Latest revision as of 23:39, 24 July 2019

Symbols are key to creating Ages with a Descriptive Book in Mystcraft. Symbol define aspects of the Age created, allowing for customization and eliminating randomly decided aspects of the book's Age.

See Writing for how to use these symbols effectively.

Finding Symbols

Symbols can be discovered a couple ways. The first and most basic way is finding a village containing a Archivist; The Archivist's house will also contain a couple pages. The second and most common way to find Symbols would be to explore an age. Ages will have randomly spawning temples made of cobblestone that will contain several pages and possibly some Sealed Notebooks. The third and final way would be to explore dungeons. Dungeons have a chance to contain symbols and sealed notebooks. ^Verify

Pages

Symbols come on sheets of paper, called pages. As of 0.12.3.00 pages do not vary in quality or condition. Symbols can be written to paper or pages using a Writing Desk.

Kinds of Symbols

Biome Distributions

Biome controllers dictate the layout of biomes in an age. Every age requires exactly one Biome Controller. They take varying numbers of biomes as modifiers: If not enough biomes are provided, some will be selected randomly but where "minimum #" is noted, there is no upper limit. In recent versions, any biome not used by a biome controller (excess or after the controller symbol) is usually supplied with a Floating Islands symbol. The Floating Islands symbol itself does not cause instability -- but, it will likely choose a terrain block, and if it picks an ore or other valuable block, that can cause instability.

Celestials

Celestial Bodies are objects in the sky, such as Suns, Moons, and Stars. Every age requires at least one Sun, moon, and stars symbol. Any of these can be Normal or Dark, but Stars have two additional options: Ender Starfield, and Twinkling Stars. If none of a body are specified, one or more will probably be added; if you really want "no X", you need to write "Dark X". Modifiers vary among the symbols:

  * "Dark" bodies do not accept any modifiers, and do not display anything in the sky. A Dark Sun also does not provide "daylight" to prevent monster spawning, burn undead, etc.
  * "Normal" Suns and Moons each accept a Direction, a Length, a Phase, and optional sunset color.  They cannot be recolored.
  *  If a sun has no Sunset Color of its own, it can still be affected by a "global" Sunset Color modifier for the world.
  * Normal and twinkling Stars accept a Gradient for color, Direction, and Length, but not Phase.
  * Directions determine the direction from which the given object will rise.  Lengths determine the duration of a full cycle (and thus, speed of motion).  Phases determine where in the rotation cycle the object begins.

Effects

These symbols affect the world as a whole, and do not fit in the other categories. They accept no modifiers, except for Lightning.

Lighting

Lighting changes the perceived light level of an age. Lighting symbols do not accept modifiers. Exactly one of the options is required. These symbols do not affect mob spawning; Bright ages still need to be lit up to prevent mob spawns. Similarly, Dark ages do not need more lighting than the Overworld to prevent mob spawns, however, their sunlight is not strong enough to burn undead or make spiders neutral.

Visuals

Visual symbols change nothing related to gameplay, instead tweaking the visuals of an age such as Sky Color.

Many visual symbols accept modifiers, as noted on a per symbol basis. (Natural Visuals accept no modifiers and instead use the colors provided by the biome, usually mimicking the Overworld.)

Symbol	Name	Notes
File:Boundless Sky.png	Boundless Sky	Removes the fog obscuring stars and such below the horizon level. Mainly useful in Void and Skylands ages.
File:Cloud Color.png	Cloud Color	Allows players to change the color of the clouds in the sky. Accepts Color and Gradient modifiers.
File:Fog Color.png	Fog Color	Allows players to change the color of all fog in the age. Accepts Color and Gradient modifiers.
File:Sky Color.png	Sky Color	Allows players to change the color of the age's sky when there is a sun visible in the sky. Accepts Color and Gradient modifiers.
File:Night Sky Color.png	Night Sky Color	Allows players to change the color of the age's sky when there is no sun visible in the sky. Accepts Color and Gradient modifiers.
File:Sunset Color.png	Sunset Color	Allows players to change the color of the sunsets in an age. Accepts Color and Gradient modifiers. If there is already a sunset modifier currently dangling this will append a gradient to the end of that. This symbol is primarily a modifier for a Sun to change the sunset color of that specific sun. If left dangling at the end of the book, this will set the age's default sunset for all suns without a defined sunset color rather than add instability.
File:Foliage Color.png	Foliage Color	Allows changing the color of leaves on trees in most biomes. Accepts Color modifiers, but not gradients.
File:Grass Color.png	Grass Color	Allows changing the color of grass in most biomes. Accepts Color modifiers, but not gradients.
File:Water Color.png	Water Color	Allows changing the color of water in most biomes. Accepts Color modifiers, but not gradients.
	Rainbow	Creates a rainbow in the sky. Accepts Direction modifiers.

Weather

Weather symbols determine how the weather in an age will occur. They do not accept modifiers. Exactly one of the options is required.

World Feature

World Landscape

Modifiers

Modifiers allow for customizing other symbols by specifying things like colors or block types.

Modifiers are written before the symbol they modify, for instance Cyan Color ➡ Sky Color.

Angle Modifiers

Angle Modifiers are used for Celestial positioning. They define where on the horizon the celestial will rise.

Angles will consume other Angles and produce a point halfway between the two. North followed by West will produce a northwest angle. When more than two angles are blended, a rolling average will be used such as ((W + X) + Y) + Z.

In cases where there are two possible averages, the average will be clockwise from the first angle. For example, North ➡ South will result in East, while South ➡ North will result in West.

Symbol	Name	Angle
	North Direction	0/360
	East Direction	90
	South Direction	180
	West Direction	270

Biome Modifiers

Biomes are symbols that determine the ecosystem of an age. In the Overworld players can find biomes such as deserts, forests, mountains, plains, oceans and the like, all scattered across the world. The biome symbols allow players to pick and choose those ecosystems when creating their own ages. The vanilla biomes are listed below; biome pages can also appear for biomes provided by other mods and registered with Forge.

Biomes are modifiers, and must come before the biome controller, or another symbol that uses biomes. There is one other symbol which does so, Floating Islands. Floating Islands symbols will automatically be added for any “dangling” biomes (that is, not used by the biome controller). If a biome is needed but not supplied, a random choice will be made.

For all biomes, the “biome top” replacement (usually dirt and grass, biome specific) only happens if the world's base material is “Stone”; see “World Landscape” symbols above. Note that if this does not happen, trees and other vegetation will not appear regardless of biome.

There is one biome modifier page for each vanilla biome, and Mystcraft will also add any compatible biomes found from other mods. These pages will all follow the following format:

Note: Some biomes may behave strangely when generated in a Mystcraft age. Examples below:

Block Modifiers

Color Modifiers

Gradients

Length Modifiers

Length Modifiers are used for Celestial movement, as well as Gradients. They define how quickly the celestial will orbit or how quickly colors will last. Lower values are faster, higher values are slower. Note that daytime is ½ of an orbit.

Lengths will consume other Lengths and produce a point halfway between the two. When more than two Lengths are blended, a rolling average will be used such as ((W + X) + Y) + Z.

Symbol	Name	Value	Notes
	Zero Length	0.0	When used alone, will result in a fixed position. When blended with other values, will cause the length to grow shorter.
	Half Length	0.5	For suns and moons, this will cause an orbit to last ½ the length of a Minecraft day, or approximately 10 minutes. Suns will provide approximately 5 minutes worth of full daylight per orbit.
	Full Length	1.0	For suns and moons, this will cause an orbit to last the length of a Minecraft day, or approximately 20 minutes. Suns will provide approximately 10 minutes worth of full daylight per orbit.
	Double Length	2.0	For suns and moons, this will cause an orbit to last twice the length of a Minecraft day, or approximately 40 minutes. Suns will provide approximately 20 minutes worth of full daylight per orbit.

Phase Modifiers

Phase Modifiers are used for Celestial positioning. They define where in the sky the celestial will start. This is especially relevant for celestials with fixed positions, but can also be used to have multiple celestials that rise at different times of the day.

Phases will consume other Phases and produce a point halfway between the two. When more than two Phases are blended, a rolling average will be used such as ((W + X) + Y) + Z.

In cases where there are two possible averages, the average will be forward in the cycle from the first angle. For example, Rising ➡ Setting will result in Zenith, while Setting ➡ Rising will result in Nadir.

Symbol	Name	Notes
	Rising Phase	On the horizon and about to rise.
	Zenith Phase	Directly above the player.
	Setting Phase	On the horizon and about to set.
	Nadir Phase	Directly below the player, view will likely be blocked by the world.