User:TheSatanicSanta/Mystcraft Wiki import/Modifiers

In order to master how Age Description works, you need to understand Modifiers. A simple approximation is to think of "adjectives" and "nouns" in English. Modifiers must be placed before the symbols that they modify.

Most modifiers will modify similar modifiers that come before them; for example, "South Direction" followed by "West Direction" will turn into "South West Direction".

During age loading, modifiers are put into a pool until read or replaced. With very few exceptions, there can only be one modifier of a given type in that pool at a time. For example, there is only one direction in the modifier pool at a time. Similarly, there is only one duration in the modifier pool at a time. The two most common exceptions to this are biomes and blocks. This is because the storage for these modifiers in the pool is actually a "stack." A stack is equivalent to a tall box where you can only add or remove things at one end.

Modifier behavior
All of these blend by averaging.

Directions, Duration, and Phase all behave similarly. Blending opposites (for example, North and South, or rising and setting) will generate the middle point, but which of the two middles will depend on the order of the two symbols, and the type.

Directions
TODO: List of Directions

Duration
TODO: List of Durations

Lack of any duration longer than two-times.

Phase
TODO: List of Phases

Color
Colors are blended on a strict RGB model. Since there is only ever once color value in the pool at a time, the colors are averaged immediately. This means that a symbol

TODO: List of Colors

Biomes
Used by both Biome Distributions and Floating Islands. There can be any number of biomes on a stack at a time. Most biome controllers will consume all of the biomes on the stack. Others, however, will only take a few, leaving any spare biomes around for something else to use. The leftovers are usually resolved by the grammar.

Blocks
Blocks are used to modify many different symbols in many different manners. For example, some blocks categories are liquids, used for lakes; ground types, used for terrain generation; and structure blocks, used for most features. A given block can be in more than one category; for example, "Stone Block" can be either a ground type, or a structure type. "Packed Ice Block" can be used in ANY category; it is possible to have a world with packed ice for the ground and for the ocean.

Blocks are stored in the modifier pool in a stack. This means that, if you were to do (this is considered bad writing, do not follow this example) "stone block, gold ore block, tendrils, island world", then the tendrils symbol would take the gold ore block, and the island world would take the stone block. This example would be better written as "stone block, island world, gold ore block, tendrils".