I actually prefer Thaumcraft's item transfer system over Buildcraft or Redpower pipes, this is more dynamic.
Feels much more like a bustling lab that is busy all day with an army of minions carrying heavy loads around for you while you barge around in your usual magical combat gear giving orders like a boss, instead of lugging a wrench around smacking an endless line of see-through piping, huh?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Better Than Wolves: where the line between morality and immorality is a mile wide and has loops in some places." - Stormweaver
I did want to ask Azanor about any possibility of “end game” content in reference to actual battles. Thaumcraft 2 was my favorite mod I’ve ever tried to date – hands down. I was floored at how well it was done and the way everything made sense. Not to mention that every mechanic in the mod was polished and actually felt like a real addition (and not something tacked on). But after acquiring all the TC2 “stuff”, I was pretty much a Minecraft super-mage that could obliterate anything in my path without much effort. That was awesome too….but once I reached that point, my world got a little boring - much like maxing out an Equivalent Exchange mod (although not nearly as broken). All I had left to do was make cool machines with RedPower.
I realize at the heart of Thaumcraft lies a tech tree/progression mod. And I hope that never changes. The MC community NEEDS someone like Azanor to make a real end-game mod. I had HUGE hopes for the new DivineRPG mod….it looked epic on the front page. But I quickly realized there were massive balance issues and way too much hackery going on with default armor/weapons. Not to mention that certain mobs were added to the overworld that could one-hit-kill. But that concept – extra dimensions (like the Nether or The End) with all new mobs and new tiers of armor with a final “boss” – that formula can actually work. And because each dimension adds its own ores/weapons/mobs/bosses, they aren’t stepping on each other’s toes. That allows folks who love tech mods (like TC or RedPower) to build all the crazy stuff they want and just stay in the overworld all day if they wish. But if you want more awesomeness and tougher content, you COULD travel to different dimensions. And using firepower from Thaumcraft would be the only way to survive.
Yes, I know we have mods like Legendary Beasts and others that add more bosses/mobs and adds end-game like mechanics. But nobody like Azanor has tackled such a thing. I couldn’t even imagine how epic it would be if he did. I’m sure – Like Thaumcraft 2 – that once we reach the end of the tech tree in TC3, we will be super bad-ass with crazy weapons and bows/wands (and some super armor). But if we had something to actually use it on – that seems like the next logical step to me. Even great mods like Better Than Wolves suffer the same fate. You get the uber weapons….and nothing can really kill you. The idea there is to start building mob traps and such…..but for many of us, that’s some pretty dull stuff. Extra dimensions allow ENDLESS possibility for new ores, new magical items and the next level of armor/weapons/gadgets. Adding harder content would just be a matter of adding the next dimension. And you could bring those goodies back to the overworld to make even cooler stuff at your home-base. It could also encourage extra “home bases” in other dimensions with items/ores/machinery that can only function in that dimension. I know Notch probably had the same mechanic in mind when he added Nether Wart to vanilla MC. But let’s face it – the Nether was tacked on and is anything but “complete”. It could have been so much more.
I know combat in MC is kinda weak. But the right mod maker could kick it up several levels and actually make it a challenge. And more importantly, make it FUN. Azanor, I’m one of your biggest fans. I really am. I’ve turned a ton of folks onto TC. Even if you had to collaborate with someone else – you could make the ultimate mod (well, you already did) and give Minecrafters endless adventure with some super tough end-game love. Just something to think about. Huge props man and keep up the mind-blowing work!
the 2 cutest things ever combined into something very useful? count me in!!
anyway, since bats are kinda rare and hard to keep contained, maybe you can make an artificial bat out of golem materials (lets say tallow for now) and can carry them into a golem rafter sorting system. it would be nice, because a ton of golems walking across a tiny floor space will get nasty.
earth, air...
Now need the water transport or pet that can do stuff..
EXample. Artifical octupus gather water resource(s), tranport entity. they can have upgrade as golems do that as stuff fills up their head getting bigger.
and random thought.. tier 3~4 pet.. golem+bat+octupus = cthulhu... JUST SAYING...
I don't know if anything exactly like this has been suggested before, and I did not want to read 181 pages of posts, but how about a way to create spell casting wands by taking essences out of items and putting them on a wand. It would be nice if you could experiment with different essences and create all sorts of different abilities. They could drain more vis if they have more essences.
What about something like thaumium golems that would Collect aura and when you give them your wand automatically recharge it. also when you place down something that needs a good wand wacking he would do it for you?
it would be cool if you could also "trap" Aura nodes in warded jars and let them sit in your house or something. because from dire's channel it looks kinda irritating having to go over to a spot to have your wand charged.
its already been mentioned. but it would give a good use for phials! such as corpses of dead things would stay or mabye you would be able to coat the wand with a life phial and zap there drops into minions?
Create some kind of wand that locks a block to where only you can use or destroy it.
Theres already a block called the arcane block or something for that reason. thats what dires greenhouse (Get it?) is made of. theres also the Arcane doors. which only open to you.
just had an idea. what about aura-storms? they could be: 1, random, but very rare. OR 2, an effect caused by EXTREME amount of flux. anyway, my idea was some cool, weird morphing sky ((like the sky filter/texture in sovengarde, if anyone here has played skyrim.)with configs, for slow computers.)) there would be massive amounts of lightning (whisps where it strikes?) and the nodes in the world would be comepletely scrambled. the idea is its a very breif, but destructive storm. mybe it could cause some helpful block/item to appear, so youd have reason to cause intentially? the down sides would be the forementioned node scrambling and possibly some sort of repairs needing to be done on more delecate/advanced thaumic devices. what do you think?
1.5 is coming out at the begin of January and it will have red stone changes + bug fixes. the one after that will be 2 months after that around end or march so will this be available for 1.5 (the redstone update)
earth, air...
Now need the water transport or pet that can do stuff..
EXample. Artifical octupus gather water resource(s), tranport entity. they can have upgrade as golems do that as stuff fills up their head getting bigger.
and random thought.. tier 3~4 pet.. golem+bat+octupus = cthulhu... JUST SAYING...
The idea of a high-tier upgrade for the various types of Golem based off of animals seems pretty neat to me-the Bat thing sounds especially nice; if it was late enough in the game, it would be perfectly plausible that you'd have a variety of Golems running around your lab doing things. Something like a Bat upgrade, with maybe a special kind of 'rafter' block you could mark for them to wait on when not actually working with their attached block, would be neat. Plus, think of the other kinds of animal upgrades you could have-Wolf golems fetch items from further away and fight for you, as an example.
...Huh. I wonder how many times we've given Azanor some brilliant idea that's pushed the release back? All of us waiting on the mod and giving him more stuff to cram into it might be shooting ourselves in the foot here!
So there's been a new update to the Forgecraft version recently, and it appears there's at least two new toys to play with. Personally I can see the levatators as a useful way to have golems move between layers without having to give them a 2x2 of stairs. And I have no idea what the ear does, but it likely is a sound detector.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're callin' about the Mobtalker scripts, I no longer have access to them.
However, it's been getting tempting lately to put together a modpack that includes CustomNPCs, so I could definitely work in something along the same themes in the modpack's quests. Feel free to give suggestions of mods that promote an experience which minimizes mining grind in favor of exploration. I'll likely have to include Grimorie of Gaia to provide good models (No I'm not gonna directly change the default mob models)
it would be cool if you could also "trap" Aura nodes in warded jars and let them sit in your house or something. because from dire's channel it looks kinda irritating having to go over to a spot to have your wand charged.
i like this idea but instead of jars why not have a container like device that can suck a node into it to be transported to another place and have a way to make a containment unit using a multi block building recipe like the furnace where you can release the node into and it will be held there but if you release one out without the containment field it will become "unstable" in a sense like it will explode and either destroy a large are or spawn a horde of hostile wisps where it exploded. or create an unstable wormhole that could teleport you to a random region of the overworld or to the nether or even the end, but the wormholes using an adapted containment device could be used to make a permanent portal between 2 places (you would need to place an adapted containment device on the other side of the wormhole to keep a solid link between the two places) its just an idea that could add a supreme danger if screwed up or an incredible help if nothing goes wrong like the containment field having a failure and creating an unavoidable danger for the player...
Absolutely awesome, Azanor!
The arcane levitators are exactly what I've always wanted for some sort of alternative to ladders.
A request. Could you make a horizontal version of them? (Essentially attract or repulse entities and items)
That way, one could do absolutely awesome stuff.
Like make a small "aquaduct" type build, with some horizontal repulsors, to make ad-hoc magical item movement.... [EDIT] To a pit of hungry chests... yeah... [/EDIT]
Or even better, magical traps that expel unwanted intruders from the wizard's lab!!
Something like this:
I have a different idea for this one... wands recharge when you carry them to the aura node. But, why do you have to carry it in person? Can't you throw them into a minecart and send it there and come back later? Slowly, if you want (the wands are inside a wooden chest inside a metal container, after all).
I'm a bit late to the party, so forgive me if in nearly two-hundred pages, something like this has been covered. I did make an effort to read what I could, but there's no easy way to search for abstract ideas, and many posts are quite lengthy. It would take me a while to go through everything, by which point I think I might forget some of the points I had. I think my ideas may be similar to some things I've read, but have a different take as well.
There is one thing that I would like to see changed completely from the current system of Thaumcraft, and that is Taint. To me, this system puts an arbitrary moral distinction on certain basic magics, and properly I feel that the only moral threshold ought to be in choosing to deal with horrorterrors from beyond the farthest darkness.
I still feel that Aura should be composed of two forces, but not "good" and "evil" forces, where one is purely beneficial and the other wholly malign. What I picture is two equal elements. We'll call them Anima and Animus. However, each of these forms would be equally Vis. In fact, "Vis" would contain equal parts of both, if one were to use the endgame or catalyst models of liquid Vis. Both would be equally important, and moreover, equally dangerous.
Anima is the essence of vitality and creation in its purest form. It would be necessary for magic that nurtures or creates something, such as growing plants or infusing armour with protective magic.
Animus is the essence of destruction and decay...however, it is not inherently evil. Magic that pulls things apart or harms, such as a magical quarry/harvester or magically enhanced weapons, would all be fuelled by Animus.
Vis is simply the two forces in balance. Literally power in its purest form, it requires equal parts of each, and is used in "pure" magic, such as opening portals, summoning creatures, or crafting items with esoteric properties (such as those used to measure the Aura, for example).
If this sounds a lot like the current system, that's because on the surface it is. So, why is that distinction important? Well, first of all, most magic wouldn't be completely creative or destructive. More often than not, you'd deal with things that require gathering some of both, even if one is more predominant. More importantly, though, this makes things a little more difficult than "Build things to positively charge the environment to offset your Taint footprint". In nature, both creation and destruction are equally important. Death and decay keep rampant growth in check, and the development of new life keeps the land from becoming barren. There's a natural cycle that is maintained. So, what happens when you have too much of one or the other? Well, under this system, both extremes are bad.
When there's an excess of Anima, plants grow out of control, even tearing down structures. The air becomes saturated with a choking cloud of pollen and spores. Natural creatures, even normally peaceful ones, enter a state of forced evolution and mutate into dangerous, savage versions of themselves (think D&D's dire animals). Over time, the landscape could transform into a nigh-impenetrable toxic jungle, populated by hostile magic-infused plants and ravening feral beasts.
On the other hand, too much Animus in an area brings down a destructive blight. Plants wither, the earth cracks and fills with pools of noxious sludge, and pestilence and harmful emanations saturate the landscape. Destructive energies discharge periodically without source in jets of flame or bursts of lightning, a malice from the very forces of nature that lashes out blindly at anything it can. Only monsters thrive here, bolstered by the harsh environment that fuels their own capacity to destroy, producing horrors such as toxic slimes, creepers imbued with arcane energies, or zombies and skeletons formed from the remains of many creatures into grotesque but powerful abominations. Left unchecked, the results of excess Animus produce a desolate wasteland that promises doom for any foolish enough to brave its treacherous landscape.
Of course, flux would mean that areas would settle over time, but this would only stop the effects, not fully reverse them. Transformed monster would remain, though new ones would cease to be created, landscapes would stay blighted or overgrown, and toxic effects in the air would take a good deal of time to clear off. Essentially, the type of flux would be effected by the overall charge in the area, and by weather it was excessive or depleted. The player, then, would have to balance their workings. Let an area slide too much toward either energy, and you face the consequences. Only by careful planning, offsetting great workings with others that will tip the balance back toward equilibrium, and carefully monitoring one's actions is it possible to perform magic safely, and reckless use will always invite disaster. Thaumaturgy, then, becomes as much art as science, a dangerous practice that requires care and planning to use, lest one risk destroying themselves, much as magic is described in stories.
The truly "Dark" magic would still have its place, but as an extension of Eldritch magic. Only by making dark pacts and performing forbidden rituals is one able to be favoured with the power of the abyssal beings man was never meant to understand. I see this as building up a third kind of energy, Karma. So, it's not just a moral choice, the player actually makes a personal sacrifice to access the greatest power. Unlike other forms of magic, Karma exists as a person's personal energy, and is theoretically infinite. However, whereas Aura would be neither good nor bad, a player's Karma can most definitely be tainted. Much like Aura, a player's Karma would eventually stabilize, but the more Eldritch magic one employs, the higher their Karmic Taint becomes. What is unlike Aura is that the effects of Karmic Taint do not store up and then discharge, they persist until a player's Karma recovers. At low levels, penalties would be low, like making levels take more experience to gain or Aura harder to draw upon. The player might grow hungry faster (maybe even never gaining saturation from food). As it gets worse, so too the effects, into things like slower regeneration, attracting mobs at a greater distance, perhaps even dimming the player's vision. At some levels, these might even manifest outright potion debuffs, as the player continues to suffer from the dark energies poisoning their soul even to the point a player's max health might be capped. Most importantly, though, would be this. The thresholds at which effects get removed would be much lower than those at which they are added, making overuse of Eldritch power highly dangerous (though high levels of Karmic Taint would actually be likely to take a bit of effort). Some items made with Eldritch magic could even carry an inherent taint in them, artificially inflating the player's Karmic Taint when used or worn.
Having a system that carries strong personal penalties would allow for some more powerful effects to be introduced, as well. For example, using a system like Mystcraft, there could be an Eldritch ritual that provides the player with their own personal pocket-dimension, a dark fortress floating in an endless void that comes pre-furnished with some useful structures of power and generates more Aura as a "baseline" than would naturally occur, making it an ideal place for performing greater workings. Further, the Eldritch caster might be able to summon Lovecraftian horrors to serve them, like a Hound of Tindalos (which could act like a tamed wolf, but would be tougher, stronger, recover by killing things, and able to teleport), or a Shoggoth worker (similar to the Minions mod).
So obvious I didn't realize... "you, golem #43! take this staff and recharge it". It would work, yes...
Even better: Golems riding minecarts.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're callin' about the Mobtalker scripts, I no longer have access to them.
However, it's been getting tempting lately to put together a modpack that includes CustomNPCs, so I could definitely work in something along the same themes in the modpack's quests. Feel free to give suggestions of mods that promote an experience which minimizes mining grind in favor of exploration. I'll likely have to include Grimorie of Gaia to provide good models (No I'm not gonna directly change the default mob models)
Hi, having watched and read up on the new changes I'm so far really impressed by all the changes and new editions in tc3.
Suggestion to the levitation blocks: make them directional so that you can push items/entities away or down "say in water/lava/cauldrons;)". Opens so much to both mob farming and transportation. Would be in a good combination with portals if you reintegrate them "really wanted!:)". Also a different direction with upgrading them, maybe use the bellows to boost their range without extending the surface area(may have to redo the block design in that case though and maybe have the effect be pulsing with the bellows).
Also wondering if the images of aspects could be put on frames ingame? Having frames picture the aspect in the jar over it would make things visually appealing and easier to navigate. Maybe just label the different phials with aspect symbols is enough :).
Question about your ore and crystals. May have been asked before. Will the crystals be added again or is there some issue with lag or something because the feeling of finding a crystal over any ore is so much better and they feel more in theme with the mod. They added so much aesthetics to the mod too even after they had been mined.
This have been asked many times I know but i would really like a reintegration of the steampunky coolness of your pipes. Now there are in my opinion to many aspects to be piped around so maybe a different system could use it. My suggestion would be some more sinister type of magic, some dark magic integrated with alchemy. Making a cool looking laboratory with your many jars of creepy brains and other remains on shelves and add a bunch of boiling flasks and liquid piping between them would look so cool.
Last "I promise;)". I don't know how hard it would be to do this,but your marker blocks. Would it be possible to make the coloring of them work like on the Enderstorage mod. You place the block and then you can just click it with a dye. To expand on this. Would it be possible to color each side differently, or make it a seal system instead that takes less space and simply is placed on the side of any item. This may still take up the block space but the golem should be able to stand there anyway. Thanks anyway. So excited about every change that have been announced so far so keep it up:)
Feels much more like a bustling lab that is busy all day with an army of minions carrying heavy loads around for you while you barge around in your usual magical combat gear giving orders like a boss, instead of lugging a wrench around smacking an endless line of see-through piping, huh?
I realize at the heart of Thaumcraft lies a tech tree/progression mod. And I hope that never changes. The MC community NEEDS someone like Azanor to make a real end-game mod. I had HUGE hopes for the new DivineRPG mod….it looked epic on the front page. But I quickly realized there were massive balance issues and way too much hackery going on with default armor/weapons. Not to mention that certain mobs were added to the overworld that could one-hit-kill. But that concept – extra dimensions (like the Nether or The End) with all new mobs and new tiers of armor with a final “boss” – that formula can actually work. And because each dimension adds its own ores/weapons/mobs/bosses, they aren’t stepping on each other’s toes. That allows folks who love tech mods (like TC or RedPower) to build all the crazy stuff they want and just stay in the overworld all day if they wish. But if you want more awesomeness and tougher content, you COULD travel to different dimensions. And using firepower from Thaumcraft would be the only way to survive.
Yes, I know we have mods like Legendary Beasts and others that add more bosses/mobs and adds end-game like mechanics. But nobody like Azanor has tackled such a thing. I couldn’t even imagine how epic it would be if he did. I’m sure – Like Thaumcraft 2 – that once we reach the end of the tech tree in TC3, we will be super bad-ass with crazy weapons and bows/wands (and some super armor). But if we had something to actually use it on – that seems like the next logical step to me. Even great mods like Better Than Wolves suffer the same fate. You get the uber weapons….and nothing can really kill you. The idea there is to start building mob traps and such…..but for many of us, that’s some pretty dull stuff. Extra dimensions allow ENDLESS possibility for new ores, new magical items and the next level of armor/weapons/gadgets. Adding harder content would just be a matter of adding the next dimension. And you could bring those goodies back to the overworld to make even cooler stuff at your home-base. It could also encourage extra “home bases” in other dimensions with items/ores/machinery that can only function in that dimension. I know Notch probably had the same mechanic in mind when he added Nether Wart to vanilla MC. But let’s face it – the Nether was tacked on and is anything but “complete”. It could have been so much more.
I know combat in MC is kinda weak. But the right mod maker could kick it up several levels and actually make it a challenge. And more importantly, make it FUN. Azanor, I’m one of your biggest fans. I really am. I’ve turned a ton of folks onto TC. Even if you had to collaborate with someone else – you could make the ultimate mod (well, you already did) and give Minecrafters endless adventure with some super tough end-game love. Just something to think about. Huge props man and keep up the mind-blowing work!
Wouldn't that be like the best achievement ever?
earth, air...
Now need the water transport or pet that can do stuff..
EXample. Artifical octupus gather water resource(s), tranport entity. they can have upgrade as golems do that as stuff fills up their head getting bigger.
and random thought.. tier 3~4 pet.. golem+bat+octupus = cthulhu... JUST SAYING...
I am a representative of VudooHosting
it would be cool if you could also "trap" Aura nodes in warded jars and let them sit in your house or something. because from dire's channel it looks kinda irritating having to go over to a spot to have your wand charged.
its already been mentioned. but it would give a good use for phials! such as corpses of dead things would stay or mabye you would be able to coat the wand with a life phial and zap there drops into minions?
Theres already a block called the arcane block or something for that reason. thats what dires greenhouse (Get it?) is made of. theres also the Arcane doors. which only open to you.
note: not asking when this mod will come out
So what would cthulhu golems do?
Eat the world of course.
...Huh. I wonder how many times we've given Azanor some brilliant idea that's pushed the release back? All of us waiting on the mod and giving him more stuff to cram into it might be shooting ourselves in the foot here!
If you're callin' about the Mobtalker scripts, I no longer have access to them.
However, it's been getting tempting lately to put together a modpack that includes CustomNPCs, so I could definitely work in something along the same themes in the modpack's quests. Feel free to give suggestions of mods that promote an experience which minimizes mining grind in favor of exploration. I'll likely have to include Grimorie of Gaia to provide good models (No I'm not gonna directly change the default mob models)
i like this idea but instead of jars why not have a container like device that can suck a node into it to be transported to another place and have a way to make a containment unit using a multi block building recipe like the furnace where you can release the node into and it will be held there but if you release one out without the containment field it will become "unstable" in a sense like it will explode and either destroy a large are or spawn a horde of hostile wisps where it exploded. or create an unstable wormhole that could teleport you to a random region of the overworld or to the nether or even the end, but the wormholes using an adapted containment device could be used to make a permanent portal between 2 places (you would need to place an adapted containment device on the other side of the wormhole to keep a solid link between the two places) its just an idea that could add a supreme danger if screwed up or an incredible help if nothing goes wrong like the containment field having a failure and creating an unavoidable danger for the player...
The arcane levitators are exactly what I've always wanted for some sort of alternative to ladders.
A request. Could you make a horizontal version of them? (Essentially attract or repulse entities and items)
That way, one could do absolutely awesome stuff.
Like make a small "aquaduct" type build, with some horizontal repulsors, to make ad-hoc magical item movement.... [EDIT] To a pit of hungry chests... yeah... [/EDIT]
Or even better, magical traps that expel unwanted intruders from the wizard's lab!!
Something like this:
It's the flying cutlery that stresses me out.
Minecart? no. Golem? now we're cookin.
There is one thing that I would like to see changed completely from the current system of Thaumcraft, and that is Taint. To me, this system puts an arbitrary moral distinction on certain basic magics, and properly I feel that the only moral threshold ought to be in choosing to deal with horrorterrors from beyond the farthest darkness.
I still feel that Aura should be composed of two forces, but not "good" and "evil" forces, where one is purely beneficial and the other wholly malign. What I picture is two equal elements. We'll call them Anima and Animus. However, each of these forms would be equally Vis. In fact, "Vis" would contain equal parts of both, if one were to use the endgame or catalyst models of liquid Vis. Both would be equally important, and moreover, equally dangerous.
- Anima is the essence of vitality and creation in its purest form. It would be necessary for magic that nurtures or creates something, such as growing plants or infusing armour with protective magic.
- Animus is the essence of destruction and decay...however, it is not inherently evil. Magic that pulls things apart or harms, such as a magical quarry/harvester or magically enhanced weapons, would all be fuelled by Animus.
- Vis is simply the two forces in balance. Literally power in its purest form, it requires equal parts of each, and is used in "pure" magic, such as opening portals, summoning creatures, or crafting items with esoteric properties (such as those used to measure the Aura, for example).
If this sounds a lot like the current system, that's because on the surface it is. So, why is that distinction important? Well, first of all, most magic wouldn't be completely creative or destructive. More often than not, you'd deal with things that require gathering some of both, even if one is more predominant. More importantly, though, this makes things a little more difficult than "Build things to positively charge the environment to offset your Taint footprint". In nature, both creation and destruction are equally important. Death and decay keep rampant growth in check, and the development of new life keeps the land from becoming barren. There's a natural cycle that is maintained. So, what happens when you have too much of one or the other? Well, under this system, both extremes are bad.When there's an excess of Anima, plants grow out of control, even tearing down structures. The air becomes saturated with a choking cloud of pollen and spores. Natural creatures, even normally peaceful ones, enter a state of forced evolution and mutate into dangerous, savage versions of themselves (think D&D's dire animals). Over time, the landscape could transform into a nigh-impenetrable toxic jungle, populated by hostile magic-infused plants and ravening feral beasts.
On the other hand, too much Animus in an area brings down a destructive blight. Plants wither, the earth cracks and fills with pools of noxious sludge, and pestilence and harmful emanations saturate the landscape. Destructive energies discharge periodically without source in jets of flame or bursts of lightning, a malice from the very forces of nature that lashes out blindly at anything it can. Only monsters thrive here, bolstered by the harsh environment that fuels their own capacity to destroy, producing horrors such as toxic slimes, creepers imbued with arcane energies, or zombies and skeletons formed from the remains of many creatures into grotesque but powerful abominations. Left unchecked, the results of excess Animus produce a desolate wasteland that promises doom for any foolish enough to brave its treacherous landscape.
Of course, flux would mean that areas would settle over time, but this would only stop the effects, not fully reverse them. Transformed monster would remain, though new ones would cease to be created, landscapes would stay blighted or overgrown, and toxic effects in the air would take a good deal of time to clear off. Essentially, the type of flux would be effected by the overall charge in the area, and by weather it was excessive or depleted. The player, then, would have to balance their workings. Let an area slide too much toward either energy, and you face the consequences. Only by careful planning, offsetting great workings with others that will tip the balance back toward equilibrium, and carefully monitoring one's actions is it possible to perform magic safely, and reckless use will always invite disaster. Thaumaturgy, then, becomes as much art as science, a dangerous practice that requires care and planning to use, lest one risk destroying themselves, much as magic is described in stories.
The truly "Dark" magic would still have its place, but as an extension of Eldritch magic. Only by making dark pacts and performing forbidden rituals is one able to be favoured with the power of the abyssal beings man was never meant to understand. I see this as building up a third kind of energy, Karma. So, it's not just a moral choice, the player actually makes a personal sacrifice to access the greatest power. Unlike other forms of magic, Karma exists as a person's personal energy, and is theoretically infinite. However, whereas Aura would be neither good nor bad, a player's Karma can most definitely be tainted. Much like Aura, a player's Karma would eventually stabilize, but the more Eldritch magic one employs, the higher their Karmic Taint becomes. What is unlike Aura is that the effects of Karmic Taint do not store up and then discharge, they persist until a player's Karma recovers. At low levels, penalties would be low, like making levels take more experience to gain or Aura harder to draw upon. The player might grow hungry faster (maybe even never gaining saturation from food). As it gets worse, so too the effects, into things like slower regeneration, attracting mobs at a greater distance, perhaps even dimming the player's vision. At some levels, these might even manifest outright potion debuffs, as the player continues to suffer from the dark energies poisoning their soul even to the point a player's max health might be capped. Most importantly, though, would be this. The thresholds at which effects get removed would be much lower than those at which they are added, making overuse of Eldritch power highly dangerous (though high levels of Karmic Taint would actually be likely to take a bit of effort). Some items made with Eldritch magic could even carry an inherent taint in them, artificially inflating the player's Karmic Taint when used or worn.
Having a system that carries strong personal penalties would allow for some more powerful effects to be introduced, as well. For example, using a system like Mystcraft, there could be an Eldritch ritual that provides the player with their own personal pocket-dimension, a dark fortress floating in an endless void that comes pre-furnished with some useful structures of power and generates more Aura as a "baseline" than would naturally occur, making it an ideal place for performing greater workings. Further, the Eldritch caster might be able to summon Lovecraftian horrors to serve them, like a Hound of Tindalos (which could act like a tamed wolf, but would be tougher, stronger, recover by killing things, and able to teleport), or a Shoggoth worker (similar to the Minions mod).
Even better: Golems riding minecarts.
If you're callin' about the Mobtalker scripts, I no longer have access to them.
However, it's been getting tempting lately to put together a modpack that includes CustomNPCs, so I could definitely work in something along the same themes in the modpack's quests. Feel free to give suggestions of mods that promote an experience which minimizes mining grind in favor of exploration. I'll likely have to include Grimorie of Gaia to provide good models (No I'm not gonna directly change the default mob models)
Suggestion to the levitation blocks: make them directional so that you can push items/entities away or down "say in water/lava/cauldrons;)". Opens so much to both mob farming and transportation. Would be in a good combination with portals if you reintegrate them "really wanted!:)". Also a different direction with upgrading them, maybe use the bellows to boost their range without extending the surface area(may have to redo the block design in that case though and maybe have the effect be pulsing with the bellows).
Also wondering if the images of aspects could be put on frames ingame? Having frames picture the aspect in the jar over it would make things visually appealing and easier to navigate. Maybe just label the different phials with aspect symbols is enough :).
Question about your ore and crystals. May have been asked before. Will the crystals be added again or is there some issue with lag or something because the feeling of finding a crystal over any ore is so much better and they feel more in theme with the mod. They added so much aesthetics to the mod too even after they had been mined.
This have been asked many times I know but i would really like a reintegration of the steampunky coolness of your pipes. Now there are in my opinion to many aspects to be piped around so maybe a different system could use it. My suggestion would be some more sinister type of magic, some dark magic integrated with alchemy. Making a cool looking laboratory with your many jars of creepy brains and other remains on shelves and add a bunch of boiling flasks and liquid piping between them would look so cool.
Last "I promise;)". I don't know how hard it would be to do this,but your marker blocks. Would it be possible to make the coloring of them work like on the Enderstorage mod. You place the block and then you can just click it with a dye. To expand on this. Would it be possible to color each side differently, or make it a seal system instead that takes less space and simply is placed on the side of any item. This may still take up the block space but the golem should be able to stand there anyway. Thanks anyway. So excited about every change that have been announced so far so keep it up:)