mystcraft... will it still be a thing?

[Psychicash]

All I can do here is to remind you that the mod is based of a game/book series with its own lore and rules. The mod does a decent job of interpreting those series into Minecraft. In this universe, the ability to write a stable age is an art perfected by a rare few. The majority of worlds are flawed somehow, and those writers who tried too hard to push the limits usually died or were trapped as their age collapsed around them.

I'm sorry if this isn't what you're looking for. Look elsewhere for that. If you're willing to cheat in the creative notebook, why not just turn off instability in the configs? Then you get all the reward and none of the risk. Just don't butch that its OP when someone on your server creates an age full of end game materials on day two and ruins the progression of all your mods.

I think I was going away from my original question was if the community thinks that they might move away from the mod because of that very reason. It isn't or wasn't designed for that purpose and that is why it does such a poor job at accomplishing those goals. I completely agree that there are far better alternatives for those ends.

My issue was even when trying to make a nice age that looked interesting with absolutely no valuable ore/diamond tendrils or anything I ended up with at beast a really interesting beautiful terrain complete with lakes and ponds and trees and mountains that were fantastic but if I stayed for longer than it took me to put down the book and teleport back to the overworld I would have died. I cheated in the notebook originally to see if I was just missing some pages that could help make the age more stable and in the end I was never able to make a stable age. In previous versions I at least was able to make an age, all be it without valuable blocks or liquids, that didn't try to kill me as soon as I spawned in. In survival the materials used and the frustration with making all the pages and the time it takes to create it... it's a little frustrating. I don't want to turn off configs... I think most people get frustrated with this. The RNG is a horrible horrible mistress in this instance.

Please don't think that I am ragging on the mod author. I think they've done a wonderful job in creating a mod that is faithful to the original game in the context of minecraft. But I think they may have turned the difficulty dial a little too far in the name of balance.

The question I posed though originally stems from all the blog posts, twitter posts, youtubers, twitch broadcasters that use mystcraft as a utility mod. They create age after age to find one of a few things.

* Linking books (awesome and can't think of another mod that does it quite so well)
* Crystals to make portals (a utility mod for portals - other mods have this as well)
* Pages to make other ages (infrastructure for mystcraft itself)
* Void age for bases (a mod with void age - extra utilities now has this)
* mining age (a free area to mine that doesn't tear up the landscape, this includes ages to test things destructive to the landscape... alternatives include aroma, MFR, deep dark)


That is about the only reasons I've seen them use the mod. I think it's sad but it's what I've observed. I was curious now that extra utilities has it's void age thingamabob if the community would stop using mystcraft for that reason. Certainly I meant nothing in regards to the mod author and their intentions. I am curious what the mod author thinks about the subject. I will say though that the RNG combined with the language used in writing ages is extremely difficult to master much less make functional even just for exploring.

 

[jordsta95]

With Mystcraft's LOVELY profiling, I cannot play a pack that has it any more, as it is ridiculous now...

Would I say it's got a place? Yes... but I would say the place is better filled with the more balanced RF Tools.

However, all the mining worlds are a little bland, as they take no thought/no costs other than the portal cost, hence why I said RFtools, you need to find the dimlets, which is annoying, but then you need to power the world, and make sure that you can sustain power, etc.

 

[Zarkov]

Mystcraft sort of seized to be a thing for me when the mod progression essentially was reversed. By that I mean that it used to be difficult / unstable as you started out, but when you had found the needed symbols, you could use them once to get the exact age you were looking for. Now it's the other way around. A completely random world without any symbols is likely to be stable, but getting the exact world you want is a very fatiguing and not so entertaining battle with Mr. RNG. And I'm not talking about stable ages with tons of ore or oceans of oil, just basic worlds.

I understand that there is a lore behind the design decisions, but that's not really a selling point for me personally.

 

[Yusunoha]

I used to like Mystcraft, mostly because it was one of the first of it's kind, but nowadays... I have alot of problems when using mystcraft, it's gotten annoying to use, and there's alot of alternatives that I can use.

I could come to like Mystcraft again, but it'd seriously need alot of work before that'll happen, and I doubt that'll happen.
but I don't blame xcomp, he's done a good job the past years but personal life always comes first

 

[Lethosos]

Just throwing in an another Mining dimension--one exists with EnviroMine called the Deep, and isn't hard to access if it is turned on.

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Type1Ninja]

I think this whole thing can be summed up with two quick statements:
Myscraft is an awesome mod made by an awesome guy that does awesome things. 99.99% of all people use it for freakin' mining ages/void ages, and we all hope that they switch to Aroma/Deep Dark soon so that the people who genuinely enjoy Mystcraft can use it in an awesome way.

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

Unfortunately Mystcraft was used primarily for mass resource worlds, rather than the intended(I assume) way to make interesting worlds just for fun/aesthetics.

So the instability mechanic was beefed to stop the OP'ness of it and like most nerfs it went way to far and made Mystcraft essentially useless.

To fix he must remove dense ores and the liquid pages(except the vanilla liquids) and dial down the instability massively. Cool worlds but no OP'ness.

The RNG can be brute forced quite easily so a better mechanic should be found, possibly something similar to the TiCo pattern system so you put blank pages in something and "write" the world pages. Certain pages only available as RNG, such as eternal day and lava

Unfortunately this will result in a lot less people using it but it will be a better mod.

 

[Type1Ninja]

Unfortunately this will result in a lot less people using it but it will be a better mod.

I think that perhaps that'd be a good thing. I mean, fewer people would use the mod overall, but many more would use it for it's intended purpose.

 

[jordsta95]

Unfortunately Mystcraft was used primarily for mass resource worlds, rather than the intended(I assume) way to make interesting worlds just for fun/aesthetics.

So the instability mechanic was beefed to stop the OP'ness of it and like most nerfs it went way to far and made Mystcraft essentially useless.

To fix he must remove dense ores and the liquid pages(except the vanilla liquids) and dial down the instability massively. Cool worlds but no OP'ness.

The RNG can be brute forced quite easily so a better mechanic should be found, possibly something similar to the TiCo pattern system so you put blank pages in something and "write" the world pages. Certain pages only available as RNG, such as eternal day and lava

Unfortunately this will result in a lot less people using it but it will be a better mod.

It is currently quite overused, for what it is and what it takes to distribute it publicly, so it would be nice to see changes like this

That, and less stupid profiling....

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

I think that perhaps that'd be a good thing. I mean, fewer people would use the mod overall, but many more would use it for it's intended purpose.

Is up to xCompWiz if he wants a lot of people using it or to maintain his vision of the mod(whatever that way be, I've no idea what he supposed mystcraft would be used for)

It is currently quite overused, for what it is and what it takes to distribute it publicly, so it would be nice to see changes like this

That, and less stupid profiling....

Less instability would remove the need for profiling.

 

[jordsta95]

Less instability would remove the need for profiling.

Ahh ok. I honestly don't know what profiling is, as I don't use Myst...

All I know is, it initiates on game load, and takes too long, causing lots of lag

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

Ahh ok. I honestly don't know what profiling is, as I don't use Myst...

All I know is, it initiates on game load, and takes too long, causing lots of lag

Basically the profiling was introduced because the instability is based on vanilla oregen(only reliable way of doing it AFAIK) so it picked up that there were loads more ores than vanilla(as so many mods add stuff) and goes oh crap he's made an OP world add in ALL THE INSTABILITY.

The profiling scans what is in your overworld/dimensional worlds and adjusts when the mechanic kicks in. Great for reducing the instability in your new worlds but I don't think it's coded too well and just obliterates your server till it's done. Once done though it contributes nothing to server lag.

 

[jordsta95]

Basically the profiling was introduced because the instability is based on vanilla oregen(only reliable way of doing it AFAIK) so it picked up that there were loads more ores than vanilla(as so many mods add stuff) and goes oh crap he's made an OP world add in ALL THE INSTABILITY.

The profiling scans what is in your overworld/dimensional worlds and adjusts when the mechanic kicks in. Great for reducing the instability in your new worlds but I don't think it's coded too well and just obliterates your server till it's done. Once done though it contributes nothing to server lag.

Thanks, clears that up.
Unfortunately though, when you log in to a singleplayer world, there is no way to avoid it :/

 

[Type1Ninja]

Is up to xCompWiz if he wants a lot of people using it or to maintain his vision of the mod(whatever that way be, I've no idea what he supposed mystcraft would be used for)

I think that he meant it as an exploration tool, for seeing beautiful, fantastical worlds, and for finding dungeons to raid. I also think he meant it as something to mine in, but not with quarries - I think he meant it for manual miners. Same with liquids - if all you could use were buckets, it wouldn't be that OP.
Of course, I could be totally wrong. XD

 

[Zelfana]

I think think the question is should you be able to have things in Mystcraft that aren't present in regular world gen like all the liquids or blocks that are only created with machines/by the player. I think not. How do you expect liquid metals to stay as liquids just out in the open? You need some extreme heat to do that and then you basically have a world you simply can't survive in without spaceship tier heat protection.

And dense ores is just plain stupid gimmick that everyone and their mother wanted from Mystcraft and nothing else. There are better alternatives now, thankfully.

 

[Psychicash]

The liquid would be ok if he could disable harvesting it in the world but I agree and look forward to seeing the direction the mod goes.

 

[jordsta95]

The liquid would be ok I'd he could disable harvesting it in the world but I agree and look forward to seeing the direction the mod goes.

But harvesting all that life essence makes blood magic more bearable early game

 

[Psychicash]

But harvesting all that life essence makes blood magic more bearable early game

Oh it's not that bad is it?

 

[jordsta95]

Oh it's not that bad is it?

I hate the early game grind of blood magic
Until you have a well of suffering, it's just a pain in the behind... but life essence lakes/oceans, make stuff easier (though, I would much rather use it in RFtools)

 

[Talonar]

With the advent of extra utilities last millennium and other mods that handle portals, and aroma's mining world, do you think mystcraft will see less usage?

EDIT: FYI I do love myst and mystcraft

I haven't used Mystcraft after the author tinkered with it to the point where if ONE thing is out of place your world is messed up with some bad effect... All I want sometimes Is a simple void age, and I made several and almost all of them had poison, or whatever. I don't think it's just me, however because looking at this thread... Mystcraft is a good idea, a good mod, but it became too complicated. I shouldn't have to look at a spreadsheet to make a void age JUST for my base to avoid griefing, or just for privacy. I'd understand heavily if I was editing rivers to run with molten gold/diamond or whatever... but it's a empty age :/

ALL of my friends dropped mystcraft, and use the deep-dark for quarry mining, and now we agree to split the cardinal directions between us in the last millennium instead. Mystcraft has just become... unfun.