End Islands are personally one of the best decisions Mojang could have made in recent years. It added more depth to the game, and arguably more fun with the edition of the Elytra. However, these islands are quick to abandon. It feels just like the old Nether, fun to visit but dull and empty.
My creative idea this Rev was to try and survive solely in the End, with only the most basic of survival materials at disposal and an eternal challenge to survive with a world so barren and foreign from the rest of the game.
It has been a blast so far, and has given me a bit of insight as to how the end can be improved. The Good Stuff
So, what exactly is fun about living in the End? It's mighty barren, and the lack of the most essential of materials may make it difficult to survive.
This is exactly why it is fun. In my experience, I have had to trade valuable end items for extremely common Overworld items, with perhaps some overworld riches thrown in. For instance, I needed a book and quill, and because of the infuriating difficulty of travel between the two worlds (my bed is far from the portal) I was willing to give 3 emeralds for such a simple item. I think this division from the overworld and need for trade is exactly the kind of thing to be emphasized with various changes to the End.
So, what can change?
The best way to encourage trade is to put more in the End that players want, and to further restrict the access to the Overworld from the End. My ideas are simple:
Add emerald ore to rarely spawn inside the End Islands, but more frequently than the Overworld.
The concept behind this is that Emeralds are pretty difficult to find in the Overworld. They are restricted to Plains biomes, and are more rare than diamonds, and pretty early on in the rev they can be tedious to get. By putting emeralds in the End, you present another viable option to get Emeralds, as well as a valuable and difficult activity to do in the End: mining for emeralds with a high possibility of falling to your death. They could be made more frequent at the bottom of End Islands, to still have a challenge but present an option to those who may take it.
When you return from the End, you are returned to spawn rather than your bed.
A player's need for trade is greatly removed if there is easy travel to and from the End. If a player can easily travel, the value of overworld items is massively diminished, as it's easy to get them. I think it would make sense to have players return to spawn for many reasons. One, is that it makes sense according to the game. What happens after "The End"? Would it not make sense to be teleported right back to the beginning? It also adds a bit of catharsis after a brutal fight with the dragon, as the travel back will likely not be difficult, rather peaceful, to an experienced player. It might be a wise idea to inform people of this, as it may be disaster if a person didnt write down their home coords.
While we are thinking green, slime?
As a final suggestion, slime is another consistently valuable item that could be implemented into the End's design. Maybe random "bubbles" of slime blocks could appear on the surface of end islands spread far from each-other?
Structures
As a separate note, End islands are pretty bland. I think adding structures to it in the same way that structures in the OW are added could add a small bit of flair to the existing land.
That's all folks! I hope some of these ideas could be incorporated next rev!
