Revision as of 19:13, 22 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

Lighting

Visuals

Weather

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

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.