Archived Add Elytras Back

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The title says it all, but I think it's time to bring Elytras back to the survival worlds of MassiveCraft.

They've been gone for over a year. And a lot of the discussion of bringing them back has dropped off to near nonexistent. So I think it's time to talk about them again. With ya know, a whole year going by and all.

I personally enjoyed them for flying around the worlds and visiting bases I didn't have close transportation to at hand, and flying to abandoned bases with the dynamic map to do some looting. The biggest reason they got removed in my understanding is that they were broken in PVP. I never personally used them in PVP, because I was not PVPing at the time (blame a crappy laptop that gave me unplayable frames for PVP).

I would personally test them now and record a video for all, but I can't, on account of them being disabled.

These are the two relevant threads on the forums discussing elytras and PVP:
https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/combat-tag-elytra.54258/
https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/pvp-builder-survival-friendly-fly-mode.60383/

This is a relevant comment by @Omnomivore from the first thread I linked above.

I recall discussing this suggestion with Gethelp previously. It would be possible to combat tag Elytra (prevent people with a combat flag from taking off with them) but if they were already flying and combat tagged it is impossible to stop them from flying (so you can't shoot someone in the air and have them plummet to the ground). We may bring this suggestion up to the Direction department for review.

I'm not sure what to make of parts of the statement above, since if it was brought to Direction staff for consideration, a decision to the best of my knowledge was never handed down to the player base.

As a solution to the issue of them being labeled as overpowered in PVP, the proposed combat tagging of the item is in my view the best solution. Once someone is combat tagged, do not allow the elytra to be equipped. You could also toy around with the idea of once someone becomes combat tagged, the item automatically becomes unequipped. Yes, this would mean if you were in the air and got shot with a bow you could plummet to your death, but it does offer a degree of risk when using an elytra to take off from an active battle with enemies outside looking for you. If someone with an elytra manages to escape to an area where they feel confident they won't be shot at, teleporting out is vastly safer if their goal at that time is simply to escape to safety.

Either elytras should be used only to fly into and out of a fight with the great risk of being shot down (combat tag unequips item in this solution), or elytras should just not be able to be used once combat tagged (combat tag prevents the elytras from being equipped once combat tagged in this solution).

I think it's just time to give some consideration to adding them back. Anything that spices up PVP is not a bad thing. If it's obvious it's broken upon adding it back, find a fix, but don't remove them. Fixes are the way to solve the issue, not completely removing the broken element and never revisiting it.

@MorgothTheDark @Zacatero
 
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regarding rockets: i think they're very important to elytra fun. i like to use the elytra to visit and admire other peoples factions, and to get to high up building locations without having to nerd-pole. without rockets its not possible to get the inertia required to get high enough to continue a tall build (or cut down a massive tree from the top without leaving an ugly flying mess).
^^ Agreed
 
if i could choose i would choose this option:

the same as backpacks, elytra automatically disable upon player damage. maybe this could make for fun scenarios where someone is flying around and then you shoot them out of the sky like duckhunt, once your arrow hits them, their elytra is suddenly disabled and they just fall.

regarding rockets: i think they're very important to elytra fun. i like to use the elytra to visit and admire other peoples factions, and to get to high up building locations without having to nerd-pole. without rockets its not possible to get the inertia required to get high enough to continue a tall build (or cut down a massive tree from the top without leaving an ugly flying mess).
I believe gethelp deemed this impossible. They COULD limit taking off as pvp active but couldnt stop you from flying if you already were
From what I gather they could make equipping them while PVP tagged impossible, but I'm not sure about removing them if you become PVP tagged. If added back I'd like to see them removed if you become PVP tagged (into your inventory). If someone planning to use an elytra as a form of escape from PVP, I feel like they might also use it to fly into the person's base they are raiding. If they can be shot out of the sky if they just fly in a straight line and don't bother to avoid arrows then I feel it should be fairly balanced.

If they make it so you can't use it when you're PVP tagged, if I raider wants to escape with it they would still have to avoid the defenders for the 30 seconds it takes to get PVP inactive again, then use the elytra to escape. Seems balanced.

Note - I do want to avoid a raider stopping mid fight and managing to equip and elytra and just rocket away. That seems a bit unfair. But if a raider manages to get away from the defenders for long enough to go PVP inactive, they should be able to choose if they want to /tp out or elytra out. I feel if they're elytra'ing out they're just getting out to hide and reset and then raid some more.
 
regarding rockets: i think they're very important to elytra fun. i like to use the elytra to visit and admire other peoples factions, and to get to high up building locations without having to nerd-pole. without rockets its not possible to get the inertia required to get high enough to continue a tall build (or cut down a massive tree from the top without leaving an ugly flying mess).
When I first used elytras and rockets it was to fly around the world and visit builds I saw on the dynamic map that I thought looked cool but didn't want to run all the way there. So I do see the purpose for elytras outside of PVP, since that's what I used them for first. (I have never used elytras in PVP, so I'm looking at that aspect from the outside and trying to suggest the most balanced approach)