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Hey guys! This is my first suggestion, but I will try to make it as well-planned and explained as possible. I have searched through the forums and found a few other topics that have simply died on adding the aspect of falconry into the game. Usually, they failed due to being either wishlists or having poorly developed content.

That was a screenshot from a texture pack I am working on. Then I realized: "Actual owls would certainly be better than this fake rendering of them." So I developed my ideas, wrote them down, and tried to keep it tied to vanilla as possible. After all, there will always be the people who dislike a suggestion for a single out-of-place addition. (Note, when I use the term "raptor" in this thread, I am referring to predatory birds)


Basic Idea
Obviously, we don't need another aesthetic mob like basic owls flying around. So I thought of falconry. It could be an interesting, game-changing aspect to a game that some of the community sees as bland. With the addition of various birds of prey, and ways to control them, players could have another way of obtaining food and perhaps attacking enemies.
Added Mobs
I am not going to go into extreme detail, I am just setting out a basis here.

• Falcon: Darts across the sky in a jerky manner, somewhat less violently than how bats behave now. Much faster than owls, but deal only one heart of damage. Acts as an extension to the player, as maps will map out the locations that both you and your falcon are in.
• Owl: Active from dusk 'till dawn. They are slow and cumbersome at turning. Deals two hearts of damage when attacking. Due to the owls large, always alert eyes, endermen are scared of them and will run away.

Added Items/Blocks
I don't want to add much here, just enough to compliment the rest of the suggestion. (1.7.3 fans might get upset. )

• Nest: A naturally generated block. Drops sticks when broken. Will go into greater detail later in the post.
• Quiver (Standalone): Allows the player an improvement to archery that will be discussed further in the thread.
• Quiver/Gloves: Essentially a a hunter's dream gear. It allows a player the control over their birds as well as an improvement to archery. (Potential Crafting idea: It is crafted like a regular leather chestplate, except the middle piece of leather is replaced with a quiver. Can also combine a quiver with an existing leather chestplate)

Uses/Mechanics

Wild birds of prey would rely on the day/night cycle. While not technically having a hunger bar, every x-amount of minutes (good number is 3) they would attempt to 'hunt' a suitable prey (mob) by swooping down on them. It will instantly kill mobs smaller than itself, regardless of the mobs health.

When attacking, a random "yes or no" value is sent to the mob it is attacking. If "yes", the animal would run away in the same manner as if a player had hit it. It should also emit a screeching noise. Owls are exempt from this, as they are silent when they hunt. Currently there are only three animals that could be prey: chickens, bats, and fish (if actual models for fish are implemented, darn-it Jeb!).

At the end of their the day (Night for owls), a bird would search for a nest or fence within a 64 block radius of its position. If one is found, it will roost in it until day comes again. If no nest or fence is within that radius, a bird will simply find a leaf block to rest on and a nest block will spawn there. A bird will flee if a player moves moves the cursor in a jerky manner within a certain distance of it, similar to the AI cats use to detect this. (10 blocks, maybe?)

Taming a raptor should be "not entirely unlike" taming cats. A player places down a perch or waits where he sees an owl nearby. The owl will weight the possible places to rest for the day between the perch, fence-posts (lowered likelihood) , and any nests in the area. The player must stand very still near a perch, with the similar mechanics for taming cats. Now that a player can get close, he can tame it by right clicking it with leather (Like putting on straps and a hood). A texture change would happen, letting the player know it is now tamed.

When tamed, raptors will behave quite differently than wild ones. Similar to other tameable mobs, they will follow the player, resting when the player is not moving. Their preference of blocks to rest on might be something like this: Perch, Leaf, Grass, fence.

While wearing quiver/gloves armor, the player is allowed to right click areas to control their raptors. When aiming at a body of water, a tamed bird will swoop down with a chance of throwing a fish in the player's direction. (Credit to Islacrusez for fishing idea.) Aiming at an entity and right clicking will make the bird attack it. When a perch is right clicked, one of your birds will come down and a texture change will occur to show that the bird is strapped to the perch. Sometimes your birds will just be sitting there already, and right clicking will do the same thing. Right clicking it again will release the bird from the perch.

Wearing this armor gives the player a few distinct advantages in PVP/PVE. First off, instead of all these far-fetched, complicated ideas of switching between arrow types, the quiver would only do two things. When equipped, a spot in your inventory would be highlighted. This is your currently selected slot for arrows, allowing an easy way to implement more arrow types without adding more inventory space. Secondly, it would slightly decrease the time it takes to charge a bow and lessen the speed penalty while charging a bow.

As for the gloves in this piece of armor, they provide a simple yet intuitive way of controlling your raptors. When you right click while looking at an entity, your tamed birds will attack the target once. When used in combination with a bow, it allows for a completely new combat style. Please note that this is a SINGLE piece of armor. The down-side is that it provides even less protection than it's leather-chestplate counterpart, at only 1 of 20 armor points. Also, it cannot be enchanted like other pieces of armor.

New Combat Style Explained
As said earlier in the post, the quiver/gloves armor adds a second efficient way of combat (The other being a full set of enchanted diamond armor) when used with other pieces of gear. To be effective, a player must strafe to avoid other players shooting at him and use the knockback of their arrows to keep the other player away. Every time the player charges the bow and has his crosshairs over the other player, his tamed raptors will attack that targeted player once. After his birds are not in danger of being shot, the player lets loose an arrow and charges his bow again, repeating the process.

NOTE: With the addition of horses in the new snapshots, I really got to see how awesome my idea could be in tandem with them. Just imagine riding your horse towards someone as you fire arrows, all the while your falcons bearing down upon them in a deadly fashion!

Pros (compared to wearing a diamond chestplate):

• Well suited for long-range (and soon horseback) combat.
• Available somewhat-early on in the game (Leather)
• Suited to both offensive and defensive playstyles.
• Most importantly, isn't it fun to watch an Owl swoop down and scratch your enemies eye out?

Cons (Things to balance out the quiver/gloves):

• It isn't worth crafting a quiver/gloves as your first option, most players would choose armor points first so they can survive the night.
• Only 1 of 20 armor points, 7 less than a diamond chestplate
• Not enchantable
• Limits player to long range combat, because of the poor protection granted in melee combat.

">SNAPSHOT ADDITIONS[/size;">]
So, I will be making a small bullet list here whenever an addition in a snapshot has the potential to make something in this suggestion topic better.

• Use a leash to strap a falcon onto a perch.

Please, comment on this thread if you have any opinion about it, whether it be support for this or not.

(Congrats if you got the "Not entirely unlike" reference. )
[represent]

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BANNERS!]
The old one that took me less than five minutes to make.

[url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1759643-falconry/][img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-VBKvV1OxSew/UWHFFRxz41I/AAAAAAAAABQ/JaKwNoNWDmk/s527/FalconrySig.png[/img][/url]

[url="http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1759643-falconry/"][/url]
The newer one that is semi-decent, but still terrible.

[url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1759643-falconry/][img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4VNKYuvp94I/UWOBy74FbiI/AAAAAAAAACM/SjiCHvZwM1E/s700/FalconrySigTWO.png[/img][/url]

[url="http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1759643-falconry/"][/url]

//www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1759643-falconry/][/url]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/HcWGcoS.png[/IMG]

There are a lot more things to take into account and edit, now that 1.9 is coming out!
Plus I think Rabbits would make good food for the falcons.
Pick this back up and pull it together, it'll be awesome!

I might have missed it, but what is the use of the quivers? You stated that they improve archery, but how?

Quote from Glarnboudin»

Maybe you could breed your birds to create new species, your ultimate goal being some kind of mythical bird-maybe a thunderbird or simurgh.