The Great Library Mod:

Overview:

Labyrinthic dimension, built in the style of a library, by randomly picking a section for each chunk or set of chunks. If possible, integration with Cubic Chunks should be provided, as it will give new depth (pun intended) to the dimension, essentially making it truly infinite.

Integration with other mods could provide new content in the form of:

• New Sections / Biomes;
• New Drops / Loot;
• New Mob Spawners;
• New Traps / Contraptions;

Biomes:

Biomes control:

• Section style;
• Section type;

Sections:

The sections can probably be done somewhat as json config files which means we could have expansion content packs with a bunch of sections.

Sections should be defined through JSON files, but the Structure Block File Format might also be a nice alternative.

Sections control:

• Drop / Loot selection;
• Mob selection;
• Trap / Contraption selection;

Mobs:

New mobs:

• Rat;
• Skeleton Rat;

Books:

Books should be randomly generated in The Library, with emphasis on written books. These could be obtained from a community repository, hosting a miriad of copyright free or otherwise authorized books:

• I think having books with actual short stories in would be cool, there's so many unpublished authors works floating around it must be possible to build up a load of copywrite free work to stick into books.;

• Make a public repo containing just those book files, this way, the community can PR new stories smile and we could have the mod pull a random story from the repo each time it has to generate a book.;

• Though perhaps we could make the book part an optional plugin.;

• With a big enough repository of random books to find it could give more motivation to go exploring looking for new books...;

• Imagine if you could hook with patchouli and similar libs to grab whatever manuals were generated with those libs and place them in The Library.;

Drops / Loot:

• Empty Books;
• Book and Quill;
• Paper

(Random stacks of paper laying around.);

• Enchanted Books

(With enchantment books being rare, but possible finds.);

Decorations:

• We should also randomly generate signs pointing to stuff (like reading areas or book genres) mostly as decoration.;

• Biomes could have signs at the entries, like "The Catacombs" or "Magical Studies".;

Integrations:

All of the mods mentioned below have a 1.12.2 version, with the majority either having a 1.14 version as well, a sucessor or a spiritual sucessor.

Thaumcraft ^_(GitHub) :

• Research Notes;
• Greatwood / Silverwood Library Sections:
  • Mobs;
  • Drops / Loot;
  • Greatwood Style;
  • Silverwood Style;
• Eldritch Library Sections:
  • Mobs;
  • Drops / Loot;
  • Eldritch Style;
• Crimson Library Sections:
  • Mobs;
  • Drops / Loot;
  • Crimson Style;

Astral Sorcery ^_(GitHub) :

• Constellation Papers;
• Marble Library Sections:
  • Drops / Loot;
  • Astral Sorcery Marble Style;

Waystones ^_(GitHub) :

• Randomly placed Waystones with Section names being used as part of the Waypoint name;

MystCraft :

• Picture sections of the Library with books for unknown worlds, full of untold stories. Or even just groups of pages, randomly strewn around.;

Soulus ^_(GitHub) :

• We could have summoners (the soulus version of a spawner), with randomly filled soul books in shelves.;

Bibliocraft / Inspirations ^_(GitHub) :

• If Bibliocraft, Inspirations or other similar mods that add 3D bookshelves (those where you can place books directly and see them there), we could generate the library sections with those instead. Aside from that, I'd say verify what bookshelf variants we can use (mostly for wood types). Whenever possible, smaller mods should be favored over bigger ones, as that can reduce bloat;

Iron Age Furniture ^_(GitHub) :

• Furniture and other furnishings for The Library;

Iron Age Architecture:

• Architectural elements for new Styles and Sections;

BetterPortals ^_(GitHub) :

• Whatever design we opt on for the portals leading to and from The Library, they should behave like Nether Portals from the Better Portals mod if it's loaded;

Unsorted Notes:

YaibaToKenToday at 4:51 PM On that note, do you think it would be worth it if the library also had some workshop like sections, sleeping quarters, brewing lairs and similar?

SkyBladeToday at 4:52 PM maybe there would be a librarians quarters and I was thinking there would be places like, where books are made or restored

YaibaToKenToday at 4:53 PM They'd be much rarer than actual library sections, but would also help anyone exploring and would work as checkpoints Since we could also use droptables to populate those sections with corresponding loot

SkyBladeToday at 4:53 PM and since bookshelfs can't be mined without making the mobs aggro, maybe a workshop where bookshelfs are made where the player can actually get bookshelfs without making the mobs aggro

YaibaToKenToday at 4:53 PM We could have workshops of varying sizes, the bigger the better the loot Well, if we make sure mobs don't spawn in those sections, and seeing as workshops would have gates or doors, that should be feasible

SkyBladeToday at 4:55 PM oh yes there was one I had in mind, like a 'restricted section', like in Doctor Strange, a gates section to the library with more magical book drops but also with aggro mobs inside maybe

YaibaToKenToday at 4:55 PM So, like same dimension, but special conditions to access? We could perhaps encase the sections in bedrock?

SkyBladeToday at 4:56 PM yeah good idea, well bedrock wrapped in bookshelves, if they try and mine into the side of the section they'll hit bedrock what would be fun would be to have a key they had to find to get in keep them busy.. so the chest with the key always spawned within a certain range of the gate

YaibaToKenToday at 4:58 PM Yup, the section with the key could even have some noticeable details, just to exclaim there's something there

YaibaToKenToday at 5:04 PM my brain is churning with ideas for special sections and how to integrate as many of MMD's mods as possible

SkyBladeToday at 5:07 PM as much as I like them there no point in integration basemetals or mineralogy as they just add stone and metal and this mod is all about the wood and paper

YaibaToKenToday at 5:08 PM I was thinking more about Leather Works for example

SkyBladeToday at 5:08 PM it will have integration with BoP, Natura and some other mods anyway because ironage* does

YaibaToKenToday at 5:08 PM having a workshop where you can tan leather and process it further would make sense, as it provides a source of materials to make books

SkyBladeToday at 5:08 PM yes some nice book recipes and models with different leathers woudl be good

YaibaToKenToday at 5:09 PM panda's wood mod might also be nice if we could figure out a way to generate bookshelfs in Inspirations' (if the mod is loaded) or vanilla's style for all wood types

SkyBladeToday at 5:10 PM will be cool to have some really good short stories hidden in there, imagine a player logging on just to carry on ready a book

YaibaToKenToday at 5:10 PM Mineralogy could provide new section styles, using the different stone types

SkyBladeToday at 5:10 PM I suppose some polished stone floors and pillars could be nice

YaibaToKenToday at 5:10 PM oh yes, the section file must contain what mods it depends on

SkyBladeToday at 5:10 PM and the lamps some bits it can use the thing from the mod if it has it, and if not substitute it for a vanilla thing like mineralogy stone floor could be swapped for vanilla stone brick, except ironage* which I plan to be a required mod as it will provide all the furniture etc

YaibaToKenToday at 5:16 PM I was thinking we'd be doing the section generation in two steps, at least for blocks that have vanilla counterparts. First step generates the section using as many vanilla blocks as possible, the second step replaces them with the corresponding blocks from the picked style template

SkyBladeToday at 5:17 PM ah yes good idea

YaibaToKenToday at 5:17 PM This also means that if a mod changes block names, it won't break new sections, just break the style

SkyBladeToday at 5:17 PM thats how mineralogy works

YaibaToKenToday at 5:17 PM And the section picking needs to be tied to the seed, so that the same seed will always generate the exact same sections This way we can add a retrogen system for the section generator

SkyBladeToday at 5:19 PM I like the idea of getting lost in the library, because the mobs get aggro if you start smashing through the bookshelves it would be a gamble for the player, if they wanted to hack through the bookshelves or walk around the long way

YaibaToKenToday at 5:21 PM Yeah, would also encourage the player to use a bread crumbs system

SkyBladeToday at 5:21 PM I do that in the nether, with torches usually

YaibaToKenToday at 5:21 PM I sometimes use signs Btw, who was it that was working on a simple golem framework? I want that for bookshelves and the like 😛

SkyBladeToday at 5:23 PM well the golems are by skyjay, i assumed we would include his bookshelf golems

YaibaToKenToday at 5:23 PM Yes please then 😏

SkyBladeToday at 5:24 PM which I think means it'll use mmdlib but thats expected

YaibaToKenToday at 5:24 PM Yeah Oh, lost golem workshop sections 😛 with a thaumcraft variant

SkyBladeToday at 5:25 PM oh there should be an enchanting station section (a rare section with an enchanting tabl)

YaibaToKenToday at 5:26 PM Oh yes! Perhaps with some enchanted books as well

SkyBladeToday at 5:26 PM yep

YaibaToKenToday at 5:27 PM A toolsmith section for TiC and ConArm users and a vanilla variant