With 1.14, villages are now frequently under attack. It's annoying to continually lose good traders in a big village; it makes sense that they should be more defensible. Here is my take on this often posted suggestion. I request the reader to consider the entire suggestion before voting.
Before we lay down the reasons for their existence, let's define the village guard real quick. A village guard is a villager wearing blue robes, a chainmail tunic, and armed with a crossbow. They have similar combat behavior, attack damage, and HP to a Pillager, but slowly regenerate health (1 half-heart per 4 seconds). Now that we're clear on what they are, let's establish why they're useful and a good addition.
First: Iron Golems are poorly designed to protect large villages. Even with perfect AI, the Iron Golem moves slowly, and villages are big, especially in 1.14. When raids and zombie sieges happen, the Golem just can't respond to the whole horde at once, unless it happens to luckily catch them when they spawn. The same is true for the player; you can't be everywhere at once. Guards (unlike Golems) make sense being numerous in a village, and since all villagers can sprint, they can react to attacks quickly. If they take losses, creating new guards by giving villagers crossbows would also be easier and less frustrating than laboriously building new Iron Golems.
The Golem itself wouldn't be useless with Guards, since it's perfect for fighting single, big monsters (like Ravagers and heavily-armed players that attack villages), while the Guards are better at effectively fighting mobs of light enemies like zombies and Pillagers.
Second: Armorers and Weaponsmiths now have a reason to exist beyond the player. We can assume that the villagers were just sort of doing their thing alone before the player showed up; hence, someone had to use what these professions made. Furthermore, guards provide a common, natural appearance of chainmail, an otherwise disused tier.
Third: Guards provide extra utility beyond simply defending villages naturally. For example: By building an archery tower or "turret" of sorts, you can set a Guard up on top and have him guard an area. People already do this with Snow Golems; the possibilities are endless regarding their utility use, especially in multiplayer. Other ideas include "hiring" them with emeralds to follow you like a tamed wolf; this, again, would be highly useful in multiplayer or when you want to organize defenses for your base or village.
As a post script:
Villagers are pacifistic, and so I think it's perfectly reasonable that they shouldn't go to war, or employ knights with big armor, or any of that. But it's clear that the Villager species understands what crossbows are (after all- Pillagers use them, and no undead do, so it's fair to assume they're made by testificates) and a lot of their threats are just plain evil raiders or mindless, hungry undead monsters. Even when they're attacking the player, it's only because the player attacked them first!
Guards are strictly defensive mobs to protect the Village; if the Villagers can build huge living statues to crush their attackers, crossbow-toting militia doesn't seem so far out.
With 1.14, villages are now frequently under attack. It's annoying to continually lose good traders in a big village; it makes sense that they should be more defensible. Here is my take on this often posted suggestion. I request the reader to consider the entire suggestion before voting.
Before we lay down the reasons for their existence, let's define the village guard real quick. A village guard is a villager wearing blue robes, a chainmail tunic, and armed with a crossbow. They have similar combat behavior, attack damage, and HP to a Pillager, but slowly regenerate health (1 half-heart per 4 seconds). Now that we're clear on what they are, let's establish why they're useful and a good addition.
I like the description of the village guard. His description- from the blue robes to the crossbow- appears to be an inversion of the pillager. However, I do not think villages should have villager guards. Your three points will have to convince me otherwise.
First: Iron Golems are poorly designed to protect large villages. Even with perfect AI, the Iron Golem moves slowly, and villages are big, especially in 1.14. When raids and zombie sieges happen, the Golem just can't respond to the whole horde at once, unless it happens to luckily catch them when they spawn. The same is true for the player; you can't be everywhere at once. Guards (unlike Golems) make sense being numerous in a village, and since all villagers can sprint, they can react to attacks quickly. If they take losses, creating new guards by giving villagers crossbows would also be easier and less frustrating than laboriously building new Iron Golems.
The Golem itself wouldn't be useless with Guards, since it's perfect for fighting single, big monsters (like Ravagers and heavily-armed players that attack villages), while the Guards are better at effectively fighting mobs of light enemies like zombies and Pillagers.
Here you argue that guards are necessary because Iron Golems are not prepared to properly defend the village. This is a False Dilemma Logical Fallacy, where you argue there are only two options and two options only to solve the problem- those being:
Let the Villagers continue to die under the Iron Golem's ineffective defense.
Add Guards who will properly defend the Village for us.
The problem with this argument is I can see a different, third option: buff Iron Golems so that they can better respond to raids. Their damage to projectiles could be reduced. The number of Iron Golems could be increased, or alternatively, what if the armorers and weaponsmiths run to their anvils and have a custom animation... before a number of additional Golems are spawned in. Which is starting to lead me into the second point- but first I want to rap up here.
The weaknesses of Iron Golems is a valid reason to support Villager Guards, but because there are other ways to circumvent the problem it cannot be the primary reason for implementing them.
Furthermore, do you think it is possible Mojang purposefully made the raids challenging so that you would have to defend the villages? Think about it. Iron Golems should not be able to defend the village by themselves- for the game's balance they must lose the fight without the player and win the fight with the player. So perhaps this "problem" was intentional.
Second: Armorers and Weaponsmiths now have a reason to exist beyond the player. We can assume that the villagers were just sort of doing their thing alone before the player showed up; hence, someone had to use what these professions made. Furthermore, guards provide a common, natural appearance of chainmail, an otherwise disused tier.
I like this reason... but it's a minor lore thing. Has no impact on gameplay whatsoever. I can best attribute it to the icing on a cake- not something you want your cake/argument to have for its foundations. Luckily, you happen to have one final point that does significantly impact the game...
Third: Guards provide extra utility beyond simply defending villages naturally. For example: By building an archery tower or "turret" of sorts, you can set a Guard up on top and have him guard an area. People already do this with Snow Golems; the possibilities are endless regarding their utility use, especially in multiplayer. Other ideas include "hiring" them with emeralds to follow you like a tamed wolf; this, again, would be highly useful in multiplayer or when you want to organize defenses for your base or village.
This is a real, valid point I like. Having Guards defend bases with their crossbows would be super useful on multiplayer, and even for singleplayer- you could have them stand near you while you build or whatever. Here is how I would implement the "hiring" feature:
You can trade for your very own bell with the Cleric for a hefty price. I'm thinking either a dozen diamond blocks or a wither skeleton skull, depending on your luck. You may place the bells wherever, and all nearby guards upon hearing the ding will move towards that general area and defend. You could build them up onto turrents as long as they are in this say... 64 x 64 square diameter around the bell. They will wander around "patrolling" and abandon the former village for this new "assignment".
To get them to a faraway bell, you'll have to sorta cheat and use boats. That is the only way I can think of it without it becoming broken. You can't just have Guards following you into a cave and when you get in danger setting up a temporary bell. The Guards need time to adjust and will only defend; they never go on the offense with you.
As a post script:
Villagers are pacifistic, and so I think it's perfectly reasonable that they shouldn't go to war, or employ knights with big armor, or any of that. But it's clear that the Villager species understands what crossbows are (after all- Pillagers use them, and no undead do, so it's fair to assume they're made by testificates) and a lot of their threats are just plain evil raiders or mindless, hungry undead monsters. Even when they're attacking the player, it's only because the player attacked them first!
Guards are strictly defensive mobs to protect the Village; if the Villagers can build huge living statues to crush their attackers, crossbow-toting militia doesn't seem so far out.
True, it isn't out of the question. Maybe the Guards are even scared of fighting and will run from the Ravager? The Golems take on the ravagers while they take on the pillagers.
Overall I was initially opposed to this suggestion, but once you brought up their extra utility I could not think about the ways to use them, and I found my opinion turned around.
I like the description of the village guard. His description- from the blue robes to the crossbow- appears to be an inversion of the pillager. However, I do not think villages should have villager guards. Your three points will have to convince me otherwise.
The Pillager-like design of the Guard is by design. A crossbow enables the Pillager to raid without necessarily being harmed himself, and similarly allows the Guard to pepper foes without committing to frightening melees. Additionally, it is a less skill demanding weapon than the bow, using mechanical energy and firing a straighter, faster bolt. Ultimately, it suits the villager species well.
Here you argue that guards are necessary because Iron Golems are not prepared to properly defend the village. This is a False Dilemma Logical Fallacy, where you argue there are only two options and two options only to solve the problem- those being:
Let the Villagers continue to die under the Iron Golem's ineffective defense.Add Guards who will properly defend the Village for us.
The problem with this argument is I can see a different, third option: buff Iron Golems so that they can better respond to raids. Their damage to projectiles could be reduced. The number of Iron Golems could be increased, or alternatively, what if the armorers and weaponsmiths run to their anvils and have a custom animation... before a number of additional Golems are spawned in. Which is starting to lead me into the second point- but first I want to rap up here.
This is an entirely valid point. The main issue of the Golem is not any combat ineffectiveness, but rather an inability to cover ground quickly in large, dispersed 1.14 villages. The offered alternative- numerous temporary Iron Golems appearing during a raid- would solve the ground coverage issue, but would also render the raid extremely easy as each Golem is enormously powerful. Finally, the Golem's design- in the vein of the Iron Giant or the Castle in the Sky robots- lends itself to a single, vast protector safeguarding a small community. This simply feels and balances strangely if there's a battalion of them walking around in a lone village. Compare to village guards- these are much more reasonably expectable to populate a village in greater numbers, are each more efficient at covering ground than a Golem, and are not so heavily powerful that more than one would break a raid effortlessly.
The weaknesses of Iron Golems is a valid reason to support Villager Guards, but because there are other ways to circumvent the problem it cannot be the primary reason for implementing them.
Furthermore, do you think it is possible Mojang purposefully made the raids challenging so that you would have to defend the villages? Think about it. Iron Golems should not be able to defend the village by themselves- for the game's balance they must lose the fight without the player and win the fight with the player. So perhaps this "problem" was intentional.
The player can't be made to realistically be everywhere at once. In the time during which a Golem impotently lumbers after a few Pillagers, the rest are busy slaughtering your maxed out traders. Unless you want to brick them in, or catch the raiders right at the outset (which is exceedingly rare), you won't be able to get out of it losslessly.
As raids spawn frequently near villages- depending on the borders (especially in large player made settlements), sometimes even inside of them- raids are not practically an optional feature. Inevitably one will happen, just like a zombie siege, and so it's good game design to offer a way to defeat these without guaranteeing frustrating setbacks with your skilled traders. Doing so should not be easy- but a creative defensive setup with guards in turrets, choke points, etc. could weather raids much more easily (and be more aestethically pleasing) than golem spamming or bricking villagers into their houses.
I like this reason... but it's a minor lore thing. Has no impact on gameplay whatsoever. I can best attribute it to the icing on a cake- not something you want your cake/argument to have for its foundations. Luckily, you happen to have one final point that does significantly impact the game...
Guards could be made to trade for various crossbows, arrows, and chainmail equipment, becoming another natural source for the latter as they themselves wear it.
This is a real, valid point I like. Having Guards defend bases with their crossbows would be super useful on multiplayer, and even for singleplayer- you could have them stand near you while you build or whatever. Here is how I would implement the "hiring" feature:
You can trade for your very own bell with the Cleric for a hefty price. I'm thinking either a dozen diamond blocks or a wither skeleton skull, depending on your luck. You may place the bells wherever, and all nearby guards upon hearing the ding will move towards that general area and defend. You could build them up onto turrents as long as they are in this say... 64 x 64 square diameter around the bell. They will wander around "patrolling" and abandon the former village for this new "assignment".
To get them to a faraway bell, you'll have to sorta cheat and use boats. That is the only way I can think of it without it becoming broken. You can't just have Guards following you into a cave and when you get in danger setting up a temporary bell. The Guards need time to adjust and will only defend; they never go on the offense with you.
I like the idea of the bell. Another idea in mind: making a horn out of one of the Ravager's could let you blow it and summon nearby guards (natural or bell-defending) to your position.
True, it isn't out of the question. Maybe the Guards are even scared of fighting and will run from the Ravager? The Golems take on the ravagers while they take on the pillagers.
It would be within their character, and advantageous to their survival, to pull back and retreat from the Ravager. Conversely, Iron Golems should seek the Ravager out itself within village grounds, as they are perfectly suited to taking it on.
Overall I was initially opposed to this suggestion, but once you brought up their extra utility I could not think about the ways to use them, and I found my opinion turned around.
Support.
I appreciate the detailed critique and the support.
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There's a small oversight in the suggestion: How many of the rules of "normal" Villager behavior would guards follow? That is, would they go to sleep, or would they stay awake during the night? What would be their Work Station? Would they count towards occupying the normal Villager housing, or would they have a separate cap? Would they spawn separately from "normal" villagers, or would they also be spawned naturally from villagers choosing a job upon maturing?
There's a small oversight in the suggestion: How many of the rules of "normal" Villager behavior would guards follow?
My mistake; thanks for catching these.
That is, would they go to sleep, or would they stay awake during the night?
Likely stay awake and continue "patrolling".
What would be their Work Station?
Some sort of guardhouse, small tower, or keep comes to mind as a rallying place. The specific block inside of this could be a marked armor stand, bullseye target, arrow container, or as fishg suggested, the village's Bell itself.
Would they count towards occupying the normal Villager housing, or would they have a separate cap?
I'd imagine counting toward the normal housing and functioning just like any other profession. A direct village cap wouldn't be ideal as this can hamper any defensive setups you want to create and works against massive player created villages.
Would they spawn separately from "normal" villagers, or would they also be spawned naturally from villagers choosing a job upon maturing?
Each village would have at least one or two at the start, guaranteed, and maturing villagers could choose it normally. As to allow the player to choose which professions he wants to recycle into a guard in a pinch, I'd leave further recruitment to handing villagers crossbows. After standing still for a while they'd become guards (this time limit in place to avoid spam recruiting them during a raid).
With 1.14, villages are now frequently under attack. It's annoying to continually lose good traders in a big village; it makes sense that they should be more defensible. Here is my take on this often posted suggestion. I request the reader to consider the entire suggestion before voting.
Before we lay down the reasons for their existence, let's define the village guard real quick. A village guard is a villager wearing blue robes, a chainmail tunic, and armed with a crossbow. They have similar combat behavior, attack damage, and HP to a Pillager, but slowly regenerate health (1 half-heart per 4 seconds). Now that we're clear on what they are, let's establish why they're useful and a good addition.
First: Iron Golems are poorly designed to protect large villages. Even with perfect AI, the Iron Golem moves slowly, and villages are big, especially in 1.14. When raids and zombie sieges happen, the Golem just can't respond to the whole horde at once, unless it happens to luckily catch them when they spawn. The same is true for the player; you can't be everywhere at once. Guards (unlike Golems) make sense being numerous in a village, and since all villagers can sprint, they can react to attacks quickly. If they take losses, creating new guards by giving villagers crossbows would also be easier and less frustrating than laboriously building new Iron Golems.
The Golem itself wouldn't be useless with Guards, since it's perfect for fighting single, big monsters (like Ravagers and heavily-armed players that attack villages), while the Guards are better at effectively fighting mobs of light enemies like zombies and Pillagers.
Second: Armorers and Weaponsmiths now have a reason to exist beyond the player. We can assume that the villagers were just sort of doing their thing alone before the player showed up; hence, someone had to use what these professions made. Furthermore, guards provide a common, natural appearance of chainmail, an otherwise disused tier.
Third: Guards provide extra utility beyond simply defending villages naturally. For example: By building an archery tower or "turret" of sorts, you can set a Guard up on top and have him guard an area. People already do this with Snow Golems; the possibilities are endless regarding their utility use, especially in multiplayer. Other ideas include "hiring" them with emeralds to follow you like a tamed wolf; this, again, would be highly useful in multiplayer or when you want to organize defenses for your base or village.
As a post script:
Villagers are pacifistic, and so I think it's perfectly reasonable that they shouldn't go to war, or employ knights with big armor, or any of that. But it's clear that the Villager species understands what crossbows are (after all- Pillagers use them, and no undead do, so it's fair to assume they're made by testificates) and a lot of their threats are just plain evil raiders or mindless, hungry undead monsters. Even when they're attacking the player, it's only because the player attacked them first!
Guards are strictly defensive mobs to protect the Village; if the Villagers can build huge living statues to crush their attackers, crossbow-toting militia doesn't seem so far out.
We're doing a mod project, check it out:
I like the description of the village guard. His description- from the blue robes to the crossbow- appears to be an inversion of the pillager. However, I do not think villages should have villager guards. Your three points will have to convince me otherwise.
Here you argue that guards are necessary because Iron Golems are not prepared to properly defend the village. This is a False Dilemma Logical Fallacy, where you argue there are only two options and two options only to solve the problem- those being:
The problem with this argument is I can see a different, third option: buff Iron Golems so that they can better respond to raids. Their damage to projectiles could be reduced. The number of Iron Golems could be increased, or alternatively, what if the armorers and weaponsmiths run to their anvils and have a custom animation... before a number of additional Golems are spawned in. Which is starting to lead me into the second point- but first I want to rap up here.
The weaknesses of Iron Golems is a valid reason to support Villager Guards, but because there are other ways to circumvent the problem it cannot be the primary reason for implementing them.
Furthermore, do you think it is possible Mojang purposefully made the raids challenging so that you would have to defend the villages? Think about it. Iron Golems should not be able to defend the village by themselves- for the game's balance they must lose the fight without the player and win the fight with the player. So perhaps this "problem" was intentional.
I like this reason... but it's a minor lore thing. Has no impact on gameplay whatsoever. I can best attribute it to the icing on a cake- not something you want your cake/argument to have for its foundations. Luckily, you happen to have one final point that does significantly impact the game...
This is a real, valid point I like. Having Guards defend bases with their crossbows would be super useful on multiplayer, and even for singleplayer- you could have them stand near you while you build or whatever. Here is how I would implement the "hiring" feature:
You can trade for your very own bell with the Cleric for a hefty price. I'm thinking either a dozen diamond blocks or a wither skeleton skull, depending on your luck. You may place the bells wherever, and all nearby guards upon hearing the ding will move towards that general area and defend. You could build them up onto turrents as long as they are in this say... 64 x 64 square diameter around the bell. They will wander around "patrolling" and abandon the former village for this new "assignment".
To get them to a faraway bell, you'll have to sorta cheat and use boats. That is the only way I can think of it without it becoming broken. You can't just have Guards following you into a cave and when you get in danger setting up a temporary bell. The Guards need time to adjust and will only defend; they never go on the offense with you.
True, it isn't out of the question. Maybe the Guards are even scared of fighting and will run from the Ravager? The Golems take on the ravagers while they take on the pillagers.
Overall I was initially opposed to this suggestion, but once you brought up their extra utility I could not think about the ways to use them, and I found my opinion turned around.
Support.
The Pillager-like design of the Guard is by design. A crossbow enables the Pillager to raid without necessarily being harmed himself, and similarly allows the Guard to pepper foes without committing to frightening melees. Additionally, it is a less skill demanding weapon than the bow, using mechanical energy and firing a straighter, faster bolt. Ultimately, it suits the villager species well.
This is an entirely valid point. The main issue of the Golem is not any combat ineffectiveness, but rather an inability to cover ground quickly in large, dispersed 1.14 villages. The offered alternative- numerous temporary Iron Golems appearing during a raid- would solve the ground coverage issue, but would also render the raid extremely easy as each Golem is enormously powerful. Finally, the Golem's design- in the vein of the Iron Giant or the Castle in the Sky robots- lends itself to a single, vast protector safeguarding a small community. This simply feels and balances strangely if there's a battalion of them walking around in a lone village. Compare to village guards- these are much more reasonably expectable to populate a village in greater numbers, are each more efficient at covering ground than a Golem, and are not so heavily powerful that more than one would break a raid effortlessly.
The player can't be made to realistically be everywhere at once. In the time during which a Golem impotently lumbers after a few Pillagers, the rest are busy slaughtering your maxed out traders. Unless you want to brick them in, or catch the raiders right at the outset (which is exceedingly rare), you won't be able to get out of it losslessly.
As raids spawn frequently near villages- depending on the borders (especially in large player made settlements), sometimes even inside of them- raids are not practically an optional feature. Inevitably one will happen, just like a zombie siege, and so it's good game design to offer a way to defeat these without guaranteeing frustrating setbacks with your skilled traders. Doing so should not be easy- but a creative defensive setup with guards in turrets, choke points, etc. could weather raids much more easily (and be more aestethically pleasing) than golem spamming or bricking villagers into their houses.
Guards could be made to trade for various crossbows, arrows, and chainmail equipment, becoming another natural source for the latter as they themselves wear it.
I like the idea of the bell. Another idea in mind: making a horn out of one of the Ravager's could let you blow it and summon nearby guards (natural or bell-defending) to your position.
It would be within their character, and advantageous to their survival, to pull back and retreat from the Ravager. Conversely, Iron Golems should seek the Ravager out itself within village grounds, as they are perfectly suited to taking it on.
I appreciate the detailed critique and the support.
We're doing a mod project, check it out:
Sounds good, villagers atm need some more defensive aspects. Idk what, but something is better that what they have now.
There's a small oversight in the suggestion: How many of the rules of "normal" Villager behavior would guards follow? That is, would they go to sleep, or would they stay awake during the night? What would be their Work Station? Would they count towards occupying the normal Villager housing, or would they have a separate cap? Would they spawn separately from "normal" villagers, or would they also be spawned naturally from villagers choosing a job upon maturing?
Suggestions:
New Death Animations. "Mr Amppl50, I don't feel so good" -fishg
Lead Ore
Wind revamp and hot air balloons.
My mistake; thanks for catching these.
Likely stay awake and continue "patrolling".
Some sort of guardhouse, small tower, or keep comes to mind as a rallying place. The specific block inside of this could be a marked armor stand, bullseye target, arrow container, or as fishg suggested, the village's Bell itself.
I'd imagine counting toward the normal housing and functioning just like any other profession. A direct village cap wouldn't be ideal as this can hamper any defensive setups you want to create and works against massive player created villages.
Each village would have at least one or two at the start, guaranteed, and maturing villagers could choose it normally. As to allow the player to choose which professions he wants to recycle into a guard in a pinch, I'd leave further recruitment to handing villagers crossbows. After standing still for a while they'd become guards (this time limit in place to avoid spam recruiting them during a raid).
We're doing a mod project, check it out:
Why didn't you consider adding guns from your earlier suggestions?
My suggestions: Enhancements - Throwable Fire Charges - On Phantoms and Elytra. Also check out The Minecraftian Language. This signature is not here to waste your space.