Crafting a very valuable item through use of components obtained from various aspects of MC gameplay

[buzzie71]

Here's a completely random and maybe still a bit unpolished concept description (probably lots of holes in the examples but hopefully the general concept will be made clear) - but I was thinking, what if an item highly advantageous (with caveats) to gameplay is introduced but it requires the crafting together of components that are gained from various methods?

 

Suppose the valuable item is something that could excel in a niche role of P gameplay - maybe a weapon that can one-hit KO any mob and can also kill admin doppels in a few swings (I know most of these are killed while safely boxed away, but as someone who enjoys MC fighting I can't help but dream ._.), or maybe it's a pair of feather falling (ridiculously high number) boots that mitigate a lot of fall damage, or a knockback 10 stick, or something.  Ideally it wouldn't be something ridiculously OP in terms of farming other very valuable items (so not a sword that always drops a wither skeleton head on killing one), but something that would be extremely valuable in a niche situation but still be broadly applicable to gameplay to be compelling for players to obtain (it should not just be a trophy item that sits in an item frame all late-rev long for example).

 

Suppose this item is only craftable by finding and assembling certain components - special items that are dropped very infrequently through different means and are (practically) useless on their own.  One could be found as a chance drop by killing certain mobs in a certain biome under certain conditions (eg. kill a Guardian while underwater in deep ocean, kill a regular zombie in a desert, or even kill custom mobs?), one could be found as a low-chance drop from mining certain blocks, one could be found as a chance catch from fishing, one could be found as an item that pops out of a furnace while it is smelting ore, one could be obtained from a sign placed somewhere in an obscure part of the map (with clues there?).  Methods that tie together all aspects of Minecraft gameplay and encourages some time spent in them - or, better yet, trade with players who specialize or spend a lot of time in them and come up with a surplus.

 

Care would have to be taken to ensure that automated methods of obtaining these components are foiled (eg. for the fishing component, maybe the drop chance is modulated to take into account missed catches, frequency of catches, etc. to distinguish player-controlled fishing from afking at an autofisher), and that acquiring one of each component alone is possible for independent players (though the time taken could be very long, and of course trading components or information with other players should drastically? cut down on the time spent).  As a personal preference I would also specify that acquisition of these components be more deterministic and rely less on random chance - though at the moment I can't think of a good way to do that without also preserving rarity.

 

Thoughts?  I wrote this mainly as a quick concept idea and not as a polished "padmins we really should get this nao!!1!!11!" proposal for imminent implementation, so if you find a lot of things wrong with this post, I can believe it :O

 

(As a tangential disclaimer if the components label sounds familiar - for a bit I played on another server where items also named "components" were widely sought to craft other items vital to gameplay, which is where I borrowed the label from - these were obtained differently over there compared to what I am proposing above.)

Edited October 23, 2016 by buzzie71