Write a Dual Cultivation Method

This page follows Define Aura and Realms: that one built the single-body cultivation loop, this one adds a method to the same pack that only yields results while somebody is nearby. The framework grants dual cultivation no bonus of its own — it is just a test, and how much faster, how much it costs and what it gives are yours to write.

What You Are Building

• One cultivation whose "does this tick yield anything" asks "is there a friend beside me holding a technique manual".
• That test, assembled from three pieces that already exist: mxt:partner (scans the bodies around), mxt:target_condition (asks the question about the other body), mxt:main_hand_item (asks what that body holds in its main hand).
• Two choices: when the partner walks away, does the body keep sitting with no results, or stop as well.
• A way for both bodies to get hold of the manual.

Step 1 — The Method

// data/example/mxt/cultivation/dual_meditation.json
{
  "priority": 10,
  "tick_interval": 20,
  "absorb_amount": "3 + realm_rank * 0.15",
  "costs": [{ "type": "mxt:aura", "aura": "example:qi", "amount": 1 }],
  "cultivate_condition": {
    "type": "mxt:partner",
    "range": 5.0,
    "count": { "min": 1, "max": 1 },
    "bientity_condition": {
      "type": "and",
      "conditions": [
        { "type": "friend" },
        { "type": "target_condition",
          "condition": { "type": "mxt:main_hand_item",
            "item_condition": { "type": "mxt:has_component", "component": "mxt:technique" } } }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Field	What it does here
priority	Higher than the solo method, so this one wins while both could run.
cultivate_condition	Whether this tick yields anything. While it fails nothing is paid and nothing is gained, and the body keeps sitting.
absorb_amount	The reward for pairing up — write it higher than the solo method.
tick_interval / costs	Settlement interval and cost, per settlement like any other method.

mxt:partner scans living entities within range blocks of the asking body, never counting itself, and hands each candidate to bientity_condition — inside there the actor is the asking body and the target is the candidate. count is a window on the number of hits, so { "min": 1, "max": 1 } means "exactly one"; leaving max out means "at least one".

The inner mxt:target_condition applies an entity condition to the candidate, so the mxt:main_hand_item inside it asks about the other body's main hand, not your own. mxt:has_component with component: "mxt:technique" only asks whether that stack is a technique manual and does not care which technique — two bodies holding manuals for different techniques still match. To pin it to one technique, see step 4.

mxt:friend narrows the test to friends. For a sect-internal practice use mxt:same_team instead, and drop the whole entry when no relationship is wanted.

Note that mxt:main_hand_item only reads the main hand: a manual in the off hand does not count, and an empty hand is false.

Step 2 — Keeping "My Partner Is Cultivating" Out of the Test

This is the one thing that is easy to get wrong on this method. start_condition and cultivate_condition are asked while the method is being picked (can a body sit down, and would sitting down yield anything), while "my partner is cultivating too" is necessarily false before anybody has sat down:

• Written into start_condition or cultivate_condition, neither body's method applies before either has sat down, so neither can get in.
• Written into tick_condition, it is only asked once a session is running, so the first body does sit down; what it means is "when my partner stands up, I stop too".

So "can we share in the results right now" has to ask what the other body holds (which already holds before sitting down), and "is the other body cultivating" belongs in tick_condition alone:

"tick_condition": {
  "type": "mxt:partner",
  "range": 5.0,
  "bientity_condition": {
    "type": "and",
    "conditions": [
      { "type": "target_condition", "condition": { "type": "mxt:cultivating" } },
      { "type": "friend" }
    ]
  }
}

Without this part, dual cultivation is "each cultivates alone, only somebody has to be around"; with it, it is "two bodies settle in together, and one leaving ends the other".

Step 3 — Using start_condition When You Need a Place

A requirement like "you have to be sitting on a cushion" goes in start_condition, which decides only whether a body can sit down and is not asked again afterwards:

"start_condition": {
  "type": "mxt:on_block",
  "condition": { "type": "mxt:block_tag", "tag": "example:meditation_seats" }
}

The tag file goes at data/example/tags/block/meditation_seats.json and lists the blocks you allow. For "riding something" instead, use mxt:riding around a bi-entity condition shaped exactly like the inner part of mxt:partner.

Step 4 — Where Both Manuals Come From

The test asks whether the stack in hand is a technique manual, so both bodies need one in the main hand. A manual's identity is the mxt:technique component on the stack, no dedicated item required — the technique the pack already has is enough:

give @p mxt:technique_book[mxt:technique="example:azure_breath"]

To pin it to "the manual of that one technique", give the technique a technique binding, put a dedicated carrier into its items (or carrier_item), and swap the inner item condition for one that names the item:

{ "type": "mxt:item_id", "item": "example:dual_manual" }

Step 5 — Raising the Yield

Two ready-made outlets, both in the same definition:

• Rate: write absorb_amount higher (the one above is 3 + realm_rank * 0.15 against the solo method's 1.5).
• Extra gains: add mastery or a resource in cultivate_action. It runs only on a settlement that actually happened — that is, on the ticks where cultivate_condition held — so it needs no condition of its own (use tick_action for something that should happen on every tick):

"cultivate_action": { "type": "mxt:add_resource", "resource": "example:qi_mastery", "amount": "2" }

Verify

1. Two players within 5 blocks of each other, friends, each with a manual in the main hand, each pressing the cultivation key. Both get in, and /mxt cultivate status names this method.
2. The resource bar and cultivation progress start moving, faster than the solo method.
3. One of them walks more than 5 blocks away, or moves the manual to the off hand, or puts it away: both keep cultivating, but from the next tick on there are no results — the bar stops and costs is no longer paid.
4. With the tick_condition from step 2, the settlement after that walk-away stops both, and the actionbar reports "Cultivation cannot continue: Cultivation conditions are not met".
5. Pressing the cultivation key alone reports "no method can be practised right now". A method whose cultivate_condition fails is never picked, so a body is never seated only to be stopped again.

Common Mistakes

Symptom	Cause
Neither body can get in, and the actionbar says no method is available	"My partner is cultivating" was written into start_condition or cultivate_condition. It can only live in tick_condition.
A manual is held but the test still fails	mxt:main_hand_item only reads the main hand; also, a manual's identity is the mxt:technique component on the stack, and a technique book without it is just a book.
Results keep coming after walking away	The test was written into tick_condition only, which decides whether to stop rather than whether to yield; or range is far too large.
The other body is not cultivating, yet the pair still matches	The test asks what the other body holds, not whether it is cultivating. Add mxt:cultivating to tick_condition to require both to be seated.
Standing together but the method is never picked	range is a sphere around the asking body and is capped at 32; and with count's max at 1, one extra body beside you already fails it.
The server slows down as players gather	This test scans nearby entities on every settlement and every pick. Do not put it on most methods.

Next

• cultivation — how the three conditions divide the work, and every field.
• Entity Condition Types — the field tables for mxt:partner, mxt:main_hand_item and mxt:cultivating.
• Technique Binding — how a manual is read and where a dedicated carrier item comes from.