Almost everybody knows how to enchant, but the cost of enchanting is broken in my opinion. If you have 100 levels and get a level 3 enchantment, then you go down 3 levels. To me it seams a bit dumb, and feels like it should only get rid of the amount of exp it took to get to level 3, and not 3 levels. I don't mind if it changes, but wanted to bring it up. Also I'm playing on 1.15 so I'm not completely sure if they changed it in 1.16.
I'll be honest, I'm a bit shocked to find someone thinking Enchanting is unbalanced in a way that is bad for the player. If anything I would say the opposite is true, Enchanting is too stacked in the player's advantage, because it only costs 3 levels per enchanting attempt and experience is dirt cheap to get in high numbers, even without using any kind of farm or grinder. But I also remember when it cost all your levels to enchant an item.
Personally I would want the cost to be increased to something like 5/7/10 levels per attempt, depending on what level of enchanting you use.
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Even better, the version I play on (1.6.4) makes you pay the entire level cost, 30 levels for a level 30 enchantment, though it isn't quite as hard to reach level 30, at least the first time (you need 825 XP to reach level 30 compared to 1395 in current versions, and 306 XP to get back up from level 27, which means that after the first two enchantments you'll spend less XP overall). I don't think this is too expensive either; I've never used any XP farms, getting most of the XP that I need for enchanting by mining quartz, and I don't actually make level 30 enchantments for the most part (for one I need books to get Unbreaking on armor and weapons - you couldn't get it on those items from the table until 1.7. Enchanting books at around level 22-23 gives near the highest chance of Unbreaking III while costing far less XP and still giving a decent chance of other enchantments).
Likewise, Mending doesn't exist (but you can rename items to keep the penalty from increasing) so I need to repair my items on the anvil for a much higher (generally) XP cost, which is so high that "god" items, with every possible compatible enchantment, are generally impossible to repair and/or make (for example, in current versions it only costs 6 levels to add Fortune III to an item; in 1.6.4 you must pay for all the other enchantments already on the item as well, same for repairing, which itself costs up to 17 levels for diamond tools as it depends on the durability you are restoring. As a result, it costs 33 levels or 1032 XP to fully repair a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III - add Fortune and now you must repair it with single diamonds for 37 levels each, times four to restore full durability for a staggering 5624 XP, compared to only 781 XP for any diamond tool with Mending in 1.16 (1.16 even made Mending much more powerful by directing XP to items that need to be repaired; previously, the game chose an item at random and if it didn't need to be repaired it just added it to your XP bar instead of looking for another item. The only downside is that Mending is incompatible with Infinity but I don't have to repair my bow that often and there are always mods to fix this).
Not only that, my own modded version adds "better than diamond" items (which is only because diamond was nerfed, it is similar to netherite relative to diamond, which was nerfed in 1.9) which can cost up to 49 levels to repair, yet I still get enough XP from normal gameplay to maintain them with a large surplus left over (it is harder to find the resource, which is so rare that I barely get a surplus - in fact, in more than 40 days of playing, which means caving for 3-4 hours per day, I've only gained 4 - and you thought that ancient debris was rare!). I also replaced renaming with my own version of Mending which works the same way, so I have to breed and trade with villagers (this does help with obtaining other enchantments though, and since I mostly use books anyway this reduces the XP I need).
In any case, the whole point of the leveling system is to encourage players to spend XP wisely and the changes in 1.8 were intended to increase the penalty for dying (initially harder to reach level 30 but easier to get back up after enchanting), and if you are regularly attaining 100 levels (an impossibility for me, I've maxed out at a bit over 70 before having to repair something) then you're getting so much XP that it should hardly matter, and if you are using an AFK farm to get that many levels (100 levels is equivalent to killing about 6,200 mobs or fishing 8,850 items) then I just see that as a nerf to what amounts to exploiting game mechanics - AFKing isn't even playing the game, and once you've made all of your gear there isn't any reason to enchant anyway, which is why I've never had a problem with it (besides the time spent quartz isn't renewable but the area I have to explore isn't very large. The only enchanting I do during the end-game is enchanting iron pickaxes taken from minecarts at level 1, which I use to dig tunnels for the railways linking my bases (not that I need to do this, much as I trade to buy diamond gear for repairs in my first world despite the amount of diamond I find).
Even better, the version I play on (1.6.4) makes you pay the entire level cost, 30 levels for a level 30 enchantment, though it isn't quite as hard to reach level 30, at least the first time (you need 825 XP to reach level 30 compared to 1395 in current versions, and 306 XP to get back up from level 27, which means that after the first two enchantments you'll spend less XP overall). I don't think this is too expensive either; I've never used any XP farms, getting most of the XP that I need for enchanting by mining quartz, and I don't actually make level 30 enchantments for the most part (for one I need books to get Unbreaking on armor and weapons - you couldn't get it on those items from the table until 1.7. Enchanting books at around level 22-23 gives near the highest chance of Unbreaking III while costing far less XP and still giving a decent chance of other enchantments).
Likewise, Mending doesn't exist (but you can rename items to keep the penalty from increasing) so I need to repair my items on the anvil for a much higher (generally) XP cost, which is so high that "god" items, with every possible compatible enchantment, are generally impossible to repair and/or make (for example, in current versions it only costs 6 levels to add Fortune III to an item; in 1.6.4 you must pay for all the other enchantments already on the item as well, same for repairing, which itself costs up to 17 levels for diamond tools as it depends on the durability you are restoring. As a result, it costs 33 levels or 1032 XP to fully repair a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III - add Fortune and now you must repair it with single diamonds for 37 levels each, times four to restore full durability for a staggering 5624 XP, compared to only 781 XP for any diamond tool with Mending in 1.16 (1.16 even made Mending much more powerful by directing XP to items that need to be repaired; previously, the game chose an item at random and if it didn't need to be repaired it just added it to your XP bar instead of looking for another item. The only downside is that Mending is incompatible with Infinity but I don't have to repair my bow that often and there are always mods to fix this).
Not only that, my own modded version adds "better than diamond" items (which is only because diamond was nerfed, it is similar to netherite relative to diamond, which was nerfed in 1.9) which can cost up to 49 levels to repair, yet I still get enough XP from normal gameplay to maintain them with a large surplus left over (it is harder to find the resource, which is so rare that I barely get a surplus - in fact, in more than 40 days of playing, which means caving for 3-4 hours per day, I've only gained 4 - and you thought that ancient debris was rare!). I also replaced renaming with my own version of Mending which works the same way, so I have to breed and trade with villagers (this does help with obtaining other enchantments though, and since I mostly use books anyway this reduces the XP I need).
In any case, the whole point of the leveling system is to encourage players to spend XP wisely and the changes in 1.8 were intended to increase the penalty for dying (initially harder to reach level 30 but easier to get back up after enchanting), and if you are regularly attaining 100 levels (an impossibility for me, I've maxed out at a bit over 70 before having to repair something) then you're getting so much XP that it should hardly matter, and if you are using an AFK farm to get that many levels (100 levels is equivalent to killing about 6,200 mobs or fishing 8,850 items) then I just see that as a nerf to what amounts to exploiting game mechanics - AFKing isn't even playing the game, and once you've made all of your gear there isn't any reason to enchant anyway, which is why I've never had a problem with it (besides the time spent quartz isn't renewable but the area I have to explore isn't very large. The only enchanting I do during the end-game is enchanting iron pickaxes taken from minecarts at level 1, which I use to dig tunnels for the railways linking my bases (not that I need to do this, much as I trade to buy diamond gear for repairs in my first world despite the amount of diamond I find).
I don't have anything against mending being in the game, but I do wish the cost for enchanting was equal to the level of the enchantments placed. If players want level 30 enchantments they pay 30 XP levels, not more or less. That is how it should be done and would remove the unbalance issues with the enchantment system, I also wish repairing on an anvil didn't become too expensive, as this mechanic is just dumb, even worse if it is for players like you who go without mending. I don't believe critics would be as bothered about got tier equipment if the XP cost was done appropriately so players would need to do more grinding to get the maximum enchanted item.
it used to be a feature with older Minecraft, now it doesn't work in the current versions both Java and bedrock, and the XP cost for repairing items on anvils keeps growing until it cannot be done anymore. It's bad enough that we can only get 28 uses out of the anvil, but Mojang imposed an annoying feature that almost nobody wanted, simply to encourage players to use the mending enchantment more often, a rare book that only shows up once in a blue moon in fishing and sometimes items with mending on them come with Curse of Vanishing. Villagers can offer mending book via trades, but unless you have it set up correctly it is a very slow method of getting them books, and they are vulnerable to raids and pillager attacks.
it used to be a feature with older Minecraft, now it doesn't work in the current versions both Java and bedrock, and the XP cost for repairing items on anvils keeps growing until it cannot be done anymore. It's bad enough that we can only get 28 uses out of the anvil, but Mojang imposed an annoying feature that almost nobody wanted, simply to encourage players to use the mending enchantment more often, a rare book that only shows up once in a blue moon in fishing and sometimes items with mending on them come with Curse of Vanishing. Villagers can offer mending book via trades, but unless you have it set up correctly it is a very slow method of getting them books, and they are vulnerable to raids and pillager attacks.
I was curious about the literal methods of using nametags to zero XP cost.
I was curious about the literal methods of using nametags to zero XP cost.
Not nametags, just using the anvil's "rename" function:
An item which has been renamed has its prior-work penalty set to 2, remaining so regardless of later work. Renaming the item back to its default name (e.g. "Iron Sword") does not revert prior-work to full cost.
This was obviously removed in 1.8 because it would be completely broken if you only had to spend 4 levels (2 for the repair itself and 2 for the penalty) to repair anything indefinitely as they removed the enchantment and durability-based costs; for example, a diamond sword with Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III has a "base cost" of 21 levels (5 for Sharpness V, 4 for Knockback II, 6 for Unbreaking III, plus 6 for having 3 enchantments) and a sacrifice repair cost of up to 17 levels (based on the durability of the sacrifice, where a nearly broken sword would cost only 1 level); add a penalty of 2 and you end up with 40 levels - yes, even this relatively moderately-enchanted item is too expensive to repair with a full-durability sacrifice, though you can slightly damage it (I do this by killing around a couple hundred chickens, which still gives a full repair due to the anvil adding a 12% b0onus, which is 187 for a diamond tool). Units/individual diamonds cost 6 levels each (3 plus the number of enchantments), or 29 levels for one and 35 for two (this is how I repaired it for a year or two, until I realized you could use a damaged sacrifice). Want to add Looting? You'll have to sacrifice one of the other enchantments; a Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III diamond sword already costs 37 levels to repair with a single diamond so having Knockback or Fire Aspect will make it too expensive to ever repair.
My own version of Mending works the same way, with some changes to how costs are calculated; I removed the cost for the number of enchantments from the base cost and set the penalty to 0, and made Mending cost 8 levels (vanilla's version costs 4 levels but I think this is too cheap, and single-level enchantments like Infinity and Silk Touch generally cost 8 levels), so the aforementioned sword would now cost 5 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 17 = 40 levels to repair (i.e. items with 3 enchantments will have the same sacrifice cost; unit repair is 1 more since the unit cost still includes the number of enchantments). Here is a list of the cost to repair various items in TMCW (amethyst items cost 21 levels per unit, plus the number of enchantments, and 62 levels for an intact sacrifice, which is due to having 3 times the durability of diamond; because of this, diamond items cost less to repair per durability point):
Max cost for amethyst items = 49 levels, other items = 39
Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, Mending 43 levels (amethyst)
Efficiency V, Silk Touch, Unbreaking III, Mending 34 levels (diamond)
Efficiency V, Silk Touch, Unbreaking III, Mending 29 levels (shears)
Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III, Mending 38 levels (diamond)
Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III, Mending 48 levels (amethyst)
Power V, Infinity, Unbreaking III, Mending 33 levels (bow)
Protection IV, Mending 35 levels (amethyst)
Protection IV, Unbreaking III, Mending 42 levels (amethyst)
Protection IV, Feather Falling IV, Mending 44 levels (amethyst)
All are for one unit, except for shears and bow. Cost without Mending is 8 levels less for an item repair and 9 less for a unit repair.
Either way, the XP cost to repair an item is based on its quality, making it impossible to repair items with more than 3-4 enchantments or make items with more than 4-5 (the base cost is also added to the cost to add enchantments), and you need to consume resources to repair them (both for the item itself and for anvils), and the need for manual repairs greatly hinders automated farms (e.g. a Mending fishing rod wouldn't automatically repair itself, limiting you to 256 catches at the most before it broke).
It seems to me that the differences of opinion regarding the amount of XP needed for enchanting depend on one's playstyle.
If your playstyle gives you a lot of XP (e.g. if you thrive on mob-hunting or have XP farms) you most likely think XP is too easy to come by.
If your playstyle makes you do everything manually and you avoid mobs at all cost, you will struggle to get all the XP you need.
I personally depend on chicken breeding for 99% of my XP. I am satisfied with the current requirements for enchanting. If the XP requirement was raised, the XP farmers and mob hunters would probably not be affected, but I would. If the XP requirement was raised to the extent that even XP farmers and mob hunters would struggle, it would take me forever to enchant anything, and I couldn't mend the equipment I have before it breaks completely.
In my opinion, if the XP requirement is raised, it is the kind of feature that should be customizable via a game option.
Not nametags, just using the anvil's "rename" function:
This was obviously removed in 1.8 because it would be completely broken if you only had to spend 4 levels (2 for the repair itself and 2 for the penalty) to repair anything indefinitely as they removed the enchantment and durability-based costs; for example, a diamond sword with Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III has a "base cost" of 21 levels (5 for Sharpness V, 4 for Knockback II, 6 for Unbreaking III, plus 6 for having 3 enchantments) and a sacrifice repair cost of up to 17 levels (based on the durability of the sacrifice, where a nearly broken sword would cost only 1 level); add a penalty of 2 and you end up with 40 levels - yes, even this relatively moderately-enchanted item is too expensive to repair with a full-durability sacrifice, though you can slightly damage it (I do this by killing around a couple hundred chickens, which still gives a full repair due to the anvil adding a 12% b0onus, which is 187 for a diamond tool). Units/individual diamonds cost 6 levels each (3 plus the number of enchantments), or 29 levels for one and 35 for two (this is how I repaired it for a year or two, until I realized you could use a damaged sacrifice). Want to add Looting? You'll have to sacrifice one of the other enchantments; a Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III diamond sword already costs 37 levels to repair with a single diamond so having Knockback or Fire Aspect will make it too expensive to ever repair.
My own version of Mending works the same way, with some changes to how costs are calculated; I removed the cost for the number of enchantments from the base cost and set the penalty to 0, and made Mending cost 8 levels (vanilla's version costs 4 levels but I think this is too cheap, and single-level enchantments like Infinity and Silk Touch generally cost 8 levels), so the aforementioned sword would now cost 5 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 17 = 40 levels to repair (i.e. items with 3 enchantments will have the same sacrifice cost; unit repair is 1 more since the unit cost still includes the number of enchantments). Here is a list of the cost to repair various items in TMCW (amethyst items cost 21 levels per unit, plus the number of enchantments, and 62 levels for an intact sacrifice, which is due to having 3 times the durability of diamond; because of this, diamond items cost less to repair per durability point):
Either way, the XP cost to repair an item is based on its quality, making it impossible to repair items with more than 3-4 enchantments or make items with more than 4-5 (the base cost is also added to the cost to add enchantments), and you need to consume resources to repair them (both for the item itself and for anvils), and the need for manual repairs greatly hinders automated farms (e.g. a Mending fishing rod wouldn't automatically repair itself, limiting you to 256 catches at the most before it broke).
How exactly would it be broken if items could be repaired indefinitely on the anvil? you still need to spend resources on top of XP to repair your enchanted equipment. I could see this mechanic being far worse if it were not for the existence of mending in the game.
Really all I ever use the anvil for is combining enchantments, and maybe repairing a bow or rod once in a while, that's it. But the anvil mechanics have sucked for a long time and my play style with the projects I have planned for the realm server I frequent with a friend of mine literally require mending, otherwise I'd be wasting even more time in the mines instead of getting builds finished.
Things like AFK fishing needed to be removed from vanilla Minecraft, that was broken as it got players enchantments (rare items) for nothing or no input which is the same thing as cheating.
How exactly would it be broken if items could be repaired indefinitely on the anvil? you still need to spend resources on top of XP to repair your enchanted equipment. I could see this mechanic being far worse if it were not for the existence of mending in the game.
Really all I ever use the anvil for is combining enchantments, and maybe repairing a bow or rod once in a while, that's it. But the anvil mechanics have sucked for a long time and my play style with the projects I have planned for the realm server I frequent with a friend of mine literally require mending, otherwise I'd be wasting even more time in the mines instead of getting builds finished.
Things like AFK fishing needed to be removed from vanilla Minecraft, that was broken as it got players enchantments (rare items) for nothing or no input which is the same thing as cheating.
I'm referring to this:
The target is repaired, adding the durability of the sacrifice plus a bonus of 12% of the maximum durability, up to the item's maximum durability. If the target item is undamaged, there is no charge for repair, otherwise, the cost is 2 levels.
You can make items with as many enchantments as the game allows, such as a Sharpness V, Looting III, Knockback II, Fire Aspect II, Sweeping Edge III, Unbreaking III, Mending sword - and repair it for only 2 levels, no matter what the enchantments are, same for Mending (a flat 2 durability per XP picked up while holding it). This gives you an idea of how expensive such an item would be with the pre-1.8 system (I used Fortune as a substitute for Sweeping Edge, which has the same enchantment cost, same for Aqua Affinity and Mending; this was in vanilla 1.6.4, not TMCW, which as mentioned before makes some changes to the base cost calculation to allow for the cost of Mending, which is also 8 levels instead of 4 in vanilla):
This is the biggest issue that I see with the current system - everybody runs around with such ridiculously enchanted gear, while with the old system you'd have to use separate items for e.g. general purpose combat or getting more mob drops, as I do (my main sword has Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III while I have a sword with Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III for killing animals), or just consider not being able to repair the item at all (if it can be made, that is):
This is the sword that I use while caving, which is just one level too expensive to be repaired with an intact sacrifice, while it can be repaired with a damaged sacrifice or individual diamonds, the latter being how I repaired it for the first year or two:
This is how I currently repair this sword; the anvil gives a bonus of 12% or 187 durability so the ideal durability of the sacrifice is 187 less than the sums of the durabilities on both swords, 1373 in this case (in practice i do not wear the sword all the way way down to 1 durability left; the sacrifice is damaged by killing chickens, which I then trade for emeralds to buy more swords, which have a minimum cost of 12 emeralds while as little as 14 raw chicken can be traded for an emerald, 168 for 12, thus it is possible to buy another sword just from chicken alone):
This is a sword that I've made to get more drops from animals while trading; unlike the other sword it can only be repaired with units or very damaged swords (around 700 durability or less), making diamonds the most practical way to repair it (a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, Fortune III has the same cost since Sharpness and Efficiency have the same cost, as do Looting and Fortune; earlier on, I used such a tool for all mining while caving, only dropping Fortune since there was no benefit to it, if anything, the opposite given how much I mine):
The reason for this is because prior to 1.8 the cost of an item was based on its enchantments ("base cost") and the repair cost was based on durability, with the enchantment cost always being applied (I was actually able to add 7 enchantments to one item using books without any one book costing more than 39 levels, since books halve the cost, including the base cost):
The most important concept for using an anvil is the Base Value of an item, figured in experience levels. Other than combining with enchanted books, any change made to an item will cost its Base Value plus costs for the change. An item's Base Value is the sum of the costs of its enchantments, plus a charge for the number of its enchantments.
Example: Say we have a sword with Sharpness 3, Knockback 2 and Looting 2. Referring to the table we see that the Enchantments will cost 3×1 → 3, 2×2 → 4, and 2×4 → 8 respectively, and another 6 levels for having three of them. 3+4+8+6 → 21. In the anvil for the first time, this sword will cost at least 21 levels to work on, even before considering what to do with it.
The unit cost is normally 1 plus the number of enchantments on the target item. For Diamond tools, the unit cost is up to 3 plus the number of enchantments on the target item, depending on how much durability the unit is repairing. All but the last unit take the full cost for a full repair of 390 durability. The last unit costs 1 less for restoring less than 300, and another less for restoring less than 200.
The cost for the repair depends only on the sacrifice's current durability and (slightly) the type of item:
S is the sacrifice durability, and MaxD is the maximum durability for it's type.
N is an offset for the item type, equal to 100-floor(0.12*MaxD). (This is negative for diamond tools.)
The cost is 1+floor((S-N)/100)
Example A maxed out fishing rod (Lure 3, Luck 3, Unbreaking 3) which has been renamed is barely repairable. It has base value 36 (12 for luck, 12 for lure, 6 for unbreaking, 6 for three enchantments). Assuming it's been renamed, repairing it will cost that plus 2 for prior work, and 1 for the repair itself, for a total of exactly 39.
You can make items with as many enchantments as the game allows, such as a Sharpness V, Looting III, Knockback II, Fire Aspect II, Sweeping Edge III, Unbreaking III, Mending sword - and repair it for only 2 levels, no matter what the enchantments are, same for Mending (a flat 2 durability per XP picked up while holding it). This gives you an idea of how expensive such an item would be with the pre-1.8 system (I used Fortune as a substitute for Sweeping Edge, which has the same enchantment cost, same for Aqua Affinity and Mending; this was in vanilla 1.6.4, not TMCW, which as mentioned before makes some changes to the base cost calculation to allow for the cost of Mending, which is also 8 levels instead of 4 in vanilla):
This is the biggest issue that I see with the current system - everybody runs around with such ridiculously enchanted gear, while with the old system you'd have to use separate items for e.g. general purpose combat or getting more mob drops, as I do (my main sword has Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III while I have a sword with Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III for killing animals), or just consider not being able to repair the item at all (if it can be made, that is):
This is the sword that I use while caving, which is just one level too expensive to be repaired with an intact sacrifice, while it can be repaired with a damaged sacrifice or individual diamonds, the latter being how I repaired it for the first year or two:
This is how I currently repair this sword; the anvil gives a bonus of 12% or 187 durability so the ideal durability of the sacrifice is 187 less than the sums of the durabilities on both swords, 1373 in this case (in practice i do not wear the sword all the way way down to 1 durability left; the sacrifice is damaged by killing chickens, which I then trade for emeralds to buy more swords, which have a minimum cost of 12 emeralds while as little as 14 raw chicken can be traded for an emerald, 168 for 12, thus it is possible to buy another sword just from chicken alone):
This is a sword that I've made to get more drops from animals while trading; unlike the other sword it can only be repaired with units or very damaged swords (around 700 durability or less), making diamonds the most practical way to repair it (a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, Fortune III has the same cost since Sharpness and Efficiency have the same cost, as do Looting and Fortune; earlier on, I used such a tool for all mining while caving, only dropping Fortune since there was no benefit to it, if anything, the opposite given how much I mine):
The reason for this is because prior to 1.8 the cost of an item was based on its enchantments ("base cost") and the repair cost was based on durability, with the enchantment cost always being applied (I was actually able to add 7 enchantments to one item using books without any one book costing more than 39 levels, since books halve the cost, including the base cost):
I've said it before that I believe that there should be some limit to enchantability, if there are going to be no direct nerfs to mending then the best compromise I can think of is limiting the number of enchantments to about 3 per item
This would force players to be more strategic in how they enchant their gear and use separate sets of tools or armory for different purposes during gameplay.
for example, if you wanted to fight sea guardians, then you use enchanted armour with protection 4, respiration 3, depth strider and aqua affinity, unbreaking III and mending.
if you fight in the nether, you use enchanted armour with fire protection 4, blast protection 4, feather falling 4, unbreaking 3, mending and soul speed III.
if you fight in End, you use armour with protection 4, unbreaking III, feather falling 4 (although this wouldn't help you much against Shulkers) and mending.
general overworld use, you use any combination you want but only 3 enchantments per armor piece like the others.
Although soul speed is not recommended for overworld use.
But punishing players for putting in time to earn high level enchantments is not a valid solution, all it does is divide the community up even more and comes off as elitist. I am fine with limiting max number of enchantments to 3 per item, and making the XP cost of enchantments be entirely dependent on the level of the enchantment added, but I'm strongly opposed to the removal of indefinite repairs because then this makes repairing a worthless mechanic.
Maybe most people are just really cut to the chase on Minecraft but I never get to the stage of "OP over-enchanted everything" in a singleplayer vanilla with no cheats. Enchanting seems to make the rich richer and the poor poorer in servers based on play style and dedication.
Maybe most people are just really cut to the chase on Minecraft but I never get to the stage of "OP over-enchanted everything" in a singleplayer vanilla with no cheats. Enchanting seems to make the rich richer and the poor poorer in servers based on play style and dedication.
The OPness comes from the number of enchantments per item be it tool, fishing rod, weapon or armour piece.
But simply basing an argument on how many people are getting high level enchantments is a flawed one,
what if those people who are getting the high level equipment are simply well informed and competent players who are playing the game the way it is supposed to be?
I think the mechanics of the anvils are far too punishing and they would be even more so if mending was made too hard to get.
You can't use anvils to keep repairing the same item over and over, because eventually it costs too much XP.
Craft a new item, and you're spending even more resources than you would've done with the previous item on the anvil.
Smelt your damaged iron tool in a furnace and all you're left with is a nugget.
it's no wonder why so many people are building iron golem farms.
if anvils weren't as broken to the point of disadvantaging players and costing them absurd amounts of resources, there would be a valid reason to stop iron golem farming permanently.
The OPness comes from the number of enchantments per item be it tool, fishing rod, weapon or armour piece.
But simply basing an argument on how many people are getting high level enchantments is a flawed one,
what if those people who are getting the high level equipment are simply well informed and competent players who are playing the game the way it is supposed to be?
I think the mechanics of the anvils are far too punishing and they would be even more so if mending was made too hard to get.
You can't use anvils to keep repairing the same item over and over, because eventually it costs too much XP.
Craft a new item, and you're spending even more resources than you would've done with the previous item on the anvil.
Smelt your damaged iron tool in a furnace and all you're left with is a nugget.
it's no wonder why so many people are building iron golem farms.
if anvils weren't as broken to the point of disadvantaging players and costing them absurd amounts of resources, there would be a valid reason to stop iron golem farming permanently.
I haven't used even half a percent of all the iron I've mined to make anvils (92 anvils * 31 iron = 2852, compared to 623275 iron mined, plus more from chests and even zombie drops; 69624 iron blocks * 9 = 626616 iron, a surplus of 3341, plus the 4 ingots that each anvil requires and iron used for other uses), and I use them on a daily basis to repair my gear:
Before you mention my playstyle, again, that's less than 1/218 of the iron I've mined, and it shouldn't be too much to ask for a player to spend the equivalent of about 14 hours of caving to find that much iron (spread out over 3636 hours of playtime, or only about 0.38% of the entire time. In terms of area you can find this much iron is about 400 chunks worth of the underground, give or take (caves are about 20% less common in newer versions but ores are about that much more common so they balance out), which is an insignificant part of even a limited size Console Edition world, the smallest being 2916 chunks).
That said, anvils are the only workstation-type block that has a limited life; you never see crafting tables, enchantment tables, grindstones, smithing tables (quite similar to anvils), etc wear out and break so it doesn't make much sense for anvils to break (I haven't changed this but I did let you combine two very damaged anvils to get a new anvil, though this doesn't give you a net gain unless you let the third anvil break, averaging about 29 uses per initial anvil instead of 25). Otherwise, I highly doubt that people make iron farms to collect resources for anvils and iron gear (which I only use for a short time during the early-game, afterwards I only use iron for anvils and shears, not including rails or iron pickaxes from mineshafts, the latter of which I use for rail tunnels and secondary bases); usually I see them being used to collect all the iron needed for things like massive sorting systems (hundreds to thousands of hoppers, each consuming 5 iron), using iron blocks in builds, or even just for the fun of it.
I haven't used even half a percent of all the iron I've mined to make anvils (92 anvils * 31 iron = 2852, compared to 623275 iron mined, plus more from chests and even zombie drops; 69624 iron blocks * 9 = 626616 iron, a surplus of 3341, plus the 4 ingots that each anvil requires and iron used for other uses), and I use them on a daily basis to repair my gear:
Before you mention my playstyle, again, that's less than 1/218 of the iron I've mined, and it shouldn't be too much to ask for a player to spend the equivalent of about 14 hours of caving to find that much iron (spread out over 3636 hours of playtime, or only about 0.38% of the entire time. In terms of area you can find this much iron is about 400 chunks worth of the underground, give or take (caves are about 20% less common in newer versions but ores are about that much more common so they balance out), which is an insignificant part of even a limited size Console Edition world, the smallest being 2916 chunks).
That said, anvils are the only workstation-type block that has a limited life; you never see crafting tables, enchantment tables, grindstones, smithing tables (quite similar to anvils), etc wear out and break so it doesn't make much sense for anvils to break (I haven't changed this but I did let you combine two very damaged anvils to get a new anvil, though this doesn't give you a net gain unless you let the third anvil break, averaging about 29 uses per initial anvil instead of 25). Otherwise, I highly doubt that people make iron farms to collect resources for anvils and iron gear (which I only use for a short time during the early-game, afterwards I only use iron for anvils and shears, not including rails or iron pickaxes from mineshafts, the latter of which I use for rail tunnels and secondary bases); usually I see them being used to collect all the iron needed for things like massive sorting systems (hundreds to thousands of hoppers, each consuming 5 iron), using iron blocks in builds, or even just for the fun of it.
Such massive amounts of iron which would take enormous amounts of time to get without the iron golem farms.
You've basically just admitted one of the many reasons why people are doing it, large projects and a lot of people do like to do big builds even in survival mode.
of course if you have mending then there isn't much point in repairing on an anvil,
but take mending away and you're left with a serious problem because the anvil mechanics are too poorly designed or inconvenient for players to want to bother with.
I use anvils in my worlds to put enchantments on my items, but I seldom use them for repairing because they're pretty much useless for that due to the ever expanding XP cost per repair. Also I'm not willing to break an anvil just to save a failing pickaxe with a repair, I store the damaged diamond pickaxes until I can put mending on them.
but take mending away and you're left with a serious problem because the anvil mechanics are too poorly designed or inconvenient for players to want to bother with.
Maybe it is me but I'm under the impression that you believe that I want Mending to be removed, which couldn't be further from the truth - if so, then why did I add Mending to my own version of the game? To show how I believe it should have been implemented - as a direct replacement for simply renaming an item to keep the prior work penalty from increasing, combining the best of both worlds (the continued usefulness of anvils after the early-game with repair costs dependent on the quality of an item and the requirement to find an item/enchantment to allow items to be repaired indefinitely, rather than simply typing something (actually, in my first world my armor simply has names like "DiamondChestplate", I just deleted the space, since you'll normally never see the name, only for held items):
// Vanilla 1.6.4
var10 = var5.getRepairCost();
if (var6 != null && var10 < var6.getRepairCost()) var10 = var6.getRepairCost();
if (var5.hasDisplayName()) var10 -= 9;
if (var10 < 0) var10 = 0;
var5.setRepairCost(var10 + 2);
// TMCWv4+
// Whether or not the item has Mending, used to control prior work penalty
boolean hasMending = false;
// Prevents Mending from affecting the prior work penalty of enchanted books
if (var22 == Enchantment.mending && !isTargetBook) hasMending = true;
var10 = var5.getRepairCost();
if (var6 != null && var10 < var6.getRepairCost()) var10 = var6.getRepairCost();
var5.setRepairCost(hasMending ? 0 : var10 + 2);
This reveals something interesting - the prior work penalty will only be set to 2 after a rename if it is no higher than 9, since it subtracts 9, clamped to a minimum of 0, then adds 2. Otherwise, multiple renames are required to get it down so the item can be repaired (in any version the cost of a rename is limited to 39 if that is the only operation being done). Also, if you are wondering, yes, renaming an enchanted book will also reset the penalty in vanilla 1.6.4, though I made Mending have no effect (much as other enchantments stored in books do not apply any of their effects to the item), and in any case since it only linearly increases by 2 levels per working it isn't a big deal, unlike the exponential increase in 1.8+; for example, after 5 workings the penalties will be 10 in 1.6.4 and 31 in 1.8+, followed by 12 and 63 after the next working (though as mentioned before the fact you must pay for the enchantments and durability when repairing means it will cost a lot more; a diamond tool with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III costs up to 31 levels for the repair itself, plus the penalty, which can be no more than 8 levels; when renamed it will cost 33 levels, or as much as an item on its final repair in 1.8+).
Fun fact: even though I've never played in it I made a mod for 1.8 ("Old Anvil Mechanics") that completely reverts the changes to anvil mechanics, even including the higher enchantment/durability-based costs, just to get the renaming feature back (I literally copied the code from 1.6.4 to 1.8, with corrections for changes since then) because I thought this change was that bad (otherwise, I've made very few mods for versions other than 1.6.4) - note that Mending wasn't added until 1.9 so it is impossible to make items that last forever in 1.8, the only version since 1.4.2, when anvils were added, as well as since I started playing in 1.5.1.
Maybe it is me but I'm under the impression that you believe that I want Mending to be removed, which couldn't be further from the truth - if so, then why did I add Mending to my own version of the game? To show how I believe it should have been implemented - as a direct replacement for simply renaming an item to keep the prior work penalty from increasing, combining the best of both worlds (the continued usefulness of anvils after the early-game with repair costs dependent on the quality of an item and the requirement to find an item/enchantment to allow items to be repaired indefinitely, rather than simply typing something (actually, in my first world my armor simply has names like "DiamondChestplate", I just deleted the space, since you'll normally never see the name, only for held items):
// Vanilla 1.6.4
var10 = var5.getRepairCost();
if (var6 != null && var10 < var6.getRepairCost()) var10 = var6.getRepairCost();
if (var5.hasDisplayName()) var10 -= 9;
if (var10 < 0) var10 = 0;
var5.setRepairCost(var10 + 2);
// TMCWv4+
// Whether or not the item has Mending, used to control prior work penalty
boolean hasMending = false;
// Prevents Mending from affecting the prior work penalty of enchanted books
if (var22 == Enchantment.mending && !isTargetBook) hasMending = true;
var10 = var5.getRepairCost();
if (var6 != null && var10 < var6.getRepairCost()) var10 = var6.getRepairCost();
var5.setRepairCost(hasMending ? 0 : var10 + 2);
This reveals something interesting - the prior work penalty will only be set to 2 after a rename if it is no higher than 9, since it subtracts 9, clamped to a minimum of 0, then adds 2. Otherwise, multiple renames are required to get it down so the item can be repaired (in any version the cost of a rename is limited to 39 if that is the only operation being done). Also, if you are wondering, yes, renaming an enchanted book will also reset the penalty in vanilla 1.6.4, though I made Mending have no effect (much as other enchantments stored in books do not apply any of their effects to the item), and in any case since it only linearly increases by 2 levels per working it isn't a big deal, unlike the exponential increase in 1.8+; for example, after 5 workings the penalties will be 10 in 1.6.4 and 31 in 1.8+, followed by 12 and 63 after the next working (though as mentioned before the fact you must pay for the enchantments and durability when repairing means it will cost a lot more; a diamond tool with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III costs up to 31 levels for the repair itself, plus the penalty, which can be no more than 8 levels; when renamed it will cost 33 levels, or as much as an item on its final repair in 1.8+).
Fun fact: even though I've never played in it I made a mod for 1.8 ("Old Anvil Mechanics") that completely reverts the changes to anvil mechanics, even including the higher enchantment/durability-based costs, just to get the renaming feature back (I literally copied the code from 1.6.4 to 1.8, with corrections for changes since then) because I thought this change was that bad (otherwise, I've made very few mods for versions other than 1.6.4) - note that Mending wasn't added until 1.9 so it is impossible to make items that last forever in 1.8, the only version since 1.4.2, when anvils were added, as well as since I started playing in 1.5.1.
I didn't say you want it to, and actually no, however I'm saying anvils are broken in the latest versions of the game since the renaming trick does not work, the XP cost continues to expand beyond 2 points per repair until it becomes impossible.
I've always disliked anvils, but this mechanic just made them so much worse. Literally, no other item in the game does this, not even the enchantment table. You're only penalized for repairing with anvils and this is a problem that needs to be fixed.
I do believe enchanting cost should be proportional to the level and I do believe there needs to be a limit of enchantments allowed per item for balance purposes. However there is a problem with anvils which cannot be ignored and inconveniences players too much for them to be useful.
It seems to me that the differences of opinion regarding the amount of XP needed for enchanting depend on one's playstyle.
If your playstyle gives you a lot of XP (e.g. if you thrive on mob-hunting or have XP farms) you most likely think XP is too easy to come by.
If your playstyle makes you do everything manually and you avoid mobs at all cost, you will struggle to get all the XP you need.
I personally depend on chicken breeding for 99% of my XP. I am satisfied with the current requirements for enchanting. If the XP requirement was raised, the XP farmers and mob hunters would probably not be affected, but I would. If the XP requirement was raised to the extent that even XP farmers and mob hunters would struggle, it would take me forever to enchant anything, and I couldn't mend the equipment I have before it breaks completely.
In my opinion, if the XP requirement is raised, it is the kind of feature that should be customizable via a game option.
I disagree with your assessment because I'm for increasing enchanting costs (not as much as others here apparently) and I said already that I don't use any farms or grinders. My trick to having as much XP as I'll ever need is:
1. Play
2. Try not to die
That's it. Most of my playing is actually spent terraforming or building structures which barely returns any XP at all short of mining Coal and smelting Smooth Stone.
I'm not opposed to TMC's changes to Mending or even changing Anvil mechanics to never go above the max level for just repairing, it just gets locked to 1 level below "too expensive".
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Almost everybody knows how to enchant, but the cost of enchanting is broken in my opinion. If you have 100 levels and get a level 3 enchantment, then you go down 3 levels. To me it seams a bit dumb, and feels like it should only get rid of the amount of exp it took to get to level 3, and not 3 levels. I don't mind if it changes, but wanted to bring it up. Also I'm playing on 1.15 so I'm not completely sure if they changed it in 1.16.
I'll be honest, I'm a bit shocked to find someone thinking Enchanting is unbalanced in a way that is bad for the player. If anything I would say the opposite is true, Enchanting is too stacked in the player's advantage, because it only costs 3 levels per enchanting attempt and experience is dirt cheap to get in high numbers, even without using any kind of farm or grinder. But I also remember when it cost all your levels to enchant an item.
Personally I would want the cost to be increased to something like 5/7/10 levels per attempt, depending on what level of enchanting you use.
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Even better, the version I play on (1.6.4) makes you pay the entire level cost, 30 levels for a level 30 enchantment, though it isn't quite as hard to reach level 30, at least the first time (you need 825 XP to reach level 30 compared to 1395 in current versions, and 306 XP to get back up from level 27, which means that after the first two enchantments you'll spend less XP overall). I don't think this is too expensive either; I've never used any XP farms, getting most of the XP that I need for enchanting by mining quartz, and I don't actually make level 30 enchantments for the most part (for one I need books to get Unbreaking on armor and weapons - you couldn't get it on those items from the table until 1.7. Enchanting books at around level 22-23 gives near the highest chance of Unbreaking III while costing far less XP and still giving a decent chance of other enchantments).
Likewise, Mending doesn't exist (but you can rename items to keep the penalty from increasing) so I need to repair my items on the anvil for a much higher (generally) XP cost, which is so high that "god" items, with every possible compatible enchantment, are generally impossible to repair and/or make (for example, in current versions it only costs 6 levels to add Fortune III to an item; in 1.6.4 you must pay for all the other enchantments already on the item as well, same for repairing, which itself costs up to 17 levels for diamond tools as it depends on the durability you are restoring. As a result, it costs 33 levels or 1032 XP to fully repair a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III - add Fortune and now you must repair it with single diamonds for 37 levels each, times four to restore full durability for a staggering 5624 XP, compared to only 781 XP for any diamond tool with Mending in 1.16 (1.16 even made Mending much more powerful by directing XP to items that need to be repaired; previously, the game chose an item at random and if it didn't need to be repaired it just added it to your XP bar instead of looking for another item. The only downside is that Mending is incompatible with Infinity but I don't have to repair my bow that often and there are always mods to fix this).
Not only that, my own modded version adds "better than diamond" items (which is only because diamond was nerfed, it is similar to netherite relative to diamond, which was nerfed in 1.9) which can cost up to 49 levels to repair, yet I still get enough XP from normal gameplay to maintain them with a large surplus left over (it is harder to find the resource, which is so rare that I barely get a surplus - in fact, in more than 40 days of playing, which means caving for 3-4 hours per day, I've only gained 4 - and you thought that ancient debris was rare!). I also replaced renaming with my own version of Mending which works the same way, so I have to breed and trade with villagers (this does help with obtaining other enchantments though, and since I mostly use books anyway this reduces the XP I need).
In any case, the whole point of the leveling system is to encourage players to spend XP wisely and the changes in 1.8 were intended to increase the penalty for dying (initially harder to reach level 30 but easier to get back up after enchanting), and if you are regularly attaining 100 levels (an impossibility for me, I've maxed out at a bit over 70 before having to repair something) then you're getting so much XP that it should hardly matter, and if you are using an AFK farm to get that many levels (100 levels is equivalent to killing about 6,200 mobs or fishing 8,850 items) then I just see that as a nerf to what amounts to exploiting game mechanics - AFKing isn't even playing the game, and once you've made all of your gear there isn't any reason to enchant anyway, which is why I've never had a problem with it (besides the time spent quartz isn't renewable but the area I have to explore isn't very large. The only enchanting I do during the end-game is enchanting iron pickaxes taken from minecarts at level 1, which I use to dig tunnels for the railways linking my bases (not that I need to do this, much as I trade to buy diamond gear for repairs in my first world despite the amount of diamond I find).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I don't have anything against mending being in the game, but I do wish the cost for enchanting was equal to the level of the enchantments placed. If players want level 30 enchantments they pay 30 XP levels, not more or less. That is how it should be done and would remove the unbalance issues with the enchantment system, I also wish repairing on an anvil didn't become too expensive, as this mechanic is just dumb, even worse if it is for players like you who go without mending. I don't believe critics would be as bothered about got tier equipment if the XP cost was done appropriately so players would need to do more grinding to get the maximum enchanted item.
How do?
it used to be a feature with older Minecraft, now it doesn't work in the current versions both Java and bedrock, and the XP cost for repairing items on anvils keeps growing until it cannot be done anymore. It's bad enough that we can only get 28 uses out of the anvil, but Mojang imposed an annoying feature that almost nobody wanted, simply to encourage players to use the mending enchantment more often, a rare book that only shows up once in a blue moon in fishing and sometimes items with mending on them come with Curse of Vanishing. Villagers can offer mending book via trades, but unless you have it set up correctly it is a very slow method of getting them books, and they are vulnerable to raids and pillager attacks.
I was curious about the literal methods of using nametags to zero XP cost.
Not nametags, just using the anvil's "rename" function:
This was obviously removed in 1.8 because it would be completely broken if you only had to spend 4 levels (2 for the repair itself and 2 for the penalty) to repair anything indefinitely as they removed the enchantment and durability-based costs; for example, a diamond sword with Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III has a "base cost" of 21 levels (5 for Sharpness V, 4 for Knockback II, 6 for Unbreaking III, plus 6 for having 3 enchantments) and a sacrifice repair cost of up to 17 levels (based on the durability of the sacrifice, where a nearly broken sword would cost only 1 level); add a penalty of 2 and you end up with 40 levels - yes, even this relatively moderately-enchanted item is too expensive to repair with a full-durability sacrifice, though you can slightly damage it (I do this by killing around a couple hundred chickens, which still gives a full repair due to the anvil adding a 12% b0onus, which is 187 for a diamond tool). Units/individual diamonds cost 6 levels each (3 plus the number of enchantments), or 29 levels for one and 35 for two (this is how I repaired it for a year or two, until I realized you could use a damaged sacrifice). Want to add Looting? You'll have to sacrifice one of the other enchantments; a Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III diamond sword already costs 37 levels to repair with a single diamond so having Knockback or Fire Aspect will make it too expensive to ever repair.
My own version of Mending works the same way, with some changes to how costs are calculated; I removed the cost for the number of enchantments from the base cost and set the penalty to 0, and made Mending cost 8 levels (vanilla's version costs 4 levels but I think this is too cheap, and single-level enchantments like Infinity and Silk Touch generally cost 8 levels), so the aforementioned sword would now cost 5 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 17 = 40 levels to repair (i.e. items with 3 enchantments will have the same sacrifice cost; unit repair is 1 more since the unit cost still includes the number of enchantments). Here is a list of the cost to repair various items in TMCW (amethyst items cost 21 levels per unit, plus the number of enchantments, and 62 levels for an intact sacrifice, which is due to having 3 times the durability of diamond; because of this, diamond items cost less to repair per durability point):
Either way, the XP cost to repair an item is based on its quality, making it impossible to repair items with more than 3-4 enchantments or make items with more than 4-5 (the base cost is also added to the cost to add enchantments), and you need to consume resources to repair them (both for the item itself and for anvils), and the need for manual repairs greatly hinders automated farms (e.g. a Mending fishing rod wouldn't automatically repair itself, limiting you to 256 catches at the most before it broke).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
It seems to me that the differences of opinion regarding the amount of XP needed for enchanting depend on one's playstyle.
If your playstyle gives you a lot of XP (e.g. if you thrive on mob-hunting or have XP farms) you most likely think XP is too easy to come by.
If your playstyle makes you do everything manually and you avoid mobs at all cost, you will struggle to get all the XP you need.
I personally depend on chicken breeding for 99% of my XP. I am satisfied with the current requirements for enchanting. If the XP requirement was raised, the XP farmers and mob hunters would probably not be affected, but I would. If the XP requirement was raised to the extent that even XP farmers and mob hunters would struggle, it would take me forever to enchant anything, and I couldn't mend the equipment I have before it breaks completely.
In my opinion, if the XP requirement is raised, it is the kind of feature that should be customizable via a game option.
How exactly would it be broken if items could be repaired indefinitely on the anvil? you still need to spend resources on top of XP to repair your enchanted equipment. I could see this mechanic being far worse if it were not for the existence of mending in the game.
Really all I ever use the anvil for is combining enchantments, and maybe repairing a bow or rod once in a while, that's it. But the anvil mechanics have sucked for a long time and my play style with the projects I have planned for the realm server I frequent with a friend of mine literally require mending, otherwise I'd be wasting even more time in the mines instead of getting builds finished.
Things like AFK fishing needed to be removed from vanilla Minecraft, that was broken as it got players enchantments (rare items) for nothing or no input which is the same thing as cheating.
I'm referring to this:
You can make items with as many enchantments as the game allows, such as a Sharpness V, Looting III, Knockback II, Fire Aspect II, Sweeping Edge III, Unbreaking III, Mending sword - and repair it for only 2 levels, no matter what the enchantments are, same for Mending (a flat 2 durability per XP picked up while holding it). This gives you an idea of how expensive such an item would be with the pre-1.8 system (I used Fortune as a substitute for Sweeping Edge, which has the same enchantment cost, same for Aqua Affinity and Mending; this was in vanilla 1.6.4, not TMCW, which as mentioned before makes some changes to the base cost calculation to allow for the cost of Mending, which is also 8 levels instead of 4 in vanilla):
This is the biggest issue that I see with the current system - everybody runs around with such ridiculously enchanted gear, while with the old system you'd have to use separate items for e.g. general purpose combat or getting more mob drops, as I do (my main sword has Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III while I have a sword with Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III for killing animals), or just consider not being able to repair the item at all (if it can be made, that is):
This is how I currently repair this sword; the anvil gives a bonus of 12% or 187 durability so the ideal durability of the sacrifice is 187 less than the sums of the durabilities on both swords, 1373 in this case (in practice i do not wear the sword all the way way down to 1 durability left; the sacrifice is damaged by killing chickens, which I then trade for emeralds to buy more swords, which have a minimum cost of 12 emeralds while as little as 14 raw chicken can be traded for an emerald, 168 for 12, thus it is possible to buy another sword just from chicken alone):
This is a sword that I've made to get more drops from animals while trading; unlike the other sword it can only be repaired with units or very damaged swords (around 700 durability or less), making diamonds the most practical way to repair it (a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, Fortune III has the same cost since Sharpness and Efficiency have the same cost, as do Looting and Fortune; earlier on, I used such a tool for all mining while caving, only dropping Fortune since there was no benefit to it, if anything, the opposite given how much I mine):
The reason for this is because prior to 1.8 the cost of an item was based on its enchantments ("base cost") and the repair cost was based on durability, with the enchantment cost always being applied (I was actually able to add 7 enchantments to one item using books without any one book costing more than 39 levels, since books halve the cost, including the base cost):
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I've said it before that I believe that there should be some limit to enchantability, if there are going to be no direct nerfs to mending then the best compromise I can think of is limiting the number of enchantments to about 3 per item
This would force players to be more strategic in how they enchant their gear and use separate sets of tools or armory for different purposes during gameplay.
for example, if you wanted to fight sea guardians, then you use enchanted armour with protection 4, respiration 3, depth strider and aqua affinity, unbreaking III and mending.
if you fight in the nether, you use enchanted armour with fire protection 4, blast protection 4, feather falling 4, unbreaking 3, mending and soul speed III.
if you fight in End, you use armour with protection 4, unbreaking III, feather falling 4 (although this wouldn't help you much against Shulkers) and mending.
general overworld use, you use any combination you want but only 3 enchantments per armor piece like the others.
Although soul speed is not recommended for overworld use.
But punishing players for putting in time to earn high level enchantments is not a valid solution, all it does is divide the community up even more and comes off as elitist. I am fine with limiting max number of enchantments to 3 per item, and making the XP cost of enchantments be entirely dependent on the level of the enchantment added, but I'm strongly opposed to the removal of indefinite repairs because then this makes repairing a worthless mechanic.
Maybe most people are just really cut to the chase on Minecraft but I never get to the stage of "OP over-enchanted everything" in a singleplayer vanilla with no cheats. Enchanting seems to make the rich richer and the poor poorer in servers based on play style and dedication.
The OPness comes from the number of enchantments per item be it tool, fishing rod, weapon or armour piece.
But simply basing an argument on how many people are getting high level enchantments is a flawed one,
what if those people who are getting the high level equipment are simply well informed and competent players who are playing the game the way it is supposed to be?
I think the mechanics of the anvils are far too punishing and they would be even more so if mending was made too hard to get.
You can't use anvils to keep repairing the same item over and over, because eventually it costs too much XP.
Craft a new item, and you're spending even more resources than you would've done with the previous item on the anvil.
Smelt your damaged iron tool in a furnace and all you're left with is a nugget.
it's no wonder why so many people are building iron golem farms.
if anvils weren't as broken to the point of disadvantaging players and costing them absurd amounts of resources, there would be a valid reason to stop iron golem farming permanently.
I haven't used even half a percent of all the iron I've mined to make anvils (92 anvils * 31 iron = 2852, compared to 623275 iron mined, plus more from chests and even zombie drops; 69624 iron blocks * 9 = 626616 iron, a surplus of 3341, plus the 4 ingots that each anvil requires and iron used for other uses), and I use them on a daily basis to repair my gear:
Before you mention my playstyle, again, that's less than 1/218 of the iron I've mined, and it shouldn't be too much to ask for a player to spend the equivalent of about 14 hours of caving to find that much iron (spread out over 3636 hours of playtime, or only about 0.38% of the entire time. In terms of area you can find this much iron is about 400 chunks worth of the underground, give or take (caves are about 20% less common in newer versions but ores are about that much more common so they balance out), which is an insignificant part of even a limited size Console Edition world, the smallest being 2916 chunks).
That said, anvils are the only workstation-type block that has a limited life; you never see crafting tables, enchantment tables, grindstones, smithing tables (quite similar to anvils), etc wear out and break so it doesn't make much sense for anvils to break (I haven't changed this but I did let you combine two very damaged anvils to get a new anvil, though this doesn't give you a net gain unless you let the third anvil break, averaging about 29 uses per initial anvil instead of 25). Otherwise, I highly doubt that people make iron farms to collect resources for anvils and iron gear (which I only use for a short time during the early-game, afterwards I only use iron for anvils and shears, not including rails or iron pickaxes from mineshafts, the latter of which I use for rail tunnels and secondary bases); usually I see them being used to collect all the iron needed for things like massive sorting systems (hundreds to thousands of hoppers, each consuming 5 iron), using iron blocks in builds, or even just for the fun of it.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Such massive amounts of iron which would take enormous amounts of time to get without the iron golem farms.
You've basically just admitted one of the many reasons why people are doing it, large projects and a lot of people do like to do big builds even in survival mode.
of course if you have mending then there isn't much point in repairing on an anvil,
but take mending away and you're left with a serious problem because the anvil mechanics are too poorly designed or inconvenient for players to want to bother with.
I use anvils in my worlds to put enchantments on my items, but I seldom use them for repairing because they're pretty much useless for that due to the ever expanding XP cost per repair. Also I'm not willing to break an anvil just to save a failing pickaxe with a repair, I store the damaged diamond pickaxes until I can put mending on them.
Maybe it is me but I'm under the impression that you believe that I want Mending to be removed, which couldn't be further from the truth - if so, then why did I add Mending to my own version of the game? To show how I believe it should have been implemented - as a direct replacement for simply renaming an item to keep the prior work penalty from increasing, combining the best of both worlds (the continued usefulness of anvils after the early-game with repair costs dependent on the quality of an item and the requirement to find an item/enchantment to allow items to be repaired indefinitely, rather than simply typing something (actually, in my first world my armor simply has names like "DiamondChestplate", I just deleted the space, since you'll normally never see the name, only for held items):
This reveals something interesting - the prior work penalty will only be set to 2 after a rename if it is no higher than 9, since it subtracts 9, clamped to a minimum of 0, then adds 2. Otherwise, multiple renames are required to get it down so the item can be repaired (in any version the cost of a rename is limited to 39 if that is the only operation being done). Also, if you are wondering, yes, renaming an enchanted book will also reset the penalty in vanilla 1.6.4, though I made Mending have no effect (much as other enchantments stored in books do not apply any of their effects to the item), and in any case since it only linearly increases by 2 levels per working it isn't a big deal, unlike the exponential increase in 1.8+; for example, after 5 workings the penalties will be 10 in 1.6.4 and 31 in 1.8+, followed by 12 and 63 after the next working (though as mentioned before the fact you must pay for the enchantments and durability when repairing means it will cost a lot more; a diamond tool with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III costs up to 31 levels for the repair itself, plus the penalty, which can be no more than 8 levels; when renamed it will cost 33 levels, or as much as an item on its final repair in 1.8+).
Fun fact: even though I've never played in it I made a mod for 1.8 ("Old Anvil Mechanics") that completely reverts the changes to anvil mechanics, even including the higher enchantment/durability-based costs, just to get the renaming feature back (I literally copied the code from 1.6.4 to 1.8, with corrections for changes since then) because I thought this change was that bad (otherwise, I've made very few mods for versions other than 1.6.4) - note that Mending wasn't added until 1.9 so it is impossible to make items that last forever in 1.8, the only version since 1.4.2, when anvils were added, as well as since I started playing in 1.5.1.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I didn't say you want it to, and actually no, however I'm saying anvils are broken in the latest versions of the game since the renaming trick does not work, the XP cost continues to expand beyond 2 points per repair until it becomes impossible.
I've always disliked anvils, but this mechanic just made them so much worse. Literally, no other item in the game does this, not even the enchantment table. You're only penalized for repairing with anvils and this is a problem that needs to be fixed.
I do believe enchanting cost should be proportional to the level and I do believe there needs to be a limit of enchantments allowed per item for balance purposes. However there is a problem with anvils which cannot be ignored and inconveniences players too much for them to be useful.
I disagree with your assessment because I'm for increasing enchanting costs (not as much as others here apparently) and I said already that I don't use any farms or grinders. My trick to having as much XP as I'll ever need is:
1. Play
2. Try not to die
That's it. Most of my playing is actually spent terraforming or building structures which barely returns any XP at all short of mining Coal and smelting Smooth Stone.
I'm not opposed to TMC's changes to Mending or even changing Anvil mechanics to never go above the max level for just repairing, it just gets locked to 1 level below "too expensive".
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/suggestions/2775557-guidelines-for-the-suggestions-forum
XP is easy to get when and if you feel like doing things like mass killing hostile mobs (a hobby but not my main passion).
@Badprenup