Installation instructions: Download "mod plugin reborn", make sure that you have at least two instances per hero class and that all skills unlocked is true. Then put "Abomination Parent Folder for Mod Manager" in the Mods folder. I go more in depth on this in the description of the Devotee mod on Nexus.

My notes:

It seems to me that the way coding for this game works is slightly different that the way it seems upon first glance. Despite the fact that the vanilla game has seperate .Group/.CSV and .PO(which are basically just .txt) files for everything(a data file for each hero, localization files, buffs, effects, basically just tons of different files) spread through several different folders (Excel, Sources, PoEdit), it looks like this is only for cohesion and not actually a requirement.

For example, although there are dedicated vanilla files for buff_data and effect_data, there are also buffs and effects created in other files, such as overstress_data. Although I made separate files for effects, buffs, etc, I didn't have to - I could have just put everything in the hero_dm_data file. I didn't even have to follow the vanilla naming convention, I could have called it anything(I just like consistency). I could probably have even included her localization in that file too(I don't know for sure, since localization files are different file type, .PO).

Also, most vanilla files are huge blocks of text with no comments. This is also not necessary. The few times vanilla files do include comments they are preceded by a #, although this seems to be unnecesary as well. I would still suggest using it though, to make it more obvious where your comments are. Blank space is also completely fine. I put an empty line in between each element for my mod, because the vanilla format hurts my eyes a lot.

Now for what personally interests me the most: There doesn't even seem to be a required format for things. Basically, each "big picture" thing (every hero and enemy, as an example) requires lots of stuff in order to even appear, and more stuff in order to function properly and not crash your game upon their appearance. I may(probably won't) update this later with specific examples of what is absolutely necessary, but for now it's too much to get into. The really interesting thing to me, though, is that these things can be anywhere, in any .Group.CSV file, anywhere in the file(as long as all the right stuff is under the same, correct element). What's more is that any typos/syntax errors do NOT automatically crash the game, unlike most other games/programs. If it is a typo/syntax error for one of the important things, the game either won't show that "big picture" thing or will crash upon loading it, but that is only because the important elements were missing/missing some important lines/had typos/had syntax errors, so to the game, they did exist. But as long as you have all the important stuff, anything else is treated like a comment(that's why you don't specifically need a # before comments). This is good and bad. It means simple mistakes won't always break your whole mod, but it can also mislead you. For example, if a specific skill isn't doing what you want it to, your first instinct would be that what you want it to do is impossible. After all, the game is running and isn't crashing, so surely you made no syntax errors, right? Wrong. It may actually just be that you made a syntax error or forgot an element/line of code to make that part of your mod work, but it wasn't so important that it crashed the game/didn't load your "big picture" thing.

A practical example of this just happened to me. When I was moving the Inherit stuff into it's own file, I accidentally left out the startingcombatskills and additionalcombatskills lines. Instead of crashing on startup or just not having Doll Master show up, all his skills were instead just normal Flagellant skills. I honestly would have much rather had the game crash upon launch or just not show Doll Master at all, bc it would have made it clearer to me that I was missing some important lines of code.

If you're realy struggling, I might suggest copy+pasting all of your files into Google Docs. This will automatically spell check for you(except for all the things like ResourceSkillInherit since they are all one word), but also, Google Docs is just easier on the eyes in my opinion, so it may help you notice something you were missing just because your eyes hurt too much.

By the way, no folders or files you make need to follow any sort of naming convention. I still think it would be smart to follow some sort of method that works for you, especially if you plan on making multiple mods, but it's up to you. I follow a mix of the vanilla naming conventions and my own methods.

As for inspiration ... the way this game is set up is honestly amazing. You have so much more easy freedom than in DD1. First, just browse through a bunch of the vanilla files to see how things are done, and also look at a bunch of mods, not even just class mods. I'm sure that you can find a way to do pretty much anything you can think of - it's just thinking of it that's the hard part. And syntax. Definitely that too.