Starting in Mystcraft.

[marsh2907]

So I am wanting to get started in mystcraft. I know the basics like how to make book of different ages and all that. My main issue is that i'm wanting to use mystcraft ages for my collecting resources and materials but not sure what the best kind of age would be. Any ideas?

Last thing I want to do is create an age which is unknowingly unstable and end up with possibility in me dieing or losing all my stuff. Also how would I go by getting my materials I mine from an age back to the overworld because i'm sure there is different ways.

 

[Spasticon]

Some tips:

1. Symbol discovery is still annoying. Ideally you want a dense ores symbols but I have gone through 100 books and not gotten one. Play around with a few worlds but ultimately go into creative mode and give yourself the notebook. That's what the mod developer recommends until he can code better symbol discovery.
   
2. Put a few linking books into an ender chest. That way worst case you can creative mode yourself another ender chest and get back.
   
3. Instability or poison shouldn't outright kill you. It might make you really uncomfortable (vertigo sucks)... but you should live for a bit.
   
   
4. Take some dirt or cobble and make a roof ASAP wherever you go. Most "poison" effects can be countered by standing under a roof. If the effects continue to be terrible, or you start noticing something terrible like meteors... just bail on the world. Throw the book into lava.
   
   
5. Use REI minimap (hit X for the big map) and watch the terrain once you're safe from effects. World instability won't just start right under your feet. It'll grow. It's also more common to get blue/red instability which just replace world blocks with blue/red blocks and won't kill you than the other types. So watch the minimap and see if blue,red,white or black spots start growing about 16-24 blocks away from you and continue growing. If so... then you've got instability. Just use your linking book and bail on the world. Throw the book into lava .

 

[marsh2907]

right thanks ill give it ago and hopefully goes well

 

[bigtwisty]

Your linking book in an Ender Chest idea is ingenious in its simplicity. My hat is off to you sir.

If you have the diamonds for it (72) make yourself a Link Modifier, and you will always have your linking book home in your inventory, as you can modify it to not drop when you use it.

Since the update to using leather for book making it is a bit of a PITA. My advice is to jump into the Twilight forest, stab Edward Cullin in the face, and hit up a Lich Castle for massive stacks of books.

 

[Wabbit]

Okay here we go. Take notes.
1. Make a paper factory. This is done with the RP2 and BC3 mods. Have block breakers set to break the second block of a sugarcane plant. Do this with several plants. The more the merrier. Pipe them into a chest with the RP2 tubes which will act as your buffer. No need to get fancy with Iron Chest or +. Pipe them from that chest into an automatic crafting table and set it to make paper. Pipe that into a second chest to buffer once more, or alternatively, pipe it into your first buffer and have a filter set to pump out only paper. Either way, pump out the paper using a transposer and red power tubes into your storage chest. I'd suggest Iron or Higher in case you leave your world on a server and you have a chunk loader.
2. Breed Cows. I'm not sure if there's a machine/mod that already does this, but breed cows and harvest their leather. To my knowledge you only need 1 per book, so using a looting enchanted weapon would be best for higher output.

Congratulations, you now have the necessities to make linking books.

3. Breed Chickens. Get those feathers!

Congratulations, you can now make descriptive books.

These two book kinds will be your best friends for traversing through Mystcraft Ages.

Crafting:
Linking Book = Single Book in the crafting grid
Descriptive Book = Single Book with Feather in the crafting grid.
Dafuq did I just make?:
Linking Book = A linking book basically takes down your co-ordinates you are standing on upon making the book. You can also use this to teleport to that particular spot from another dimension. Interdimensional Teleportation does not work. These will be used to get home from teleporting to ages!
Descriptive Books = These create a dimension similarly to how a nether portal generates the nether upon entering it. The difference is an Age (the created dimension) is similar to the overworld (Where you spawned into when first spawning) in that it uses the same type of world generation, only biomes/generation patterns/weather/etc are dictated randomly by the contents of the descriptive book you use to teleport. (NOTE: You won't know what you get until you teleport into the age)

Time for some big letters.​

DO NOT -- I repeat -- DO NOT! Leave the overworld without linking books to take you back. You will be STUCK in your age.​

So, you've discovered how to teleport back and forth through worlds... But how is this useful?
Good Question -- Did you know you can make your own worlds?

1. Got Ink? -- Kill those squids! You only need 1 ink for this!
2. Got Wood?
3. Get Feathers.

Now here's the recipe. In a crafting table, put an ink sac on the top left and a feather on the top right.
Now fill the middle row horizonally with wood.
Now put another piece of wood on the bottom right and the bottom left.

Oh look! You made a crafting table! Place it. It's just like a block that takes up two spaces.

4. Grab pieces of paper and fill your crafting table grid with them. Think of it as making an iron block with paper.

Now you have a notebook! This is used to document your findings throughout your trans-dimensional adventure!
Open up your Writing Desk's GUI by right clicking the desk. There will be a slot on the left for your notebook, once it's in you're ready to leeeeearn!

Now, I hope you've been saving those descriptive books you've been teleporting with! Place each one you've used into the second slot. Notice a bunch of funny symbols on the left? Those represent the different characteristics of your generated dimension. And guess what? If you're using the MoreBiomesXL mod, there's a character for them too!

So you've learned all those cool, funky symbols... What now?
Simple!

Put a blank descriptive book into the slot where you would normally put a used one. (A blank one is a book you haven't teleported with yet)

Now you can pick and mix by clicking on the symbols on the left to create your ideal dimension! Isn't that lovely?! HM?!

Okay, I've made my dimension and it's awesome... I still don't see how this helps me!
Well, this is where the other mods come in handy...

Through your transdimensional exploration, you may have noticed that a new type of block is generated... They're called Crystals and it would be VERY handle to pick them up because you can use them to make Portals.

Here's how...

1. Put into your mind for a moment the Nether Portal. It's rectangular and has a hollow middle where you step in. Now make one with the crystals.
2. Do the same thing again nearby where you want your first portal to go. This will be your way back, however this isn't totally necessary.
3. Make a book receptical. This is done by outlining in a crafting table grid a box with crystals. Think of it as if you were making a chest with wood planks. Make two if you plan to have a second portal.
4. Make Linking Books that will anchor to where you'd like your portal to take you. Again, make two with one taking you back if you have a second portal.
5. Place the book receptical upon one of the crystal blocks that outline your portal. Here's an example: [x] Again, do this with both portals if you have two.
6. Now place the linking book which is anchored to where you want to go into the receptical.

You should now notice the hollow center of your portal is glowing! Climbing into it will take you to the Linking Book's anchor. If you do this with both portals, you can use the second to take you back!

Wow! Awesome! But how does this effect the other mods and how can I harvest this plentiful dimension?
Well that's up to your imagination. There are several ways to do it, but here's some interesting things to remember.

• Entities, such as mobs/carts/drops/players and projectiles can pass through portals. You could potentially use a chest or tank cart to take things from one portal to the next.
• Having a Linking Book anchor on a space taken by a rail or any other block/item that you can walk through will place you on that space without being put on top of it. You could have tanks teleport directly onto rails and loaders/unloaders.
• You can have portals take you to and from the Overworld/Nether/End/Twilight Forest/Ages with no problems. I used a tank cart to draw lava from the nether to use for power.

• World Anchors, Chunk Loaders and similar work in all dimensions. You can leave quarries/pumps/etc to work over time without having to be there in person.

This seems too good to be true, but are there any downsides?
Very few.

The biggest thing you have to worry about is decay. This is the sign of an unstable world and can potentially make your life hell. Read more in the wiki page provided.

Enjoy the world of Mystcraft!​

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[bigtwisty]

So... make a massive book making factory, or visit a Lich Castle and come back with 5+ stacks of books. Your choice...

 

[Wabbit]

So... make a massive book making factory, or visit a Lich Castle and come back with 5+ stacks of books. Your choice...

Well sure. I mean we've only been kicking Eloraam's ass for the new RP2 update for how many weeks now?
Why not ignore her efforts and go with the cheap option!

 

[bigtwisty]

Well now that you put it THAT way... RP2 the CRAP outta that!

 

[EternalDensity]

I've found that writing an age with: singlebiome, meadows, flatland, eternal day, no weather, and villages is good for resource gathering. Cows and chickens are in abundance so you can get the resources you need for more books without machines (though you'll want to do that eventually) and you can pretty easily find villages and thaumcraft dungeons to raid for all kinds of loot.

If there's some particular world-gen resource you want a lot of, you can easily write an age to give you a world of just that biome. Though this doesn't always work as expected: I went for swamp and got nothing but water

 

[pndragon65]

I've found that writing an age with: singlebiome, meadows, flatland, eternal day, no weather, and villages is good for resource gathering. Cows and chickens are in abundance so you can get the resources you need for more books without machines (though you'll want to do that eventually) and you can pretty easily find villages and thaumcraft dungeons to raid for all kinds of loot.

Don't forget to add caves or mineshafts to give mobs a place to spawn. Otherwise the smallest of places with only a hint of a shadow will fill up with nogoodniks...

 

[EternalDensity]

Don't forget to add caves or mineshafts to give mobs a place to spawn. Otherwise the smallest of places with only a hint of a shadow will fill up with nogoodniks...

Yeah, I was specifying a minimum, leaving caves, mineshafts, ravines, dungeons, or tendrils up to personal taste. Though TC's dungeons will generate regardless, and they like to fill up with mobs, to the point that I usually take the roof off them before entering.

 

[57782]

I may just be overly cautious, but I wouldn't take anything I'd miss when first entering an age. I've run into the occasional crash on world gen when hopping into a Mystcraft age, it's fixable but you're inventory is hosed unless you use another program to move yourself out of the age.

Edit: This is assuming you are in playing single player.

 

[pndragon65]

The first time I ran into a Thaumcraft dungeon I didn't know what it was. I thought was just an ordinary dungeon--a little different looking maybe but ordinary all the same. I took the roof off of that hill of dirt expecting the mobs to burn up and I got fried myself by the wisp.

 

[marsh2907]

Thanks for all the help. I'll be giving it ago next time.

 

[Antivyris]

The first time I ran into a Thaumcraft dungeon I didn't know what it was. I thought was just an ordinary dungeon--a little different looking maybe but ordinary all the same. I took the roof off of that hill of dirt expecting the mobs to burn up and I got fried myself by the wisp.

Just wait till you find one of those barrow mounds and actually have goggles on.

 

[Supremeone]

so im doing something wrong with this i cant seem to be able to make a stable world , there always symbols being added , even tough i added them in the first place , like il add white fog , il go there and it would random add black fog and make it unstable

a example of my worlds : single biome , plains , normal fog , normal sjy , white clouds , red sun down , standard terrain , eternal day , no weather , bright
these i add to try and make a stable world as the wiki said the world have to make sense if anyof thous would be missing would be strange no ?

than i add the exstras like glowstone , cirstals , villages , strongholds

is it becous thous 4 are to manny or that cristals and glowstone cant existe together ?

 

[SilvasRuin]

Single Biome
Standard Terrain

There's your problem. Standard terrain means "do as the overworld does." Combining that with any other biome control causes instability.

 

[Belone]

so im doing something wrong with this i cant seem to be able to make a stable world , there always symbols being added , even tough i added them in the first place , like il add white fog , il go there and it would random add black fog and make it unstable

a example of my worlds : single biome , plains , normal fog , normal sjy , white clouds , red sun down , standard terrain , eternal day , no weather , bright
these i add to try and make a stable world as the wiki said the world have to make sense if anyof thous would be missing would be strange no ?

than i add the exstras like glowstone , cirstals , villages , strongholds

is it becous thous 4 are to manny or that cristals and glowstone cant existe together ?

I'm fairly sure you will sometimes still get the odd random symbol in a stable age that you create. Is the age definitely unstable ie. are you getting decay/potion effects etc?[DOUBLEPOST=1357231494][/DOUBLEPOST]

There's your problem. Standard terrain means "do as the overworld does." Combining that with any other biome control causes instability.

Not quite, Standard Terrain just means it's not a flat world or cave world. The "do as the overworld does" symbol is the native biome controller symbol.

 

[Supremeone]

yeah getting the debuffs

maby its the cristals?

 

[SilvasRuin]

Not quite, Standard Terrain just means it's not a flat world or cave world. The "do as the overworld does" symbol is the native biome controller symbol.

Oh, whoops, did I get those mixed up? That's what I get for relying on memory.