I never liked the fact the research is just throwing items in, the new research system you are doing is very neat, however, i have a few ideas how to make it better.
Block Boosts
Currently, only the brain in a jar and book cases can increase research speed, and the chance you will get something. I have an idea to change that. In the new system, a bookcase gives a boost to only lost stuff, and it is very low. However, you can modify the bookcase by adding a few different items, mostly artifacts but other stuff can go in it. Lets call this block, for now, the modifier (name most likely to change.) Lets say you want a bigger boost to one type of magic, so you go the modifier, throw in a bookcase, and lets say it you want to learn more about the holy things in the lost section. So you add a few silverwood logs along with your bookcase, once thats done you get your new and improved bookcase. Now this new bookcase will give a larger boost, however, it will only give a boost to that category. So the question is, do you want a large boost in one area, or a smaller boost in many areas.
The Winds of Aura.
Aura, does not stay in one place at a time, it moves around like a wind, in areas affected heavily by the winds, you can expect to find a lot of silverwood trees and strange magical objects. But, how are you going to track it? This is were many other paths come in. You first need to place a 1 block high and 2 block wide pillar made out of stone bricks, then you make a nether port shape on top of it made out of Glowstone. Once you make it, it gives you a basic GUI. This GUI at the start, only shows you how strong the wind is and what type of element it is. Thats were other paths come in. If you map out areas you a star map and a modified normal map, you could figure what way the wind blows. If you add singularities to it you could possible shift the way the wind blows. However, it is not all fun and games.
The effects of the Winds.
The winds can have some nasty effects if they are to attuned to one element or tainted. A tainted or, black wind, can spread taint far and wind, but it can be prevented if you do not mess with the winds to much. A to much attuned wind can be nasty as well. If it is fire, very slowly in the winds path, dirt can become sand, and desert dunes can become very large. A water effect can slowly turn parts of the ground to water, eventually creating vast floods. A earthen wind can make nature attack, making you very angry when that tree you would cut down has transformed into a ent. A airy wind can slowly remove the ground, eventually creating great islands in the void. A perfect wind, however, which is very hard to create can slowly regernate crystals in chunks and pureify the land, allowing it to counter the effects of a tainted wind.
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I beat two super hostile maps, see of flame 2 and spellbound, have to finish more. Plan to do inferno mines for lulz and win when it goes out. Have fun!
Can I say "NO!" to the idea of having to press a specific combo of buttons to do stuff? Some of us are memory challenged and that would put a world of hurt on enjoying this mod.
demonblades, I'm still working on a wall hanging for the basic infuser recipes for TC2. I have a background I like; I just need to decide on the appearance for the recipes.
Something like this could be used for storing basic information for Arcanacraft too, though I like the book better.
On Pelirow's research suggestion: "The item should be destroyed in the process, but in this research method we should be able to research, say, 10 torches to KNOW that torches have light and wood aspect. The rarer the item, the tougher it'll be to learn those item aspects." -- I would gently suggest that torches should be one or two to know all about torches. Torches are simple, basic things. And if we must research 10 of such a basic thing to understand it, how many diamonds are we going to need to research (and destroy) just to understand diamonds? I don't know about you, but I don't have hundreds to throw away. And you don't want to say "But with EE" (or any other mod) You want it reasonable for people just with this mod.
However, the crystal crafting you suggested sounds like tons of fun.
And Sage, one can be much older than 30 and still enjoy gaming.
(my nickname is "Grammie" for a very good reason.)
Are we ever going to get the Crystallized Thaum blocks back? I suppose it would be Crystallized Vis now, but I miss those blocks! I really wish we could get them back for decoration.
Also, the jury is in on Azanor's age. Just went snooping through his content, and found this:
Any specific configuration that caused this? I used way larger conduit systems in my test worlds on my crappy work laptop and never experienced significant slowdown.
work laptop
He works, thus he must be on the old side of the "You'd be surprised at my age" timeline. I vote 35-40.
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Thoughts? Suggestions? Random acts of petty fanboyish hatred?
and you are in the block of the torch and nitor but in the block next to the glowstone and redstone lamp thus they have one more light level the nitor and torches. ha!
I have a few new ideas for enchantments that could be in this. Also a few will be able to be added to Wands!
Surge
This enchantment in the lost category is one of the first enchantments you get for wands. This increases the damage caused by all attack wands such as the wand of bones or the wand of fire.
Dusk Aspect
This enchantment is in the forbidden category. It increases swords,wands and bows damage by 1.5x in the night but reduces damage you deal by 1.5x in the day.
Dawn Aspect
This enhancement is the lost category. It increases swords, wands, and bows damage by 1.5x in the day but reduces the damage you deal by 1.5x in the night.
Eclipse Aspect
This enchantment to be found requires both the Dawn and Dusk Aspect to be researched. It gives you a 1.5x damage boost to all weapons day and night.
(Note that the 1.5x is the level 2 version. The level 1 for all three is 1.25x the level 3 is 1.75x, and the level 4 is 2x.
Void Cloak
This enchanment is Eldritch research for armor. It has only 1 level but, when applied, it decreases the range when mobs will aggro you.
Phase Strike
This enchantments is Eldritch research find. It can only be applied to swords. It will allow you when you attack, add a second swing to the attack. The first level the damage is 1/4 of the main attack. The second level is 1/2 of the main attack. The Third level is 3/4 of the main attack. Finally, the Fourth Level is equal to the amount of damage you did on the first attack.
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I beat two super hostile maps, see of flame 2 and spellbound, have to finish more. Plan to do inferno mines for lulz and win when it goes out. Have fun!
If aura is going to be primary vector of magic, it'd be interesting to have an item with the same effect as the brazier of souls as the earliest way to increase aura in a given chunk. Of course, it should gather taint as well as aura, and probably be activated with a redstone signal.
I'm hoping this is the case, and that it works fast/cheap enough to be a worthy pipe replacement. Braziers kinda suck right now.
I'm not fond of the "low success chance if you don't know the recipe" you mentionned. If I can discover stuff on my own just experimenting around, shouldn't I be rewarded for it ? I still have no idea if the way I do it is optimized, and I risked my hide and cauldron to get there. If you're really worried that people are just going to abuse it to skip past research, make the requirements higher until the discovery is actually made.
As for the tech aspect of the mod, I somewhat like it. I don't want this to turn into a mod where I just have to wait for conditions outside my control before I can do something.
This is why I suggested the idea somewhere of research not technically unlocking stuff, just granting mastery over it. After thoroughly researching something you know it inside and out and can not only look up the recipe in your thaumonomicon, but actually produce it every time without fail and without waste, and there's no chance of blowing your hand off with a misfire of some kind. Until you get to that point you're kinda flying blind, and maybe you hear from a mage-buddy about some magical recipe and this is what worked for him, but you're not familiar enough with it and its components to replicate/use it perfectly yet.
I'm going to miss the pipes too, but if that means there's more opportunity for unique crafting methods (including, but not limited to moon-phase-based rituals and rare events or natural structures that have to be harnessed to create an item or power a mechanism) then I'm all for that. Darkness generators are one of my favorite machines currently in the mod not only because they look cool as hell, but the inconvenience makes them feel both more bizarre and more rewarding, and since they work best in the dark it's a neat challenge to build an efficient but accessible darkness farm (one of my monolith chambers is a redstone nightmare with piston hatches in the floor).
A lot of people, such as myself, like we're this is heading. But, I also like the old vis labs. Would it be possible to have arcana be the main mod, but have the old vis labs as an add-on for the people who'd miss them or would the changes be too great? I do like how much this is going to change though. The change from TC 1 to TC 2 was amazing and didn't disappoint, so I'm not too worried about losing my labs.
Assuming artifacts will still be in ArcanaCraft, I feel that all artifacts should have a use beyond research.
After completing all possible research in TC2, I am often left with a few worthless artifacts.
Even if a few of the artifacts were nothing more than place-able decorative blocks, it'd be better than nothing. I can't be the only one who wants a place-able Eldritch Repository or Strange Mirror.
And if they have hidden uses that can be researched, all the better. (For example, using the Eldritch Repository as a sort of magic computer capable of storing a small amount of excess tags/Aspects for later use, or having the Strange Mirror act as a portal to a lost Eldritch city)
Edit: While I'm making suggestions, how about a taint mutations system? Instead of merely turning the tainted creature aggressive, add different effects and mutations that can alter the creature, some better for you (like an increased drops mutation, or a tameable mutation), some worse (asexual reproduction, aggressive mutation). When mutated naturally, the detrimental mutations are far more common, with the occasional rare positive mutation. But you might be able to research how to induce mutations of your choice later on.
If you had a Vic20, Azanor, you probably are on an age level with my oldest kid. Maybe a few years older...
Our first home computer was a Commodore 64. We got it a year or so before the C128 came out. It was my oldest child's first experience with programming. Such fun...
and you are in the block of the torch and nitor but in the block next to the glowstone and redstone lamp thus they have one more light level the nitor and torches. ha!
Well, if you can get inside Glowstone... I won't be the one to stop you.
If aura is going to be primary vector of magic, it'd be interesting to have an item with the same effect as the brazier of souls as the earliest way to increase aura in a given chunk.
What, if aura would be fluid enough to not require this kind of crutches?
Also, Aura = Vis + Taint. Saying that "it'll draw taint as well as aura" is just... I don't have a good comparison, but it sounds really strange.
Will this threat replace the old TC2 Thread, or will you continue it for the old version.
Cause it is kind of hard to follow both at the same time.
If you just think about the posting speed in the rush hour times...
But as it seems not everybody recognized this one until now.
Maybe a little more advertising?
There's no reason to do anything of what you inquiring, yet.
maybe we could make a "preloaded seal" that costs the same as the full thing, but be could use a "seal inscriber" to permanently make an insta-seal? (doesn't stack, can't be reclaimed, even more damaging to the aura/taint than a regular seal, but doesn't have a duration)
(that way we could be like D&D wizards, preparing our spells at the start of the day )
the way I'd imagine it is we insert a seal into the writer, add the essences, and use aura/vis to write the essences onto the seal permanently.
or maybe we could even have a set of seals that will charge the writer up? (magic/magic/?)
just think:
we could need to create a room (about the same size as a quaesitum/enchanting room)that has one of each seal on each wall, the writer floats in the middle, seemingly held in midair by the six streams of charged magic, coming from the seals.
you place the seal and essences in the middle of the writer, and the streams slowly start to increase in intensity, you decide to leave the chamber, after all, that much magic could do pretty bad things to a body.
however, if you were in there, you'd see the writer using the essences to focus the beams of energy onto the seal, and with infinite precision, carving miniscule symbols made of pure magic onto the small disc.
a few minutes later, you feel the charge in the air dissipate, it's done. you re-enter the room and see the device in the middle once again, held up by the streams of magic. in the centre of the device is a small disc, carved with thousands upon thousands of shimmering symbols. you can't read them of course, but you instinctively know that these symbols will direct the flow of time and space around the disc to affect the universe in the way the symbols describe. carefully you remove the disc and place it in the pouch attached to your belt for quick usage.
and then you take it to your pig farm and use it to collect your cooked porkchops
I always thought TC2 was ideal for implementing something like ley lines. Natural rivers of magic/vis that criss cross the landscape, invisible to the naked eye unless you were attuned to magic/vis. Anyone familiar with the old Rifts RPG will know what i'm talking about.
After a certain amount of research you could learn to sense/detect/see these lines. They would be ideal as conduits for portals or void interfaces. ie. When you get the ability to make either they must be connected along a natural ley line. Portals would still be great, but limited to discovered lines/nexus's, so they wouldnt totally overrule and outdate a rail/road network. It would also be a great way to promote building in interesting/less optimal locations to get the benifit of a nexus/line as well.
As a counterbalance, you could make taint pollution cause fast/devastating chain reactions along the line too. So if you get too greedy with the lines energies or dont take care of it properly there is a chance of a nasty reaction that goes up and down any lines connected to the flashpoint really fast.
this is what i think of when ever i think of magic and the power of Thaum , , , & it would be cool if magic like this could be implemented into Thaumcraft/Arcanacraft
I always thought TC2 was ideal for implementing something like ley lines. Natural rivers of magic/vis that criss cross the landscape, invisible to the naked eye unless you were attuned to magic/vis. Anyone familiar with the old Rifts RPG will know what i'm talking about.
After a certain amount of research you could learn to sense/detect/see these lines. They would be ideal as conduits for portals or void interfaces. ie. When you get the ability to make either they must be connected along a natural ley line. Portals would still be great, but limited to discovered lines/nexus's, so they wouldnt totally overrule and outdate a rail/road network. It would also be a great way to promote building in interesting/less optimal locations to get the benifit of a nexus/line as well.
As a counterbalance, you could make taint pollution cause fast/devastating chain reactions along the line too. So if you get too greedy with the lines energies or dont take care of it properly there is a chance of a nasty reaction that goes up and down any lines connected to the flashpoint really fast.
This, please \( O ,-,O)/
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(6:50:00 AM) Simon-v: How do you live in a world where Everything's Trying To Kill You?
(6:50:23 AM) xander_morhaime: Briefly.
I have yet another idea that could find its home in the mod even though its slightly out of place
Magnetism:
first, blue ore that resembles redstone ore with glowing and particles effects etc, this ore is called lodestone ore
lodestone ore will draw any iron based item/object towards it, this includes thaumium, iron tools, and if not to hard, anything involving iron in its creation, it could even pull mobs or the player towards it if they are iron based (like iron golem) or are carrying/wearing iron items
lodestone isnt THAT strong of a magnetic pull, but its there
and the more lodestone (or the more concentrated it is *ahem lodestone blocks* ) the more noticable the particle effects are and the strength as well (and the effect visual is heavily inspired by the flecks in the guardians of ga'hoole movie, so ya)
you can also discover a stronger magnet (possibly) called Neo-Thaum or Neo-Thaumium which is far more powerful than regular lodestone blocks/ore
lodestone and Neo-Thaumium could play a crucial role in many recipes and could also be part of the astro/stellar branch of research mentioned awhile back if implemented
one object could maybe even be the soul/particle draining item i suggested a few pages ago
maybe also a lodestone charge, lodestone + fire charge, and it could be fired from dispenser and would obviously be like a flying magnet and attract everything it can (maybe even the player? could be neat form of transport, magnet charges)
PS i know this isnt EXACTLY magical but in my opinion it seems pretty mysterious and arcane (although magnetism isnt that mysterious in real life, maybe its the flecks inspiration that makes it seem more arcane?)
Wow, random other dude with Azanor as a nick - what are the odds...
But no, that isn't me
As for my age. Here is a clue - I owned a Vic20 and had to code my own games in it from books.
When I got older I got a Spectrum128 as an upgrade.
Oh god the Vic20. Mine was secondhand and had a power-interrupt button bored through the case, to reset the thing if you accidentally coded a loop.. O_o And the external tape drive! God help you if you accidentally put a data tape in your boombox..
Also, about waste aspects in your alembic. About a year ago I had a mod idea somewhat similar to yours. I'd suggest to add an Odd Matter --- matter composed of various aspects in odd proportions. It can be assembled in blocks and used in crafts, but extremely volatile. Because every piece of odd matter possesses another properties (and it is unstackable), odd things may happen when throwing two pieces near each other, say, if their aspects make a block, it appears, and explosion happens.
When making block of odd matter from four pieces, it includes all aspects of pieces it was crafted from (can be done with crafting handlers). When placed in world, it behaves like fluid with odd properties. It may flow just like water, but upwards, or make a blackish goo "tree" from itself, or will flow like water on a floor, ignoring Y coordinate of landscape, or it may turn cobblestone it touches into itself, or it conducts redstone and stops flowing when active. Of course it is dependent on aspects.
I'd very like to see it done. I can help with coding, if you wish, although I'm not extremely good at Java.
Oh, forgot to say: when alembic is overflown, it explodes and turns into Odd Matter block. Waste could be taked away in form of Odd Matter with special item, like arcane tinkering tools.
I like the idea of Odd Matter (what would you think of the name Strange Matter?). It would also be cool if it could be refined somehow into a Stabilized form that could be used in high-end research/crafting/building, without worrying about accidental interactions.
Block Boosts
Currently, only the brain in a jar and book cases can increase research speed, and the chance you will get something. I have an idea to change that. In the new system, a bookcase gives a boost to only lost stuff, and it is very low. However, you can modify the bookcase by adding a few different items, mostly artifacts but other stuff can go in it. Lets call this block, for now, the modifier (name most likely to change.) Lets say you want a bigger boost to one type of magic, so you go the modifier, throw in a bookcase, and lets say it you want to learn more about the holy things in the lost section. So you add a few silverwood logs along with your bookcase, once thats done you get your new and improved bookcase. Now this new bookcase will give a larger boost, however, it will only give a boost to that category. So the question is, do you want a large boost in one area, or a smaller boost in many areas.
The Winds of Aura.
Aura, does not stay in one place at a time, it moves around like a wind, in areas affected heavily by the winds, you can expect to find a lot of silverwood trees and strange magical objects. But, how are you going to track it? This is were many other paths come in. You first need to place a 1 block high and 2 block wide pillar made out of stone bricks, then you make a nether port shape on top of it made out of Glowstone. Once you make it, it gives you a basic GUI. This GUI at the start, only shows you how strong the wind is and what type of element it is. Thats were other paths come in. If you map out areas you a star map and a modified normal map, you could figure what way the wind blows. If you add singularities to it you could possible shift the way the wind blows. However, it is not all fun and games.
The effects of the Winds.
The winds can have some nasty effects if they are to attuned to one element or tainted. A tainted or, black wind, can spread taint far and wind, but it can be prevented if you do not mess with the winds to much. A to much attuned wind can be nasty as well. If it is fire, very slowly in the winds path, dirt can become sand, and desert dunes can become very large. A water effect can slowly turn parts of the ground to water, eventually creating vast floods. A earthen wind can make nature attack, making you very angry when that tree you would cut down has transformed into a ent. A airy wind can slowly remove the ground, eventually creating great islands in the void. A perfect wind, however, which is very hard to create can slowly regernate crystals in chunks and pureify the land, allowing it to counter the effects of a tainted wind.
demonblades, I'm still working on a wall hanging for the basic infuser recipes for TC2. I have a background I like; I just need to decide on the appearance for the recipes.
Something like this could be used for storing basic information for Arcanacraft too, though I like the book better.
On Pelirow's research suggestion: "The item should be destroyed in the process, but in this research method we should be able to research, say, 10 torches to KNOW that torches have light and wood aspect. The rarer the item, the tougher it'll be to learn those item aspects." -- I would gently suggest that torches should be one or two to know all about torches. Torches are simple, basic things. And if we must research 10 of such a basic thing to understand it, how many diamonds are we going to need to research (and destroy) just to understand diamonds? I don't know about you, but I don't have hundreds to throw away. And you don't want to say "But with EE" (or any other mod) You want it reasonable for people just with this mod.
However, the crystal crafting you suggested sounds like tons of fun.
And Sage, one can be much older than 30 and still enjoy gaming.
(my nickname is "Grammie" for a very good reason.)
Also, the jury is in on Azanor's age. Just went snooping through his content, and found this:
Any specific configuration that caused this? I used way larger conduit systems in my test worlds on my crappy work laptop and never experienced significant slowdown.
work laptop
He works, thus he must be on the old side of the "You'd be surprised at my age" timeline. I vote 35-40.
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Curse PremiumBut no, that isn't me
As for my age. Here is a clue - I owned a Vic20 and had to code my own games in it from books.
When I got older I got a Spectrum128 as an upgrade.
Surge
This enchantment in the lost category is one of the first enchantments you get for wands. This increases the damage caused by all attack wands such as the wand of bones or the wand of fire.
Dusk Aspect
This enchantment is in the forbidden category. It increases swords,wands and bows damage by 1.5x in the night but reduces damage you deal by 1.5x in the day.
Dawn Aspect
This enhancement is the lost category. It increases swords, wands, and bows damage by 1.5x in the day but reduces the damage you deal by 1.5x in the night.
Eclipse Aspect
This enchantment to be found requires both the Dawn and Dusk Aspect to be researched. It gives you a 1.5x damage boost to all weapons day and night.
(Note that the 1.5x is the level 2 version. The level 1 for all three is 1.25x the level 3 is 1.75x, and the level 4 is 2x.
Void Cloak
This enchanment is Eldritch research for armor. It has only 1 level but, when applied, it decreases the range when mobs will aggro you.
Phase Strike
This enchantments is Eldritch research find. It can only be applied to swords. It will allow you when you attack, add a second swing to the attack. The first level the damage is 1/4 of the main attack. The second level is 1/2 of the main attack. The Third level is 3/4 of the main attack. Finally, the Fourth Level is equal to the amount of damage you did on the first attack.
I'm hoping this is the case, and that it works fast/cheap enough to be a worthy pipe replacement. Braziers kinda suck right now.
This is why I suggested the idea somewhere of research not technically unlocking stuff, just granting mastery over it. After thoroughly researching something you know it inside and out and can not only look up the recipe in your thaumonomicon, but actually produce it every time without fail and without waste, and there's no chance of blowing your hand off with a misfire of some kind. Until you get to that point you're kinda flying blind, and maybe you hear from a mage-buddy about some magical recipe and this is what worked for him, but you're not familiar enough with it and its components to replicate/use it perfectly yet.
I'm going to miss the pipes too, but if that means there's more opportunity for unique crafting methods (including, but not limited to moon-phase-based rituals and rare events or natural structures that have to be harnessed to create an item or power a mechanism) then I'm all for that. Darkness generators are one of my favorite machines currently in the mod not only because they look cool as hell, but the inconvenience makes them feel both more bizarre and more rewarding, and since they work best in the dark it's a neat challenge to build an efficient but accessible darkness farm (one of my monolith chambers is a redstone nightmare with piston hatches in the floor).
After completing all possible research in TC2, I am often left with a few worthless artifacts.
Even if a few of the artifacts were nothing more than place-able decorative blocks, it'd be better than nothing. I can't be the only one who wants a place-able Eldritch Repository or Strange Mirror.
And if they have hidden uses that can be researched, all the better. (For example, using the Eldritch Repository as a sort of magic computer capable of storing a small amount of excess tags/Aspects for later use, or having the Strange Mirror act as a portal to a lost Eldritch city)
Edit: While I'm making suggestions, how about a taint mutations system? Instead of merely turning the tainted creature aggressive, add different effects and mutations that can alter the creature, some better for you (like an increased drops mutation, or a tameable mutation), some worse (asexual reproduction, aggressive mutation). When mutated naturally, the detrimental mutations are far more common, with the occasional rare positive mutation. But you might be able to research how to induce mutations of your choice later on.
Our first home computer was a Commodore 64. We got it a year or so before the C128 came out. It was my oldest child's first experience with programming. Such fun...
Well, if you can get inside Glowstone... I won't be the one to stop you.
What, if aura would be fluid enough to not require this kind of crutches?
Also, Aura = Vis + Taint. Saying that "it'll draw taint as well as aura" is just... I don't have a good comparison, but it sounds really strange.
There's no reason to do anything of what you inquiring, yet.
Hey, I had a Vic20! I just found one of those old magazines with the game programs in them when cleaning up some junk... ah, the good ol days
After a certain amount of research you could learn to sense/detect/see these lines. They would be ideal as conduits for portals or void interfaces. ie. When you get the ability to make either they must be connected along a natural ley line. Portals would still be great, but limited to discovered lines/nexus's, so they wouldnt totally overrule and outdate a rail/road network. It would also be a great way to promote building in interesting/less optimal locations to get the benifit of a nexus/line as well.
As a counterbalance, you could make taint pollution cause fast/devastating chain reactions along the line too. So if you get too greedy with the lines energies or dont take care of it properly there is a chance of a nasty reaction that goes up and down any lines connected to the flashpoint really fast.
This, please \( O ,-,O)/
(6:50:23 AM) xander_morhaime: Briefly.
Magnetism:
first, blue ore that resembles redstone ore with glowing and particles effects etc, this ore is called lodestone ore
lodestone ore will draw any iron based item/object towards it, this includes thaumium, iron tools, and if not to hard, anything involving iron in its creation, it could even pull mobs or the player towards it if they are iron based (like iron golem) or are carrying/wearing iron items
lodestone isnt THAT strong of a magnetic pull, but its there
and the more lodestone (or the more concentrated it is *ahem lodestone blocks* ) the more noticable the particle effects are and the strength as well (and the effect visual is heavily inspired by the flecks in the guardians of ga'hoole movie, so ya)
you can also discover a stronger magnet (possibly) called Neo-Thaum or Neo-Thaumium which is far more powerful than regular lodestone blocks/ore
lodestone and Neo-Thaumium could play a crucial role in many recipes and could also be part of the astro/stellar branch of research mentioned awhile back if implemented
one object could maybe even be the soul/particle draining item i suggested a few pages ago
maybe also a lodestone charge, lodestone + fire charge, and it could be fired from dispenser and would obviously be like a flying magnet and attract everything it can (maybe even the player? could be neat form of transport, magnet charges)
PS i know this isnt EXACTLY magical but in my opinion it seems pretty mysterious and arcane (although magnetism isnt that mysterious in real life, maybe its the flecks inspiration that makes it seem more arcane?)
Oh god the Vic20. Mine was secondhand and had a power-interrupt button bored through the case, to reset the thing if you accidentally coded a loop.. O_o And the external tape drive! God help you if you accidentally put a data tape in your boombox..
I like the idea of Odd Matter (what would you think of the name Strange Matter?). It would also be cool if it could be refined somehow into a Stabilized form that could be used in high-end research/crafting/building, without worrying about accidental interactions.