[Suggestion] Non-Fracture Travel in and out of the Emptiness

[Deltax6000]

I understand that there is some discussion open at the moment for ways to find fractures earlier or going to the Emptiness in other ways (like making your own fracture) and I have an idea to contribute to this discussion.

As it is, it is difficult to go to find fractures around the world, and while the emptiness can be used for fast-travel, it is limited to pre-defined locations. However, we do have examples (or at least suggestions) that teleportation or directed fast travel is possible in Thaumcraft with the Crimson Cult's portals. Clearly they have some ties to the occult and eldritch, especially since Greater Portals can spawn within Spires as a boss, and of course their writing on the 'Opening of the Eye'. My thoughts on the matter is that they likely use a method of travel through a dimension such as the Emptiness to move where they need to. My idea is that the player may be able to re-create a rudimentary method of travel from observing their portals (or even a Greater Portal), allowing for the creation of player-made lesser portals through a focus, or perhaps more interestingly, a structure. The player should be able to use an impetus based method of opening their own lesser portals to "anchored" locations in the Emptiness from a focus or player-made obelisk structure, and similarly return through another structure in the Emptiness.

I like the idea of using compressed space in the Emptiness to travel rather than direct teleportation (it reminds me of the Ways from the Wheel of Time series) so I would not want a direct method of transportation, and it could be integrated into already present lore. This may even give a deeper reason to the Cult's behavior of gouging out their eyes, as I think it is not unlikely that they originally did it to "protect" themselves from seeing the eldritch horrors of the Emptiness while traveling through their portals, for religious reasons or otherwise. Parties of cultists could maybe be occasionally seen traveling through the Emptiness because of this, maybe spicing up the dimension that way as well.

I recall that it was mentioned in a past thread that lesser portals will likely not be added to the Emptiness because they would not fit due to lore reasons, but perhaps my line of thought will make it work better with the lore this way. Sorry for the wall of text, but I felt that I had to justify this thought process of mine pretty thoroughly for it to make sense. Absolutely fantastic mod as it is anyway. Thanks.

[TheCodex6824]

So if I understand what you wrote correctly, the idea is to have the player able to make portals to certain points in the Emptiness, and then use those + the Emptiness space compression to travel? We were thinking about some possibilities for generic-ish teleportation (and not really super happy with them so far), but assuming my understanding of this is correct, I think I like the sound of this better.

Currently, for every chunk in the world that is a possible fracture location, there is only a chance it is allowed to place one. I wonder if making these locations be the only ones where these portals can be made would be a good idea? I guess it depends how close together these player-made portals should be able to be - with the current default config, the minimum distance between portals in the overworld and end would be about 8 chunks, and about 2 chunks for the nether. This would really be a minimum, as I can make only 1/2 of them work for the portals or something, but that's one balance thing to think about.

Fractures were already getting a rebalance because of how many people have/had issues finding them, so I can probably take the opportunity to make things work a bit better with this kind of system if it ends up being added.

[Deltax6000]

Maybe a sort of "anchor" (like the mentioned obelisks) and "after-effect" pair system where an anchor placed into the Overworld/start dimension brings people to the Emptiness (when activated by a hand held focus in the start dimension) and an equivalent "after-effect" visible in the Emptiness to indicate that there is a usable anchor that you can leave the Emptiness with. Players would simply travel between these "after-effects" in the Emptiness and activate their focus in close proximity to it, hopefully avoiding the need to remove/replace fracture spots. Heck, if you're really feeling creative, maybe make these "after-images" only visible to those who have the proper focus or research already (or even "own" them, if that's possible!). Maybe make players "suppress" nearby fracture and rifts to use anchors because of interference, perhaps through the use of the advanced stabilizer.

You could justify the system of 1 maximum anchor within 8 chunks with some explanation to do with anchors drawing things towards them (too chaotic if too many are close together) potentially with the use of jarred rifts or something of the sort to make these anchors. Maybe even find a way for players to suppress/choose particular anchors that they do not want to use, maybe through the use of equipped elemental augments and assigned elements to anchors? A Nether Portal like system could be used by default that just picks a random "out" anchor otherwise when there are too many exit anchors too close together when a player leaves the Emptiness with multiple anchors in the same "after-effect" range.

The lesser/greater portals focus to activate the anchors/after-images may be best fit as an advanced focus type requiring the portable hole research, crimson lesser/greater portal scanned, and scrolls, along with the use of Impetus for activation.

[Deltax6000]

Oh yeah, and my explanation of this "after-effect" is that it could be related to how the Cultists and Eldritch Guardians find mad thaumaturges: with more warp and magic activity comes a more noticeable footprint in the Emptiness. Anchors would just simulate this effect for players by allowing them to find their way out with noticeable effects in the Emptiness.

[Laurys15951]

Just a thought too many rifts close together could lead to them having the same exit in emptyness and starting to tear reality apart, by breaking blocks between them and around them and them moving closer to each other to finally to turn into one maybe big and dangerous one that keeps spawning eldritch guards and untill the rift "stabilises" and goes back to normal all the area around gets some sort of effect, maybe debuff that last from the moment second rift appears till the moment it stabelises

[AngelTechnic]

not to necro this months-old thread but i couldn't help but look at this, and i really like these concepts, as they're similar to ideas i had as well (namely, using a machine of sorts in non-emptiness dimensions in order to artificially create fractures for more controlled travel via the emptiness).

i also like the idea of said machine being a multiblock that resembles the eldritch obelisks we know, but with perhaps a cool mechanical-esque twist, and/or with support blocks in mind (i.e the structure is done such that an impetus relay, stabilizer, or essentia jar has comfortable areas to be placed within it)

obviously, impetus would be used in some form to run this machine (either as a first-time to open the fracture, or a cost whenever someone travels it?), but i had the bizarre thought that perhaps you could use Rifts in a Jar as fuel in some manner for this? like as a catalyst/fodder for the artificial fracture? it's absolutely mad but it'd provide a neat use for spare rifts you might accidentally create. i wouldn't know if the rift's size/stability would help with this

this may seem obvious, but i hope some form of compatibility with the extradimensional monitor is present, similarly to how it behaves with dimensional fractures. being able to see where an artificial fracture will lead before you fully set it up will be useful. if not, perhaps a more dedicated item or block could be used for this purpose. or, perhaps, the EM could be useful for determining proximity to other fractures based on the projected "entry point" that the current setup would lead

it's probably likely that the machine can only be built in a non-emptiness dimension as it'd be insanely complicated to set up a method to tear to a chosen non-emptiness dimension while in the emptiness. and on that topic, will the corresponding fractures in the emptiness need to have their own support structures? i'm sorry for asking all these questions i just really like this idea