Hey all, I decided to make a thread on how to begin with the amazing Ars Magica mod by Mithion. Before I jump into this I just want to say upfront, 5 cows WERE harmed in the making of this post. Can't believe I forgot this in my original post, guess I figured if you were reading this you had already been to the Ars Magica main page but here is the link: http://www.minecraft...dated-march-26/. Just finished a start for a more advanced guide going off of this one, will post the link to it here and at the end of the post: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1790205-ars-magica-rising/. For those who just want to find what they need, I colored things to help find them faster. First mentions of Ars Magica content, recipe ingredients, Mithion's name, contributors, attempts at humor, hyperlinks.
Newly Spawned
The beginnings of Ars Magica are like any other minecraft beginning, you will need a home (either permanent or temporary) to make it through the night. After finishing this to your satisfaction, then it's time to actually start the mod content. You may have noticed from when you spawned, your screen doesn't look any different from vanilla minecraft. Magic has to first be unlocked. To do this you need an Arcane Empowerment Table. To craft this, you need 12 cobblestone, 2 iron ingots, 1 wool (color doesn't matter), and 3 planks (any 3, even mixed types).
First you need to make Runes Vestis (Blank runes) out of the cobblestone.
Then you make the Arcane Empowerment Table with your new runes and the other materials. Now just place that down where you want it, and right click to open the GUI.
The first image means you can level up your magic, red means you need to gather more xp. Which leads me to discuss how you level up your magic. Leveling up your magic requires you to have a minecraft level equal to your current magic level in order to level up. So lvl 1 to lvl 2 magic requires you have a lvl 1 minecraft level. The minecraft level is used up to raise your magic, so if you find a dungeon with a spawner, it may be a good idea to turn it into an xp farm area. You can also mine up all the coal, redstone and lapis/diamonds you see. Now might also be the time to mention that blue bar that appeared between your health and stamina bars. This is your Mana bar, which gives you an on-the-go indication of how much mana you have, a more accurate amount can be seen under your crafting grid in your inventory. It will flash blue when you don't have enough mana to cast your current spell, so get to know it well, this can tell you if you are a safe and happy mage or if your day is about to be ruined by that Creeper. This leads me to discuss the casting modes. Diminished casting is the cheapest and lowest impact version of spells, indicated by a down arrow in the mana bar. Normal casting is the next step up, using the base amount of mana for the base spell effect, this is indicated by a circle/oval in the mana bar. Augmented casting is the highest point a spell can reach, indicated by an up arrow in the mana bar. But unlike Diminished and Normal, you do not begin with this casting mode. It must be unlocked by finding the Archmage Tower and defeating the Tower Guardians, a grand task that will take much preparation to accomplish. Here's a little incentive to unlock Augmented: The first image is diminished Firebolt, a basic spell. The second is the same spell cast on Augmented.
You Need Spells! Now that you have your magic, you need to be able to use it, right? Now we need the Inscription Table. For this you need 2 sticks, a paper, a torch, 5 planks (can be mixed), and a feather. Use the sticks and paper to make a scroll like this. Then you use the scroll with the other materials to make the table. The feather and torch positions are interchangeable, but I believe the parchment must be in the middle. After you make the table, place it where you want it, and right-click to open the gui. You will need a parchment and a rune to get your first spell. In this example it was a blank rune, but you should know spells are randomized, per person and per world, so it's no use trying to copy spells from images you find around. Also in 1.5.1 I believe the spell is needed to be able to craft it, so you shouldn't waste time trying to guess combinations. Right now you have one spell, but eventually you will make more, and each spell takes up a slot in your inventory. Sounds like you will have to be picky about which spells you carry on you right? Well the Spellbook is Mithion's answer to that problem. 3 string, 4 leather and 2 paper make a portable storage for spells and spell recipes I believe with a capacity of around 40. And the book comes with the ability to use and cycle through a set of spells you place on the left side of its gui, accessed by holding shift and right-clicking. I will post an image of this when I can, I overlooked this while I was preparingXD The book can also be colored with most dyes!
What else can we do? So now we have a spell or two, and a nice custom colored spellbook, what else can we do? Well a very nice part of this mod is Mithion's essence system. For now we will cover just a couple of the many things you can do with this. So you will need 4 glass, 8 snow blocks and a white chalk. You might be thinking, I glass is easy, just throw sand in a furnace, snow blocks are just 4 snowballs in a square, how do you make white chalk? Well to do that you need a piece of clay, a flint, a piece of paper, bonemeal and Vinteum dust. So that list probably seemed pretty easy until you reach Vinteum dust, what is that? Vinteum dust is obtained by cooking a block of Vinteum Ore in a furnace. This is what it looks like: Note I placed that in creative mode, you shouldn't ever find it sitting on the surface like that. I believe it is found in the same levels as gold, so you will have to work for it alittle, but the payoff is very much worth it. So you found your Vinteum Ore, cooked it into dust, now what? Well now you just throw the ingredients I mentioned in a crafting grid: Placement of the components doesn't matter here, and now you have a White Chalk.
Setting up a Nexus Now by the title of this part, you can probably guess that what you are about to build is called a Nexus. I like to draw out where I am going to place the Nexus before I place it. Breaking a nexus after placing the chalk doesn't return the chalk! Because of this, if you do happen to misplace the Nexus, it is usually better to rearrange the pillars, unless you can easily remake the chalk.The base of it does not have to be raised like the image, I simply did it to give you an idea of the shape of the Nexus. A Nexus requires a 5x5 area (the actual chalk part of the Nexus takes up a 3x3 area), with the chalk placed in the middle and pillars in the 4 corners. Here is my example: Now you just place the chalk in the center, and you should get the Nexus circle in the middle. If you did it right, it should glow a light blue, start spinning and look like this: Vyrasa says I should clarify that the base is not needed for the Nexus to function, neither does the snow block in the middle that I placed the Nexus on. I simply used the base to give an idea of the spacing between the pillars, as I have seen many people try to place a nexus in the center of a 4x4 area (There is no single center block in an even numbered square ) Here is an example of a nice looking Nexus that Slitthroat on the server I play with Steelflame made. Ah, my old items. Being a mage does not always keep you from the dangers of vanilla lava, the Bringer of Doom to many an inventory. This also reminds me, in the top left of the image you will see I have a Mana Regen II buff. This is a handy benefit from the Nexus that, if charged to at least 10%, will be granted by walking over the Nexus at no cost. Great for when you are using magic around your soon-to-be-epic magical abode. Or if you are like me and need to growth spell your crops because you are dangerously hungry, sitting in a room studying ancient magic works up an appetite doesn't it?
You might notice the chat box is open in the second Nexus image and some numbers are showing up with a percentage. One of the spells you recieve to start is called Sense Energy. This spell is used to check how much power the Nexus or various essence-powered blocks have. The Light Nexus you built is perhaps the easiest to use. After you set it up it slowly draws power from the environment, charging itself at no cost. Perfect for getting started right?
Using Essence Ok, so now we have that charging up. Now how do we get to use the essence? One of the most useful items in Ars Magica is the Magic Fabricator, and it runs on- you guessed it- essence. To craft this wonderful machine (is it a machine if it uses magic?), you need 3 planks ( again any kind or mixed), 2 red wool (and color does matter this time), and finally a block of obsidian. Craft it up like this: After crafting this, place it near the nexus( I apologize but I have yet to determine the farthest a nexus will charge an item from) (Vyrasa stated the Nexus actually powers up to 10 blocks from center, equaling a 21x21 area, height/depth yet to be determined but from personal experience I believe it is a 21x21x21 cube.) and it should begin charging:
This took a few tries lol
After letting that charge abit (this is where the cows were harmed part I mentioned at the beginning comes in) you can open up the gui by right-clicking it. Now we use it! The grid on the left is used just like a crafting grid, with the right being the result. For this example I used golden nuggets to craft an ingot. Just clicking on the result does nothing special though. To see the magic happen you need to apply a redstone current to it. For the sake of simplicity I just placed a pressure plate next to it. But you might be thinking, the first image has red numbers, and in the other they are green. Red indicates when the Fabricator doesn't have enough power to make the item you wish to craft. Green means you have enough and can craft the item if you apply the current. So I step on the pressure plate: Now in that image, I have a gold bar in my inventory, and now the numbers are red again. I used up the power and can't make another bar right now, but you will also notice the nuggets are still there. Using the fabricator to craft items lets you keep the items used to craft. This can be done with Ars Magica and Vanilla minecraft items, so you can craft infinite arrows/bows/tools/bricks as long as it has enough power!
A thing to note about the Fabricator, as Workerdrone pointed out, the gui for the Fabricator is just like the Crafting Table. If you remove the product from the result box you will use up the materials just like a regular crafting table. Also I forgot to mention in my first post, if you place a chest by the fabricator it will automatically place the item you make into the chest rather than popping out on top of the table (which you don't see because I learned you can use a pressure plate to activate it, so I picked it up every time).
Another thing that Workerdrone pointed out, and that I overlooked, is the Calefactor. The Calefactor is an essence powered block just like the Fabricator, so you will need that Nexus you made earlier to use it. You will need 2 lapis, a redstone dust, 4 stone and a Vinteum dust. Craft it out like this: Now that you have that, place it near the Nexus and let it power up. Note that if you place it and it doesn't begin charging, and if you have the Sense Energy spell made, check the Nexus. If it has no power to give it can't charge the Calefactor. And if the Fabricator is not fully charged (or at least above 50%) it will have priority over the Calefactor for power (as I learned when trying to show it off). A note on this, it may have something to do with which item was placed first, though don't hold me too much on that. After placing the Calefactor, right-click to open up it's gui: The Calefactor acts as a furnace, cooking up things in exchange for essence. Like Industrial Craft's EU system, the Calefactor only uses up as much essence as it needs to cook the items, so no wasted energy. It cooks at 80% of the speed of a furnace, but if you add 3 Charge Foci it will work 2x as fast. Vyrasa also went into some mathematics, which I tend to avoid, that says Charge Foci don't just double the speed, they have an increase on the essence cost and therefore essence drain speed on the Nexus. This makes having 3 Charge Foci being powered by a mid/empty Light Nexus almost impossible to use, as it will need power far faster than the Light Nexus would ever be able to maintain. For specifics Vyrasa's post on this is just a few below this post. I will discuss the Foci in just a minute. And as you can see, the animation for the Calefactor is a pretty cool one, Mithion does a great job. Now to the Foci. The only one you will find useful right now is the Charge Focus, but to craft that, you first need a Focus, and to get THAT you need a Lesser Focus. Sounds complicated right? It's not too hard. Foci can be found in chests, I believe as of 1.5.1 you can also trade Mage Villagers for them, and they are craftable. To fully upgrade a Calefactor, or the Fabricator, you need 9 glass, 12 redstone, and 12 gold nuggets. Here's the sequence: Now you just throw them in the slots on the Calefactor. Remember though that making it work 2x faster also means it drains energy 2x faster. When I was doing this example it locked up my Calefactor due to it having no power and trying to take 2x the essence from my Nexus which has no power as well. It would be best to either let the Nexus charge to almost full or let the Calefactor do the same, preferably both so you will be almost sure not to run out of power.
New Friends, Enemies, and Annoyances Ars Magica adds some new friends for your lonely minecraft world. One thing you will notice are a new type of villager. These Mage Villagers can be found randomly living in- what else?- Villages! They can be traded emeralds in exchange for Ars Magica items and even spells! The other image shows my...guests...From left to right: Druid, these friendly girls wander around, randomly growing things I believe similar to a bonemeal effect. The little blue ball up in the top of the image tried to escape, I mean leave early. It is called a Wisp, now Wisps can be helpful if you hit them with a certain spell, but beware hitting them with the wrong one, they will unleash their wrath upon you. And last but not least the man in white. He is a Light Mage. They can prove invaluable at times, spawning like other mobs at night, they fight the undead as well as their Dark Mage counterparts. Light Mages also heal you if you are below half health, very friendly of them.
Now come the annoyances: Again from left to right: Water Elemental, these buggers spawn near the water, they are very fast and attack like a smaller slime, dealing no damage but pushing you around. The camera shy one in the middle is a Mana Elemental, they shoot bolts of purple lightning dealing 1/2 heart in damage and sapping away your mana, turning it into health for them. The familiar looking fellow on the right is a Mana Creeper.
And now we get to guys you should come to fear: Let's switch it up abit, from right to left this time: Dark Mage, now these guys can really do a number on you, they use spells like Enderbolt, which does a considerable amount of damage and has a chance to teleport you( usually up high enough to take fall damage). As of 1.5.1 I believe these guys and the Light mages do not spawn until lvl 7, but get progressively stronger with you, which means they will always be a threat. In the middle there is one of my favorite backstabbers. The Hecate is a fast melee mob that can kill you in about 3 hits without any armor. It gets better, when he is close enough to attack he goes invisible, and he doesn't run a straight route to attack you either. He also participates in Zombie raids on villages and can break down doors, though I have yet to get one to do it. And lastly the Mana Creeper, but didn't I mention him with the annoyances? The Mana Creeper fits into both categories, early on when you don't have mana or spells to use your mana, he isn't really a threat. He hisses like a creeper, but instead of exploding he turns into a pretty impressive blue-blackhole that sucks up your mana. This effect scales with you, so at higher levels it will take more mana so that you could be left out of mana in the middle of a fight with an army of Dark Mages and Hecate. See how he's a real bad guy now? Another thing to note, only Hecate are affected by the daylight, they burn like all undead. The Mages, Elementals and Mana Creeper however aren't affected and will remain until noon when all mobs despawn.
And Closing...Or Not Well I think that is about everything I wanted to cover. Oh wait, you might want to know something else that might help with those Dark Mages. Ars Magica also includes sets of armor specially tailored to help you survive those nasty Enderbolts. To craft a basic set of armor you need 17 wool (I believe any color works for this), 5 Runes Vestis ( blank runes) and 5 string. Craft them up like this: Things to note about the Ars Magica armors. First, these are the only armors that reduce magical damage by nature. As of 1.5.1 I believe there is an enchantment you can get for magic protection, but your most reliable source will be these armors. Second, these armors are self-repairing! Sounds abit OP right? Well it comes at a cost, these armors repair themselves using your mana! And they also take 5x the damage of normal armor. If a piece is destroyed you will have to make another, so be careful with them and know when to back down so your armor and mana can recharge. While we are on the subject, I believe this first suit called Apprentice or Novice armor is meant to be mana-stable (it doesn't drain your mana but it might not be raising either) at level 6. As you go higher in armor tier, a higher magic level will be needed to prevent your armor from eating your mana away. Third thing to note is that the tiers above Novice/Apprentice have in-built abilities that have a cooldown after being triggered, Chest pieces cast a regeneration ability on you when your health is low, the hood casts waterbreathing when your oxygen runs out, leggings cast water shield on you to put out fire or keep lava from burning you for a short time, and boots cast featherfall when you would take fall damage. A last note on the Ars Magica armors is they are highly enchantable.
Good Luck Young Scholar! Well that's it. Hopefully this cleared up any questions you might have about getting started with the mod. Anything I didn't cover might be found on the wiki here (http://arsmagica.sho.../wiki/Main_Page). If it is something you feel should be included here for easy access feel free to tell me and I will add it. This is one of the first threads I have made and by far the most extensive, so any criticism is welcomed. I think I used too many spoilers but this was an image heavy post that I didn't want to take 30 min to load. XD If it is wanted I could make a medium/advanced version of this. I honestly think it gets easier once you get things established. If you find this at all helpful, or even read through some of it, please let me know lol I would like to think I didn't spend so much time on this for nothing. This has been accomplished! Mithion has been awsome enough to put a link to this on the OP of the Ars Magica thread. Much appreciated!
If you did find this helpful, mabey even keep me updated on how it's going, what else I should consider adding, anything but leaving this thread empty. I wanted to have questions posted on here so that the main Ars Magica page remained free for bug reports and content addition discussion. That being said please feel free to post anything AM related, or even magical styled mods that you find complimentary to AM. http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1790205-ars-magica-rising/, a link to a more advanced guide. Also, post here if you use furnace pants!
Thanks alot! I will get right on getting pictures and such to add Calefactor to the list. I always overlook it seeing as I never used it myself. And yeah those Dark Mages, Im glad in the newer build they don't show up until lvl 7 cause with no magic it was like I had to hide inside until noon after the first night. And that leaves you with what, 4 min of daylight left?
I should also add abit about mana and the indicator for when you don't have enough mana to cast. And I can't believe I overlooked a link to the actual mod page. XD
Thanks! Getting the spoilers working was my best achievementXD lol I really need to learn how to do something BEFORE I try it, would have gone alot smoother.
One important thing to note about the Fabricator is that if you pull the item from it directly (not using a redstone signal), it will use up the materials.
Maybe add the Calefactor as a beginners item ?
And as for the Dark Mages. As you level they do indeed pose a serious threat if you do not use magic resistance (armor or enchant).
I was level 35 when I got ganked by 2 of them, and wearing full Diamond armor with Protection IV didn't protect me at all. I was dead in 2 hits, before I even knew what hit me.
There got that added, thanks for the reminder. Should I add the Blue Nexus, seeing as you need lapis to make the Calefactor anyways?
Just a thing to add, currently, the journeyman armor gives the magical effects, but those effects are the weakest ones in the armors, and they have a longer cooldown. Also, your guide is pretty useful and complete, and I told you being one of the veterans in this mod (just single player XD)
Just a thing to add, currently, the journeyman armor gives the magical effects, but those effects are the weakest ones in the armors, and they have a longer cooldown. Also, your guide is pretty useful and complete, and I told you being one of the veterans in this mod (just single player XD)
Yeah, I could mention that. As long as I wasn't so wrong that I said Novice/Apprentice armor gives the effects. And thanks! Just finished adding some more to it and, hopefully, making it abit easier to go through.
The base of it does not have to be raised like the image, I simply did it to give you an idea of the shape of the Nexus. A Nexus requires a 5x5 area (the actual chalk part of the Nexus takes up a 3x3 area), with the chalk placed in the middle and pillars in the 4 corners. Here is my example:
If you want to get technical, only the middle block of the 3x3 (ie the one you click the chalk on) actually is necessary. So all the wooden planks in your picture are optional.
(for clarity, you might want to use something other than a snow block for the central chalk-click block, since that block can be anything while the snow blocks in the pillars are required)
I apologize but I have yet to determine the farthest a nexus will charge an item from)
It appears to be 10 blocks from the nexus center (chalk-clicked block). So a nexus powers a 21x21 block area.
(Regarding the Calefactor)
It cooks at 80% of the speed of a furnace, but if you add 3 Charge Foci it will work 2x as fast.
<snip>
Remember though that making it work 2x faster also means it drains energy 2x faster. When I was doing this example it locked up my Calefactor due to it having no power and trying to take 2x the essence from my Nexus which has no power as well. It would be best to either let the Nexus charge to almost full or let the Calefactor do the same, preferably both so you will be almost sure not to run out of power.
I don't think this describes the increased cost of the Charge Foci very accurately. In terms of essence per cooked item, 3 Charge Foci make it cost nearly 3.9x as much. I haven't looked into essence-per-unit-time, but given the cooking speed, I'd guess it's a lot faster than 2x the essence drain. So for learning the raw essence system, 3 Charge Foci makes for four times the waiting.
(the wiki indicates 3 Charge Foci should make it cost ~9.2x as much per item, but some quick testing with a manabattery led me to the ~3.9x per item statement)
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As far as the Blue/Essence Nexus, you might mention it and the Red/Dark Nexus exist, but I wouldn't go into the Blue Nexus in detail until you talk about the generated structures (mage towers, etc). The Blue Nexus requires chiseled stone bricks, which you can only acquire from worldgen - mostly from Ars Magica structures, though vanilla jungle temples also have 3 per temple, requiring 2 temples to make a Blue Nexus.
Yes I can make that clearer about the planks and center. But I did put in parenthese the actual size of the nexus is 3x3. Thank you for the Nexus range, I was never quite sure. Do you think that extends to a 21x21x21 area? I didn't want to get too technical for a starter guide, but I do admit I didn't know that about the Calefactor, as I don't use it often. I will include that in the guide when I get the chance, or should I gather together enough material to make an intermediate guide? Also a question to anyone, should I put together a tips section using suggestions that i know of or that you all post?
Nice guide! I was going to write one, but you've done it much better than I ever could have done.
EDIT: While skimming through your guide, I didn't see any explanations regarding casting modes. Did you forget, or am I blind?
Thanks! Though I'm not sure if that is entirely true. Good catch, I didn't go into it, or just mentioned it in passing if I did. I will add that to the list of things to do. If I can get college work out of the way I hopefully will get it done tomorrow/today since it is 4:30 am. lol
In all honesty, please do a COMPLETE guide on all Ars Magica structures. I understand this is just a beginners guide, so your guide here satisfies it. However, for the one-tier higher than a beginner players, can you put up a link on this page linking to a more complete guide including all structure details, some spell recipes, and a very few spell creations tip! I would love to know what some spells do and the purpose of some of these structures, such as the mirror and library shelves. A complete guide is really up to you as it will take tons of your time and requiring another hosting site, but I really do wish you do one for the players who knows only so much, thank you in advance. No hard feelings if you choose not to do it.
I understand there is a wiki, but, I seem to understand you so much more. Seriously, I didn't even know what the magic fabricator did after reading the whole tutorial on the wiki. Probably due to a overload on memory... but anyways, this is simply a request only to you to not direct me back to the wiki (even though I will still look it up every time I need serious help, its just that you go into more detail).
Why do you say it would require another hosting site? With all honestly, I completely forgot just about everything I learned about designing webpages and such so if that was your suggestion it might take quite a while. Besides finding somewhere that would host it.
I wouldn't mind making a more advanced guide at all, if Mithion is alright with it.
I understand about the wiki, and glad I can help. As I said, I will be fine with making a more advanced guide with Mithion's ok. I will let you know if I start working on one, could use your help with content ideas. Until then, if you have questions shoot me a message through forum messenger or if you have a mic, I recently got on Dolby Axon, and you could possibly join the chat with the others. I think I know the most about AM, as they specialize with Thaumcraft and Forestry and such, but they may know things I do not.
Another note, I am doing the updating of this forum thread in sections, I haven't forgotten the improvements that were suggested. All these storms around here lately have done a number on my internet, took me 12 tries to add the part about the mana bar and casting modes. This leads me to mention if I do make a more complete guide, it will be so large I highly doubt I will be doing it all at once. As I said before it took me a few hours to get this guide done and it is a small one. I have no problem spending the time on it, but having the time is the hard part right now, between work and the college semester finishing up I have little free time.
Edit: Mithion gave me the go ahead on an advanced guide, I would like to know what you had in mind Magician_DC. And anyone else who has something to say of course.
If possible, just continue where you left off. I believe that would be most benefitial to all other players. However, my own suggestions comes straight from my own expereinces in my server world:
Ok, first thing is first, STRUCTURES;
those things r really confusing. I understand some of them, but most… yeah might need help with them. I loved how you elaborated on the magic fabricator and calefactory, that’s why I now know how to use them. So the following 4 would be the structures that I am not familiar with:
Pure Vineteum Crystal
Magic Mirror
Essense Refiner
Arcane Generator
On our small server, I am the one required to refine all magic for our survival, but I haven’t a clue on how to use those machines at all. If you could guide me the purposes of those machines or how to use them, I would appreciate it very much.
I also find 2 rare flowers, but they can’t be turned into dyes at all. Even the Vineteums that I mined are unfamiliar- they’re not ingots! If you can also guide me on those, I’d highly appreciate them.
And, how does one go about finding a Mage Tower? I’ve been using that dang light Nexus all this time and it is just not getting the job done. I want an upgrade!
As of now, I am using only the 1.4.7 version, so any newer versions out there, I would not be familiar with at all. Maybe someday we’ll upgrade, but for now, our world is progressing well.
For the magic part, which spell do you think would suffice our server the most? Let me explain my situation: Our server operates alongside with Mob Spawn Control (MSC) and Toast’s special mobs mod. MSC mod allows the spawning of any kind of mobs into our world regardless of biome/dimension restrictions. So every few days, we will be invaded by ghasts, around 30 of them too! Other days would be hordes of zombies, and so on. Specail mobs mod allows the variations of these newly spawn mobs and makes them super hard! Any kind of spells out there to save us?
In a more advance sense, can you tell me how I can go on about creating my own spells if the current ones will not suffice my survival?
I know this is a lot of requests, and some of them are covered on the wiki, but I love how you go on about details, please, if its not too much trouble, continue your guide with your amazing pictures. About hosting another site, you can always just re-edit your existing guide or add a link and link it to another Minecraft forums page by opening up a new guide. Thank you so much for replying and pm me.
WOW I was about to ask a question but this answered it for me very good guide BTW thank you and long live the Archmages!!!
and Ars Magića!!!!!
lol Glad it helped, going to start working on another more advanced one pretty soon. For the life of me I can't seem to find a particular type of tower and I also need to get some more pictures taken of item recipes.
I may be missing something, but in my first world with 1.5.1 I can't seem to find a way to create or locate any new spells. I just have the 3 I started with. I have traveled about 600 blocks in most directions and aside from starting by a structure that just gave me books I have not found any books. I tried to create a new spell randomly using single runes and combinations and no luck there (firebolt was a single orange rune, but no other single rune spells seem to exist).
None of the guides say much about getting spells, just find them in the new structures or create by random combinations of runes.
Newly Spawned
The beginnings of Ars Magica are like any other minecraft beginning, you will need a home (either permanent or temporary) to make it through the night. After finishing this to your satisfaction, then it's time to actually start the mod content. You may have noticed from when you spawned, your screen doesn't look any different from vanilla minecraft. Magic has to first be unlocked. To do this you need an Arcane Empowerment Table. To craft this, you need 12 cobblestone, 2 iron ingots, 1 wool (color doesn't matter), and 3 planks (any 3, even mixed types).
Then you make the Arcane Empowerment Table with your new runes and the other materials.
Now just place that down where you want it, and right click to open the GUI.
The first image is diminished Firebolt, a basic spell. The second is the same spell cast on Augmented.
You Need Spells!
Now that you have your magic, you need to be able to use it, right? Now we need the Inscription Table. For this you need 2 sticks, a paper, a torch, 5 planks (can be mixed), and a feather.
Use the sticks and paper to make a scroll like this.
Then you use the scroll with the other materials to make the table.
The feather and torch positions are interchangeable, but I believe the parchment must be in the middle.
After you make the table, place it where you want it, and right-click to open the gui.
You will need a parchment and a rune to get your first spell. In this example it was a blank rune, but you should know spells are randomized, per person and per world, so it's no use trying to copy spells from images you find around. Also in 1.5.1 I believe the spell is needed to be able to craft it, so you shouldn't waste time trying to guess combinations.
Right now you have one spell, but eventually you will make more, and each spell takes up a slot in your inventory. Sounds like you will have to be picky about which spells you carry on you right? Well the Spellbook is Mithion's answer to that problem. 3 string, 4 leather and 2 paper make a portable storage for spells and spell recipes I believe with a capacity of around 40.
And the book comes with the ability to use and cycle through a set of spells you place on the left side of its gui, accessed by holding shift and right-clicking. I will post an image of this when I can, I overlooked this while I was preparingXD The book can also be colored with most dyes!
What else can we do?
So now we have a spell or two, and a nice custom colored spellbook, what else can we do? Well a very nice part of this mod is Mithion's essence system. For now we will cover just a couple of the many things you can do with this. So you will need 4 glass, 8 snow blocks and a white chalk. You might be thinking, I glass is easy, just throw sand in a furnace, snow blocks are just 4 snowballs in a square, how do you make white chalk? Well to do that you need a piece of clay, a flint, a piece of paper, bonemeal and Vinteum dust. So that list probably seemed pretty easy until you reach Vinteum dust, what is that? Vinteum dust is obtained by cooking a block of Vinteum Ore in a furnace. This is what it looks like:
Note I placed that in creative mode, you shouldn't ever find it sitting on the surface like that. I believe it is found in the same levels as gold, so you will have to work for it alittle, but the payoff is very much worth it.
So you found your Vinteum Ore, cooked it into dust, now what? Well now you just throw the ingredients I mentioned in a crafting grid:
Placement of the components doesn't matter here, and now you have a White Chalk.
Setting up a Nexus
Now by the title of this part, you can probably guess that what you are about to build is called a Nexus. I like to draw out where I am going to place the Nexus before I place it. Breaking a nexus after placing the chalk doesn't return the chalk! Because of this, if you do happen to misplace the Nexus, it is usually better to rearrange the pillars, unless you can easily remake the chalk. The base of it does not have to be raised like the image, I simply did it to give you an idea of the shape of the Nexus. A Nexus requires a 5x5 area (the actual chalk part of the Nexus takes up a 3x3 area), with the chalk placed in the middle and pillars in the 4 corners. Here is my example:
Now you just place the chalk in the center, and you should get the Nexus circle in the middle. If you did it right, it should glow a light blue, start spinning and look like this:
Vyrasa says I should clarify that the base is not needed for the Nexus to function, neither does the snow block in the middle that I placed the Nexus on. I simply used the base to give an idea of the spacing between the pillars, as I have seen many people try to place a nexus in the center of a 4x4 area (There is no single center block in an even numbered square ) Here is an example of a nice looking Nexus that Slitthroat on the server I play with Steelflame made.
Ah, my old items. Being a mage does not always keep you from the dangers of vanilla lava, the Bringer of Doom to many an inventory. This also reminds me, in the top left of the image you will see I have a Mana Regen II buff. This is a handy benefit from the Nexus that, if charged to at least 10%, will be granted by walking over the Nexus at no cost. Great for when you are using magic around your soon-to-be-epic magical abode. Or if you are like me and need to growth spell your crops because you are dangerously hungry, sitting in a room studying ancient magic works up an appetite doesn't it?
You might notice the chat box is open in the second Nexus image and some numbers are showing up with a percentage. One of the spells you recieve to start is called Sense Energy. This spell is used to check how much power the Nexus or various essence-powered blocks have. The Light Nexus you built is perhaps the easiest to use. After you set it up it slowly draws power from the environment, charging itself at no cost. Perfect for getting started right?
Using Essence
Ok, so now we have that charging up. Now how do we get to use the essence? One of the most useful items in Ars Magica is the Magic Fabricator, and it runs on- you guessed it- essence. To craft this wonderful machine (is it a machine if it uses magic?), you need 3 planks ( again any kind or mixed), 2 red wool (and color does matter this time), and finally a block of obsidian. Craft it up like this:
After crafting this, place it near the nexus( I apologize but I have yet to determine the farthest a nexus will charge an item from) (Vyrasa stated the Nexus actually powers up to 10 blocks from center, equaling a 21x21 area, height/depth yet to be determined but from personal experience I believe it is a 21x21x21 cube.) and it should begin charging:
After letting that charge abit (this is where the cows were harmed part I mentioned at the beginning comes in) you can open up the gui by right-clicking it.
Now we use it! The grid on the left is used just like a crafting grid, with the right being the result. For this example I used golden nuggets to craft an ingot.
Just clicking on the result does nothing special though. To see the magic happen you need to apply a redstone current to it. For the sake of simplicity I just placed a pressure plate next to it. But you might be thinking, the first image has red numbers, and in the other they are green. Red indicates when the Fabricator doesn't have enough power to make the item you wish to craft. Green means you have enough and can craft the item if you apply the current. So I step on the pressure plate:
Now in that image, I have a gold bar in my inventory, and now the numbers are red again. I used up the power and can't make another bar right now, but you will also notice the nuggets are still there. Using the fabricator to craft items lets you keep the items used to craft. This can be done with Ars Magica and Vanilla minecraft items, so you can craft infinite arrows/bows/tools/bricks as long as it has enough power!
A thing to note about the Fabricator, as Workerdrone pointed out, the gui for the Fabricator is just like the Crafting Table. If you remove the product from the result box you will use up the materials just like a regular crafting table. Also I forgot to mention in my first post, if you place a chest by the fabricator it will automatically place the item you make into the chest rather than popping out on top of the table (which you don't see because I learned you can use a pressure plate to activate it, so I picked it up every time).
Another thing that Workerdrone pointed out, and that I overlooked, is the Calefactor. The Calefactor is an essence powered block just like the Fabricator, so you will need that Nexus you made earlier to use it. You will need 2 lapis, a redstone dust, 4 stone and a Vinteum dust. Craft it out like this:
Now that you have that, place it near the Nexus and let it power up. Note that if you place it and it doesn't begin charging, and if you have the Sense Energy spell made, check the Nexus. If it has no power to give it can't charge the Calefactor. And if the Fabricator is not fully charged (or at least above 50%) it will have priority over the Calefactor for power (as I learned when trying to show it off). A note on this, it may have something to do with which item was placed first, though don't hold me too much on that. After placing the Calefactor, right-click to open up it's gui:
The Calefactor acts as a furnace, cooking up things in exchange for essence. Like Industrial Craft's EU system, the Calefactor only uses up as much essence as it needs to cook the items, so no wasted energy. It cooks at 80% of the speed of a furnace, but if you add 3 Charge Foci it will work 2x as fast. Vyrasa also went into some mathematics, which I tend to avoid, that says Charge Foci don't just double the speed, they have an increase on the essence cost and therefore essence drain speed on the Nexus. This makes having 3 Charge Foci being powered by a mid/empty Light Nexus almost impossible to use, as it will need power far faster than the Light Nexus would ever be able to maintain. For specifics Vyrasa's post on this is just a few below this post. I will discuss the Foci in just a minute. And as you can see, the animation for the Calefactor is a pretty cool one, Mithion does a great job.
Now to the Foci. The only one you will find useful right now is the Charge Focus, but to craft that, you first need a Focus, and to get THAT you need a Lesser Focus. Sounds complicated right? It's not too hard. Foci can be found in chests, I believe as of 1.5.1 you can also trade Mage Villagers for them, and they are craftable. To fully upgrade a Calefactor, or the Fabricator, you need 9 glass, 12 redstone, and 12 gold nuggets. Here's the sequence:
Now you just throw them in the slots on the Calefactor.
Remember though that making it work 2x faster also means it drains energy 2x faster. When I was doing this example it locked up my Calefactor due to it having no power and trying to take 2x the essence from my Nexus which has no power as well. It would be best to either let the Nexus charge to almost full or let the Calefactor do the same, preferably both so you will be almost sure not to run out of power.
New Friends, Enemies, and Annoyances
Ars Magica adds some new friends for your lonely minecraft world.
One thing you will notice are a new type of villager. These Mage Villagers can be found randomly living in- what else?- Villages! They can be traded emeralds in exchange for Ars Magica items and even spells! The other image shows my...guests...From left to right: Druid, these friendly girls wander around, randomly growing things I believe similar to a bonemeal effect. The little blue ball up in the top of the image tried to escape, I mean leave early. It is called a Wisp, now Wisps can be helpful if you hit them with a certain spell, but beware hitting them with the wrong one, they will unleash their wrath upon you. And last but not least the man in white. He is a Light Mage. They can prove invaluable at times, spawning like other mobs at night, they fight the undead as well as their Dark Mage counterparts. Light Mages also heal you if you are below half health, very friendly of them.
Now come the annoyances:
Again from left to right: Water Elemental, these buggers spawn near the water, they are very fast and attack like a smaller slime, dealing no damage but pushing you around. The camera shy one in the middle is a Mana Elemental, they shoot bolts of purple lightning dealing 1/2 heart in damage and sapping away your mana, turning it into health for them. The familiar looking fellow on the right is a Mana Creeper.
And now we get to guys you should come to fear:
Let's switch it up abit, from right to left this time: Dark Mage, now these guys can really do a number on you, they use spells like Enderbolt, which does a considerable amount of damage and has a chance to teleport you( usually up high enough to take fall damage). As of 1.5.1 I believe these guys and the Light mages do not spawn until lvl 7, but get progressively stronger with you, which means they will always be a threat. In the middle there is one of my favorite backstabbers. The Hecate is a fast melee mob that can kill you in about 3 hits without any armor. It gets better, when he is close enough to attack he goes invisible, and he doesn't run a straight route to attack you either. He also participates in Zombie raids on villages and can break down doors, though I have yet to get one to do it. And lastly the Mana Creeper, but didn't I mention him with the annoyances? The Mana Creeper fits into both categories, early on when you don't have mana or spells to use your mana, he isn't really a threat. He hisses like a creeper, but instead of exploding he turns into a pretty impressive blue-blackhole that sucks up your mana. This effect scales with you, so at higher levels it will take more mana so that you could be left out of mana in the middle of a fight with an army of Dark Mages and Hecate. See how he's a real bad guy now?
Another thing to note, only Hecate are affected by the daylight, they burn like all undead. The Mages, Elementals and Mana Creeper however aren't affected and will remain until noon when all mobs despawn.
And Closing...Or Not
Well I think that is about everything I wanted to cover. Oh wait, you might want to know something else that might help with those Dark Mages. Ars Magica also includes sets of armor specially tailored to help you survive those nasty Enderbolts. To craft a basic set of armor you need 17 wool (I believe any color works for this), 5 Runes Vestis ( blank runes) and 5 string. Craft them up like this:
Things to note about the Ars Magica armors. First, these are the only armors that reduce magical damage by nature. As of 1.5.1 I believe there is an enchantment you can get for magic protection, but your most reliable source will be these armors. Second, these armors are self-repairing! Sounds abit OP right? Well it comes at a cost, these armors repair themselves using your mana! And they also take 5x the damage of normal armor. If a piece is destroyed you will have to make another, so be careful with them and know when to back down so your armor and mana can recharge. While we are on the subject, I believe this first suit called Apprentice or Novice armor is meant to be mana-stable (it doesn't drain your mana but it might not be raising either) at level 6. As you go higher in armor tier, a higher magic level will be needed to prevent your armor from eating your mana away. Third thing to note is that the tiers above Novice/Apprentice have in-built abilities that have a cooldown after being triggered, Chest pieces cast a regeneration ability on you when your health is low, the hood casts waterbreathing when your oxygen runs out, leggings cast water shield on you to put out fire or keep lava from burning you for a short time, and boots cast featherfall when you would take fall damage. A last note on the Ars Magica armors is they are highly enchantable.
Good Luck Young Scholar!
Well that's it. Hopefully this cleared up any questions you might have about getting started with the mod. Anything I didn't cover might be found on the wiki here (http://arsmagica.sho.../wiki/Main_Page). If it is something you feel should be included here for easy access feel free to tell me and I will add it. This is one of the first threads I have made and by far the most extensive, so any criticism is welcomed. I think I used too many spoilers but this was an image heavy post that I didn't want to take 30 min to load. XD If it is wanted I could make a medium/advanced version of this. I honestly think it gets easier once you get things established. If you find this at all helpful, or even read through some of it, please let me know lol I would like to think I didn't spend so much time on this for nothing. This has been accomplished! Mithion has been awsome enough to put a link to this on the OP of the Ars Magica thread. Much appreciated!
If you did find this helpful, mabey even keep me updated on how it's going, what else I should consider adding, anything but leaving this thread empty. I wanted to have questions posted on here so that the main Ars Magica page remained free for bug reports and content addition discussion. That being said please feel free to post anything AM related, or even magical styled mods that you find complimentary to AM. http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1790205-ars-magica-rising/, a link to a more advanced guide. Also, post here if you use furnace pants!
I should also add abit about mana and the indicator for when you don't have enough mana to cast. And I can't believe I overlooked a link to the actual mod page. XD
Thanks! Getting the spoilers working was my best achievementXD lol I really need to learn how to do something BEFORE I try it, would have gone alot smoother.
There got that added, thanks for the reminder. Should I add the Blue Nexus, seeing as you need lapis to make the Calefactor anyways?
Yeah, I could mention that. As long as I wasn't so wrong that I said Novice/Apprentice armor gives the effects. And thanks! Just finished adding some more to it and, hopefully, making it abit easier to go through.
With your permission, I'd like to link to it from the wiki as well as the OP for the mod. May I?
Thanks! I never actually hoped to get it on the OP, that would be amazing! Of course you can.
If you want to get technical, only the middle block of the 3x3 (ie the one you click the chalk on) actually is necessary. So all the wooden planks in your picture are optional.
(for clarity, you might want to use something other than a snow block for the central chalk-click block, since that block can be anything while the snow blocks in the pillars are required)
It appears to be 10 blocks from the nexus center (chalk-clicked block). So a nexus powers a 21x21 block area.
I don't think this describes the increased cost of the Charge Foci very accurately. In terms of essence per cooked item, 3 Charge Foci make it cost nearly 3.9x as much. I haven't looked into essence-per-unit-time, but given the cooking speed, I'd guess it's a lot faster than 2x the essence drain. So for learning the raw essence system, 3 Charge Foci makes for four times the waiting.
(the wiki indicates 3 Charge Foci should make it cost ~9.2x as much per item, but some quick testing with a manabattery led me to the ~3.9x per item statement)
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As far as the Blue/Essence Nexus, you might mention it and the Red/Dark Nexus exist, but I wouldn't go into the Blue Nexus in detail until you talk about the generated structures (mage towers, etc). The Blue Nexus requires chiseled stone bricks, which you can only acquire from worldgen - mostly from Ars Magica structures, though vanilla jungle temples also have 3 per temple, requiring 2 temples to make a Blue Nexus.
Yes I can make that clearer about the planks and center. But I did put in parenthese the actual size of the nexus is 3x3. Thank you for the Nexus range, I was never quite sure. Do you think that extends to a 21x21x21 area? I didn't want to get too technical for a starter guide, but I do admit I didn't know that about the Calefactor, as I don't use it often. I will include that in the guide when I get the chance, or should I gather together enough material to make an intermediate guide? Also a question to anyone, should I put together a tips section using suggestions that i know of or that you all post?
EDIT: While skimming through your guide, I didn't see any explanations regarding casting modes. Did you forget, or am I blind?
Thanks! Though I'm not sure if that is entirely true. Good catch, I didn't go into it, or just mentioned it in passing if I did. I will add that to the list of things to do. If I can get college work out of the way I hopefully will get it done tomorrow/today since it is 4:30 am. lol
I understand there is a wiki, but, I seem to understand you so much more. Seriously, I didn't even know what the magic fabricator did after reading the whole tutorial on the wiki. Probably due to a overload on memory... but anyways, this is simply a request only to you to not direct me back to the wiki (even though I will still look it up every time I need serious help, its just that you go into more detail).
Why do you say it would require another hosting site? With all honestly, I completely forgot just about everything I learned about designing webpages and such so if that was your suggestion it might take quite a while. Besides finding somewhere that would host it.
I wouldn't mind making a more advanced guide at all, if Mithion is alright with it.
I understand about the wiki, and glad I can help. As I said, I will be fine with making a more advanced guide with Mithion's ok. I will let you know if I start working on one, could use your help with content ideas. Until then, if you have questions shoot me a message through forum messenger or if you have a mic, I recently got on Dolby Axon, and you could possibly join the chat with the others. I think I know the most about AM, as they specialize with Thaumcraft and Forestry and such, but they may know things I do not.
Another note, I am doing the updating of this forum thread in sections, I haven't forgotten the improvements that were suggested. All these storms around here lately have done a number on my internet, took me 12 tries to add the part about the mana bar and casting modes. This leads me to mention if I do make a more complete guide, it will be so large I highly doubt I will be doing it all at once. As I said before it took me a few hours to get this guide done and it is a small one. I have no problem spending the time on it, but having the time is the hard part right now, between work and the college semester finishing up I have little free time.
Edit: Mithion gave me the go ahead on an advanced guide, I would like to know what you had in mind Magician_DC. And anyone else who has something to say of course.
Ok, first thing is first, STRUCTURES;
those things r really confusing. I understand some of them, but most… yeah might need help with them. I loved how you elaborated on the magic fabricator and calefactory, that’s why I now know how to use them. So the following 4 would be the structures that I am not familiar with:
Pure Vineteum Crystal
Magic Mirror
Essense Refiner
Arcane Generator
On our small server, I am the one required to refine all magic for our survival, but I haven’t a clue on how to use those machines at all. If you could guide me the purposes of those machines or how to use them, I would appreciate it very much.
I also find 2 rare flowers, but they can’t be turned into dyes at all. Even the Vineteums that I mined are unfamiliar- they’re not ingots! If you can also guide me on those, I’d highly appreciate them.
And, how does one go about finding a Mage Tower? I’ve been using that dang light Nexus all this time and it is just not getting the job done. I want an upgrade!
As of now, I am using only the 1.4.7 version, so any newer versions out there, I would not be familiar with at all. Maybe someday we’ll upgrade, but for now, our world is progressing well.
For the magic part, which spell do you think would suffice our server the most? Let me explain my situation: Our server operates alongside with Mob Spawn Control (MSC) and Toast’s special mobs mod. MSC mod allows the spawning of any kind of mobs into our world regardless of biome/dimension restrictions. So every few days, we will be invaded by ghasts, around 30 of them too! Other days would be hordes of zombies, and so on. Specail mobs mod allows the variations of these newly spawn mobs and makes them super hard! Any kind of spells out there to save us?
In a more advance sense, can you tell me how I can go on about creating my own spells if the current ones will not suffice my survival?
I know this is a lot of requests, and some of them are covered on the wiki, but I love how you go on about details, please, if its not too much trouble, continue your guide with your amazing pictures. About hosting another site, you can always just re-edit your existing guide or add a link and link it to another Minecraft forums page by opening up a new guide. Thank you so much for replying and pm me.
and Ars Magića!!!!!
lol Glad it helped, going to start working on another more advanced one pretty soon. For the life of me I can't seem to find a particular type of tower and I also need to get some more pictures taken of item recipes.
None of the guides say much about getting spells, just find them in the new structures or create by random combinations of runes.
Am I missing something obvious?