I'm creating this thread as a "Think-tank" for my planned spiritual successor to ThaumCraft. As much as I love Thaumcraft I feel it has become "just another tech mod". While there is nothing wrong with that I think I can do better
ArcanaCraft will inherit many of the blocks, items and features from ThaumCraft, but with an even greater focus on magic. The thread for Thaumcraft can be found here: http://www.minecraft...ted-on-1052012/
Planned Changes
Aura will play a much greater role and will be much more dynamic.
Vis will not exist as it does currently (for the most part). Items and blocks that require magical power will (for the most part) draw it directly from the aura.
Taint will still be around and still be "in the air" like Aura, but the two will no longer be opposing forces
A greater emphasis on research and experimentation along with a much improved research system that does not boil down to burning cobble/bookcases in the hope of winning the lotto.
nice... so I'm reposting the only good idea I had in this changing period...
as you said seals would be a more used resource in the future I suggest to add a branch to the research system dedicated to them:
the better idea imo would be different base seals like:
- white one as basic seal (not to research)
- the red one could make the essences combination effect stronger but draining more aura from the chunk
- the blue seal would be like an efficiency upgrade for the essences combination (they will do the same effect as in the base seal but with less aura drain)
- the green seal would increase the AoE of the combination making short area medium, medium large and so on...
well you got the point
also a parallel Idea could be researching for advanced essences (or might use the extracts to do that dunno)
advanced essences could lead to more powerful/aura saving combination...
and (borrowed idea I read it somewhere but can't remember who said it first)
some advanced seal with more than a 3 essences combination to improve effects or add more precise one (like a seal that hurts just wisps for example)
Please allow me to give my thanks for the continued efforts on this mod. It is by far one of the most amazing and well conceived mods I have had the pleasure of playing.
I've been considering an idea I had the other night while researching. After much thought I finally decided I should probably share it with the community.
Research is pretty amazing IMHO. I admire the skill and creativity that went into designing the system. And while I think the current system is outstanding, it couldn't hurt to have it a bit more fluid.
I've been toying around with a few ideas on how research could be enhanced without trivializing it or ruining the current feel. One option would be the research of actual items that pertain to the completely researched theorem and disallow research gained by non-related researched objects.
So, if you threw a stack of cobble into the research device you would not receive any "fragments". Instead, you would have a chance (albeit very small) to obtain any object's theorem that directly uses cobble in its make-up. Placing research augments for the various fields of study would influence the direction your research might take. This would allow the player to 'guide' their research. If you succeed then a Theory would be created. For our example it would be called something along the lines of : Theory: Lost Knowledge of Cobblestone.
Now the real fun begins. Once you have your physical 'theory', it could go many different ways depending upon a few variables: Amount of recipes under 'Lost" that use cobblestone, Difficulty level of actual end result (balance) and what additional research objects are offered up to further specialize the research inquiry.
Lets say under 'cobblestone', under the 'Lost' category; there are three recipes. **Cobblestone & Torch =Floor Lamp**, **Cobblestone, Redstone, Iron Block, Gold Ingot, Lever & Glass = Red Furnace**, **Cobblestone, Wooden Planks & Slime Balls = Sticky Ceiling**.
The Theory: Lost Knowledge of Cobblestone would be placed in the research slot, then experimental candidates would be placed in the squares below. Lets say for the sake of visualization we placed a diamond and a sapling in the extra slots. Now we would initialize the research (Button press on the GUI) and wait for the outcome of our research. No diamonds or saplings exist in ANY of the cobblestone recipes, so our research would not move forward. Nothing would be lost. You do not 'lose' knowledge just because your hunch was inaccurate, your research simply doesn't move forward.
Now, after that failed try we place a sandstone block and a slime ball. After the appropriate research time has elapsed only your slime ball would disappear and you would receive a incremental nudge on your theorem's progress bar. You would continue 'researching' and 'experimenting' along these lines until your theorem turned into a full-blown recipe scroll. Bookshelves and later brains-in-a-jar could still provide benefits. Since there would not be the huge 'eat all your stuff' requirement to research it would have to be balanced with time. It would take time to research...and the player. The player would have to be present at Quaesitum at all times or the research would stop.
Having the researching like this would be much more fun I think, make more sense, and be much more attainable at all stages of the game. Further it would not negate the current 'research' items(IE:Artifacts).
Thanks so much for reading, and thanks for this wonderful mod.
i feel like we actually need more ways to do real magic. the wands are cool, but most aren't exactly "magic". I think more wands and seals that you can infuse into your armor. it would be awesome to be a walking seal. most seals would be nerfed, as if there full power was infused into the armor, it would be way OP. of course, there would have to be ways to embed essences into seals in your inventory, which would also save time later. imagine imbuing your armor with AFD, and being a walking flame-thrower. or doing ADA and drawing tons of items to you.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
TG: im not a hero TG: my bro was TG: john is TG: im not
- One-shot paper seals/ward-papers (glyphs?) which provide a single effect when/where they're applied (create light, make tiny house, etc)
- Vis Diffuser: Same concept as Vis condenser, but reversed. Placed crystal radiates vis into the aura more efficiently than natural crystal.
- "Summoner's Circle" (ritual? glyph? construct?) which isolates a chunk's aura from the neighboring chunks. (seals in the freshness!)
- Freeflowing Quicksilver rivers/pools/geysers as a natural feature in the Nether.
- Taintacles implemented as a (Dark/???/???) trap Seal (perhaps hold/damage/drain lifeforce into local aura?)
- Orrery (don't care what it's for, I just want one for the looks ) Perhaps an effect booster for the telescope?
- Power buildings that are actually a particular block configuration rather than a single placeable item. Think Stonehenge.
- Expanded alchemic features building on the vanilla brew stand. Vaporiser/distiller/alembic/lots of fiddly tubes and bottles. Perhaps move the TC potions (purest magic/foulest taint etc) out of the infuser and into the brewing lab.
- As an adjunct to expanded alchemy, perhaps some additional herbs. Mandrake, monkshood, mistletoe, other non-M herbs.
- Building on the herbal expansion, a thaumic greenhouse (possibly one of those buildable structures/not placeable items I mentioned 3 points ago). Branch (hurr hurr) of research which allows you to create magical plants - cinderpearl/shimmerweed/silverleaf maybe not naturally occurring, but must be discovered/bred and grown? Also attack plants (swordgrass, strangler vines, LASER SUNFLOWERS.)
- Seriously, Van de Graaff generators. Possibly in the magi-tech Eldritch tree as a vis collector/storage unit, used to power devices within range (stable portals? research/enchanting tables?)
- Paired Seal which creates the Portable Hole effect between the two terminuses (termini?) when the player passes in front of either seal.
- Paired Seal which acts as a dry water-ladder. Antigrav seal? Jump to ascend, crouch to descend...
- oh, and the ability to fuse the Goggles effect into another helmet.
Epic Level Magic: Vis becomes a bit of the endgame fuel, something you only gain by researching artefacts, ancient monoliths and so on - being able to create pure magic is the equivalent of having nuclear fusion... just thriving on the background aura isn't enough to do the *big* things, like creating matter from thin air (like the duplicator) or creating stable gateways through space-time (portals). Imagine the dark interior of a monolith with purplish glowing vis piping embedded in the walls, a bit like "Tron-lines".
hm. Combining this with a couple of my previous ideas (buildable structures and lightning arcs) How about a large-ish, expensive tower built in chunks adjacent to your lab, which gather power and 'beam' it to a collector tower (also large, also expensive). Something like the huge solar-array generators they build out in the desert; gather and focus energy toward a central point.
IDEA: arcane EVAPORATOR(basicly the oposite of a condenser)
it evaporates the vis in crystals and pumps it into the aura.
the evaporator should be made out of a bellow , extract of lightest air and nitor int the new infuser(nitor evaporates the vis in the crystal and the bellows pump it out into the air)
the evaporator should be able to use bellows as boosters.
edit: i got sorta ninja'd ,but i actually suggested this earlier,but it was supposed to pump vis from tanks out into the atmosphere to increse the aura.
Wait a second, I'm confused. So, the old thaumcraft will continue going on and updating, but it was kina-sorta ditched by its creator because it felt to "tec" like. Therefore, a new mod, called arcanacraft is being made, that may completely or partially do away with pipes?
Building on my one-shot seal idea, and LutherAD's blood-sacrifice idea, how about a trap seal which is placed on the ground. You lure an enemy across it, and it changes seal and enemy into a dropped loot item ("Creeper Gem") which can be thrown to release the enemy. For large-scale sacrificial magic, you'd throw the sealed enemy into a ritual circle to fuel the spell. Specific enemies might be required (Gemmed Enderman for a teleport spell) or better enemies/more sacrifices might increase the spell effects. Gemmed enemies might also be useful as a research item, especially in Forbidden magics, or for specific items (Blazes for Pickaxe of the Core, Ocelots for speedy boots)
Some expanded thaumic alchemy system. I mean, we have all these magical liquids! Drops of darkness, quicksilver, extracts! Why not give them a use in potionmaking.
Sort of like how the thaumic enchanter expands enchanting.
I do want clarify, though: this mod is not a complete rewrite, correct? Some of the core features will still remain in place (if altered)?
Sort of like how TC1->TC2 weren't two completely different mods, but expansions of the ideas that came before.
Wait a second, I'm confused. So, the old thaumcraft will continue going on and updating, but it was kina-sorta ditched by its creator because it felt to "tec" like. Therefore, a new mod, called arcanacraft is being made, that may completely or partially do away with pipes?
I want to inject a cautionary note, to all this talk of scrapping all that has been built so as to regress to some simpler, more magickie mod (that's how it all comes across to me). In Minecraft, we assemble blocks that make gizmos that do stuff. Various mods add new (usually more powerful) blocks we assemble that make other gizmos that do other stuff. And we have Thaumcraft that adds blocks we assemble that make still more gizmos that do stuff, albeit with an additional step added (research).
But with Thaumcraft we have some new twists; we have the positive and negative 'aura' of vis and taint, and we are able to harness that aura for our ends, with some need to be careful lest we twist it too far and it runs amok. We are able to store that aura so as to use it and physically see it as it runs through pipes and seethes in straining tanks. This adds a visual appeal that is not trivial as one can gaze upon the result of all our striving.
Removing the pipes and tanks and the mechanics of crystals would be to me a loss, not to mention a waste of all the time and effort that has gone into adding them to the mod already. Moving them to a higher level of research such as eldritch would be fine with me. I have spent a lot of effort getting to the point where I can use Thaumcraft productively (not to mention all the time 'you Azanor' have spent) and throwing it all out is not an idea I relish.
The criticism of Thaumcrat that has been raised (by Azanor) is that if feels too much like a tech mod. Firstly, we should start by remembering Arthur C Clark's dictum' "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That is equally true in reverse. Any sufficient understanding of magic renders it technology. Secondly, go to the basics. The mod has added blocks we assemble that make gizmos that do stuff. Changing the mod so that it uses other blocks that make gizmos that do stuff does not address the problem. Removing the pipes does not add anything; it dumbs it down to make it even more prosaic. Creating the one thing of 'aura' is actually a dumbing down of the mod if it comes at the expense of removing the two things of vis and taint that are in fact already 'aura'.
To create a more magic feel rather than a tech feel I believe requires divorcing effect from gizmo. If in order to rain fire down upon the mobs requires that you build a fire stick and to do that you must discover fire powder and blasting sticks then assemble them in your gizmo block does not make it less tech like, just because it is called by different names or you have a chance of explosions. Thaumcraft right now is not Thaumcraft, it is not the art of miracles. The mod as it is right now is alchemy and enchantment which is entirely appropriate as 'part' of magic, but for it to be the art of miracles it needs to be something other than blocks that make gizmos that do stuff.
Stripped completely naked and dropped into a deep hole, a Minecraft player is helpless, as without tools or starting materials, there is little they can do. Thaumcraft as it is now does not change this.
Stripped completely naked and dropped into a hole, a wizard is not helpless, far from it. The question is, how can Thaumcraft be built upon so as to render a player 'not' helpless in such a situation? How can a Minecraft player be transformed from someone that uses materials and tools to do stuff (tech mod), into a wizard who can do stuff regardless?
Give the player access to potentially powerful effects independant of gizmos. But make the power, effect and consequence of using those effects dependant upon achievements and previous choices, including potentially things like the building of magical constructions. Keep the existing system for alchemy and enchantments, but add to that. A starting player would have access to none of it without research. Upon discovering the truth of magic they would unlock the first most basic of effects at a trivial power level but then over time be able to grow that into much greater power.
Create an entirely new menu, like a skill tree (Diablo like?) that can be hot buttoned, this would be item independent (nothing required in inventory). Make the progression through that skill tree be dependant upon research, constructions, the investiture of materials, the expenditure of experience, the making of pacts, the harnessing of elemental forces, etc.. The various 'skills' would be effects the player can avail themselves of at any time, some passive, others activated. Make the power, duration, vis and taint cost, backfire chance and other consequences dependent upon the degree of achievement attained and choices made by the player.
Bind a fire elemental in the nether to your aura to gain a bonus to your power, at the cost of being set aflame whenever you use it; fine if you are flame immune, but you also tend to set villages and forests on fire. Make a pact with the forces of darkness to gain yet more power at the cost of taint spread whenever you use it. Summon demons to do your bidding and pray you are able to maintain control. Capture and sacrifice villagers for the power of blood magic knowing you can handle the hostility of the previously passive and the occasional paladin that will seek you out.
Build a temple to the sky god and gain favor, the bigger the temple the greater the favor. Grow a silverwood biome and link your soul to it for a permanent boost to your own personal vis conduit. Invest in a powerful magic circle in your laboratory so you can reinforce your own aura.
Some of these effects could be complimentary, building upon one another for greater effect, others would be contradictory as one travels down the respective paths of light and darkness, vis and taint. Power to cast 'spells' would come from your own personal stores of vis (or taint) kept in your own aura (a 'skill' that can be increased). An additional skill might allow you to supplement that by pulling power out of the chunk's vis and taint. Your own aura would replenish itself with time, dependant upon yet another skill.
Keep the existing Thaumcraft, perhaps tweaked. Add to it true magic, irrespective of building blocks and gizmos.
I just started to play TC several days ago, so I can't propose such great suggestions to the block and vis/taint mechanisms like others did , but I do want to comment on the research system. dropping in cobble was always the way to go, and you could simply get everything without going out to search for those fancy artifacts or killing unique creatures. This and the Vis conduit are the main parts that make me think TC as "just another tech mod". You should force players to search out for loots in dungeon instead of sitting at home, and each artifact should only give rise to a specific set of research outcomes. cobble and other vanilla resources should no longer be the source of all magica.
One idea is that you could implement the system as a language: Each artifact has a specific word associated to it, and the Quaesitum decodes it. You can get to know the words only if you have sufficient knowledge of the ancient language (either implement it as an experience system, or a tier system: getting higher words only if lower words are known). Combining the known words could result in further knowledge into such realm (lost/forbidden/taint/edritch etc). This knowledge becomes the building stone of everything else. Only by knowing how it works can you make power item (recipe), or construct functional constructs (like LutherAD suggested)
I'm creating this thread as a "Think-tank" for my planned spiritual successor to ThaumCraft. As much as I love Thaumcraft I feel it has become "just another tech mod". While there is nothing wrong with that I think I can do better
ArcanaCraft will inherit many of the blocks, items and features from ThaumCraft, but with an even greater focus on magic. The thread for Thaumcraft can be found here: http://www.minecraft...ted-on-1052012/
Planned Changes
as you said seals would be a more used resource in the future I suggest to add a branch to the research system dedicated to them:
the better idea imo would be different base seals like:
- white one as basic seal (not to research)
- the red one could make the essences combination effect stronger but draining more aura from the chunk
- the blue seal would be like an efficiency upgrade for the essences combination (they will do the same effect as in the base seal but with less aura drain)
- the green seal would increase the AoE of the combination making short area medium, medium large and so on...
well you got the point
also a parallel Idea could be researching for advanced essences (or might use the extracts to do that dunno)
advanced essences could lead to more powerful/aura saving combination...
and (borrowed idea I read it somewhere but can't remember who said it first)
some advanced seal with more than a 3 essences combination to improve effects or add more precise one (like a seal that hurts just wisps for example)
edit:
make crystal evaporators that use crystals as fuel.
crystal evaporators can be used to fill the aura with vis by pumping vis from crystals into the aura.
oh btw,make it look like a combination of the condenser and the bellows
Please allow me to give my thanks for the continued efforts on this mod. It is by far one of the most amazing and well conceived mods I have had the pleasure of playing.
I've been considering an idea I had the other night while researching. After much thought I finally decided I should probably share it with the community.
Research is pretty amazing IMHO. I admire the skill and creativity that went into designing the system. And while I think the current system is outstanding, it couldn't hurt to have it a bit more fluid.
I've been toying around with a few ideas on how research could be enhanced without trivializing it or ruining the current feel. One option would be the research of actual items that pertain to the completely researched theorem and disallow research gained by non-related researched objects.
So, if you threw a stack of cobble into the research device you would not receive any "fragments". Instead, you would have a chance (albeit very small) to obtain any object's theorem that directly uses cobble in its make-up. Placing research augments for the various fields of study would influence the direction your research might take. This would allow the player to 'guide' their research. If you succeed then a Theory would be created. For our example it would be called something along the lines of : Theory: Lost Knowledge of Cobblestone.
Now the real fun begins. Once you have your physical 'theory', it could go many different ways depending upon a few variables: Amount of recipes under 'Lost" that use cobblestone, Difficulty level of actual end result (balance) and what additional research objects are offered up to further specialize the research inquiry.
Lets say under 'cobblestone', under the 'Lost' category; there are three recipes. **Cobblestone & Torch =Floor Lamp**, **Cobblestone, Redstone, Iron Block, Gold Ingot, Lever & Glass = Red Furnace**, **Cobblestone, Wooden Planks & Slime Balls = Sticky Ceiling**.
The Theory: Lost Knowledge of Cobblestone would be placed in the research slot, then experimental candidates would be placed in the squares below. Lets say for the sake of visualization we placed a diamond and a sapling in the extra slots. Now we would initialize the research (Button press on the GUI) and wait for the outcome of our research. No diamonds or saplings exist in ANY of the cobblestone recipes, so our research would not move forward. Nothing would be lost. You do not 'lose' knowledge just because your hunch was inaccurate, your research simply doesn't move forward.
Now, after that failed try we place a sandstone block and a slime ball. After the appropriate research time has elapsed only your slime ball would disappear and you would receive a incremental nudge on your theorem's progress bar. You would continue 'researching' and 'experimenting' along these lines until your theorem turned into a full-blown recipe scroll. Bookshelves and later brains-in-a-jar could still provide benefits. Since there would not be the huge 'eat all your stuff' requirement to research it would have to be balanced with time. It would take time to research...and the player. The player would have to be present at Quaesitum at all times or the research would stop.
Having the researching like this would be much more fun I think, make more sense, and be much more attainable at all stages of the game. Further it would not negate the current 'research' items(IE:Artifacts).
Thanks so much for reading, and thanks for this wonderful mod.
Lady Eternity
TG: john is TG: im not
- One-shot paper seals/ward-papers (glyphs?) which provide a single effect when/where they're applied (create light, make tiny house, etc)
- Vis Diffuser: Same concept as Vis condenser, but reversed. Placed crystal radiates vis into the aura more efficiently than natural crystal.
- "Summoner's Circle" (ritual? glyph? construct?) which isolates a chunk's aura from the neighboring chunks. (seals in the freshness!)
- Freeflowing Quicksilver rivers/pools/geysers as a natural feature in the Nether.
- Taintacles implemented as a (Dark/???/???) trap Seal (perhaps hold/damage/drain lifeforce into local aura?)
- Orrery (don't care what it's for, I just want one for the looks ) Perhaps an effect booster for the telescope?
- Power buildings that are actually a particular block configuration rather than a single placeable item. Think Stonehenge.
- Expanded alchemic features building on the vanilla brew stand. Vaporiser/distiller/alembic/lots of fiddly tubes and bottles. Perhaps move the TC potions (purest magic/foulest taint etc) out of the infuser and into the brewing lab.
- As an adjunct to expanded alchemy, perhaps some additional herbs. Mandrake, monkshood, mistletoe, other non-M herbs.
- Building on the herbal expansion, a thaumic greenhouse (possibly one of those buildable structures/not placeable items I mentioned 3 points ago). Branch (hurr hurr) of research which allows you to create magical plants - cinderpearl/shimmerweed/silverleaf maybe not naturally occurring, but must be discovered/bred and grown? Also attack plants (swordgrass, strangler vines, LASER SUNFLOWERS.)
- Seriously, Van de Graaff generators. Possibly in the magi-tech Eldritch tree as a vis collector/storage unit, used to power devices within range (stable portals? research/enchanting tables?)
- Paired Seal which creates the Portable Hole effect between the two terminuses (termini?) when the player passes in front of either seal.
- Paired Seal which acts as a dry water-ladder. Antigrav seal? Jump to ascend, crouch to descend...
- oh, and the ability to fuse the Goggles effect into another helmet.
TG: john is TG: im not
hm. Combining this with a couple of my previous ideas (buildable structures and lightning arcs) How about a large-ish, expensive tower built in chunks adjacent to your lab, which gather power and 'beam' it to a collector tower (also large, also expensive). Something like the huge solar-array generators they build out in the desert; gather and focus energy toward a central point.
it evaporates the vis in crystals and pumps it into the aura.
the evaporator should be made out of a bellow , extract of lightest air and nitor int the new infuser(nitor evaporates the vis in the crystal and the bellows pump it out into the air)
the evaporator should be able to use bellows as boosters.
edit: i got sorta ninja'd ,but i actually suggested this earlier,but it was supposed to pump vis from tanks out into the atmosphere to increse the aura.
Building on my one-shot seal idea, and LutherAD's blood-sacrifice idea, how about a trap seal which is placed on the ground. You lure an enemy across it, and it changes seal and enemy into a dropped loot item ("Creeper Gem") which can be thrown to release the enemy. For large-scale sacrificial magic, you'd throw the sealed enemy into a ritual circle to fuel the spell. Specific enemies might be required (Gemmed Enderman for a teleport spell) or better enemies/more sacrifices might increase the spell effects. Gemmed enemies might also be useful as a research item, especially in Forbidden magics, or for specific items (Blazes for Pickaxe of the Core, Ocelots for speedy boots)
lets move away from ENDGAME and implement something that keep the mod fun even if you have reatched tier x
tier X = highest tier
Dear god! It's both squamous AND rugose!!!
Sort of like how the thaumic enchanter expands enchanting.
I do want clarify, though: this mod is not a complete rewrite, correct? Some of the core features will still remain in place (if altered)?
Sort of like how TC1->TC2 weren't two completely different mods, but expansions of the ideas that came before.
That about sums it up!
I want to inject a cautionary note, to all this talk of scrapping all that has been built so as to regress to some simpler, more magickie mod (that's how it all comes across to me). In Minecraft, we assemble blocks that make gizmos that do stuff. Various mods add new (usually more powerful) blocks we assemble that make other gizmos that do other stuff. And we have Thaumcraft that adds blocks we assemble that make still more gizmos that do stuff, albeit with an additional step added (research).
But with Thaumcraft we have some new twists; we have the positive and negative 'aura' of vis and taint, and we are able to harness that aura for our ends, with some need to be careful lest we twist it too far and it runs amok. We are able to store that aura so as to use it and physically see it as it runs through pipes and seethes in straining tanks. This adds a visual appeal that is not trivial as one can gaze upon the result of all our striving.
Removing the pipes and tanks and the mechanics of crystals would be to me a loss, not to mention a waste of all the time and effort that has gone into adding them to the mod already. Moving them to a higher level of research such as eldritch would be fine with me. I have spent a lot of effort getting to the point where I can use Thaumcraft productively (not to mention all the time 'you Azanor' have spent) and throwing it all out is not an idea I relish.
The criticism of Thaumcrat that has been raised (by Azanor) is that if feels too much like a tech mod. Firstly, we should start by remembering Arthur C Clark's dictum' "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That is equally true in reverse. Any sufficient understanding of magic renders it technology. Secondly, go to the basics. The mod has added blocks we assemble that make gizmos that do stuff. Changing the mod so that it uses other blocks that make gizmos that do stuff does not address the problem. Removing the pipes does not add anything; it dumbs it down to make it even more prosaic. Creating the one thing of 'aura' is actually a dumbing down of the mod if it comes at the expense of removing the two things of vis and taint that are in fact already 'aura'.
To create a more magic feel rather than a tech feel I believe requires divorcing effect from gizmo. If in order to rain fire down upon the mobs requires that you build a fire stick and to do that you must discover fire powder and blasting sticks then assemble them in your gizmo block does not make it less tech like, just because it is called by different names or you have a chance of explosions. Thaumcraft right now is not Thaumcraft, it is not the art of miracles. The mod as it is right now is alchemy and enchantment which is entirely appropriate as 'part' of magic, but for it to be the art of miracles it needs to be something other than blocks that make gizmos that do stuff.
Stripped completely naked and dropped into a deep hole, a Minecraft player is helpless, as without tools or starting materials, there is little they can do. Thaumcraft as it is now does not change this.
Stripped completely naked and dropped into a hole, a wizard is not helpless, far from it. The question is, how can Thaumcraft be built upon so as to render a player 'not' helpless in such a situation? How can a Minecraft player be transformed from someone that uses materials and tools to do stuff (tech mod), into a wizard who can do stuff regardless?
Give the player access to potentially powerful effects independant of gizmos. But make the power, effect and consequence of using those effects dependant upon achievements and previous choices, including potentially things like the building of magical constructions. Keep the existing system for alchemy and enchantments, but add to that. A starting player would have access to none of it without research. Upon discovering the truth of magic they would unlock the first most basic of effects at a trivial power level but then over time be able to grow that into much greater power.
Create an entirely new menu, like a skill tree (Diablo like?) that can be hot buttoned, this would be item independent (nothing required in inventory). Make the progression through that skill tree be dependant upon research, constructions, the investiture of materials, the expenditure of experience, the making of pacts, the harnessing of elemental forces, etc.. The various 'skills' would be effects the player can avail themselves of at any time, some passive, others activated. Make the power, duration, vis and taint cost, backfire chance and other consequences dependent upon the degree of achievement attained and choices made by the player.
Bind a fire elemental in the nether to your aura to gain a bonus to your power, at the cost of being set aflame whenever you use it; fine if you are flame immune, but you also tend to set villages and forests on fire. Make a pact with the forces of darkness to gain yet more power at the cost of taint spread whenever you use it. Summon demons to do your bidding and pray you are able to maintain control. Capture and sacrifice villagers for the power of blood magic knowing you can handle the hostility of the previously passive and the occasional paladin that will seek you out.
Build a temple to the sky god and gain favor, the bigger the temple the greater the favor. Grow a silverwood biome and link your soul to it for a permanent boost to your own personal vis conduit. Invest in a powerful magic circle in your laboratory so you can reinforce your own aura.
Some of these effects could be complimentary, building upon one another for greater effect, others would be contradictory as one travels down the respective paths of light and darkness, vis and taint. Power to cast 'spells' would come from your own personal stores of vis (or taint) kept in your own aura (a 'skill' that can be increased). An additional skill might allow you to supplement that by pulling power out of the chunk's vis and taint. Your own aura would replenish itself with time, dependant upon yet another skill.
Keep the existing Thaumcraft, perhaps tweaked. Add to it true magic, irrespective of building blocks and gizmos.
One idea is that you could implement the system as a language: Each artifact has a specific word associated to it, and the Quaesitum decodes it. You can get to know the words only if you have sufficient knowledge of the ancient language (either implement it as an experience system, or a tier system: getting higher words only if lower words are known). Combining the known words could result in further knowledge into such realm (lost/forbidden/taint/edritch etc). This knowledge becomes the building stone of everything else. Only by knowing how it works can you make power item (recipe), or construct functional constructs (like LutherAD suggested)
I feel obligated to point out that "sacrum" is a bone. In your butt.