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Leather mechanics need an update

I propose the following changes to leather mechanics in Minecraft.

  • Rabbits should drop 0-1 Small Hide, unaffected by Looting
  • Llamas and Hoglins should drop 0-1 Large Hide, unaffected by Looting
  • Cows, Mooshrooms, Donkeys, Horses, and Mules should drop 0-2 Large Hide, unaffected by Looting
  • Small Hide and Large Hide should be craftable into 1 and 2 Leather respectively
  • This Leather item would retain all current Leather functionality

Here’s how this would impact the game.

  • Leather armor would become a viable option for early game survival Minecraft. To make a full set of leather armor, a player would now need to kill an average of only 12 cows, not 24. (The restriction on Looting prevents this from becoming OP in the late game)
  • Rabbit Hide – now Small Hide – would become useful as individual items, not just in sets of four.
  • The inconsistency between Rabbits having a specialized "hide" drop while other mobs have a generalized "leather" drop would be fixed

Thank you very much for reading my idea!

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15 Comments

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  • 3
    Registered User commented
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    More mobs should drop a form of leather - as you said, leather isn't viable earlygame.

    However, I'd say that killing horses wouldn't be a good idea. Maybe every farm animal (excluding horses) could drop hide. Yep, even pigs. It's not like they've got any other use.

  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    I try to minimize adding extra features in my idea posts, focusing instead on adjusting what is already in the game. That's why I discuss horses, cows, and rabbits - as you know, they are the only three creatures that drop leather in some form right now. 

    Having more mobs drop leather is a good idea in theory but it also changes up the game more, which is why I avoided suggesting it here. Also, while pigs certainly could drop leather, what other animals could? Probably not chickens or sheep, which already drop feathers and wool. Thoughts?

    Edit: apparently llamas also drop leather; my post has been updated accordingly.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    If your goal is to make leather armor a reasonable early game item, then all animals should drop some form of hide.  But to simplify it, why not have small hide, medium hide, and large hide?  Cows, llamas, and horses drop large hide.  Pigs and sheep drop medium hide.  Rabbits and chickens drop small hide.  Large hide is crafted into 4 leather, medium into 3, and small into 1.  I know you said you didn’t want to change more than the animals that already drop leather here, but I think a proper leather reform needs to include all animals.

    Pigs still have the short end of the stick, dropping only meat and hide and one less leather per hide than cows.  But they have the benefit of having a food source that is easier to grow.  Wheat only ever drops one wheat, while carrots, potatoes, and beetroot can each drop multiples.

  • 0
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    @ClayGoddessSari I could nitpick about not liking having chickens drop leather but by and large I really like the direction of your ideas

  • 1
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    I would also personally not include chickens as dropping hide.  I just thought it would be simpler to have all animals drop hide, rather than all animals except chickens.

  • 3
    Registered User commented
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    This comment is a copy and paste of a post I made before finding this post.

    Cows would be changed to drop, rather than 0-2 Leather, one Leather. It doesn't make much sense for a Cow to drop multiple entire cow skins. Now that Cows would drop less Leather, the item would be buffed by making it craft eight Leather Strips.

    These Leather Strips would then replace the regular Leather item in crafting recipes, making Leather Armor much more accessible and more likely to be used early-game.

  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    This is how I usually start the game: Run to a tree, knock down 4 chunks of it, make a wood pickaxe, dig down, harvest 3 stones, make a stone pickaxe, dig down further, find iron, make an iron pickaxe, find more iron, make iron armor parts.

    THIS - IS - WAY - TOO - EASY !!! And this also is the reason why noone uses leather clothing.

    You are definetely right, leather is absolutely underappreciated, I as good as never use leather clothing! My gameplay described above destroys the complete earlygame in under 5 minutes.

    There is a second reason why noone uses leather: It does not compare in attributes to iron parts, it is worse in every single aspect. Some change suggestions (feel free to make new posts out of them):

    - If a player could not swim any more once wearing iron parts, but only jump 2 or 3 blocks high under water instead (maybe depending on how many iron parts he is wearing), suddenly almost everybody would start making a "swimming suit" of leather parts and at least keep it in the ender chest.

    - Another alternative would be giving iron part users a speed decrease - lowered movability (when using iron leggins instead of leather leggins) or slower attack speed (attack regeneration speed, the little grey bar) (when using iron armor) would be more than enough reasons to consider changing gear.

    - A third alternative would be the ability to have higher enchantments (protection V) on leather only (but at a much lower probability), or even higher unbreaking levels which would give the leather items at least durability comparable even to diamond equipment.

     

  • 5
    Registered User commented
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    Leather should be made viable by allowing it to extend the duration of potion effects and leather armour becomes invisible when using an invis potion.

    Leather armour and potions are too aspects of minecraft that are very underused. One way to make potions more useful is to extend the duration but to prevent it being OP this is limited to happen only while wearing only leather armour. The more pieces of leather you wear the longer the effect increases. 4 pieces of leather = 4x duration length. The potion soaks into the leather making the effect last longer.

    The effect is that leather armour becomes useful late game. Potions become more useful. And, this adds an interesting alternative way to play, rather than having to use diamond you could use potions and leather and play by avoiding mobs like a thief or rogue style.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    @Martin Welbourne  what about dangerous potions like poison?

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    in order to not add new items, rabbit hide should be renamed to rawhide. So, rabbits drop 1 rawhide and bigger animals drop more. one rawhide  + something can be crafted to one leather.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Fred Nick That's a superb idea, I hadn't thought of the word "rawhide". I might change my idea to that if you don't mind

  • 0
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    MacchuPicchu96 Sure

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    leondsl that will affect gameplay too much, and in a bad way. If this were to be added, people would easily die while fighting drowneds or guardians.

  • 1
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    What if you could 'dye' leather armour with an invisibility potion to add transparency as the colour? Transparent leather armour would allow you to wear armour while invisible but not be detected by mobs.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Great idea. All farm mobs drop or be used for 2 things. Cow milk and meat, sheep wool and meat, rabbit meat and hide, horses you can mount them and leather, llamas can wield chest and drop leather but pigs.... you can mount them almost for joke, but no real use other than meat. Pigs must drop leather too, or another item that can be crafted into leather.