More hostile mobs via new variants.

[bones]

Hello all!
I recently watched a playthrough of the "Minecraft is too easy" 1.6.4 fork mod. One thing I really liked was all the new Hostile mobs it added, so I'm making this post to suggest some new Mob variants of already existing mobs (talking about new mechanics entirely, not the asset pack feature). And to hopefully stimulate discussion regarding this. Feel free to reply with your own ideas or critique.

I find that BTA has already gone slightly in this direction with the inclusion of the Armoured Zombie and Snowman, so I don't feel its too out of place to suggest some new ideas. It spices up the game when the monsters are scary or unique in their mechanics/behaviour. And I'm even though the simplicity of monsters in Minecraft is apart of it's charm, we have been dealing with the exact same hostile mobs for over 15 years, and I think BTA has a genuine opportunity to add something new to the table.
I really feel like the underground/caves need more monsters to make it more dangerous/scary to go mining.

Also, I have made a post similar to this on the BTA discord regarding zombie pigman variants, here is that thread if you are interested: https://discord.com/channels/8669921713 ... 0548337665
I will not be discussing Zombie pigman variants here, as the Nether update is probably going to add new mobs as opposed to changing current ones.

I don't necessarily believe all my suggestions below should be added, that would be too much. They are just ideas showing the potential of this concept.

Game design foundation:
-Textures and models of the mobs should not change between different variants, so making textures for them is easier. (You could have a new texture for the variants that applies an overlay to the mob's texture. For example, you could have red eyes over any mob variant texture using this. Or maybe even and opaque colour overlay to indicate difference/"specialness".)
-The mobs should not necessarily be hard as balls, or too easy.
-Variants should not be of different sizes. This is annoying.
-They should be different enough so the player has to deal with them in a new way, or see them as a threat that must be avoided or dealt with immediately.
-The current "combat system" should not be changed to accommodate the new mobs. The mobs should enhance what we already have, or give the player a reason to use a different item already in the game. I feel like not enough people use the hand cannon in combat for example.
-The mobs should not drop anything unique, or the item they're holding, as they are just variants of the exact same mobs. If they are wearing a certain kind of armour, maybe they could drop a material relating to it, like Armoured Zombies and Chain links.
-The variants should be very uncommon or rare and potentially locked to certain Y-levels and biomes. This prevents them becoming stale whilst still keeping the original mobs as common threats, regular threats.

Zombies:
Swimming Zombie: A zombie that prioritizes water pathfinding and "glides" through water. Could potentially wear a pair of boots that look like flippers. (Understandably that could be potentially confusing as players might think there are flipper items they can acquire.)

Fast Zombie: A zombie that accelerates to 1.2 times the regular walking speed over the course of 10 seconds. Or it could dash around in random directions towards the player.

Ice skate zombies: They have ice skates and use them,

Zombie Commander: A very very rare zombie wearing Iron armour that summons two random variants of zombies when a player is within 10 blocks.

Fishing Rod Zombie: Has a fishing rod that has a pretty big hooking range of about 10-15 blocks. Pulls the player towards them. Very dangerous, but funny as fuck to die to. I can just see the clips already, you're building a base on a cliff at night, and get trolled.

Rage zombie: A zombie that has more health, about 30 HP, and does more damage the lower its health is. Max at 5HP, doing twice the damage.


Skeletons:
Skeleton Hoard: A rare spawn of four armoured skeletons that patrol together, two have bows and two have iron swords.

Hand Cannon Skeleton: Pretty self explanatory, should probably have a delay between shots and very low health. 10 HP.

Skeletal Rider: A skeleton in armour, with a sword that rides a pig. I think this is not only a good way to showcase to a player about pig riding but is a legitimate fast mob that will harass you. The pig should not have a saddle.


Spiders:
"Barking" Spider: A spider that mimics passive mob noises. I just think it would be an interesting interaction to hear a wolf's whine, go around a corner and a spider attacks you.

Jumping Spider: Only moves via jumping, making it harder to hit.

Webbing Spider: Only when it hits you the first time, you get slowed, by like 30-50%


Slimes:
Fusing Slime: A slime that when close enough to another fusing slime of the same size, and once a cooldown has been completed, becomes bigger. Gets more health and damage based on size.
I feel like they should be able to grow bigger than regular big slimes too, so the player can on purpose create a massive slime. Caves are probably not big enough yet to support this mob.

Sliding Slime: When in contact with a surface creates layer of goo on the ground that slows down the player. Goo is temporary and trails off.


This is all I can think of as of writing. Reply with your thoughts and contribute to the discussion with your own new hostile mobs/variants!

[Red Slime]

I think it would be cool if they added a "slime jockey ". Like a rare chance for zombie riding a slime to spawn. Nothing game changing, but would be fun

[bones]

Like a rare chance for zombie riding a slime to spawn. Nothing game changing, but would be fun

This would be so cute and cool. Also very deadly if the slime is max size. I like it.

[LavraSource]

Maybe instead of swimming zombies there would be skeletons spawning on boats?
Cool naval warfare and no need to add new items

[LavraSource]

Also imo skeleton's whole point is ranged attack. Zombies would be fit for pig riders tho.

(Hog rider in BTA before GTA 6)

[bones]

Maybe instead of swimming zombies there would be skeletons spawning on boats?
Cool naval warfare and no need to add new items

This is a much better implementation than what I said. I think that would be very cool.

Also imo skeleton's whole point is ranged attack. Zombies would be fit for pig riders tho.

That's fair. But I like skeletons using swords. Ancient undead warrior vibes are cool.