Mod request: gun tweaks

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Would someone mind writing a mod that made these two, relatively small changes:

 

1) remove the "blunted criticals" effect or tweak it to a 0 modifier that had no mathematical effect, 

 

and

 

2) changed the Arquebus to do "crushing" damage type. 

 

 

I'd just like to play around with these changes and see if they throw off game balance or not, but I'm unsure how to do so.

[Excerpt]

Would someone mind writing a mod that made these two, relatively small changes:

 

1) remove the "blunted criticals" effect or tweak it to a 0 modifier that had no mathematical effect, 

 

and

 

2) changed the Arquebus to do "crushing" damage type. 

 

 

I'd just like to play around with these changes and see if they throw off game balance or not, but I'm unsure how to do so.

 

I have created a mod for your request. They can be found on my POE2 mod git repository here:

 

https://github.com/ExcerptNovela/Excerpt-PillarsOfEternity2-Deadfire-Mods/releases/tag/v1.0.0

 

The current release only contains these two mods. The mod folder named "ArquebusDealCrushDamage" modifies all Arquebus weapons in the game to deal Crush damage instead of Pierce (including the Uniques and Legendaries). The mod folder named "ArquebusNoBluntedCriticals" removes the Blunted Criticals modifier from all Arquebus weapons in the game (including the Uniques and Legendaries).

 

Extract the contents of these folders (should only be a folder named "override") into your "PillarsOfEternity2_Data" folder. Launch the game and the changes should be present. If they are not or you experience bugs or difficulties that may be related to these mods please post back and I will attempt to fix.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Oh wow, thanks! I hadn't expected a response anywhere near that fast.

 

Would it be possible to remove "blunted criticals" generally, not just from the Arquebus? I believe pistols, blunderbusses, and arbalests also have it. Thanks again!

[Excerpt]

Oh wow, thanks! I hadn't expected a response anywhere near that fast.

 

Would it be possible to remove "blunted criticals" generally, not just from the Arquebus? I believe pistols, blunderbusses, and arbalests also have it. Thanks again!

 

Yes, I will do an updated version that will remove all blunted criticals from all weapons. I will probably not be able to release it until tomorrow at the earliest, but it should be ok to play with the Arquebus mods and upgrade when it is released as the new version will simply add alterations on top of those.

 

I decided to take a break from my playthrough and do some other things for a while so you just got lucky that I was on and looking around and decided to contribute my first mod (I was actually looking for something to break into on this game). But you are welcome nonetheless.

 

If you (or anyone else) have any other requests for firearm adjustments post them here and I'll put it on the to-do list (which I will get around to but no guarantees on time frame atm.

 

I also would like some feedback to make sure the changes are working properly, I gave them a rudimentary glance before posting so they were not extensively tested, though the changes were small enough (just alot of them) that there should not be any issues.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Excerpt

[Akong]

I am also interested in having the blunted criticals removed from all weapons. I tried having a look at the files, but I'm too much of a chicken to go changing around in them without any experience.

[GuyNice]

I'm also interested in this feature. It's really silly how crits do less damage than hits with blunted criticals since they changed the damage formula for deadfire. For now I'm using the unity console mod to remove it manually, but it's a bit of a hassle since I don't want to have it running all the time (I think it impacts performance), so if I find a gun I want to use I have to restart the game, remove blunted criticals from the gun, and restart the game again.

[Excerpt]

Sorry for the delay in releasing this request after I said that I would.  For those interested in the newest release of this mod it can now be found here:

 

https://github.com/ExcerptNovela/Excerpt-PillarsOfEternity2-Deadfire-Mods/releases/tag/v1.1.0

 

It includes a mod to remove blunted criticals from all weapons that originally had them. It will be incompatible with anything that specifically alters item bundle data for any of the following types of items: pistols, blunderbusses, arquebuses, arbalests. It is not currently balanced, it ONLY REMOVES the "Blunted Criticals" weapon component from these items, including any unique versions and qualities.

 

I will probably not release any further versions to balance things until I see what improvements are being made to modding capabilities in-game version 1.0.3 (as was indicated by the devs recently).

 

If you are using the mod which removes the blunted criticals from the arquebuses you should remove it before placing this one in your override file as I am not sure what the overlap of editing might do. It is best not to find out for the sake of your save files! As this includes the same prior edits to Arquebus firearms there should be no issue that I am aware of.

 

On a small side note, I plan on releasing these and all future versions of my mods for POE2 on NexusMods as well to allow for easier downloading and less confusion over required files, versions, and mod descriptions. But that will not be until after the POE2 v1.0.3 patch. Do not download any of my mods from anywhere other than the listed GitHub repository or my nexus mods profile, as I can not ensure the authenticity of their contents otherwise.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Thanks! that's great!

 

I'll give this a test over the next few days. FWIW since you mention balance testing, the "make arquebus do crushing" mod ended up feeling a bit overpowered --- the thing is that things which are weak to crushing are REALLY weak to it, so the Arquebus just routinely overpenetrated.

 

edit: hrm for some reason the changes don't seem to be showing up in game. I've got it in the override folder just like I did with the prior mod, and I uninstalled the prior mod, but everything seems to still have blunted criticals. Not sure what's going on.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Akong]

Having the same problem. I never installed the old mod, so it shouldn't be related to that.

[Excerpt]

Thanks! that's great!

 

I'll give this a test over the next few days. FWIW since you mention balance testing, the "make arquebus do crushing" mod ended up feeling a bit overpowered --- the thing is that things which are weak to crushing are REALLY weak to it, so the Arquebus just routinely overpenetrated.

 

edit: hrm for some reason the changes don't seem to be showing up in game. I've got it in the override folder just like I did with the prior mod, and I uninstalled the prior mod, but everything seems to still have blunted criticals. Not sure what's going on.

Did you take the override folder out of the actual mod folder in the archive? If you just put the top level folder in the override that would be why as the folder structure would not be correct.

[Excerpt]

Can confirm it is not working for some reason. Alloy did the blunted crits for arquebus mod work for you before?

 

If so I likely have a syntax error somewhere. I will sift through it, but it will take a while as there are quite a few entries edited and they are all in very long sections.

[BMac]

It looks like the mod is just removing the item mod from the game data for each gun, so if you're testing items that already existed in your save before you added the mod, they will probably still have it.  Is that the case?

[Akong]

I just started a new game and blunted criticals is still there.

[Excerpt]

It looks like the mod is just removing the item mod from the game data for each gun, so if you're testing items that already existed in your save before you added the mod, they will probably still have it.  Is that the case?

 

Yes, I removed the item component from each weapon entry that had it. I figured this would be a safer alternative to messing with the actual item component itself.

 

I was wondering about whether or not updates to gamedatabundles would update the instanced items in a save file. So I am guessing that it does not. I need to further test and look through to make sure I have nothing out of place in the actual file's json syntax though.

 

Is there anyway currently to force update from database changes for existing items already owned by the player?

[BMac]

 

It looks like the mod is just removing the item mod from the game data for each gun, so if you're testing items that already existed in your save before you added the mod, they will probably still have it.  Is that the case?

 

Yes, I removed the item component from each weapon entry that had it. I figured this would be a safer alternative to messing with the actual item component itself.

 

I was wondering about whether or not updates to gamedatabundles would update the instanced items in a save file. So I am guessing that it does not. I need to further test and look through to make sure I have nothing out of place in the actual file's json syntax though.

 

Is there anyway currently to force update from database changes for existing items already owned by the player?

 

It depends on what you change.  Almost all data is looked up straight from the gamedata, so mods will work fine in existing saves.  This is one of the rare places where that isn't the case, because the "ItemMods" property on the EquippableGameData actually just dictates the starting item mods.  Once an item is created, removing mods from the gamedata doesn't remove them from existing items.

 

You can't easily fix this for existing items, but if you get new items (e.g. via a console command), they'll be up-to-date.

[GuyNice]

I installed the mod and had new guns drop with Blunted Criticals, so something isn't working as intended.

[Excerpt]

https://github.com/ExcerptNovela/Excerpt-PillarsOfEternity2-Deadfire-Mods/releases/tag/v1.1.1

 

The latest release is available here, tested, and working. If you install this mid-game any weapon which has "Blunted Crits" mod that is already present in-game, either in your inventory or if it is a Unique weapon sold by a vendor you have already visited/spawned in, then it will retain "Blunted Crits" mod.

 

If you want to change that you can install the POE2 Console mod and change it on already spawned weapons you don't want to get rid of. I will attempt to find a workaround in the future. I plan on making a fully fledged firearms/bow mod in the future with several in-depth features and will attempt a workaround in that mod once it is published. This problem should not be an issue if starting on a new game.

[GuyNice]

Tested the new version, works as advertised. Thank you so much!

[aweigh0101]

I don't understand. Why don't you just change the Blunted Criticals value amount? (Instead of removing the mod).

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Thanks again!

[Excerpt]

I don't understand. Why don't you just change the Blunted Criticals value amount? (Instead of removing the mod).

 

Because of mod compatibility. What if another mod author decides to make a slew of weapons that use this modifier in the future and someone wants to use both? As I am planning on making numerous modifications to existing guns in my next iteration of this mod, which will render it incompatible or needing a patch with any other type of gun altering mod anyways, it makes more sense to alter each weapon individually.

 

This should be a rule of thumb all mod authors take into consideration when making a new mod which is: modifying as little as possible. Modifying base values for item mods should be avoided unless someone is making a large sweeping mod alteration like a total conversion or major rebalance mod (that touches multiple aspects of the game).

Edited May 24, 2018 by Excerpt

[DubiousNixie]

Would it be possible to get a version with all firearms doing crush? I'm still a bit non-plussed that the only weapon that should be too weak to beat pierce immunes (bows) somehow got dual damage.

 

I can't wrap my head around the modding thing yet