TC3 Dull Shards

[MigukNamja]

This weekend, I noticed that when I break the Crystal Core after moving a node, a small or large percentage of the colored shards will be converted to dull shards, seemingly depending upon the amount of 'work' that was done to move the node(s). But, it could be random.

But, point being is I *just* noticed it. Not sure why I didn't notice before.

The reason I cared is I had been having problems getting dull shards the natural way. I had collected roughly 200 each of the colored shards, but had only found 2 dull shards naturally.

It turns out it didn't matter since my bee breeding produced Stark Bees at roughly the same time and those produce a ton of dull shards.

But, my point being that broken Crystal Cores is an effective - if expensive and tedious - way of getting Dull Shards to make Crystal Capacitors. And, the only reason I cared about *those* is I was having bad luck with Silverwood Saplings to grow my pure node further.

 

[danidas]

Best place to look for dull shards is around your areas strongest node and by strongest I mean the second number denoting the max vis of the node. As vis normally flows from the node with the highest max to all the smaller ones in order to refill them. Which naturally means that the node with the highest max will need to recharge it self from crystals more often and therefor make more dull shards.

 

[MigukNamja]

Ah, cool. I didn't know that.

 

[Dorque]

Usually if I need dull shards and I don't feel like making/breaking cores, I'll set up some form of rapid transport to another area and start, for example, growing large numbers of Silverwood and then teleporting to the distant node while my Repair II Hoe of Growth repairs.

In general if you repeatedly force a node to drain and refill, dull shards will begin to develop as it pulls vis out of the infused ores.

 

[danidas]

Usually if I need dull shards and I don't feel like making/breaking cores, I'll set up some form of rapid transport to another area and start, for example, growing large numbers of Silverwood and then teleporting to the distant node while my Repair II Hoe of Growth repairs.

In general if you repeatedly force a node to drain and refill, dull shards will begin to develop as it pulls vis out of the infused ores.

That works as well and is basically the same but instead of being natural your forcing it to occur.

The way nodes work is that each time one is generated it's info is added to a file to make a map of the nodes which thuamcraft then uses in it's calculations. As a result it does not matter if the chunks containing a node is loaded or not, however if it is not loaded it will be unable to recharge from ore.

Now normally when a node gets depleted or low it will look to the nearest node with a higher max vis then it and request vis from it. Also it will look to covert ore if a large amount of vis is required to recharge it. Now once it it is refilled it will then convert the dull shards back to random shards slowly. In addition if a node has more vis then its max it will also slowly convert stone blocks into crystal ore to bleed off the extra vis.

So the best place to look for dull shards is at the node with the highest max vis especially if its vis level is often lower then its max.

 

[Dorque]

That works as well and is basically the same but instead of being natural your forcing it to occur.

The way nodes work is that each time one is generated it's info is added to a file to make a map of the nodes which thuamcraft then uses in it's calculations. As a result it does not matter if the chunks containing a node is loaded or not, however if it is not loaded it will be unable to recharge from ore.

Now normally when a node gets depleted or low it will look to the nearest node with a higher max vis then it and request vis from it. Also it will look to covert ore if a large amount of vis is required to recharge it. Now once it it is refilled it will then convert the dull shards back to random shards slowly. In addition if a node has more vis then its max it will also slowly convert stone blocks into crystal ore to bleed off the extra vis.

So the best place to look for dull shards is at the node with the highest max vis especially if its vis level is often lower then its max.

The difference there is that by forcing it, I'm not taking ore away from my own node (which will recharge eventually, given time)

Yes, it's easiest to find them at the biggest/most used local nodes, but there are potential consequences to that and your fellow players might not appreciate your efforts to run off with them either.