To create an automata several steps have to be taken. This page provides an example automata and the process to create it.

Effect

To start off, we need to decide what kind of effect we want to achieve with the automata. For this example, we will create an automata producing a simple Stumble effect for two seconds and can be used during combat on touch.

With the effect decided upon, we need to decide how to produce this effect. There are many ways of producing a stumble effect, for example you could produce a gust of wind to push someone back, try to push someone backwards using pure force, make him feel like there is something ahead of him that he needs to get back from. However, one very simple way of producing the effect is using a property of the matter mages work with: Combining two opposing particle types annihilates them, releasing the energy used for those particles as a burst of light. Producing a burst of light in someones face is bound to cause them to stumble back.

Implementation

To start the implementation, we need to come up with a way of prducing this burst of light. Since annihilation happens when combining opposing particle types, we need to create a certain amount of two opposing particle types and then perform a combine on them. The amount of particles we need is dependant on the strength of the effect. To produce a Stumble effect we need to produce a flash of light of about 1350 power. Annihilation produces light equal to the amount of particles combined, so to produce a burst of light of 1350 power we need to produce about 675 grains of both types of particle, as each grain of particles requires one power to produce.

To put this all down on paper, we start off with a Begin glyph. Underneath that, we put a "Create Particles" glyph, picking "Fire" as the particle type and "675 grains" as the amount. We will need to store this value somewhere so that we can later use it for the combine operation, so we put a "Put" glyph to the top right of the "Create Fire", picking the location "Alpha". Underneath the "Create Fire" glyph, we put another "Create Particles" glyph, in this case picking "Water" as the type but using the same amount. We place a "Put" glyph to the top right of the "Create Water" to store the value again, this time picking "Beta" as the location.

Underneath the "Create Water", we now place a "Combine" glyph to perform the actual annihilation. "Combine" needs two values as input, so we put a "Take" glyph to the top right of the combine, picking "Alpha" for the location and we put a second "Take" to the bottom right of the combine, picking "Beta" for the location. These two glyphs will take the values from their respective locations and make them available for the "Combine" to use.

Final Implementation

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