Personally seeing the progression of Thaumcraft as it's been throughout when I played back in Thaumcraft 2, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing new things or ways of doing it, so long as the thaumonomicon is there to give some reference. Personally I'm particularly excited if it means bringing back crystal farming. Silly as it is things I've enjoyed over time with Thaumcraft has been Golemancy and Crystal work from back in....2 or 3? being able to grow and harvest the crystals was a wonderous thing with the primal shards and it would be neat if that tiny feature came back. Originally I thought the vis pipes were a mess but after some fiddling they were a fun quirk too, gave the thaumcraft workspace kind of a loopy Alchemist feel and I adore that. Personally I'm excited either way to see what appears with thaumcraft. and if changes mean no more throwing half a world worth of crafting tables into a deconstructor and melting down half a worlds worth of resources to instead have the set elements you did last update and crystal hunting, gathering, and farming? I would be more than excited. Thaumic Crystal Caverns anyone?
PS. Another interesting detail I considered, if your still doing dungeon gen etc, something I kind of miss from old TC was the spectacle of the old Eldrich obelisk vaults I never got to the end game "dimension" dire showed off in that hardcore sky block so I duno much about it, but I was always puzzled to see what more those totems or starry pillars of unknown had to offer. so adding eye catchers like Eldrich temples or abandoned Thaumaturgic labs maybe an idea? just spitballing here but eh :3
I would be dead-set against getting rid of burning items - alchemy is my favorite part of the mod. However, I could live with getting mixtures of primals from items. And not every item has to produce meaningful amounts of aspects, as long as a nice variety does.
If items are limited to primals, perhaps some are much "richer" than others. Like, cobble might be 0.01 Terra and 0.01 Perditio, while a gold block might be 12 of each primal. (Traditionally, gold was perfectly balanced between the elements.)
Personally, I'd rather get rid of the crystals entirely than get rid of alchemy. But they could remain as a rich source of single primals.
If there were options in the next update to use either the TC5 aura system AND/OR (emphasis on the "AND/OR") the mechanics from TC4... That might be nice. I just know that I kept playing TC4, and still am, because I really do not the TC5 mechanics. (I'm sorry.) I hope in next versions it will change. I probably can't talk, because I haven't played with TC5 a lot, but the idea of draining auras and having taint appear from more places is what pushed me away from TC5.
A lot of mods have moved up from 1.7.10 (which, somewhat unfortunately, I'm still playing in) and authors have left them in the dust, while others are still working on 1.7.10 long after the most recent TC4 update. All these other mods are clashing because of old and new 1.7.10 mods. (Not due to TC4, though.)
This may all be gibberish, but what I've been told is; "stop using a 2+ year-old version of Minecraft if you want less screw-ups." But then I think, it wouldn't be much fun without Thaumcraft.
Plus, as of burning items to get just primals, I think the keeping compound aspects makes on items makes things more interesting. I'm imagining you'd put only primal aspects on items. Burning items to get essentia can be tedious, but to a tolerable point, which is fun. I think that having to burn items and then put them together would be TOO tedious, though.
TC5 suggestion that just popped up in my head:
What's against a machine condensing primal essences into solid form?
For instance:
10 ignis -> 1 bucket of lava
10 aqua -> 1 bucket of water
10 terra -> 1 block of dirt
10 ordo -> 1 block of ice
10 aer -> 1 block of air
10 perditio -> 1 zombie-egg?
Of course at the cost of some kind of fuel.
I think it's an interesting direction to consider if essentia were to be based upon drawing it out of the aura, thus imposing more limits and gating the ability to exponentially produce certain resources.
Also I think it'd be more compelling if it wasn't just a way to churn out vanilla resources that wouldn't change the way the game works, Iunno.
TC5 suggestion that just popped up in my head:
What's against a machine condensing primal essences into solid form?
For instance:
10 ignis -> 1 bucket of lava
10 aqua -> 1 bucket of water
10 terra -> 1 block of dirt
10 ordo -> 1 block of ice
10 aer -> 1 block of air
10 perditio -> 1 zombie-egg?
Of course at the cost of some kind of fuel.
The concept sounds cool but the exact suggested things seem a bit, off? like, if you get into technical the aqua and ordo are making the same thing, water. i feel like having some sorta catalyst would be more thaumcrafty, ie using the bucket of water to turn into ice, but, then its just infusion. or crucible recipes.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet."
Actually, I just noticed that what I am suggesting here is more or less "equivalent exchange". It was only just expressed that this mod should not be another FMA-based mod.
I'm such a doofus.
Thaumcraft II "we EE4 now"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet."
Echoing some other people, I think that there should be a version of Thaumcraft 5 for 1.9/1.10 before Thaumcraft II. Thaumcraft II should totally go into another direction as far as we can get it with it still being Thaumcraft. honestly this essentia change is a great idea, and a change in vis and many other things would be great. Every change to TC has been an amazing one, so rethinking everything is probably going to be great.
Actually, I just noticed that what I am suggesting here is more or less "equivalent exchange". It was only just expressed that this mod should not be another FMA-based mod.
I'm such a doofus.
Controvercial opinion but:
I think that EE2 had a really good effect on the way the game was played. It was "OP" in some regards, but consider how easy trading things around in an old Tekkit server was since everything had a determined EMC value. It gave people a unified currency. If someone had diamonds but all you wanted to do was trade for some iron, EMC facilitated that trade. I dunno if that's the niche TC should fill tho
Another vote for porting TC5 forward before you start turning it into something else. The reason I'm not playing TC5 now, is simply that it's not available for the new MC versions.
As far as "what i like about Thaumcraft": I'm another fan of items-to-essentia, and I like the multiblock constructs and machinery. Taint and warp I liked after their respective rebalancing. Having a reliable manual for the mod, and a proper progression system. Golems, especially the ability to automate farms and sorting. Foci, naturally.
I would definitely like to see more new mobs (not all enemies!), and interesting worldgen including more challenging areas in the Overworld. Folding in the stuff from Thaumic Horizons would be wonderful. I also liked infusion enchanting, and was sorry to see it go.
I did some CraftTweaker scripts for Mystical Agriculture. They fill in a couple of small gaps in MA, and also let you make or duplicate not only vanilla plants, but the blocks, plants and wood from Quark and Biomes O'Plenty. Also spawn eggs for most vanilla mobs! The scripts are here on Github.
I got a lot of catching up to do so if I seem to be a bit off topic then I guess it's just because I missread these?
But it seems to be on the topic of porting....
Yes, I'd rather see Thaumcraft5 be ported to 1.9 or 1.10 and stuff.
I was exited about the big update but never played it because I love the 1.9+ changes.
Also, I'd love to see how he'd use the new off-hand system for unique things.
Oh really? :3
lol, jokes aside, no worries, I'm no grammar derp, I'm just messin' with ya!
Sorry if I offended you anyways though.
But I'm a colt, not filly. :3
I'll remember to capitalize the great Azanor in future!
So I have been toying around with a few ideas (because thinking about TC is about all I have time for most days).
One of these has been a complete rewrite of TC from the ground up. I'm not just talking Thaumcraft 6.0 here. More accurately it would be Thaumcraft II.
In the past most of my updates have built upon previous versions and in general mechanics between versions had been evolutions instead of complete redesigns. This time around I am thinking about fundamental changes with only some of the core concepts and the flavor of the mod remaining the same.
The question is: should I? I usually get a itch to shake things up during a big update push, but this will probably be one of the biggest departures yet. Would you guys be cool with something like this?
You are probably wondering what I want to change. Honestly, I am not 100% sure yet.
One of the basic changes I am toying with is turning the whole burn-items-for-aspects thing on its head. I have floated the idea in the past with mixed opinions.
In short: Instead of breaking complex aspects down into simple ones it will work the other way around. You will start out with primals and combine them till you get the aspects you want. Burning items for aspects might not even survive this change - raw primal essentia will probably be gathered for worldgen crystals initially and later using some aura related mechanic. See what I mean with big changes?
What is your opinion on all of this?
I think I might be best to push a 1.9/1.10 port first, but that's just me. But I do liek the idea of maybe heading back to the way Thaumcraft 2 worked in a future update.
Altogether, I'm not too sure what to think about the prospect of TCII, because Thaumcraft has already gone through so many re-imaginings. @Azanor Speaking for myself as someone who is always hyper-critical of the things I make/write, I understand the temptation of starting over with a new slate, but at some point there comes a time where I just have to ignore myself when I think 'I could make this better' and keep moving forward. As it stands, I believe Thaumcraft has stronger and more creative mechanics than 90% of games which are made today, but because you are a one man development team, the amount of content you can create is very finite. Every time Thaumcraft has been remade, there have been fantastic improvements, but at the same time, the direction changes which means you have to start over at some level which hurts content depth. Anyway, if you want to move on to TCII, then I look forward to the changes, and here's my two bits to help form an idea of what the general players think.
I really think items and blocks should keep their compound essentia because it gives the player a reason to explore the world, find them, farm them, etc in order to progress through Thaumcraft. Further, it gives a really singular feeling to the world, as each block has its own fundamental characteristics, and it tells a story about the what you encounter, simply by looking at what it is made of. Example: fibrous taint has taint essentia, of course, but it also has life essentia, which can be disturbing if you think about it. Another example are the totems found in TC4. They have darkness and alien essentia, which tells the player that this isn't a structure built by, say, villagers who found the node and built the totem as a warning, but rather it comes from someplace more sinister. If nothing else, there is something cool about items being physically imbued with something that typically only exists as abstract thought - I.E. a chair somehow physically draws into it a substance which describes what some hypothetical ideal chair is. This substance is what I imagine essentia to be.
And, though I like the mechanics of TC4's nodes where you had to draw vis directly from them (especially the centra-vis which looked cool to divert around my base), I think a return to the aura based system is a good decision. It lets you change the world, manipulate it, and your actions have a very noticeable effect upon it; therefore, I say that system should stay in TCII. Maybe you could even take it up a step and have aura levels coorespond to biomes and worldgen, higher herba aura in forests, ignis in deserts, gelum in snowy places, etc. This could pave the way towards letting the player terraform at higher levels by supercharging the aura with certain aspects. That said, I think it would be cool to implement a hybrid TC4-TC5 system where the player builds awesome looking mechanical structures like the transducer and stabilizers around nodes to further some end.
Whatever you do, though, I must say that this is the best mod that I have played for any game. Keep up the good work!
As I have been a fan of Thaumcraft since version 2.1.4, I hope to have a voice in the mods change. As I have played with the mod over the years, the changes have started to look like a compilation other previous ideas with new ones. This new idea of making it so that essentia is made by combining different primals seems counter to what both Minecraft and Thaumcraft are about. The reason that Thaumcraft works so well with Minecraft is because the mod is about exploring the world and farming or gathering all resources so that you can build up your magical prowess and fortress. You would diversify your focus so that you could collect all of the different kinds of magical resources, like netherwart, sugar cane, mushrooms, magical trees, and other farmables.
Replacing all of the Mincraft based systems of complex essentia with merely combining the base six into different more complex forms would limit the reliance doing vanilla Minecraft development solely for doing magic stuff in the basement for hours on end. It also conflicts with how the Eldritch as a whole function. They consume the energy around them to form their own malicious projects, rather making a void than putting something together. Creatures that are part of a void world could not develop ways to fabricate raw essentia into complex forms as the void would tear it apart, but would rather steal the compound resources of the overworld to make their world. Darkness does not construct, it steals and repurposes all it can find for its power.
Now if the creation of essentia was limited to making new ones not found in nature, that could allow there to be a counterpart to the void thaumaturge. It would allow there to be a new kind of thaumaturge, a star thaumaturge. They would need to work harder to make their resources and requires more of them than void thaumaturges, but don't have to deal with the effects of warp. The Eldritch would still relentlessly pursue them for there magic, as it is much more stable than anything they can get. They couldn't be as effective at destroying, preferring to create more than tear apart. The void thaumaturge is much easier and is more destructive, but must face the consequences of their actions. It would be an interesting dynamic to a mod that has been one sided so long and then try to explore the idea of creation along with consumption. Does anyone agree with me? If not, try to explain your ideas so that we can all help @Azanor.
So, I'm going to have a lot of people hate me for saying this....
But As cool as Thaumcraft is, maybe instead of Making Thaumcraft II or Thaumcraft 6.0 you should abandon the idea of a mod and make your own game.
Get some coder friends(Or not, you could do it by yourself) and make your own thing from scratch.
You really have a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that'd made for some great games.
The simple research system alone could be a cellphone app game, though I'd hope you would make a bit of a bigger more indepth game.
But if you've ever seen the game Unturned on Steam, it's insainly popular and loved, and it started out as a guy who made his own server on Roblox.
Your mod is one of the most popular mods out there, so you clearly know what you're doing.
Making your own game would also leave you with a lot more freedom.
Everytime Minecraft updated you wouldn't be swarmed with questions of "When is TC going to be 1.10/1.11/1.12 ect?"
You could add a story if you wanted, or maybe leave that illusive "Story written by the player but in your direction" idea, which I personally liked a lot.
The idea of style of games is endless, if you did a Pokemon:GO style where you go out hunting for aspects for your Thaumlab and can battle other thaumaturges would be interesting. Players taking too much from a specific area could make warp start to spread.
Or you could go with a Skyrim styled game, classic hack and slash adventure all about learning the science of thaumography.
I really would encourage you to make your own game, because if it's anything like how Thaumcraft has been I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Only suggestion is I'd keep it at a E10+ rating at worst seeing as most of your fans are from Minecraft which is a lot of kids, but again, it's your game.
You could do whatever you want.
Yeah, no more people making add-ons, but frankly most peoples add-ons just add a derp ton of pointless aspects and a focus that makes you win the game. lol
And if you made it open source like Unturned did you could have a modding community like them.
If you like the Minecraft style of digging and building you could do that still, most Minecraft rip-offs fail because they just copy/paste Minecraft, you'd actually have your own full ideas so I think it could survive on it's own, especially if you had a Ars magica style of things so spell creation could be deeper on top of the whole finding aspects and making machines and stuff.
A lot of fans will hate this idea because (understandably so) they don't want to lose this cool mod to the realm of "Not updating".
But really, think about making your own game.
You could go farther, make side money, have more freedom and no nagging about updating to newer Minecraft versions.
So, I'm going to have a lot [/i]of people hate me for saying this....
But As cool as Thaumcraft is, maybe instead of Making Thaumcraft II or
Thaumcraft 6.0 you should abandon the idea of a mod and make your own
game.
Get some coder friends(Or not, you could do it by yourself) and make your own thing from scratch.
You really have a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that'd made for some great games.
^^ This guy. Let me be the first to express my non-hate. Think of Eloraam and Red Power (http://www.eloraam.com/) Her concepts were just too good to remain as a minecraft mod, and I think Thaumcraft is an even better mod than RP. You've got a lot of talent Azanor, and although making a new game is a whole 'nother beast than modding, I think Thaumcraft's mechanics and story would be great as a standalone game.
So, I'm going to have a lot of people hate me for saying this....
But As cool as Thaumcraft is, maybe instead of Making Thaumcraft II or Thaumcraft 6.0 you should abandon the idea of a mod and make your own game.
Get some coder friends(Or not, you could do it by yourself) and make your own thing from scratch.
You really have a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that'd made for some great games.
We talked about this already. Azanor seems to be somewhat interested in the idea, but he does not know what kind of game Thaumcraft "standalone" would be.
Sure the research would make a good game by itself, but if he releases something outside of MC mods and it is not even comparable to the mod, then what's the point?
We talked about this already. Azanor seems to be somewhat interested in the idea, but he does not know what kind of game Thaumcraft "standalone" would be.
Sure the research would make a good game by itself, but if he releases something outside of MC mods and it is not even comparable to the mod, then what's the point?
There's plenty of things he could do, I'd be sad to see the mod stop updating/updates slow down but a full fledged game would be awesome.
I could come up with a ton ideas, Yeah I'm not a programmer so I wouldn't know what would be easy or hard, but still.
And if I could come up with a ton I'm sure he could come up with a ton more.
The research system would merely be a mechanic in the game and no longer basically the main thing(Because Minecraft does the rest for walking, fighting, mining, building ect.) but that'd be the fun part.
While I do like how you think it would be nice for the mod to become its own game, I feel that you don't fully understand the amount of effort that goes into making games of the caliber you describe. Building a game takes years for an individual to make and even longer if you want to make something along the lines of making thaumcraft its own game. Having to set up for such an ambitious project would take hundreds of thousands of dollars and would require at least two dozen programmers of different fields, like modeler, animator, technical support, basic programmers, etc. Even if he did it himself, he wouldn't be able to churn out the code fast enough to try and make the game in a reasonable amount of time. Azanor has a life outside of making Thaumcraft. He makes it a mod to Minecraft because it fits into the game easily and most of the hard coding is done for him, things like rendering, particle set up, random generation, among thousands of other features.
While I appreciate how much you love his mod (and trust me, I love it too), you have to understand how hard it would be on Azanor's life to try and even attempt such a herculean task. His idea is only able to grow because the change of Minecraft pushes it forward. Other indie projects die because they don't have incentive to move forward. Even if he made his own game, he could be attacked legally for using ideas from minecraft. The best course of action is to make his mod grow and progress until it can become its own game, as it doesn't have enough unique features to really separate from its host game. He would need an army of small programmers to pull it together. If we can do it, I'll help as much as I can for his sake. No developer should be left to such a monumental task by himself.
So, I'm going to have a lot of people hate me for saying this....
But As cool as Thaumcraft is, maybe instead of Making Thaumcraft II or Thaumcraft 6.0 you should abandon the idea of a mod and make your own game.
Get some coder friends(Or not, you could do it by yourself) and make your own thing from scratch.
You really have a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that'd made for some great games.-snip- because a lot of words
personal vendetta but dont go into convo saying "someones going ot hate me for this" its like saying no offense right before an offensive statement, or "this is a bad idea" then going on how you want the idea implemented.
Now actaully on topic, Shirololl already addressed that Azanor has poked interest at making His own game sometimes, He hasnt not thought about it like your making it sound. All in all a lot of the suggestions for styled games are just, copies, to put it bluntly. You suggest a cellphone research game but the way you put it is basically doodle god, and, reskin of pokemon go but thaumcraft. And even if He does produce a standalone game, you have to put into perspective how hard it is to actually make a game, this isnt game dev tycoon, its not a simple task. To produce a high quality game would take a lot of time. and, honestly, most of the people on the thread page give off a teen older vibe, MC is a kid game, that doesnt neccisarily mean that all mods are made to appeal to that.
tl;dr
just by the way your wording it it sounds like your saying Azanor is "forced" to making it an MC mod, most of the suggestions for standalone are ripoffs themselves, And making a game is a lot harder then you seem to be assuming.
and thats my more or less harsh criticism of the post.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet."
Personally seeing the progression of Thaumcraft as it's been throughout when I played back in Thaumcraft 2, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing new things or ways of doing it, so long as the thaumonomicon is there to give some reference. Personally I'm particularly excited if it means bringing back crystal farming. Silly as it is things I've enjoyed over time with Thaumcraft has been Golemancy and Crystal work from back in....2 or 3? being able to grow and harvest the crystals was a wonderous thing with the primal shards and it would be neat if that tiny feature came back. Originally I thought the vis pipes were a mess but after some fiddling they were a fun quirk too, gave the thaumcraft workspace kind of a loopy Alchemist feel and I adore that. Personally I'm excited either way to see what appears with thaumcraft. and if changes mean no more throwing half a world worth of crafting tables into a deconstructor and melting down half a worlds worth of resources to instead have the set elements you did last update and crystal hunting, gathering, and farming? I would be more than excited. Thaumic Crystal Caverns anyone?
PS. Another interesting detail I considered, if your still doing dungeon gen etc, something I kind of miss from old TC was the spectacle of the old Eldrich obelisk vaults I never got to the end game "dimension" dire showed off in that hardcore sky block so I duno much about it, but I was always puzzled to see what more those totems or starry pillars of unknown had to offer. so adding eye catchers like Eldrich temples or abandoned Thaumaturgic labs maybe an idea? just spitballing here but eh :3
I would be dead-set against getting rid of burning items - alchemy is my favorite part of the mod. However, I could live with getting mixtures of primals from items. And not every item has to produce meaningful amounts of aspects, as long as a nice variety does.
If items are limited to primals, perhaps some are much "richer" than others. Like, cobble might be 0.01 Terra and 0.01 Perditio, while a gold block might be 12 of each primal. (Traditionally, gold was perfectly balanced between the elements.)
Personally, I'd rather get rid of the crystals entirely than get rid of alchemy. But they could remain as a rich source of single primals.
If there were options in the next update to use either the TC5 aura system AND/OR (emphasis on the "AND/OR") the mechanics from TC4... That might be nice. I just know that I kept playing TC4, and still am, because I really do not the TC5 mechanics. (I'm sorry.) I hope in next versions it will change. I probably can't talk, because I haven't played with TC5 a lot, but the idea of draining auras and having taint appear from more places is what pushed me away from TC5.
A lot of mods have moved up from 1.7.10 (which, somewhat unfortunately, I'm still playing in) and authors have left them in the dust, while others are still working on 1.7.10 long after the most recent TC4 update. All these other mods are clashing because of old and new 1.7.10 mods. (Not due to TC4, though.)
This may all be gibberish, but what I've been told is; "stop using a 2+ year-old version of Minecraft if you want less screw-ups." But then I think, it wouldn't be much fun without Thaumcraft.
Plus, as of burning items to get just primals, I think the keeping compound aspects makes on items makes things more interesting. I'm imagining you'd put only primal aspects on items. Burning items to get essentia can be tedious, but to a tolerable point, which is fun. I think that having to burn items and then put them together would be TOO tedious, though.
I think it's an interesting direction to consider if essentia were to be based upon drawing it out of the aura, thus imposing more limits and gating the ability to exponentially produce certain resources.
Also I think it'd be more compelling if it wasn't just a way to churn out vanilla resources that wouldn't change the way the game works, Iunno.
The concept sounds cool but the exact suggested things seem a bit, off? like, if you get into technical the aqua and ordo are making the same thing, water. i feel like having some sorta catalyst would be more thaumcrafty, ie using the bucket of water to turn into ice, but, then its just infusion. or crucible recipes.
"Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet."
Thaumcraft II "we EE4 now"
"Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet."
Echoing some other people, I think that there should be a version of Thaumcraft 5 for 1.9/1.10 before Thaumcraft II. Thaumcraft II should totally go into another direction as far as we can get it with it still being Thaumcraft. honestly this essentia change is a great idea, and a change in vis and many other things would be great. Every change to TC has been an amazing one, so rethinking everything is probably going to be great.
Controvercial opinion but:
I think that EE2 had a really good effect on the way the game was played. It was "OP" in some regards, but consider how easy trading things around in an old Tekkit server was since everything had a determined EMC value. It gave people a unified currency. If someone had diamonds but all you wanted to do was trade for some iron, EMC facilitated that trade. I dunno if that's the niche TC should fill tho
Another vote for porting TC5 forward before you start turning it into something else. The reason I'm not playing TC5 now, is simply that it's not available for the new MC versions.
As far as "what i like about Thaumcraft": I'm another fan of items-to-essentia, and I like the multiblock constructs and machinery. Taint and warp I liked after their respective rebalancing. Having a reliable manual for the mod, and a proper progression system. Golems, especially the ability to automate farms and sorting. Foci, naturally.
I would definitely like to see more new mobs (not all enemies!), and interesting worldgen including more challenging areas in the Overworld. Folding in the stuff from Thaumic Horizons would be wonderful. I also liked infusion enchanting, and was sorry to see it go.
I got a lot of catching up to do so if I seem to be a bit off topic then I guess it's just because I missread these?
But it seems to be on the topic of porting....
Yes, I'd rather see Thaumcraft5 be ported to 1.9 or 1.10 and stuff.
I was exited about the big update but never played it because I love the 1.9+ changes.
Also, I'd love to see how he'd use the new off-hand system for unique things.
Friendship is magic!
Oh really? :3
lol, jokes aside, no worries, I'm no grammar derp, I'm just messin' with ya!
Sorry if I offended you anyways though.
But I'm a colt, not filly. :3
I'll remember to capitalize the great Azanor in future!
Friendship is magic!
I think I might be best to push a 1.9/1.10 port first, but that's just me. But I do liek the idea of maybe heading back to the way Thaumcraft 2 worked in a future update.
Altogether, I'm not too sure what to think about the prospect of TCII, because Thaumcraft has already gone through so many re-imaginings. @Azanor Speaking for myself as someone who is always hyper-critical of the things I make/write, I understand the temptation of starting over with a new slate, but at some point there comes a time where I just have to ignore myself when I think 'I could make this better' and keep moving forward. As it stands, I believe Thaumcraft has stronger and more creative mechanics than 90% of games which are made today, but because you are a one man development team, the amount of content you can create is very finite. Every time Thaumcraft has been remade, there have been fantastic improvements, but at the same time, the direction changes which means you have to start over at some level which hurts content depth. Anyway, if you want to move on to TCII, then I look forward to the changes, and here's my two bits to help form an idea of what the general players think.
I really think items and blocks should keep their compound essentia because it gives the player a reason to explore the world, find them, farm them, etc in order to progress through Thaumcraft. Further, it gives a really singular feeling to the world, as each block has its own fundamental characteristics, and it tells a story about the what you encounter, simply by looking at what it is made of. Example: fibrous taint has taint essentia, of course, but it also has life essentia, which can be disturbing if you think about it. Another example are the totems found in TC4. They have darkness and alien essentia, which tells the player that this isn't a structure built by, say, villagers who found the node and built the totem as a warning, but rather it comes from someplace more sinister. If nothing else, there is something cool about items being physically imbued with something that typically only exists as abstract thought - I.E. a chair somehow physically draws into it a substance which describes what some hypothetical ideal chair is. This substance is what I imagine essentia to be.
And, though I like the mechanics of TC4's nodes where you had to draw vis directly from them (especially the centra-vis which looked cool to divert around my base), I think a return to the aura based system is a good decision. It lets you change the world, manipulate it, and your actions have a very noticeable effect upon it; therefore, I say that system should stay in TCII. Maybe you could even take it up a step and have aura levels coorespond to biomes and worldgen, higher herba aura in forests, ignis in deserts, gelum in snowy places, etc. This could pave the way towards letting the player terraform at higher levels by supercharging the aura with certain aspects. That said, I think it would be cool to implement a hybrid TC4-TC5 system where the player builds awesome looking mechanical structures like the transducer and stabilizers around nodes to further some end.
Whatever you do, though, I must say that this is the best mod that I have played for any game. Keep up the good work!
[edit - spelling]
As I have been a fan of Thaumcraft since version 2.1.4, I hope to have a voice in the mods change. As I have played with the mod over the years, the changes have started to look like a compilation other previous ideas with new ones. This new idea of making it so that essentia is made by combining different primals seems counter to what both Minecraft and Thaumcraft are about. The reason that Thaumcraft works so well with Minecraft is because the mod is about exploring the world and farming or gathering all resources so that you can build up your magical prowess and fortress. You would diversify your focus so that you could collect all of the different kinds of magical resources, like netherwart, sugar cane, mushrooms, magical trees, and other farmables.
Replacing all of the Mincraft based systems of complex essentia with merely combining the base six into different more complex forms would limit the reliance doing vanilla Minecraft development solely for doing magic stuff in the basement for hours on end. It also conflicts with how the Eldritch as a whole function. They consume the energy around them to form their own malicious projects, rather making a void than putting something together. Creatures that are part of a void world could not develop ways to fabricate raw essentia into complex forms as the void would tear it apart, but would rather steal the compound resources of the overworld to make their world. Darkness does not construct, it steals and repurposes all it can find for its power.
Now if the creation of essentia was limited to making new ones not found in nature, that could allow there to be a counterpart to the void thaumaturge. It would allow there to be a new kind of thaumaturge, a star thaumaturge. They would need to work harder to make their resources and requires more of them than void thaumaturges, but don't have to deal with the effects of warp. The Eldritch would still relentlessly pursue them for there magic, as it is much more stable than anything they can get. They couldn't be as effective at destroying, preferring to create more than tear apart. The void thaumaturge is much easier and is more destructive, but must face the consequences of their actions. It would be an interesting dynamic to a mod that has been one sided so long and then try to explore the idea of creation along with consumption. Does anyone agree with me? If not, try to explain your ideas so that we can all help @Azanor.
So, I'm going to have a lot of people hate me for saying this....
But As cool as Thaumcraft is, maybe instead of Making Thaumcraft II or Thaumcraft 6.0 you should abandon the idea of a mod and make your own game.
Get some coder friends(Or not, you could do it by yourself) and make your own thing from scratch.
You really have a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that'd made for some great games.
The simple research system alone could be a cellphone app game, though I'd hope you would make a bit of a bigger more indepth game.
But if you've ever seen the game Unturned on Steam, it's insainly popular and loved, and it started out as a guy who made his own server on Roblox.
Your mod is one of the most popular mods out there, so you clearly know what you're doing.
Making your own game would also leave you with a lot more freedom.
Everytime Minecraft updated you wouldn't be swarmed with questions of "When is TC going to be 1.10/1.11/1.12 ect?"
You could add a story if you wanted, or maybe leave that illusive "Story written by the player but in your direction" idea, which I personally liked a lot.
The idea of style of games is endless, if you did a Pokemon:GO style where you go out hunting for aspects for your Thaumlab and can battle other thaumaturges would be interesting. Players taking too much from a specific area could make warp start to spread.
Or you could go with a Skyrim styled game, classic hack and slash adventure all about learning the science of thaumography.
I really would encourage you to make your own game, because if it's anything like how Thaumcraft has been I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Only suggestion is I'd keep it at a E10+ rating at worst seeing as most of your fans are from Minecraft which is a lot of kids, but again, it's your game.
You could do whatever you want.
Yeah, no more people making add-ons, but frankly most peoples add-ons just add a derp ton of pointless aspects and a focus that makes you win the game. lol
And if you made it open source like Unturned did you could have a modding community like them.
If you like the Minecraft style of digging and building you could do that still, most Minecraft rip-offs fail because they just copy/paste Minecraft, you'd actually have your own full ideas so I think it could survive on it's own, especially if you had a Ars magica style of things so spell creation could be deeper on top of the whole finding aspects and making machines and stuff.
A lot of fans will hate this idea because (understandably so) they don't want to lose this cool mod to the realm of "Not updating".
But really, think about making your own game.
You could go farther, make side money, have more freedom and no nagging about updating to newer Minecraft versions.
Friendship is magic!
^^ This guy. Let me be the first to express my non-hate. Think of Eloraam and Red Power (http://www.eloraam.com/) Her concepts were just too good to remain as a minecraft mod, and I think Thaumcraft is an even better mod than RP. You've got a lot of talent Azanor, and although making a new game is a whole 'nother beast than modding, I think Thaumcraft's mechanics and story would be great as a standalone game.
We talked about this already. Azanor seems to be somewhat interested in the idea, but he does not know what kind of game Thaumcraft "standalone" would be.
Sure the research would make a good game by itself, but if he releases something outside of MC mods and it is not even comparable to the mod, then what's the point?
I made a D flip-flop!
There's plenty of things he could do, I'd be sad to see the mod stop updating/updates slow down but a full fledged game would be awesome.
I could come up with a ton ideas, Yeah I'm not a programmer so I wouldn't know what would be easy or hard, but still.
And if I could come up with a ton I'm sure he could come up with a ton more.
The research system would merely be a mechanic in the game and no longer basically the main thing(Because Minecraft does the rest for walking, fighting, mining, building ect.) but that'd be the fun part.
Friendship is magic!
While I do like how you think it would be nice for the mod to become its own game, I feel that you don't fully understand the amount of effort that goes into making games of the caliber you describe. Building a game takes years for an individual to make and even longer if you want to make something along the lines of making thaumcraft its own game. Having to set up for such an ambitious project would take hundreds of thousands of dollars and would require at least two dozen programmers of different fields, like modeler, animator, technical support, basic programmers, etc. Even if he did it himself, he wouldn't be able to churn out the code fast enough to try and make the game in a reasonable amount of time. Azanor has a life outside of making Thaumcraft. He makes it a mod to Minecraft because it fits into the game easily and most of the hard coding is done for him, things like rendering, particle set up, random generation, among thousands of other features.
While I appreciate how much you love his mod (and trust me, I love it too), you have to understand how hard it would be on Azanor's life to try and even attempt such a herculean task. His idea is only able to grow because the change of Minecraft pushes it forward. Other indie projects die because they don't have incentive to move forward. Even if he made his own game, he could be attacked legally for using ideas from minecraft. The best course of action is to make his mod grow and progress until it can become its own game, as it doesn't have enough unique features to really separate from its host game. He would need an army of small programmers to pull it together. If we can do it, I'll help as much as I can for his sake. No developer should be left to such a monumental task by himself.
personal vendetta but dont go into convo saying "someones going ot hate me for this" its like saying no offense right before an offensive statement, or "this is a bad idea" then going on how you want the idea implemented.
Now actaully on topic, Shirololl already addressed that Azanor has poked interest at making His own game sometimes, He hasnt not thought about it like your making it sound. All in all a lot of the suggestions for styled games are just, copies, to put it bluntly. You suggest a cellphone research game but the way you put it is basically doodle god, and, reskin of pokemon go but thaumcraft. And even if He does produce a standalone game, you have to put into perspective how hard it is to actually make a game, this isnt game dev tycoon, its not a simple task. To produce a high quality game would take a lot of time. and, honestly, most of the people on the thread page give off a teen older vibe, MC is a kid game, that doesnt neccisarily mean that all mods are made to appeal to that.
tl;dr
just by the way your wording it it sounds like your saying Azanor is "forced" to making it an MC mod, most of the suggestions for standalone are ripoffs themselves, And making a game is a lot harder then you seem to be assuming.
and thats my more or less harsh criticism of the post.
"Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet."