Resurrection, Mystcraft, and the Pursuit of Happiness

[Inaeo]

Google has failed me. That said, its likely operator error. I have been stricken with diarrhea of the thumbs today, so if you don't want to read, opt out now. Disclaimer over.

I've been playing Resurrection on a small server with some friends for a while now. We started out working together as this was the first pack any of us had tried with GregTech (what with all the butthurt on these forms, we went in with a certain degree of trepidation). As we got used to the flow and our infrastructure started to grow, we split off into our own areas and began to specialize in mods we hadn't played with before. I opted Thaumcraft (I've tried to get into it twice before with little success).

Then I hit a problem. I settled in the top of an extreme hills biome surrounded by magical forest - the perfect place for my needs. Since then, my forest has been clear cut and strip mined by a neighbor (he claims it sat on the biggest copper vein he'd ever seen - heh). With my OCD unable to look out my window at the scarred earth, I have turned to Mystcraft to make my new home.

I've played with Mystcraft before in my Monster days, and I have a fair understanding of the grammar and controlling instability. Nobody else was remotely interested in Age writing, so I requested any and all pages we had found, and my mates obliged. Pages filled my Ender Chest, which I promptly moved to a filing cabinet.

Then I saw a number of pages that made me stop and wonder what I had gotten into: enderium block, liquid death block, essence block, and amplified normal world. I know that enderium is a TE thing, and I chuckled about being able to farm it so easily. Liquid Death is from TC, and it prompted me to research it - interesting, will come back to that later. The last two, I don't know.

Is essence block referring to mob essence? If so, that would mean oceans of liquid experience and infinite power and mob drops. I can't think of another possible answer, but I'm away from my computer and can't really check at the moment.

And then the real question (I knew we'd get here eventually): what does Amplified Normal World do? Obviously it is a Mystcraft Terrain page, but what exactly are we amplifying? Is this new for 1.7, or have I just never seen it before? Does doing this have any other effects (instability, buffs to mobs, increased spawning rates, etc.). I've done a bit of looking, but even the Mystcraft wiki doesn't have the page listed, and any reddit mentions I've found are simply in passing.

 

[ljfa]

Is essence block referring to mob essence? If so, that would mean oceans of liquid experience and infinite power and mob drops.

Yes I think ingame it's called just "Essence".

And then the real question (I knew we'd get here eventually): what does Amplified Normal World do? Obviously it is a Mystcraft Terrain page, but what exactly are we amplifying?

I would guess it's the same as the Amplified world type.

Since the last time I played with Mystcraft many things regarding instability have changed, so I don't really know what causes instability. I heard it's impossible to create a stable world with the same amount of ores as the overworld.

 

[Inaeo]

I am unfamiliar with the Amplified world type, I guess. Care to enlighten me?

 

[McJty]

Amplified world type is something you can select when you create a world. Try to create a new world in MC. It is one of the options (besides flat and so on) that you get. It makes the world a lot rougher and harder to navigate. And also a lot more interesting

 

[Inaeo]

That makes so much sense I had ruled it out completely. So, steeper cliffs, more overhangs, and that sort of thing. Very interesting. Thanks for that.

Another page I have is Extreme Hills + Biome. Is this the Extreme Hills biome of the overworld, or is this a way to make Extreme Hills versions of other biomes?

Also, I just remembered the Eldritch Biome page I found in my first library. I'm assuming this is TC related. Anyone have info on what features this has? Does this count as a magic biome for Pech spawning and Manager bean farming? Do mobs spawn normally, or does it get a Twilight Forest/Mushroom Island effect?

 

[DanteDarkstar]

If I remember right:

Extreme Hills+ would be I think BoP (Biomes o Plenty) biome, which is exact copy of Exteme Hills except... more extreme (I think, not sure)
Eldritch Biome is a biome TC obelisks (that contain dark nodes) make around themselves. I think it does count as magic biome, and possibly spawns wisps too.


Just remember that adding "too good to be true" biome features, like oceans of enderium or diamond block tendrils will introduce heavy instability and thus decay and all other nasty effects. I suppose oceans of enderium could make world lifespan short enough to count in minutes before it's completely eaten by various colorful decays. Only a guess though.

 

[McJty]

Yes, those worlds with those fluids are heavily unstable.

 

[Inaeo]

Extreme Hills + Biome cannot reference BoP. Resurrection does not come with BoP.

I learned about instability and decay during my first foree into Mystcraft. That said, a knowingly short lived world with decay can be a fun and profitable venture.

Moving back to the Eldritch Biome, are these created by TC Eldritch Alters? Does it work the other way (alters form in a Eldritch Biome world)? If these do count as magical, I'm tempted to make that the backbone of my new home age.

 

[ljfa]

Extreme Hills+ is vanilla. I'm not sure what the difference to regular Extreme Hills is though.

Adding Extreme Hills as biome will not automatically generate hills. You can perfectly combine Extreme Hills with a Flat world. Keep in mind that Extreme Hills spawns emerald ore

 

[Inaeo]

So, I've been busy with life for a while, but I've recently had enough time to play again. I've been progressing steadily in my Thaumcraft, but I've run into a snag. I want to make an Essentia Crystalizer. I have the research completed. I have all the materials. I have a full silverwood wand with thaumium caps in the workbench. The Crystalizer shows in the output, but when I pick it up (shift-click, right click, left click, anything), it picks up for a moment then rubber-bands back to the output slot. If I shift click and immediately exit the GUI, the Crystalizer shows in my hotbar until I either try to place it in the world or open my inventory (or another GUI), after which the Crystalizer rubber-bands back to the workbench.

I had a similar glitch when making my robes, but restarting my client fixed it. I assumed it was a lag/desync issue at the time. This time however, restarting the client doesn't work. We restarted the server - no go. I tried making other things on the workbench, and they have no problems at all. I tried a different workbench. I tried destroying and replacing the workbench. All of these have failed to help. It is only this one item I have issue with. Any insight is appreciated.

 

[keybounce]

Since the last time I played with Mystcraft many things regarding instability have changed, so I don't really know what causes instability. I heard it's impossible to create a stable world with the same amount of ores as the overworld.

It is very possible to generate stable ages with the same amount of ores as a vanilla overworld.

The problem was packs like the Direwolf pack that gave higher-than-normal ore distribution in all worlds, even mystcraft ages. This forces ages to have instability, unless you make the world with something like "skylands" (which removes most of the ground), or "dirt block" (which prevents the stone that would be turned into ore).

The upcoming 0.11.1 release will fix that -- the mod now profiles the default worldgen, and determines what kind of stuff goes into your overworld.

In general: Instability is a function of the "value" of the world. Ores have a relative value; mod liquids also have a value; an age, when generated, gets a number. In 0.11.0, this number is compared against hard-coded constants for the overworld; in 0.11.1, this number is compared against a profiling age that attempts to determine how your modpack generates a typical age.

EDIT: Other things affect a world's "value" -- such as "accelerated" that adds more block ticks (crop growth, ... ender lillies ...), or "meteors", that will eventually destroy everything (but place new ores at the surface for your enjoyment).