frigid meadow
How feasible would it be to have a glyph that could raise or lower terrain in an AoE in a “natural” way. Like target a point and create a hill or pit that isn’t just a big cube, but generates “natural “slopes?
Maybe modifiable with AoE to increase radius and Amplify/Dampen to increase height/depth.
tepid seal
in art programs, that kind of functionality would be a Deform tool
frigid meadow
Was playing with my daughter yesterday and wanted to build a natural looking hill and it got me thinking that it would make for a useful spell effect.
Just don’t know how hard it would be to implement.
tepid seal
I've played with things that add these kind of functions, and so it is possible- pretty sure WorldEdit can do it, and that Bedrock addon World Builder also had deform brushes... I will say that they are still a bit lacking and will never really make a "natural" looking hill or valley until you come back through and clean it up, but it can make that process easier for sure
but those also do that via creating new blocks from nothing
since those are only Creative mode things
I've never really seen a survival version of this kind of function
you certainly could build some spells using 
that could help make a hill fast. Do 
[AOEs to taste] to get a bulk of blocks down, then carve away at it or add to it
frigid meadow
you certainly could build some spells using <a:conjure_terrain:10316414352058081...
I’ve never been successful at making things look natural that way.
tepid seal
then using another trick I learned form World Edit tutorials, could use the propagate place glyph from NEG and augment it to make it cylindrical and use that to build up curved edges around
yeah like this is getting into 3D sculpting territory with this idea lol
frigid meadow
Won’t help me with my daughter since we play on PlayStation anyway, but it just got me thinking.
tepid seal
yeah, all the playing around I did with the World Builder addon for Bedrock has me wanting to recreate a lot of that function with Ars spells... and I think I can make some of them already
frigid meadow
I built her a “barn” for her dragons, but need to build a hill up underneath because finding a spot of level ground 136 x 28 blocks wide ain’t happening.😂
gleaming field
There was a ritual of flattening that's marked as will add somewhere
exotic token
What even is a natural curve in a blocky world
fossil beacon
I meant to try out terraforming with burst spells, might be able to do it with conjure terrain crush to get sand? So it'll have gravity
fossil beacon
Fair
exotic token
I use it to collapse when there is a cave under it
fossil beacon
Though presumably you're using conjure terrain anyway, so it's just the crush cost
Of course you'd need to swap the terrain materials after though
tepid seal
what I've seen people do with World Edit is make brushes that drop cylinders of sand so they can make the terrain the want, then they replace the sand with what they want afterwards
with propagate plane we could certainly do that
fossil beacon
Yeah I've seen similar with spheres, either way it'll take a bit of carving to get the shape you want
tepid seal
yeah, that's kinda the point I've been trying to get across- no matter what tool you use, there's going to be some sculpting involved
fossil beacon
Could be a fun base idea. You know those hexagon stones. I want to say it's called giants causeway
tepid seal
yeah could be fun
fossil beacon
Build a mountain in that hexagon pillar style
Or terraforming an existing mountain
So tedious but could look cool
frigid meadow
There was a ritual of flattening that's marked as will add somewhere
In this specific case I was looking to elevate the terrain by about 15 blocks on one end of the building, but without a sheer drop off. Got me thinking “what if I could use a spell to :terraform: 
x9 to just lift a central point and auto generate a hill around it.
tepid seal
I picture it like if you were to raise one point of a blanket, the rest would be pulled up
exotic token
a very expensive way to do it could be using a lot of spell slots in a book and cast one after the other the plane in circle mode with different aoes
tepid seal
which again is just straight up a 3D modeling/sculpting concept
frigid meadow
hill is a circle in your mind?
Not necessarily, though that would work somewhat for this. If there was a way to randomize somewhat like worldgen would be better, but I can imagine that being difficult to code
exotic token
worldgen use something like perlin noise
frigid meadow
The cone would just look like the hills in twilight forest, I would think
tepid seal
I'm not sure randomizing would be helpful here tbh, you want the terrain to raise or lower in some specific ways
fossil beacon
Which seems hard to pull off with arbitrary sizes involved. I've tried to do similar with explosions, but you still end up having to custom trim things here and there to get it to look right
tepid seal
yeah
fossil beacon
World edit "smoothing" wand, but even that can look out of place. And not to mention the creative vs survival
exotic token
working with natural formations work well with very big zones, but you won't have a spell working on something that massive
so with smaller ranges, it's a bit tricky to get what you want
tepid seal
I always picture the workflow of doing this kind of stuff as:
fossil beacon
What's the size of a default unmodified burst sensitive?
frigid meadow
My initial line of thinking was what if you could raise a 3x3 area to a given height, then generate a “cone” around it in an uneven way so that it looked like the terrain was generated at that height from the start by worldgen.
Then use 
to increase the 3x3 area, and/or to increase the height or 
to lower it instead
tepid seal
so one thing though that tends to keep this kind of feature in Creative Mode, is where are those blocks coming from? If this can be used on a wide range of blocks then it becomes a tool to get all those kinds of blocks. If it can't be used on anything other than dirt/grass/stone then it becomes less useful
the tools that do this do so by duplicating the blocks that are there
frigid meadow
so one thing though that tends to keep this kind of feature in Creative Mode, is...
I thought about that. Was thinking that it would need to be biome specific, so like in desert would be sand, plains would be stone/dirt, frozen areas would be ice/snow, etc
No duplicating ores or obsidian or anything
tepid seal
yeah but like what about modded biomes? What if you want to expand a beach? Or expand upon terrain that you placed there?
fossil beacon
Honestly, I subscribe to the goodtimeswithscar method. Use dirt for everything. Come back and texture later
tepid seal
this idea feels like it is fraught with all kinds of things to account for, on top of the math to make it work in the first place
which is why I think it tends to be restricted to creative mode
now, if we turn our thinking around and try to make it easier to place a bunch of blocks in more shapes, I could get behind that
hm, like an "Overlay" shape or something
fossil beacon
I should mess around on the test server before we reset. Get some crazy strong gear from trinkets and go build a mountain
tepid seal
then we can use or 
and not need to worry about duplicating any blocks
or putting any weird restrictions on it
fossil beacon
We need a melted burst shape
Wasn't there a mod a while ago that had like a ball of mud you'd throw for filling in holes?
tepid seal
yeah I've seen a few of those types of mods around
fossil beacon
Not sure how it worked, but basically just filled in gaps with dirt
frigid meadow
now, if we turn our thinking around and try to make it easier to place a bunch o...
That would get expensive if you wanted to create, say, the Lonely Mountain in the middle of a plain.😁
fossil beacon
And I think it was industrialcraft that had concrete buckets?
fossil beacon
IC had that construction foam as well. You could spray it on scaffolds to build a structure. But the buckets of concrete were interesting, it flowed out, then formed into blocks. I think it could only do full blocks and slabs though
tepid seal
gosh I remember that construction foam haha
frigid meadow
What about a ritual? Like an inverse conjure island with the flat part at the bottom?
tepid seal
eeeeehhhhh
idk
telling it what to do with augments sounds like it could be a nightmare
frigid meadow
telling it what to do with augments sounds like it could be a nightmare
I’m saying instead of a spell
tepid seal
hill versus mountain, up versus down
fossil beacon
Blood magic had that ritual for moving spheres. Couldn't do much besides x/y/z changes for the ellipsoid
tepid seal
yeah I'm saying rituals just aren't super flexible for this kind of work. Like the conjure islands are more or less big pancakes
fossil beacon
But blood magic had a specific system for that, you filled the dimensions in at one chest, then had another chest for building materials.
Our ritual system really only has the modifiers of how much stuff you toss in to begin with
frigid meadow
Could have a conjure hill, conjure mountain, conjure sand dune. Just upside down versions of the islands, without changing the biome?
fossil beacon
So you'd need 3 different items to count up to see the XYZ dimensions of an ellipsoid
tepid seal
those I just don't think would be very useful tbh
like if it was literally what you suggest with the island shapes
frigid meadow
Place the brazier, start the ritual, and watch as the brazier gets buried under a new hill/mountain
Add source gems to augment to desired size
fossil beacon
I think it could be interesting. But also very niche. Not to mention the islands don't look natural at all. So I don't think it would actually work for your current use case anyway.
The main thing I used those islands for, outside arcane isles, was for converting the biome.
tepid seal
yeah the islands are kinda bare bones tbh
fossil beacon
I do like the idea of expanding the uses and types of those island rituals
tepid seal
they aren't interesting or natural shapes, they're made to serve a purpose
fossil beacon
Bailey had a previous mod. Biome crystals
Instead of one to do a big thing, you just kind of walked around and spammed using them on the ground, and it formed a sort of stalactite structure under you. The more you used, the further down it went
Terrain crystals
Which works for going down, because you can walk around and do more. But going up you obviously can't stand on it since now there's blocks
frigid meadow
Something like that, but growing upwards. Could place them in a somewhat “random” pattern to fill in an area, like so:
fossil beacon
Each of those islands in the pictures is several crystals. I don't think you could do it very well with a single central ritual pedestal. It would probably need to be a different system
frigid meadow
The whole idea is definitely niche, I agree. But could have its uses. Whole idea was sparked because spamming 40k+ blocks by hand was getting tedious.
tepid seal
tbh I think a more useful thing would be something that can "flatten" things down into more natural slopes. So you use spells to place a ton of blocks really quickly, then come back and smooth it out. A smoothing tool would be really useful
... which is exactly what I was doing with World Builder
cause honestly? The tools to raise terrain were shoddy at best, in World Edit or World Builder
they create unnatural looking stuff, but they do raise the terrain
but then the smoothing tool works really well and gets rid of some of the more chaotic mistakes of the raise terrain tool
frigid meadow
Probably looks more natural than my current 28x135x15 “cube” of dirt under the building 😂
tepid seal
yeah I mean all you'd need to do is use the smoothing tool on the edges of your cube to blend it into the terrain
gleaming field
tbh I think a more useful thing would be something that can "flatten" things dow...
like the ritual of flattening?
tepid seal
if that's what it does, I can't vouch for something I have no concept of how it works
gleaming field
I mean it's still a feature request, but an approved feature request
tepid seal
but smoothing tools can both raise and lower terrain, not just lower or flatten
frigid meadow
Like this is my ultimate goal:
stuck nest
imgaine this glyph hooked up to a create train
frigid meadow
imgaine this glyph hooked up to a create train
Summon mountain range?😂
stuck nest
Summon mountain range?😂
fossil beacon
I wonder how technically feasible it would be to have something like a smoothing tool in survival that specifically moves blocks. Not break or place, just shifts them
Which might be breaking and replacing behind the scenes of course, but from a player perspective, doesn't need to consume blocks to place. Just smooths out
My usual terraforming method is to try to keep roughly the same number of blocks anyway. But by hand
frigid meadow
Don’t want to leave hollow spaces underneath that mobs can spawn in though
stuck nest
mechanical rollers from create are great at terraforming
so maybe take that as an example
fossil beacon
Yeah. I had that problem with using large burst sizes for filling in some terrain. Had to use smaller ones so there were fewer gaps
exotic token
Not sure how it worked, but basically just filled in gaps with dirt
As long as the hole is not giant, it's just an explore nearby blocks to find the end of the hole and fill all air under the maximum Y of the hole
exotic token
if that's what it does, I can't vouch for something I have no concept of how it ...
I'd imagine it's a ritual-ized Botania wand
Shifting Crust or something
peak sedge
Just don’t know how hard it would be to implement.
It's good to use a sphere of sand for what you want
frigid meadow
It's good to use a sphere of sand for what you want
Not really. That just leaves a perfectly rounded pillar of sand once it falls.
exotic token
I forgot to get you a vid of propagate + randomize + cylinder sand
You'll have to wait until Friday
fossil beacon
did a quick science experiment. cactus on your hotbar cant be placed on grass. so it places air
olive dew
You'd probably have to dig through minecraft's terrain generation code to make anything that looks "natural"
fossil beacon
Fair. You could use this for maybe planting flowers? Like the 2 tall ones, that you'd farm up with bone meal, instead of just scattered with regular bone meal
quaint sinew
So basically the botania rod of the terra firma but in spell or ritual form?
I love that tool
Kinda blows my mind that hasn't been brought up here yet lol, but I just did a quick skim of this post so maybe I missed it
If you use it right you can generate nice slopes
exotic token
I'd imagine it's a ritual-ized Botania wand
^
?