If you are making something huge, it should be with the cooperation of several other people. If each and every single person playing the game could easily make as large a structure as they want, and have it never disappear with little to no interaction on their part, all world will be completely cluttered within a couple months. This is unsustainable for an MMO, as the core aspects of a multiplayer game require fairly constant attention and work. You shouldn’t be able to claim huge swaths of land without constant upkeep, as this would pretty much completely discourage new players from playing.
Imagine coming into this game about 3-4 months after the game has started. No beacons disappear, everyone is able to make enough beacons to create large projects, and anything that is beaconed stays forever even if the person quit. As you look around, you see nowhere that a beacon is able to be placed, as hundreds of players who quit a while ago beaconed the area. This would be awful, and if there is no upkeep for beacons this is exactly what will happen. Why do you think literally every single game that lets players claim land has either a hard cap on the amount, an insanely ridiculous entry price, or an upkeep cost?
Yes I do think that a single player should have a hard time supporting a massive construction, see above.
Also I got an idea, what if there was something like ‘oort shards’ or some rare item that drops from titans that could be used in place of beacon upkeep, either lasting indefinitely or having a much longer charge time. These pieces of course would also be usable in crafting, so everyone doesn’t get a pile and then have nothing to do.
I think I’d still prefer it if increased beacon fuel storage/fuel efficiency was tied to the Founder’s skill tree. I don’t have any solid reasoning for this other than I think having better mastery over players should require self-progression rather than x number of Coins to purchase the shards from a shop. If I have anything more concrete, I’ll get back to you.[quote=“Vastar, post:60, topic:4285”]
Should beacon fuel/lifespan be a cash-shop item? (Not tradeable ofc)
So if you are not able to gather fuel or play for some time you just let your credit card do the work?
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My gut is saying no for the same reason as above. At least in terms of lifespan. Again, the whole “I think it’d be cooler if it was tied to progression” thing is all I’ve got atm so I may have to get back to you on something better.
I definitely think it should be tied to progression, and I agree that having more efficient beacons be a skill you can level up is good. The ‘oort’ shards would definitely not be even close to common, as they would be possibly used in crafting high tier gear. People who get shards would have to decide whether they want to commission a crafter to make them some gear, or use it to upkeep a beacon, or sell to make a good amount of money.
This sounds cool but I would add two stipulations.
1.) A limit of one site per world. That way a bunch of builders can’t just vote for each other and have a bunch of permanent builds right next to each other.
2.) No blocks can be removed or added to the site once it’s become a site. Even if the player trying to do so is the original builder. Otherwise this becomes a way to cheat the beacon system.
I am in disagreement with your assesment you are not taking into account that the amount of beacons is limited and therefore giant builds would either be in use or be owned by a guild, single players would hardly have the beacon amount to make a huge build and then wander of to do something else.
Well even then they will maybe have enough to leave a single dead build, and that after having played for a considarate amount of time.
Either way worlds overbuild with buildings are problably only going to happen in the very old worlds and those will probably not spawn the new player ^.^
Its a question of worlds to i think. If all are on a few small worlds, it got to be problems. But i hope it will be lots of big worlds to everyone to find a spot, and if worlds get to crowded, open new ones and ppl will move there, and if you ask nicely they maybe remove old beacons for you.
But no, it doesn’t solve problem with non-player beacons, unless old worlds been abandoned.
Last I heard I think they are launching with 50 worlds? I can’t find a source (due to work constraints, not because I actually looked) and I’m 100% positive that number has probably changed because I think I heard it WAY early on in development.
an 8 km world would be 1000 beacons across. (Assuming 8x8x8 beacons)
If they just launch with 10 of these we are going to have 10.000.000 beacons of space not counting up and down, asumming that only 1% of this is used we will have 100.000 beacons of space not counting up and down (And any larger builds will probably use at least double layer beacons. assuming the player can get 100 beacons within short time (Which they won’t) people will have roughly a 128x128x24 area which is pretty large and it will take 3000 players using up this 1% of space if they build 3 high that is. I would say there is space for aproximately 1500 players if they all get 100 beacons quickly and use around 1% of the space in the game.
If the game is filled up quickly though the devs have reasonable time to add new spawn worlds and expand the universe with more small worlds which will use the space more effeciently and more large worlds that will provide exploration area.
But again people will probably not gain 100 beacon each during the first week. So we could probably have double that space, or maybe even more. And remember that people will by the mechanincs be incouraged to lump together, in guilds.
I think it would be neat to have the builds inside the Beacon deteriorate over time like ruins, it’d be cool to find and then another player could rejuvenate the build.
I also like the idea of beacon owners being able to log on to make sure their land/items are safe. Sometimes people don’t have the time to play if something comes up so they might loose all their hard work if they have to play to keep their beacon. Visiting/opening the game still shows the person is interested in the game and it encourages people to come back if they have something to come back to.
Last I heard though, was that beacons would have a “no beacon” area around them, so that there wouldn’t be beacons put right up against others without permission.
I am desagree with the idea of destroying beacons… But I really understand that many others don’t. Personally I play in calm, I don’t want to be the best, I just want to create my house, and have good friends. but without having to worry about my house could be destroyed if i quit for a while…
So here is my idea: Why we have to choose for yes or no?, lets add some worlds where this rule doesn’t apply.
When you are in the list of worlds to teleport in, add a group of worlds where Beacons never dies. so people who like to play chill and relax like me won’t be worry about it. and others who dislike the idea can play in normal worlds.
Wouldn’t really do anything about the theoretical 1% mark I just made up though the people living close would probably do that within the same guild or up against beacons allowing them to build close by.
This list will not exist though, traveling is going to be about knowing the location of portals and where they lead.
Having worlds where beacons never die would create the exact minecraft problem the beacon decay is working against though dead unfinished builds.
These worlds would relatively quickly turn into tomb worlds filled with dead and abandoned builds and would at some point get so beaconed that people would start leaving them to search out a new one. If you do not want to fear for your house dying joining a guild seems to be the ideal idea though as they will help maintain your home beacon.
I would not want a building protected by a beacon to decay. If the beacon is gone, understandable. Athough I like the image of ruins overgrown by plants or the jungle or sand dunes.
I’m not a big fan of the fuel the beacon idea, but it seems to be very practicable. Maybe a beacon can be maintained by activating it before it runs out and an active log in time of one or two hours.
A guild could set up permanent beacons. Depending on age of the guild, an average playtime and the sum of guild members, a permanent shield could be built.
Or a request to the developers for a permanent beacon on an already built site if it is big enough and doesn’t happen too often.
Edit - it was the ‘flagged beacon’ - if it is flagged and not upkept, the interior regenerates until its gone back to its former state and finally the beacon disappears also. If i understand it right.
