WOW! Just WOW! I'm reading all descriptions and pictures of your mods slack-jawed and big eyes! Out of curiosity before playing, but also to see if they'd conflict with Community Patch and Deadfire Polishing Mod.
I also love arts, are they yours too? Do you think it'd be possible to make them as ability trees background after some adjustments? Or maybe loading screen mod - random art during loading screen. Could maybe add some texts, quotes about Fighters and other classes for other arts.
The content, the quality, the ideas, are at very top level! Are you a developer of some games? Where do all these ideas come from?
This is how the game should have looked like after it was released. Or included in DLCs. IMO the vanilla game is to "raw" if that makes sense.
Please, please! Don't leave us, Deadfire players, we need such amazing modders like you! (And probably studios like Obsidian haha). With that being said, any plans for future releases? I read you're gonna do Paladin rework too, but in the other comment section you said sth like you have no plans for Paladin :( IMO, Paladin is boring, and need some new interesting mechanics, and unique spells. "Soulless" tanky fighter with some basic spells. I keep picking that class only to become bored midgame and regret my choice.
Thanks for the kind words! As this website requires me to say...all art is my own and I definitely did not take it from the internet because that would be wrong and I would never ever, ever, never never do that. It is possible to change the loading screens but it's surprisingly difficult (for a non-coder) and I think it wouldn't be modular at all either so it would overwrite any other mods that change the game engine. The ability tree background could be changed in the same way but I haven't seen anyone find that image source yet in the data, although no one has looked.
This mod conflicts a little with those patches but regardless of what priority you put each mod, the game should be fine. I'm not sure but I looked at it 6 months ago and remember thinking that.
I agree that the amount of abilities were surprisingly small for each class, although in the game there are over 1000 abilities because of scrolls, items, creature variants, etc. so they were probably budgeting their time very carefully.
Paladin is next and I have a list of ideas but nothing super exciting. It's a super boring class and needs extra help. I'm busy with career stuff right now so it might be a while until I return to this awesome game. It's actually quite easy to make these abilities yourself once you get the hang of it, so don't think you can't do it, too. There are just a lot of exceptions that you run into with the way data is linked together. At first it would take me a week to make an ability, and now it can take 30 minutes if it's a format that I already know works correctly and doesn't need testing.
Could you please provide more information, how to make abilities? I'm pretty sure I'll figure it out based on the ones from the file, as I have some experience with this format, but what was causing you problems before you figured it out? Where can I get IDs like dcc7b7db-c31b-4075-869c-bd660bfe4ee2 from? I can't quite understand what should I change in append_fighter_improved.gamedatabundle file to move/make upgradable/add abilities.
Go to the obsidian modding forums for tutorials on how to mod. Grape_you_in_the_mouth has some and also a thread named "first mod" or something also shows it. People can help you out better than here, which is a random place to talk about specifics for learning whereas the forums are a repository of information. The basics are that the info is split in the gamedatabundles by ability, attack, status effect, item, and "progression tables" which are the ability tree. Abilities and items launch attacks that trigger status effects. Attacks can do damage but statuseffects can too. The definition of each option available in the json data is documented at https://eternity.obsidian.net/game-data-formats/concepts, most notably the "enumeration" section of the json structure. Some things work and others don't, so you can't always do what you think would be possible. To change ability trees modularly you have to use the "append" method which there are a few threads with examples on the forums.
To answer your question about "where do all your ideas come from?" -- No I am not a developer of games, but I have always tried to modify games. I mod a lot of games because they never seem good enough and I end up having more fun modding the game than playing. I started modding this game by taking the most interesting abilities for DotA and seeing how I could apply them to Pillars. I jokingly referred this Deadfire vision of Defense of the Ancients as "Defense of the Engwithians" and laugh every time I see it in my text file. In the past I modded FF3 and that provided a very simple example of how to make a simple battle system interesting. I've also made a lot of custom Magic The Gathering cards and that is a system very open to creativity. Then I make a general list of themes for each class and look at a list of aspects in the existing game system. Then I look at every unique item and make notes about it. More than anything I'm constantly trying to think of ways that would change how you play the game. Different types of movement, targeting, range, reactions, etc. are considered until I can't stand it anymore. Another big part is looking at what isn't used in the game alot, like inspirations. People have inspiration abilities, but they're all very basic. Very few abilities have stacking effects or effects that rely on a maximum amount of stacks. I think it's fun to dream up new ways that could make the game even more exciting. Particularly in Pillars of Eternity this was true for me, as I didn't like how everything was a 5% bonus. I prefer much more extreme benefits with drawbacks that require serious consideration.
I love your mods overall, now some criticism/questions:
Why are there multiple abilities that do (almost) the same? I mean for example reducing enemy recovery. I understand they differ a little, for example Feint is triggered after next attack, and it's longer but only one recovery duration is increased.
But what about Impeding Blow and Hinder Swipe? First affects Action Speed or Attack Speed? I mean what is it good for - for attacking spellcasters, so their time of spell casting is increased? Melee weapons, IIRC, attack speed is about half second, so it won't make much difference I think. Hinder swipe is: +35% Recovery Time to target for 12sSo, how does it compare to Feint? I know it lasts 12s instead of next one attack that Feint does. Also, shouldn't these abilities be closer to each other as they do similar thing? For example swap Heavy Blow with Hinder Swipe, so the second one would be under Feint. Maybe even make it upgradable? Like +100% Recovery time next attack, and +35% attacks after the +100% one.
En Garde - 75% chance to parry up to three melee weapon attacks for 15s This is a really interesting ability! Then there is a similar one, much higher VII ability: Disarm - Remove whatever a silly kith or wilder has in each hand, for a short time. It's shorter, has -20 Acc, only works vs kith/wilder, and fists are still a weapon. Shouldn't it be either much earlier to pick, or slightly better? My point is there is no point of picking this ability if there is En Garde that's better IMO. Maybe it would work better for disarming range weapons and maybe even grimoires, but rangers usually switch to melee set when in melee range.
Tackle - Upgraded from Charge. Pull in and knock prone an area around the target you charge to. That looks incredibly strong on paper. I know it's like Fighter version of Pull of Eora, but it also makes targets Prone for 6s.
Dismember - primary attack vs fortitude, reduces max HP by 15% Not sure what to think about it. It might be OP or UP, stacking -15% to max HP for high health enemies without possibility to heal might be too strong, but 15% of low hp enemies too weak. Does it feel ok while your playthroughs? I was thinking maybe some Affliction + DoT instead?
What is the use for abilities that reduce Acc or Damage? They only reduce, I think it's worse than ones that increase Recovery Time? Maybe if they targeted other defenses and/or different self bonuses? Or add some mechanics to these abilities. And/or make them upgradeable. For example Deflecting Maneuver is used defensively, so maybe Deflecting Maneuver->Harrow and maybe even En Garde (or make it as an alternative to Harrow). It'd be still hard to make me pick them over +Recovery or Lower their Guard since it also costs 1 Discipline with Fighter Augmented, pulls, applies affliction AND lowers their Armor Rating with instant Recovery. Are you sure it should cost only 1? Unless maybe if they (abilities that reduce Acc and Dmg) were stackable over other abilities somehow. Like next x attacks instead of duration in seconds. So there would be a reason to use them if a target was already Prone/Stunned/+Recovery.
Thick of Battle - +50 Will versus ranged attacks What does it mean? Enemy ranged attacks (spells and/or just basic attacks?) accuracy is checked vs Will instead of Deflection?
Imperium - Increased melee attack range, increased engagement radius, increase engagement limit by 10, +3 Accuracy per engaged, -10 Accuracy to engaged foesIsn't it OP? By looking at your screenshot, isn't 60s duration too long for -10 Acc to every foe (without def check?)? Boosts are also really strong on paper, +3 Acc for every foe and +200%! range per foe - on PotD, there are a lot of enemies in battles, stacked bonuses would be huge. Compared to Monk's Omnislash 600% range, 6s duration, it's too strong IMO.
And please, don't get me wrong, your mods are very unique and top top quality! I just want them even better if it's possible to improve them! :)
I appreciate all the thought here and any future critiques. For now I can say I mostly agree with you and will consider this when improving the mod.
+ The various swipe attacks added to Fighter certainly need rebalancing. I wanted to give Fighters a lot of options for what they could do with weapons. The parameters of those options should be changed in the future to balance them all together, and it's good to hear what you think about it.
+ Imperium looks great on paper but the range and amount of targets you hit doesn't apply as well as it should, so it's actually pretty balanced for a top level spell (I think)
+ Thick of Battle means that for any ranged attack (including spells, AoE, etc. that are ranged) you get +50 Will defense bonus. Works great against Ciphers.
+ Dismember is awesome for bosses and big hp dudes, or dudes that get healed
+ Tackle is strong. Might be OP but damn it's fun. It doesn't do damage so I thought it would be ok.
+ Disarm is much better than En Garde (IMO) because some people might have a badass weapon. I agree with what you said
It was not designed or tested for it. It will "work" but there's no consideration for balance. Anything with attack speed changes, for example, is not translated well into turn-based mode.
I love all your class mods! You've managed to make me like Barbarians, and now I get to take another look at Fighter. Thanks!
Any chance you're considering Funnening the Paladin? Mostly I'd love to see the class get more active abilities. Maybe a set of additional weapon attacks like Flames, but with different effects so that you'd need to use them in the right situation? Anything to make them less of a passive buff bot would be great.
got "missing strings" popping up on almost all the ability descriptions & none of the icons for the new abilities are visible (instead i see a red "X")
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I also love arts, are they yours too? Do you think it'd be possible to make them as ability trees background after some adjustments? Or maybe loading screen mod - random art during loading screen. Could maybe add some texts, quotes about Fighters and other classes for other arts.
The content, the quality, the ideas, are at very top level! Are you a developer of some games? Where do all these ideas come from?
This is how the game should have looked like after it was released. Or included in DLCs. IMO the vanilla game is to "raw" if that makes sense.
Please, please! Don't leave us, Deadfire players, we need such amazing modders like you! (And probably studios like Obsidian haha). With that being said, any plans for future releases? I read you're gonna do Paladin rework too, but in the other comment section you said sth like you have no plans for Paladin :( IMO, Paladin is boring, and need some new interesting mechanics, and unique spells. "Soulless" tanky fighter with some basic spells. I keep picking that class only to become bored midgame and regret my choice.
This mod conflicts a little with those patches but regardless of what priority you put each mod, the game should be fine. I'm not sure but I looked at it 6 months ago and remember thinking that.
I agree that the amount of abilities were surprisingly small for each class, although in the game there are over 1000 abilities because of scrolls, items, creature variants, etc. so they were probably budgeting their time very carefully.
Paladin is next and I have a list of ideas but nothing super exciting. It's a super boring class and needs extra help. I'm busy with career stuff right now so it might be a while until I return to this awesome game. It's actually quite easy to make these abilities yourself once you get the hang of it, so don't think you can't do it, too. There are just a lot of exceptions that you run into with the way data is linked together. At first it would take me a week to make an ability, and now it can take 30 minutes if it's a format that I already know works correctly and doesn't need testing.
Why are there multiple abilities that do (almost) the same? I mean for example reducing enemy recovery. I understand they differ a little, for example Feint is triggered after next attack, and it's longer but only one recovery duration is increased.
But what about Impeding Blow and Hinder Swipe? First affects Action Speed or Attack Speed? I mean what is it good for - for attacking spellcasters, so their time of spell casting is increased? Melee weapons, IIRC, attack speed is about half second, so it won't make much difference I think. Hinder swipe is:
+35% Recovery Time to target for 12sSo, how does it compare to Feint? I know it lasts 12s instead of next one attack that Feint does.Also, shouldn't these abilities be closer to each other as they do similar thing? For example swap Heavy Blow with Hinder Swipe, so the second one would be under Feint. Maybe even make it upgradable? Like +100% Recovery time next attack, and +35% attacks after the +100% one.
En Garde - 75% chance to parry up to three melee weapon attacks for 15s
This is a really interesting ability! Then there is a similar one, much higher VII ability:Disarm - Remove whatever a silly kith or wilder has in each hand, for a short time.
It's shorter, has -20 Acc, only works vs kith/wilder, and fists are still a weapon. Shouldn't it be either much earlier to pick, or slightly better? My point is there is no point of picking this ability if there is En Garde that's better IMO. Maybe it would work better for disarming range weapons and maybe even grimoires, but rangers usually switch to melee set when in melee range.Tackle - Upgraded from Charge. Pull in and knock prone an area around the target you charge to.
That looks incredibly strong on paper. I know it's like Fighter version of Pull of Eora, but it also makes targets Prone for 6s.Dismember - primary attack vs fortitude, reduces max HP by 15%
Not sure what to think about it. It might be OP or UP, stacking -15% to max HP for high health enemies without possibility to heal might be too strong, but 15% of low hp enemies too weak. Does it feel ok while your playthroughs? I was thinking maybe some Affliction + DoT instead?What is the use for abilities that reduce Acc or Damage? They only reduce, I think it's worse than ones that increase Recovery Time? Maybe if they targeted other defenses and/or different self bonuses? Or add some mechanics to these abilities. And/or make them upgradeable. For example Deflecting Maneuver is used defensively, so maybe Deflecting Maneuver->Harrow and maybe even En Garde (or make it as an alternative to Harrow).
It'd be still hard to make me pick them over +Recovery or Lower their Guard since it also costs 1 Discipline with Fighter Augmented, pulls, applies affliction AND lowers their Armor Rating with instant Recovery. Are you sure it should cost only 1?
Unless maybe if they (abilities that reduce Acc and Dmg) were stackable over other abilities somehow. Like next x attacks instead of duration in seconds. So there would be a reason to use them if a target was already Prone/Stunned/+Recovery.
Thick of Battle - +50 Will versus ranged attacks
What does it mean? Enemy ranged attacks (spells and/or just basic attacks?) accuracy is checked vs Will instead of Deflection?Imperium - Increased melee attack range, increased engagement radius, increase engagement limit by 10, +3 Accuracy per engaged, -10 Accuracy to engaged foesIsn't it OP? By looking at your screenshot, isn't 60s duration too long for -10 Acc to every foe (without def check?)? Boosts are also really strong on paper, +3 Acc for every foe and +200%! range per foe - on PotD, there are a lot of enemies in battles, stacked bonuses would be huge.Compared to Monk's Omnislash 600% range, 6s duration, it's too strong IMO.
And please, don't get me wrong, your mods are very unique and top top quality! I just want them even better if it's possible to improve them! :)
+ The various swipe attacks added to Fighter certainly need rebalancing. I wanted to give Fighters a lot of options for what they could do with weapons. The parameters of those options should be changed in the future to balance them all together, and it's good to hear what you think about it.
+ Imperium looks great on paper but the range and amount of targets you hit doesn't apply as well as it should, so it's actually pretty balanced for a top level spell (I think)
+ Thick of Battle means that for any ranged attack (including spells, AoE, etc. that are ranged) you get +50 Will defense bonus. Works great against Ciphers.
+ Dismember is awesome for bosses and big hp dudes, or dudes that get healed
+ Tackle is strong. Might be OP but damn it's fun. It doesn't do damage so I thought it would be ok.
+ Disarm is much better than En Garde (IMO) because some people might have a badass weapon. I agree with what you said
Is it compatible with turn based combat?
Any chance you're considering Funnening the Paladin? Mostly I'd love to see the class get more active abilities. Maybe a set of additional weapon attacks like Flames, but with different effects so that you'd need to use them in the right situation? Anything to make them less of a passive buff bot would be great.