Alright, so my friend and I were talking about enchanting today and we agreed that it feels very lackluster. The random aspect makes for grinding levels and hoping you get what you want, which we don't like. The anvil allows for you to assemble an item with enchantments you want, but the experience required becomes unbelievably ridiculous and it seems a bit awkard as well.
So we started talking about how you could fix enchanting, what you could do to make it less random but still possibly balanced. Everything wouldn't just be pump as much experience in as you can and hope for the best, that feels really unpolished. Instead we started devising a system that took experience as well as certain materials so that you could custom enchant anything you want. No more random Bane of Arthropods IV on your brand new diamond sword when you wanted to go fight blazes in the nether. I mean sure you can still get it if you want, maybe you want to get level 2 and go fight some cave spiders with your steel sword.
So we started by looking at the weapon enchants and here's what we came up with.
For example; smite require some experience levels (we were thinking 5 per tier level of whatever enchantment you're putting on, possibly more for the more powerful enchants like looting and knockback) and then bones. I mean, that makes way more sense to me, you want to enchant something to kill the undead, throw some bones on that and hit the road.
So that's the basic idea, still requires some level grinding, and it's still balanced, but you can use materials to choose what enchantment you want.
We came up with a simple overview of the xp + items cost:
Sword Enchants
Sharpness: 5 levels of xp per tier + Flint (4, 8, 16, 32, 64)
Smite: 5 levels of xp per tier + Bones (4, 8, 16, 32, 64)
Bane of Arthropods: 5 levels of xp per tier + String (4, 8, 16, 32, 64)
Knockback: 10 levels of xp per tier + Gunpowder (16, 32)
Fire Aspect: 10 levels of xp per tier + Blaze powder (16, 32)
Looting: 10 levels of xp per tier + Emeralds** (10, 20, 30)
Armor Enchants
Protection: This one's a bit more complicated. It would still be 5 levels of xp per tier, then you would add more of whatever material you made the armor out of (leather for leather, etc.), but as the rarity of the materials increases it would get very expensive. So we thought you would require different amounts for each type of armor.
Leather (4, 8, 16, 32)
Gold (2, 4, 8, 16)
Iron (4, 8, 16, 32)
Chain (use iron 4, 8, 16, 32)
Diamond (2, 4, 8, 16)
Fire Protection: 5 levels of xp per tier + Blaze powder (4, 8, 16, 32)
Feather Falling: 5 levles of xp per tier + Feathers (8, 16, 32, 64)
Blast Protection: 5 levels of xp per tier + Gunpowder (8, 16, 32, 64)
Projectile Protection: 5 levels of xp per tier + Arrows (8, 16, 32, 64)
Respiration: 5 levels of xp per tier + Ink sacs (4, 8, 16)
Aqua Affinity: 5 levels of xp + Clay** (16)
Tool Enchants
Efficiency: 7 levels of xp per tier + Flint (4, 8, 16, 32, 64)
Silk Touch: 10 levels of xp + Slimeballs (16)
Unbreaking: 5 levels of xp per tier + the same material used to make the tool (2, 4, 8)
Fortune: 10 levels of xp per tier + Emeralds (10, 20, 30)
Bow Enchants
Power: 5 levels of xp per tier + String (4, 8, 16, 32, 64)
Punch: 5 levels of xp per tier + Gunpowder (16, 32)
Flame: 10 levels of xp + Blaze powder (16)
Infinity: 20 levels of xp + Ender pearls** (16)
** = open to alternate items/input
So you see what we're going for now, it doesn't make getting things way too easy, and it makes it possible for you to plan enchantments. All of these are obviously up for discussion on the numbers and possibly some of the items (ender pearls/emeralds/clay).
We also think that the anvils need a serious overhaul as they repair really awkwardly, especially for weak low leveled things where they require way more than the enchant took in the first place just to repair them. I don't really think this needs a rework, more of a rebalancing.
EDIT: I also forgot to add that we wanted to try to keep it simple and try to remain vanilla, so we don't require a boat load of single use items added into the game just so you can use a feature that existed before, we just wanted the system to use what was already available in Minecraft to help make enchanting less random
We also forgot to think about how the bookshelf system would work, we mulled it over and came up with an idea. Since you only need 15 bookshelves to get max enchants currently, (I think) then it could just require you to have 1 bookshelf for every 2 xp levels you have, that way it would require more bookshelves for higher enchants.
It's a pretty good overhaul, but there are a few things I take issue with.
Smite should be glowstone dust. It doesn't make sense to fight the undead with bones, the glowstone's angelic feel is better suited. Bane of Arthropods should also be something else, for the same reason as above. Don't know what though. Possibly slime balls, because of roach motels.
Fire Protection should be water buckets, coating yourself with blaze powder wouldn't be much help. Blast Protection should be wool. Lining one's armor with explosives would not help defend against explosions. Projectile Protection should be clay. Arrows stuffed under your armor is just absurd.
Silk Touch should be feathers. There's nothing delicate about a slime ball. Unbreaking Exists to so you don't have to expend as much material on an item. The way you have it makes it next to pointless. String would make a bit more senes, as would slime balls, as I can picture using those to hold something together.
But in all reality, what we're doing is not what you're describing. You're thinking of how you would make it if it was at a crafting table, where things combine to do someing. This is magic enchantments, where additives are input to signify the type of enchant, not where you craft the item to make it enchanted.
You also can't have a stack of buckets to make it harder to get fire protection. We're trying to keep this balanced and somewhat hard to get.
So we started talking about how you could fix enchanting, what you could do to make it less random but still possibly balanced. Everything wouldn't just be pump as much experience in as you can and hope for the best, that feels really unpolished. Instead we started devising a system that took experience as well as certain materials so that you could custom enchant anything you want. No more random Bane of Arthropods IV on your brand new diamond sword when you wanted to go fight blazes in the nether. I mean sure you can still get it if you want, maybe you want to get level 2 and go fight some cave spiders with your steel sword.
So we started by looking at the weapon enchants and here's what we came up with.
For example; smite require some experience levels (we were thinking 5 per tier level of whatever enchantment you're putting on, possibly more for the more powerful enchants like looting and knockback) and then bones. I mean, that makes way more sense to me, you want to enchant something to kill the undead, throw some bones on that and hit the road.
So that's the basic idea, still requires some level grinding, and it's still balanced, but you can use materials to choose what enchantment you want.
We came up with a simple overview of the xp + items cost:
Sword Enchants
So you see what we're going for now, it doesn't make getting things way too easy, and it makes it possible for you to plan enchantments. All of these are obviously up for discussion on the numbers and possibly some of the items (ender pearls/emeralds/clay).
We also think that the anvils need a serious overhaul as they repair really awkwardly, especially for weak low leveled things where they require way more than the enchant took in the first place just to repair them. I don't really think this needs a rework, more of a rebalancing.
EDIT: I also forgot to add that we wanted to try to keep it simple and try to remain vanilla, so we don't require a boat load of single use items added into the game just so you can use a feature that existed before, we just wanted the system to use what was already available in Minecraft to help make enchanting less random
We also forgot to think about how the bookshelf system would work, we mulled it over and came up with an idea. Since you only need 15 bookshelves to get max enchants currently, (I think) then it could just require you to have 1 bookshelf for every 2 xp levels you have, that way it would require more bookshelves for higher enchants.
Smite should be glowstone dust. It doesn't make sense to fight the undead with bones, the glowstone's angelic feel is better suited.
Bane of Arthropods should also be something else, for the same reason as above. Don't know what though. Possibly slime balls, because of roach motels.
Fire Protection should be water buckets, coating yourself with blaze powder wouldn't be much help.
Blast Protection should be wool. Lining one's armor with explosives would not help defend against explosions.
Projectile Protection should be clay. Arrows stuffed under your armor is just absurd.
Silk Touch should be feathers. There's nothing delicate about a slime ball.
Unbreaking Exists to so you don't have to expend as much material on an item. The way you have it makes it next to pointless. String would make a bit more senes, as would slime balls, as I can picture using those to hold something together.
You also can't have a stack of buckets to make it harder to get fire protection. We're trying to keep this balanced and somewhat hard to get.