Beaconz

Version: 1.0

Capture, Link, Defend!

Test server: beaconz.world

Beaconz playlist on YouTube with instructional videos

What is Beaconz?

Beaconz is a Team PvP Survival game played in a 2000 x 2000 area. Beaconz are naturally-occurring indestructible beacons that players can find and capture for their team. Beaconz can be linked to each other and if linked into a triangle will score points for the area covered. If a team obtains 3 million points, they win the game. Triangles also bestow positive magical powers to friendly players and nasty effects to enemy players. Overlapping triangles give more and more powers. In this way, teams can "claim" land and protect it. Beaconz can be equipped with active and passive defenses to prevent enemy players from capturing them.

Warning! Beaconz is a team PvP game and enemy players can kill you! Be prepared to defend yourself or run away. If you don't like fighting, create safe zones with triangles and stay in them.

Getting Started

To play Beaconz, download the plugin and install in the server's plugin folder. After restarting the server, the plugin will generate a new world, a lobby area, and the first game. To play, log in and type /beaconz (or /beacons if you don't like z's). When in the lobby, tap the sign and you will start the game in one of the teams.

Aim of the Game

The aim of the game is to score points for your team to win the game. Admins can decide what points are and how many are needed to win. The default is to cover 3 million blocks with triangles in the 2000 x 2000 block game area. Other options are to find the most beaconz or create the most links. Games can end when a score is met, or run forever.

Game Play

Players join the Beaconz world and are assigned to the smallest team. Players usually get a starting kit and spawn at a random position near a team-owned beacon, or just a random position if one does not exist. Players move through the world to capture beacons, link them together and make triangles to create areas of control for the team and give the team a score for the area covered.

Finding Beaconz

Beaconz are randomly placed throughout the world on the surface. They can be covered by snow, hidden under trees or mushrooms. They are never found in the deep ocean, but are quite common on rivers. Sometimes, a beacon may be damaged, but will self-repair itself when a player interacts with it.

Capturing Unowned Beacon

Unowned beaconz are capped with an obsidian block. To capture one, all the blocks above the diamond base blocks and obsidian must be cleared. This includes tree leaves and anything overhanging the beacon base area. Liquids (water or lava) count too and must be cleared before the beacon can be captured. Once the beacon area is clear, the player can break the obsidian block and it will become a stained glass of their team color. They are then rewarded with a beacon map that can be used to link to another beacon.

Beacon Linking

A player uses a beacon map and experience points to link beacons. After obtaining a beacon map from one beacon, the player takes the map to another beacon to be linked and hits the beacon. If the player has sufficient experience points and the beacon is within range, the beacons will be linked and the map and experience points consumed. Each beacon can have up to 6 links. Players will get a reward for linking a beacon - typically an emerald. Links form in the sky between beaconz. It's recommended you switch off clouds so you can see them!

Beaconz cannot be linked if they are over 500 blocks distant unless range extender blocks are added to either of the beaconz. Gold blocks increase the range by 50 blocks, and diamond blocks add 200. Once placed, range extender blocks cannot be removed without being destroyed, so place them with care!

Making a triangle

When a player links three beaconz together into a triangle, the team gets points for the new area covered and the triangle provides magical effects to the area. Overlapping areas do not count towards the score but do increase the magical powers. The more overlapping there is, the more powerful the effects. For friendly team players, this means positive potion effects, like haste, jump, health regeneration and night vision, whereas, for enemy players, the effects are negative, like slowness, hunger, blindness and wither. For high levels of overlapping, a team can completely prevent enemy players from entering completely on pain of a horrible and gruesome death.

Defending Beaconz

Teams that have captured a beacon can and should place blocks around it to defend it. Most blocks are passive defenses, but the Dispenser provides an auto-turret active defense!

Defense blocks can be placed up to a height of 8 blocks around the beacon. Placing blocks does not cost experience, but players must be at the right level to place a defense. For example, to place a block 8 high above the beacon, a player must be level 30. In the same way, an enemy must be level 30 to remove 8 high defenses.

It is not required to have blocks at all heights. For example, a team can place a ring of obsidian around the beacon 8 blocks above the base, and have nothing underneath. Defense blocks can be any block and it is encouraged to build both passive and active defenses.

You can only remove your own defense blocks from a beacon your team owns.

Active Defenses - Dispenser Auto Turrets

Dispensers have a special function as auto-turrets and will fire arrows or fire charges at enemy players who move close to the beacon if they are loaded with that ammo. Turrets will only fire at players that the dispenser face can see that are within range. Dispensers facing up or down have 360-degree target capability but are not as effective as directional dispensers. Ammo placed in the dispenser is not consumed by firing and is unlimited. Ammo cannot be stolen from dispensers by the enemy. Instead, the dispenser must be broken. All arrows work, including tipped and spectral arrows.

Chests

Chests or other inventory blocks placed on defenses cannot be opened by enemy players until they remove enough defense blocks to destroy the chest itself. It is recommended that you store chests safely in hidden locations.

Capturing An Enemy Beacon

If the enemy has defended their beacon by placing blocks on the base, all blocks must be cleared in height order, with the highest block removed first. The higher the block is, the higher the attacker's experience level must be to even attempt the attack. Once all blocks are removed, the beacon can be rendered unowned by breaking the capstone glass and then mining the obsidian block to capture the beacon.

Mining enemy beacons

Instead of capturing an enemy beacons, they can be mined by players breaking the base blocks. Mining a beacon costs experience points but yields useful goodies. Occasionally, the beacon will run out of goodies and enter a cool down period during which attempts to mine will result in mining fatigue or other negative effects. Friendly beacons can also be mined, but normally yield only beacon maps.

Extending beacons

Remember those emeralds you received for linking beaconz? The initial beacon base is an indestructible set of 3x3 diamond blocks, but it can be extended by players in any direction at the same level as the base by placing emerald blocks adjacent to the base. Once placed, the blocks become a permanent part of the beacon and cannot be removed. Defenses can then be placed on top of them in the same way as on the diamond blocks.

Beaconz can be extended up to a distance of 8 blocks away from the beacon block. An extended beacon can be a formidable defense. Emerald blocks can be obtained from mining, linking or trading.

Player Commands

/beaconz - Teleports player to the beaconz lobby. From within the game there is a delayed teleport
/beaconz score - Shows the game score in detail.
/beaconz sb - Hides or reveals the game scoreboard
/beaconz leave - (Only with permission) - enables player to quit a game
/beaconz help - Lists the commands

Admin Commands - Console

/badmin delete <gamename> - deletes the game
/badmin games - list existing games
/badmin regenerate <gamename> - regenerates the game area chunks and resets the game
/badmin force_end <gamename> - forces a game to end immediately
/badmin list [all |<gamename>] [team] - lists all known beacons in the game | all games owned by team
/badmin listparms <gamename> - lists game parameters
/badmin newgame <gamename> [<parm1:value> <parm2:value>...] - creates a new game in an empty region; parameters are optional - do /badmin newgame for a list of the possible parameters
/badmin reload - reloads the plugin, preserving existing games
/badmin switch <online playername> - switches team when in a game
/badmin teams [all | <gamename>] - shows teams and team members for a game

Admin Commands - Additional In-game

/badmin claim [unowned | <team>] - force claims a beacon for team
/badmin join <gamename> <team> - joins a game on team
/badmin setspawn - sets the lobby spawn location
/badmin switch - switch to another team (cycles through them)

Permissions

  beaconz.map.unclaimed:
    description: Can see all unclaimed beacons on a map
    default: op
  beaconz.admin:
    description: Can use admin commands
    default: false
  beaconz.player:
    description: Can player beaconz
    default: true
  beaconz.player.leave:
    description: Player can leave a beaconz game before it finishes
    default: false

Required Plugins

None

Optional Plugins

Dynmap - can be used to view all the Beaconz world games and triangles.

Compatibility

1.9 and upwards.

Installation and Configuration

Stop server
Download the plugin and place into your plugins folder
Restart your server
Login and type /beaconz
Hit the sign and you will start the game!

Localization

Locale files can be added to the locale folder and defined in the config.yml.

Known Limitations

This is a Beta and there are likely to be bugs. If you are a developer, file bugs or submit pull requests on GitHub.

Source Code

The latest source is available on Github.

Problems

File a ticket if you find a bug on github.

Stats Disclosure

This plugin utilizes a plugin metrics system, which means that the following information is collected and sent to mcstats.org:

A unique identifier
The server's version of Java
Whether the server is in offline or online mode
The plugin's version
The server's version
The OS version/name and architecture
The core count for the CPU
The number of players online
The Metrics version

Visit mcstats.org if you would like to learn more about the stats collected. Go into /plugins/PluginMetrics/config.yml to disable stat collecting if you wish.