Minecraft Forums

*DISCLAIMER: Not actually Impossible, but after several failed attempts, you'll start to believe that it is. It is not, it is beatable, entirely playable, just extremely challenging to the point where it might seem impossible.*



Do you think you've mastered minecraft? Is vanilla single player just too easy? Needing a challenge?

How about playing hardcore? No - that's not challenging enough either. All you have to do is be cautious and resourceful and it's pretty much like any other survival world. That's no fun.

I believe I have come up with what may be among the most difficult challenges that you can attempt in vanilla minecraft. Don't believe me? There's a reason I named this The Impossible Beacon.

Here is your preset custom world, this is required. Do not modify it.

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The goal of this challenge is simple: Build a Beacon.
That's it! Build a beacon on this map! As long as you follow some simple game rules.

The rules are as follows:
1. You MUST play on Hard difficulty. Not exactly a challenge otherwise. Hardcore only if you want to cry. I won't force that on you, I will be merciful.
2. No Cheats! Seriously, try this legitimately. Cheats delete challenges.
3. No Bonus Chest. All of the resources are in the map. Don't be a wimp, punch a tree.

That's it. Build a beacon on that preset with no cheats, no bonus chest, and set to Hard difficulty.



Why is this a challenge?

Prove you are a Survival Master! Do The Impossible!

IGN: swiftdeathsk
What’s the most important rule?: "Respect everyone and behave intelligently."

Scenario 1.)
Woman: *Throws stone at Swift*
Me: Whoa! *Speaks as he dodges the flying rock*
Woman: Get outta 'ere ya bandit! Steve! Tony! We gots 'nother one over 'eres!
Me: Hey! What did I do to you?
Steve: *Picks up a large metal axe and hurries over to the woman with Tony following, pickaxe in hand* Momma! What’s ya yellin' 'bout?
Woman: We gots a bandit boys! *Turns and readies to lob another rock at Swift*
Me: I'm not a bandit, I'm just lost! Keep tossing rocks at people and you won't need a wall to keep people away. Have you been bothered by bandits a lot recently?
Tony: Yessir! Momma says they comin' for the horses. Thems horse thieves from the river camp!
Woman: Tony shut yer gap! We don't need no lyin' thief tryin' to trick us!
Tony: But momma, maybe he can help?
Me: Yes! I can help! Tell me what's been going on?
Woman: I ain't trustin' 'im. You boys are responsible fer his damages! *Drops the rock in her hand and returns to building the wall*
Steve: That's fine momma. He has a kind face. I trust 'im!
Tony: Well, dis is how it first happen'd...

-----

Scenario 2.)
Me: *Looking at bows in a nearby street stall*
Inventor: No! I won't let you take those parts! This engine will revolutionize the world! I can't let you take them!
Thug: Well, tell you what. I've already got them. But, I'd be happy to sell them to you at a discounted price. Owner's Special Rate, I call it.
Inventor: You don't understand! This engine can create flight-ready sky crafts! And those parts are vital in finishing it!
Thug: Really?
Inventor: Yes!
Thug: Then I had better raise the price on these highly valuable machine parts I recently acquired!
Me: *Walking over with a new bow* Give that back. This is obviously illegal.
Thug: Shut it, else I'll make ya.
Me: What's the price on those parts, anyhow?
Thug: For a loud mouthed nosy wag? 700 Emeralds. Each.
Me: Well, I can give you one arrow for the whole lot. *Notches an arrow and aims for the thug's chest while taking a couple steps back* I can make it a quick transaction, too, if you'd like.
Thug: Oh, and you think this is legal?
Me: No. Are you willing to chance I'll stay on this side of the law?
*Tense pause*
Thug: *Hesitates before tossing parts at the Inventor angrily* Just take your junk, you quack. *Storms off*

IGN: swiftdeathsk

AGE: 26

SKYPE NAME: swiftdeathsk

TIMEZONE: Central Time (Iowa)

TIME PLAYED PER WEEK: Uhh, as of right now, it's in flux. Past few weeks have been a bit closer to zero more often than not, admittedly. Life is to blame as it sometimes happens. I'd like to change that. If the community seems decent here, you can expect me a bit more.

EXPERIENCE WITH MINECRAFT: I started back in beta - back before beds and potatoes, villagers, or pistons. I think around 1.1.0 Beta... It's been years. In that time I have seen communities thrive and die out, I've built them with my own hands, and have had to take unwanted hiatuses only to return to a community that withered in my absence. I have ran servers, moderated, and been elected administrator over multiple past communities. I have used roses to throw (harmless) exploding cats while invisible upon unsuspecting friends. I have fought a real in-game Herobrine boss battle, destroyed the Ender Dragon whilst naked, and existed as a chicken once. I have dabbled in modding, been worshiped as a king like a god (not literally, hopefully, but I have proof), and have even had a literal shrine built in my honor while I was absent. I am a natural leader, I have built the qualities necessary for others to follow willingly and happily through my short life, and as a result have often ascended into the hierarchy of server administration in the communities I play with. I seek to serve the community, not my own selfish need to endlessly break and place blocks, I come for the people, not the diamonds. I'm a slight hermit and a bit of a harmless, friendly prankster - which only strengthened the ties I've had. I had disappeared from the game for a long many months due to things beyond my control. I would like to stop wandering and find a new family to thrive alongside. My old family is gone - separated by time and life and apathy during my absence. I've been seeking a new one.

ADDITIONAL INFO (ABOUT YOU/HOBBIES): I work in a pharmacy-based retail store, it's a pretty basic job, but I get to work with the disabled and elderly often in my area, so it has benefits not found in most places that make it a great job to me. I'm 26, but highly intelligent. My hobbies include but are not limited to: reading, writing, learning (I am an autodidact - google that if you are curious), fixing computers (I prefer hardware repair, but have intermediate software knowledge as well). I would love to one day be an engineer or physicist of some fashion. One of my big, driving goals in life is to learn life lessons by observation not by experience, to achieve a deeper wisdom than my peers for the sake of teaching others later in life.

What's so scary about spiders? I think they are adorable!




(Skip to about 2:15 for the best part

Well, thank you. About the bovine friend: She will unless she doesn't. LOL. Truth is, I've not planned anything out on this. I quite literally am going to make it all up as I go along, and getting dropped into a tiny island in the middle of nowhere was perfect for setting the scene and tone of the series. I was incredibly lucky with this random world generation for this Journal story. I am going to attempt to fix the picture size though, maybe add a bit more? This is my first journal series - any advice would be appreciated!

Episode 1

There she is… the island in the midst of an ocean that I awakened on. I have no idea what
happened to my ship or the rest of the crew, but I'm now alone, entirely…
Thankfully this small piece of land has trees, and some grass I may be able to
comb through to find some seeds to plant.



*Sigh* Welcome to Valiantius Gardenia - the new world beyond the sea. Aren't I
so lucky?

I found a friend!
This chunky lass was alone on this island. I thought I was, but now we have
each other! Thankfully I found enough seedlings in the grass to make a
makeshift farm, and will not have to resort to eating my only friend here… What
shall I name her? I haven't yet decided. I think I'll get used to her
personality a little more before I decide what to call her.



Where did this cow come from? Why is she here alone in the middle of an island
in the oceans of an undiscovered world? Men couldn't have placed her here, and
I doubt she would be able to swim here…



This place is truly strange to me.

As night dawns and the sun goes down to rest elsewhere, I have managed to eat nothing. I've
certainly managed a nice tiny home for myself. All of the jumping was getting
tiresome, and with no food in my stomach, and none to see for a while - save
eating my friend, I thought it wise to make some steps to add ease of movement
through my little hole in the wall. I managed to make a stove and a little box
to put in some stuff I might come across.



I cut down some of the trees with a makeshift hatchet and charred them into a
charcoal. Found a way to place those on the walls by jabbing them onto a stick
and placing them in the cracks of the stones. At least now I won't be in the
dark… only cold, hungry, lost, and contemplating cow murder.

My first several hours in this new world have not been pleasurable. I don't know if I'll find
someone ever again. That's my goal, though - find civilization, or die trying.
I really hope this night goes well for me. There are odd noises coming from
outside…

Word of mouth is often the most powerful way to attract more members. People are wary of joining a server they don't know from some random post on a forum, but when someone they know says its a fun server with great people, it often doesn't take much for them to pop on and give it a try.


A common question I ask people in response to similar questions is this:
Which is more interesting / fun: Something old that you've done several times, or something brand new?
The answer is obvious: most people pick something new to appease their need for enjoyment.

What sets your server apart from all of the others? What do you bring to the table that others lack? It doesn't have to be 100% new, it can even be a unique combination of things nobody else has done. Figure out what gives your server that character - that unique personality no other server has (or make one!) and use that as a foundation for your advertising.

We are still looking for some active players! Yes, right now we are a little quiet from the lack of players on all at once. Join up and help us grow!


It sounds like we plan on having custom bosses and other fun events once we get a bit more players. Don't be shy!

I'm not entirely sure. I would imagine the variants would count towards their base biome they are a variation of.

More interesting? How about random events?

For example, a mineshaft collapsing was mentioned prior... What about this being a randomly occuring event in natural spawning mineshafts - triggered by player activity in a particular area during a specific tick? Have the roof fall in, (the stone above turns to gravel, falls, then changes to cobble when it lands as it collapses or something).


Randomly spawning earthquakes that force a ravine to be created in a location. (Imagine your base getting ripped in two while your caving and returning expecting to hide from the mobs inside your home...)

Meteors falling (a bit cliche, but still a good one.)

Monster hordes - on rare occasions an extra large group of one particular type of monster will spawn nearby: Imagine 20 zombies all chasing you in the middle of the night as you cross a hill with them on the other side... or creeper hordes o.o

Mobs spawn with unusually rare loot on rare occasions - a zombie holding TNT, or a Skeleton with a spawn egg.


The possibilities are endless, and will even allow for future updates to prolong the lifespan of the interest of your mod (or server), and allow players to come back and regain interest each update (similar to Minecraft's updates)


Also, I think vastly expanding upon the villages and villagers would do wonders for the game. Give them more unique personalities, maybe a follower companion, help them form families, assign villagers to a particular home you've built for them, hiring them with emeralds for X amount of time and they will gather resources like wood or fish for you, have them fight back when you attack - and for that matter, give them bows so they can fight back against zombies if they don't have access to a door or the door gets broken down. You could even allow cleric villagers to attempt to change a zombie villager back instead of attacking it if it's a zombie villager. More professions - for example - guards that trade mob drops for food items and are equipped with armor and can only be turned if killed by the zombies attacking them.

Beach, Birch Forest, Birch Forest Hills, Cold Beach, Cold Taiga, Cold Taiga Hills, Deep Ocean, Desert, Desert Hills, Extreme Hills, Extreme Hills+, Forest, ForestHills, FrozenRiver, Ice Mountains, Ice Plains, Jungle, Jungle Edge, Jungle Hills, Mega Taiga, Mega Taiga Hills, Mesa, Mesa Plateau, Mesa Plateau F, Mushroom Island, MushroomIslandShore, Ocean, Plains, River, Roofed Forest, Savanna, Savanna Plateau, Stone Beach, Swampland, Taiga, and Taiga Hills

You have to visit all 36 of these biomes. It can happen before or after your visit to The End when the achievement is unlocked.

In the Windows 10 and XBox versions, this list is reduced to 17 of the total of 23 biomes, although I couldn't tell you what they are as of now.

As you can see, you do in fact have to find the Mushroom Island biome - where the mooshrooms and mycelium spawn.

'It's important to realize that mushroom biomes only spawn as islands in the middle of oceans.

So, if you want to look for one in a world that doesn't spawn you in one, you can't go walking to find one, you need to find an ocean, make a boat, and search the ocean for a mushroom island.

I can't offer any personal experience of how easy it is to find one by that approach (I've no idea whether most oceans contain one, more than one, or just have a chance of containing one).'

IGN: swiftdeathsk
Name: Justin
Age: 26
Years Played: 4ish. I joined the forums after I had purchased and had already been playing the game. This account is at the time of this writing "4 years, 6 months, and 9 days" old according to my profile. Could possibly be 5 years playing, or close to, though.
Have you ever been banned for any reason?: No, typically in the past I was the one wielding the ban hammer as admin and/or founder of past servers
If yes to previous question please explain: N/A
Do you like penguins?: Yes. Although I prefer turtles, since I've had the same pet turtle for 23 years of my life. He's like a little brother to me

PS. I would offer to help with moderation of the server, but I do not plan on being overly active (maybe 2-3 days a week at best at my current schedule), so take that into account. I have the experience and the leadership qualities to properly do the job, but I am constrained on time access right now.

In Game Name: swiftdeathsk

Age: 25

Working Mic (Not required): Yes

What you like best about Minecraft!: Modpacks like Feed the Beast and Agrarian Skies are what I spend most of my time playing. I do enjoy vanilla survival when there's an active, respectful community though.

A few sentences about why we should let you on to the server: I've been playing minecraft off and on since early 2011, I've ran my own servers and have been promoted to management in other communities. I've never been banned from any server - never given anyone reason to, except maybe the occasional harmless trolling with roses that launch harmless exploding cats while flying around invisible... Of course I was owner at the time, and people thought it was hilarious to randomly see a cat land in front of them then promptly explode. Looking to find a new community since my old one has gone their separate ways from minecraft and I've been rather inactive since 1.4.