Patchouli Guide Book

[ClaudiusMinimus]

This guidebook extends the Botania Lexicon

• Setup blank book
• Change all references to mana to use the following: Corrupt Mana, Pure Mana, Real Mana
• Organize chapters
  • Intro (for inside front cover under title)
  • Machines
  • Blocks
  • Items
    • Mana gel
    • Lever
  • Support
• Mana Generator
  • Mana Ducts
    • 4 tiers, each efficient
  • Ponder scenes
    • Without ducts (lose mana - shows particles)
    • With ducts
    • With copper casing
• Mana Condenser
• Mana Motor
  • speed configurable with scroller.
  • multiplier for SU & mana consumption configurable in configs
• Manasteel Casing
  • crafting component
• XOR Lever
• Omnibox
• Mana Fluids
  • Corrupt (inert)
  • Purified (inert)
  • Real Botania Mana
• Mana Gel
  • Try eating one, if you can fine one.
• Mana Blocks - might have some uses to be discovered
  • Corrupt (inert)
  • Purified (inert)
  • Real Botania Mana

[zaftnotameni]

This is a great start 🎊 .

Overall I think it makes sense to make the tone a bit more vague specially in the more "lore" focused pages, we can be more specific on the entries specific to machines/blocks.

Also I think we should try to not "spoil" future entries/mechanics and let them be learned/discovered as player read further.

This might be overthiking but probably would be nice to have a storyline through the entries where the earlier ones (like mana condenser) are more vague/speculative, and as the player learns more, the book also becomes more assertive/specific towards the later entries.

Some more specific comments below.

---

Generating Botania Mana

suggestion: "Mana Generation is not a simple process, specially when trying to accomplish it with machinery instead of flowers."

---

We figured out that if we could pull some mana from the air, we could work with that

suggestion: "We have machinery capable of blowing and sucking air using fans, maybe if we aggregate enough air some of the magical nature present in it can be extracted, even if at a very low yield."

---

It turns out we could only get Inert Corrupted Mana Blocks.

suggestion: Sadly after all our efforts, the best we could manage is to generate a fake version of it. It looks like it is inert and somewhat corrupted, and to make matters worse it is... solid? What am I even supposed to do with that?

---

We found these corrupted blocks tricky and potentially dangerous

suggestion: i'd just remove this part

---

We also learned to be very careful handling them

suggestion: Further experimentation is required, but we should be careful, these things look nasty and really dangerous.

---

After much trial and error, we discovered the secrete to pure botania mana

^ this belongs in the mana generator, not here

[zaftnotameni]

suggestion:

Let's pick at least one of the secrets (maybe managel generation?) to expose in an entry, but only reveal it after the player trades the book with the elves

[zaftnotameni]

this looks amazing

---

It turns out Pure Daisies have powerful purifying properties that not only purify the corrupted blocks but seem to have beneficial attributes

suggestion It turns flowers were the answer after all, the Pure Daisy seems to have remove all semblance of corruption from these blocks. (i'd remove the part of benefits from here)

---

We named this discovery Inert Mana Blocks

suggestion: These blocks are purified but seem to be still inert.

[zaftnotameni]

this is so good 👍

[zaftnotameni]

---

just a bit of making things more concise:

However when powered with SU, the mana Generator consumes inert liquid mana and adds botania mana to a mana pool when placed above the machine

suggestion: When provided with rotational force, this machine somehow manages to convert the inert mana fluid we've been handling into real mana, percolating it into a mana pool above it.

would also add:

This conversion process is unexplicably magical but it seems to be woefully innefficent, only a fraction of the liquid that goes in is succesfully transformed into real mana.

[zaftnotameni]

could use some more of the nice "discovery" tone you added for the other process

I'm very conflicted about adding (or not) the line about the pure daisy having to be floating because you can do with a normal one, but only the 4 corners.

maybe let people figure that our on their own?

we can also add an advancement for breaking a pure daisy with mana fluid that unlocks a hint page if people are struggling

---

Improved efficiency

it doesn't really... it just improves logistics (i.e. pumps are much easier to setup than drills because of filtered pipes) but all the conversion rates are the same