Rare Places

v0.11.2

Five rare structures now appear in the wild, each with its own blocks and its own secret. They belong to no one: no sect hall, territory or Cave Abode can be claimed over one.

How they generate

They generate only in terrain created after you install 0.11.2. A world explored before the update keeps its terrain and gets no structures; an admin can raise one by hand (below). Where and how often is set per type in World/StructureConfig.json, one row each. The shipped defaults:

Each row has a Chance of 0.5 and a Jitter of 0.5. Sizes and spacing are in blocks. The zones are the engine's own: 1 is the Emerald Wilds, 2 the Howling Sands, 3 the Whisperfrost Frontiers and 4 the Devastated Lands. The mine, cave and tomb also generate in the First Gate of the Echo (zone 1's spawn region). Different structures keep at least 192 blocks apart (Structure-Min-Gap-Blocks).

As measured on the shipped defaults, the cave comes about once per 60-70 km2 of explored overworld, the furnace per 55-60, the crater per 40-80 and the mine per 30. No measured rate is recorded for the Sword Tomb.

A structure that is found on protected ground - inside world-spawn protection, an admin-protected area, sect land, a Cave Abode or an open Secret Realm - is dormant: it stands but does nothing until the land is free, and the land is rechecked every minute.

Spirit Stone Mine

A timbered shaft cut into a rock knoll, or a pit-head over a spiral shaft, with a glowing seam of Spirit Crystals around a Mine Heart: a jade crystal held in a bronze lotus on a carved stone drum. Use the heart, or run /cultivation mine beside it, to read the mine: its grade, the Qi reserve, how fast it recovers, the crystals standing and who has claimed it.

Grade and reserve

A mine rolls its grade when it is first discovered (60% Low, 28% Mid, 10% High, 2% Supreme by default) and keeps it forever. Every mine starts with a full reserve of Qi.

The stones are of the mine's own grade, and the crystals are colored by it (pale blue, violet, gold, pearl with a crimson heart). The reserve regains Qi by the real-world clock, loaded or not.

Mining

Break a Spirit Crystal like any ore. The stones go straight into your bag; with no room the crystal stays and nothing is spent. The seam warns you when it falls under 25% and again on the last strike. Crystals outside a mine, or in a dormant one, simply drop themselves.

A mined crystal regrows in its own cell, only into air, only while its chunk is loaded, and each regrowth costs the reserve a little (10, 15, 25 or 40 Qi). The delay is 90 seconds when the reserve is full and stretches to 900 seconds when it is nearly empty, and nothing regrows below 15% of the reserve. So a mine rewards mining at a pace the seam can keep.

Mined dry

Sect claims

A sect's Patriarch or an Elder can stand within 6 blocks of the heart and run:

/sect mine claim
/sect mine release
/sect mine info

A claim protects nothing: anyone may still mine, build and fight there. What it does:

• 20% of the stones every crystal yields to an outsider are withheld from that miner and credited to the claiming sect as contribution, at the rate of /sect donate (5 per Low-grade stone by default), to the member who made the claim (the Patriarch if that member has left). Members of the claiming sect keep everything.
• The sect's members are told when an outsider mines there, at most once every 2 minutes.
• Each sect level adds 5% to the reserve's regeneration.
• A new claim, or a contest, is announced to players within 128 blocks of the heart and to the sects involved.
• Another sect takes the mine by running /sect mine claim at the heart and then holding it for 60 seconds with none of the holding sect within the radius. A defender standing there pauses it; leaving the heart abandons it.
• A disbanded sect's claim lapses, and a collapse ends it.

/sect mine info at a mine shows that mine, and elsewhere lists the mines your sect holds. The sect commands need cultivation.sect; /cultivation mine needs only cultivation. Settings: Spirit Mine config.

Sword Tomb

A terraced mound bristling with hundreds of fallen swords (broken, rusted, jade-hilted and great ones) below an inscribed Sword Tomb Stele. Use the stele to read the tomb's legend, how many swords stand, how many it will still give today, your pull cooldown and the spirit's state.

Pulling swords

Use a tomb sword to pull it. It leaves the ground, crumbles, and gives forging material: one roll of Common (62%, 1-3), Refined (30%, 1-2) or Pristine (8%, 1) Forging Material. The sword resettles after 72 hours (Resettle-Hours), and never over a block a player put there.

• You can pull one sword every 10 minutes, anywhere (Pull-Cooldown-Seconds 600).
• One tomb gives up at most 12 ordinary swords per UTC day, across everyone (Daily-Pulls-Per-Site; 0 is no limit), so no single player strips a field.
• A full bag stops the pull before the sword goes. A test profile gets nothing real.
• Tomb swords cannot be broken; an admin removes them with the usual tools.

The sword spirit

One sword in every tomb, the Spirit Sword, holds a sword spirit. Pull it and the spirit rises to test you, alone:

• It is scaled to the highest real profile realm on your account: 240 health times (1 + 0.6 per realm).
• Only your own blows land on it. You have 180 seconds, and you may not stray more than 6 blocks past the tomb.
• Lose, die, log out, switch profile, run out of time or stray, and the spirit returns to its sword; you may try that tomb again after 20 hours.
• Win, and the spirit waits at the stele. No realm is needed to try (Trial-Min-Realm 0).
• A cultivator who won at a tomb never draws its spirit again, and the won sword stays empty for 168 hours before a new spirit settles.

To bond it, hold a Life-Bound weapon of your own that has no awakened spirit and use the stele. The spirit wakes in that weapon at level 1 as a Haughty Weapon Spirit, skipping the usual kill requirement. By default the weapon must still have reached the spirit's refinement tier (V, WeaponSpirit-Awaken-Required-Refinement-Tier); Bond-Requires-Refinement turns that off. Settings: Sword Tomb config.

Fallen Cultivator's Cave

A sealed cave abode cut into a rocky hill, where a cultivator who never broke through died in meditation. A stone door and an Abode Seal Tablet beside it keep it shut; inside, the remains sit on a meditation dais. Each cave gets a grade from 1 to 3 when it is first found (60%, 30%, 10% by default); a higher grade asks more and gives more.

The offering

Right-click the door or the tablet: the first press names the price, and pressing again within 8 seconds pays it. The price is 20% of the Qi the next stage costs your most advanced real profile, plus 25% more for each grade above 1, never less than 60 Qi (Fallen-Cave-Offering-Percent, -Grade-Step-Percent, -Min-Qi; -Max-Qi is 0, no ceiling). It comes from banked Qi. The door then stands open for everyone for 90 seconds and grinds shut, but only players whose Qi the seal took are acknowledged inside. A player who has paid once reopens that cave free (Fallen-Cave-Remember-Offering). A test profile cannot make the offering.

The legacy

The first time an acknowledged player steps on the dais, once per player per cave:

• Spirit Stones worth 40 Low stones per cave grade (40, 80, 120), paid in the highest grade your realm can hold, but no higher than Mid in a grade 1 cave, High in grade 2 and Supreme in grade 3.
• 2 pills, drawn from the Qi Gathering, Clarity, Meridian-Mending and Longevity Pills. Grade 1 caves give Low pills, grade 2 Mid, grade 3 High, and each has a 35% chance to be a grade better.
• A technique manual, favoring arts you do not know yet and can already learn.

A bag too full for all of it grants nothing and tells you how many slots to free.

The remnant soul

After the legacy, the dead cultivator's remnant soul gathers and asks you one question of the Dao, once per player per cave. Eight questions exist, one picked for you per cave. The wise answers are the humble ones (water over strength, a sound heart over thick walls, building your own foundation, gladness for another, balance, letting go). A good answer gives 40 Heavenly Dao comprehension and returns 50% of your offering as Qi, only to the profile that paid it. A poor answer scatters 10% of your current Qi. Settings: Fallen Cave config.

Tribulation Crater

A scorched bowl of lightning glass around a split altar. Use the Crater Altar to read how many crusts of Thunder Residue are charged.

• A tribulation fought inside the crater (its bounds plus 1 block) strikes 10% softer (Tribulation-Crater-Easier-Multiplier 0.9). It joins the other softeners of every bolt for a breakthrough, a stage advancement or a weapon refinement, so the floor Tribulation-Easier-Min-Multiplier (0.5) still caps the total. See Tribulations.
• Break a crust of Thunder Residue for one Heavenly Thunder Essence.
• Spent crusts regrow in thunderstorms: one per 60 seconds of natural thunderstorm over the crater, seen by a player within 64 blocks. Tribulation skies of Cultivation's own do not count. Without a storm one crust reforms every 12 real hours (Thunder-Residue-Fallback-Hours-Per-Crust; 0 is storms only). Nothing regrows while no player is near.
• At a Builder's Workbench, 1 Heavenly Thunder Essence and 4 Sand make 4 Lightning Glass; 1 Essence and 2 Sand make 1 Fulgurite.

Settings: Tribulation Crater config.

Ancient Pill Furnace Ruins

A ruined pavilion around a giant verdigris-crusted bronze ding whose fire never went out, with a plaque and a courtyard of spirit herbs.

• Refining. Stand beside the furnace with your herbs and run /cultivation alchemy refine <effect>; no cauldron of your own is needed. Every pill refined there gains +15 quality (Pill-Furnace-Grade-Bonus 0.15), and a little less chance of failing. You are told when the ritual starts and when it pays. See Alchemy.
• The garden. The wild spirit herb bushes in the courtyard (39 in the default one) regrow on their own cell about 30 minutes after being picked, give or take a quarter. A furnace garden gives at most 12 herbs per UTC day across everyone; after that, breaking another is refused until tomorrow.

Settings: Pill Furnace config.

Who owns them

Nobody. A sect hall, its territory or its spring, and a Cave Abode, are refused over a rare structure with A rare structure stands on this ground; it belongs to no one. The mine's claim (above) covers only a share of its yield, never its ground.

Admin tools

All need cultivation.admin.

place refuses spawn protection, an admin-protected area, sect land, a Cave Abode, an open Secret Realm and any spot with a recorded structure. remove only retires the record: the blocks stay and the marker is ignored. locate predicts within Structure-Locate-Radius-Blocks (8,000) and says if the ground was explored before and so will never generate. Placement changes apply after a restart and never alter terrain that already exists. Everything is tuned in World config.