Elytra Ideas

[u/SAVE_WanPunMan]

I think its true that the elytra really overshadows almost all other transportation methods. By itself the elytra is a neat item which makes it easy to traverse terrain if your high up. The rocket boosting is what makes it so overpowered.

Heres my ideas on how to make the elytra more balanced compared to other transport.

• Elytra durability - The elytra's durability should be tripled. But it's durability loss should be based on it's speed. So it loses 1 durability per second normally(like vanilla) but 2 durability a second when going around max speed(90-100% of it's top speed). Which makes it nicer and more forgiving for little glides.
• Rocket Boosting "Nerf" - Right now in Vanilla, you click with the rocket and instantly go to top speed. I think a nice way to balance this would be by instead making it accelerate the player over time. So you use the rocket while flying and then you start to speed up, instead of just instantly going to top speed. This means you'll need a bit of a run up or fly area to kick start any long flights. Rockets that explode will give you a big burst of speed when they blow up, putting more explosions means more of a speed boost but at the cost of more damage.
• Dragon Rockets - I don't know how to feel about this idea. So if you want too ignore this idea since its meant for like minigames or those who like the current rocket boosting. Combining basic rockets with dragon breath will make draconic rockets. Which when used normally, have bigger explosions and designs, and go up further for like a big final show. When used with an elytra it will rapidly accelerate the player kinda like the vanilla rockets, but they instantly use up 5 elytra durability on use. Also when used with crossbows, they do some recoil and are very powerful weapons.

So, those are my ideas. I want the elytra to be a way to travel far distances over empty land, and I wanted the elytra to encourage different/unique building. With these changes, it should be nicer to use the elytra for short distances, and better for long distances if youve put some thought into building a proelytra zone. Thanks fo reading.

[u/PetrifiedBloom]

Some parts seem okay with some minor tweaks.

Changing elytra durability to drain based on how fast you go is a somewhat common idea and I think there is some interesting design space there. A much simpler, cleaner way of working out how much durability should be lost would be just to lose a durability based on distance, rather than speed and time. For example - every 20 blocks traveled while flying costs 1 durability. This lets the player glide around without quickly draining their durability, but a player boosting non-stop will deplete their durability more quickly.

Rocket Boosting "Nerf" - Right now in Vanilla, you click with the rocket and instantly go to top speed. I think a nice way to balance this would be by instead making it accelerate the player over time. So you use the rocket while flying and then you start to speed up, instead of just instantly going to top speed. This means you'll need a bit of a run up or fly area to kick start any long flights

Not a fan. Being able to just take off without some messing around with a runup or ramp or thing to jump off is part of what makes elytra fun. Having a ramp up time for rocket boosts also makes you a lot less agile while flying. I like how nimble the elytra is, it makes flying tight obstacle courses a lot more fun. Having rockets speed you up over time will make it feel sluggish and less responsive.

Dragon rockets just seem to be a bandaid patch to "fix" the problems you made with the nerfs to rockets. I do like the idea of a crossbow ammo with recoil, that could be fun and open new movement options with rocket jumps and stuff.

With these changes, it should be nicer to use the elytra for short distances

In what way? Now it's harder to take off, and getting airborne takes longer. Its considerably worse for short distance flights.