I think it would be cool to have a biome in The End which would consist of colonies of the floating islands strung together with organic paths created by these ender ants which would have vast colonial structures stretching across the entire biome. The ants would be neutral mobs which would move around slowly in lines, and if attacked, nearby ants would move to intercept the attacker. They would occasionally drop pieces of carapace which could be used to create the new carapace armor, and the carapace armor would add more options for balancing elytra flight with defense, as well as granting a neat unique armor appearance.
The carapace chestpiece could be combined with an elytra to make a winged carapace chestpiece. Either version would have 6 armor points (same as iron armor) and 1 toughness, but the winged carapace would have a -50% penalty to flight energy, meaning flying while wearing only this piece will cause firework rockets to grant only half of the acceleration, which will be further reduced by gravity. You could fly with just this armor, but flight would be significantly more difficult. But that is the price you pay for defending your chest slot.
The other pieces of carapace armor also have the same amount of armor as iron: 2 each for helmet and boots, and 5 for leggings, and each piece also grants toughness 1. The boots and helmet would also grant a +15% bonus to flight energy, and the leggings would grant a +20% bonus to flight energy. These bonuses would not affect the armor's ability to be enchanted. With full carapace armor, the flight energy penalty of the chestpiece would be completely nullified by the other pieces combined. This armor gives the player a way to balance defense with flight capability, no longer being forced to lose 8 armor points just to be able to fly.
For comparison, here is the total defensive and flight attributes of various armor arrangements:
Full netherite: 20 armor, 12 toughness, no flight
Full diamond: 20 armor, 8 toughness, no flight
Full iron: 15 armor, no toughness, no flight
Diamond with elytra: 12 armor, 6 toughness, 100% flight energy
Netherite with elytra: 12 armor, 9 toughness, 100% flight energy
Diamond with winged carapace chest: 18 armor, 7 toughness, 50% flight energy
Netherite with winged carapace chest: 18 armor, 10 toughness, 50% flight energy
Netherite helmet and boots with winged carapace chest and legs: 17 armor, 8 toughness, 70% flight energy
Diamond legs with winged carapace chest, boots, and helmet: 16 armor, 5 toughness, 80% flight energy
Full carapace armor with wings: 15 armor, 4 toughness, 100% flight energy
The total defense of diamond/netherite with elytra versus full winged carapace is similar: the carapace has more armor and less toughness. But if you experiment with other combinations of armor, you can get the balance of defense and flight energy that you want.
- - - - -
The ender ant colonies would have vast mounds full of tunnels (much like a typical cave system) running throughout the larger islands, and these tunnels and the surface of their island would be largely covered in a block that looks like end stone merging with some kind of organic material. These blocks could be harvested with a shovel to be used as a decorative item, and they would break much more slowly than dirt, more like normal wood or stone speed. Jutting out from the island would be stalks of some thick material which would make bridges out to other nearby islands within the biome. If two large islands are connected, they may have several thick bridges going across between them. Sometimes a thin narrow bridge will be jutting out to connect to any smaller islands. The bridge material would be another decorative block which can be mined best with an axe, but would be slow to break just like end stone. The ender ants would form chains and move throughout these tunnels or along these bridges. In the event that two ender ant chains cross paths, they can run along the side or even bottom of the blocks in order to pass each other.
The ants would be farming some kind of vegetation. The ant colonies would take up a good fraction of the space in their biome, but a lot of it would be a wilderness containing the vegetation that they seek. My idea for this vegetation is a vourd, a melon-like plant which produces a fruit which looks like a block of void, but I'll leave this part open. It's not important what they are farming, just that they are farming something. The ants will trek out into these wilderness areas within their biome in order to seek these plants. They will often be seen milling about in the wilderness. If they stumble upon the plant they seek, they may harvest it and carry the fruit in their jaws and return to the nest. The plant will survive and produce another fruit eventually. Deep inside the ants' nests are chambers containing ant queens as well as piles of these fruits stashed in there. If you try to harvest the pile of fruits inside the ant colony, it will provoke them to attack. Harvesting plants or fruit in the wilderness does not provoke the ants.
The ants will automatically replenish their numbers by eating the fruit (much like villagers), with their population cap determined by how many queens they have around. The player can breed ants by feeding fruit to several ants as well as to the ant queen. All of the other ants will mate with the ant queen, and she will eventually produce one baby ant for each ant bred with her, up to some limit (like 16 maybe). Sometimes one of the baby ants will be a baby queen. This baby queen will naturally grow up into a normal ant, however if fed enough fruit she will progress through extra growth stages and eventually become an ant queen.
If an ant is killed, it drops 0-1 units of carapace. The drop chance consists of a table of: 0, 0, 1, 1 and each level of looting adds a 2 to the table, so at looting III the table is: 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, meaning you will get no drops 2/7ths of the time, 1 drop 2/7ths of the time, and 2 drops 3/7ths of the time.
Average carapace drops per ant are as follows:
No looting: 0.5
Looting I: 0.8
Looting II: 1.0
Looting III: 1.142857
Each piece of carapace must be cooked in a furnace to process it, and 9 processed carapace is put on the crafting table to make 1 piece of armored carapace. You can then make armored carapace pieces into armor following the normal armor recipe shape. The carapace chestpiece can be combined with an elytra on the anvil to make a winged carapace chestpiece.
Each piece of carapace armor can be enchanted just the same as normal armor, except for the chestpiece. A non-winged chestpiece can be enchanted just like a normal armor, including doing it on the enchanting table. A winged chestpiece can be enchanted with books, but it will have one extra crafting action applied to it due to being combined on the anvil. This can potentially limit its crafting and enchanting capacity. Overall, this enables the chest slot to not only have defenses, but to also have enchantments that you cannot put on an elytra.
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I want ocean content(thanks Möjang!), nether biomes(again thanks!!), and savanna passive mobs (meerkats incoming!?).
I like the idea of essentially making the Elytra "heavier" and reducing its velocity/momentum in exchange for protection, but adding a new set that's stronger than iron (due to toughness) that also negates the flight penalty renders the whole point redundant. I'd stick to just the chestplate and make it slightly weaker than iron in exchange for being combinable with the Elytra whilst doing so makes the Elytra heavier and lowers its acceleration rate in addition to making it fall faster and possibly increasing smack damage.
The ants sound fine to me at the moment.
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Watch out for the crabocalypse. Some say the day will never come. But it will.
Feel free to drop by for a chat whenever.
If you'd like to talk with me about other games, here are a few I play.
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands series (Borderlands 2 is my favorite game, ever. TPS combat is a lot of fun and makes up for the lower-quality story, in my opinion)
Elder Scrolls series
Warframe (IGN is something like That_One_Flesh_Atronach)
Pokémon series (HGSS forever)
Rocket League
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead 2 (Boomer files always corrupt though)
SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)
Dead Rising series (Dead Rising 2 is one of my favorite games, and the 3rd was a lot of fun. 1st has poor survivor AI and the 4th is bad)
Just Cause series
Come to think of it, I mainly play fighting-based games.
But why would you compare it based on iron armor? It'll be about as much work to get the carapace set as it will to get netherite armor, so it should be compared with that.
Netherite with elytra: 12 armor, 9 toughness
Full carapace armor: 15 armor, 4 toughness, can enchant chest slot
Without enchants, it seems pretty balanced. The carapace will protect better against weak hits, while netherite will protect better against strong hits. I think the damage value where they'd offer the same protection is pretty high though, perhaps about as high as a Vindicator hit. Also, carapace can be enchanted. So perhaps the total armor of the set should be reduced.
Here's an idea: lower the chestpiece armor by 2 and the leggings by 1 (both now have 4 armor), and the full set has the same armor as netherite with elytra, less toughness, but can enchant the chest.
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I want ocean content(thanks Möjang!), nether biomes(again thanks!!), and savanna passive mobs (meerkats incoming!?).
I really like this idea! I've always thought that the End ought to be next on Mojang's list of parts of the game to revamp; (1.18, perhaps?), and currently there isn't much available for modding it- (At least for forge.) This is definitely something I never would have thought of- and it seems like it would add some interesting and creative new mechanics, as well as a welcome new challenge for the outer isles. On a more aesthetic note, this sounds like it would certainly match the alien-wasteland vibe of the end.
...I'm not personally that concerned about the Elytra mechanics, and not all in favor of that idea- but the new biome itself sounds really creative! I can imagine an endermite and ant infested network of floating nests, interconnected by organic growths and filled with twisted tunnels... It could be an interesting mechanic if these new creatures could infest blocks in a way similar to silverfish. In my opinion, the infestation mechanic is way underrated- and could be used to force players to explore areas with valuable loot rather than simply drilling straight through them.
That said, I do like your mechanics for the Ants. Unfortunately, we're also getting Termites in game, which I feel like would pretty much take up any niche that Ants could potentially have. Perhaps they could be revised into another creature for the End, and then Carapace could receive another purpose... Don't know. I like the direction of Ants, but I think they need some changes.
But why would you compare it based on iron armor? It'll be about as much work to get the carapace set as it will to get netherite armor, so it should be compared with that.
Netherite with elytra: 12 armor, 9 toughness
Full carapace armor: 15 armor, 4 toughness, can enchant chest slot
Without enchants, it seems pretty balanced. The carapace will protect better against weak hits, while netherite will protect better against strong hits. I think the damage value where they'd offer the same protection is pretty high though, perhaps about as high as a Vindicator hit. Also, carapace can be enchanted. So perhaps the total armor of the set should be reduced.
Here's an idea: lower the chestpiece armor by 2 and the leggings by 1 (both now have 4 armor), and the full set has the same armor as netherite with elytra, less toughness, but can enchant the chest.
Rarity does not equal balance. If rarity did equal balance, then armored elytras would be balanced simply because of how End Cities with ships are both rare and post-Dragon.
If an item is rare but powerful to the point where other people cannot counter it without another copy, then it isn't properly balanced. Consider the impact on PvP servers if there was a set as powerful as iron that also allowed you to fly and could be enchanted.
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The power of Netherite also dulls how powerful iron armor actually feels due to it being stronger than diamond. Diamond is strong. Netherite is a bit stronger. But that doesn't mean iron is weak by any means.
Take a look at this site I found. It calculates how much damage an attack would deal and includes both armor and armor toughness. A 20-damage attack would deal:
-in Iron: 16.0 (20% reduction)
-in Diamond: 8.0 (60% reduction)
-in Netherite: 7.2 (64% reduction)
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Carapace is tougher to calculate, but a mixed set of a Diamond Helmet, Diamond Chestplate and Chain Leggings (no boots) fits the same as the OP. The updated one is also very tricky since the site only works in set values, but a Leather Cap and Tunic combined with Iron leggings and Diamond Boots also provide 12 armor and 2 armor toughness, so they'll do.
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-in Carapace: 13.3 (35% reduction)
-in updated Carapace: 16.8 (16% reduction)
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So your suggestion only has a four percent difference between itself and iron. You may think "well, an attack wouldn't reasonably be that strong." So how about a weaker one? 10 damage for Netherite Axes or Diamond Swords with Sharpness 5, perhaps?
-Iron: 6.0 (40% reduction)
-Diamond: 3.0 (70% reduction)
-Netherite: 2.8 (72% reduction)
-Carapace: 5.3 (47% reduction)
-Updated Carapace: 6.8 (32% reduction)
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Even with the nerfs, 33% damage reduction is nothing to scoff at. But wait, you can enchant them.
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That means you can put Protection 4, Unbreaking 3 and Thorns 3 on everything. With Unbreaking 3, any durability downsides are countered as the durability is effectively tripled. Each Protection 4 adds 4% reduction (not toughness), so one piece with that will not only counter the nerfs you made but also give it effectively another half-armor unit icon. A full set will nearly reach 20 armor units, and then it's only slightly worse than Diamond. Plus with Thorns, you'll punish people for attacking you, forcing them to fight you from a distance.
That doesn't make any sense. Netherite armor already exists. As the carapace is comparable to Netherite in terms of getting the armor, it should be compared with Netherite in terms of using the armor. If PVP servers don't want items this powerful, they can remove netherite OR carapace armor. But Netherite is barely stronger than Diamond anyway, so if a PVP server really doesn't want stuff this strong, what they actually need to do is remove Diamond armor.
There is definitely a lot of work to do in trying to balance the extra enchant space with elytras not having it. I'm not sure what exactly is the difference it'll make, but that's what we should be talking about. Because carapace armor is as hard to get as netherite armor, it should be designed to be similar in power to netherite armor. That DOES make sense, because netherite armor DOES exist in the game.
Why? Is there no foreseeable way to add a weakness to balance out the effect? Why does elytra necessarily need to put a big hole in a player's defenses?
Why? Is there no foreseeable way to add a weakness to balance out the effect? Why does elytra necessarily need to put a big hole in a player's defenses?
Because it grants flight... that's why it necessarily puts a hole in the player defense. That's the deal--armor for flight. I don't think there needs to be compromises made halfway between the two, particularly because unless we want to start employing highly contrived mechanics filled with exceptions and double standards on when and how certain mechanics should be applied, then even a relatively low armor rating on Elytra could lead to pretty broken combat scenarios. The flight penalty is going to be of negligible impact, too, in the scenarios where combining armor and elytra would be an issue, particularly since it's not exactly difficult to mass-craft Fireworks.
Is there no possible way to put Armor on Elytra? I don't know. There may be, but I'm yet to see a suggestion that isn't one of the same three rejected ideas told in slightly different ways
Perhaps there could be a way to balance it out by giving a carapace armor set some sort of alternative ability that makes it useful in the end and/or as a late game armor set similar to elytra, but filling a different niche.
To be fair, I do think there's a good reason we can't wear elytra with chestplates- it's a trade off, but to be clear Reaver said pretty bluntly that it should be difficult to equip elytra and a chestplate at the same time. ...I don't really think you should be able to wear armor with elytra- however, that doesn't mean that any new material or armor set would be completely useless. There are numerous other ways a new armor set could be utilized to serve some sort of new aspect of gameplay. ...That being said, I'm not entirely sure what that new aspect might be- it really depends on how hard carapace is to get once you're actually in the end, though, considering that it is the end, it's already going to be pretty rare.
-One idea is that carapace could be an additional upgrade to Netherite- offering some sort of special boon, like making it easier to enchant.
-Carapace armor could provide the player with a sort of hover feature that would act as significantly more controlled flight than elytra, but would not be at all as helpful for covering long distances. This could be themed after the insects themselves.
-Perhaps carapace has some other weird/helpful special abilities that help players navigate in the end- such as a helmet that prevents endermen from attacking, but doesn't obscure your view like a pumpkin.
Again, these are far less full fledged ideas than me trying to make a point that there's more than one way to implement more content- an entire idea shouldn't hit the shredder just because one aspect of it seems a bit unbalanced.
That doesn't make any sense. Netherite armor already exists. As the carapace is comparable to Netherite in terms of getting the armor, it should be compared with Netherite in terms of using the armor. If PVP servers don't want items this powerful, they can remove netherite OR carapace armor. But Netherite is barely stronger than Diamond anyway, so if a PVP server really doesn't want stuff this strong, what they actually need to do is remove Diamond armor.
As I said, Netherite is very strong. By comparison, iron doesn't look very strong. But when you compare it to diamond, a material that's in the middle, then suddenly iron doesn't seem too far off. It's like how buildings work in real life. Brick buildings hold up better than wooden buildings. Concrete buildings are even stronger. So naturally, concrete makes logs look pathetic in comparison, even though logs are by no means weak structurally.
That's also what my whole analysis of armor rating was for. Full iron reduces a 10-damage hit to 6 damage. That's nearly a 50% reduction, and it's without armor toughness. You're suggesting essentially iron armor with armor toughness. And as I already showed, mathematically it isn't much weaker than iron. But when you take enchantments into effect, suddenly it becomes stronger and stronger until it eventually renders the point of armored elytras that slow you down to balance it pointless.
Why? Is there no foreseeable way to add a weakness to balance out the effect? Why does elytra necessarily need to put a big hole in a player's defenses?
Then you made the thread without understanding the opposition. The Elytra gives you mobility. Mobility in combat is massive. You can fly away when at low health or when low on supplies and return before the opposition can do the same, assuming they don't have Elytra of their own. Or you can fly in to pick off weaker targets without giving them a chance to escape. You can snipe them from a distance then rush in with an axe.
Imagine if players could have 33% damage reduction and the ability to swoop in on weakened targets without them having a chance to escape. Is that balanced? And before you say anything about Netherite being stronger (ignoring the existence of diamond yet again), consider that Potions of the Turtle Master exist. Level 2 reduces damage taken by 80% but slows you down by roughly 90%.
Imagine that same 6.6 damage reduced to just about 1 and a half hearts, but the movement speed penalty is negated due to flight.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Watch out for the crabocalypse. Some say the day will never come. But it will.
Feel free to drop by for a chat whenever.
If you'd like to talk with me about other games, here are a few I play.
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands series (Borderlands 2 is my favorite game, ever. TPS combat is a lot of fun and makes up for the lower-quality story, in my opinion)
Elder Scrolls series
Warframe (IGN is something like That_One_Flesh_Atronach)
Pokémon series (HGSS forever)
Rocket League
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead 2 (Boomer files always corrupt though)
SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)
Dead Rising series (Dead Rising 2 is one of my favorite games, and the 3rd was a lot of fun. 1st has poor survivor AI and the 4th is bad)
Just Cause series
Come to think of it, I mainly play fighting-based games.
I think it would be cool to have a biome in The End which would consist of colonies of the floating islands strung together with organic paths created by these ender ants which would have vast colonial structures stretching across the entire biome. The ants would be neutral mobs which would move around slowly in lines, and if attacked, nearby ants would move to intercept the attacker. They would occasionally drop pieces of carapace which could be used to create the new carapace armor, and the carapace armor would add more options for balancing elytra flight with defense, as well as granting a neat unique armor appearance.
The carapace chestpiece could be combined with an elytra to make a winged carapace chestpiece. Either version would have 6 armor points (same as iron armor) and 1 toughness, but the winged carapace would have a -50% penalty to flight energy, meaning flying while wearing only this piece will cause firework rockets to grant only half of the acceleration, which will be further reduced by gravity. You could fly with just this armor, but flight would be significantly more difficult. But that is the price you pay for defending your chest slot.
The other pieces of carapace armor also have the same amount of armor as iron: 2 each for helmet and boots, and 5 for leggings, and each piece also grants toughness 1. The boots and helmet would also grant a +15% bonus to flight energy, and the leggings would grant a +20% bonus to flight energy. These bonuses would not affect the armor's ability to be enchanted. With full carapace armor, the flight energy penalty of the chestpiece would be completely nullified by the other pieces combined. This armor gives the player a way to balance defense with flight capability, no longer being forced to lose 8 armor points just to be able to fly.
For comparison, here is the total defensive and flight attributes of various armor arrangements:
Full netherite: 20 armor, 12 toughness, no flight
Full diamond: 20 armor, 8 toughness, no flight
Full iron: 15 armor, no toughness, no flight
Diamond with elytra: 12 armor, 6 toughness, 100% flight energy
Netherite with elytra: 12 armor, 9 toughness, 100% flight energy
Diamond with winged carapace chest: 18 armor, 7 toughness, 50% flight energy
Netherite with winged carapace chest: 18 armor, 10 toughness, 50% flight energy
Netherite helmet and boots with winged carapace chest and legs: 17 armor, 8 toughness, 70% flight energy
Diamond legs with winged carapace chest, boots, and helmet: 16 armor, 5 toughness, 80% flight energy
Full carapace armor with wings: 15 armor, 4 toughness, 100% flight energy
The total defense of diamond/netherite with elytra versus full winged carapace is similar: the carapace has more armor and less toughness. But if you experiment with other combinations of armor, you can get the balance of defense and flight energy that you want.
- - - - -
The ender ant colonies would have vast mounds full of tunnels (much like a typical cave system) running throughout the larger islands, and these tunnels and the surface of their island would be largely covered in a block that looks like end stone merging with some kind of organic material. These blocks could be harvested with a shovel to be used as a decorative item, and they would break much more slowly than dirt, more like normal wood or stone speed. Jutting out from the island would be stalks of some thick material which would make bridges out to other nearby islands within the biome. If two large islands are connected, they may have several thick bridges going across between them. Sometimes a thin narrow bridge will be jutting out to connect to any smaller islands. The bridge material would be another decorative block which can be mined best with an axe, but would be slow to break just like end stone. The ender ants would form chains and move throughout these tunnels or along these bridges. In the event that two ender ant chains cross paths, they can run along the side or even bottom of the blocks in order to pass each other.
The ants would be farming some kind of vegetation. The ant colonies would take up a good fraction of the space in their biome, but a lot of it would be a wilderness containing the vegetation that they seek. My idea for this vegetation is a vourd, a melon-like plant which produces a fruit which looks like a block of void, but I'll leave this part open. It's not important what they are farming, just that they are farming something. The ants will trek out into these wilderness areas within their biome in order to seek these plants. They will often be seen milling about in the wilderness. If they stumble upon the plant they seek, they may harvest it and carry the fruit in their jaws and return to the nest. The plant will survive and produce another fruit eventually. Deep inside the ants' nests are chambers containing ant queens as well as piles of these fruits stashed in there. If you try to harvest the pile of fruits inside the ant colony, it will provoke them to attack. Harvesting plants or fruit in the wilderness does not provoke the ants.
The ants will automatically replenish their numbers by eating the fruit (much like villagers), with their population cap determined by how many queens they have around. The player can breed ants by feeding fruit to several ants as well as to the ant queen. All of the other ants will mate with the ant queen, and she will eventually produce one baby ant for each ant bred with her, up to some limit (like 16 maybe). Sometimes one of the baby ants will be a baby queen. This baby queen will naturally grow up into a normal ant, however if fed enough fruit she will progress through extra growth stages and eventually become an ant queen.
If an ant is killed, it drops 0-1 units of carapace. The drop chance consists of a table of: 0, 0, 1, 1 and each level of looting adds a 2 to the table, so at looting III the table is: 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, meaning you will get no drops 2/7ths of the time, 1 drop 2/7ths of the time, and 2 drops 3/7ths of the time.
Average carapace drops per ant are as follows:
No looting: 0.5
Looting I: 0.8
Looting II: 1.0
Looting III: 1.142857
Each piece of carapace must be cooked in a furnace to process it, and 9 processed carapace is put on the crafting table to make 1 piece of armored carapace. You can then make armored carapace pieces into armor following the normal armor recipe shape. The carapace chestpiece can be combined with an elytra on the anvil to make a winged carapace chestpiece.
Each piece of carapace armor can be enchanted just the same as normal armor, except for the chestpiece. A non-winged chestpiece can be enchanted just like a normal armor, including doing it on the enchanting table. A winged chestpiece can be enchanted with books, but it will have one extra crafting action applied to it due to being combined on the anvil. This can potentially limit its crafting and enchanting capacity. Overall, this enables the chest slot to not only have defenses, but to also have enchantments that you cannot put on an elytra.
I want
ocean content(thanks Möjang!),nether biomes(again thanks!!), and savanna passive mobs (meerkats incoming!?).I like the idea of essentially making the Elytra "heavier" and reducing its velocity/momentum in exchange for protection, but adding a new set that's stronger than iron (due to toughness) that also negates the flight penalty renders the whole point redundant. I'd stick to just the chestplate and make it slightly weaker than iron in exchange for being combinable with the Elytra whilst doing so makes the Elytra heavier and lowers its acceleration rate in addition to making it fall faster and possibly increasing smack damage.
The ants sound fine to me at the moment.
Watch out for the crabocalypse. Some say the day will never come. But it will.
Feel free to drop by for a chat whenever.
If you'd like to talk with me about other games, here are a few I play.
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands series (Borderlands 2 is my favorite game, ever. TPS combat is a lot of fun and makes up for the lower-quality story, in my opinion)
Elder Scrolls series
Warframe (IGN is something like That_One_Flesh_Atronach)
Pokémon series (HGSS forever)
Rocket League
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead 2 (Boomer files always corrupt though)
SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)
Dead Rising series (Dead Rising 2 is one of my favorite games, and the 3rd was a lot of fun. 1st has poor survivor AI and the 4th is bad)
Just Cause series
Come to think of it, I mainly play fighting-based games.
But why would you compare it based on iron armor? It'll be about as much work to get the carapace set as it will to get netherite armor, so it should be compared with that.
Netherite with elytra: 12 armor, 9 toughness
Full carapace armor: 15 armor, 4 toughness, can enchant chest slot
Without enchants, it seems pretty balanced. The carapace will protect better against weak hits, while netherite will protect better against strong hits. I think the damage value where they'd offer the same protection is pretty high though, perhaps about as high as a Vindicator hit. Also, carapace can be enchanted. So perhaps the total armor of the set should be reduced.
Here's an idea: lower the chestpiece armor by 2 and the leggings by 1 (both now have 4 armor), and the full set has the same armor as netherite with elytra, less toughness, but can enchant the chest.
I want
ocean content(thanks Möjang!),nether biomes(again thanks!!), and savanna passive mobs (meerkats incoming!?).I really like this idea! I've always thought that the End ought to be next on Mojang's list of parts of the game to revamp; (1.18, perhaps?), and currently there isn't much available for modding it- (At least for forge.) This is definitely something I never would have thought of- and it seems like it would add some interesting and creative new mechanics, as well as a welcome new challenge for the outer isles. On a more aesthetic note, this sounds like it would certainly match the alien-wasteland vibe of the end.
...I'm not personally that concerned about the Elytra mechanics, and not all in favor of that idea- but the new biome itself sounds really creative! I can imagine an endermite and ant infested network of floating nests, interconnected by organic growths and filled with twisted tunnels... It could be an interesting mechanic if these new creatures could infest blocks in a way similar to silverfish. In my opinion, the infestation mechanic is way underrated- and could be used to force players to explore areas with valuable loot rather than simply drilling straight through them.
Cooking with Mindthemoods ~ Biomes ~ Archeology
---
~ My Portfolio ~ Skindex ~ Test ~ Discs ~
Hard no on anything putting armor on Elytra
That said, I do like your mechanics for the Ants. Unfortunately, we're also getting Termites in game, which I feel like would pretty much take up any niche that Ants could potentially have. Perhaps they could be revised into another creature for the End, and then Carapace could receive another purpose... Don't know. I like the direction of Ants, but I think they need some changes.
Rarity does not equal balance. If rarity did equal balance, then armored elytras would be balanced simply because of how End Cities with ships are both rare and post-Dragon.
If an item is rare but powerful to the point where other people cannot counter it without another copy, then it isn't properly balanced. Consider the impact on PvP servers if there was a set as powerful as iron that also allowed you to fly and could be enchanted.
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The power of Netherite also dulls how powerful iron armor actually feels due to it being stronger than diamond. Diamond is strong. Netherite is a bit stronger. But that doesn't mean iron is weak by any means.
Take a look at this site I found. It calculates how much damage an attack would deal and includes both armor and armor toughness. A 20-damage attack would deal:
-in Iron: 16.0 (20% reduction)
-in Diamond: 8.0 (60% reduction)
-in Netherite: 7.2 (64% reduction)
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Carapace is tougher to calculate, but a mixed set of a Diamond Helmet, Diamond Chestplate and Chain Leggings (no boots) fits the same as the OP. The updated one is also very tricky since the site only works in set values, but a Leather Cap and Tunic combined with Iron leggings and Diamond Boots also provide 12 armor and 2 armor toughness, so they'll do.
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-in Carapace: 13.3 (35% reduction)
-in updated Carapace: 16.8 (16% reduction)
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So your suggestion only has a four percent difference between itself and iron. You may think "well, an attack wouldn't reasonably be that strong." So how about a weaker one? 10 damage for Netherite Axes or Diamond Swords with Sharpness 5, perhaps?
-Iron: 6.0 (40% reduction)
-Diamond: 3.0 (70% reduction)
-Netherite: 2.8 (72% reduction)
-Carapace: 5.3 (47% reduction)
-Updated Carapace: 6.8 (32% reduction)
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Even with the nerfs, 33% damage reduction is nothing to scoff at. But wait, you can enchant them.
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That means you can put Protection 4, Unbreaking 3 and Thorns 3 on everything. With Unbreaking 3, any durability downsides are countered as the durability is effectively tripled. Each Protection 4 adds 4% reduction (not toughness), so one piece with that will not only counter the nerfs you made but also give it effectively another half-armor unit icon. A full set will nearly reach 20 armor units, and then it's only slightly worse than Diamond. Plus with Thorns, you'll punish people for attacking you, forcing them to fight you from a distance.
Since I can't customize any more using that site, I'll be using this Google Sheets calculator instead. An armor rating of 15 with Protection 4 (so 4 EPF) would be effectively 19 armor rating plus the four Toughness. A 20-damage attack would do 11.2 instead, reducing the damage by 8.8 points. A 10-damage attack would do 4.48 (so 4.5), reducing the damage by 5.52 (so 5.5). That's about 50% reduction.
Watch out for the crabocalypse. Some say the day will never come. But it will.
Feel free to drop by for a chat whenever.
If you'd like to talk with me about other games, here are a few I play.
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands series (Borderlands 2 is my favorite game, ever. TPS combat is a lot of fun and makes up for the lower-quality story, in my opinion)
Elder Scrolls series
Warframe (IGN is something like That_One_Flesh_Atronach)
Pokémon series (HGSS forever)
Rocket League
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead 2 (Boomer files always corrupt though)
SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)
Dead Rising series (Dead Rising 2 is one of my favorite games, and the 3rd was a lot of fun. 1st has poor survivor AI and the 4th is bad)
Just Cause series
Come to think of it, I mainly play fighting-based games.
That doesn't make any sense. Netherite armor already exists. As the carapace is comparable to Netherite in terms of getting the armor, it should be compared with Netherite in terms of using the armor. If PVP servers don't want items this powerful, they can remove netherite OR carapace armor. But Netherite is barely stronger than Diamond anyway, so if a PVP server really doesn't want stuff this strong, what they actually need to do is remove Diamond armor.
There is definitely a lot of work to do in trying to balance the extra enchant space with elytras not having it. I'm not sure what exactly is the difference it'll make, but that's what we should be talking about. Because carapace armor is as hard to get as netherite armor, it should be designed to be similar in power to netherite armor. That DOES make sense, because netherite armor DOES exist in the game.
Why? Is there no foreseeable way to add a weakness to balance out the effect? Why does elytra necessarily need to put a big hole in a player's defenses?
I want
ocean content(thanks Möjang!),nether biomes(again thanks!!), and savanna passive mobs (meerkats incoming!?).Because it grants flight... that's why it necessarily puts a hole in the player defense. That's the deal--armor for flight. I don't think there needs to be compromises made halfway between the two, particularly because unless we want to start employing highly contrived mechanics filled with exceptions and double standards on when and how certain mechanics should be applied, then even a relatively low armor rating on Elytra could lead to pretty broken combat scenarios. The flight penalty is going to be of negligible impact, too, in the scenarios where combining armor and elytra would be an issue, particularly since it's not exactly difficult to mass-craft Fireworks.
Is there no possible way to put Armor on Elytra? I don't know. There may be, but I'm yet to see a suggestion that isn't one of the same three rejected ideas told in slightly different ways
Perhaps there could be a way to balance it out by giving a carapace armor set some sort of alternative ability that makes it useful in the end and/or as a late game armor set similar to elytra, but filling a different niche.
To be fair, I do think there's a good reason we can't wear elytra with chestplates- it's a trade off, but to be clear Reaver said pretty bluntly that it should be difficult to equip elytra and a chestplate at the same time. ...I don't really think you should be able to wear armor with elytra- however, that doesn't mean that any new material or armor set would be completely useless. There are numerous other ways a new armor set could be utilized to serve some sort of new aspect of gameplay. ...That being said, I'm not entirely sure what that new aspect might be- it really depends on how hard carapace is to get once you're actually in the end, though, considering that it is the end, it's already going to be pretty rare.
-One idea is that carapace could be an additional upgrade to Netherite- offering some sort of special boon, like making it easier to enchant.
-Carapace armor could provide the player with a sort of hover feature that would act as significantly more controlled flight than elytra, but would not be at all as helpful for covering long distances. This could be themed after the insects themselves.
-Perhaps carapace has some other weird/helpful special abilities that help players navigate in the end- such as a helmet that prevents endermen from attacking, but doesn't obscure your view like a pumpkin.
Again, these are far less full fledged ideas than me trying to make a point that there's more than one way to implement more content- an entire idea shouldn't hit the shredder just because one aspect of it seems a bit unbalanced.
Cooking with Mindthemoods ~ Biomes ~ Archeology
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As I said, Netherite is very strong. By comparison, iron doesn't look very strong. But when you compare it to diamond, a material that's in the middle, then suddenly iron doesn't seem too far off. It's like how buildings work in real life. Brick buildings hold up better than wooden buildings. Concrete buildings are even stronger. So naturally, concrete makes logs look pathetic in comparison, even though logs are by no means weak structurally.
That's also what my whole analysis of armor rating was for. Full iron reduces a 10-damage hit to 6 damage. That's nearly a 50% reduction, and it's without armor toughness. You're suggesting essentially iron armor with armor toughness. And as I already showed, mathematically it isn't much weaker than iron. But when you take enchantments into effect, suddenly it becomes stronger and stronger until it eventually renders the point of armored elytras that slow you down to balance it pointless.
Then you made the thread without understanding the opposition. The Elytra gives you mobility. Mobility in combat is massive. You can fly away when at low health or when low on supplies and return before the opposition can do the same, assuming they don't have Elytra of their own. Or you can fly in to pick off weaker targets without giving them a chance to escape. You can snipe them from a distance then rush in with an axe.
Imagine if players could have 33% damage reduction and the ability to swoop in on weakened targets without them having a chance to escape. Is that balanced? And before you say anything about Netherite being stronger (ignoring the existence of diamond yet again), consider that Potions of the Turtle Master exist. Level 2 reduces damage taken by 80% but slows you down by roughly 90%.
Imagine that same 6.6 damage reduced to just about 1 and a half hearts, but the movement speed penalty is negated due to flight.
Watch out for the crabocalypse. Some say the day will never come. But it will.
Feel free to drop by for a chat whenever.
If you'd like to talk with me about other games, here are a few I play.
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands series (Borderlands 2 is my favorite game, ever. TPS combat is a lot of fun and makes up for the lower-quality story, in my opinion)
Elder Scrolls series
Warframe (IGN is something like That_One_Flesh_Atronach)
Pokémon series (HGSS forever)
Rocket League
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead 2 (Boomer files always corrupt though)
SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)
Dead Rising series (Dead Rising 2 is one of my favorite games, and the 3rd was a lot of fun. 1st has poor survivor AI and the 4th is bad)
Just Cause series
Come to think of it, I mainly play fighting-based games.