Mystcraft Age Writing Help

[Altaïr117]

I've been having troubles making an overworld-like Mystcraft age with huge plains, ice plains, and extreme hills biomes and no populators/ terrain alterations. This is my current setup:

Plains Biome-- Ice Plains Biome-- Extreme Hills Biome-- Huge Biome Distribution-- Standard World-- Clear Modifiers
East Direction-- Rising Phase-- Full Length-- Normal Sun-- Clear Modifiers
West Direction-- Setting Phase-- Full Length-- Normal Moon-- Clear Modifiers
Normal Stars-- Clear Modifiers
Normal Weather-- Clear Modifiers
Normal Lighting-- Clear Modifiers
Natural Sky Color-- Sky Color-- Clear Modifiers
Natural Cloud Color-- Cloud Color-- Clear Modifiers
Natural Foliage Color-- Foliage Color-- Clear Modifiers
Natural Grass Color-- Grass Color-- Clear Modifiers
Natural Water Color-- Water Color-- Clear Modifiers
Natural Fog Color-- Fog Color-- Clear Modifiers

I might have too many "Clear Modifiers" pages, but when I had nothing but one page at the end, I had the same outcome. From what I remember, they only clear unnecessary modifiers, and they don't clear ALL modifiers, right? There seems to be a problem with the sun, moon, sky color, terrain alterations, and a bunch of populators made out of blocks like glowstone, snow, and obsidian. What's wrong with my page setup? I used one of my other ages as a template, but that one modified things like the sun, moon, sky and cloud color, and had populators and terrain alterations. Thanks for any help

 

[Zarkov]

I'm fairly certain you should only have / need one clear modifiers symbol at the end.

Mystcraft may add several additional symbols to your age, on random. This can to some degree be mitigated by adding several pages of specific types. An example would be to add one Normal Stars and several Dark Stars, to avoid unwanted stars being added on random by Mystcraft. However, for several features there are no "counter symbols". Or, I should say, there wasn't the last time I used Mystcraft.

One option is to use NBT Explorer or similar tool to edit the NBT data of the age (descriptive book) you have written to only contain the symbols you actually added. If the age then is re-created, it will be exactly as written. This is of course only possible if you have access to the server files.

 

[ewsmith]

you need to specify the dominate generation blocks before the world type. overworld is stone and water

 

[rhn]

1. Remove ALL the Clear Modifiers pages. If you are unsure of your "Grammar" then you can add one at the end to discard any free modifiers (A free modifier would cause a random page to spawn in to use that modifier).
2. You have multiple Sky Color etc. pages set. "Natural Sky Color" is not a modifier for "Sky Color". So you probably end up with "Sky color" being dominant, but it has no Modifier so it just picks a colour at random.
3. You have no modifiers for your "Standard World". If you want it to be a default world you need to use "Stone Block", "Water Block", "Standard World".
3. You have several categories with no pages listed. When this happens the world generator is free to go into total random mode and pick multiple pages for you. Instead you should always pick some/as many(depends on version of Mystcraft) of each category to make sure not to get other random stuff added in the process.
4. Your Celestials modifiers was also in a different order than that suggested. That might be why it did not work.

I would think this might work better:

Plains Biome, Ice Plains Biome, Extreme Hills Biome, Huge Biome Distribution
Stone Block, Water block, Standard World
Full Length, East Direction, Rising Phase, Normal Sun
Full Length, West Direction, Setting Phase, Normal Moon
Normal Stars
Normal Weather
Normal Lighting
Natural Sky Color
Natural Cloud Color
Natural Foliage Color
Natural Grass Color
Natural Water Color
Natural Fog Color
Star Fissure
Villages
Caves
Ravines
Clear Modifiers(optional, only useful if I made a mistake)

I added some common inoffensive populators/terrain alterations. You can change them to something else if you like.
I suggest you read this excellent symbol summery/guide for how to write ages:
http://binarymage.com/wiki/doku.php?id=writing:symbols_summary

 

[Altaïr117]

I'm fairly certain you should only have / need one clear modifiers symbol at the end.

Mystcraft may add several additional symbols to your age, on random. This can to some degree be mitigated by adding several pages of specific types. An example would be to add one Normal Stars and several Dark Stars, to avoid unwanted stars being added on random by Mystcraft. However, for several features there are no "counter symbols". Or, I should say, there wasn't the last time I used Mystcraft.

One option is to use NBT Explorer or similar tool to edit the NBT data of the age (descriptive book) you have written to only contain the symbols you actually added. If the age then is re-created, it will be exactly as written. This is of course only possible if you have access to the server files.

I went into the NBT files and I couldn't change anything other than the dimension name and descriptive book's max health, am I doing it right?

you need to specify the dominate generation blocks before the world type. overworld is stone and water

1. Remove ALL the Clear Modifiers pages. If you are unsure of your "Grammar" then you can add one at the end to discard any free modifiers (A free modifier would cause a random page to spawn in to use that modifier).
2. You have multiple Sky Color etc. pages set. "Natural Sky Color" is not a modifier for "Sky Color". So you probably end up with "Sky color" being dominant, but it has no Modifier so it just picks a colour at random.
3. You have no modifiers for your "Standard World". If you want it to be a default world you need to use "Stone Block", "Water Block", "Standard World".
3. You have several categories with no pages listed. When this happens the world generator is free to go into total random mode and pick multiple pages for you. Instead you should always pick some/as many(depends on version of Mystcraft) of each category to make sure not to get other random stuff added in the process.
4. Your Celestials modifiers was also in a different order than that suggested. That might be why it did not work.

I would think this might work better:

Plains Biome, Ice Plains Biome, Extreme Hills Biome, Huge Biome Distribution
Stone Block, Water block, Standard World
Full Length, East Direction, Rising Phase, Normal Sun
Full Length, West Direction, Setting Phase, Normal Moon
Normal Stars
Normal Weather
Normal Lighting
Natural Sky Color
Natural Cloud Color
Natural Foliage Color
Natural Grass Color
Natural Water Color
Natural Fog Color
Star Fissure
Villages
Caves
Ravines
Clear Modifiers(optional, only useful if I made a mistake)

I added some common inoffensive populators/terrain alterations. You can change them to something else if you like.
I suggest you read this excellent symbol summery/guide for how to write ages:
http://binarymage.com/wiki/doku.php?id=writing:symbols_summary

I tried both of these, neither worked :/

So it's impossible to just not have any populators or terrain alterations?

 

[rhn]

I tried both of these, neither worked :/

How didn't it work?

 

[Altaïr117]

How didn't it work?

There were a bunch of terrain alterations and populators, big trees, 2 suns and 2 moons, 1 sun was rising in the east, the other rising in the west, and one moon rising in the east, the other setting in the west. Same thing that happened when I used my previous setup

 

[rhn]

There were a bunch of terrain alterations and populators, big trees, 2 suns and 2 moons, 1 sun was rising in the east, the other rising in the west, and one moon rising in the east, the other setting in the west. Same thing that happened when I used my previous setup

What modpack/mystcraft version are you using?

 

[Altaïr117]

What modpack/mystcraft version are you using?

11.0.00. I probably should've mentioned that earlier, sorry

I'm currently making an age by these guidelines: http://binarymage.com/wiki/lib/exe/...s_summary&media=writing:summary:qg_11.0_1.jpg

 

[rhn]

11.0.00. I probably should've mentioned that earlier, sorry

I'm currently making an age by these guidelines: http://binarymage.com/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=writing:symbols_summary&media=writing:summary:qg_11.0_1.jpg

That should be after the "complete randomness crappyness" period of the mod if I remember correctly. But you still get a certain amount of randomness when making ages.

The only thing you can do about it is add more pages from all the different categories. If you have problems with multiple suns and moons spawning, then add in multiple dark sun/moons to lessen the odds of getting random pages added(the more pages in a category you add, the less the chance is that more will be added randomly). Same goes with Populators and Terrain Alterations. Add as many pages(of a kind that you can tolerate) to reduce the odds of having it add a page that you cannot tolerate.
And then there is sadly only one thing left to do: Try again for better luck on your next world gen.

The thing is Mystcraft is not really a "Design world to your specific taste and desire", but more a "spawn a random mysterious world to explore" (without any real incentive to explore them IMO, as the mod contains no custom dungeons or anything).

 

[Zarkov]

I went into the NBT files and I couldn't change anything other than the dimension name and descriptive book's max health, am I doing it right?

I think the easiest is if you put everything from your character's inventory in chests, except the descriptive book. Then it should be easier to find the NBT data within your character's save file.

Make sure you create a backup copy before you edit the file.

 

[Altaïr117]

That should be after the "complete randomness crappyness" period of the mod if I remember correctly. But you still get a certain amount of randomness when making ages.

The only thing you can do about it is add more pages from all the different categories. If you have problems with multiple suns and moons spawning, then add in multiple dark sun/moons to lessen the odds of getting random pages added(the more pages in a category you add, the less the chance is that more will be added randomly). Same goes with Populators and Terrain Alterations. Add as many pages(of a kind that you can tolerate) to reduce the odds of having it add a page that you cannot tolerate.
And then there is sadly only one thing left to do: Try again for better luck on your next world gen.

The thing is Mystcraft is not really a "Design world to your specific taste and desire", but more a "spawn a random mysterious world to explore" (without any real incentive to explore them IMO, as the mod contains no custom dungeons or anything).

I'll try adding extra suns

I think the easiest is if you put everything from your character's inventory in chests, except the descriptive book. Then it should be easier to find the NBT data within your character's save file.

Make sure you create a backup copy before you edit the file.

I found the descriptive book in my inventory, but it won't let me even view the descriptive book's pages

 

[Altaïr117]

Also, does Slidurs Vibrant Shaders not work well with Mystcraft dimensions? Even when there's a moon, it's daytime in the Shaders mod. Is there any way I can just spawn an overworld with only Ice Plains, Plains, and Extreme hills biome? Is this more of an MCEdit thing?

 

[Inaeo]

If you're frustrated with the random factor Mystcraft uses, you might consider RFTools for your custom dimension needs. I've been playing with it quite a bit on our server, and I'm quite happy with how precise I can be in regards to what does and does not generate.

The downsides include being power hungry at times (everything has a cost, minimum of 10rf/t to keep it running), needing infrastructure (you have to bring a teleportation system with you to get home, be it a permanent system or portable), and having a distinctly techy vibe (rather than a Mystical/magical vibe).

Upsides include having the basic dimlets (akin to Mystcraft pages) craftable, forgiving grammar system, having a techy vibe rather than magical, and finally having a use for that 2 billion RF you have in storage.

 

[Zarkov]

I found the descriptive book in my inventory, but it won't let me even view the descriptive book's pages

Sorry, the age data is no longer kept in the descriptive book. I may have remembered this wrong or it has changed. There is instead a file called "agedata_< dimension id >.dat" in the "data" folder of the world save. This file has a node called "Symbols", where all the symbols are listed. I created a descriptive book using only a link panel, but the resulting age listed 88 symbols. You can see the symbols actually written under "Pages".

Simply delete all the symbols listed under "Symbols" that you didn't add yourself, save the file and overwrite on the server. Then delete the whole dimension folder called "DIM_MYST_< dimension id >" from the world save folder, and enter the age again. You need to have the server shut down to replace files.

Don't forget to make backups!