Grim Dawn

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T3nd0

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T3nd0

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About this mod

Two new classes - Necromancer and Illusionist - fully integrated into the game with 100% custom art and effects. Various tweaks and extensions to all other classes.

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Hey people,
for all intents and purposes, consider this mod, and all my other mods, "done". 
If you want a tiny bit more to read, take this.
Goodbye and have fun
-T3nd0
____________________________________

T3nd0's Darkest Dawn

- Skill expansion & overhaul -


Intro

Hello fellow gamers, 
if you've played one of my Skyrim mods, then you know what I'm all about. I create large mods in an attempt to turn games I already love into something bigger and personal, extending and tweaking them with love to detail and respect for the feel of the original game. Since I started modding with Titan Quest a long time ago, and think Crate did an outstanding job with its spiritual successor, I felt like contributing my part to make it even better.


Hail Snakey.
If you want to stay up-to-date on my modding endeavors, follow my facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecultoft3nd0/


What does this mod offer?

Two new classes, each with 31+ new skills, as well as tweaks and extensions to existing classes.
New classes are integrated to blend in with the existing game as good as I can; I don't want this mod to "feel" like a mod. That means that everything has custom art and effects. By "custom", I mean that 98% of the skill icons and other art you see are handdrawn on my Galaxy Note (lol); the rest uses abandoned files from the developers. I also made it a point to integrate the classes into itemization; you'll find affixes, as well as certain epic and legendary items, that carry bonuses to the individual new skills and skill trees.


What are the new classes all about?

New class 1 is the Necromancer. You can argue that this is not the most creative of choices, but it fits the game well - since we do have the Order of Death's Vigil as joinable faction in place, and some lore on Uroboruuk to hook into.
Necromancers excel at summoning, and have the highest pet count - three skills that summon, and two of those skills can spawn more than one ally. The summons follow a classical RPG scheme (melee attacker, ranged physical attacker, mage). Additionally, he has spells that deal physical damage and do some crowd control, and a few abilities that dynamically boost pets at the expense of the caster, as well as the most defensive exclusive skill in the game.

New class 2 is the Illusionist. This one has no lore in Grim Dawn, so I made it up. Illusionist are supposed to be a secret order within the emperor's personal Nightblades that focuses on manipulative magic such as mind control, sleep and petrification. Their skills have a few nods to the Nightblade tree as well as Titan Quest's Dream mastery, but are a lot different from most things you've seen in Grim Dawn so far. Expect to work with crowd control, damage-over-time, suicide bomber summons who leech energy and debuff, and teleportation. 


What are the tweaks to other classes you did?
I intend to max out the size of all skill trees (add as many skills as the engine allows), making meaningful additions wherever possible. On top of that, tweaks where tweaks are due. However, I think all vanilla classes are really good, so I'll do my best to preserve the original feel.

Soldier:
- Minor rearrangements for the passives
- Modifier to "Counter Strike"
- Modifier to "Markovian's Advantage" and "Zolhan's Technique"

Demolitionist:
- "Ulzuin's Chosen" renamed and tweaked
- New exclusive skill "Ulzuin's Retribution" that offers the usual boni and additionally casts a destructive spell whenever you kill an enemy

Occultist:
- Completely removed "Bloody Pox" line (the skill mechanic still exists in the Necromancer tree)
- New skill line "Collect Blood", and attack replacer that works for melee/caster hybrids
- New skill line "Abaddon", a spammable chaos AoE spell
- Modifier to "Doom Bolt"
- Modifier to "Blood of Dreeg"

Nightblade:
- "Frenetic Throw" tweaked
- New exclusive skill "The Contract", aimed at evasive, piercing/bleeding-focused characters

Arcanist:
- New skill line "Olexra's Barrier", a summonable frost wall
- Transmuter to "Albrecht's Aether Ray" and "Devastation"

Shaman:
- Transmuter to "Devouring Swarm"
- Transmuter to "Wendigo Totem" and "Storm Totem"
- Petskill for the manticore summon, which has been moved to rank 8



Why is the version number < 1.0? How "done" is the mod?

All skills work, as far as I can tell through testing.
Item integration is advanced, but not complete. I consider this a WIP.
Skills need balancing; I need a playerbase to collect feedback on individual skills and mechanics, and on synergy between classes.
I'm considering to include a few custom meshes once the tools are available.
I think the custom celestial power on "Ulzuin's Retribution" is removable; I'll change that once I think Crate is done updating constellations (technical reasons).

 I'll expand all trees until they hit the engine's limitation for skills per tree. This means that the following classes will receive more skills in an upcoming update:
Shaman: 1
Necromancer: 1
Illusionist: 1


I heard one can include up to nine classes. Will you add another one?

For now, no. I anticipate Crate adding one more class through DLC and want to leave room for that.


How do I install, and why are there two downloads?


The main download is the regular Darkest Dawn. The optional download includes source files, for people that want to merge this mod with others or edit it. If you're interested in merging it into your mod, see the respective section of this page for notes.


How to install:
- If you don't have it, create a "mods" folder in your Grim Dawn directory. Should look like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\mods"
- Unzip your download of choice and drop the folder you get ("DarkestDawn" or "DarkestDawn - Grimmest") right in there. Drop any additional parent folders you might get from the download, from unpacking, etc. You need a file called database.arz in mods/DarkestDawn - Grimmest/database/database.arz.
- Inside the game, select "Custom Campaign", then "DarkestDawn ~ world001"/"DarkestDawn-Grimmest ~ world001"

Characters cannot switch between Darkest Dawn and vanilla games (or other class-affecting mods). They should be able to switch between regular and grimmest version of Darkest Dawn, as long as the Darkest Dawn version matches.


How do I update? Can I transfer characters between updates?


Characters can be transferred between updates.

Visit the "Forums"-tab on this page, and check the sticky post. It contains information about which skills you need to respec out of before installing the new mod version.

The actual update process is identical to the mod installation. When asked whether to overwrite files, answer "yes to all".


I want to merge this mod with mine. May I do that?


Yes, you may, under the following conditions:

1. If you upload your mod, add a link to this page to your description, and properly credit me as the author.
2. Clearly state which parts of the mod you did/did not merge in.
3. Notify me.

Those rules don't apply for private mod merging; do those to your heart's content.

Note that the mod's sources are not "cleaned"; they contain a lot of unedited files I imported at some point, but left unedited.