Aura and You: All About Thaumcraft 3 Aura Mechanics

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Herrozerro

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Jul 29, 2019
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It's probably closer to something along the lines of Coal or Uranium as a power source:

Technically not renewable, but has as much as is needed for most playthroughs. The only time to be really concerned would be either when you're doing an extended playthrough (with the releases of mods and vanilla updates, changes which require entire new maps are relatively common), or if you are wanting to REALLY whore the resources for some obscure reason (like powering a continent-sized MFFS security station purely from vis).

well i am running a erver and had noticed that the vis around spawn was quite low.

On another note, how would you power something like that from vis? :p
 

Bibble

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Jul 29, 2019
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well i am running a erver and had noticed that the vis around spawn was quite low.

On another note, how would you power something like that from vis? :p
Not entirely sure, I think there was a vis-generator in GregTech (or I might have just been thinking of something else, don't use it myself), you might use some manner of summoning or fuel generation, I suppose.

Also, I vaguely recall hearing that the vis level was generated based upon vegetation levels, and TC3 integration with other mods (looking specifically at EBXL for this) is reasonable, but it can't always pull the data where required, so it probably doesn't pick up the EBXL vegetation (which is probably the cause of the savannah biomes reportedly having less nodes spawning.

EDIT: Also, it's probably worth running around and finding the "vis path" for your node, and chunkloading enough to make sure that it can recharge when needed.
 

Celestialphoenix

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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
I've got a feeling flux effects respond differently depending on what aspect was released, natural apsects like flos/lignum/herba dont cause too much damage or the wisps aren't hostile- whereas fractus/ignis/malum would have a much different effect.

Vis/aura is proportional to life levels of the biome- so nether/wasteland/glacier have almost none, where's jungle and forests have higher levels.
Some magical terrain effects may override this (dungeons/pillars)​
 

KirinDave

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Jul 29, 2019
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Personal Conclusions:

One thing that this has taught me is that building supernodes out of Silverwood trees actually gives you less Vis to work with, not more. Both the growth and the merges are lossy processes, and those losses are born by the surrounding nodes and their corresponding ores. Even worse, your supernode will eventually become so big that it can't request Vis from its neighbors anymore. At this point, you are limited to what ores remain in your immediate vicinity. When those run out, you are done. Actually, it is usually even worse than this. If you badly depleted the surrounding nodes, once your supernode becomes bigger than them, it will immediately start emptying itself out to restore them.

...

If you just want lots of Vis for crafting, find a small Pure node somewhere and set up there. Your total Vis will effectively be equal to the nodes+ores of all of the surrounding region. Supernodes consume huge amounts of Aura to build and cut you off from remote recharges. Only make one because you like making them, not because you think it gives you an advantage.

I reached this conclusion too. The general procedure I have for "starting a lab" is to find a nice area with a few big >600 aura nodes that are not dark, then make a 150-300 aura node right on top of your lab (making sure the nearby nodes are far enough apart that they don't cause problems).

This gives you a nice constant supply of aura on a self cleaning node. I've bene processing quarry outputs through infernal furnaces and never have I seen a wisp spawn or had odd flux effects with this strategy.

I've considered making a pure node big enough to kill a nearby dark node, but it seems like actually I can draw so much vis out of the dark node with this setup that it doesn't make many problems on its own (overcharge on dark nodes is one of the problems that leads to a huge number of wisps). That and the usual walling off procedure seems to contain that problem.

As it stands I see 0 reason to ever move aura nodes except maybe to cage an awkwardly placed dark node. I don't know why we have basic aura mastery. Maybe the addition of crystal capacitors will change things?
 

nethervvoid

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Jul 29, 2019
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Damn this is some great information. Since I live on a server right next to a guy who likes to build 100 of anything he needs even if he will only ever use 5 of them I need to tell him to do his thaum in a mystcraft age. lol
 

Golrith

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Nov 11, 2012
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Useful info, now if only my Thaumcraft Tower had something better then a 60 vis node in it, but even though it's so low, it's not causing me any trouble making anything.
Oh, and I have a pet green wisp that welcomes me to the tower. Must name him some day...
 

Someguy123

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Jul 29, 2019
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Good info here, but there is one correction that needs to be made.

It is not always the case that larger nodes cannot feed smaller ones. I have noticed on at least 3 distinct occasions (and node pairs) that a smaller node gave vis to a larger one. I followed or watched multiple vis streamers from the small one to the larger one in every case.

I think there is more to the way the nodes are tiered because in all cases it was from a smaller non-pure node to a larger pure node. My guess is that this is either a special property of the pure nodes themselves or that there is a hierarchy of nodes in terms of transfer priorities.

On a related, but slightly different issue:

I am currently working with friends on a server to setup what we hope will be a fully sustainable network of nodes. The plan is to have a series of labs each with their own alembics/cauldron/altar/golems/etc... and each lab will have a tiny pure node (hopefully 60 or less). Outside of this structure is a circular shape grounds we have cleared which we intend to seed with concentric rings of pure nodes (about 100 total) of size 100-110, each such node will have its own crystal cluster and will not be used for anything but re-infusing stone (we have a chunkloader setup to keep the area loaded always).

The idea is that with so many nodes only building extra vis to re-infuse stone (and pure so they don't acquire too much flux) we can keep the environment full on vis. Additionally, these smaller nodes will serve as a massive vis buffer for our enchanting labs which will be able to request from all of them as needed (because they are smaller).

Finally, we also plan to put a series of about 8 larger (1k+) nodes around the outside edge of this area (it covers about 125 chunks) again each with clusters, so that we can also forcefully turn stone into shards (even tho this is slow, we figure why not maximize our potential renewability).

I'm open to thoughts or suggestions on this plan, we've adjusted it many many times already and I suspect we may have some adjustments left to go....
 

NightKev

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Jul 29, 2019
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That sounds like it will take an insane amount of work, but I like it, very mad scientisty ...thaumaturgisty?.
 

Someguy123

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Jul 29, 2019
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That sounds like it will take an insane amount of work, but I like it, very mad scientisty ...thaumaturgisty?.

Hehe, yes it is a massive project, and there is really only 2 of us working on it right now. Even so we have 1 of the 1k nodes done (another almost), and we have plenty of saplings to do the 100 smaller nodes. We've been working on it for about a week and a half now. And it is a legit (albeit private with OP powers) server.

Let me just say that a pair of green sapphire sickles with unbreaking on them will help save you a lot of sanity if you go hunting silverwood saplings. I highly suggest you ignore cutting down the trees after a certain point (about 3k logs was our cutoff).
 

Evil Hamster

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Jul 29, 2019
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What is the best way to get a node above 85? I've grown several silverwood trees on the spot and it just stays at 85. I'm working in a void age where I planted some grass blocks to get the initial nodes to spawn though they are all down near the bottom of the map.
 

KirinDave

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Jul 29, 2019
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What is the best way to get a node above 85? I've grown several silverwood trees on the spot and it just stays at 85. I'm working in a void age where I planted some grass blocks to get the initial nodes to spawn though they are all down near the bottom of the map.


It is VERY difficult to get magical viability in a void age. Remember that the thaumcraft system is a network and it draws from surrounding nodes (even if the chunks are not currently loaded, which is a cool trick). So even if you get a network of nodes it'll always feel like magic is very sparse unless you bring in loads of mixed shard sets.

I think that the merging is somehow gated on nearby magical energy. I aborted my attempt to make a void age very early on (blowing my first 3 saplings) because of inconsistent growth. Maybe it's even a bug?
 

Evil Hamster

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Jul 29, 2019
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It does seem a bit glitchy as all the generated nodes are down at y<10, while my tiny pure node is up at 130. I placed 4 crystals around the tree and the aura is now 94/85, but not changing when I grow a new tree. I also have no display when I put on my goggles of revealing unless I'm close to the silverwood node or if I wait sometimes around 5 mins it will suddenly appear.
 

KirinDave

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Jul 29, 2019
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It does seem a bit glitchy as all the generated nodes are down at y<10, while my tiny pure node is up at 130. I placed 4 crystals around the tree and the aura is now 94/85, but not changing when I grow a new tree. I also have no display when I put on my goggles of revealing unless I'm close to the silverwood node or if I wait sometimes around 5 mins it will suddenly appear.

I'm pretty sure it is based off absolute distance, not planar distance. My original base has silverwood-generated nodes almost right on top of the local underground node and they have never tried to merge.
 

Korenn

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Jul 29, 2019
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I don't care (at this point) about merging. All I want to do is get it to grow above 85.
Which is done through merging.

Growing a silverwood tree takes aura from the nearest node that has enough and is in its range. The amount required is 1.5 times the new aura node strength, so 75 to 150 vis required. If there isn't a node within reach to fulfil the demand, it'll fail to grow (and try again later). You can especially notice this when growing a chain of nodes away from the area of spawned nodes into empty space (like upwards). If you chain using a node sized 75 it'll take ages and ages to grow the minimal node size.

Are you growing the tree using the hoe of growth? I don't know what happens when you use it and it can't support the new node. It might be growing trees without nodes, which would certainly explain your lack of results.

If your node is only 85 in size, you should grow your new trees at least 9 blocks away from it or you can get a reverse merge and lose max aura.
 

Evil Hamster

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Jul 29, 2019
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My mistake was I was growing the trees on top of the old spot.

If I understand correctly, something like this may work if a bit slow?

The node is in the middle of the stone square, the 4 saplings each 9 away.

2013-02-12_20.13.05.png


I spent the last few hours killing wisps trying to bring the flux down..
 

Korenn

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Jul 29, 2019
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My mistake was I was growing the trees on top of the old spot.

If I understand correctly, something like this may work if a bit slow?

The node is in the middle of the stone square, the 4 saplings each 9 away.

View attachment 2053

I spent the last few hours killing wisps trying to bring the flux down..
Yeah that'll work for the first tree. But after the first try the node will move till half way between its old position and the tree, which invalidates the position of the other three saplings. So you may want to babysit it and take down the other three saplings once the first grows.

Killing wisps doesn't actually lower flux, spawning wisps does. What happens after spawning is irrelevant. Though killing them is a good way to get aspects ;)
Overcharging constantly increases flux, you may want to put those crystals away until after you're done growing the trees.
 

NightKev

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'd just stick some solars (of the advanced/compact variety) and an MFE into a Tesla Coil with a reasonably long redstone line running into it next to the node: generate as much flux as you wish, and never worry about wisps again! I've had no wisp problems since I did that to the node nearby my base, it's amazing; one hybrid solar + an MFE provides more than enough energy to kill all the wisps, and if I cared to gather their essences, I could just put some obsidian pipes / transposers under the node.
 

MilConDoin

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Jul 29, 2019
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If you want to prevent overcharge, there is an item which is like a battery (aura above max -> charge battery. aura below max -> discharge battery). It can be, that this was only added in v3.0.3.

Do you want to grow that node as a kind of power core for your warp engine? Maybe add a flux capacitor to that?^^
 
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NightKev

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Jul 29, 2019
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Oh man, now I can have a flax capacitor AND a flux capacitor in the same game! This gives me ideas...