Previous Post | Post List | Next Post

Posting for Bbgun as he had to leave for a bit

Introduction

Hello everyone! /u/Sharpcastle33 and I have been working hard nearly every day since last wednesday into the wee hours of the morning to bring you something completely fresh, and to get you all excited for First Light! We’ll be doing an Alchemy Showcase starting at 10:00pm EDT (UST -4) and lasting for an hour or two. Feel free to hop in Discord to ask Sharp questions about how the plugin works as well as get ingredients from him. It should be recorded and uploaded tomorrow for everyone that couldn’t attend, and we will likely be hosting more events like this in the future as we head toward beta launch, (including another alchemy showcase) so if you can’t make it hopefully you can in the future!

This post will detail a variety of things you might want to know going in and will serve as a reference for you so we can focus on the mechanics of the plugin.

How it Works

AspectAlchemy is our potion crafting overhaul, and has been developed by Sharp, Dusty, and myself from scratch. The goal of the plugin is to open new trade options through potion crafting, and to allow players to discover new and more efficient versions of existing recipes, as well as find alternatives to existing ingredients. The plugin uses a relatively simple system that is easy for us to expand upon in the future. New items, potions, and recipes can be added via config, including potions with custom values and multiple effects. We aim to give players a truly unique experience with this plugin, providing for a lot more in terms of recipe research and discovery than Brewery ever could.

Alembics

The Alembic is a multiblock created by placing a special Alembic block (currently a re-named Observer block). Once placed, a furnace, chest, and brewing stand will be erected (in vertically ascending order) at the location you placed the block.

The furnace is known as the Alembic Bellows and requires coal to fuel an ongoing reaction, currently at a rate of one coal every four minutes (starting from the first tick).

The brewing stand is known as the Alembic Stand and requires three bottles of water to begin a reaction. This is where the output will appear at the end of the reaction.

The chest is known as the Alembic Chamber. This is where you place the ingredients for a potion. The left-hand side outside of the bars requires a special substance known as Shaman Sap which determines the length of a reaction and increases the tolerance of the recipe (essentially increases how far away you can be from the correct recipe to get a good result). The middle is where you place the ingredients. The right side has some GUI buttons, for which the middle one, “Start Alchemy” is the only one implemented at the moment--and will be all you need. Once you press that button the reaction begins and you are locked from touching the contents of the chamber or stand. You can touch the bellows, however if there is no fuel to be consumed when the alembic needs it the potion will fail and result in empty bottles.

Ingredients and the Resonator

We’ve prepared nearly 50 ingredients for use with Alchemy during the showcase. In order to determine if an ingredient can be used in Alchemy, you will need a Thaumaturgical Resonator. This item will be cheap to craft in First Light, but we will be spawning in items for the showcase. The resonator can sense if an item contains alchemical power. To use it, hold the resonator in your main hand, and the ingredient in your off hand.

Aspects

All alchemical ingredients contain Aspects. Most ingredients contain multiple types of aspects, and in varying quantities. Your resonator will not be able to decipher which aspects are in the item, nor how many there are.

~The resonator can sense if an item contains a particularly powerful aspect, but not which aspect that is, nor how much of it is contained within the item. Concentrated or pure aspects are far more powerful than their mundane counterparts, and are only found in rare items, usually from challenging mobs. They cannot be used as a mere alternative to a large quantity of mundane ingredients. For the showcase, many of the recipes are made from mundane ingredients.~

We've since changed our system. There are no longer different qualities to an aspect. Instead, powerful mobs drop many more items, including high-yield items unique to powerful mobs.

Shaman Sap

You will be using Shaman Sap in every potion recipe. Each piece of sap adds one minute to the length of the reaction. Shaman Sap also adds more tolerance to the recipe, meaning you can have more aspects than necessary and still create a valid potion. Unlike Brewery, tolerance does not allow you to use less aspects. It can allow you to use alternative (and quite possibly more common) ingredients, if these ingredients contain both the aspects you need, and excess aspects you don’t.

When performing Alchemy, each excess aspect that is part of the recipe counts for -1 point of tolerance. Each aspect which is not part of the recipe counts for -2. Currently, each piece of excess Shaman Sap provides 6 tolerance. Potential recipes with negative tolerance are guaranteed to fail at the end of the reaction.

Since Alembic run time is based on the amount of Shaman Sap, unlike Brewery, you do not need to stand there to turn the Alembic off at the correct time. Alembics automatically complete at the end of their duration.

Recipes

In Alchemy, recipes are defined by a list of minimum amounts of each aspect and minimum Shaman Sap. However, these “perfect” recipes will not be known. Instead, we will publish a list of potions, each with a correct “solution” to their recipe. These will be a set of items and amount of sap that correctly brews the specific potion.

Discovery

This means that the public recipes are quite inefficient! By finding a set of items closer to the minimum amount of aspects, you will be able to remove shaman sap from the recipe, and thus have the recipe run faster using different (preferably cheaper) ingredients. One you have found a better, or an alternative recipe, you can write down the ingredients and reuse the recipe whenever. It’s your choice whether you keep this recipe to yourself for an economic edge, or share it with whomever you wish.

You are also be able to swap out ingredients for alternatives directly. If the new ingredient adds excess aspects, you will need to add more sap to prevent the recipe from failing. This can be worthwhile if you are swapping out a rare ingredient for a cheaper version or a local alternative. Keep in mind, that you will still need to hit the recipe minimums to have any hope for creating a potion.

Since you know neither the required aspects, nor the aspects within each item, most of your progress will be made through trial and error. It will be quite difficult to use advanced math to find perfect recipes (though I’m sure some of you will at least figure a few things out).

The aspects on an ingredient aren’t completely random. All ingredients will have custom names and lore text, meaning you will be able to glean at least some information about an ingredient by its physical properties. The burning pelts of Ember Wolves probably can’t be swapped with the Arctic Creeper vines from the cold north, for example, but you might have some luck with charred bones or Hellhound fangs.

Right now, roughly half of our ingredients have their own lore text. It takes time to think of what to write, and the config formatting is a bit cumbersome when it comes to lore. For the showcase, we will be posting descriptions of the items which don’t have lore, either at the end of this post or in a separate comment.

Public Recipes and Alchemy Showcase

Note, these are NOT the recipes for First Light! These were for the Alchemy Showcase that took place July 2018.

For the purposes of the showcase, we have an admin tool which will allow you to speed up a recipe to one minute remaining.

We currently have the following potions added, with these public recipes:

Liquid Luck: 60 Shaman Sap, 3 Magma Core, 5 Voidroot, 3 Ember Pelt, 5 Purification Powder, 2 Ironbark

I’ll be posting the dev post early so you guys have time to get ready for the showcase. I’ll edit in the rest of the public recipes as I determine them.

Fleetswift Philter

26 shaman sap, 3 weightless feathers, 5 goldleaf, 2 drosse ivy, 3 lungwort, 2 phasing silk

Fleetswift Maxima

54 sap, 2 feverfew 2 spider silk 6 maruea, 3 nightcall, 3 drosse ivy, 5 goldleaf

Vial of Levitation

40 sap, 1 Arcane scroll, 3 weightless feather, 2 drosse ivy, 2 lungwort, 3 maruea

Festerexin Aeriform

100 sap, 5 venom sac, 2 zombie brain, 7 spider silk, 3 nightshade petals, 4 drosse ivy

Festerexin Strongbrew Aeriform

Blightblot Strongbrew Aeriform

Sanguine Sunset Draught

Bloodmoon Brandy

Firebane Elixir

No, not all of these potions or ingredients will make it onto First Light. This is simply a showcase of the capabilities of the plugin.