ChromatiCraft - a comprehensive guide (WIP)

Ieldra

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Apr 25, 2014
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ChromatiCraft: A comprehensive guide (WIP, for v15 and up)

This guide consists of the following sections and will require several posts:

I. Introduction
II. Basics and mechanics (almost no spoilers here)
III. Progression achievements
IV. Casting structures and Lumen networking (in progress)
V. Reference: Resources (not yet written)
VI. Reference: Constructs, tools and special abilities (not yet written)

I. Introduction

ChromatiCraft is an exploration-themed magic mod made by Reika that explores the elemental properties of the 16 colors of the world of Minecraft and provides recipes for mechanisms, structures and tools that make use of those properties. It is a beautiful and powerful mod. Along with being so incredibly useful that I find myself unwilling to play without it anymore, it also – like certain other mods I could name - has such a strong aesthetic identity that it’s a work of art in its own right. However, it is also somewhat opaque. This opacity is by design: you are expected to explore and experiment. Since people are different in what occurs to them to try out, this means that people can get stuck whenever the way forward isn’t clear. This guide intends to help you out if you get stuck.

In addition, many items and blocks you can make with ChromatiCraft have - by design - undocumented features only hinted at in the lexicon, or not mentioned at all, or aren’t very intuitive to use in the first place. Again, you are expected to experiment. I do not at all have complete knowledge of all that, but I will document what I do know about in this guide and add what I discover.

And lastly, I have read too many comments along the lines of “ChromatiCraft is useless”. It is really a shame that people get that impression, because the opposite is the case. I usually have little patience with people unwilling to RTFM, but I do want people to appreciate the power and beauty of ChromatiCraft more than I want to express my non-appreciation of an unwillingness to read. Apart from that, there is really a lot of stuff in the lexicon, and you can be excused for missing something specific even if you usually do read the manuals. Also, I am a planner myself, and always appreciate information available while I’m not playing the game. Thus, I intend to document the use of every single item ChromatiCraft provides as best as I can. This is low-priority though and may stay WIP for some time.

This document is – surprise, surprise - full of spoilers. This is a concern in a mod that’s about exploration and discovery of new things. For that reason, I have placed almost all spoilers in spoiler tags, so you can find what you need without necessarily being spoiled about other things. If you can’t resist reading them anyway, that’s your problem.

Caveat: I am, obviously, not the mod author, and none of the information in this guide is authorized by Reika. As ChromatiCraft is still undergoing development, things are liable to change. There is no guarantee that any piece of information in this guide is correct, though I will do my best to make sure that it remains current, and correct mistakes.

Other Information sources:

Reika’s website:
https://sites.google.com/site/reikasminecraft/
Reika’s mods MCF forum thread:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forum...ikas-mods-tech-worldgen-civilization-and-more
ChromatiCraft thread on the FTB Forum:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/chromaticraft-questions-and-suggestions.54905/

ChromatiCrafts in modpacks

How enjoyable it is to gather resources by exploration in ChromatiCraft, depends to a very large degree on the worldgen parameters of the modpack. I’m currently playing on Reika’s development server which uses CaveControl (another one of Reika’s mods) to increase the frequency of ravines and drastically increase the frequency of dungeons. Ravines don’t only make resources visible, they also make it much easier to find cave systems without having to tunnel through kilometres of rock. In addition, it uses CondensedOres to let most resources gather in rare but rich veins, but not as rare and rich as in the default settings of Enviromine. The combined effect is that caves are easier to find *and* cave exploration is enjoyable for much longer than otherwise because you always find useful stuff in them with little need for additional digging. In addition, making ores generate in veins that are somewhat rare, but not too rare, that makes certain ChromatiCraft items which help you with finding and mining resources much more useful than in packs with a different resource distribution. And lastly, since cave exploration is actually enjoyable and rewarding, you have a very good chance for finding the rarer underground structure – we’ll get to that – before feeling that you’ll die of old age before you ever find it.

An additional consideration is biome distribution. Mods that add many biomes may make indispensable ChromatiCraft biomes, or vanilla biomes where specific ChromatiCraft resources generate, much too rare.

So, for those who put together modpacks with ChromatiCraft, I recommend also using CaveControl and Condensed Ores (I’ll try to find out some useful config settings) and making sure that relevant biomes are likely enough to generate that players have a chance of finding them before they give up in frustration. If it’s not against a modpack’s theme, I also recommend installing RotaryCraft. It will help overcome some mid-game resource shortages.

A few words about cheating

I consider cheating a perfectly valid way to do things in single player or co-op multiplayer if it doesn’t come at the expense of others’ enjoyment. After all, we play these games to enjoy ourselves, and what that means differs greatly between people. However, I advise to apply that to ChromatiCraft only with the utmost care, for the following reasons:

(1) If you have a problem and the solution appears to be “do this very tedious thing”, then it’s quite likely that ChromatiCraft itself provides a less tedious solution. So, before you cheat, look carefully through your lexicon (see below), or collect a few more fragments (see below). You may find a tool, a machine or a special ability that vaguely seems like it may be able to help you. Try it. It would be a shame if a good tool goes unused just because someone overlooked some information in the lexicon.

(2) ChromatiCraft is intended to motivate you to experiment. There is such a thing as the satisfaction of finding things out on your own, and getting a facility to work you designed with no help from outside sources. Keep in mind that if you cheat, you may be depriving yourself of that satisfaction.

(3) ChromatiCraft tracks your progression. If you cheat resources in you shouldn’t have at this point, it’s likely they won’t function, often because you lack the infrastructure to use them. and it’s almost certain that recipes that use them won’t work. So if you cheat in crafted resources, make sure that you’ve crafted them at least once in the intended way, and if you cheat in mined resources, make sure that you can see their sources in the world (I’ll get to that).

(4) There are ways to cheat with progression. However, doing that without a good understanding of how the internal mechanics work is extremely likely to land you in very deep trouble. In the worst case, you’ll lose all progression when you load your world the next time, or you won’t be able to progress any further without additional cheats. So really, be careful.

I said I consider cheating as a valid way to do things in single-player. I am offering these warnings because there is a reason for them, not because I’m an anti-cheating fundamentalist.

II. Basics and mechanics

II.1 Using the Chromic Lexicon

You start with the Chromic Lexicon. This is your guide to all aspects of the mod. Most modpacks I know give it to you when you spawn in a new world, but you can also craft it. Right-clicking will open it. It has two main pages accessible by the tabs at the top right corner of the window, a “notes” page where you can write your own notes, and a recovery page that becomes accessible through a fourth tab after you lost lexicon content, for instance by death with inventory loss while carrying the lexicon. Each tab will show you one giant page of “stuff”. You navigate the page by scrolling (use the WASD keys).

Shift-rightclicking on the lexicon will open the fragment interface. Here, you can add research fragments (see below) to the lexicon. The information contained in the fragment will then appear on the research page.

If you open the lexicon (normally), you will see the research page. It is almost empty at the start. It will track your knowledge and your casting recipes. Knowledge and recipes fall under different categories and levels. Categories, like “tools”, “constructs”, “structures” etc. will be arranged like rows on a table, one under the other. Levels within a category, like “basic crafting”, “runecrafting”, “multi-block-casting” will be arranged from left to right, so the highest-tier information is on the right and the lowest-tier information on the left.

Clicking on an element on the research page will give you a description of an item or a piece of information about ChromatiCraft lore. Once you added casting recipes, holding shift will show you a crafting grid for all research page entries that represent things you can craft. Clicking on the grid will show you the casting recipe. Research page entries may have many casting recipes in them, particularly for items that come in 16-color variants. Every casting recipe may have multiple pages, depending on how many extra components this items need beyond raw materials in the casting table. Extra components can be raw materials on the extended crafting grid (see the casting temple structure entry in the lexicon once you have it), runes in the casting structure (see the entry about runecrafting once you have it), lumens (pylon energy – see various lexicon entries or consult the “lumen networking” section of this guide) or any combination thereof.

Clicking on the topmost tab at the top right corner of the window will bring you to the progression page. The progression page tracks your ChromatiCraft progression achievements. You start with a long row of images. Clicking on them will give you some hint what this tab is all about, and a line of cryptic symbols that indicates that you don’t know yet what this is about. The lines between progression achievements indicate direct dependencies. That does NOT mean that once you’ve completed a progression achievement, you can immediately proceed to doing the next one. See the “mechanics “ section below for more about that.

If you die and lose your lexicon, you will not need to re-collect all your research fragments, but you can re-create your knowledge on the recovery page of a newly-crafting Chromic Lexicon. All you need is paper and ink sacs (confirmation pending. I never had to do this). This also applies if you forgot your lexicon somewhere, or if you just want to make a copy..

II.2 Unlocking resources.

ChromatiCraft uses many different special resources, some of them mined, some of them harvested from plants. If you look at a block that looks like stone and a grey box with cryptic symbols appears, then it’s actually not stone, but a block that provides one of those resources. Since you don’t know how to detect that resource at the start, you will not see that this block is special. The same applies to some plants. At the start most of the plants will be invisible to you and you only know that something is there because a block outline appears if you point your tool at it. These resources will become available and visible as you progress. Occasionally, you will get a message with the subtitle “more of the world becomes visible to you”. You won’t need to do anything special to unlock them, it’s a part of regular progression using the mechanics I’ll describe below. There are some biome-dependent plants. These are visible right from the start.

II.3 Collecting research fragments

While exploring the world, you will find various structures related to ChromatiCraft lore. All of those structures have loot chests which will have a high probability of containing one or more research fragments. In the chest, they appear to be blank, but if you have the knowledge to read them, once you take them into your inventory they will immediately turn into fragments describing specific aspects of the world, or casting recipes. If you do not have the knowledge, they will remain blank. Nonetheless, keep them all. You will eventually acquire the knowledge to read them. You will need a total of about 200-220, depending on other mods you may have installed that have interaction with ChromatiCraft. The exact number of fragments available in your game will be visible in the lexicon’s fragment interface (shift-rightclick on the lexicon to open that, see above)

II.4 Using the casting table and the elemental manipulator

The casting table and the elemental manipulator are the first items you can make, and the most indispensable ones. Casting itself is pretty straightforward: put the raw material into the casting table and give it a whack with the elemental manipulator. However, there is much more to say about them:

The casting table stores your casting history, which means that every progression feature that requires you to have cast something specific will look here. Do NOT lose or destroy it especially late in the game. This should not be hard since there is no reason to move it once you have built a casting room. I recommend that when you start out, put it two blocks up from the surface (one block between the surface and the casting table) in the centre of a 19x19 area where do you not intend to build anything else. With such a location you can upgrade your casting structure on site and you’ll never need to move the casting table.

Casting takes time. Early items are usually cast almost instantly, but late items can take a while. If your server suffers from tick lag, casting times will increase accordingly.

The casting table enables multiple castings. For any recipe that doesn’t require pylon energy, just put up to a stack of each raw material into the slots of the casting table, and you will make the corresponding number of items with one casting. Because of the pylon energy requirement, this is not always possible with pylon-casting recipes. Instead, for some items which are often needed in greater numbers, chain-casting is enabled. This reduces the casting time for each additional item after the first, with exponential progression. Again, you can put up to a stack into each raw material slot, or you can use the casting delegate to chain-cast even greater numbers (see the constructs reference for details).

If you put a container next to the casting table, any item you cast will automatically land in that container if there is space for it. This is very useful for multiple castings, but will become a problem once you're using a lumen network, since it will always block at least one of the beams. You can place the container under the casting table instead, but then getting at the container fast is not possible without temporarily damaging your casting structure , so this is best used to route any cast items into a storage network or at least a more conveniently placed container.

Bug warning: if one set of raw materials creates more than one item, it is possible to cast more than a stack of items with one casting. If you did NOT put a container under the table and attempt a casting that creates more than a stack of an item, the output box may appear empty, but it is usually possible to get your crafted items out with multiple clicks. Nonetheless, I recommend never to put more raw materials into the casting table than required for casting a stack of items, unless you use the container method. For instance, when I cast crystalline stone, I will put full stacks of stone into the table but never more than 8 of the central crystal shard.

The casting table gui and the elemental manipulator also provide a lot of useful information about your attempted casting.

II.4.1 Casting recipe information

If you put the raw materials into the casting table, one of three things can appear in the output box in the top right corner of the gui:
1. Nothing. In that case, a component of the recipe is missing. Note that for runecrafting recipes (see below), the runes are considered part of the recipe, even though they’re part of the casting structure and won’t be consumed in the casting.
2. The international “not allowed” sign (red circle crossed by a red line): you have the recipe, but you’re lacking other knowledge required to make this item. Progress further before you attempt it again.
3. A ghost representation of the item. Everything is in order. You can proceed with the casting.

II.4.2 Casting level information

In the top left corner of the casting table’s gui, you will see one to four yellow dots, with possibly one of them covered by a “not allowed”sign. These dots, if not covered by the “not allowed”, indicate that your casting structure for the corresponding casting level is complete and constructed correctly. If the dot is missing, you don’t have the progression to build it. If the dot is covered by the “not allowed” sign, the structure is damaged or otherwise incorrect. Casting levels are “basic crafting” (using only the casting table), “runecrafting” (using the casting room or above), multi-block crafting” (using the casting temple and above) and “pylon-crafting” (using the casting complex and the lumen network)

Bug warning: after upgrading your casting structure, sometimes that change is not reflected correctly in the casting table gui unless you leave and re-start your world (in SSP) or disconnect and re-connect to the server (in SMP).

III.4.3 Lumen requirement information

When your casting table becomes part of a casting complex, 16 bars will appear on the right side of its gui. If you attempt a recipe that requires pylon energy, these bars will show which elements (colours) are required. If you have a lumen network that connects your casting complex with at least one pylon of each of the required colours, your casting complex will attempt to draw the required power from the network after you start the casting.As power goes into the table, the bars will slowly fill and change from a shadowed colour to a bright colour (this is not always easy to see, especially with the dark colours). A full and bright bar indicates that the table has drawn all of the required power of this colour. Lumens stay in the table until they’re used. If you interrupt your casting before they have been used, they will not be gone.

II.4.4 Elemental manipulator casting information

If you point the elemental manipulator at the casting table, one of four things will appear:
(1) A circle with a red cross. This means the casting table is not ready. The reason may be that the raw materials and/or runes for the recipe are incorrect or that the output box is full.
(2) A circle with a yellow dot. This means that the raw materials for a casting are complete, but pylon energy is required in order to make the item, but is not in the casting table yet. If you have a lumen network (see below) you can proceed with the casting. If you don’t, making this item is not possible at the moment.
(3) A circle with a green dot. Everything is in order. Proceed with the casting.
(4) If a casting that requires pylon energy is ongoing, a circle with sections for every required element for this casting, which will fill up from the center, changing pale colour to bright colour, as power is drawn from the network. Once all the power has been drawn, the actual casting will commence.

II.4.5 Stored energy

The elemental manipulator can be used to store pylon energy in you, i.e. in your game avatar. How much energy of each colour is stored is shown in the circle in (usually) the top left corner of the game window. The cap of stored energy rises with the energy already stored, as long as a minimum colour balance is kept, up to a certain point. This cap will upgrade itself later. This energy is used to power some of the tools and any special abilities you may activate (see below). Since this energy is stored in you, it is lost when you die.

II.4.6 Activating special abilities

Once you have the knowledge to give yourself special abilities with the ritual altar, you activate those abilities by clicking the mouse wheel while holding the elemental manipulator. Select the ability by scrolling, then select the power level, if applicable, with the mouse wheel while holding the shift key on the power selector bar above the ability symbol. After that, left-click the power selection bar. Deactivate a special ability by going here again and just left-clicking the ability symbol.

II.5 Progression mechanics: research levels and progression achievements

If you are stuck and don’t want to be spoiled, this section explains the mechanics without spoiling anything specific. ChromatiCraft uses a two-track progression system: progression achievements and research levels run in parallel to create the progression mechanics. Progression achievements are tracked on the progression page of the lexicon and consist of doing specific things to expand your knowledge of the elemental powers and your ability to use them. Research levels track your acquisition of knowledge in form of research fragments and your casting experience. Research levels are difficult to track as you play, but if you get a grey box with a message that you’ve learned something, and it’s not a casting recipe, a feature description that appears in the lexicon or a progression achievement, then it’s a research level. The casting levels that appear on the research page of the lexicon – basic crafting, runecrafting, multiblock casting, pylon casting etc.. – are also research levels, but they don’t correspond 1:1.

In its most simplified form, ChromatiCraft progression works like this: progression achievements unlock research fragments. Collecting research fragments and casting items from the mod completes research levels and unlocks new research levels. New research levels unlock more fragments, and those fragments, in turn, give you the means to complete the next set of progression achievements.

This means that in order to progress, you must do three things:
(1) Complete progression achievements
(2) Collect research fragments
(3) Craft ChromatiCraft items

Regarding the crafting requirement, how much you craft is irrelevant. One item per research level is enough, but it must be the right kind of item. How the coded crafting condition expresses itself in gameplay is something I do not understand completely, but the following rule has worked well for me:

If you’re reasonably sure that you have completed all relevant progression achievements you can at the moment, and all new research fragments come up blank, then craft one item from the constructs row of the research page of the lexicon at the highest casting level you have achieved, and if that doesn’t work, one of the second-highest casting level.

By all means, do experiment to find out more.

II.6 Powering devices

Early ChromatiCraft devices and tools usually do not need to be powered. For the more powerful devices and tools, ChromatiCraft uses the magical power of the 16 colours, also called elements. It is measured in lumens. Lumens become available for powering devices once you've completed "Broadcasting" and have acquired the ability to build a stable lumen network (see section IV for more about this).
There are four ways to supply lumens to devices. If you hold the shift key while in your inventory, ChromatiCraft devices that need to be powered will show an extra symbol:

(1) A pillar with a beam: the device draws directly from the lumen network (see section IV below). It must be placed within 32 blocks of a suitable crystal repeater or multi-aura repeater, using the normal connection rules.

(2) A storage crystal symbol: the device is powered by a storage crystal you put in. Storage crystals are charged in the storage crystal charger and draw their power from the lumen network if the charger is placed where it can connect to the network. A good place to charge all elements is on a casting complex's casting table. Beware: this will empty all connected pylons fast. I do not recommend it unless you have upgraded your pylons. It is possible to charge crystal chargers from pylons that are not part of your network by placing them nearby (this may not work anymore in v15).

(3) Concentric circles: the device is powered by the ambient lumen distributor ("wireless lumen distributor" up to v15, see section IV below for details), which draws its power from the lumen network if placed where it can connect to it.

(4) A relay symbol: the device is powered through lumen relays (see section IV below).
 
Last edited:

Ieldra

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Apr 25, 2014
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III Progression achievements

This list is organized in sections representing the rows on the progression page. Within each row, the arrangement of the achievements on the progression page can change, so I order them as I see fit. Progression achievements range from super-easy to ultra-super-extra-hard. Fortunately, the latter appear late in the progression, at a time where ChromatiCraft’s most useful features are already available. Apart from direct dependencies represented by the lines in the lexicon, and some logical dependencies, you do not need to do these in any particular order. For instance, the row 1 progression achievement “Buried Hollows” is a likely candidate for being still open after you’ve progressed several rows in everything else. This is not a problem, though this is a difficult one and completing it early is cause for celebration.
Note that even if there is no direct dependency, you may require a progression achievement for progression at some point, because it may unlock recipes or resources you will need.

III.1. Row 1 progression achievements

III.1.1 Tangible Energy
Task: look at a cave crystal. Cave crystals spawn in caves, on stone on the surface near water, and sometimes on dirt or sand near freshwater. They are ChromatiCraft’s primary resource. Breaking them will result in a number of crystal shards dependent on Fortune level. You can harvest them intact with a silk-touched pick. If harvested intact, putting them through a RotaryCraft grinder will give you 18 shards. They are also used in certain recipes.
Each crystal will have a specific effect on you if you get close to it. These are the corresponding colour’s primary effects, and they can be utilized in various recipes and other ways. A short description of these effects will be shown in NEI.
.

III.1.2 Energy beacons
Task: look closely at the energy orb of a crystal pylon. Crystal pylons are those black structures with colored runes and energy orbs on top. You will need to get very close to such an orb. Stepping directly under it and then jumping while looking up will work, but it’s much safer to wait until you can fly, because getting close to a pylon will almost certainly damage you (which will give you the row 2 progression achievement “Damaging Discharge”). You may die before you get far enough away after getting this progression achievement, and it will be hard to recover your inventory from the influence sphere of the pylon at this point, so if you can’t fly, better come here with second-rate equipment. Looking at a pylon’s energy orb will also let you learn the name of the colour element. This is important for the row 2 progression achievement “Elemental Awareness”.

III.1.3 Technicolor Trees
Task: break the leaves of a dye tree. Dye trees can be found here and there in any forest-type biome, as well as concentrated in a rainbow forest biome. They come in the 16 colors and drop chroma berries, vanilla dyes, their saplings and and occasionally apples. You will need the berries in medium quantities at some point. Sheared leaves are required for some recipes.

III.1.4 Magical Trees
Task: break the leaves of a rainbow tree. Rainbow trees can be found rarely in forest-type biomes and always in rainbow forest biomes unless the biome is very small. Rainbow tree leaves, when broken, drop a lot of stuff. Don’t fell one of those trees with TreeCapacitor, TiCo lumber axes and suchlike unless you have a way to route stuff from your inventory to some container

III.1.5 Magical Forests
Task: find and enter a rainbow forest biome. Depending on your modpack’s worldgen parameters, this can range from super-easy to very hard. It should be relatively easy since it is required for progression rather early on. Rainbow forests feature a large concentration of dye trees and always have some rainbow trees as well unless the biome is very small.

III.1.6 Orbs of Energy
Task: look at a ball lightning. Ball lightnings spawn sometimes around pylons or rainbow trees and look similar to wisps. This progression achievement appears to be optional, but it may unlock recipes
.

III.1.7 Monster Slayer
Task: kill a hostile mob. This is not immediately relevant to ChromatiCraft progression, but The line of progression achievements starting here ends in several that are relevant.

III.1.8 Endless Mobs
Task: break or harvest a mob spawner. This is not immediately relevant to ChromatiCraft progression, but the line of progression achievements starting here ends in several that are relevant.

III.1.9 Crystal Hives
Task: find and break a Crystal Hive or a Pure Hive. Both can be found in caves and rarely on the surface of Shield biomes if Biomes O’Plenty is installed. You break a Crystal Hive with a pickaxe, not with a scoop. Crystal Hives, everything that depends on them and this achievement are only available if Forestry is installed. Crystal bees are extremely useful, but also extremely finicky in their environmental dependencies.

III.1.10 A…less than honourable attempt
Task: Find and explore a structure villagers have constructed to explore the elemental properties. Some villages have some kind wooden replica of a casting room. Some have even one made of crystalline stone. You get this achievement when you find and open the loot chest hidden in one of these structures.

III.1.11 World Floor
Task: reach the bedrock layer. Should be simple enough… This is not immediately relevant for progression, but the line of progression achievements that starts here will end with some that are relevant

III.1.12 Secret Burrows
Task: Find and enter a crystal burrow. Crystal burrows are small burrows just under the surface. They have openings recognizable by a hole of three by one blocks from which some light emits at night. They do not spawn in every biome and can be somewhat hard to find. Your best chances lie in plains-type biomes. Crystal burrows have a second layer you can access by breaking one of the “shielding crack” blocks in the floor. They have several chests with may contain research fragments, crystal shards and other dungeon loot.

III.1.13 Sandy Burrows
Task: Enter a Sandy Burrow and break the orb on its second level. Sandy Burrows are quite common in deserts and a very good source of research fragments. They have several monster spawners hidden within their structures which are inaccessible for breaking at first, and one of them is always a Blaze spawner. so be careful. The best way to get past the danger fast is to break a block of shielding crack to get to the second level and immediately proceed to break the orb at the centre. After that, you will be able to break the other blocks of the structure and get to the Blaze Spawner. Of course, you may also stay to farm Blaze rods for a while. BTW: Check your lexicon, you may find useful protective items therein.

III.1.14 Ocean Temples
Task: find and enter an ocean temple. Ocean temples spawn rarely in ocean and deep ocean biomes. How hard they are to find is extremely dependent on worldgen parameters. Too small ocean biomes may make them almost non-existent. Otherwise, it may take you some time to find one, but if you have flight and night vision to see into the ocean from above this task should be quite doable.
Ocean temples have a second layer accessible by breaking the floor at specific places. Beware the hordes of creepers.

III.1.15 Buried Hollows
Task: find a crystal shrine and break the orb in its centre. Crystal shrines are hollows made of deep black “shielding cloak” and spawn rarely underground. They have an entrance always connected to some cave or ravine with a 1x2 corridor, but they can be extremely hard to find. This progression achievement is one reason why I recommend the use of CaveControl to increase the frequency of Ravines. Personally, I also use the occasional “hole in the world” glitch, which I guess everyone knows, to look down into the deep. Doing the same, you may get lucky. You will only need this achievement rather late in the game, so you do have time. After you get this achievement, along with taking all the loot, mine all the shielding cloak that made up its walls. You will need it.

III.1.16 The Forested Realm
Task: Enter the Twilight Forest dimension. Naturally, you will only see this if you have the Twilight Forest mod installed. This progression achievement appears to be completely optional. As far as I know, there is no Twilight-Forest-related content in ChromatiCraft as yet.
.

III.2 Row 2 progression achievements

III.2.1 Fabrication
Task: cast something in the casting table. That, of course, requires that you have collected at least one research fragment that gives you a casting recipe.

III.2.2 Energy Internalization
Task: draw energy from a pylon into you with the elemental manipulator. This is done by right-clicking on a pylon’s orb with the elemental manipulator. You can do this from a medium distance. You will not need to get close enough to the pylon to get damaged, but the margin for error is not really big, so be careful. Drawing power from a pylon will also let you learn the name of the element, so after having to get close to one for “Energy beacons”, you will not have to risk getting damaged repeatedly again. As with “Energy Beacons”, being able to fly is a great help.

III.2.3 Damaging Discharge
Task: get damaged by a pylon’s discharge. If you do not get this at some point without even trying, you should play the lottery. With your luck, you’ll likely win an astronomical sum.

III.2.4 Elemental Awareness
Task: learn the names of all 16 elements: You learn the name by looking closely at a pylon’s orb or by drawing energy from it with the elemental manipulator. Obviously, you will need to find a pylon of every color in order to complete this. Again, being able to fly helps. Later in the game, you can make a pylon compass to find pylons of specific colors, but you will need the knowledge represented by this achievement in order to make it.

III.2.5 The Evil Realm
Task: Enter the Nether dimension. Nothing special about this. This doesn’t unlock anything special, but there are resources that only spawn in the Nether. Also note that the Nether is a cave dimension and that cave crystals grow in caves. Beware the reversed effects though.

III.3 Row 3 Progression achievements

III.3.1 Weak Magical Foci
Task: build a casting room and place a crystal rune in it at a useful location that enables some recipe. This requires that you have the research fragments for the casting room, for crystal runes and for one casting recipe that requires a crystal rune to be set into the casting room.

III.3.2 Magic Liquid
Task: collect some liquid chroma with a Chroma Collector. This requires, naturally, the recipe for the chroma collector. Liquid Chroma is distilled experience, so make sure you have some. Being around Zambarau Cave Crystals gives you experience for free, and you will need a lot of liquid chroma in the course of ChromatiCraft progression, so start to collect them early and don’t grind them into shards unless it’s really necessary. Later in the game, you can make items that will give you xp faster, but they, too, will need Zambarau Cave Crystals as components.

III.3.3 Painful loss
Task: die, at any time after this progression achievement has become visible. This progression achievement is completely optional. If you do die and lose your lexicon, you will need to recover lost fragments on a new lexicon’s recovery page (see section II for details). All your stored energy will also be lost, which can be equally painful since you may have spent a lot of time drawing power from pylons until you hit the cap. All special abilities you may have acquired using the ritual altar will also have been lost and will have to be re-cast.

III.3.4: Eldritch Nightmare
Task: Kill the Wither. It may not be immediately apparent how this is relevant to ChromatiCraft progression, but some of the more powerful items need crafting components made from nether stars.

III.3.5 A Second Layer
Task: find a chute through the Nether roof and travel through it to the area above the Nether. The chutes are medium-rare. Finding one shouldn’t take all that long. Beware the Void Monster (if that mod is installed).

III.3.6 The Alien Realm
Task: Enter the End dimension. Various resources are available only in the End. You will need to travel there at least twice. Be sure to collect a good amount of every ChromatiCraft resource you can find. It is useful to take something with you that lets you teleport picked up stuff back to your base…(hint, hint)

III.4 Row 4 progression achievements

III.4.1 More Complex Crafting
Task: build a casting temple. I do not recall if it is also required to cast something that uses the new 5x5 grid. It may be. You will need the research fragment for the casting stand and the casting temple.

III.4.2 Liquid Effects
Task: step into a pool of liquid chroma. This is a precursor to Magic Alloying, which makes use of pools of liquid chroma.

III.4.3 Enriching Solvent
Task: make some boosted crystal shards. You make boosted crystal shards by throwing 24 berries from a dye tree, all the same color, into a pool of liquid chroma, after they’ve dissolved, throw up to a stack of crystal shards of the same color in, and wait for some time. The time is somewhat random and ranges between 30 seconds and 20 minutes. For best efficiency, always use full stacks of crystal shards if you can afford it. You’ll need up to two stacks of crystal shards of each color, varying by color, until you get to the point where you have a different source.

III.4.4 Lumen Harnessing
Task: draw power from a pylon using a lumen repeater. You should have the recipe for the lumen repeater block and the corresponding structure at this point. There are several ways to do this. The probably easiest is to make a relay source. Relay sources store, by default, an amount of pylon energy of every color, so if you use this method, it doesn’t matter which kind of pylon you use. Place a lumen repeater (the structure, not just the block) up to 16 blocks from a pylon’s orb, then place the relay source somewhere nearby where it can see the lumen repeater. The relay source should now draw some power from the pylon and you will see a colored beam. As soon as that happens, the progression achievement will complete. You may want to break the relay source immediately since the pylons will recharge slowly at this point and you might not want to empty it.

III.4.5 Aerial Predator
Task: kill the Ender Dragon. Since this is required to get back from the End alive, it makes sense that you have to do this. I have not found a use for the dragon egg, but the dragon is worth a good amount of liquid chroma.

III.4.6 Ominous Constructions
Task: Explore the structures on the Nether roof. There are several different types of structures on the Nether roof. You will complete this progression achievement as you open the loot chest in a specific one. Since this is in the process of being changed, I can’t say for sure which one it will be in your game. There have been structures with a Nether portal that have worked for me before, but in my current game I had to explore a structure with lava and some kind of magma slimes. This may be what you’ll have to do in v16+

III.5 Row 5 Progression achievements

III.5.1 Unity of the Elements
Task: Craft an elemental core. You should have the recipe for that at this point (look under “cores”). If not, you may lack a research level. See Section II for how to resolve this problem.

III.5.2 Lumen Storage
Task: Craft a Nula storage crystal. You will need an elemental core for that, so you need to complete “Unity of the Elements” first. Storage crystals are used to power devices that require pylon energy to run, but are moved around a lot, so that it’s not feasible to require a connection to a lumen network. Only a little later you can craft storage crystal chargers. Place them on your casting table in your casting complex and put the crystal in, and they will draw power from all connected pylons.

III.5.3 Magic Alloying
Task: make an alloy ingot. Alloy ingots are made by throwing ingredients into a pool of liquid chroma and waiting for a bit. There are research fragments for the recipes. I do not know if it is possible to make anything else but Chroma Alloy Ingots at this point, and whether other alloys count for this progression achievement if it is, but in any case Chroma alloy ingots are the easiest to make, the least expensive and required for some useful tools, so you’ll probably want to make one of those. As opposed to making boosted shards, the liquid chroma will be consumed. I did say you will need a lot of it, right? And you’ve really seen nothing of what “a lot” really means as yet. So better stack up on Zambarau Crystals some more.

III.5.4 Broadcasting
Task: craft a crystal repeater. One of the other progression achievements should have unlocked the recipe. If not, you may lack a research level. See section II for what to do about that.

III.6 Row 6 + progression achievements

III.6.1 Top-tier crafting
Task: Craft an item using pylon energy. It is up to you what you craft, just look for something you actually want to use. Note that you won’t be able to make energized cores until you've completed “Recharge” (see below)

III.7.1 Recharge
Task: Upgrade a pylon with 8 power crystals. Power crystals dramatically increase the recharge rate of pylons. They are made with iridescent crystal shards, and those are made in the infusion ring from raw crystal shards, which in turn are crafted from normal crystal shards and purification powder. It is advisable to only make full stacks of iridescent crystal shards since every infusion will consume 16 buckets of liquid chroma. See section IV for details how to use the infusion ring. Eventually, you will want to upgrade all your pylons. This requires 768 buckets of liquid chroma (there…this is the “lot of liquid chroma” I mentioned earlier), 768 focal powder, 1536 resonant dust, 768 transmissive dust, 640 Obsidian, 1536 crystal shards of any colour and 6144 purification powder. You may want to look for other options to make a lot of iridescent crystal shards, which exist depending on other mods you may have installed.

III.7.2 Personal Enhancement
Task: Acquire and activate an enhanced special ability. You acquire special abilities with the ritual altar, and activate them as described in section II. I do not know which abilities count for this progression achievement, but those listed in the "Endgame" tab should work. Note that you can't activate "Elemental Sonar" outside the chroma dimension.

III.8.1 Other worlds

Task: Enter the chroma dimension. You have to create a portal beacon and enter it. The portal beacon is described in the lexicon. In order to get samples of the special crystalline stone blocks for the portal beacon, you may have to destroy a pylon, but once you have one of those blocks, you can make more of them with the item fabricator

III.9.1 Unusual structures
Task: Harvest a dimensional core from a puzzle structure in the chroma dimension. In order to find those structures, you will need the special ability “elemental sonar”. The sonar is straightforward, just move in the direction of an elemental symbol, assuming that the top of the sonar screen points north. Once you find the structure – this can take a while since the distances are very long – enter it and solve the puzzle in it. At its end, you will find the dimensional core for one element. The tasks you have to do in the puzzles are easily discerned. However, the difficulty of actually doing them ranges from moderate to almost impossible in my estimation. There is a config setting for the structure puzzle difficulty. Lowering this can make them dramatically less difficult (with one exception, but that’s probably just me – apparently my short-term memory for sequences leaves a lot to be desired).
Note that the chroma dimension is reset with every visit. This means worldgen will be almost constantly active until you reach a structure. This may cause server lag.

III.10.1 Pylon turbocharging
Task: Turbocharge a pylon. You will need to craft 9 “energy focal points.” and build a structure around a pylon like this:

CrCTurbo2.jpg


Then hit the central focal point with the elemental manipulator. The preconditions for this to work are not completely clear to me. At the very least, you will need to own a dimensional core of the pylon’s element. You may also have to complete “restoration” in order to turbocharge a pylon. If the preconditions are not fulfilled, nothing will happen when you try to activate the energy focal point. It is highly advisable to disconnect the pylon from your lumen network before you turbocharge a pylon. I do not know what happens if you don’t, but the lexicon hints it’s bad. Once the turbocharging ritual is over and the pylon has settled down, you can reconnect it again.

III.10.2 Dimensional cores
Task: harvest at least one dimensional core for each of the 16 elements. See “Unusual structures”above for details.

III.11.1 Restoration
Task: Find the temple of the elements in the chroma dimension and restore it. Finding the temple goes like this: recall the colour sequence in all recipes you’ve ever cast that use items of all colours in one casting? You should know it by heart now: Kuro, Karmir, Kijani, Ruskea, Nila, Zambarau, Vadali, Argia, Ykri, Ruzova, Asveste, Kitrino, Galazio, Kurauri, Portokali, Tahara (yes, I did write this from memory). If you bring up the elemental sonar in the chroma dimension, you will see that the symbols are arranged in the same order around a center, albeit at different distances and not always starting at the north-west corner. If you connect symbols at opposing positions – Kuro with Ykri, Karmir with Ruzova etc. and imagine lines between them, these lines will meet at one point. There you will find the temple:

CrCMonument.jpg


Repairing the temple is not so hard, but it requires resources. When starting out to do this, bring with you: one stack each of: emerald blocks, diamond blocks, gold blocks, redstone blocks, Nether quartz blocks, lapis blocks and glowstone blocks, a tank or drum of liquid chroma with at least 32 buckets and all 16 dimensional cores. You will not need all of this, but it’s not possible in advance to tell how many blocks of every material you will need. When you find the temple, you will see that it’s damaged and it should be obvious where all this material goes (don’t forget the outer walls) except for the dimensional cores, which have to be placed under the upper ends of the temple’s “arms”, at positions near their elemental symbol.

Update v16: It is apparently unintentional that the shielding stone structure is damaged, so you shouldn't need any shielding stone. Rarely the structure may be damaged by meteor impacts, and I don't know if it is now impervious to them.
 
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Ieldra

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IV. Structure and networking guide

(Question to readers: Are there any unmarked parts of this section you consider spoilers?)

This section describes the use of the various structures available in ChromatiCraft, and lumen networking. Some structures whose use is glaringly obvious or described with all details in the lexicon may be omitted. Building the structures is explained very well in the lexicon, so I'll only go into that if there are common problems

IV.1 Casting structures

IV.1.1 Casting table

The lowest tier of casting is available just with the casting table. You can place it anywhere and it will work. You use it by putting the raw materials in and then right-clicking it with the elemental manipulator.

IV.1.2 Casting Room

The casting room is a multiblock structure with a casting table at its centre. You build it according to the description in the lexicon, but its defining characteristics are crystal runes that can be placed in it as part of recipes of the second crafting tier, which is named "Runecrafting". Crystal runes are made from crystal shards and crystalline stone. If you use boosted shards instead of normal shards, you will get 16 crystal runes per crafting instead of only one. Crystal runes can be added to the casting room, or they can replace some of its constituent blocks of crystalline stone. Runes are designed to be placed permanently. There are no recipes that require different runes in the same place. If you find such recipes, this is most likely a bug. The top-row lexicon entry "Crafting with runes" shows your casting structure with all the runes you know (possible change past v15: all the runes you've ever used in crafting). This is useful if you want to move your casting structure.

IV.1.3 Casting temple

The casting temple is a multiblock structure with a casting table at its centre. You build it according to the description in the lexicon. It is designed to be an upgrade of the casting room, you just need to add and/or replace the parts that are different, and all placed crystal runes can stay.

The defining characteristic of the casting temple is the extended crafting grid. It consists of 24 casting stands which extend the crafting grid to a size of 5x5. Raw materials are placed on the casting stands by right-clicking. Double-right-clicking will place the full stack you were holding. Right-clicking again will remove the placed items.

The casting level for this structure is called "multi-block crafting". If you have enabled multi-block crafting (by building the casting temple), the casting table's gui will show the extended crafting grid, but you will not be able to interact with the casting stands from here, just as usual with the original 3x3 grid.

Bug warning: If you leave the casting temple while a casting is ongoing (some castings take some time), after you return you may occasionally find that items on the casting stands are still rendered even though the casting has completed and the items should've been consumed. This is a client-side bug. You will not be able to use it as an exploit since the items aren't actually there. Right-clicking on the casting stands will remove the ghost items.

IV.1.4 Casting complex

The casting complex is a multiblock structure with a casting table at its centre. You build it according to the description in the lexicon. It is designed to be an upgrade of the casting temple, you just need to add and/or replace the parts that are different, and all placed crystal runes and casting stands can stay.

The defining characteristic of a casting temple are crystal repeaters placed around the original structure. These crystal repeaters - one of each colour - direct pylon energy to the casting table. They can be placed around the structure in any order. In order to draw pylon energy, the following conditions must be fulfilled:

(1) The repeater of a particular colour must connect to a pylon of the same colour through a line of repeaters that can carry this colour, i.e. either crystal repeater structures for that colour or multi-aura-repeaters. See "lumen networking" below for more about this.

(2) There must be an unbroken line of vision between the crystal repeater which is a part of the casting complex and the casting table. The casting complex is carefully designed to provide that for all sixteen colours, but only if *nothing* is in the casting complex that isn't part of it or the recipe that's cast. The player avatar does not count, but be careful with decorations, chests and suchlike. It's best that the level of the casting table and the two levels above remain absolutely free of foreign blocks.

The casting level for this structure is called "pylon-crafting". If you have enabled pylon-crafting (by building the casting complex), the casting table's gui will show 16 bars, one for each elements, that show lumen requirements for recipes that require pylon energy.

IV.2 Lumen networking

The "Lumen" (real-world reference) is the power unit for the elemental energy emitted by the pylons. Lumens come in 16 colours or elements. All ChromatiCraft devices that need to be powered require lumens of specific elements in various combinations, and lumens are also required for crafting the more powerful devices, tools and components. There are three types of lumen networks:

Note on the wooden "lumen repeaters":
These repeaters feature in your first attempt to use pylon energy for the progression achievement "Lumen Harnessing", but they're a strictly temporary (read: one-time) solution. They can transport all 16 colours and have a maximum range of 16 blocks, but they explode after a limited number of uses. Thus I have not included an extra section for them.
.

IV.2.1 The crystal repeater network

Terminology note: a (crystal or multi-aura) repeater is a structure (see the entry in the bottom row of the lexicon) as well as a block. When I refer to repeaters in this section, it will always be about the structure unless I add "block".

The crystal repeater network is ChromatiCrafts primary power network. It powers some devices directly, indirectly powers the other networks (see below), and it is the source of any power you can store in crystals. A lumen network consists of any number of crystal repeaters, multi-aura-repeaters and lumen beacons that connect at least one of a casting complex's crystal repeaters with a pylon of the same colour (see section IV.4 for more about lumen beacons - since they're rarely required, I will ignore them here). You do not need to build repeater lines for all 16 elements at once if you don't need all 16 colours for casting or power at first, but in order to progress to the chroma dimension, you will need to connect at least one pylon of every element. It is possible to connect more than one pylon per colour, but (as of v14) the network is not smart in switching between pylons of the same element when one is empty, so the result may not be as satisfactory as anticipated.

You connect a pylon with a casting complex's crystal repeater of a specific element by placing any combination of crystal and multi-aura repeaters between them, with not more than 32 blocks of distance between neighbouring repeaters. To gauge the distance: when holding a repeater block and pointing at the face of any block, a dotted line will appear for any repeater this one would connect to if placed at this position as the part of a repeater structure. If you have BiblioCraft installed, you can also use the tape measure (use the absolute distance mode) to map out repeater positions in advance. Repeater lines do not need to follow cardinal directions, but if placed too high or too low compared to their neighbouring repeaters, they may not be able to see neighbouring repeater blocks, and will not connect. Also, any non-transparent block will break the connection. Beware of mods that add dynamically regrowing trees.

When building a repeater structure, it is important to place the repeater block last. Most notably, it is not possible to switch a crystal repeater's colour by just replacing the rune. You must remove the repeater block and the rune, then replace both.

Frequently asked question: How many repeaters do I need?
This varies greatly depending on pylon distribution, but assuming the use of multi-aura repeaters wherever more than one element need to be connected, you should plan for three or four stacks of crystal repeaters, of which about half will be used to make multi-aura repeaters. It helps to map out the network in advance. Since I am always placing my repeaters on pillars in order to have them at the same height where possible, I map out my networks by placing the pillars in advance.
.

IV.2.2 The lumen relay network.

The lumen relay network is a lumen network designed for use indoors and in places where you don't want repeaters to clutter the landscape. Its primary use is to power devices. A relay network consists of at least one relay source and any number of lumen relays. As a rule, relay sources draw their power from the lumen network, but they can also be powered by a storage crystal (right-click the relay source with the crystal to insert it). Relay sources relay the power they draw to lumen relays. There are variants of lumen relays for each colour, and more expensive omni-relays that can carry all colours.

Lumen relays connect to each other along cardinal directions only, including vertically. Lumen relays connect to relay sources and devices that draw power through them along cardinal directions only. This may or may include vertically (I have not tested this). To connect downward, you have to place a repeater on a wall. A relay's maximum range is 16 blocks. Relays can connect through glass. After placing a lumen relay, hit one of its faces with the elemental manipulator (rightclick) to set its input direction. An X will appear on that face, and it will then accept output requests from all other directions.

IV.2.3 Ambient lumen distribution

This type of lumen networking is used to power adjacency cores (as of v15, these are the only devices that use it). To use ambient lumen distribution, build an amibient lumen distributor ("Wireless lumen distributor" up to v15) and place it where it can draw power from the repeater network (see IV.2.1 above). Any adjacency cores in range will now be able to draw power from it, but solid blocks between distributor and adjacency core will cause attenuation.

This is a new feature. I do not know the maximum range (it's probably in the lexicon, which I don't have at hand as I write this). I do not know if it is possible to relay ambient lumen distributors, but I suspect that it is not.

There is a config setting that enables or disables power requirement for adjacency cores.

IV.3 Other required structures

IV.3.1 Ritual altar

This structure is used to enchant your player avatar (also referred to as "you") with special abilities. You build it according to the description in the lexicon. In order to start the process, right-click the ritual table to bring up the ability list. Scroll through the abilities with the right and left arrow keys and select one by clicking on the picture. Pointing at the ritual table with your elemental manipulator should now show a yellow dot. Right-click the altar. After all the required lumens have been drawn, jump on the ritual table. Perspective will change to 3rd person, you will be lifted into the air for a time, and when you stop floating, the process is completed. See section II for how to activate special abilities.

Bug warning: after the process is completed, the perspective will not change back to 1st person, and your HUD may remain gone. Hit F5 to switch the perspective back and F1 to bring the HUD back.

At some point, you will acquire a fragment for an upgraded ritual altar. This upgrade is NOT optional. Once you have it, you must upgrade your ritual altar since the original version will not work anymore.

IV.3.2 Infusion Ring

The infusion ring is required to make iridescent crystal shards, which are required as crafting component for power crystals, energized cores and some other high-tier devices and tools. You build it according to the description in the lexicon. You use it by placing up to a stack of "raw crystal shards" in the infusion stand. The process is working if you see special effects around the infusion stand. Once finished, all the liquid chroma in the infusion ring will be consumed and your crystal shards will have turned into iridescent crystal shards.

Replenishing the liquid chroma is tedious, but...
...using the Liquid Spiller from RotaryCraft will make this significantly less so. BuildCraft's Floodgate is nonfeasible since it would have to be placed as part of the structure. The Liquid Spiller is placed above its target area.

IV.3.3 Portal beacon

The portal beacon is used to access the chroma dimension. You build it according to the description in the lexicon. It is a complicated structure to build, but you will see that you've completed it successfully if a white maelstrom appears above the portal rift at its centre, and elemental rune symbols start to float between its gates.

If you have trouble building this and can't find your mistake, consider a closer look at the crystalline stone grooves surrounding the portal rifts two levels above. There are two types which are easily mixed up. Look at the blocks' horizontal faces, and you'll see how they are different. This is represented well in the structure's lexicon representation, even if not glaringly obvious.

If Thermal Foundation is installed, the "Liquefied Ender" you need will be Thermal Foundation's "Resonant Ender". This change is not reflected in the description.

Acquiring the three types of special crystalline stone blocks....
...is, of course, possible by destroying several pylons, but actually you only need a sample of one each. You can make more with the Item Fabricator. After you've acquired a sample and made at least one more block, you can even go and repair the pylon.
.

IV.4 Other structures

IV.4.1 Lumen beacon

The lumen beacon is used to transport lumens across long ranges. It is intended to connect remote places like islands, where not enough pylons spawn to make a complete network. Lumen beacons are built in pairs (naturally) and only connect along cardinal directions at the same height. Minimum range is 1024 blocks and maximum range is 4096 blocks.

Pylons that are 1000-1200 blocks away from your casting complex are common. There's almost always at least one of those. However, it is not resource-efficient to use a lumen beacon if it's just one or two pylons at that range. I have never seen the need for one unless I was, in fact, on an island.

IV.4.2 Meteor Tower

These are defensive structures that shoot objects that do splash damage on a ballistic trajectory. You do not usually need them unless you play with mods that give hostile mobs homing abilities over....
...longer distances than covered by ChromatiCraft's anti-spawn device - the Elemental Lamp
, but they're impressive to watch and listen to at work and highly useful if you do need them. When connecting them to the repeater network, it is very difficult to find a place where the repeater block can see the tower core. I had to place a multi-aura repeater within the tower structure to make it work.

IV.4.3 Lumen Tree and Enhanced Lumen Tree

The lumen tree is used to store lumens in its leaves. If the luminescent battery at its top is connected to the repeater network, it will draw power from all connected pylons in order to grow its leaves. After you've built it, you will see that it's working if you see it drawing power and if within a few minutes, some small leaves blocks will start to grow on it. The basic version can store up to 11 million lumens of every color.

In order to upgrade your lumen tree, you'll have to build the structure as described in the lexicon and break and replace the luminescent battery. This is painful since all leaves will vanish and all stored power will be lost. You will see that the enhanced version is working if it has a vaguely tree-shaped halo of colored particles around it. The enhanced lumen tree can store up to 155 million lumens of every color.

If your lumen tree is placed closer to your power consumers (casting complex and devices) than the required pylons, they will draw their power from the lumen tree by preference. You can also draw power into you from the tree with your elemental manipulator, just as you would from pylons. Point your manipulator at the leaves of specific colours to do that.

The lumen tree leaves...
...can be broken to give you lots of normal and boosted crystal shards. So once you have a lumen tree, you will never lack for shards. Also, you can get something out of having to break the tree when you upgrade it.

IV.4.4 Turbocharging Ring

This structure is used to turbocharge a pylon, greatly increasing its recharge rate and its maximum power output. In order to successfully turbocharge a pylon, you need to possess the dimensional core of the pylon's element (to be confirmed in my games), make some energy focal points and build a structure like this:
CrCTurbo2.jpg

Hitting the central focal point with your elemental manipulator after you've built this structure will start the turbocharging process, which will take several minutes. It is recommended to disconnect the pylon from your network before you do so.

IV.4.5 Transposition Gate

Forthcoming, likely in v16

IV.4.6 Relay Amplification Focus

Forthcoming, likely in v16

(to be continued)[/spoiler]
 
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WidjettyOne

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Looks good so far. A couple of questions/comments:
1. How do you supply lumens to devices? Some of them link automatically to the network (eg: relay source). Some of them need to have a relay source placed next to them (eg: crystal furnace). How do you use lumen relays?
2. There's a bug in version 14 (as in Rev|2) that prevents you from progressing to the "end game" progression level - you need to research power crystals, but they're not unlocked. So you need to update to 15 (Rev|3) to proceed.
 
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Ieldra

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Looks good so far. A couple of questions/comments:
1. How do you supply lumens to devices? Some of them link automatically to the network (eg: relay source). Some of them need to have a relay source placed next to them (eg: crystal furnace). How do you use lumen relays?
That's in the as yet unwritten part. Here's a preliminary answer:

There are four ways to supply lumens to devices. If you hold the shift key while in your inventory, ChromatiCraft devices that need to be powered will show an extra symbol:

(1) A pillar with a beam: the device draws directly from the lumen network. It must be placed within 32 blocks of a suitable crystal repeater or multi-aura repeater, at an angle where the line to the repeater block is not obstructed (loose rule: at an angle of not more than 45 degrees from the horizontal, and less is better).

(2) A storage crystal symbol: the device is powered by a storage crystal you put in. Storage crystals are charged in the storage crystal charger and draw their power from the lumen network.

(3) Concentric circles: the device is powered by the ambient lumen distributor ("wireless lumen distributor" up to v15), which draws its power from the lumen network. I do not know the maximum range.

(4) A relay symbol: the device is powered through lumen relays. Lumen relays constitute their own network and draw from one or more relay sources. As a rule, relay sources draw their power from the lumen network, but they can also be powered by a storage crystal (right-click the relay source with the crystal to insert it). After you place a repeater, hit once of its faces with the elemental manipulator (rightclick) to set the input direction. The repeater will accept output requests from any other direction. Repeaters must be connected in lines along any cardinal direction, including vertically. The relay source and the target devices *may* not be able to connect vertically to a repeater (I haven't tested this), but repeaters can connect vertically to other repeaters though any of their five faces. To connect downward, you have to place a repeater on a wall. A relay's maximum range is 16 blocks. Relays can connect through glass.

Your example is slightly incorrect: the crystal furnace needs to be in a direct line with a connected repeater (according to the rules above) which can carry the type of lumens it needs. Since its needs three or four types of lumens, omni-repeaters are feasible here. The relay source does not need to be near the furnace.
 
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Ieldra

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Uh..corrected the formatting error that prevented some late-game progression achievement to show up. Sorry about that.
 

Ieldra

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Updated section II with additonal information and added most of Section IV. Some structures I'm unfamiliar with are still missing.
 

Folanlron

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On the Turbo Charging, you need to complete the monument in the Chroma Dim in order for turbo charging too work at all(The recipe unlocks way before finishing it), but you will be unable to activate the Energy Focus till the Monument is Complete, and yes you want the pylon disconnected from your Network, also don't break the Charge ring either... that one hurt baddddddd

Enhanced Lumen tree does not need to be broken to be upgraded, I have succsefully upgraded my First tree to Enhanced by just adding the extra structure blocks too the bottom, Honestly though I would still break the tree before upgrading(The leaves will re-scale themselfs to proper sizes once the tree actually starts pulling more lumens)


Anything else you want specifics on ? let me know
 

Ieldra

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On the Turbo Charging, you need to complete the monument in the Chroma Dim in order for turbo charging too work at all(The recipe unlocks way before finishing it), but you will be unable to activate the Energy Focus till the Monument is Complete, and yes you want the pylon disconnected from your Network, also don't break the Charge ring either... that one hurt baddddddd

Enhanced Lumen tree does not need to be broken to be upgraded, I have succsefully upgraded my First tree to Enhanced by just adding the extra structure blocks too the bottom, Honestly though I would still break the tree before upgrading(The leaves will re-scale themselfs to proper sizes once the tree actually starts pulling more lumens)
You do not need to complete the monument in the chroma dimension in order to turbocharge pylons, you just need to have taken the dimensional core of the pylon's color out of its place in its dimensional puzzle structure. Possessing it alone is not enough, you have to complete the puzzle and gain the core for yourself without cheating.

I'll test the enhanced lumen tree one of the next few days.
 

Folanlron

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Jul 29, 2019
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You do not need to complete the monument in the chroma dimension in order to turbocharge pylons, you just need to have taken the dimensional core of the pylon's color out of its place in its dimensional puzzle structure. Possessing it alone is not enough, you have to complete the puzzle and gain the core for yourself without cheating.

I'll test the enhanced lumen tree one of the next few days.

hmm actually now that I think about it, the recipe for the Energy focus unlocks after getting the First core, I didn't go back to Overworld and make them till I was finished with the Oversized Fabricator, so I'm not 100% sure on this(I do remember in my test world that the Pylons wouldnt' activate the focus till I had the Structure flag done)
 

Ieldra

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Apr 25, 2014
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Added "Personal Enhancement" to the progression achievements (may be new in v16 (upcoming)) and updated the info about "Restoration".
 
S

Stefan The Legend

Guest
so i have been blasting through the chromaticraft progression using your guide and i love it. even so i ran into a problem.

when i was working on getting the 'Broadcasting' progression part, it insisted me to make crystal repeaters. i placed the recipe and everything was fine. even so i couldnt craft the item. the item icon was there, but there was a stop sign located on it. any idea how i can fix it or any tips on how to fix it?

im leaving a screenshot so that you can see what i saw
2017-04-26_19.19.50.png

(sorry about size of the screenshot >.<)
 

Ieldra

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Apr 25, 2014
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so i have been blasting through the chromaticraft progression using your guide and i love it. even so i ran into a problem.

when i was working on getting the 'Broadcasting' progression part, it insisted me to make crystal repeaters. i placed the recipe and everything was fine. even so i couldnt craft the item. the item icon was there, but there was a stop sign located on it. any idea how i can fix it or any tips on how to fix it?
It means you're lacking some progression. I haven't played in a while so I can't say specifically what you're missing, but it's likely you're missing crafting experience. Try to craft items from different tiers, starting with a heat lamp.
 

Ieldra

Popular Member
Apr 25, 2014
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Sorry wrong thread. Auto-filling the reply box sometimes has odd effects.

BTW this guide is for v15. It is incomplete for the current versions of ChromatiCraft. I'll update is once I know of the most relevant changes.
 
Last edited:

LordPINE

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Jan 2, 2016
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Wrong thread? Pretty sure you would want to post this in the ascension of the technomancer thread.
 
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