What Skyblock is complete without a quest system to give the player an idea of what to do, how to do it, and what they need next?
#Quest Progression
inland glacier
Guess we can start with what we already have: make a cobblestone ritual to turn their free water into that sweet sweet cobblestone
ocean meteor
Can the different quest lines be themed and/or seemingly made by different Ars critters explaining , to the player,how to survive and thrive in the sky?
warm token
Leia starbuncle projection "you're our only hope"
kindred urchin
navi starbuncle edition
inland glacier
Stupid sexy starbuncle
kindred urchin
honestly the quests that explain all the starter tools are probably the most difficult
there are many things to do right at the start, difficult to explain to someone that may have literally never used the mod
kindred urchin
ah, first quest to obtain the book from activating the starter ritual, followed by some 'checkmark' quests that explain some sub systems, then those go into normal progression
@warm token this means players won't do dumb things in the pack now right?
legally binding checkmark
inland glacier
Vanilla Skyblock has no safety net. Don't drop your lava bucket or turn it to obsidian
ocean meteor
Vanilla Skyblock has no safety net. Don't drop your lava bucket or turn it to ob...
vanilla sky block isn't for server play, and can be restarted easily
was Ars Caelum supposed to be supportive of multiplayer? (if so it might need some basic safety nets, at least so individual players can start anew if mistakes are made)
inland glacier
If you're on a server you've got the safety net of other people to be fair. Even if that means bridging across the void
Maybe a quest where the player collects a stack of cascading logs in exchange for a spell book
ocean meteor
that sounds perfect
but just to make sure, a way to get a free sapling once a minecraft day would be nice
south vector
is there a download of the current quests, i used the most recent pack zip i could find and theres just the test quest in it
kindred urchin
I can export what I have now
south vector
that would be awesome, thanks!
warm token
Vanilla Skyblock has no safety net. Don't drop your lava bucket or turn it to ob...
Yeah I don't really agree that that is good gameplay.
In my opinion, a skyblock should have an unbreakable starting block that can serve as a restart at any point. Assuming you start on the typical island with dirt and a tree, there should be an unbreakable block in the dirt that allows you to restart it you somehow lost all the dirt and tree. Right click it for some loose soil. Craft soil to dirt block. Right click dirt for a seed. Grow seed for new tree.
Absolutely everything should be coming from that in some way or another. So if you need a ritual to get mana regen to cast spells, you should be able to get back to that ritual from crafting. Even if that item was originally a quest reward and the crafting is a little painful
inland glacier
That's fair. In a lot of other Skyblock packs you can pretty easily get your starter material again. But may take a bit to get there
kindred urchin
For end game optional quests, I’m thinking some farmers delight food turn ins, potion turn ins, and maybe a containment jar collection challenge if I can get the quests to recognize that type of nbt
ocean meteor
what about using items that cost a tank or several tanks, if the NBT can't be recognised?
kindred urchin
@warm token do you know of a way to handle crazy nbt tag items?
is there like a custom tag matcher or something
to have 'matchnbt' to pass I have to basically delete everything in the tag besdies the entity ID, but it breaks the actual renderig
Hmm, looks like I can actually just set the icon to the crazy NBT version
kindred urchin
basically the only tag part I care about for containment jars is {BlockEntity:{{entity:{id:"minecraft:pig}}}
just that nested id
warm token
weak nbt match should do it
right click the item and go to quick edit properties
then you'll see that
kindred urchin
Doesnt that weak match just one layer?
the actual jars have a million properties inside that entity tag
that I want to ignore
warm token
should match on whatever you provide, and only that
kindred urchin
ah okay, so id still need to copy paste the part of the tag I want to match
thats fine, just a bummer I need to also set the icon appropriately
inland glacier
Icon could just be the mob itself if that's easier
Like a jar icon for making a jar, and then 20 quests off that one for the mobs
kindred urchin
that would fix the rendering issue ya
warm token
to be honest, I've avoided quests based on nbt items as much as possible. It's kind of a mess.
It might be easier to do a hidden advancement that's triggered when you capture a certain mob
inland glacier
Jar jar quest?
kindred urchin
if create was here you could get a ship in a bottle as a reward
ocean meteor
not much of a real reason why it can't be considering Ars Creo is a thing
at least once the pack is fully done and on CurseForge
kindred urchin
hm, I dont see mob icons in here 
inland glacier
Delicious
inland glacier
The birch quest there. Is it named "birch please"
kindred urchin
no but it should be
it just rotates the icons for any required item, supposed to just be forestation ritual
kind of a shopping list of automation options
here is a thing that lets you do a thing but you dont have to craft it just for the sake of the quest chains
inland glacier
Tier 2 is such an upgrade. It's where the real automation and utility spells come in
ocean meteor
would it be a hassle for the quest lines to form things instead of being neat and ordered?
kindred urchin
moved them over to chapters because it was getting chaotic
getting started:
island creation, still need to move them all
inland glacier
Now I need to rebuild my island so that they line up with the quest book
kindred urchin
then a chapter with glyphs/items for automation, and a chapter for misc. gear and equipment you can make, alteration table and random apparatus gear
ocean meteor
chapter for endgame and/or nearly impossible tasks?
like get 20,000 buckets of liquid source (or whatever number it was for an infinite pool using Create)
kindred urchin
yeah thats the idea, optional end game quests to challenge yourself
I am a generous king
inland glacier
A potion with everything
warm token
Hey now, I only made people craft a few hundred two effect potions
I'm so glad automation of potions has improved though
That's admittedly pretty rough in e6e
kindred urchin
I wonder if source turn in is possible now with starbunclemania making it a liquid
creating a million source doesnt sound too crazy
kindred urchin
lol
inland glacier
You could also just require a stack of full jars
kindred urchin
actually if I make that reward for the turret give an observer, thats a super easy crush automation
observe the cobble being created
ocean meteor
utterly jarringly mooved
inland glacier
So you get the instant cooked steak? Or that's the quest?
kindred urchin
the reward for turning in 500 cooked beef patties
which actually isnt very much, thats only like 3 stacks of beef
ooo apple pie would be a good quest, you would need to automate oaks to get enough apples
warm token
Or whirlisprig, no?
kindred urchin
I don’t think there’s a block that gives just apples in the pack to cheese it
inland glacier
There's a few different "oak" so you could do a sprig, but it would still take a while
I got some brown oak from a trader, can grow in a 3x3 to get a dozen or so apples per tree
And like 3 stacks of oak
kindred urchin
Dang
inland glacier
But remember to get anything from a trader you need emeralds, which means you need villagers
So have fun
warm token
If you can automate growing oak trees for apples, though, you've already got everything a sprig needs. Just lay out a bunch of leaves
kindred urchin
The market just takes 1 emerald for the byg saplings
inland glacier
I only mention the other trees since you could then use all the leaves with the sprig to get better return
Dark oak, brown oak, regular oak. Probably others
But then again.... Good
You've encouraged players to either automate trees, or interface with the whirlisprig mechanics
warm token
Yeah, that's fair.
Just that sprigs very quickly become the de facto method of farming all things once available. If you're looking to encourage diverse automation, they kinda break that
inland glacier
True. Which is why I haven't used them much myself
Turret tree farms are much more fun
warm token
Yeah. I'm tempted to limit them to trees/shrooms only on our end.
And drygmies to passives only
inland glacier
I was thinking of actually using them in this pack lol. Drygmy would be very helpful for harder mobs to find like wilden defenders
Though probably easier now with a snow plains ritual
Ooh fun project is multiple portal mob farms that all go to one spot. Redstone turrets that turns them on and off
kindred urchin
Alright I think I got some fun recipes for FD challenges:
Melon Popsicle - ice, sticks, melons
apple pie - apples from tree or whirli
chocolate pie - cocoa pods
Candy - sugar, paper, honey
Barbecue on a stick - tomato/onion/meat/stick
Kelp Roll - dried kelp/carrot/rice
Rice Roll Medley - kelp roll/salmon roll/cod roll/bowl
Shepard pie - baked potato, milk, cooked beef or lamb, onions, bowls
Chicken Sandwich - cooked chicken, bread, cabbage, carrot
Bacon and eggs - bacon + fried egg + bowl
should be an even spread of a lot of unique items with some new ways to automate them
since they are challenges, I think the quanitites will be large enough that the whirlie won't trivialize them without having to wait ages and setup massive sorting for whirlie with that many unique things
inland glacier
Honey is a good one. Everyone is used to automated bees with other mods
inland glacier
Tangentially, may want to reduce the number of pies you can buy from the villagers
It's very easy to get many stacks. I feel like the vanilla farmers only sell like a total of 12 carrots or something before they lock up
kindred urchin
looks like you can buy 16 at a time
inland glacier
I pretty quickly got several stacks of pie
kindred urchin
ill put xacris tome at the end of all of these challenges
so you feel compelled to get it in game
how often is villager restock? once a day ish?
I guess its faster if they arent in the jar
limpid totem
twice per day
at some point between 0800 and 1500
when at least one of their trades are locked up
the restocks can happen back-to-back as well
kindred urchin
someone should make a mod that forces villagers to have to visit so many unique POIs before they can restock
until zieg just puts every POI in a single 3x3 room
warm token
~8 stacks of pie then?
I'll be honest, these sorts of challenges almost never end up working out the way you want (automation). It's either a huge number that's grindy as hell, or something small enough that a lot of folks will just smash through with something manual.
We've had a few and they just... didn't work out
inland glacier
It's hard to encourage learning that AN can do automation
warm token
yeah
kindred urchin
thats fine - its not really meant to be everyones cup of tea
they are all optional an in their own sections beyond the mechanic walkthroughs
warm token
one thing that did work, surprisingly, was the few quests we had that had no reward. They just said 'hey, this thing is possible, go figure out how'
the lack of reward meant there was exactly zero incentive to just 'grind' through for the reward. and the folks that completed them seemed to enjoy it
kindred urchin
Yeah these are just purely for the people unable to make goals themselves, which is pretty chronic in modded (and guilty as charged)
inland glacier
I like the idea of goofy rewards like the lit cow in a jar
kindred urchin
what I do really like about these FD food quests is that they are all multi-step with a little more engineering rather than just harvest plant into crafter
automating sugar cane, bees, melons, meat, milk, eggs, etc that you would otherwise have no reason to in a big pack
warm token
I like the idea of goofy rewards like the lit cow in a jar
these and other 'trophy' rewards, yeah
speaking of, would it work to create a jar with lightning in it via nbt editing? does it render the lightning entity?
kindred urchin
good question, lets see if I can edit it without crashing my game
warm token
^_^
inland glacier
Need time in a bottle as a reward
kindred urchin
lightning is really weird because it technically exists for 2 ticks but is only visible for one
inland glacier
By which of course I mean a renamed jar with a clock in it
warm token
lol
kindred urchin
lol
inland glacier
Maybe a quest name that's a dig at dw20 using it everywhere
inland glacier
Jarby
inland glacier
I don't know what that quest is. But I must do it
limpid totem
I need to see that placed down in world
limpid totem
hm. We could probably be doing more fun things with Conjuration Essence
kindred urchin
inland glacier
We need one of those at spawn
kindred urchin
lightning in a bottle will be the quest reward if I can figure out why it vanishes when placed
inland glacier
There's the lore: the airship at spawn's reactor is overloading and about to explode. Have to jump to an island to survive
warm token
Have you tried out lychee?
warm token
it has lightning crafting that works with your spells
(strangely does not work with your explosions, but that's unrelated)
you could toss down a jar and some other items, and just zap it
inland glacier
I know botania entropinium uses the TNT entity itself at 1 tick left instead of the explosion
warm token
This is a recipe that I'm using to test it right now:
basically, it's just a super powerful recipe handler. Can run commands, works with all sorts of conditions, including minecraft predicates.
Enables all kinds of shenanigans
inland glacier
Strike all 4 archwood saplings to get a flashing tree
warm token
Sound on for this one
inland glacier
Though lightning isn't exactly an easy glyph to get in this pack
warm token
if you have thermal, you can use blitz
or there's nothing stopping you making a limited lightning casting item with lychee/kube
inland glacier
Oh or spell parchment or casting wand
inland glacier
You could apply it to a rune or turret
warm token
ah, true
inland glacier
Without otherwise being able to make the spell
warm token
so let them somehow craft a parchment with a weak lightning spell on it to enable a turret for these crafts
inland glacier
Or quest reward
warm token
yeah, just... then you get into 'I died and lost the thing'
inland glacier
Ah true
warm token
or they toss it in the void accidentally
kindred urchin
ah lightning doesnt save to NBT so I would need custom behaviors just to read/write lightning
limpid totem
please make it possible to capture lightning in a jar
warm token
^_^
inland glacier
Thrown channeling Trident
warm token
oh, yeah!
inland glacier
Though that's kind of the same as trying to catch an arrow
Which I still think should be a thing
limpid totem
we should add a recipe to craft tridents
warm token
Monk Mod vibes
glass peak
Remember to update Elemental, there was a mixin issue that was not saving the items from the lightnings
it's flagged as beta instead of release
kindred urchin
what a rabbit hole
serializing entities that explicitly say 'do not save me pls'
limpid totem
do we want to give a name tag as a reward at any point, or do we want to make players get librarians for that?
limpid totem
imbue paper with the power of names
just sitting here naming all these Hex items in an anvil and running out of XP, wanted to see if I could name items with 
can't remember if it worked on items or not even
kindred urchin
I think it is supposed to
limpid totem
naming items with your spell book will be a huge QoL for hex casting
glass peak
It works, without any weird things iirc.
inland glacier
Works best with rune.. Don't remember if I needed sensitive
serene haven
do we want to give a name tag as a reward at any point, or do we want to make pl...
I think you could also get them from fishing, unless I'm mistaken
wary rover
naming items with your spell book will be a huge QoL for hex casting
Yes I can finnaly get strings
inland glacier
5000 melon popsicles?
inland glacier
kindred urchin
there are just so many branches that seem like they deserve a quest
but I did not think ahead
kindred urchin
okey I merged the automation category into the main chain so its more obviously something you can do pretty early
and moved the automation rituals to their respective tree type
kindred urchin
got potion jars to detect, unfortunately I can't get it to render the jar tooltip on the display item, so ill have to list the recipe in the description
kindred urchin
Full awkward jar ->
Spell Damage II + regen II
Spell damage II + regen II + recovery II
Spell damage II + regen II + recovery II + shielding II
each tier gives you that same jar back as the reward
Maybe the xacris firework display since its xacris' special potion brew
kindred urchin
there is a diffuser to craft in the wixie chain but a free one never hurts
kindred urchin
phew, adding support to detect potion jars was a fight
seems to be working now, any other potiony related challenges?
ooo nice my fix for containment jar detection is working too, hype
the final reward for the containment jars should be a jar with a chest inside that has the loot
or a shulker I guess
inland glacier
Need a quest to obtain a stack of mage blocks
limpid totem
Should do a quest that gives you some chorus flowers when you beat the dragon. Looking for chorus is a little painful with BYG
kindred urchin
yes
there are so many mobs, it would be unreasonable to make a quest for each one
probably just quests for all the functional ones
and give the other mobs as rewards
warm token
.>
that sounds like it'll be a bit painful as a process. Find mob, warp to containment ritual, go back, pick up jar, complete quest, repeat N times
kindred urchin
people already do that for their drygmy though
inland glacier
I guess the advantage there is it becomes a check mark on a list to ensure you got one of everything
kindred urchin
it also documents the behaviors of the mobs in a jar, since they arent actually documented in the book
warm token
Sounds like something that'd be worthwhile to add to the book then, no? Unless it's unique to the pack
warm token
people already do that for their drygmy though
And while many might, I'd personally prefer to set up the ritual in my drygmy area so I can just warp a mob and trust it'll end up in containment within the drygmy work area
Having a quest for each discourages that. Whereas rewarding the the crafts that result from those mobs allows the player to engage with the mechanics in their own way
inland glacier
I don't have strong opinions on it either way. A quest for each mob sounds tedious though
kindred urchin
they should be documented yes - but this is more of a 'look at these mobs you could put in jars if you want and here are some things they can do in a jar'
Quest packs fill the niche for players that are too....-impatient- to engage with a notebook, which is fair because the notebook is very dense and not a great medium
I am really just picking and choosing vanilla mobs that might be useful in the pack. Warden for hex casting discs, vanilla mobs you can uatomate, villagers, lightning for fun
definitely not all of them, there are far too many mobs
inland glacier
It's been a while since I've actually used a drygmy anyway. So in this environment, especially with the jars, I'm one who probably will go for each mob
Sheep, cow, mooshroom could be one quest. To show that you can shear, milk, and... Soup? Each one
kindred urchin
what better reward than xacris' tiny hut tome
and more specifically, a shulker box in a jar holding the tome
limpid totem
a tome in a box in a jar that puts you in a box
inland glacier
Shulker box in a chest boat in a jar
kindred urchin
lol thats a good idea
kindred urchin
alex fixed it
oh the chest doesnt keep its inventory tho
oh right have to jar the boat
inland glacier
Held by an allay named "xacris's nbt" (also in a jar)
Could get a llama or donkey in here as well if we want
limpid totem
could you jar a boat with a mob in it?
inland glacier
Man, I wasn't even trying this time!
All I wanted to do was annoy some streamer or youtuber
kindred urchin
how unlucky
whats really weird is that its a dupe with boats and minecarts, but not mules this time lol
what are the odds
its always mules
glass peak
I actually forgot again to look into the boats and co.
So the bug might still be there
kindred urchin
it was actually two dupes
glass peak
We need a modlog#remindMe
pulsar trail
Sheep, cow, mooshroom could be one quest. To show that you can shear, milk, and....
If you sheer the sheep will it ever grow it’s wool back though?
inland glacier
As long as there is grass under it yes
vernal vault
It should be enchanting and not imbueing, or the recipe needs to be changed
(it's currently an enchanting apparatus recipe)
pulsar trail
“Flashpines can be acquired by enchanting a blazing archwood sapling and pod to infuse them using lightning rods” perhaps.