Writing

Writing an age is the act of adding symbols representing different features to a Descriptive Book (via Book Binder) in order to make a customized age. Only very skilled writers will be able to create stable ages that do not fall apart. Players may write any age they would like, though if their writing is not specific enough then things may appear the player did not intend. On the opposite side of the scale, players who write too specifically may introduce conflicts into their ages, which may cancel each other out. Either way, if a balance is not struck, the age will likely be unstable.

Finding and Copying Symbols
Symbols can no longer be learned from randomly generated Descriptive Books, and must be found in dungeons, dimensions, or hidden in shrines found in Ages. Once found, they can be placed in a notebook using a Writing Desk for future copying, or used directly to create Descriptive Books and copied from there with the Writing Desk.

Notebooks can be placed on the right side of the Writing Desk interface, next to the text entry field, so that Symbols can be copied directly in to them from any Descriptive Book or Notebook placed on the left side tabs.

Writing Ages
To write a Descriptive Book, the player will need to place Symbols, copied or found, in a Book Binder with some leather. Alternatively, simple paper can be added as blank pages to make random, unstable Ages. Good writers will know which symbols they need, and which symbols they do not. Very good writers will know how to create an age with no internal conflicts, and with no undesired additions. An easy way to practice composition is to separate the types of symbols into their own Notebooks, then copy the symbols you want in your age into another notebook; placing the notebook in the Book Binder page interface will move all its pages onto the binder in order.

Currently, Descriptive Books cannot have symbols added to its blank pages after their age has been visited.

Missing Symbols
When a player links with an incomplete or even empty Descriptive Book, symbols will be automatically selected in order to create the new age. There are two types of autoselection, based on the type of symbol missing:

Primary Symbols
Primary symbols, such as biome controllers, will be autoselected if there are not enough to meet the minimum per category. This will make the age unstable. The minimum number of primary symbols is usually one. Biomes are the exception, the biome controller symbol determines the minimum number of biomes.

Secondary Symbols
Secondary symbols include things like Star Fissures or Mineshafts. These symbols are important to an age's generation, but stable ages may be written without them.

Each individual book will require a different number of secondary symbols per category. When autoselection occurs, if the book does not have any of these symbols, the selector may select symbols to fill these requirements. The selector will never add more than three secondary symbols per category, and never more than five per age. Symbols may belong to more than one category, and there may be symbols that are both primary and secondary.

Conflicting Symbols
Primary symbols are required for an age. However, if more than the maximum of each category of symbol is specified, then they will conflict. Only the maximum number of symbols will be used, the rest are ignored, and the age will become more unstable. The maximum number of primary symbols is usually one. Biomes are the exception, the biome controller symbol determines the maximum number of biomes.

Unstable Symbols
Certain symbols will increase instability of an age simply by being used. Dense Ores is one such symbol.

Buggy Symbols
On some Tekkit Lite servers, symbols such as Skylands will cause a server crash when any player enters the age.

Having the cave world symbol will cause the player to keep falling into the void without getting hurt. From what has been tested, it seems that the bug is with redpower marble generation in cave worlds.