Getting Started (Mystcraft)/Archive/Pre 0.10

This is a community created article by ShneekeyTheLost

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Mystcraft for Newbies
(A reference guide for the rest of us)

So, first off, what does this mod do?

It permits you to travel to different Ages, and even create your own custom ages

Why might you want to use this mod?

You want to be able to set up a 'nexus' transportation system to get from one base to another rapidly You want to be able to get to your nether/end base with a single click from your overland base You want to be able to generate 'mining ages' so you don't have to destroy your own landscape to fuel your industry. You want a wide number of drastically different worlds to explore, with widely different terrain generation, and even different colored skies.

What mods does this mod work well with?

All of them. No, really, this mod works as terrain generation that every other mod can benefit from. Need a biome-specific resource? Make a mono-biome age. Railcraft feed stations can be used to mass produce leather which is needed for the books

To begin with this mod, you will need the following already established:

A source of leather and paper. That's it. It will be particularly effective once you get to the Nether, Twilight Forest, or even the End, but it can be useful even before then

The Basics: Linking Books

Mystcraft is one of those mods that anyone freshly new to mods can start playing around with and incorporate it into their mostly vanilla worlds, but provides nearly infinite depth for the advanced user.

The first thing in Mystcraft you should make, before even thinking about doing ANYTHING else, is going to be a Linking Book. Don't worry, this is really easy, just put a regular book in your crafting square. Done. Word of warning: don't try to automate the creation, it doesn't work out so well.

A Linking Book is your ticket home. If you are in another age, and you use it, then it will send you back to the exact location and age you were in when you made it. So if you make your linking book in your Overworld base, then that's where you will end up when you use it.

The book won't follow you (at least not until you use some end-game toys to alter them), and you can't use it from within the same age (again, there's an end-game toy to alter this as well), but it sends you back home. There's also a bookstand you can make, and then place a linking book in it, and use it to get back home without having the book drop to the ground and possibly de-spawning.

WARNING: DO NOT travel to foreign ages without a linking book in your inventory. You will be unable to get back home until you find a very specific descriptive book property (star fissure) which is hard to find.

But wait, there's more! The Nether and the End and the Twilight Forest are all considered to be different ages. What does this mean for you? It means that once you have established an outpost in these lands, you can make linking books to transport yourself back and forth effortlessly. This means, among other things, that you can disable that noisy Nether Portal which has a tendency to let rude neighbors into your base. You can also control precisely where you land by where you create the linking books.

Oh, and it doesn't stop there either. You can set up a nexus in one of these other dimensions. So if you had to travel a significant distance in the overworld and set up an installation for some reason, you can effortlessly link them together. Just make a linking book to your nether base, and a linking book to your secondary base from there. You can set up an entire network once you get access to alternate dimensions, if you so choose.

If this was this mod's only function, it would still be worth exploring and using. But it doesn't stop there. In fact, we've only touched the tip of the iceberg here.

What comes next

I won't spoiler everything, however I will give you a very brief overview of what to expect when you start delving into the more advanced parts of this mod.

Descriptive Books are a book and a feather in your crafting square. They will send you to a new age to explore! Again, DO NOT forget a Linking Book to get yourself back home.

You might experience worlds with some really bad effects. Negative effects may include but are not limited to: detrimental potion effects constantly on, cometary collisions, block decay where blocks literally are sucked out of reality, and more. If it's really bad, use your linking book and... well... book it home.

Now, we look at the writing desk and the notebook, which is where the real magic happens.

Make a writing desk. Recipe in NEI. Make a Notebook, likewise recipe in NEI. Put the notebook in the corner slot in your writing desk. Now throw in your descriptive book you just made and visited. You'll see new symbols. These describe the age you just went to. There's TONS of different symbols, some more useful than others. Some symbols can guarantee that there will be some kind of instability. However, there are some tricks to minimizing instability:

Write out a complete age without conflicting symbols. For example, the symbol for checkerboard layout of biomes demands precisely two biomes. If you put more or less biome symbols in it, then there may be instability Fill up the age with symbols. If you don't define an aspect of the age, then it will be randomly generated, which can also add in instability. So make sure to define the time cycle, the sky and sunset colors, the biome placement, the biomes themselves... everything. Don't use Dense Ores. Don't use Cave Worlds in conjunction with Redpower 2. The marble generation function from RP2 has been known to crash you out.

Now that you have the basics, go 'age surfing' until you find some interesting symbols to play with. You might find Crystals, which are useful in making Myst Portals. You might find glowstone spires, eternal day, or wooden tendrils. You might also find the coveted, but dangerous, Dense Ores symbol. Who knows? Go exploring and find out for yourself.

This is a community created article by Wabbit

Currently in its original format. Please add formatting, crafting recipes, images, spelling, grammar, etc. Don't forget to cite the original author!

Getting Started: 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/filter 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. Using the *Feeding Station from RailCraft will allow you to breed and harvest leather from cows. 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. Intradimensional 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 makePortals.

Here's how...

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Ender Chests are reported to also work in all dimensions however this is not confirmed

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. Also, most ages you will come across will inflict you with a random debuff, usually this takes the form of mining fatique but at worst it can cause Nausea and even Severe Hunger. There is a high risk of DEATH. So take care when teleporting!

Anything else I should be aware of?

Look out for worlds with dense ores. These are good for quarrying but will always be **unstable. Be careful of Hell Biomes*** which can spawn Ghasts. Always carry Linking Books home. Mystcraft Portals can be almost any shape within reason so long as you can attach a book receptical to it.

Enjoy the world of Mystcraft!