There was a recent discussion about possible Botania changes for 1.21 in the Violet Moon Discord, I was told to post some of my results here.
These unrefined ideas are the result of me going through my 1.20.1 Garden of Glass save that I've beaten the Gaia Guardian on and skimming over features I think could use some love, as well as the brain child of the recent discussion about Mana Spreaders and lenses.
Spreader changes
Spreaders now fire at a maximum of X bursts per second
Spreaders can now have a maximum of Y bursts active at a time
X and Y vary between spreader tiers and what lenses are used in a burst's trajectory
Base mana burst speed increased
These changes are to help combat the spreader-next-to-pool issue by reducing mana transfer rate up close, but increasing its effectiveness at range. This also helps justify the more specialized mana lenses.
New lenses and lens changes
There are now four lens types, categorized
Basic lenses are crafted with 8 manasteel nuggets and 1 glass pane
These are the run of the mill lenses and perform basic functions
Elven lenses are crafted with 8 elementium nuggets and 1 managlass pane
Tend to be more specialized, flashy, and interesting
Terrasteel lenses are crafted with 8 terrasteel nuggets and 1 alfglass pane
Provides useful, powerful, unique functions, but are quite costly
Control lenses are crafted with a basic lens and a specific item, like a tripwire hook
Changes the base behavior of the spreader or mana blaster
**BASIC**
Air - Velocity Lens - Replaces Messenger's previous functionality, Messenger removed
Earth - Resistance Lens - No longer slowed down, increases maximum mana bursts
Water - Efficiency Lens - Additionally increases maximum mana bursts
Autumn - Sine Lens - Mana burst oscillates horizontally
Winter - Gravity Lens - Now travels faster and further, binding with a wand angles spreader correctly
Summer - Sunward Lens - Mana burst travels upwards, inverse of gravity
Glowstone - Flash Lens - Reduced crafting materials
**ELVEN**
Air - Influence Lens - Recipe changed to not include prismarine crystals
Water - Weight Lens - Recipe changed to not include prismarine crystals
Fire - Kindle Lens - Sets fire to block or entities in a small radius when hit
Earth - Conjure Lens - Summons a temporary block that lasts X seconds. Solid, light-blocking block, for redstone purposes
Spring - Paintslinger Lens - Recipe changed to not include wool
Summer - Spiral Lens - Mana burst travels forward but in a spiral pattern that grows
Fall - Flock Lens - All nearby mana bursts redirect to the destination of this burst
Winter - Fraility Lens - Collides with non-solid blocks and mobs
Mana - Capricious Lens - Unpredictable effects upon hitting an entity or block
Greed - Burst redirects to the nearest block matching block directly beneath or above spreader
Sloth - Immovable Lens - Slows the burst, does not lose mana over time, dissipates if spreader is broken
Wrath - Shaky Lens - Burst randomly changes speed and direction during flight
Envy - Homeward Lens - Warps to its endpoint and travels backwards
Pride - Sparkle Lens - Emits particles in a 3x3 area depending on the block it hit
**TERRASTEEL**
Lust - Bond Lens - All entities within a small impact radius are yanked to the source proportional to distance, like a fishing rod
Greed - Promise Lens - All mobs near the impact point travel to the location as if it was a pathfinding goal
Sloth - Existential Lens - Blocks or entities hit vanish from existence, unable to be interacted with, but only temporarily
Wrath - Vindictive Lens - Deals immense damage after a delay proportional to damage that will be dealt, proportional to mana input, replaces damaging lens
Envy - ????? Lens - Entities hit will unequip all armor and held items, including Curse of Binding equipment
**CONTROL**
Tripwire - Tripwire Lens - No longer requires elementium
Managlass - Flare Lens - No longer requires alfglass or elementium, now affected by trajectory-altering lenses
Fireworks - Celebratory Lens - Spawns a firework, no mana burst
Some of the lenses really need some form of justification to remain within the mod, however little that might be.
Some lenses have strange crafting recipes that could use some consolidation and consistency.
Lenses have the opportunity to be a uniquely powerful and visually interesting part of the mod as it transfers mana, the prime currency of the mod.
Everyone loves the bore and warp lenses! They're useful! The Gravity lens? Not so much.
Part of that is because you can only have two lenses per lens, and to get more in a burst you need to craft something particularly annoying that's gated behind Alfheim.
Part of that is because there's not the most reason to use lenses that don't perform unique effects, as transferring mana beyond a couple blocks is silly.
Texture updates
Runic Altar
Mana Splitter
Mana Void
Mana Detector
Force Relay
Mana Fluxfield
Mana Pump
Spark Tinkerer
Red-stringed blocks
All of these still use the old Livingrock texture and does not fit with the new textures.
All quartz variants
Still uses the old quartz texture, not as much of an issue as it's subtle, but the quartz items are not.
All portuguese pavement variants
Feels a little bit a product of its time, but we also now have Dark Prismarine, which these textures could borrow from.
Shimmerrock variants and derivatives
Still uses old Livingrock textures, but I wouldn't mind if this wasn't changed.
The Fruit of Grisasa
Uses the old apple texture. I think we can do better than an apple, but I do like the apple joke in the Lexica Botania.
I'm getting sick of the apple taste.
Eye of the Flugel
Has a bit of... sharpness? And messiness to it? That I think could use some touching up.
More petite variants for functional flowers
Namely the Dreadthorne. Why does the Bellethorne have one but the Dreadthorne doesn't?
The Bergamute could use a range buff, but the petite version can then exist for its smaller range.
Smaller changes
Floral Obedience Stick change?
I dislike this item as it is completely non-discretionary as to what flowers are selected beyond radius.
I also dislike that it is the primary method to have mana throughput for generating flowers.
Feels clunky and not in the spirit of Botania.
Fix mana-based shears triggering tripwires
The fact it's even listed in the book is just... like... bruh. This is such a small issue but it has to be listed in the book.
Rod of the Molten Core improvements
I'm not sure what this looks like, but there's so few blocks that are affected by this rod.
It is also a little finnicky to use, as it's a channeled action that feels slow and clunky.
Rod of the Shaded Mesa improvements
You can't easily pick up mobs with this as you can like the Gravity Gun from Half Life 2.
I felt extremely disappointed using it the first time. It doesn't even select the mob under your crosshair.
Starfield Creator made to be a little more robust
Could use some pizzaz. It feels lackluster in modern minecraft and doesn't stand out a whole lot against the sky.
Tiny Potato buff
Renaming tiny potato to "Gigachad" gives them an 8 pack.
More challenges listed in the book
I think there's a healthy amount of challenges listed in the book, but the distribution of them amongst difficulties is a bit off-putting.
Surely Botania can be used to accomplish more.
Do not take these ideas as they are, especially the spreader and lens ones as they are most likely flawed, but do not toss them out as I believe there's a good idea hiding beneath these.
Except the Rod of the Shaded Mesa. That is just... sad. It needs love.