I had hoped Mystcraft would've changed some things, or an addon would be created for these changes, but I never really saw either of them happen.
so guess it's a good idea as any to talk about the things I was thinking of here
I always liked that you could create whole new ages with Mystcraft and being able to customize those ages.
but I never really liked how random the creation of ages can be, and how difficult it is to collect all the needed symbols to create the age you want.
I know that Mystcraft is based on the Myst series, and the way Mystcraft works is heavily inspired by it, but I never really followed those series so these ideas could be the complete opposite of the way Mystcraft is going.
what I would like to see is either a new mod, or an addon to Mystcraft that would add a new way of being able to create ages.
now you've to collect alot of symbols to create exact age you want, this either requires alot of villagers/emeralds, or age-hunting to find yourself the structures from Mystcraft.
I'd like to see this changed into something more of a research type of system, like Thaumcraft.
you'd start out by finding a village with a villager that sells you an item, this item needed to be able to continue.
what this item does is registering any information it can find, so you need to keep it on you when going around to be able to collect information.
you can also use this item to scan certain items/entities to gather information.
using this item will unlock symbols that you can use to create ages. so let's say you scan a grass block, you'll then be able to create an age with grass blocks in them.
or if you've the item on you and you're in a forest biome, the item will learn the biome, and you're able to create an age with a forest biome.
each time you learn new symbols your knowledge improves, which is needed to create more complicated ages.
when making an age and selecting the symbols, the number of symbols depends on how much knowledge you have.
so let's say a forest biome needs 20 knowledge and grass blocks needs 5 knowledge, that means you need to have 25 knowledge or more to be able to create this age.
now ofcourse an age needs to be alot more complicated then that if you want it stable, but this was just an example
you're able to combine symbols aswell, so you're able to gather the more difficult symbols, but this will cost some resources and knowledge points to do so.
now onto actually writing the age, this has become alot easier and controlled.
the writing desk has changed so you can see all the symbols from the start, only the symbols you've learned are available and the rest of the symbols are unavailable till you've learned them.
the writing desk will also tell you things like how many knowledge points you have and the option to combine symbols to create new ones.
when making an age the writing desk will tell you exactly which symbols you need or that you're missing to craft a stable age.
you're able to say which biomes the age will have, which size and shape they have, if it's eternal day or night, if it'll rain or not, if it's light or dark, all those things.
but the writing desk will also tell you of any chance of instability, so you're warned beforehand if there'll be instability or not.
now ofcourse don't think you'll be able to easily create a diamond block age or something like that, because certain symbols will still have a very high (and specific) instabillity effect.
there's also an additional resource cost when creating ages like that, so let's say if you want tendril diamonds in an age, it'll cost you alot of items when creating this age to be able to get those diamond tendrils.
this is to try and balance the ages so you don't ruin gamebalance too much. also don't think creating random ages will get you these kinds of things, as random ages have also changed.
when creating ages you've the option to manually create one, or choose from some predefined ages.
these predefined ages are similar to the predefined flat maps from Minecraft when creating flat worlds.
so there's a predefined age that's exactly as the overworld, or an age with forest/plains biome, or desert, or taige, or hell, or void etcetcetc
but you'll need to unlock these predefined ages first, though they're quite easy to unlock them
but back to random ages, when creating a random age, the random ages will be based on these predefined ages, so don't expect to come across something like a dense diamond tendrils age when creating a random age.
you also have the option to create your own predefined age. you simply select all the symbols for the age, and you can save it so you can easily create that age again later on.
the mod will actually generate a code for you when creating this custom predefined age, so you can share this code with others aswell.
the linking book would also change, as I really hate how difficult it currently is to create an intra-age linking book
I was thinking of a book as the item you need to carry around to gather knowledge. another additional item, a magnifying glass, could be used to scan items/entities.
this book needs to be placed in the writing desk to be able to access your symbols.
but going back to intra-age linking... this book is also a link book.
you can add warp pages to this book to specific ages. the number of pages and what kind of pages will again depend on your knowledge points, so it's very important to collect knowledge points.
so you can add an intra-age warp page to your book, if you've enough research points.
this book is played bound and can be recreated, so if you were to die and lose it, your progress is not lost, but this could ofcourse be configurable for the more hardcore players
but the book will be the most important item of this addon/mod, which you need to purchase from a villager, so without it you can't start.
the book being the most important items is also a plus side, as you're able to have access to a whole number of ages, with just 1 single item, so you don't have to carry like a dozen linking books with you or be forced to create a nexus.
well, that's about it for the ideas. as I said before, I really like how you're able to create new dimensions with Mystcraft that you can explore
I know there are other dimension mods, but none are really like Mystcraft.
but I just wished Mystcraft was a bit more different, like where finding symbols was more of a game, creating ages was easier/more customizable/more informative and the warping was easier and less messy
