Alathra:Essentials of Alathra

The world of Alathra contains more features than regular players might be accustomed to. This article serves as a general introduction into various mechanics that might not be intuitive at first glance, with links to guides with further details on each topic.

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Important for beginners

In addition to the large amounts of content Alathra adds to base-game Minecraft, some big changes have been made to divert from the standard end-game scene achieved in many geopolitical servers. These changes include:

• No Mending

Mending is a notoriously difficult enchantment to balance for multiplayer environments:

• It undermines resource-based economies by removing the need for crafting and engraving materials. Players with Mending gear are less likely to trade or collaborate, as they no longer require replacement tools or repairs.
• It eliminates the need for a player to interact with a large part of gameplay. Crafting armor, weapons and tools is part of the natural progression that a server with a medieval theme would want to uphold.
• It enables groups to wage war with noticeably lower costs to equipment. Newcomers are inherently disadvantaged without Mending, as the progression curve gets steepened. Everyone becomes incentivized to get Mending, creating a meta that further worsens the previously mentioned issues.

It is likely that Mending was originally added to remedy the shortfalls of traditional anvil repairs. When we first removed Mending, Alathra customized anvils to allow equipment to be repaired indefinitely, but in the latest instance, usage of anvils have been completely replaced by repair kits.

• No elytra

Enabling flight is not applicable for a medieval-themed server, for reasons related to combat, wars and player transportation.

• No villager trading

In the similar vein that Mending encourages a specific meta (see above), villager trading also incentivizes a more secluded economy and a way to skip a big part of progression that we find necessary in a medieval-themed server. As the amount of villagers in any world is limited, it also opens up possibilities for monopolies and advantages that are hard to balance against.

• No naturally generated netherite

For its value as the highest-tier metal in the game, we felt that past a certain threshold, acquiring it became too trivial. Netherite will only be obtainable through custom interactions such as quests.

Gameplay

Essential plugins