I only had time to make the sample age. I haven't had time to test yet. When I get home, that's on my list.[DOUBLEPOST=1362947954][/DOUBLEPOST]No, I always add my zero length suns to every age I make. The moon never appears.
Mystcraft Book Writing Guide 1.4.7 ONLY
- Thread starter whizzball1
- Start date
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it doesn't matter if the moon never appears, you still need it.
Jesus I'm no expert on mystcraft (hell not even close) but if you don't know about the simple things that even I know about, what the hell are you writing a guide for?
Yes I asked for someone to write a guide but I was hoping it would be written by someone who knew what the hell he was talking about!
Yeah. Mystcraft looks complicated, and is fairly complicated, but it is fairly intuitive once you know what it is doing and why.
Things you must have, in any order:
A biome controller plus the correct number of biomes to go with it. While not a modifier, strictly, these biomes must go before the biome controller. The correct number of biomes per for a controller varies. Native takes 0, Single takes 1, Tiles takes 2, everything else MUST have at least 3, more is ok, or you get instability.
Celestial Bodies:
You MUST specify Stars, Sun and Moon, one of each at a minimum. Note, these come in two flavors, Dark and Normal. Dark just means disabled. Stars also come in the Ender variety. Both Normal and Ender Stars take color modifiers.
Normal Suns and Moons can take a variety of modifiers. Color is simple, you can also specify Phase, End (midnight), Rising (6 am), Noon, Setting (6 pm). Note, you can combine phase pages. A Noon, Setting, Normal Sun will start a sun between Noon and Setting, roughly 3 pm. Length can also be specified, Double, Half, Full, and Zero Length. Zero Length means the sun or moon will be stationary. Thus, a Zero Length, Noon, Sun will be permanent daytime. Note, you can specify as many Suns and Moons, and I believe Stars, as you like without impacting stability as long as you have a minimum of one of each. Thus, Zero Length, Noon, Green, Sun, Zero Length, Rising, Blue Sun, Zero Length, Setting, Red Sun, Zero Length, Setting, End, Magenta, Moon, Normal Stars is permissible.
Lighting
Fairly straightforward, Bright, Dark, and Normal Lighting. Choose one, and one only. Takes no modifiers. Note, Bright and Dark are visual only, they do not affect mob spawning.
Terrain.
Also mostly straightforward. Cave World (not recommended due to problems with Redpower marble futzing with worldgen), End World (note, this does NOT make the world out of End materials, all Terrain defaults to Dirt and Stone), Flat, Standard Terrain, and Void. Be careful with Void, you will get a platform to stand on... and nothing else.
Terrain takes Material and Liquid modifiers. Currently, Lava is the only Liquid available (well, and Water, but that is superfluous, as it is the default), however, you can also specify No Seas, which does exactly what is says on the tin. Materials are End Stone or Netherack, Stone is the default (which includes dirt as a top layer, just like normal terrain). If you want to pump a hell of a lot of lava to power your machines, an Ocean Biome, Single Biome, Lava, Standard Terrain world well do the trick nicely.
Weather
You need one, and only one, and take no modifiers. All weather pages are fairly self explanatory. Do realize Overcast does count as a weather page.
Thus, as an example, a simple stable age used for mining could be Extreme Hills (so you have emeralds), Single Biome, Normal Stars, Normal Moon, Zero Length, Noon, Sun (why bother with monsters attacking you while you set up your quarry or whatever?), Normal Lighting, Standard Terrain, No Weather.
Note: There is a lot more you can do with Celestial Bodies. These are cosmetic, and can be left to your own experimentation. You can play with Sky Color, Sunset color, Cloud color, directions things rise and set, and so forth.
I also omitted the Features category. Not necessary, and will not add instability if left out, but also will not generate if not told. So, if you want Caves and Dungeons in your world, you'll have to include those pages. It is worth noting that those huge lava lakes near bedrock are a Feature. Leaving that page out means no lava underground, which is handy.You can also make your world into a Skylands with the appropriate page, though I think this adds a bit of instability. You can also add Crystals and Glowstone Crystals, the first being important to build Mystcraft Portals. Again, these might add a bit of instability. Also you can include Tendrils, which can take a material modifier, which include ores. Yes, you can make Diamond Ore and Gold Ore Tendrils. Do not expect such a world to be stable. At all.
A couple of other things to note. If you are missing a vital bit of an Age, like missing a Sun or Weather, but still want a (mostly) stable Age, adding a bad effect page can add stability. Stuff like Charged (lightning from a clear sky), Meteors, Scorched Surface (mine underground or burn to a cinder), Spontaneous Explosions will help stability. Can make a Dense Ores Age stable enough to mine, at least for a short period.
A VERY important page for stability, especially if you are writing a fairly complex Age is the Clear Modifiers page. If you've including an unnecessary or extra modifier, or put a modifier with something that won't accept it, this will clear it away. Highly recommended that all Ages end with this page once you find it.
Things you must have, in any order:
A biome controller plus the correct number of biomes to go with it. While not a modifier, strictly, these biomes must go before the biome controller. The correct number of biomes per for a controller varies. Native takes 0, Single takes 1, Tiles takes 2, everything else MUST have at least 3, more is ok, or you get instability.
Celestial Bodies:
You MUST specify Stars, Sun and Moon, one of each at a minimum. Note, these come in two flavors, Dark and Normal. Dark just means disabled. Stars also come in the Ender variety. Both Normal and Ender Stars take color modifiers.
Normal Suns and Moons can take a variety of modifiers. Color is simple, you can also specify Phase, End (midnight), Rising (6 am), Noon, Setting (6 pm). Note, you can combine phase pages. A Noon, Setting, Normal Sun will start a sun between Noon and Setting, roughly 3 pm. Length can also be specified, Double, Half, Full, and Zero Length. Zero Length means the sun or moon will be stationary. Thus, a Zero Length, Noon, Sun will be permanent daytime. Note, you can specify as many Suns and Moons, and I believe Stars, as you like without impacting stability as long as you have a minimum of one of each. Thus, Zero Length, Noon, Green, Sun, Zero Length, Rising, Blue Sun, Zero Length, Setting, Red Sun, Zero Length, Setting, End, Magenta, Moon, Normal Stars is permissible.
Lighting
Fairly straightforward, Bright, Dark, and Normal Lighting. Choose one, and one only. Takes no modifiers. Note, Bright and Dark are visual only, they do not affect mob spawning.
Terrain.
Also mostly straightforward. Cave World (not recommended due to problems with Redpower marble futzing with worldgen), End World (note, this does NOT make the world out of End materials, all Terrain defaults to Dirt and Stone), Flat, Standard Terrain, and Void. Be careful with Void, you will get a platform to stand on... and nothing else.
Terrain takes Material and Liquid modifiers. Currently, Lava is the only Liquid available (well, and Water, but that is superfluous, as it is the default), however, you can also specify No Seas, which does exactly what is says on the tin. Materials are End Stone or Netherack, Stone is the default (which includes dirt as a top layer, just like normal terrain). If you want to pump a hell of a lot of lava to power your machines, an Ocean Biome, Single Biome, Lava, Standard Terrain world well do the trick nicely.
Weather
You need one, and only one, and take no modifiers. All weather pages are fairly self explanatory. Do realize Overcast does count as a weather page.
Thus, as an example, a simple stable age used for mining could be Extreme Hills (so you have emeralds), Single Biome, Normal Stars, Normal Moon, Zero Length, Noon, Sun (why bother with monsters attacking you while you set up your quarry or whatever?), Normal Lighting, Standard Terrain, No Weather.
Note: There is a lot more you can do with Celestial Bodies. These are cosmetic, and can be left to your own experimentation. You can play with Sky Color, Sunset color, Cloud color, directions things rise and set, and so forth.
I also omitted the Features category. Not necessary, and will not add instability if left out, but also will not generate if not told. So, if you want Caves and Dungeons in your world, you'll have to include those pages. It is worth noting that those huge lava lakes near bedrock are a Feature. Leaving that page out means no lava underground, which is handy.You can also make your world into a Skylands with the appropriate page, though I think this adds a bit of instability. You can also add Crystals and Glowstone Crystals, the first being important to build Mystcraft Portals. Again, these might add a bit of instability. Also you can include Tendrils, which can take a material modifier, which include ores. Yes, you can make Diamond Ore and Gold Ore Tendrils. Do not expect such a world to be stable. At all.
A couple of other things to note. If you are missing a vital bit of an Age, like missing a Sun or Weather, but still want a (mostly) stable Age, adding a bad effect page can add stability. Stuff like Charged (lightning from a clear sky), Meteors, Scorched Surface (mine underground or burn to a cinder), Spontaneous Explosions will help stability. Can make a Dense Ores Age stable enough to mine, at least for a short period.
A VERY important page for stability, especially if you are writing a fairly complex Age is the Clear Modifiers page. If you've including an unnecessary or extra modifier, or put a modifier with something that won't accept it, this will clear it away. Highly recommended that all Ages end with this page once you find it.
Mystcraft Guide Version 1.1!
Fix for Celestial Bodies, you need all of them!
Replaced all Asterisks with Quotation Marks.
Added Clear Modifiers section of Page arrangements.
Next Update:
Planned:
Part 6: Bugs with Mystcraft
Another Sample Age
Eh, just a quick and dirty way to get started. There is a lot more you can do. There a LOT of pages out there. That said, outside of cosmetics, there really isn't a reason to create wildly complicated ages. In general, a simple one Biome stable age for mining so you don't punch holes in the Overworld with quarries and what not is all you really need, though if you find yourself spawned in a bad section in the Overworld that isn't really fit for bees (environment) or Thaumcraft (low aura, lack of Silverwood trees), or if you add a mod with new world gen, Mystcraft can fix that for you.you should make this a seperate thread, very decent guidethanks for writing it.
Then you can create quick and dirty "raiding" Ages, places you cannot stay, but you can get in and out with goodies. Diamond Ore Tendrils, Gold Ore Tendrils, Dense ore worlds, run in , do a bit of mining, get the hell out before the world explodes from instability.
Oh, and on multiplayer, creating a simple Void age to act as a nexus point, a shortcut between points on the overworld, is fairly common.
Honestly I dislike Mystcraft in its current setup.
But I do like the idea of a void world hub. Even in a singel player game if you are like me and build lots of things all over the place you need a hub. I use the Neither myself but a void world would be nice.
Eh, I think I read somewhere that this is a "proof of concept". I think the author has said he will be implementing some other way to get pages, some sort of research system. That, and a better and clearer way to organize your pages and I'd be happy. Perhaps, as well, an in-game summary of what a page does, what modifiers it takes or what it can modify.
One can hope. I'll stay away until it is more streamed line. I do like the idea I just not happy with how easy it is to basicly bum rush to a full set of symbols.
And yes I understand I don't have to do that. But I can also just wait for it to be more complete and then explore the wonder of the mod then.
Looks like you've got a LOT of guide-writing to do!
(yeah, but we'd all actually really appreciate it if you wrote a guide, not required by any means. Mystcraft is a bit complex in it's newest version, and many people are having problems with it. Hear about the SMP bug for FTB Ultimate? Don't even bother trying to put pages)
Eh, not going to replicate this guide. As a written guide, what we have here works fairly well. Tell you what, I'll do a video tutorial, show not tell.
Can someone explain how gradients work? I made an age... oh, how did it go exactly? I think I added pages in the following order: half length-red-half length-blue-gradient-sky color-normal sky, expecting to see the sky phase from red to blue and back. Instead, I got a purple sky. Nice, but not what I was going for.
Also, while noon-zero length-normal sun does give an eternal day world, it doesn't prevent moon symbols from doing their thing. I had one where the moon rose and set as normal, but the sun stayed put at high noon.
Also, while noon-zero length-normal sun does give an eternal day world, it doesn't prevent moon symbols from doing their thing. I had one where the moon rose and set as normal, but the sun stayed put at high noon.
Of course, you could always work with him. This is a good guide, but you seem very versed in this new form of age writing.
Katrinya, which is why I never put moons. I have to experiment more with moons. Gradients are something I never experimented also. Iskandar, could you pitch in for this one? Also, lengths are only for sun and moon.
I did an extreme Hills Flat Single Biome world ... ended up with a totally flat world with my feet resting at 180 height ... At first I thought Yay! I'll get loads more emeralds when I do my mining, (buzzer noise) denied! I think emeralds are deep, so Mr. Stupid (also known as Fuzzlewhumper) just made it harder to get to his damn emeralds. Dummie!!! Oh, and to boot, jet packs don't work so well when you're that high up. Dummie!!! Oh well, I did get what I asked for.
Oh well, I did get what I asked for. I've created quite a few ages ever since the updated version came out, but for whatever reason I haven't been able to get any of them to be completely stable. Even after watching DW20's spotlight, and reading a couple guides I found. Today I made another attempt after reading this thread; the world seems to have generated exactly as I wanted it to, but I am also getting mining fatigue.
These are the pages I used, in this exact order:
Desert Biome
Single Biome
Standard Terrain
Standard Lighting
Black
Sky Color
Noon
Zero Length
Normal Sun
Full Length
Normal Moon
Dark Stars
No Weather
Nothing fancy, just some throwaway age to use as a Wither battle field. I would also use Clear Modifiers, but I don't have that page yet. Does anybody know what's wrong with it? Could be something obvious and I just can't see it, but any help is appreciated.
These are the pages I used, in this exact order:
Desert Biome
Single Biome
Standard Terrain
Standard Lighting
Black
Sky Color
Noon
Zero Length
Normal Sun
Full Length
Normal Moon
Dark Stars
No Weather
Nothing fancy, just some throwaway age to use as a Wither battle field. I would also use Clear Modifiers, but I don't have that page yet. Does anybody know what's wrong with it? Could be something obvious and I just can't see it, but any help is appreciated.
Let me see, you have the biomes, the terrain, lighting, sky color, Celestial bodies, weather, sky colors are not necessary, fog colors are not necessary, but try putting in fog color also. If it doesn't work, I don't know. I've made many ages with this structure, all stable. Try adding fog colors next.