Mystcraft and the Transport Hub

[Joose]

Thought I would make a separate thread rather than clogging up the main MC thread with Mystcraft stuff. I'll start with a couple of Mystcraft basics, then show how to get linked in to the transport hub thing. I'll put something more detailed about Mystcraft in general later if I get around to it.

First things first, the basics:

Ages

Ages are what Mystcraft calls the other worlds that you can make and travel to. Functionally they are pretty similar to the nether, but there is a lot more variation to them. Some of them are all one biome, some of them the day/night cycle is either sped up, slowed down or entirely stopped, some have huge crystal or wood formations growing out of them, some are entirely empty (knows as Void Worlds). Exactly what an age is like is defined when making the Descriptive Book for that world, with any gaps in the definition being filled in at random.

Instability

If a world has contradicting descriptors, or missing descriptors, it will get Instabilities. Making a world with no instabilities is Hard As Balls. Descriptors are the little symbol things that you put in books, and say things like "Single Biome" or "Wasteland Biome" or "Dark Stars", or even modifiers for those things like "Blue" or "West". When you make an age, you put a bunch of these symbols together. Problem is that, at least to start off with, you wont have all of these symbols. Instead you either miss some pages and end up with a world that doesn't describe how the sun works or you put in some blank pages which will be randomly filled with symbols and therefore could end up telling it that the sun comes up in both the east and the west at the same time. Instability can take many forms, but most commonly it is a variety of ailments that hit you when you are outside, such at inability to mine or motion sickness. Sometimes its crazy weather, with lightening storms and random explosions. The worst is a spreading disintegration of the world, with the floor slowly dissolving into the abyss.

Books

There are two kinds of books: Descriptive books and Linking Books. Descriptive Books are the ones described above, that are used to create worlds and for the initial way to transport yourself to those worlds. Linking Books just do the latter, transporting you from another Age to the Age (and location) where you first made the linking book. Now, THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT: NEVER GO TO ANOTHER AGE WITHOUT A LINKING BOOK TO THE OVERWORLD. The books don't travel with you when you use them, so if you go somewhere without a way to get back you are fucked. Totally fucked; you can't even get out by killing yourself as you will respawn in the same Age you die in. The only way out if you don't have a linking book is either someone else coming to rescue you or an admin teleporting you via console commands. Linking books are easy to make, just get a normal book, put it in a crafting thing by itself and take the linking book out of the end product bit.

Other things to note about both kinds of books: If you drop them they will fall open on the floor and slowly break. If they are outside when they do this they break really quite fast. To get around this, you can either put a book on a special book stand or slot them into a big crystal book doorframe thing. To use a book, either right click it if it is on a stand or right click with it equipped and then left click on the rectangle on the top right of the book picture. If you have put it in a crystal door you just walk through like its a nether portal.

Ok, so how does this transport hub idea work?

The basic idea is this: Make a Linking book in your base and take it to the Caveworld Transport Hub via an already made Linking Book. Slot your book in a spare doorframe (remember to label it up as yours) and make a new linking book in the Caveworld. Use your newly created door to get back to your base and either plop the Caveworld linking book on a stand or if you are feeling fancy make your own crystal doorframe thing. You can now use the Linking book in your base to get to the Caveworld and then one of the doors there to get to anyone else's base. Simples!

Relevant Recipes:

Linking Book: Just a single book in any crafting space. Make sure you are standing where you want it to link to when you craft it.
Book Stand: A wooden stick in the top left and right corners of a crafting table and a block of wood in the centre space.
Crystal Door: Exactly the same as a nether portal, just using the weird blue crystal in Caveworlds caves instead of Obsidian. You need to stick a ...cant remember what they are called, Book Socket or something...anyway, one of them on the frame somewhere. Put the linking book in the socket (right click with the book equipped) to activate the portal.
Book Socket (or whatever it is): 8 Blue crystal blocks in a square, just like making a chest.

Lastly, Notes on Caveworld:

The ambient light of the cave is bright enough to see by without torches, but dark enough that mobs still spawn. Watch your arse if you go into the caves themselves, they are huge and infested.
Don't go outside. There is a ladder up from the Transport Hub, but its a horrible place and there is fuck all up there but snow.
If for any reason you get stuck in Caveworld, there is an emergency exit. Caveworld has what's called a Star Fissure: its the bloody great hole in the ground next to the Transport Hub. Jump down it and you will re-spawn in the Overworld in the default spawn area. Note that most Ages don't have a Star Fissure.
If you need blue crystals to make yourself a door there is plenty out in the caves. Go crazy.

[Dog Pants]

This sounds awesome.

[tandino]

This does indeed sound awesome but I may have missed something. How do I make the book to get to the cave?

[fabyak]

This does indeed sound awesome but I may have missed something. How do I make the book to get to the cave?

Pop a book onto your crafting area (doesn't even have to be a table) and the item you can make will be a book to the location you're standing at that instant

[Joose]

This does indeed sound awesome but I may have missed something. How do I make the book to get to the cave?

You make the book to get to the cave in the cave. Which means you need to use someone else's portal to get there at first. Theres one at my place, Fabs and Spoodies.

[tandino]

Splendid. I shall finish my jet pack, beef up my power armour and head out for adventure.

[tandino]

I was preparing for adventure when adventure found me!

The bold Knight Sir Fabyak got stranded in a strange world. I busted him out and as thanks he talked me through the Caveworld system. My wee scrap of heaven is in the network as of this evening.

[fabyak]

Many thanks fair rescuer!

[Joose]

Yay! More Mystcrafters!

I'll try and put together a guide to mystcrafting in general later. In the meantime:

Feel free to use my writing desk/book binder. Just make sure to top it up with paper/ink/leather if its getting low.
Additionally, feel free to take copies of the pages from my notebook in the writing desk. Just be sure to make copies, not take the originals (right click on the symbol, take the one that turns up on the right).
Always take two linking books to a new world: one to put on a stand as soon as you get there, one to keep with you for an emergency exit
Dont take anything with you that you are not prepared to lose. You will die and lose your stuff *a lot*.

[fabyak]

^

Also take a stack of several bits of stone or dirt and make a small tower straight away. That way when you spawn you'll be safely off the ground and away from zombies, skeletons, creepers and all the things that will kill you in the face a lot!

[spoodie]

I've now got a door to and from the cave hub. Also I grabbed a few stacks more crystal. I made the schoolboy error of not setting a waypoint in the caveworld and nearly got lost with good stuff on me, that was a bit of a panic.

[tandino]

I've now got a door to and from the cave hub. Also I grabbed a few stacks more crystal. I made the schoolboy error of not setting a waypoint in the caveworld and nearly got lost with good stuff on me, that was a bit of a panic.

I did the same last night but realised just in time. Waypoints = life savers. Those caves are rife with gribblies too. Need to find some kind of unlimited source of arrows.

[Joose]

yeah, the caves are gribblytastic. We could try and light them up, but the only thing we need them for (other than to stare at and go "ooh") is the blue stuff. I suggest ninja-mining the things until we get a better crystal mining world.

[spoodie]

It's easy enough to grab loads with flying ability and it's a good place for mob farming, if you need gunpowder for instance. And sources of light seem to have a diminished effect in that world, possibly a corruption?