Magic: the Gathering Based Pack

[ookagaricrypt]

Not sure if this is the right place, but I'm starting my own attempt at making a mod pack. Over the course of it's creation I will probably post asking for advice. The big question I need answered first, however, is would FTB post a pack that uses intellectual property from third party sources? I'm hoping to figure out a way to make a pack using the lore/concepts from the "Magic: the Gathering" TCG. If I get a decent amount of it fleshed out, I may try to contact Wizards in order to get information from them directly.

I also want to state caveat. I'm not sure how far I will get, as I have a poor track record in actually starting (and continuing) the ideas I come up with (both in Minecraft and other pursuits). Thank you in advance to anybody who will listen to a complete noob's questions, and have a good day.

 

[gold49]

While I do not know of any exact details, there is a middle-earth based modpack on the launcher that uses that IP, so you could look into to see the details and rules that had to follow (if any)

 

[ookagaricrypt]

Oh yeah, lol. I forgot about tolkiencraft because my potatOS based PC can't handle it.

 

[Henry Link]

Generally when it come to IP you must seek permission from the owner of that IP. I'm pretty sure that if you could get that permission and present it to FTB they would publish the pack.

 

[ookagaricrypt]

So another question. I'm trying to have five magic mods represent each color. If you don't know Magic: the Gathering (M:tG) has five separate colors which represent various character traits and values, as well as the source of one's power. Blue represents intelligence and technology. A lot of blue spells tend to be based around research, and manipulating minds and the world around you. For that I was gonna use Thaumcraft as that has always felt the most "techy" of the magic mods, requires research, and messes with your mind. Black would be Blood Magic, as Black represents power at the cost of others, and involves selfishness. A lot of the mod's power seems to come when you sacrifice others to get essence, rather than yourself. Green represents primal instincts and interdependence. It often deals in nature, and the idea that all actions you take have an effect on not just yourself but everything else as well. I was going to use Botania as it is nature based. The problem is that Red, which involves chaos and impulsive decision making uses raw power, or fire/lightning based magics. I can't think of a mod that uses raw power as a base and embodies these traits. Same with White, which embodies Order and Morality, often using the power of angels or paladins as a basis for it's magic. Other possibilities would be Aura Casacade and Ars Magica. However, I've heard Ars Magica is a closed source mod that won't be getting updated and has several bugs that make it hard to be a viable choice. Is this true? That aside, can any of you think of good mods that can be used? I can also link the Magic Color Wheel, which shows how each color is aligned in their beliefs. I've looked on curse and the problem is a lot of the mods listed seem incomplete, or abandoned completely. Thanks for the help in advance.

http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/File:Color_Wheel.jpg

 

[Henry Link]

Not sure about white.. But Red almost feels like Draconic Evolution.

 

[ookagaricrypt]

Hmmm yea dragons are a theme, and Draconic Evolution is absurdly powerful late game.

 

[mattp_12]

I feel like ChromatiCraft could be used... Maybe even ProjectE, although, that may be too op. (I don't use project E as I find it op, but that's just my opinion :3)

 

[AuricPolaris]

I agree with mattp_12, Chromaticraft would be an excellent white magic choice as it is a very orderly mod with lots of rules to follow in order to achieve anything with it. Requires careful construction and recipes to arrive at finished products (from my limited experience and observation).

 

[Someone Else 37]

A couple things I'd like to throw out there, even though they don't really help:

- Black does self-sacrifice as well as others-sacrifice. However, unlike White's self-sacrifice, Black will only sacrifice bits and pieces of itself (an arm and a leg, say, or some blood) in order to gain an advantage later on. Blood magic does this pretty well, too.

- Botania is actually a tech mod with a nature theme. If you were to assign multiple colors to mods, you could make a strong case for Botania being green-blue. And at least some parts of the mod match the Simic flavor pretty well, too, namely mutating and combining living things (in this case, flowers) to create more useful living things.

- Witchery is another solidly green-aligned magic mod, with bits that dabble into most of the other colors. Mutating plants and animals is, as mentioned, solidly blue-green; demons and curses are pretty solidly black; the whole coven mechanic seems at least a bit white to me...

- Other random magic mods listed on Curse that might possibly have a decent amount of content and fit Red or White flavor:

• Recall Stones
• Reliquary
• Aura Cascade
• EvilCraft
• AbyssalCraft
• EssentialCraft 3
• Talismans 2
• AcademyCraft
• AetherCraft
• ChaosCraft 2
• Gadomancy
• Ascension

I have no idea what these are; I just picked some random mods from the first seven or so pages of this list.

 

[ookagaricrypt]

A couple things I'd like to throw out there, even though they don't really help:

- Black does self-sacrifice as well as others-sacrifice. However, unlike White's self-sacrifice, Black will only sacrifice bits and pieces of itself (an arm and a leg, say, or some blood) in order to gain an advantage later on. Blood magic does this pretty well, too.

- Botania is actually a tech mod with a nature theme. If you were to assign multiple colors to mods, you could make a strong case for Botania being green-blue. And at least some parts of the mod match the Simic flavor pretty well, too, namely mutating and combining living things (in this case, flowers) to create more useful living things.

- Witchery is another solidly green-aligned magic mod, with bits that dabble into most of the other colors. Mutating plants and animals is, as mentioned, solidly blue-green; demons and curses are pretty solidly black; the whole coven mechanic seems at least a bit white to me...

- Other random magic mods listed on Curse that might possibly have a decent amount of content and fit Red or White flavor:

• 
  
  
  • Recall Stones
  • Reliquary
  • Aura Cascade
  • EvilCraft
  • AbyssalCraft
  • EssentialCraft 3
  • Talismans 2
  • AcademyCraft
  • AetherCraft
  • ChaosCraft 2
  • Gadomancy
  • Ascension

I have no idea what these are; I just picked some random mods from the first seven or so pages of this list.

It actually does help. I forgot that bit about Black Mages. It points out that many mods don't follow just a single color, and reminds me that Botania is indeed a tech mod. I can't believe I forgot witchery. Many of the mods you listed are things I have seen. The thing is that many of them seem to be WIP or abandoned, or don't fit the kind of mods I'm trying to use. Aura Cascade seems to work for white, despite the fact that, like Botania, it's a tech mod. I looked on the Curse Launcher which mirrors the list you linked. Many of them were small, incomplete compared to the major mods, or didn't add a decent balance of content. Thanks for the help you guys. I'll post again when I'm stuck.


So here's the list:

White: Aura Cascade (Chromaticraft?)
Black: Blood Magic
Green: Witchery
Blue: Thaumcraft (as well as any add-ons that don't bridge other mods)
Red: ProjectE

All of these mods have a relatively low barrier of entry, with a decent amount of progression to a decent late game powerspike. Of all of them, I'm iffy about ProjectE, but it fits Red's philosophy to a T.

However looking through the mods that Someone Else 37 lists a bit more shows me that at the very least AbyssalCraft can (potentially) be one of the dimensional mods that act as one of the "planes".

For those so far I have
Twilight Forest
Runic Dungeons
Erebus
AbyssalCraft(?)
Mystcraft(?)
Aether

Those are the ones I found that didn't feel incomplete or had a cool idea. I would need to test AbyssalCraft to see if it isn't buggy and if it has decent content, and I question Mystcraft because that certainly allows different "Planes" but they don't entirely fit a theme.

 

[ookagaricrypt]

So what do you guys thing of Chromaticraft as a sort of colorless mod, or something that is the culmination of all the colors?

 

[erindalc]

Actually, for the little I've played with essential craft, it seemed kinda like a red color mod. I've not done too much with it though, and it does have crystals of the four primal elements.

As for white I would definitely suggest chromicraft for that. It definitely fits that order and honor criteria. Although I suppose it would fit well as a colorless mod as well.

Feel free to pm me if you want some specific help in design choices, I've played MTG for more than ten years and modded mc for almost as long as forge has existed.

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[ookagaricrypt]

Actually, for the little I've played with essential craft, it seemed kinda like a red color mod. I've not done too much with it though, and it does have crystals of the four primal elements.

As for white I would definitely suggest chromicraft for that. It definitely fits that order and honor criteria. Although I suppose it would fit well as a colorless mod as well.

Feel free to pm me if you want some specific help in design choices, I've played MTG for more than ten years and modded mc for almost as long as forge has existed.

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The thing is Project E kinda fits too, what with it having absurd raw power, and being capable of basically breaking the laws of Minecraft...which kinda causes chaos when you think about it. I had considered Essentialcraft, but I wanted to stick as close to mainstream as I can. Aura Cascade is decently well known, and despite the fact that it's tech mod, it still has a magicky feel to it. And believe me, I used to be an avid, albeit unskilled, player of MTG, so I know a decent amount. Mostly commander, the filthy casual that I am. However, if you know anything about lore and I need help, I'll be sure to ask, so thanks for the offer. That aside, Chromaticraft looks incredible. I was gonna add it as a sort of "colorless" mod as it uses multiple kinds of color (as in magic where colorless means you can use any color of mana). However, it caused ridiculous lag on my toaster so I had to remove it. Sadly I lack the funds to pay for a better graphics card, which is pretty much what I need (even a cheap GPU is better than the travesty that is on board graphics).

 

[erindalc]

The thing is Project E kinda fits too, what with it having absurd raw power, and being capable of basically breaking the laws of Minecraft...which kinda causes chaos when you think about it. I had considered Essentialcraft, but I wanted to stick as close to mainstream as I can. Aura Cascade is decently well known, and despite the fact that it's tech mod, it still has a magicky feel to it. And believe me, I used to be an avid, albeit unskilled, player of MTG, so I know a decent amount. Mostly commander, the filthy casual that I am. However, if you know anything about lore and I need help, I'll be sure to ask, so thanks for the offer. That aside, Chromaticraft looks incredible. I was gonna add it as a sort of "colorless" mod as it uses multiple kinds of color (as in magic where colorless means you can use any color of mana). However, it caused ridiculous lag on my toaster so I had to remove it. Sadly I lack the funds to pay for a better graphics card, which is pretty much what I need (even a cheap GPU is better than the travesty that is on board graphics).

Chromicraft is definitely resource intensive. I was unable to run it without any performance issues myself unfortunately.

ProjectE is a totally valid option for red color, perhaps a few retextures just to make it look a little different/red oriented.



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[Someone Else 37]

It actually does help. I forgot that bit about Black Mages. It points out that many mods don't follow just a single color, and reminds me that Botania is indeed a tech mod. I can't believe I forgot witchery. Many of the mods you listed are things I have seen. The thing is that many of them seem to be WIP or abandoned, or don't fit the kind of mods I'm trying to use. Aura Cascade seems to work for white, despite the fact that, like Botania, it's a tech mod. I looked on the Curse Launcher which mirrors the list you linked. Many of them were small, incomplete compared to the major mods, or didn't add a decent balance of content. Thanks for the help you guys. I'll post again when I'm stuck.


So here's the list:

White: Aura Cascade (Chromaticraft?)
Black: Blood Magic
Green: Witchery
Blue: Thaumcraft (as well as any add-ons that don't bridge other mods)
Red: ProjectE

All of these mods have a relatively low barrier of entry, with a decent amount of progression to a decent late game powerspike. Of all of them, I'm iffy about ProjectE, but it fits Red's philosophy to a T.

However looking through the mods that Someone Else 37 lists a bit more shows me that at the very least AbyssalCraft can (potentially) be one of the dimensional mods that act as one of the "planes".

For those so far I have
Twilight Forest
Runic Dungeons
Erebus
AbyssalCraft(?)
Mystcraft(?)
Aether

Those are the ones I found that didn't feel incomplete or had a cool idea. I would need to test AbyssalCraft to see if it isn't buggy and if it has decent content, and I question Mystcraft because that certainly allows different "Planes" but they don't entirely fit a theme.

Worth throwing out there that ChromatiCraft also has its own dimension.
Also, I remember seeing some "Cave World" mod around somewhere. There's also a couple of mining dimension mods out there as well.
Atum adds a dimension that's a big desert. Not sure how recently it's been updated, though.

Also, if you find yourself in need of planes that don't already exist in any mod you're aware of, you might be able to create them using Mystcraft or RFTools. Both allow you to create custom dimensions in-game; you could create some to your liking and distribute a map with those custom planes. And then just Minetweak away the recipes for Mystcraft's table and/or RFTools' dimension builder.

Mystcraft could potentially serve as an endgame mod allowing players to create artificial planes of their own design (think Serra creating Serra's Realm, Karn creating Argentum, etc.), open only to those who have mastered at least one (if not all) of the other major magic mods. You could easily minetweak the inscribing table, bookbinder, inkwell, ink vial, and notebook into requiring end-tier items from other mods, such as the Thaumcraft primordial pearl, one of the fancy glyph stones for the Blood Magic omega ritual, etc.

As for representing planeswalking (which I assume you'll want to do), the first thing that comes to mind is Warp Book. A little anticlimactic, but it works.

 

[erindalc]

Worth throwing out there that ChromatiCraft also has its own dimension.
Also, I remember seeing some "Cave World" mod around somewhere. There's also a couple of mining dimension mods out there as well.
Atum adds a dimension that's a big desert. Not sure how recently it's been updated, though.

Also, if you find yourself in need of planes that don't already exist in any mod you're aware of, you might be able to create them using Mystcraft or RFTools. Both allow you to create custom dimensions in-game; you could create some to your liking and distribute a map with those custom planes. And then just Minetweak away the recipes for Mystcraft's table and/or RFTools' dimension builder.

Mystcraft could potentially serve as an endgame mod allowing players to create artificial planes of their own design (think Serra creating Serra's Realm, Karn creating Argentum, etc.), open only to those who have mastered at least one (if not all) of the other major magic mods. You could easily minetweak the inscribing table, bookbinder, inkwell, ink vial, and notebook into requiring end-tier items from other mods, such as the Thaumcraft primordial pearl, one of the fancy glyph stones for the Blood Magic omega ritual, etc.

As for representing planeswalking (which I assume you'll want to do), the first thing that comes to mind is Warp Book. A little anticlimactic, but it works.

Mystcraft with pre created worlds would actually be pretty cool. Ancient warfare might be a good fit to have inhabitants, and a little bit of technology.

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[ookagaricrypt]

Mystcraft could potentially serve as an endgame mod allowing players to create artificial planes of their own design (think Serra creating Serra's Realm, Karn creating Argentum, etc.), open only to those who have mastered at least one (if not all) of the other major magic mods. You could easily minetweak the inscribing table, bookbinder, inkwell, ink vial, and notebook into requiring end-tier items from other mods, such as the Thaumcraft primordial pearl, one of the fancy glyph stones for the Blood Magic omega ritual, etc.

I actually added it as a sort of test. Unlike other packs, it caused insane lag, enough that I had to remove it. But yea, if I can figure out (or a tech savvy person can tell me) how to remove that lag, then yea, I had already considered that.

Ancient warfare might be a good fit to have inhabitants, and a little bit of technology.

Ancient Warfare is an option as the pack would need insane amounts of ore for ProjectE. If I include it I would not add a section in the quest book.

As for representing planeswalking (which I assume you'll want to do), the first thing that comes to mind is Warp Book. A little anticlimactic, but it works.

Hmm yea, I do want to look for a way that would allow a person to get to a dimension without using the portals in the various mods, but rather use the Quest Book as a means to obtain a custom item that acts as a sort of channel for the planeswalker spark. I would need Quadrum for this. Completing Quests would give a certain amount of mana in your "mana pool" (the reputation system) and if you got enough you could unlock the dimension artifact to aid in your planeswalking. Doing so I could gate each dimension behind completing a certain amount of quests, and not actually give a reward for completing it other than that. I want the only reliance on the quest book be to help progression, give storyline (along with Lore Expansion), and help unlock the quests. I don't want to give resources, as unlike many packs this isn't meant to be hardcore.


One major thing though, how do I go about using the reputation meter in HQM? When I do figure it out I'm probably going to facepalm from how easy it is, but at this point I'm stumped.

 

[erindalc]

That insane lag is it (parsing?). It basically looks at ore gen and things so it can create ages. It should only do it once.

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[ookagaricrypt]

That insane lag is it (parsing?). It basically looks at ore gen and things so it can create ages. It should only do it once.

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Oh yea, Mystcraft does that "profiling" at the start of a world, I forgot. But yea, I would probably use Mystcraft as a way to allow for the creation of "Planes".