Just a quick update: completed a game (extended) on Hard with a melee sam (non-adept) and completed the original game (without the extension) on Hard with an unarmed adept/mage and it's been great. Great mod - Second lease of life for Hong Kong in my view!
I like this mod a lot so far although just started a game so cannot judge completely. Seeing the comments below, I agree that ultimately the trade-off does not seem to worth it BUT...! My problem with HK is that it's too easy even on Hard (compared to DF very hard for example). Limiting the armor rating throughout the game seem to increase the challenge a notch which is a good thing. Forces more tactical gameplay and more strategic building and equipment purchasing. And the armor bonus options provide another type of strategic consideration! I like it.
An observation so far: - The +2 Qi casting enables the purchase of Qi spells of level +2 and they can be equipped on the character, however once in mission (and consequently in action) Qi spells that are above the non-boosted skill level will not appear. I'm guessing this is not intentional(?) otherwise there is little benefit in having the +2 Qi bonus.
This is a great idea for a mod. I downloaded it, examined it, and almost installed it. There were only two hold-ups. First, this only affects player armor, not companions' default armor. While you can loan player armor to companions, it would be be very difficult to pass up the higher armor rating of companion armor. Gobbet, for example, could benefit from an armor giving +1 conjuring, especially so she can be lent high level conjuring spells in the late game. But again, to get that with this mod, you would need to loan her armor going from 8 rating to 2...
Secondly, I believe these armors would be very disadvantageous for adepts and melee street samurai who need the extra armor; and I play an adept. The only exception is the first adept armor, which gives an alternative defense, dodge. This was actually a great if the dodge skill improved with later armors, instead of the armor rating. I am not sure about combat armors, maybe just increasing the armor rating in this mod a little would help!
So if this mod was just tweaked and expanded a bit, it would be perfect! I would do this myself if I knew how; I see the code in the editable files, and I can edit them; I just don't know how to cook the files. I looked for the mentioned article at https://shadowrun.gamepedia.com/, but I couldn't find the article. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. I got a little bit of experience nodding, but none here. This would be a great start if someone could give me a helping hand. I could even post my work here if the author wishes.
Hey Mentaltyranny, it's been awhile since I posted this so I don't remember the exact process but I'll try explaining best I remember.
The game uses the ".bytes" files to load "items" in-game, so if you look in the game files items folder (for me that's E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Shadowrun Hong Kong\SRHK_Data\StreamingAssets\ContentPacks\HongKong\data\items) they should all be in that format. What you have to do is then turn those ".bytes" files into ".txt" files by "unpacking" the game files. This is done by opening the Shadowrun HK content pack in Shadowrun Editor then going to to Tools > "Save Project as Source". This should give you ".txt" files for all the Items. I've included the ".txt" files for the items I edit if you want to use those, but if you want to also edit companion items files you'll have to poke around for them (looks like they're in the same items folder, prefixed with the characters name). After you make your edits to the ".txt" files, you'll have to turn them back into ".bytes" files so that they can be read by the game. To do this, go back to Shadowrun Editor to Files > "Publish Content Pack" (I don't think it matters if it's "Locally" or "To...", as long as you can access it) and Publish the content pack that has your updated ".txt" files. Now you should have your ".bytes" files ready to go. Make sure you back-up any files before you replace them! Follow the same installation instructions on the description page (replace the ".bytes" files in the games items folder with your new files) and they should appear in-game.
Here's another post explaining the same process (probably better than I did): https://steamcommunity.com/app/346940/discussions/0/494631967660885714/
For the existing mods balance, I don't disagree with your points, but ultimately everyone is going to want to balance there game differently. That's why I posted the ".txt" files in case someone wanted to do so (glad that's the case!).
If you'd like to share your files I can host them here or you can make a separate mod page, whatever works for you.
Let me know if you have any questions. I'll try to remember checking here, but Nexus doesn't send me notifications for comments posted and I just happened to check this page by chance today, so if I don't respond here shoot me a PM.
My thoughts too. I was thinking of downloading this mod but I dont want to downgrade them just for 1 attributes. Yes I'm aware you could edit the value yourself, but I still dont understand how to do it.
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Great mod - Second lease of life for Hong Kong in my view!
Seeing the comments below, I agree that ultimately the trade-off does not seem to worth it BUT...!
My problem with HK is that it's too easy even on Hard (compared to DF very hard for example). Limiting the armor rating throughout the game seem to increase the challenge a notch which is a good thing. Forces more tactical gameplay and more strategic building and equipment purchasing.
And the armor bonus options provide another type of strategic consideration! I like it.
An observation so far:
- The +2 Qi casting enables the purchase of Qi spells of level +2 and they can be equipped on the character, however once in mission (and consequently in action) Qi spells that are above the non-boosted skill level will not appear. I'm guessing this is not intentional(?) otherwise there is little benefit in having the +2 Qi bonus.
Secondly, I believe these armors would be very disadvantageous for adepts and melee street samurai who need the extra armor; and I play an adept. The only exception is the first adept armor, which gives an alternative defense, dodge. This was actually a great if the dodge skill improved with later armors, instead of the armor rating. I am not sure about combat armors, maybe just increasing the armor rating in this mod a little would help!
So if this mod was just tweaked and expanded a bit, it would be perfect! I would do this myself if I knew how; I see the code in the editable files, and I can edit them; I just don't know how to cook the files. I looked for the mentioned article at https://shadowrun.gamepedia.com/, but I couldn't find the article. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. I got a little bit of experience nodding, but none here. This would be a great start if someone could give me a helping hand. I could even post my work here if the author wishes.
The game uses the ".bytes" files to load "items" in-game, so if you look in the game files items folder (for me that's E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Shadowrun Hong Kong\SRHK_Data\StreamingAssets\ContentPacks\HongKong\data\items) they should all be in that format. What you have to do is then turn those ".bytes" files into ".txt" files by "unpacking" the game files. This is done by opening the Shadowrun HK content pack in Shadowrun Editor then going to to Tools > "Save Project as Source". This should give you ".txt" files for all the Items. I've included the ".txt" files for the items I edit if you want to use those, but if you want to also edit companion items files you'll have to poke around for them (looks like they're in the same items folder, prefixed with the characters name). After you make your edits to the ".txt" files, you'll have to turn them back into ".bytes" files so that they can be read by the game. To do this, go back to Shadowrun Editor to Files > "Publish Content Pack" (I don't think it matters if it's "Locally" or "To...", as long as you can access it) and Publish the content pack that has your updated ".txt" files. Now you should have your ".bytes" files ready to go. Make sure you back-up any files before you replace them! Follow the same installation instructions on the description page (replace the ".bytes" files in the games items folder with your new files) and they should appear in-game.
Here's another post explaining the same process (probably better than I did): https://steamcommunity.com/app/346940/discussions/0/494631967660885714/
For the existing mods balance, I don't disagree with your points, but ultimately everyone is going to want to balance there game differently. That's why I posted the ".txt" files in case someone wanted to do so (glad that's the case!).
If you'd like to share your files I can host them here or you can make a separate mod page, whatever works for you.
Let me know if you have any questions. I'll try to remember checking here, but Nexus doesn't send me notifications for comments posted and I just happened to check this page by chance today, so if I don't respond here shoot me a PM.
My thoughts too. I was thinking of downloading this mod but I dont want to downgrade them just for 1 attributes. Yes I'm aware you could edit the value yourself, but I still dont understand how to do it.