The massive pulsating beacons are kinda distracting… Perhaps a new approach? You can see the wall from the outside like normal, but it retains a consistent and not too bright level of alpha/opacity. So if you’re building next door, it’s not a big beacon of distraction when the sun goes down [Yes I know I can set time, but we won’t be able to always]…
I mocked this up.
Basically, the “squares” in the field would only be visible from about 10-20 blocks away. “Lines” as seen on the floor would be generated against the edges of blocks the field touches.
That is really cool. I like the idea of it only being visible when you’re close to it.
For what it’s worth, I had a post about this topic on the old forum:
Had a thought on how to make the beacon experience prettier. Current state:
– owner name displayed at beacon point
– giant shimmering wall marking border
– red outline on blocks inside beacon area
I know Wonderstruck has said they are working on this, but here’s my idea anyway.
– beacon icon, not name, displayed at beacon point within certain range, grow/shrink as get closer/farther away
– invisible walls that react when passed through
– small popup notification announcing beacon owner name
– black outline that slowly pulses red
So picture it this way: As you’re exploring, you catch the faint, small indicator of a player beacon. As you travel towards it, the beacon icon grows and becomes more solid. As soon as you step foot inside the beacon area, two things happen. First, a subtle pulse of light travels outward from my position along the invisible barrier wall, gradually and momentarily revealing the boundary. Second, I get a small notification “You have entered [playername]’s area.” Once you’ve received this notification, the playername will display above the beacon icon at the center point. Blocks in this area display a normal black outline, but the outline flashes red if you try to take an action. Once you have “discovered” a beacon’s name, it will permanently display for you.
There you have it!
Supplemental idea:
– when inside a player area, the beacon boundary displays as a low wall of light (~3 blocks high) starting at the ground and fading off as it moves upward.
I definitely favor not seeing beacon borders at all, with the extremely short term exception of when I need to know where the border is. In fact, a simple key press to show the beacon borders would more than suffice.
Another concept for the place-able beacon itself. This one is based on the concept artwork I saw on the main page, so I tossed this together in a couple minutes.
A new suggestion: Child/Parent beacons
Will we be able to Child and Parent some beacons? Let’s say I have two beacons covering a town, and a third out as an outpost. I want three of my friends to be able to edit and build in the main town under the protection of both beacons, but I want no one to touch or edit the outpost.
I suggest being to set beacons as parents and children. A parent beacon would have a name and you set all the rules for that beacon, then when you create another, you can choose to add or remove a “Parent”. That beacon then becomes a “Child” beacon and adopts all rules and settings of the parent beacon. However, you can leave some beacons as non Child, IE, the outpost would have it’s own rules.
Suggestion addition: Beacon limitations.
All players have a set maximum range/size of their added/total beacons. The game counts all blocks on the north/south and east/west axis/directions [Depth is not counted]. Players can claim a total amount of blocks [Obviously higher tier donors would have a higher number of maximum blocks allowed to claim due to their beacon sizes]. There would be a status bar in your character’s “Stats” menu which shows a percentage bar, this bar fills up the more land you can claim until you reach 100%.
This kind of idea would be perfect if our beacon sizes can be set upon placement [IE, who needs a whole beacon size/space if they just have an outpost/cabin?]
When beacons overlap, the overlapped block distances are only counted once, this gives the player a chance to create a smaller beacon elsewhere using the space lost in the overlapping beacon areas.
I think for an idea collection this thread got not enough attention so here are some of my thought/ideas about beacons:
For beacons being an independent founding goal just having player- and maybe guild-beacons would, at least in my opinion, be a waste of potential.
Player beacons
No upkeep
Safe
“Normal” sized
Personal spawnpoint
Guild beacons
Small upkeep per m²
Safe
Big ( depends on the number of members)
Spawnpoint for guildmembers
City beacon
High upkeep per m²
Can be attacked/invaded
Huge
Owner can be a single person or a guild
Spawnpoint for any player (taxed to generate income for the owning guild/player
Sub beacon
Variable size
Allocates space inside a city beacon
Can be placed by the owner of the citybeacon
Can be rented or bought (another source of income for the owner of the parent beacon)
Are not affected if the parent city is invaded (you are just going to pay your taxes to another guild/person)
Road beacon
Minimal upkeep per m²
Connects to the next road beacon or city beacon
Creates a small protected connection to the next road beacon / city beacon (like the draw line tool in
drawing programs)
Has to start from a city beacon (to prevent plastered worlds)
Upkeep and ownership is added to the city upkeep
Adds a small movement speed bonus to every player on the road
Adds a small defensive bonus to players and guilds that are allied with the owner of the road beacon (this could be done by adding player and guild tokens to the initial road beacon)
Additional explanation:
With upkeep I don’t want so say that the beacon looses all his protective properties as soon as it runs out of fuel but much rather that it looses other features for the time it is without “fuel”. Meaning that you can´t respawn in an “empty” guild beacon or buy something from a shop in an “empty” city beacon.
