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About this mod
A comprehensive edit to the crystarium designed to give more options for character building and speed up gameplay.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Overview:
This mod features large edits to the crystarium for every character and role. The most prominent changes are as follows:
1: Basic abilities from the start
Basic abilities for every role is offered at the start as soon as the role is made available on the crystarium. For example, each character will get Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, etc. at the very beginning of the ravager role. Synergists and Saboteurs get access to most single target abilities, including Haste. The CP cost is reduced to 1 in these instances.
2: Accessory and ATB nodes
Every Accessory and ATB node has also been moved to the very beginning. This means every character starts with maximum accessory slots and 4 ATB segments. Note that it is not possible to add any more ATB nodes to the crystarium, as the game will crash if you have more than 6 segments (the fifth segment is gained from obtaining an eidolon, and the sixth is obtained by equipping each character's ultimate weapon).
3: More options for every character
Every character has access to every ability now. Somebody made a handy guide for what abilities work on every character and I referenced it extensively to ensure every ability I added functions on the character. For instance, abilities like Army of One will only work on Lightning, but spells tend to work on every character. That includes Death, an ability that was only available for Vanille but functions like a regular spell. However, I have only added Death to Fang, given that she's the only other character who's main roles include Saboteur (I've downed several Adamantoise with Fang using Death to ensure it works). Due to how ability nodes have been shuffled around, many characters will also receive some more powerful abilities like Firaga earlier in the crystarium than usual.
4: Secondary roles enhanced
The biggest rework I've done is on the new roles every character obtains after chapter 10. In the vanilla game, it took a prohibitive amount of CP to progress in these roles while obtaining lackluster abilities. All of that has been changed. I have changed the CP amounts for each stage to roughly mirror the amounts required in the same stages for the main roles. Every stat increase has also been modified, with the amounts changed to better match the main roles and the type of stat offered biased towards strength or magic based on the role. The aforementioned points also apply to these roles, so every character can utilize every ability and have basic abilities readily unlocked.
Forewarning:
These changes dramatically alter the experience of most of the game. Due to higher ATB and access to Haste at the beginning of the game, much of the early game is going to be way easier and quicker to get through. These early parts were never extremely challenging but they are even less so now. However, if you found the early game to be a slog like I did you might appreciate this change. This will balance out as the game progresses, but the enhanced speed will make it easier to enjoy it. I also found the difficulty spike once reaching Pulse and the grind required to get up to speed really annoying, and while this mod doesn't eliminate that it improves it somewhat. If you perform every sidequest available at this period and progress the story you should be caught up decently. Some bosses will still be quicker to defeat but put up a good challenge regardless. Once you reach chapter 10 there is more strategy involved in where you should progress the crystarium and more options to let you use each character how you want.
Note that your experience with this will be highly subjective. I originally created this mod for myself because I wanted a more viable Lightning/Fang/Hope team and I wanted Lightning to have a better Sentinel role since I thought it would fit her character. By this point I already reached chapter 12 and wanted a way to experience the entire game again without it being too much of a headache. By giving every character most possible abilities then hopefully your preferable experience can be met. This took many hours and days of menial spreadsheet editing to accomplish, and instead of keeping it to myself I decided to go through the effort of uploading it. If you dislike any of these changes, feel free to make them yourself because it's very likely I will not alter this. The tools required are mentioned in the installation section. I have essentially reached 100% in the game with these changes and have not noticed any issues yet, but my preference for the characters I play has been made clear.
Installation:
-METHOD 1: GAMEPLAY TWEAKS MOD
The gameplay tweaks and hard mode mod by GreenThumb2 provides a framework for installing edits to the crystarium and can be found here: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy13/mods/5?tab=description
GreenThumb2 has also provided me with the text files of my crystarium edits to be used with this mod. After downloading the gameplay tweaks mod and unzipping the folder, download the text files provided here and drop them into the same directory. Open the FFXIIIwdbLoad.bat file to begin the process.
You can choose between my edit to the crystarium or changing the crystarium back to default. When prompted for the filename, type the desired character file in the field.
After installing each character file you are ready to go.
-METHOD 2: EXCEL WORKBOOK
This mod was created using the excel workbook provided by MJB here: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy13/mods/2
I have packaged the .wdb files for every character to be placed in the folder that this workbook uses to insert the modified values back into the game.
After downloading that workbook, you can place my db folder into the same directory and go through the process the other mod describes to insert the files into your game.
This mod features large edits to the crystarium for every character and role. The most prominent changes are as follows:
1: Basic abilities from the start
Basic abilities for every role is offered at the start as soon as the role is made available on the crystarium. For example, each character will get Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, etc. at the very beginning of the ravager role. Synergists and Saboteurs get access to most single target abilities, including Haste. The CP cost is reduced to 1 in these instances.
2: Accessory and ATB nodes
Every Accessory and ATB node has also been moved to the very beginning. This means every character starts with maximum accessory slots and 4 ATB segments. Note that it is not possible to add any more ATB nodes to the crystarium, as the game will crash if you have more than 6 segments (the fifth segment is gained from obtaining an eidolon, and the sixth is obtained by equipping each character's ultimate weapon).
3: More options for every character
Every character has access to every ability now. Somebody made a handy guide for what abilities work on every character and I referenced it extensively to ensure every ability I added functions on the character. For instance, abilities like Army of One will only work on Lightning, but spells tend to work on every character. That includes Death, an ability that was only available for Vanille but functions like a regular spell. However, I have only added Death to Fang, given that she's the only other character who's main roles include Saboteur (I've downed several Adamantoise with Fang using Death to ensure it works). Due to how ability nodes have been shuffled around, many characters will also receive some more powerful abilities like Firaga earlier in the crystarium than usual.
4: Secondary roles enhanced
The biggest rework I've done is on the new roles every character obtains after chapter 10. In the vanilla game, it took a prohibitive amount of CP to progress in these roles while obtaining lackluster abilities. All of that has been changed. I have changed the CP amounts for each stage to roughly mirror the amounts required in the same stages for the main roles. Every stat increase has also been modified, with the amounts changed to better match the main roles and the type of stat offered biased towards strength or magic based on the role. The aforementioned points also apply to these roles, so every character can utilize every ability and have basic abilities readily unlocked.
Forewarning:
These changes dramatically alter the experience of most of the game. Due to higher ATB and access to Haste at the beginning of the game, much of the early game is going to be way easier and quicker to get through. These early parts were never extremely challenging but they are even less so now. However, if you found the early game to be a slog like I did you might appreciate this change. This will balance out as the game progresses, but the enhanced speed will make it easier to enjoy it. I also found the difficulty spike once reaching Pulse and the grind required to get up to speed really annoying, and while this mod doesn't eliminate that it improves it somewhat. If you perform every sidequest available at this period and progress the story you should be caught up decently. Some bosses will still be quicker to defeat but put up a good challenge regardless. Once you reach chapter 10 there is more strategy involved in where you should progress the crystarium and more options to let you use each character how you want.
Note that your experience with this will be highly subjective. I originally created this mod for myself because I wanted a more viable Lightning/Fang/Hope team and I wanted Lightning to have a better Sentinel role since I thought it would fit her character. By this point I already reached chapter 12 and wanted a way to experience the entire game again without it being too much of a headache. By giving every character most possible abilities then hopefully your preferable experience can be met. This took many hours and days of menial spreadsheet editing to accomplish, and instead of keeping it to myself I decided to go through the effort of uploading it. If you dislike any of these changes, feel free to make them yourself because it's very likely I will not alter this. The tools required are mentioned in the installation section. I have essentially reached 100% in the game with these changes and have not noticed any issues yet, but my preference for the characters I play has been made clear.
Installation:
-METHOD 1: GAMEPLAY TWEAKS MOD
The gameplay tweaks and hard mode mod by GreenThumb2 provides a framework for installing edits to the crystarium and can be found here: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy13/mods/5?tab=description
GreenThumb2 has also provided me with the text files of my crystarium edits to be used with this mod. After downloading the gameplay tweaks mod and unzipping the folder, download the text files provided here and drop them into the same directory. Open the FFXIIIwdbLoad.bat file to begin the process.
You can choose between my edit to the crystarium or changing the crystarium back to default. When prompted for the filename, type the desired character file in the field.
After installing each character file you are ready to go.
-METHOD 2: EXCEL WORKBOOK
This mod was created using the excel workbook provided by MJB here: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy13/mods/2
I have packaged the .wdb files for every character to be placed in the folder that this workbook uses to insert the modified values back into the game.
After downloading that workbook, you can place my db folder into the same directory and go through the process the other mod describes to insert the files into your game.