Hey all. Before I post, I am aware of the mods Anvil Enchanting and Simply Enchanting, which function similar to my request. These mods do not fix the vanilla enchanting system or seek to replace it, which is the goal of this post.
-Whats Wrong with Vanilla-
Vanilla Minecraft has certain enchantments- like Sharpness, Infinity, Mending and Fortune- are overpowered, while enchantments like Bane of Arthropods, Smite, Blast Protection, Projectile Protection and Knockback are either useless, or fill extremely niche roles that do not warrant use. Combining this with the fact that enchanting is a primarily random process- that takes a significant amount of experience levels and sugar cane to break into- it's a frustrating endeavor when your hard earned levels results in a diamond sword with Bane of Arthropods.
Aside this point, many enchantments are redundant, essentially doing the same thing for different tools. Fire Aspect, Flame and Fire Protection are the most obvious examples of this, alongside Aqua Affinity, Depth Strider and Respiration. For a game that places huge emphasis on player expression and creativity, Minecraft's enchantments are quite simplistic when they could be more universal. In order to make enchanting better, we need to fix both the mechanics associated with getting enchantments and the enchants themselves.
-Fixing Enchantments-
Minecrafts enchantments should be universal, not specific. Instead of having different flame-related enchants for each tool and armor type, there should be only one. An example is the new fire-based enchantment called Flame, and it would work on most pieces of equipment in the game, from fishing rods, shields, chestplates to pickaxes. Here are it's effects:
Flame Enchantment
-Pickaxe: Automatically smelts ore into ingots and mines stone as... well, stone.
-Shovel: Automatically smelts sand into glass.
-Sword: Sets enemies alight, including those caught in the sweeping strike of the sword (which will be visually colored orange).
-Axes: Automatically smelts wood into charcoal.
-Fishing Rod: Allows you to fish in lava, letting you catch a new type of obsidian-fish.
-Hoe: Allows you to right click crops to bonemeal them, at the cost of durability.
-Shield: Blocking a melee hit sets the enemy on fire, and lights arrows on fire that bounce off the shield.
-Helmet: Creates a constant light source around the player as they move.
-Chestplate: You cannot be set on fire and you take half damage from lava. You smoke when underwater.
-Leggings: You gain Speed 1 when in the Nether or when near natural sunlight.
-Boots: When sprinting, leaves behind a small trail of fire particles that damages enemies only while they walk over it, and you melt ice below you.
-Bow: Fires flaming arrows, as long as they aren't dipped in potions. Like vanilla Flame.
-If applied to any damage-dealing tool (shovel, pick, sword, axe, hoe) sets enemies on fire for a duration, alongside their regular effect.
-If applied to any mining tool (shovel, pick, axe, hoe) it will automatically smelt anything it breaks- as long as that block is what the tool is designed to mine, ie. axes cannot mine glass from sand, pickaxes cannot mine charcoal from wood logs.
Power Enchantment
-Pickaxe: Increased efficiency, mine obsidian much faster.
-Shovel: Increased efficiency, sand, gravel and dirt break instantly.
-Sword: Increased knockback and damage with sweeping attack (deals as much damage as 80% regular swing).
-Axes: Increased efficiency and critical hit damage (when jumping).
-Fishing Rod: Increased durability, range and hook mob pulling power.
-Hoe: Works in a 3x3 area instead of a single block.
-Shield: Knocks back enemies and arrows that you block.
-Helmet: Increased armor toughness and item/exp magnetism.
-Chestplate: Increased armor toughness and knockback immunity.
-Leggings: Increased armor toughness and sprint speed.
-Boots: Increased armor toughness and step height.
-Bow: Arrows fly straight and puncture multiple targets.
Aqua Enchantment
-Pickaxe: Mines blocks underwater as normal and every block mined underwater doesn't contribute to durability loss.
-Shovel:Mines blocks underwater as normal and every block mined underwater doesn't contribute to durability loss.
-Sword: Freezes enemies you strike- which stacks a few times- including anything hit by the sweeping effect (which is visually ice colored) .
-Axes: Mines blocks underwater as normal and any critical hit dealt adds the maximum stack of the freezing effect to the enemy hit.
-Fishing Rod: Increases yield fishing, so you may get multiple fish instead of one..
-Hoe: Any soil you till is magically fertilized- increasing crop yield- and can never be trampled.
-Shield: Enemies that hit you have a chance to become freezed (same as sword and bow) upon being blocked, and trails any projectiles with ice when shielded.
-Helmet: Allows you to breath underwater three times as long.
-Chestplate: You slowly regenerate health when submerged in water or when it's raining.
-Leggings: Allows you to move underwater faster than on land.
-Boots: Creates ice beneath your feet as you walk on water.
-Bow: Arrows fired are trailed with ice, which creates a freezing field wherever it lands, which adds freezing stacks, freezes water into ice & damages fire based enemies like Magma Cubes and Blazes.
Arcane Enchantment
-Pickaxe: Gain a chance for any ore you mine to drop 2 instead of one. This doesn't apply to any block ore drops, unless it's combined with Flame.
-Shovel: Bonus chance for any gravel you mine to have flint, alongside a chance to dig up treasures like diamonds, gold, equipment, enchanted books, etc.
-Sword: Your sweeping slash effect from a fully charged sword swing now fires off as a projectile, consuming some durability in the process. This only applies at maximum health.
-Axes: Cut down the entire tree when you break the bottom of it. Consumes durability associated with breaking the entire tree manually.
-Fishing Rod: Hooking an entity with the rod gives it a random potion effect, and you gain a chance to fish for rare magic items like potions, potion ingredients and enchanted treasure.
-Hoe: Bonus chance for any plant you break with the hoe in hand- including crops- to drop two instead of one.
-Shield: When your shield is up, gain immunity to magic damage (potions, certain mob attacks).
-Helmet: Grants bonus experience from all sources.
-Chestplate: Gain a shield of two hearts (yellow absorption hearts) that recharges out of combat.
-Leggings: Grants constant slow falling.
-Boots: Allows you to double jump.
-Bow: Fires between 1 - 2 extra arrows in roughly the same direction as your intended shot. Extra arrows do not consume ammo.
Now imagine that each tool can have anywhere from 0 to 3 of these enchantments on at the same time (Flame and Aqua are mutually exclusive, of course) depending on the type of material. Iron couldn't have any enchantments, Stone could have one, Diamond could have 2, wood could have 2 and Gold could have 3. This way, it's easier to balance the materials out. Iron is the mass produced, pretty good tool for durability and speed, but it's not magical at all. Stone is more magical, being made from unrefined materials, but can only fit maybe one enchantment early on. Wood could fit two for a more specialized tool you repair more often, while diamond would be a really good end game tool to enchant. Gold would be the end-all-be-all of tools, having a multitude of special effects to counteract it's low durability.
Keep in mind I spent an hour or so writing this up from scratch. I'm absolutely sure a team of professionals at Mojang can make something much better, more balanced, etc. My point is more to show that it's possible to give minecraft more interesting enchantments that don't need to be mutually exclusive. Once I realized there could be a single Fire enchantment for the entire gamee- that could give unique effects for every type of armor, tool and weapon- it seems almost silly thinking about the ways Mojang has split up Flame, Fire Aspect and Fire Protection.
-Fixing Mechanics-
Instead of each enchantment being random, instead, enchanting tables should consume resources from the game world. Let's take the Flame, Aqua and Arcane enchantments for example. For Flame, if you put some fire-related items (flint and steel, flame charge, bucket of lava, magma block, netherack, blaze powder, magma cream, gunpowder, blaze rod) into the enchantment slot, it would consume it. By consuming enough fire-related items, it would eventually create the enchantment, and with the appropriate # of character levels, place it on your desired tool.
Each item would have a different value that "charges" this enchantment more than others. Buckets of lava charge a decent amount, blaze rods a lot, gunpowder a bit, flame charges a ton, etc. This way, players have to explore the world and collect a variety of items in order to get enchantments. Much more interesting than just leveling up to 30 and hoping for the best.
With more enchantments, this means more options for items gaining uses. if there were a Holy enchantment- or something along those lines that did bonus damage to undead- it could use Quartz, Nether Stars, Bones, Rotten Flesh, Skeleton Heads, etc. The Arcane enchantment I created up above could use magical items like Lapis Lazuli, Gold Ingots, Emeralds, Diamonds, Glowstone, etc. Aqua could use Water Buckets, Ice Blocks, Coral, Hearts of the Sea, Lily Pads, Seagrass, Turtle Shells, Fish, etc.
The possibilities are endless... Including an Ender enchantment, that uses Ender Pearls, Shulker Shells, Chorus Fruit, End Stone, Purpur Blocks, End Chests, Elytra, etc. So many of the useless items in the game could have actual function by being made "fuel" for a variety of useful enchantments. Perhaps, in order to fully "charge" the enchantment, you'd need a variety of items, not just one in great quantity. It would give a great incentive for exploration, discovery, collecting and put more power in the player's hands, rather than chance.
Thank you all for reading. I hope somebody reads this and decides to mod this into the game at some point, as I have no clue how to mod Minecraft.
I like the general intent of this, it's like a consolidated vanilla enchanting mod.
Some of the ideas are overpowered. Power becomes even more useful than Sharpness or Power(bow). If someone offers to make this, I could fix things up here and there.
The main issue though, is the change to the tier system and enchanting mechanics. That's stretching the limits of still being "vanilla enchanting", and I suggest leaving an option that sticks a little closer to what exists.
Hey all. Before I post, I am aware of the mods Anvil Enchanting and Simply Enchanting, which function similar to my request. These mods do not fix the vanilla enchanting system or seek to replace it, which is the goal of this post.
Vanilla Minecraft has certain enchantments- like Sharpness, Infinity, Mending and Fortune- are overpowered, while enchantments like Bane of Arthropods, Smite, Blast Protection, Projectile Protection and Knockback are either useless, or fill extremely niche roles that do not warrant use. Combining this with the fact that enchanting is a primarily random process- that takes a significant amount of experience levels and sugar cane to break into- it's a frustrating endeavor when your hard earned levels results in a diamond sword with Bane of Arthropods.
Aside this point, many enchantments are redundant, essentially doing the same thing for different tools. Fire Aspect, Flame and Fire Protection are the most obvious examples of this, alongside Aqua Affinity, Depth Strider and Respiration. For a game that places huge emphasis on player expression and creativity, Minecraft's enchantments are quite simplistic when they could be more universal. In order to make enchanting better, we need to fix both the mechanics associated with getting enchantments and the enchants themselves.
Instead of each enchantment being random, instead, enchanting tables should consume resources from the game world. Let's take the Flame, Aqua and Arcane enchantments for example. For Flame, if you put some fire-related items (flint and steel, flame charge, bucket of lava, magma block, netherack, blaze powder, magma cream, gunpowder, blaze rod) into the enchantment slot, it would consume it. By consuming enough fire-related items, it would eventually create the enchantment, and with the appropriate # of character levels, place it on your desired tool.
Each item would have a different value that "charges" this enchantment more than others. Buckets of lava charge a decent amount, blaze rods a lot, gunpowder a bit, flame charges a ton, etc. This way, players have to explore the world and collect a variety of items in order to get enchantments. Much more interesting than just leveling up to 30 and hoping for the best.
With more enchantments, this means more options for items gaining uses. if there were a Holy enchantment- or something along those lines that did bonus damage to undead- it could use Quartz, Nether Stars, Bones, Rotten Flesh, Skeleton Heads, etc. The Arcane enchantment I created up above could use magical items like Lapis Lazuli, Gold Ingots, Emeralds, Diamonds, Glowstone, etc. Aqua could use Water Buckets, Ice Blocks, Coral, Hearts of the Sea, Lily Pads, Seagrass, Turtle Shells, Fish, etc.
The possibilities are endless... Including an Ender enchantment, that uses Ender Pearls, Shulker Shells, Chorus Fruit, End Stone, Purpur Blocks, End Chests, Elytra, etc. So many of the useless items in the game could have actual function by being made "fuel" for a variety of useful enchantments. Perhaps, in order to fully "charge" the enchantment, you'd need a variety of items, not just one in great quantity. It would give a great incentive for exploration, discovery, collecting and put more power in the player's hands, rather than chance.
Thank you all for reading. I hope somebody reads this and decides to mod this into the game at some point, as I have no clue how to mod Minecraft.
I like the general intent of this, it's like a consolidated vanilla enchanting mod.
Some of the ideas are overpowered. Power becomes even more useful than Sharpness or Power(bow). If someone offers to make this, I could fix things up here and there.
The main issue though, is the change to the tier system and enchanting mechanics. That's stretching the limits of still being "vanilla enchanting", and I suggest leaving an option that sticks a little closer to what exists.