Hey there!

I'm really loving this mod! It's got that Vanilla vibe, which sets it apart from other backpack mods. But here's the thing: players on my server have been giving feedback that the extra space isn't quite enough. Now, I totally get why you made that decision (to keep shulker boxes relevant), and I totally agree with it. However, I thought it would be awesome to give players the choice to upgrade their backpacks if they're not big fans of shulker boxes. You know, like a toggle option that's off by default.

Here's how it could work: We could have different upgrade tiers, similar to other upgradable containers mods. For instance, we could start with a basic backpack that offers one extra roll of inventory space. Then, players could craft upgrade items like leather, iron, gold, diamond, and even netherite, each providing an additional roll of inventory. To combine the backpack with the upgrade item, we could use a smithing table.

So, to summarize the upgrade path:

Base backpack: One extra roll of space
Leather upgrade: Made with a mix of leather and rabbit hide
Iron upgrade: Crafted using iron ingots and leather
Gold upgrade: Made with gold and iron
Diamond upgrade: Created with diamond and gold
Netherite upgrade: Crafted using netherite and diamond

Of course, upgrading shouldn't be cheap. It should feel like a progression, take time to achieve it, giving players a sense of accomplishment and pride once they achieve each upgrade. This would also keep the value of shulker boxes, as by the time you have all you need to get the Netherite tier of the backpack, you would likely already have been to the end. You could even add a tier beyond netherite, that requires shulker shells? Could be crafted similarly to a shulker box, with the netherite backpack in the middle and the shulker shells on the top and bottom?

One more thing! It would be super cool if the backpack could act as a sort of "grave" item. Imagine this: When a player dies with the backpack, it automatically places itself in the world as a container, keeping all the items inside safe from despawning. That way, players won't lose all their precious loot upon death.

Thanks a bunch for creating this mod! It's been a blast using it! 😄

As someone who doesn't care for shulker boxes, I approve. However, I don't like the idea of using mined metals for backpack upgrades. Not only does it not make any sense, it's also an overdone idea. I think something like [hide & string -> leather & wool -> phantom membranes & lapis/redstone -> blaze rods & glowstone -> shulker boxes & ender pearls] would make more sense, leaning more on magic than generic materials. Another option is to allow each combined shulker box to add another tab of inventory space, allowing for extremely large amounts of storage (but no more than you'd get from just using the shulker box itself).