- Just finished my answer, looks like I went all out here lmao -
Wow! Quick answer! Thanks!
Yeah, so I think that there should be another (final) boss in the end for two reasons:
1. The ender dragon is quite easy to beat (just see speedrunner with beds...): It can be a challenge, that's true, but since there is another boss (the wither) which is harder to beat in my opinion, the ender dragon never felt like a real final boss..
2. I always saw it as "one of the two endings possibles": I never liked the idea of having two boss completely separated -> I'd prefer a real - but still very open - progression in the game. That's why I always thought of the ender dragon as the gatekeeper of the end (like you have to beat him to be allowed to really enter the dimension). The real final boss, however, would require the player to actually explore the end (that would be 3. : if the ender dragon is meant to be the final boss, then the end is merely useless considering you have no actual goal left).
That's a lot of explanations, I know, but I felt that they were necessary.
Now that this is done, I did came up with an idea (seems great to me, but I could find as much other ideas as you want, if this one doesn't suit you enough):
I named it: "The Endfester" (I also thought of "The Eye" or "The Great Observer"... It's up to you to decide anyway). While designing it, I tried to keep it as simple as I could for a modder.
Description: A floating "giant eye of end of ender" mob which mainly shoots explosive laser beams at the player. He's a cosmic entity/a great one (whatever) and the origin/creator of the End dimension (he isn't linked or anything to it tho, so when the player beats it, the end dimension is still there, intact).
How to spawn it: Since I know that you know how to do that, I imagined this: a structure made with a beacon, ether an activated one with the pyramid or at the center of a 5x5 purpur/crying obsidian platform. To spawn the boss, you would need to collect the ender dragon egg (possible with the use of a mod that make the egg respawn each time the dragon is killed in case you lost it), and then place it on the beacon.
But at this point, you might ask yourself: this method of spawning doesn't require me to explore the end... Just wait a little, I have a solution for that.
PS: You would need to be in the end for this to work (note that the Endfester can be spawned anywhere in the end, like the wither or the blackstone golem).
His look (model/texture/animation): here I got a few examples from other mods, so that you can clearly visualize the Endfester and take inspiration from it:
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The "Void eye" from primitive mobs: [https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/primitive-mobs] (closest one to how I personnaly see it)
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The "Ender eye" from grimoire of gaia: [https://the-grimoire-of-gaia.fandom.com/wiki/Ender_Eye] (The endfester would have no wings in my opinion, like a strange floating alien creature).
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There's even this one from grimoire of gaia too, which looks like a ascended form: [https://the-grimoire-of-gaia.fandom.com/wiki/Behender]
So it would look like that, but MUCH bigger (at least 5-6 blocks wide, I would make 9-10 if it was up to me; he got the required space anyway).
But since he would be a huge mob floating moderately high in the air (see below), and since better end is apparently going to add big-as* trees/ mushroom to the End (so cool!), you'd need to be careful that it does not get obstructed by anything.
PS: I realized it later, but the Endfester is quite similar to the Eye of Cthulhu from Terraria, both in appearance and in his way of moving/watching 24h/7 the player.
Anyway, I think that the model shouldn't be too much of a struggle to make (nor the textures --> a big blocky ender pearl with black eyelids); especially if we take into account the fact that you made all alone every mobs of your mod (they look beautiful)!!
His AI (and why you would need to explore the End first):
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When the egg is placed, the Endfester spawns at the ceiling of the End, then floats down toward the beacon/player (Idk which yet. PS: I imaginated his descent as very menacing and opressing, like a sort of god). After reaching a certain height above the beacon/player, he start attacking.
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During the fight, the Endfester stays up in the air (high enough for it to be opressing) and is always looking directly at the player.
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He follows the player, always trying to stay approximatively above him.
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He can teleport: randomly, and also if the player is hiding or if he is obstructed by something.
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His primary attack is a laser beam (I don't know exactly how you would do that, but it certainly is doable in minecraft) which he regularly fires at he player: every 10s or so, he charge up the laser for 2-4s making a pre-laser beam (so that the player knows when to quickly dodge), then fires the laser from his pupil.
Where the laser hits, there would be a relatively small (but not too small) explosion.
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His secondary attack would be to periodically fire shulker projectiles to the player (I thought that it would be great and easy to make at the same time).
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He could also try to teleport the player above the void to try to kill him -> to counter this quite unavoidable attack, the player would need elytra (and fireworks), hence the need to explore the end until you find elytras (quite smart actually)!
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His dying animation could be similar to the ender dragon's one (except for the sound, see below).
PS: He could also have a second phase at 50% hp. For example:
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He could fire lasers/shulker projectiles a bit mod frequently.
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He could have the ability to teleport the player above the void only during his second phase.
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He could hover a little higher/lower...
The sounds he makes:
- I had quite the idea there -> he would emit a constent dull sound similar to the one that you hear in movies when there is a scene with a big spaceship, if you now what I'm referring to (a bit like that actually, maybe more intense: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv368LFjG7U] ).
This sound would be stronger as he approaches you -> super opressing, fitting to such a final boss.
- He could also produce a constent enderman scream (maybe only in the second phase if there is one).
His drops: Here, there should be no such thing as a powerfull weapon in my opinion (20+ dmg sword xd...), because 1.you just beat the strongest creature in the game, 2.such equipment is meant to be acquired by mining/processing materials in minecraft and 3.you might be already quite geared up at this point.
So instead, I just thought of a simple, but very useful item at this stage of the game (plus it's logic):
"The Prime Pearl" : Like an ender pearl (more stylish of course hehe), but infinitely reusable (1s cooldown however). It would help travelling, making things faster (pretty much all you might wish for if you continue playing afterwards).
The stats of the Endfester: Being the strongest boss of the game, it must be hard to beat (of course, but not impossible too -> minecrafty spirit ya know).
In term of equipment, it would need AT LEAST full enchanted netherite + elytras + golden apple/carrots.
Yes, at least, because we do have to keep in mind that playing modded, people will probably have a better equipment (I didn't tested your gilded netherite armor yet, so I can't tell if it's the level of protection I'm thinking of). Here, I'm thinking about the Enderite mod for fabric:
It would be quite the perfect required equipment being the next stage after netherite, requiring you to explore the end, protecting you from the void and allowing you to attach your elytras to your chestplate!
So I'm trusting you here (you already proved yourself right on this matter), I just hope that you got my point here.
I think that's it, I wrote quite a lot, I hope that it is readable tho!
So what's your opinion about it? Is it attainable for you?