So I came up with an idea (that's, granted, hardly original, but I haven't seen it fleshed out yet), but I have zero experience (or interest) in modding, so if someone who's good at it want to give it a spin it would be awesome. We've seen the rise of interest in the Pokemon mod, but it is subject to copyrights law. Plus, we don't need pokemon, we already have awesome randomly generated monsters that could potentially fill infinite pokedexes. It's sad that the only interaction we get to have with them is capturing them and having them follow you and attack monsters sometimes. So here's my idea for an overhaul of the pet system. Remove all contact damage from hostile monsters. Assign one (or more) element to each pet based on a number of factors (the biome they spawn, them being aquatic/flying/terrestrial, their body parts, etc). Give pets a pool of semi-randomised (based on their body parts) attacks. One physical attack (that replaces them trying to "touch" the mobs). One elemental attack that matches their assigned element. One random utility skill (could be light, could be creating a slow or speed aura, attracting items to the player, being able to be mounted on etc. Add the ability for tamed pets to battle each other. I'm not sure how it could be done (that's more of a programming issue), but I theorise there could be specific blocks that could make them hostile towards other pets, so you could build an arena with those blocks and just throw your capture pods there. Allow for monsters to be larger or smaller than presently (and scale their physical damage accordingly). Most pets are generated with similar sizes. I wonder if there is a random scaling factor that could allow for them to spawn in any size, given a percentage limit (so they don't fill your entire screen and go funky with blocks). Add evolutions to pets. Randomly assigned evolutions (e.g. a random number of evolutions between 0 and 3) that make them larger in size and replace up to 2 body parts (which is basically what happens with pokemon when they evolve). Add capturable legendary monsters. These would have a unique set of skills, or one additional skill or one additional element. They would require more damage to capture, and could be made to flee, despawn or enrage (basically 1-shot you) when you failed to capture them. Add randomly generated pet trainers gymnasiums, and insignias. Kind of like you see random merchants on planets, but instead they are pet trainers and they give you a challenge mission in which you have to defeat their monsters. Then they can give you monster supplies, monsters or pixels as rewards. Gymnasiums would be generated dungeons with a boss-npc that would have you defeat their monsters and give you an insignia (a placeable furniture item) as a reward. Create supply items. Leashes so the pets don't get too far from you, better capture pods that allow you to capture full health pets, temporary buffs you can give to your pets that could make them more resistant to a certain type of element so you can have an easier time defeating the gym leaders, food buffs and/or collars that make them larger or smaller, etc. Breeding. Not pokemon inspired, but a neat idea. Instead of evolution, you would instead breed your pets that would basically combine pet characteristics based on a family-tree-probability akin to real genetics (if a parent and grandparent have the same characteristic (e.g. colour), then the child is 25% more likely to have it too). I understand some of these ideas may be very hard to implement, but it would add a TON of gameplay, and I'm sure some people would devote their time to it exclusively. Think about an infinite pokedex It would boost the entire character progression, especially if you have Frackin Universe installed, since you would want to visit more planets, and would need to be better geared to do so. I would do this myself, but I have no programming skills, and I don't really like programming lol. I can help with concepts, direction and some pixel art. This could be a big mod, and I'm prepared to support and help in any way I can.
