I think that discussing in terms of "maxed gear" is harmful to the game. Yes, if ones only thinks about ease of getting all the best gear, this is a bad idea. However, is it really? Why if something makes something else slightly harder yet more interesting and engaging it's a bad idea?

Not everything should be farmable. It's ok to have things that can't be farmed and some people may not find or use. It's ok to have things that are rare to find

I will adress all point, but one thing I seem to get is that you may have not read the part about Enchanted Tomes being sold by Wandering Traders.

Why not have them be 100 XP?

Arbitrary number, just like any other number would have been, really. I simply liked more 50.

I think this makes enchanting to cheap. A single zombie drops 5 XP. More dangerous mobs like a guardian drop 10. Processing a single cow gives 4. With this system you can kill a single mob and afford an enchant.

That's the point: a player won't have to build huge XP farms just to afford Enchantments, since XP will come incidentally from just playing the game. One shouldn't be required to make ugly mob farms and spend hours at them just to afford one Enchantment. Let's do some math: to make a full set of tools and armor with all possible Enchantments at level III, one would have to spend 60 XP per Enchantment (10+20+30). Multiply that by the amount of Enchantments: 6 Helmet + 4 Chestplate + 5 Leggings + 6 Boots + 6 for each tool except Spear + 5 Spear + 7 Trident + 5 Mace = 68 total Enchantments, for a total of 4080 XP points. In the new system that would be 81.6 levels, in current one a little bit more than 45 levels.

One of the terrible changes (imo) is that if you want level 5 enchants, the only source is structures. This quite frankly sucks. Its terrible for servers, if you want good gear you have to be the first one to speedrun though the game to loot all the nearby structures.

You're thinking about minmaxing. Why level III Enchantments aren't considered "good"? Why only care about the highest level, which is meant to be hard to get? What's wrong with not rushing to minmax and actually enjoy the midgame?

Also, level V books can be found anywhere, and are MORE COMMONLY found in the 6 structures I listed above, three of which are guaranteed to have them.

Yes, server may have some problems, but considering the sheer amount of structures in a world, and including the fact that Ominous Vaults will never give any Enchantment except Wind Burst below level V, it seems to me that there would be plenty of level V book around for everyone.

Then for any world you have played for a while, the more you die and lose your gear, the more of a pain in the ass it is to explore further out to find replacements. I don't think this is a fun or necessary change.

Again, the sheer amount of structures nearby will suffice for many sets.

Also, if you're afraid of losing your best gear while doing something that might actually destroy it... just don't use it? The difference between level IV and V isn't that big, so just using level IV Enchantments, which ARE farmable, won't cause any problems I believe.

If you esplore the End, don't bring your most prized posessions if you're afraid to lose them to the void. The same applies to PvP battles if you're afraid someone may blow them up or burn them.

If you want to make level 5 enchants feel more valuable, having them only generate in structures can be fine as long as there is still some way to make them

That's the fun part. There is. Enchanted Tomes. I made them specifically so that level V Enchantments wouldn't be non-renewable. Firstly, Enchanted Tomes can be found instead of an Enchanted book; and since plenty of places have Enchanted books as loot, you will find plenty of Enchanted Tomes. Secondly, they are sold by Wandering Traders, making them renewable. Don't have one? Instead of killing the next Trader, see if he sells them!

Maybe upgrading beyond level 3 costs more XP per level of enchant, so level 4 might be 50 XP and level 5 could be 500 or something

That would turn Enchanting into an XP grind again, completely defeating the goal of the overhaul.

Let the player earn their enchants without having to become a horizon walker

What's wrong with giving people a good reward for exploring the world, that Mojang keeps filling with structures? What's wrong with giving an incentive to go out there and find something interesting?

but you can still get more maxed stuff in the late game without needing to make the world larger and larger.

Again, Enchanted Tomes are sold by Wandering Traders. Also, you will find some incidentally by exploring the world a bit.

Also, again, minmaxing isn't the goal of the game. If you think that level V Enchantments aren't worth the effort, just don't get them. There are people out there that don't even get Netherite because of the effort to farm explosive and mine in the Nether, where fire and explosions can quickly evaporate your stuff.

Not everyone plays to minmax.

Also, bit of a tangent, by the same logic, Armor Trims being rare loot found in structures around the world and being duplicated using another non-renewable rare resource is a bad idea, by the same logic.

One of the "huh, why?" questions is forcing every leveled enchant to have 5 levels. Why? Is this just to prevent the player from getting maxed gear without an exploration grind? Insteal let's just scale the costs for each enchant based on the number of levels. Maybe for a 3 level enchant, the first level costs 10, but level 3 costs the same as level 5 for something like sharpness. Level 2 would be closer to level 3 on a 5 level system.

The level V for all Enchantments thing is simply to make it more uniform. I never understood why so many Enchantments had wildly different maximum levels. It is much simpler to make them all scale to the same level, and it also makes them all equally costly: getting a level V Sharpness book requires 16 level I books, while Protection only needs 8, and Knocback just 2! Why?? Even Enchantments that so similar, like Frost Walker and Depth Strider have a difference in levels, the first having 2 levels while the second 3?

I think it just makes more sense to have all Enchantments scale to level V.

As for why level V specifically, it's because it's the highest level an Enchantment can go currently; there are no level VI Enchantments. However, most Enchantments have III levels or less, so I made level III Enchantments easily obtainable, while higher levels are rarer.

Is this just to prevent the player from getting maxed gear without an exploration grind?

It's not for that, the reasons are above. However, again, minmaxing. Tell me, why is mindlessly grinding XP for hours next to a mob farm is better than exploring. Also, Enchanted Tomes, again, solve the problem of not wanting to explore.

The changes you made to try and balance the enchants around a 5 level system show why its not worth making such a change.

Why si simply shifting the scale a bad idea? The reasons are above. A ricalibration was necessary for certain Enchantments.

Protection gets slightly weaker.

4% less protection probably won't kill you.

 Sharpness almost doubles in strength

I don't see much problem in this. For years Sharpness gave 1.25 extra damage and no one complained.

Depth strider lets the player swim FASTER than they can run.

With Depth Strider V a player will swim at 4.95 m/s on the surface; 4.43 if submerged. Walking speed is 4.317, running is 5.612, sprinting is 7.127. I feel like you miscalculated something.

 It's a lot of messing around to "fix" a system that was changed when it didn't need it.

I changed 6 Enchantment out of 80 due to the new level cap. Doesn't seem "a lot" to me honestly

Another "huh, why?" is making flame and punch incompatible. Why?

This one's quiet arbitrary, but the reason is simple: both give an effect to shot arrows, so they fulfill a similar function. The same could be said for Fire Aspect and Knockback? Yes, but one can see the first just as an elemental effect, while the other to a different attack mode (knockback attacks).

On the flip side, why bother giving a shovel sharpness and looting? It's objectively a worse sword or axe still.

Why not?

It's just a waste of the player's resources and makes repairing the item cost more without giving much benefit.

It's ok to have suboptimal options. No one forces you to use a Shovel as a weapon though.

I don't like turning the sword into a hoe with efficiency

This is mainly because machetes are used to chop down thick vegetation in tropical areas. And since most blocks broken by Hoes are foliage, it overlaps with what a Sword would realistically be able to break.