easily in strategic places? I dunno too much about that bit though, as I dont play online.
Also, you're right about the iron armor; it's a little OP right now (which is something I've repeated OFTEN on the forums here). Either needs to be weakened, or we need more challenging/damaging mobs. Remember the days when you'd enter the Nether and there'd be like 5 squillion ghasts everywhere? Something like that. Need more of that kind of challenge. Hard mode should be hard!
The block was meant for adventure maps (jump buff), but people begged for it to be in survival. lol
I don't recall ghasts being extra common in alpha but they did do 1 heart more damage.
The block was meant for adventure maps (jump buff), but people begged for it to be in survival. lol
I don't recall ghasts being extra common in alpha but they did do 1 heart more damage.
.......
........adventure maps? ......but that's even MORE baffling. Why in the world would the pyramid be necessary whatsoever, then? If anything, that'd make it MORE of a hassle to use with those. Something simple and accessible like the command block makes more sense there. And hell, even there the buffs still dont make much sense. I could understand it being intended for adventure maps if you could have an interface to change things like it's default range, and stuff like that, but..... instead, map-makers would have to waste big piles of time (as well as possibly screw with their intended design ideas for the map) by making those silly metal heaps each time they want to increase the range of the field.
And of course then there's the screwball implementation into survival mode......
That isn't worded very well, the argument against that is that you can do it through the course of playing and not have to grind for it.
A better way to put it is that it's not worth the cost BECAUSE there are other, just as effective if not more effective, ways of getting the same buffs which are twenty times cheaper.
That depends on your play style. I've always used pyramid materials at about the rate I've harvested them. The one exception was gold, but then powered rails were introduced and my stockpile promptly flatlined.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You're just jealous 'cause the voices only talk to me
That depends on your play style. I've always used pyramid materials at about the rate I've harvested them. The one exception was gold, but then powered rails were introduced and my stockpile promptly flatlined.
You're right play style does matter. Still your comment does make me feel some what vindicated due to all the threads in the past that have beat down and basically said people like me are stupid who continue to use stone picks for general mining because iron is so plentiful. I understand the logical rational, however I like to look at it that I'm trading a little bit of my time to conserve a resource.
Something people forget is that you keep the buffs for 8 seconds outside of the perimeter. Not a huge thing, but something to be noted. As i commented before, the real benefits from this come when you design your home with this in mind. I built a new house that takes full advantage of its powers. My house is built to take advantage of the Jump II buff, with 2 block high jumps to get from floor to floor, which is faster than a ladder. Its has a large court yard with walls stopping where my buffs end. I can run around inside this huge defense wall at night and OHKO all mobs bar endermen without worrying about dying or anything. You also dont have to eat within the perimeter of the wall, as starvation damage is more than countered by Regeneration. I should also note that i built the largest variant, with 5 Beacon Blocks, and all the pyramids are connected, which results in about 70% less resources used on all pyramids following the first one. This is a huge reduction in cost and massive benefits. To the people arguing over its value, its only worth it if you have all the buffs at once like I do. Having just a speed bonus or resistance is near useless. Oh and something else I did, once I killed my first Wither, i built a wither fight arena about 20 blocks below my pyramid. Doing this allowed me to easily beat the wither more easily each time. The first time I had damage+regen, then I had resistance II, then Jump II all stacked, and by then it was a breeze to kill him. So, to sum it all up, the Beacon Pyramid is only worth it if your willing to go all the way and have all of the buffs at once, and construct your house in a way that takes full advantage of its abilities.
That isn't worded very well, the argument against that is that you can do it through the course of playing and not have to grind for it.
A better way to put it is that it's not worth the cost BECAUSE there are other, just as effective if not more effective, ways of getting the same buffs which are twenty times cheaper.
I think my past posts have demonstrated why I think the beacon isn't worth the effort. My reasoning behind why is implied.
Still your comment does make me feel some what vindicated due to all the threads in the past that have beat down and basically said people like me are stupid who continue to use stone picks for general mining because iron is so plentiful.
I do the same. Sure, if I was happy to go resource hunting for the sake of stockpiling (eg, branch mine down in the diamond layers), maybe I'd have more. As it stands, I seldom make it past ~20 iron blocks before I decide it's time to return to the futile task of finishing off my rail network - I did out caves because I want the caves.
It was not until the introduction of spawning iron golems that I started wearing any armour at all (though I did occasionally wear leather, back before cows stopped re-spawning).
That depends on your play style. I've always used pyramid materials at about the rate I've harvested them. The one exception was gold, but then powered rails were introduced and my stockpile promptly flatlined.
Yup, this.
And one thing about alot of other gameplay mechanics: They can fit a huge variety of gameplay styles in all sorts of way. Whereas the Beacon's pyramid is ONLY going to work with two specific types: 1, grinding, and 2, hoarding (as in, constantly grabbing materials all the time whenever you see them even if you dont need them right now). Any other sort of playstyle, well..... you're not getting that pyramid, likely.
I myself tend to enter caves when I have specific objectives that can be found within them, so while I usually have SOME excess of different items, it's not to the utterly insane numbers that the beacon wants. And I have actual practical uses for iron, gold, and emerald (and diamond sorta goes without saying), so.... yeah. I dont really wanna dedicate huge blobs of stuff to the pyramid when I could make potions or enchant things.
--I've started on trying to collect wither heads, ITS SO FREAKING BORING! I've been running around a fortress for 3 hours and haven't gotten a head yet. Honestly, the beacon probably isn't worth having to kill the skeletons over and over and mining over and over but I feel I have to do it just for the sake of 'game completion'. I think they should make the spawn rate of wither skeletons higher or something. :/
--I've started on trying to collect wither heads, ITS SO FREAKING BORING! I've been running around a fortress for 3 hours and haven't gotten a head yet. Honestly, the beacon probably isn't worth having to kill the skeletons over and over and mining over and over but I feel I have to do it just for the sake of 'game completion'. I think they should make the spawn rate of wither skeletons higher or something. :/
Took me over 2 hours with a looting 3 sword, I agree that the wither skeletons need a higher spawn rate. I ran into about twice as many blazes and magma cubes while trying hunt them.
Took me over 2 hours with a looting 3 sword, I agree that the wither skeletons need a higher spawn rate. I ran into about twice as many blazes and magma cubes while trying hunt them.
Looting swords don't affect rare drops right?
Anyway, I realized it was the mushroom island scenario all over again. I was in fear that I would never find one, but when I found one I felt like it was well worth it and it gives me the confidence to keep going. I also started following the wall instead of wandering around because it gives mobs more time to spawn around the place.
Btw, it does seem like magma cubes are a lot more common.
I sorta get the impression that having a rail to shoot you ~150 blocks away and back might be the way to go. Walking around the fort and killing mobs is all well and good, but more will spawn in the general area outside the fort, slowing the spawn rate of the skeletons.
Using a nether portal to warp in/out doesn't delete the excess mobs, and you can only kill so many. But move far enough away from the area and the whole place resets.
Dunno, I'm still on 1.3.2. Considering how to best modify my fort to ease hunting there.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You're just jealous 'cause the voices only talk to me
In the wiki it says you can use any kind of stone as a block for them to spawn on, but considering it doesn't list the fortress as it's own biome how would we know how far to extend it?
--I've started on trying to collect wither heads, ITS SO FREAKING BORING! I've been running around a fortress for 3 hours and haven't gotten a head yet. Honestly, the beacon probably isn't worth having to kill the skeletons over and over and mining over and over but I feel I have to do it just for the sake of 'game completion'. I think they should make the spawn rate of wither skeletons higher or something. :/
Oh yes, it's pretty annoying to do.
The wiki page says that the drop rate for the rare items is 2.5%, or 1 in 40.
.....I got the first skull almost right away, but...... well, I've killed enough skeletons to theoretically get like 4 more skulls SINCE then, based on that drop rate, but nooooooooooooooooooo. That'd make SENSE, cant have that! Bah. I'll get those bloody things yet.
Anyway, I realized it was the mushroom island scenario all over again. I was in fear that I would never find one, but when I found one I felt like it was well worth it and it gives me the confidence to keep going. I also started following the wall instead of wandering around because it gives mobs more time to spawn around the place.
Btw, it does seem like magma cubes are a lot more common.
Wiki says that looting does work on the rare drop rates. ....of course you have to HAVE the bloody enchantment first, bah. Not having luck with THAT either. The RNG is probably enjoying this. And yeah, the magma cubes had their spawn rate fixed, the things are everywhere now. Havent had to actually craft a single magma cream, keep getting them from those guys.
So far, this bloody block is REALLY annoying to get. I dont even want it for the damn pyramid, I just wanna use the accursed things to mark stuff. But getting just ONE might be even more annoying than I'd originally thought.
I'll apologize for some of that myself. I'm sorta irritable and fiery by default, which never helps with this sorta thing. And then the ranting begins. And I'm not always good with communication of any sort. I didnt intend to insult or anger anyone with all that rambling, but it does happen at times, so if that's the case, I apologize.
On the topic,
All this arguing aside, there's one gigantic question that occurs to me regarding this entire thing: What are the devs actually intending with this block? I mean, when you think about it, this is a REALLY strange addition to the game. All I've heard is "faction-based" related to this, which inevitably means PVP or online play of some sort, but..... it seems so ridiculously out of place, when most things the devs add have all sorts of crazy, creative uses. And even the idea of doing this online doesnt make all that much sense.... is it supposed to encourage players to have contests between teams to see who can get silly amounts of iron the fastest? Wouldnt it make much more sense to have something a bit similar to the command block, that admins and whatever can add to the map very easily in strategic places? I dunno too much about that bit though, as I dont play online.
Not to mention the bit about spending hours gathering skulls in the Nether to fight the incredibly-powerful boss that you must defeat to make even ONE of these blocks.
So yeah, that's the question, what in the world are they thinking with this block? .....and for that matter, IS it going to be tweaked at all? The thing seems to be mostly meeting with negative responses, which is sorta a sign that it NEEDS changes, but.... they implemented it, and havent touched it since (unlike something like the Wither, which DID recieve some key tweaks to balance it out a bit better).
Yeah, that's the only use I've thought of as well, is for players that hardly ever leave their base. Of course, even THAT is extremely situational, as the wrong shape or size of base structures can immediately prevent the thing from being of use. .......and still need to kill the boss AND pay 1500 stuffs for it...
Also, you're right about the iron armor; it's a little OP right now (which is something I've repeated OFTEN on the forums here). Either needs to be weakened, or we need more challenging/damaging mobs. Remember the days when you'd enter the Nether and there'd be like 5 squillion ghasts everywhere? Something like that. Need more of that kind of challenge. Hard mode should be hard!
.....and I get "elixir" syndrome myself as well, haha. So many double-chests of crap but cant discard ANY of it because it may or may not be useful at some point in the very distant future.
I don't recall ghasts being extra common in alpha but they did do 1 heart more damage.
.......
........adventure maps? ......but that's even MORE baffling. Why in the world would the pyramid be necessary whatsoever, then? If anything, that'd make it MORE of a hassle to use with those. Something simple and accessible like the command block makes more sense there. And hell, even there the buffs still dont make much sense. I could understand it being intended for adventure maps if you could have an interface to change things like it's default range, and stuff like that, but..... instead, map-makers would have to waste big piles of time (as well as possibly screw with their intended design ideas for the map) by making those silly metal heaps each time they want to increase the range of the field.
And of course then there's the screwball implementation into survival mode......
Very, very strange.
The trouble is that it's not worth the hassle.
That isn't worded very well, the argument against that is that you can do it through the course of playing and not have to grind for it.
A better way to put it is that it's not worth the cost BECAUSE there are other, just as effective if not more effective, ways of getting the same buffs which are twenty times cheaper.
You're right play style does matter. Still your comment does make me feel some what vindicated due to all the threads in the past that have beat down and basically said people like me are stupid who continue to use stone picks for general mining because iron is so plentiful. I understand the logical rational, however I like to look at it that I'm trading a little bit of my time to conserve a resource.
by c0yote
I tried it with terrible results. I gave my wife my glasses for a second, a creeper showed up and now my wife is pregnant.
Stupid 3D..
I think my past posts have demonstrated why I think the beacon isn't worth the effort. My reasoning behind why is implied.
>_>
If someone was confused to what I said, I would just have to elaborate. My reasoning is just well established.
I do the same. Sure, if I was happy to go resource hunting for the sake of stockpiling (eg, branch mine down in the diamond layers), maybe I'd have more. As it stands, I seldom make it past ~20 iron blocks before I decide it's time to return to the futile task of finishing off my rail network - I did out caves because I want the caves.
It was not until the introduction of spawning iron golems that I started wearing any armour at all (though I did occasionally wear leather, back before cows stopped re-spawning).
Yup, this.
And one thing about alot of other gameplay mechanics: They can fit a huge variety of gameplay styles in all sorts of way. Whereas the Beacon's pyramid is ONLY going to work with two specific types: 1, grinding, and 2, hoarding (as in, constantly grabbing materials all the time whenever you see them even if you dont need them right now). Any other sort of playstyle, well..... you're not getting that pyramid, likely.
I myself tend to enter caves when I have specific objectives that can be found within them, so while I usually have SOME excess of different items, it's not to the utterly insane numbers that the beacon wants. And I have actual practical uses for iron, gold, and emerald (and diamond sorta goes without saying), so.... yeah. I dont really wanna dedicate huge blobs of stuff to the pyramid when I could make potions or enchant things.
Took me over 2 hours with a looting 3 sword, I agree that the wither skeletons need a higher spawn rate. I ran into about twice as many blazes and magma cubes while trying hunt them.
Anyway, I realized it was the mushroom island scenario all over again. I was in fear that I would never find one, but when I found one I felt like it was well worth it and it gives me the confidence to keep going. I also started following the wall instead of wandering around because it gives mobs more time to spawn around the place.
Btw, it does seem like magma cubes are a lot more common.
Using a nether portal to warp in/out doesn't delete the excess mobs, and you can only kill so many. But move far enough away from the area and the whole place resets.
Dunno, I'm still on 1.3.2. Considering how to best modify my fort to ease hunting there.
Oh yes, it's pretty annoying to do.
The wiki page says that the drop rate for the rare items is 2.5%, or 1 in 40.
.....I got the first skull almost right away, but...... well, I've killed enough skeletons to theoretically get like 4 more skulls SINCE then, based on that drop rate, but nooooooooooooooooooo. That'd make SENSE, cant have that! Bah. I'll get those bloody things yet.
Wiki says that looting does work on the rare drop rates. ....of course you have to HAVE the bloody enchantment first, bah. Not having luck with THAT either. The RNG is probably enjoying this. And yeah, the magma cubes had their spawn rate fixed, the things are everywhere now. Havent had to actually craft a single magma cream, keep getting them from those guys.
So far, this bloody block is REALLY annoying to get. I dont even want it for the damn pyramid, I just wanna use the accursed things to mark stuff. But getting just ONE might be even more annoying than I'd originally thought.