A couple of suggestions

Hi, first of all this addon is just incredible and if I had any good reason to not update into 1.15+ it would be for Thaumcraft and this alone, for what it does it makes Thaumcraft 6 feel complete and at the same time try to make it as its own thing compared to what Thaumcraft 4 did.

The dimension, the spire dungeon, and the rift mechanics are some of the best I've seen and it heavily competes with what The Outer Lands did so hats off to you!

I do have some suggestions if you're fine with that.

Water Focus Effect Improvements

I love the idea of the Water element but I always found it strange on how the projectiles don't travel at all and fall downwards when using it underwater.

I don't know about the possibilities of this or how much Thaumcraft 6 obstructed the focus source code, but I think it would be cool if all projectiles with the water element are able to fire at a quicker rate and deal more efficient damage underwater, I also think while it's raining it should do the same effect similar to some of the Trident enchantments from 1.13+

Fire has the same problems imo, the projectiles don't extinguish underwater but again I don't know if changing how focus works is even possible.

Electric Focus Effect

Some sort of electric element is what I miss the most from old Thaumcraft versions, sure there is the bolt attack but it doesn't feel the same honestly.

How it would work is whenever mobs are hit by any sort of projectile combined with electric, it would zap nearby enemies, think of the old Sword of Zephyr when it used to do that or the old Shock focus effects.

Unfortunately Thaumcraft 6 removed a ton of aspects and Potentia is already used by the bolt, but I feel like it would fit Ordo at best.

Crimson Focus Effect

Whenever mobs are hit, it has a chance to steal some health from them that ends up healing some of your hearts. Don't know if this would be too powerful, but it would require a lot of cultist research and Praecantatio Vis Crystals to create.

Craftable Cultist Gear

Currently it's very hard to obtain Crimson Armor without constantly hunting down cultists around the game, in Thaumcraft 4, the Tainted Magic addon added a weapon which causes mobs to drop Phials of Crystal Blood that's used to make the components to make more Crimson Armor such as Crimson Fabrics and Crimson Plates, it also made the Crimson Blade craftable.

I don't know if you have plans to add the Crimson Praetor or the Greater Crimson Portal, but I think it would also be cool to make the Praetor Armor craftable as well using a similar method that Tainted Magic did.

Impulse Cannon Extras

My favorite part of the new update is definitely the Impulse Cannon, it just feels powerful and satisfying to use once you get a hold of it, I do have some ideas that I think would fit.

Spread Fire Conversion

How it would work in this conversion is unlike Burst Fire, it will instead fire all three beams at once but in three different directions giving you the chance to damage enemies at a wider range, the cool down is similar to Burst Fire's but slightly slower.

Gamma Ray Conversion

Converts the beam into a large continuous laser, you simply need to keep holding the right mouse button and it'll keep going until you let it go, however using this will rapidly drain impetuous energy compared to the other conversions. (If you want a prime example of this, you should check out the solar beams from Mowzie's Mobs)

Scope Attachment

Once attached to the Impulse Cannon, pressing shift while holding it will cause you to zoom into the screen which makes it easier to use the Railgun Conversion from afar.

Piercing Plasma Attachment

Causes beams fired by the Impulse Cannon to go through mobs thus giving you the ability to damage much more mobs at once.

Tainted Lands Content

Giant Taintacle Miniboss

Has a chance to spawn throughout the Tainted Lands in the Emptiness, basically another alternate way to obtain Primordial Pearls, it should also spawn Taint Swarms as one of its moves.

Maybe spawn through a structure, dunno, I honestly found it as more of a miniboss rather than a boss.

Natural Taintwood Trees and Planks

If I'm not wrong Taintwood Logs are already obtainable, but are not used for anything once harvested. I think adding planks that are safe to build on taint would be cool like how you can already do so in the Forbidden Magic addon for Thaumcraft 4.

Having Taintwood Trees spawn naturally in the Tainted Lands would also fancy up the biome.

Contaminated Tools

Special tools made out of taint materials and substances, they allow you to have three different sets of enchantments similar to the Chameleon Tools from the Forbidden Magic addon. Pressing shift + right mouse click changes the texture of the tool and switches into one of the three enchantment sets.

That's about all the suggestions I have, I hope they're not too overwhelming, but they're mainly just ideas and I can completely understand how hard mod development is coming from someone who did mess around with code before.

Again, thanks for making this amazing addon!

Thank you for leaving these detailed suggestions! I'll leave my thoughts on them here:

Water Focus Improvements

The projectile slowing down in water is a Minecraft thing that all focus projectiles have and can't be disabled. Circumventing that would be coremod territory, and I don't really want to add more to the coremod unless there is a very good reason, as maintaining it is proving to be a pain already. For effects, I could probably add things similar to the trident enchantments. Sadly I don't get to play much modern Minecraft given I develop for 1.12, but off the top of my head the only one that would really make sense here would be the lightning one. If I were to add that, I'd have to make sure that people that are trying to water plants or something don't end up spawning lightning everywhere inadvertently.

Electric Focus Effect

A while ago there were ideas for some sort of Immersive Engineering integration with arcing electricity on a focus, but that got put aside. As a standalone focus, other than the aspect problem, it would probably be helpful early game given the elemental focus effects are easy to get, and the arcing infusion enchantment and primal cutter come much later. I also wonder how it would compare to cloud foci, but it's probably much easier to hurt yourself with the cloud so that would be an advantage for the electric one.

Crimson Focus

If I ever do add Crimson Cult content, this seems like a thing that would make sense. I would have to limit the healing so people can't just be invincible (the regular healing focus is already a bit too good IMO) but it can be done.

Cultist Gear

Like the focus, I would add this along other cultist content. There are other addons that add crafting recipes for crimson cult items and some of the bosses like the Crimson Praetor. I don't want to just add recipes and instantly cancel those addons - if I add Crimson Cult stuff, it would need to be substantial and be its own thing that is built off of. There were some plans for cult content, but it was decided there was already a lot for one update. That being said, I did get a bit burnt out working on the latest update, so I currently am taking a break from major features and expansions. I'm not sure if I will make another super big update or not, but at least it won't be very soon.

Spread Fire

I thought about doing this originally, but I figured it would get annoying if you kept missing the single creeper that was slowly approaching you due to spread RNG. Then again, the burst mode ended up being more of a close-medium range type thing instead of just close range like I envisioned, so maybe I should give this a shot (pun not intended) sometime.

Gamma Ray

To me this sounds like a piercing, stronger version of the unaugmented beam. I originally thought of the railgun attachment fulfilling that role, but I guess the controllable beam is different enough to warrant some thought.

Scope

I had a feeling this would get requested eventually. I'm not against adding it, but one of the major reasons why I didn't was I was concerned it would make it seem too much like a sniper rifle reskinned to look magic-y, which is not what I want for it.

Piercing

Currently, only the railgun can pierce things (and it pierces entities infinitely). I feel like I want to keep that exclusive to it, as other than range and instant damage it has a fair few disadvantages compared to the other options. In raw DPS it's actually slightly weaker than the other 2, and missing can be fatal given the large recharge time.

I'm going to put all the taint stuff in this paragraph because everything you put there is pretty solid. It was actually planned to have a Giant Tainticle boss and custom trees/wood, but that also was cut from this update due to time. As for the tools, I'm not sure if I want to use the same effects as tainted magic, but having special taint-based tools makes a lot of sense and would be really cool. I also agree that the biome could use some help, but again, that got cut.

So that's my thoughts on everything, if you disagree or want to comment on anything feel free to do so. I'm not sure when I would get around to adding content again, and there is plenty of it even just here on GitHub for me to go through, so I can't give any timeframe for when anything would be done.

And thank you for taking the time to write all that out, it makes me happy when people say they like the mod and have lots of ideas to make it better!

Thanks for the quick response! I completely understand that working on it for a long time removes the mood on working on it further or being under the state of burnout. I think it's best to take breaks every once awhile.

I wasn't expecting for the projectiles to be changed up anyway because of how hard of a task that can be without changing the core mechanic itself which ends up conflicting with things. There were three trident enchants which was the lightning one during thunderstorms (Channeling), Impaling which does extra damage to aquatic mobs but I don't think that's possible in 1.12, and Loyalty which makes it go back to you after throwing it and like you said the Channeling one makes the most sense, I think for that it could probably be some sort of channeling bow instead that channels lightning for an area of effect attack during rain or alternatively some sort of block that carries electricity maybe through Immersive Engineering integration, Thaumcraft 6 does lack bows imo, and if I'm not wrong one of the addons adds back the Bone Bow and the arrows for it.

Immersive Engineering integration definitely sounds interesting for a future update, I do miss the old arcs from old Thaumcraft versions that used to zap electricity to mobs, so I think an electric focus would fit well as a beginning aspect based on that. I'd also like to suggest having it set to deal 1-2 damage by default so it doesn't have too much advantage over the other elements, I'm not sure if it's possible to use the same aspects that another focus uses for an entirely new focus, but I figured if it isn't possible Ordo could probably fit or if that's too strange, making a new aspect (or adding Tempestas back from old versions) could also work but I'm not sure on what your stance is on adding new aspects as that may be too much, this addon is really large though and I've seen some smaller addons that did add new aspects already so new aspects could probably work for this.

I've also made a mistake on the Crimson Focus idea, I forgot that Praecantatio is already used for Void Shield, I think two aspects that might fit instead if they aren't used for anything else are Spiritus or Desiderium, if not some sort of new aspect based on the Crimson Cult.

I understand that you don't want to conflict with other addons that do similar things, I do kind of disagree at the same time though, some people prefer not to use specific addons like how I prefer not to use ones that don't feel like vanilla Thaumcraft or are just overpowered in general, I didn't know there were addons that did added craftable cultist gear so that was probably why.

It wouldn't be fair for the people that do use them either though, the best solution would be like how you've mentioned a few times, add something unique that the other addons haven't done yet which I think this mod is really good at doing at.

I also think adding naturally spawning Lesser Crimson Portals at the Emptiness might help with the issue a bit on how hard it is to attain their gear, but I'll leave that up to you on what you want to do with the cultist content.

Another mistake I've did, I didn't know that you could fire the Impulse Cannon without any conversions and this is because when I first tested it on Creative, I could only fire the cannon with conversions so it gave me the impression that it required a conversion to fire, this might be a possible bug, and hopefully it isn't too hard to fix. Despite that I think the Gamma Ray and the Spread Fire ideas might be neat things to experiment around with at some point.

I can understand leaving the piercing exclusive for the Railgun conversion, I forgot that it was able to do that and to be fair I think the scope idea fits mostly for that conversion alone, I think rather than having it as a scope and to keep it magical like you envisioned, it should be exclusive to the Railgun conversion, pressing shift would cause a screen effect similar to whenever you get those warp events for having too much warp but blue and zooms into the screen like when you zoom in with a bow in Skyrim, not only would this save time from making another model with a scope but it would also imply that magic is involved whenever you zoom in with the Railgun conversion. If it's too powerful though which I honestly think it's not because of the disadvantages you've mentioned, have it consume a bit of impetuous energy every time you use the zoom function.

I also find it fascinating how you were considering on adding content similar to what I was suggesting and again I understand that you don't want to overwhelm yourself with doing that, hopefully if you don't feel too overwhelmed and plan on staying on 1.12 for a bit longer (and judging from the current status of Thaumcraft on future versions, it'll probably be 1.12 for awhile) there's at least a bit of more love for the Taint stuff, I honestly miss the Taint biomes in the Overworld too because of the sense of dread and fear they gave when encountered, like I've said though don't overwhelm yourself, especially if it's a hobby, it's best to enjoy doing it rather than having it feel like work.

Just a quick correction, I meant the tools from Forbidden Magic rather than Tainted Magic it's easy to mix them up. xD

I did suggest content based on those older addons because I miss some of the features they had and I've noticed this mod does add content similar to those addons, for example the Primal Cutter reminds me of the Edge of the Primordials from Tainted Magic for what it does except more balanced and toned down in power, which I like and it makes a good if not better substitute. I don't know if that was a coincidence or if it was actually based on that weapon though. (Also a minor nitpick, but I think after researching the Primal Cutter it should give you warp like the Primal Crusher does for consistency)

Lastly I think there should be something for the hoe, I was thinking of an infusion where you combine a Void Hoe with the Hoe of Growth and some Shears to make a tool that cuts large chunks of tall grass or leaves, tills grass in a 3x3 area, and shears sheep, maybe some sort of scythe? There's already the Primal Crusher and the Primal Cutter that utilizes the other four tools but the poor hoe is left in the dust.

That's about all I have to say to add into it, thanks for responding to everything which I really didn't expect but I'm quite glad you enjoyed the feedback!

Sorry for not responding for a while, but my thoughts on what you said:

Trident enchants / lightning

Channeling does seem to be the one that makes the most sense. I didn't think of making it in bow form, that could be interesting. Thaumcraft 6 does lack bow options - the bone bow was from an older version (I forget which), and Thaumic Wonders is the addon that brought it and the primal arrows back.

Arcs

You can reuse aspects in the focal manipulator, all the aspect really controls is the crystal you need and the color it adds to the final focus color. I haven't added any custom aspects because I feel like it's more annoying than interesting to add an aspect if it's barely used. An example of what I mean: the second you encounter an aspect, it becomes available for research. Some mods like Bewitchment have integration with Thaumcraft and add aspects. It becomes really not fun when your research just got totally derailed because you need to get Diabolus or Luna or something that you don't have and have no idea where to find, all because you scanned some random flower in the wilderness that had it (no idea if those aspects are found on flowers, this is a dramatized example).

Crimson Cult

I still feel like I want to add the armor only with other content. I also don't want to just add crimson cult portals to the Emptiness, as I'm not really sure there's a good lore reason for those to be there. The thing above about aspects applies to a possible crimson cult aspect.

Non Augmented Cannon

Yeah the other potential augments are interesting and I'll think about them. As for the cannon not working, the non-augmented form requires holding down right click rather than using it a single time. Other than that, I'm not sure what that could be, since it has always worked perfectly in testing.

Taint Stuff

If I were to do a "taint update" of sorts, it would probably be in the form of adding things to the taint biomes in the Emptiness. The problem with taint in TC6 is that it's behavior is not very customizable, so I would need to make custom versions of pretty much everything to allow me to redo it to support things like overworld taint biomes like they were back in older TC versions. As it is, I can't even place TC's taint blocks somewhere without them instantly reverting if there's no taint seed around, so that's the kind of thing that would mean I need to redo it all from scratch.

Old Stuff

The cutter is originally from TC2 I think, so that probably makes it similar to other addons' versions of it. As for no warp, I made the decision to use a policy of not "double charging" the player with warp; if they already got permanent warp doing very similar research (in this case, the crusher), don't add even more warp. After doing the math, I came to the conclusion that making everything give more warp would make things a bit crazy with the amount of warp a player would have. And that also doesn't include other addons, which when factored in would probably make things a total disaster.

Hoe

Huh, I'm surprised I never heard about that because that's a really good idea. A scythe would be cool, and you're right that the hoe is the only major tool to not get a fancy primal counterpart.

I was just about to comment here what a great idea it would be to also add back the eldritch dungeon, but dang you already added it and I just haven't updated yet. This mod is amazing!

the Primal Cutter reminds me of the Edge of the Primordials from Tainted Magic for what it does except more balanced and toned down in power, which I like and it makes a good if not better substitute. I don't know if that was a coincidence or if it was actually based on that weapon though.

hopefully you don't mind me popping in here, but I just happen to be the guy who suggested both of those items, the edge of the primordials was supposed to be a primal cutter actually, but evidently the mod creator decided to take some liberties with it.

potential primal scythe idea

I just so happened to have the same idea some time ago lol

Other than some impulse cannon comments I made in #107, here's some updates regarding this stuff:

Scope attachment is probably going to be a thing at some point
Improving the taint biome is one of the main focuses of the next update (whenever that happens)
The scythe could probably be added as well as long as the content todo list doesn't get too big already

TheCodex6824 / ThaumicAugmentation