tl;dr - By nerfing flint and increasing the drop rate of feathers from chickens we make arrows easier to obtain while not nerfing them to low level gear for noobs.
Yes, this precisely. The best aspect of the suggestion is that it's so easy to implement that it would be very simple to adjust. Too low or too high will give us the sweet spot where it belongs.
IF feathers are too hard to feasibly amass in Minecraft Survival, THEN the best solution is to make them drop a minimum of 1 feather and a maximum of 4 - 10 that can be adjusted to balance
I have taken another look at the OP, and the whole idea that feathers are all about arrows (true), that skeletons should not drop as many arrows (true), and the the whole issue of arrows can be solved by making feathers more common from chickens (false).
Very often you cannot find chickens.
I've spawned in ocean islands.
I've spawned in the middle of extreme hills with no chickens to find.
Chickens have an unusual property: You can't find them until you find lots of them. Once you find them, you can farm them and, unless time is a critical factor (a PVP game, for example), you have no shortage.
More than the lack of feathers from chickens, I'm claiming the real issue is the lack of dependable supply of chickens.
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
I have taken another look at the OP, and the whole idea that feathers are all about arrows (true), that skeletons should not drop as many arrows (true), and the the whole issue of arrows can be solved by making feathers more common from chickens (false).
Very often you cannot find chickens.
I've spawned in ocean islands.
I've spawned in the middle of extreme hills with no chickens to find.
Chickens have an unusual property: You can't find them until you find lots of them. Once you find them, you can farm them and, unless time is a critical factor (a PVP game, for example), you have no shortage.
More than the lack of feathers from chickens, I'm claiming the real issue is the lack of dependable supply of chickens.
For that I have no good answer.
Me neither. When I was just a lad back in 1.7...(goes into a tangent about the old animal spawning mechanics)...and that's why Jeb will never add bowties. Anyway, chickens are supposedly more common in certain biomes. I've noticed mostly cows in extreme hills, mostly pigs in jungles, and chickens and sheep in plains. There is more to it than that (you can read the wiki on animal spawn mechanics), but that's basically what you get. That's why you can pick off for arrows (and bows post-1.2).
Yes, this precisely. The best aspect of the suggestion is that it's so easy to implement that it would be very simple to adjust. Too low or too high will give us the sweet spot where it belongs.
I have taken another look at the OP, and the whole idea that feathers are all about arrows (true), that skeletons should not drop as many arrows (true), and the the whole issue of arrows can be solved by making feathers more common from chickens (false).
Very often you cannot find chickens.
I've spawned in ocean islands.
I've spawned in the middle of extreme hills with no chickens to find.
Chickens have an unusual property: You can't find them until you find lots of them. Once you find them, you can farm them and, unless time is a critical factor (a PVP game, for example), you have no shortage.
More than the lack of feathers from chickens, I'm claiming the real issue is the lack of dependable supply of chickens.
For that I have no good answer.
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(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
Me neither. When I was just a lad back in 1.7...(goes into a tangent about the old animal spawning mechanics)...and that's why Jeb will never add bowties. Anyway, chickens are supposedly more common in certain biomes. I've noticed mostly cows in extreme hills, mostly pigs in jungles, and chickens and sheep in plains. There is more to it than that (you can read the wiki on animal spawn mechanics), but that's basically what you get. That's why you can pick off for arrows (and bows post-1.2).