eldritch bricks,tained planks,crystalized stone,eldritch glass and more cool blocks?
i have resently seen ideas where you are forced to make structures,but what if you want to make your own structure for the item/block/entity?
i saw an idea where you had to make an observatory out of diffrent blocks in a specific shape,but that would ruin my ideas of building a cool green dome with a hole in it.
people want to make building their own way, so instead of forcing them to build somethin g specific,why not add blocks that add the wanted effect when placed in a 1-5 block radius?
buildable arcane furnace = boring since it would lock big and boring like the coke oven and the arcane furnace blocks could cause great lag if placed all over the map by griefers
I personally think the bulk of the ideas are fantastic, though I admit that the leylines idea seem particularly well suited to the new theme (plus, how cool would it be to be able to create maps and charts showing these leylines, and perhaps mount them on the wall? Those arcane symbols and lines actually mean something that we can use HUZZAH!).
On the "structures" people have suggested, these would be similar to TFC's bloomery and the like if my understanding is correct, and while they sound cool, I haven't the slightest idea of how the coding would work and if it would limit TC/Arcanacraft at all. I think that if it would impose undue limitations on what Azanor could accomplish with the mod, then it shouldn't be used (obviously). However I like the "psuedostructure" (I apologize for the bad spelling there) that Azanor has already put into the game, the best example being the arcane furnace, it boosts the crucible when placed underneath and gains bonuses from adjacent bellows, this is a theme I could really get behind, and in Azanor's example when he was describing his arcane laboratory he mentioned his arcane furnace above a pool of lava (and hinted that he may make bonuses for doing that). If we did things like this I feel it could be expanded into a very versatile system, where what you place your machines by effects their function fundamentally, putting an arcane furnace above lava could expand upon it's smelting, processing, and refining capabilities, while putting it in a monolith would allow it to function more with the dark materials (void ingots, eldritch machinery, etc...)
Beginning the game:
Using what you get off of the wiki you can build an infuser that runs off of the aura. This infuser is basic and slow. Once you get a crystal you can infuse it in the infuser with a crafting table to make a thaumic crafting table. This will be used to make any low 'tech' items that aren't infused. Build a crucible and a q-block. Toss in a few items like wood or cobblestone in the crucible and it will turn up some essences. Using the arcane tinkering tool take the essences out and put them in the q-block. Placing paper will make it work and bookshelves around the q-block will make it work faster (and unknown to you causes research to lean toward the lost branch). After researching some more essences you get a discovery. It is a low-grade version of the goggles of revealing just without the thaumometer part. Possibly made with crystals and iron. Finding a monolith with the goggles would show the arcane marks on the center block. After opening the monolith and getting down safely you will find a void chest or two and an eldritch crucible or a telescope. After taking this all back you toss things into the eldritch crucible(EC) and it turns into a dark liquid(nox). Since you clearly don't have enough knowledge you throw some of the artifacts into the crucible and take out the essences and research them. (I am goinng to skip through you figuring out that the telescope is a research booster and a lot of other things.) You have made a more advanced infuser and have made the thaum detector and taint detector and noticed that the aura is getting lower and the taint is getting higher. Maybe even spotted a purple block. This is tainted land. After a while it will slowly spread to other blocks and spawns some weeds even corrupting the animals. After getting artifacts and researching how to fight against it you can make a disperser. This machine will do the opposite of the brazier of souls. Also since you have an EC with some of that dark liquid and that through research you have made conduits but when trying to connect the EC to some of the other machines nothing happens but when connected to the disperser it suddenly starts working. Continuing on like this you should learn that the eldritch is also related to dreams and the stars. Taint is a bad form of vis or pure magic and that the forbidden branch is researched through the remains of hostile mobs. After a while you will learn to smelt items into vis and taint and that the conduits do connect to the new crucible and that the low-grade machines are running faster when fueled by the vis or taint and that it causes new effects. Using the true goggles of revealing you notice points in the sky. these are focal points, usually near monoliths and silverwood trees. These points are where condensers will work their best. The closer to a focal point the more vis/taint produced. The liquid version of taint and vis are high-grade and that they have unusual effects when combined with nox. When used with a dream machine that records dreams it will cause different things to happen to you after waking up. This would be a cool thing because if combined with taint because although it could cause bad things to happen some good things may also occur. Like for a while your sword has the soulstealer enchant.
This is a combination of many ideas and it is up to you if you like it. I will try to add anything you think should be added or try to summarize it.
The thing is, throughout Thaumcraft, the majority of what is added that we can directly influence or do is alchemy and enchanting, baring the portals, wands, and aura/taint.
What I would like to see is Thaumcraft, with actual magic.
How about making it a research?
Research: Internal vis.
Everything has vis, from zombies to enderman to pigman.
So what about steve?
By researching into internal vis, we unlock the vis that flow throughout the players body.
At first, its only a small amount of vis, hardly even enough to be useful for anything.
However, as you research, you find a way to increase this vis supply within the player.
Later still, you manage to find ways to direct this vis into something useful.
Lets divide that into affinities, active and passive skills.
For passive skills, how about investing a set amount of your stored vis into a particular skill?
So, that would mean:
Invest 100 vis into speed, allowing you to move faster, however, that cuts away from the avaliable vis that you have for anything else you want to invest into.
Lets say you have a current vis supply of 100
You devote 25% of that into speed, so you have 75% still avaliable to move into anything else.
For simplicities sake, lets divide that into a total, 75/75/100
The first value is how much you have currently, the second value is how much that hasn't yet been placed into a passive ability, the third is how much you have in total.
You could, of course, take away vis that is being devoted into a passive skills.
Say you devoted 100% to speed, and wanted to reduce that to 50%.
Now, to active skills:
These would be traditional 'spells'.
So, one skill would be 'fire ball', and it costs about 15 vis to use, depleting your internal stores a little.
Here, just let me write down every idea I currently have
Passive:
Strength: Makes you deal more damage, as well as having more knockback when hitting mobs.
Speed: Makes you move faster. (Dig and mine faster too?)
Regeneration: Gives you a slow regeneration effect, the regeneration is faster when more vis is dedicated to this skill.
Active:
Fire ball: By gathering and expelling your internal energies, you create a fireball infront of you that flies forwards.
Ice walk: By manipulating your internal vis, your very presence can freeze water and turn lava into obsidian.
Flight: Flying is hard, and it is very exhausting to use, none the less, even short bursts of flight can be incredibly helpful.
Healing: You heal yourself. Don't know how else to put it.
Teleport?: Having studdied the enderman and their abilities, you have figured out how to achieve teleportation, though it is very tiring and not very effective.
Affinities:
Countless hours of studdying the nature of vis and taint has lead you to be able to change your own internal vis towards a specific type of vis.
Instead of dedicating vis into affinities and locking it away, your vis changes its type. Be warned however, opposite types of vis can not exist with the same body, lest they rip the container apart.
For example, you could have 20% air, 20% water and 60% Pure as an affinity, leading water, air and pure skills more effective.
There could also be fully tuning yourself to one type, leading to interesting effects.
Pure:
Pure vis affects the non-elemental skills within your body, changing it to become more effective, most passive skills are effected by this. Fully attuning yourself to Pure leads to you becoming a Pure spirit, at which point you will want to place yourself in a place with as little taint as possible, with a lot of pure aura in the air. Placing yourself in these places increase the speed at which you move, your strength, your speed, your health regeneration and even the speed at which your internal vis recharges.
Your enemy is Taint, and its very presence can weaken you significantly.
Air:
Air vis affects the skills attuned with the air, making it more effective, and far less exhausting. It also allows you to jump higher, and move faster while in the air, as well as taking less fall damage. Fully attuning yourself with air leads to you becoming an Air spirit, jumping higher and further, suffering little, if any, fall damage. As an Air spirit, you work best at high places, the higher you are, the better you are.
Your enemy is earth, the more you are surrounded by it, and the deep you go, the weaker you become.
Fire:
Fire vis affects the skills attuned with fire, making them more effective, and easier to pull off. The more you attune yourself to fire, the less damage lava and fire deal to you. Fully attuning yourself to fire makes you a Fire spirit, at which point, lava and fire heal you, and the more you are surrounded by it, the stronger you become.
Your enemy is water, touching it can be fatal.
Water:
Water vis affects all skills attuned with water, making them much more effective, and that much easier to do. The more you attune yourself to water, the longer you can surive underwater, and the faster you move in it. Fully attuning yourself to water makes you a Water spirit, which means that you become stronger when water is near, it also means that you are capable of surving underwater for indefinite periods of time, touching water will heal you, and increase the rate at which your internal vis recharges.
You also attain the ability to manipulate ice. Ice type spells become more effective.
Your enemy is fire, its presence can weaken you, and lava will kill you instantly.
Earth:
Earth vis affects all skills attuned with earth, making them more effective and less exhausting. The more you attune yourself with earth, the stronger you become by its presence. Fully attuning yourself to earth makes you an Earth spirit, at which point, you become stronger whenever more earth is around, and the deeper you go, the stronger you get.
You also attain the ability to manipulate plantlife with greater effect.
Your enemy is air, the more there is, the weaker you become.
Taint:
Taint vis corrupts you, and it corrupts your abilities. Upon welcoming taint into your internal vis, your abilities change to become taintlike. For example, fireball shall corrupt what its hits and release taint into the atmosphere. Fully merging yourself with taint leads to you becoming a Tainted spirit, at which point, the very aura in the air will attack you, attempting to weaken and kill you. Your only sancturary is tainted lands.
The more pure vis there is in the air, the weaker you become, and if there is enough you will die.
You can, however, spread the taint to become safe, as your very presence will corrupt the land, and you will attain ability to manipulate taint itself, allowing you to do all manner of deeds.
If you so wish, you can stop the taint arround you from spreading once you attain that much control over it.
personally I think the allowing of steve to cast spells would ruin a lot of the flavor of the mod, it isn't about spells, it's about the magic of the world, not the magic of steve, if I wanted spells I'd go download another magic mod that adds a mana bar to the game and lets me basically cast spells for free, this is not what I want from thaumcraft however... and it would seem to fly contrary to the direction it has been going throughout it's development.
Seriously, ritual magic. Clusters of blocks, inscribed rune circles, magic powder, one-shot seals, anything really. But make a real science of it, with potential for experimentation and backfires. Runecraft was one of the first mods that actually caught my eye, and I'd go so far as to suggest replacing a lot of "environmental effect"-type items with rituals instead. Instead of carrying an Axe of the Stream, for example, you'd be able to encircle a tree's trunk with aqueous crystals stabbed into the dirt, then break the bottom block with a generic thaumium tool and watch the entire tree get sucked down and converted into a nice neat stack of timber and leaves. The crystals would not be consumed since they only shape the magic, just a little durability from the tool and a bit of vis from the aura. It'd have to be a real cost though, otherwise it's nothing but an improvement.
More unique "functional constructions" ala Nether portals. Stuff you can build and activate that performs a unique function or boosts stuff around it. A subset of ritual magic I suppose, just a set that happens to grant a persistent effect. I think this is especially important if you want to move away from pipes and whatnot. Building is half the game, after all, and big bulky tools are a great logistical challenge and perhaps just as importantly they look cool as ****. Maybe even stuff that can be automatically constructed/activated/deactivated via redstone/pistons/etc, unless that's getting too BTW for your tastes.
I also like the ideas of ley lines (perhaps even different elemental ones that boost different subsets of magic), mapping them out, and building on their intersections for their unique advantages. A mage might have a huge sandstone-and-obsidian tower in the desert that's a great spot for earth and fire magic, and an iron-fenced garden deep in the jungle a mile away that's used for life and water magic.
Terraforming, beyond just "tainted" and "not tainted." To accompany the above. Altering the world through massive amounts of aura and the redirection of elemental energies to a particular area.
Look into brewing. It's a shame to leave a perfectly useful crafting method so woefully underdeveloped, and what self-respecting mage doesn't have a load of potions or other alchemical concoctions in his bag?
Liquid vis as a long-range/fast/compact aura-moving system, or as a "superfuel" seems like a decent idea, one could set up a condenser array in a nearby jungle and pipe the vis up to their mage tower, where it's stored in tanks on the basement and evaporated from another array on the roof to supercharge the local aura and fuel our magic. Or of course repurposing conduits as eldritch tech Just don't scrap them completely, see "functional construction."
the alchemy stand is a important thing for brewing stuff,so why not add a cool brewing system?
the brewing system can brew potions,extracts and more,but it requires diffrent modules.
the most impotant ones is the heater,ingredient tank and vapor condenser tank.
the heater heats the inredient tank and the vapor goes trough the pipes, donw to the condenser tank where you can fill bottles.(bottles turn into extracts or potions)
pic:
more modules can be added so you can get more variations.
an alchemy book could be added so you could save potion variations,but YOU must write how to craft them.
the alchemy stand is a important thing for brewing stuff,so why not add a cool brewing system?
the brewing system can brew potions,extracts and more,but it requires diffrent modules.
the most impotant ones is the heater,ingredient tank and vapor condenser tank.
the heater heats the inredient tank and the vapor goes trough the pipes, donw to the condenser tank where you can fill bottles.(bottles turn into extracts or potions)
pic:
more modules can be added so you can get more variations.
an alchemy book could be added so you could save potion variations,but YOU must write how to craft them.
I like this idea. If herbalism gets added this would prove to be a great addition.
This is simlair to a system i contemplated on a while back.
You could have an item that could analyze different items and blocks in the world for potential breakthroughs.
It would give an indicaten on wheither an item holds a potential or is just a dud. This would help the player to create a map on potential items for research, building a more complete picture as you gather more knowladge.
Example: Iron and vis crystals would give an indication that they bot could be used to research a new form of alloy.
This would incourage an investigating approach to research.
I think a system like this would be more balanced, fun and approachable then what is currently in place. And it makes a lot more sense. I understand that it takes time to implement features, if done along the lines I originally posted the current itemization for the various found artifacts and relics could remain, and be used. This would allow more development time on the actual paths for each recipe.
Having the player actually research different items to find the end uses is intuitive and follows a basic, natural rhythm to basic human learning. Thus, it would be easier for beginner and vet alike to wrap their brains around the new concept.
Further, I think removing the 'item feeding' would be perfectly balanced out by higher research times and requiring the research device to be physically manned by the player...remove automation which could and usually does trivialized in-game systems.
And lastly, it would give a larger sense of 'wow I did it' in the player when they successfully find a new recipe due to them actually doing the thinking and not the random generator. This in turn would provide a deeper feeling of unity and enjoyment with the mod as a whole.
@d95
How about recycling the old TC1 glass pipes for this alchemy system, so that if the essences or whatever are flowing in the same pipe they react. How about being able to heat those pipes with a nitor under it? or surround them with water/ice to condense byproducts or control potent reactions & with placable alumentum in a glass box (block entity) as a filter? Maybe recycle the thaumium tank for storage (don't do potent alchemy in it or it will explode ).
PS: sorry if it is to techy & to much like real chemistry
Edit: as ingredient tank you could use a cauldron (the vanilla one) with a glass dome attached to the top, which can be opened by right clicking for input.
well, i kinda like the concept i have since it looks like those alchemy things you find in games like skyrim and in reallife.
reactions in the pipes would have been cool
im glad nobody commented about my bad drawed letters
Hmmm... I feel something every good mod really needs is a theme, a common core mechanic that drives it, something allows you to capture the quintessence of a mod in a sentence... for example:
Buildcraft: Fuel-driven automated piping systems.
IndustrialCraft: Electricity-powered machines.
Better Than Wolves: Mechanical power for automation.
Equivalent Exchange: Equivalent Exchange.
Thaumcraft: Magical (vis) machinery.
RedPower: Redstone/wiring-controlled machinery.
If ArcanaCraft wants to capture people's interest as much as Thaumcraft did, it needs such a common thread, a "tag line" so to speak. Is aura alone sufficient (making it AuraCraft, so to speak)? I think... aura is very neat and can be the underlying mechanic, but not the "thing" that makes you play it.
I think either research or seals would work better for that, probably even combining them - trying to capture classic, bookish magic. Hermetic magic, something evoking scholarly research, forbidden tomes, mysterious symbols, something along Earthsea-style true name magic (where speaking the true name of something is invoking, creating and/or controlling it).
In this context, I'd think a lot of magic can be moved into the seal system, making it into some sort of truename magic, where you create a medium for it (like a seal or a staff) and then imbue it with the truename of whatever you want to manipulate (very much the same way runic essences work now). So to create a fire staff, you'd first make a runic staff, then put a fire glyph on it. In many ways, seals on a stick. This can be expanded in many ways, a portable hole could be made out of certain glyphs etc, like you create infused fabric and then imbue it with the glyphs of earth and the glyph of void. An arcane singularity is made of the glyph of magic, the glyph of void, the glyph of fire and the glyph of ice (i.e. a set of opposing words). Note that I deliberately didn't use the word "runes" are supposed to be carved into something. Glyphs evoke some intricate letter - way more fitting.
This way, the many "research tag" system floating around the last couple of days would become literal. You actually research the truename of fire instead of something with the fire tag - so much more evocative. The flavour of researching new crafting recipes etc. after the set of glyphs would be the equivalent of learning the "grammar" to combine things properly. You use the glyph of fire to imbue stuff with fire. Or air. Or void. Or life.
EDIT: GlyphCraft, so to speak, with the tag line "Combining glyphs to produce whooshy effects".
The using the true name of something to invoke its use reminds me of the Eragon books. By speaking the true name of something in the Elven toungue you could use magic to make things happen.
The using the true name of something to invoke its use reminds me of the Eragon books. By speaking the true name of something in the Elven toungue you could use magic to make things happen.
The concept of a 'true language' has been used millions of times before; Dragons in Skyrim for example speak in a true language which evokes magic. It's usually considered the first or true language of the world when used. So for the love of god use Skyrim as an example and not Eragon. Ugh those books were terrible in retrospect
Edit: Yeah Earthsea used it first and I'm sure someone used it before that. I mean that's actually an integral part of Fae lore, regarding True Names.
The concept of a 'true language' has been used millions of times before; Dragons in Skyrim for example speak in a true language which evokes magic. So for the love of god use Skyrim as an example and not Eragon. Ugh those books were terrible in retrospect
Edit: Yeah Earthsea used it first and I'm sure someone used it before that. It's usually considered the first or true language of the world when used.
Yes I love Skyrim and I think that what ruined the Eragon books was the movie.
To stay on topic: So when you throw something into a crucible or q-block it will give you its true name.
Yes I love Skyrim and I think that what ruined the Eragon books was the movie.
To stay on topic: So when you throw something into a crucible or q-block it will give you its true name.
I think a true name should be what you piece together to make something. If anything it should reveal an Aspect. You can then throw the right aspects into the Quaesitum to get a discovery: Truename (Object)
Of course, every item would have its own true name, so making a "sword of the zephyr" is a bit like figuring its true name out, out of the building blocks you have, like "sword", "wind", "lightning" - trying to combine it (correctly) into "lightning-wind-sword". Of course, the true language is more complicated than this, hence the need for research.
I think that latin is our basic language and most words and languages are derived from it. Also the sword of the zephyr would be something like ZEPHYRUS-FULGUR-GLADIO.
Gonna repost my magic circle idea here, incorporating some of the excellent suggestions made ITT:
Magic Circles
Magic circles consist of three components:
1) single-block slots that you fit components in, like how you fit crystals into eldritch monoliths. The item to enchanted goes in the "focus" slot.
2) glowing marker/chalk lines you draw around the slots. The shape drawn changes the type of item produced or even the type of magic performed (e.g. enchantment vs duplication)
3) seals that change the power.
Things that affect a magic circle once drawn:
1) Time of day/phase of moon (for instance, certain rituals need to be conducted at midnight on the night of a full moon)
2) Location/biome position of circle
3) Materials circle is drawn on.
4) position of ley lines (if ley lines are added)
It would be really difficult at first, especially since one misdrawn line could make things explode, but it would get easier as you researched tools for it--like a magic eraser that erases all the chalk in the vicinity or magic chalk that draws circles that you've discovered on its own.
Basically, I like the Infuser--it looks really cool and all--but it is kind of "small" for what I consider a magic lab "should" look like. I think a magic lab should have magic circles everywhere, and they should be big.
Some other words I translated:
Fire Earth Water Air Magic Taint Light tree dirt stone crystal ---> Ignis terra Aqua Aeris Magia labe lux lignum luto lapidem cristallum
yes but as this mod uses by tradition latin terms it's main meaning is something holy
Edit: ninja'd
close enough
eldritch bricks,tained planks,crystalized stone,eldritch glass and more cool blocks?
i have resently seen ideas where you are forced to make structures,but what if you want to make your own structure for the item/block/entity?
i saw an idea where you had to make an observatory out of diffrent blocks in a specific shape,but that would ruin my ideas of building a cool green dome with a hole in it.
people want to make building their own way, so instead of forcing them to build somethin g specific,why not add blocks that add the wanted effect when placed in a 1-5 block radius?
buildable arcane furnace = boring since it would lock big and boring like the coke oven and the arcane furnace blocks could cause great lag if placed all over the map by griefers
If you'd be willing to bend far enough to use a Greek root instead, there's "hierology," which is the study of sacred things.
On the "structures" people have suggested, these would be similar to TFC's bloomery and the like if my understanding is correct, and while they sound cool, I haven't the slightest idea of how the coding would work and if it would limit TC/Arcanacraft at all. I think that if it would impose undue limitations on what Azanor could accomplish with the mod, then it shouldn't be used (obviously). However I like the "psuedostructure" (I apologize for the bad spelling there) that Azanor has already put into the game, the best example being the arcane furnace, it boosts the crucible when placed underneath and gains bonuses from adjacent bellows, this is a theme I could really get behind, and in Azanor's example when he was describing his arcane laboratory he mentioned his arcane furnace above a pool of lava (and hinted that he may make bonuses for doing that). If we did things like this I feel it could be expanded into a very versatile system, where what you place your machines by effects their function fundamentally, putting an arcane furnace above lava could expand upon it's smelting, processing, and refining capabilities, while putting it in a monolith would allow it to function more with the dark materials (void ingots, eldritch machinery, etc...)
Beginning the game:
Using what you get off of the wiki you can build an infuser that runs off of the aura. This infuser is basic and slow. Once you get a crystal you can infuse it in the infuser with a crafting table to make a thaumic crafting table. This will be used to make any low 'tech' items that aren't infused. Build a crucible and a q-block. Toss in a few items like wood or cobblestone in the crucible and it will turn up some essences. Using the arcane tinkering tool take the essences out and put them in the q-block. Placing paper will make it work and bookshelves around the q-block will make it work faster (and unknown to you causes research to lean toward the lost branch). After researching some more essences you get a discovery. It is a low-grade version of the goggles of revealing just without the thaumometer part. Possibly made with crystals and iron. Finding a monolith with the goggles would show the arcane marks on the center block. After opening the monolith and getting down safely you will find a void chest or two and an eldritch crucible or a telescope. After taking this all back you toss things into the eldritch crucible(EC) and it turns into a dark liquid(nox). Since you clearly don't have enough knowledge you throw some of the artifacts into the crucible and take out the essences and research them. (I am goinng to skip through you figuring out that the telescope is a research booster and a lot of other things.) You have made a more advanced infuser and have made the thaum detector and taint detector and noticed that the aura is getting lower and the taint is getting higher. Maybe even spotted a purple block. This is tainted land. After a while it will slowly spread to other blocks and spawns some weeds even corrupting the animals. After getting artifacts and researching how to fight against it you can make a disperser. This machine will do the opposite of the brazier of souls. Also since you have an EC with some of that dark liquid and that through research you have made conduits but when trying to connect the EC to some of the other machines nothing happens but when connected to the disperser it suddenly starts working. Continuing on like this you should learn that the eldritch is also related to dreams and the stars. Taint is a bad form of vis or pure magic and that the forbidden branch is researched through the remains of hostile mobs. After a while you will learn to smelt items into vis and taint and that the conduits do connect to the new crucible and that the low-grade machines are running faster when fueled by the vis or taint and that it causes new effects. Using the true goggles of revealing you notice points in the sky. these are focal points, usually near monoliths and silverwood trees. These points are where condensers will work their best. The closer to a focal point the more vis/taint produced. The liquid version of taint and vis are high-grade and that they have unusual effects when combined with nox. When used with a dream machine that records dreams it will cause different things to happen to you after waking up. This would be a cool thing because if combined with taint because although it could cause bad things to happen some good things may also occur. Like for a while your sword has the soulstealer enchant.
The thing is, throughout Thaumcraft, the majority of what is added that we can directly influence or do is alchemy and enchanting, baring the portals, wands, and aura/taint.
What I would like to see is Thaumcraft, with actual magic.
How about making it a research?
Research: Internal vis.
Everything has vis, from zombies to enderman to pigman.
So what about steve?
By researching into internal vis, we unlock the vis that flow throughout the players body.
At first, its only a small amount of vis, hardly even enough to be useful for anything.
However, as you research, you find a way to increase this vis supply within the player.
Later still, you manage to find ways to direct this vis into something useful.
Lets divide that into affinities, active and passive skills.
For passive skills, how about investing a set amount of your stored vis into a particular skill?
So, that would mean:
Invest 100 vis into speed, allowing you to move faster, however, that cuts away from the avaliable vis that you have for anything else you want to invest into.
Lets say you have a current vis supply of 100
You devote 25% of that into speed, so you have 75% still avaliable to move into anything else.
For simplicities sake, lets divide that into a total, 75/75/100
The first value is how much you have currently, the second value is how much that hasn't yet been placed into a passive ability, the third is how much you have in total.
You could, of course, take away vis that is being devoted into a passive skills.
Say you devoted 100% to speed, and wanted to reduce that to 50%.
Now, to active skills:
These would be traditional 'spells'.
So, one skill would be 'fire ball', and it costs about 15 vis to use, depleting your internal stores a little.
Here, just let me write down every idea I currently have
Passive:
Strength: Makes you deal more damage, as well as having more knockback when hitting mobs.
Speed: Makes you move faster. (Dig and mine faster too?)
Regeneration: Gives you a slow regeneration effect, the regeneration is faster when more vis is dedicated to this skill.
Active:
Fire ball: By gathering and expelling your internal energies, you create a fireball infront of you that flies forwards.
Ice walk: By manipulating your internal vis, your very presence can freeze water and turn lava into obsidian.
Flight: Flying is hard, and it is very exhausting to use, none the less, even short bursts of flight can be incredibly helpful.
Healing: You heal yourself. Don't know how else to put it.
Teleport?: Having studdied the enderman and their abilities, you have figured out how to achieve teleportation, though it is very tiring and not very effective.
Affinities:
Countless hours of studdying the nature of vis and taint has lead you to be able to change your own internal vis towards a specific type of vis.
Instead of dedicating vis into affinities and locking it away, your vis changes its type. Be warned however, opposite types of vis can not exist with the same body, lest they rip the container apart.
For example, you could have 20% air, 20% water and 60% Pure as an affinity, leading water, air and pure skills more effective.
There could also be fully tuning yourself to one type, leading to interesting effects.
Pure:
Pure vis affects the non-elemental skills within your body, changing it to become more effective, most passive skills are effected by this. Fully attuning yourself to Pure leads to you becoming a Pure spirit, at which point you will want to place yourself in a place with as little taint as possible, with a lot of pure aura in the air. Placing yourself in these places increase the speed at which you move, your strength, your speed, your health regeneration and even the speed at which your internal vis recharges.
Your enemy is Taint, and its very presence can weaken you significantly.
Air:
Air vis affects the skills attuned with the air, making it more effective, and far less exhausting. It also allows you to jump higher, and move faster while in the air, as well as taking less fall damage. Fully attuning yourself with air leads to you becoming an Air spirit, jumping higher and further, suffering little, if any, fall damage. As an Air spirit, you work best at high places, the higher you are, the better you are.
Your enemy is earth, the more you are surrounded by it, and the deep you go, the weaker you become.
Fire:
Fire vis affects the skills attuned with fire, making them more effective, and easier to pull off. The more you attune yourself to fire, the less damage lava and fire deal to you. Fully attuning yourself to fire makes you a Fire spirit, at which point, lava and fire heal you, and the more you are surrounded by it, the stronger you become.
Your enemy is water, touching it can be fatal.
Water:
Water vis affects all skills attuned with water, making them much more effective, and that much easier to do. The more you attune yourself to water, the longer you can surive underwater, and the faster you move in it. Fully attuning yourself to water makes you a Water spirit, which means that you become stronger when water is near, it also means that you are capable of surving underwater for indefinite periods of time, touching water will heal you, and increase the rate at which your internal vis recharges.
You also attain the ability to manipulate ice. Ice type spells become more effective.
Your enemy is fire, its presence can weaken you, and lava will kill you instantly.
Earth:
Earth vis affects all skills attuned with earth, making them more effective and less exhausting. The more you attune yourself with earth, the stronger you become by its presence. Fully attuning yourself to earth makes you an Earth spirit, at which point, you become stronger whenever more earth is around, and the deeper you go, the stronger you get.
You also attain the ability to manipulate plantlife with greater effect.
Your enemy is air, the more there is, the weaker you become.
Taint:
Taint vis corrupts you, and it corrupts your abilities. Upon welcoming taint into your internal vis, your abilities change to become taintlike. For example, fireball shall corrupt what its hits and release taint into the atmosphere. Fully merging yourself with taint leads to you becoming a Tainted spirit, at which point, the very aura in the air will attack you, attempting to weaken and kill you. Your only sancturary is tainted lands.
The more pure vis there is in the air, the weaker you become, and if there is enough you will die.
You can, however, spread the taint to become safe, as your very presence will corrupt the land, and you will attain ability to manipulate taint itself, allowing you to do all manner of deeds.
If you so wish, you can stop the taint arround you from spreading once you attain that much control over it.
Seriously, ritual magic. Clusters of blocks, inscribed rune circles, magic powder, one-shot seals, anything really. But make a real science of it, with potential for experimentation and backfires. Runecraft was one of the first mods that actually caught my eye, and I'd go so far as to suggest replacing a lot of "environmental effect"-type items with rituals instead. Instead of carrying an Axe of the Stream, for example, you'd be able to encircle a tree's trunk with aqueous crystals stabbed into the dirt, then break the bottom block with a generic thaumium tool and watch the entire tree get sucked down and converted into a nice neat stack of timber and leaves. The crystals would not be consumed since they only shape the magic, just a little durability from the tool and a bit of vis from the aura. It'd have to be a real cost though, otherwise it's nothing but an improvement.
More unique "functional constructions" ala Nether portals. Stuff you can build and activate that performs a unique function or boosts stuff around it. A subset of ritual magic I suppose, just a set that happens to grant a persistent effect. I think this is especially important if you want to move away from pipes and whatnot. Building is half the game, after all, and big bulky tools are a great logistical challenge and perhaps just as importantly they look cool as ****. Maybe even stuff that can be automatically constructed/activated/deactivated via redstone/pistons/etc, unless that's getting too BTW for your tastes.
I also like the ideas of ley lines (perhaps even different elemental ones that boost different subsets of magic), mapping them out, and building on their intersections for their unique advantages. A mage might have a huge sandstone-and-obsidian tower in the desert that's a great spot for earth and fire magic, and an iron-fenced garden deep in the jungle a mile away that's used for life and water magic.
Terraforming, beyond just "tainted" and "not tainted." To accompany the above. Altering the world through massive amounts of aura and the redirection of elemental energies to a particular area.
Look into brewing. It's a shame to leave a perfectly useful crafting method so woefully underdeveloped, and what self-respecting mage doesn't have a load of potions or other alchemical concoctions in his bag?
Liquid vis as a long-range/fast/compact aura-moving system, or as a "superfuel" seems like a decent idea, one could set up a condenser array in a nearby jungle and pipe the vis up to their mage tower, where it's stored in tanks on the basement and evaporated from another array on the roof to supercharge the local aura and fuel our magic. Or of course repurposing conduits as eldritch tech Just don't scrap them completely, see "functional construction."
Dammit Jim, I'm a thaumaturge, not a hierophant!
the alchemy stand is a important thing for brewing stuff,so why not add a cool brewing system?
the brewing system can brew potions,extracts and more,but it requires diffrent modules.
the most impotant ones is the heater,ingredient tank and vapor condenser tank.
the heater heats the inredient tank and the vapor goes trough the pipes, donw to the condenser tank where you can fill bottles.(bottles turn into extracts or potions)
pic:
more modules can be added so you can get more variations.
an alchemy book could be added so you could save potion variations,but YOU must write how to craft them.
I like this idea. If herbalism gets added this would prove to be a great addition.
I think a system like this would be more balanced, fun and approachable then what is currently in place. And it makes a lot more sense. I understand that it takes time to implement features, if done along the lines I originally posted the current itemization for the various found artifacts and relics could remain, and be used. This would allow more development time on the actual paths for each recipe.
Having the player actually research different items to find the end uses is intuitive and follows a basic, natural rhythm to basic human learning. Thus, it would be easier for beginner and vet alike to wrap their brains around the new concept.
Further, I think removing the 'item feeding' would be perfectly balanced out by higher research times and requiring the research device to be physically manned by the player...remove automation which could and usually does trivialized in-game systems.
And lastly, it would give a larger sense of 'wow I did it' in the player when they successfully find a new recipe due to them actually doing the thinking and not the random generator. This in turn would provide a deeper feeling of unity and enjoyment with the mod as a whole.
Lady E
well, i kinda like the concept i have since it looks like those alchemy things you find in games like skyrim and in reallife.
reactions in the pipes would have been cool
im glad nobody commented about my bad drawed letters
That could change though.
The using the true name of something to invoke its use reminds me of the Eragon books. By speaking the true name of something in the Elven toungue you could use magic to make things happen.
The concept of a 'true language' has been used millions of times before; Dragons in Skyrim for example speak in a true language which evokes magic. It's usually considered the first or true language of the world when used. So for the love of god use Skyrim as an example and not Eragon. Ugh those books were terrible in retrospect
Edit: Yeah Earthsea used it first and I'm sure someone used it before that. I mean that's actually an integral part of Fae lore, regarding True Names.
(6:50:23 AM) xander_morhaime: Briefly.
Yes I love Skyrim and I think that what ruined the Eragon books was the movie.
To stay on topic: So when you throw something into a crucible or q-block it will give you its true name.
I think a true name should be what you piece together to make something. If anything it should reveal an Aspect. You can then throw the right aspects into the Quaesitum to get a discovery: Truename (Object)
(6:50:23 AM) xander_morhaime: Briefly.
I think that latin is our basic language and most words and languages are derived from it. Also the sword of the zephyr would be something like ZEPHYRUS-FULGUR-GLADIO.
Magic Circles
Magic circles consist of three components:
1) single-block slots that you fit components in, like how you fit crystals into eldritch monoliths. The item to enchanted goes in the "focus" slot.
2) glowing marker/chalk lines you draw around the slots. The shape drawn changes the type of item produced or even the type of magic performed (e.g. enchantment vs duplication)
3) seals that change the power.
Things that affect a magic circle once drawn:
1) Time of day/phase of moon (for instance, certain rituals need to be conducted at midnight on the night of a full moon)
2) Location/biome position of circle
3) Materials circle is drawn on.
4) position of ley lines (if ley lines are added)
It would be really difficult at first, especially since one misdrawn line could make things explode, but it would get easier as you researched tools for it--like a magic eraser that erases all the chalk in the vicinity or magic chalk that draws circles that you've discovered on its own.
Basically, I like the Infuser--it looks really cool and all--but it is kind of "small" for what I consider a magic lab "should" look like. I think a magic lab should have magic circles everywhere, and they should be big.
ETA: Pictures of what it could look like:
Simple Circle
More sophisticated circle:
Fire Earth Water Air Magic Taint Light tree dirt stone crystal ---> Ignis terra Aqua Aeris Magia labe lux lignum luto lapidem cristallum