How to change the power level of an ability

[Buddy Juan]

Hi!
Asked this question on another forum, said i should ask here to, so here we go

I was wandering how on can change an ability from power level 8 to 7.
In this case it the ability time parasite for cipher. Wanted to try it out on a multiclass after replaying the game a couple of times.
I've figured out you can use Notepad++ to open abilities.gamedatabundle localized at "Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\exported\design\gamedata".
Here I've figured out you can change "AbilityLevel":8 to "AbilityLevel":7, and "UsageValue":80 to "UsageValue":70.
This makes it possible to use the ability, but not learn it on level up, as it's still classified as a power level 8 skill on when leveling your character.
I can use console to add the ability, which the game recognize as a level 7 ability, but then i wanted to make it so i can pick it on level up on power level 7.
So here I was wandering if it's possible to drop it from level 8 to level 7, so a muticlassed character can use it on lv 19?

Thanks in advanced

[Noqn]

First of all, there's now a gui mod editor for Deadfire so you don't have to edit the text files directly

If you've made direct edits to the files in Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\exported\design\gamedata, I highly recommend you to revert those changes.
Otherwise those changes could "infect" other mods you make or share with others.

Anyhow, if you open Apotheosis, you'll find find Time_Parasite under Abilities -> GenericAbility. From the new tab you can change the AbilityLevel and UsageValue.

Next, the progression table for cipher can be found under ProgressionTables -> ClassProgressionTable.

Click the icon along the AbilityUnlocks row and you'll open the PT editor.

Click Time Parasite icon and change the Prerequisites -> PowerLevelRequirement -> MinimumPowerLevel value from 8 to 7.

Time Parasite will move up one row. Afterwards, right-click anywhere on the table and select "Apply".

Be sure to click the save button in both PT_Cipher and Time_Parasite tabs

That should be it

[Buddy Juan]

Thanks, this is immensely helpful.

I can do all the changes you've mentioned, but I can't seem to save the changes. I can apply changes to the class table, but can't save them afterwards. I see no save icon like the one you highlighted in your post. What could be the reason for this?

[Buddy Juan]

Think i figured out, I now see when you save you create folders in override folder
One more thing I was wandering about is when you edit an abilites duration.
I messed around with it in notepad (Stopped using it now, Apotheosis is far superior ), and figured out you can change "DurationOverride" to change the ability duration.
But when you look at the ability in the level up table it says it's original duration, even though the ability has the correct duration when you look at the ability on your skillbar ingame.
It's a small thing, but how does one go about to change the description 
Thanks in advanced!

[Noqn]

11 hours ago, Buddy Juan said:

Think i figured out, I now see when you save you create folders in override folder

Yep, if you open Deadfire and go to Options -> Mod Manager you'll see all installed mods.

11 hours ago, Buddy Juan said:

One more thing I was wandering about is when you edit an abilites duration.

I'm actually uncertain exactly how DurationOverride behaves
Try setting the StatusEffect's Duration instead, this I know won't have any side effects.

You can search these by navigating to Status Effects -> StatusEffect and using the search box.
(Alternatively, you can go to the Ability's Attack row, rightclick the value and select "Open in New Tab". Then in the new Attack tab, go to the StatusEffects row and expand it, then for the child row(s) right-click the value and open those in a new tab as well.)

In the StatusEffect tab you can find a Duration row which you can edit instead.

Hope this works

[Buddy Juan]

This worked perfectly, thanks so much! Apotheosis is quite handy, relatively simple to understand, love it
One last thing
I tried to change an abilities inspiration keyword from insightful to smart (Valorous Echoes). I've managed to make the game recognize the keyword as smart.
I changed the keyword to Inspiration_Intellect, and under StatusEffectsValue i changed it to INS_Smart_SE_Intellect, and a lastly i changed under AfflictionComponent the icon to gui/icons/keywords/int_pos_1.png and AffictionType to INS_Intelligence.

This made the game recognize that it as smart inspiration, giving a bonus of 5 int, but I can't seem to change the display name to smart from insightful. This makes it confusing, as it displays it as a perception bonus, while it gives the intellect inspiration.
Is there any way to change the display name? And have i gone the right way about changing it from insightful to smart? All changes was made under status effect category.

Thanks in advanced
 

[Noqn]

Quote

This worked perfectly, thanks so much! Apotheosis is quite handy, relatively simple to understand, love it

Thank you, that is lovely feedback

3 hours ago, Buddy Juan said:

Is there any way to change the display name?

Right-click the AfflictionComponent's DisplayName value, then select "Assign Entry..."
This brings up a menu where you can choose an existing StringTable entry, from here you can find the "Smart" entry:

Quote

And have i gone the right way about changing it from insightful to smart? All changes was made under status effect category.

Yep, the way you've done it is the exact right way to do things

Edited May 17, 2023 by Noqn

[Buddy Juan]

Followup question to the last question i had.
How do i go about to edit the description of the ability? I've found the description under Abilities --> GenericAbility --> Valorous_Echoes --> Description. Whenever i try to edit the description, I can't save the edit, it always reverts.

 

And another question, as I've gotten quite ambitious with Apotheosis
I know how to edit existing items and abilities, but have not understood how to create items or add new effects to exiting abilities (the latter I'm trying to do).
I wanted to add a new effect to a already exiting ability (be it active or passive), this case Devoted ability for fighter. I found it in Abilities --> GenericAbility --> Devoted.
Here I found under StatusEffects the "effects" the ability gives (e.g. Devoted_SE_CritDamage). How would I go about to add a new effect like these (for example +10% damage). I hope this is not to hard. I imagine i could use one of the already existing effects as a guideline, since they would provide similar effects.

Thanks for all your help!

[Noqn]

10 hours ago, Buddy Juan said:

Followup question to the last question i had.
How do i go about to edit the description of the ability? I've found the description under Abilities --> GenericAbility --> Valorous_Echoes --> Description. Whenever i try to edit the description, I can't save the edit, it always reverts.

Because string tables are separated from .gamedatabundle files, they are saved by clicking the button in the top-left corner of the window:

(This also saves edits to convos, quests, etc.)

(I'm not too happy about this design tbh (the separate save buttons), but I never got around working out what to do if let's say two gamedata tabs edit the same string table entry, or appends a new entry to the table. What should happen when the user undo/redo something in either tab?)

10 hours ago, Buddy Juan said:

I know how to edit existing items and abilities, but have not understood how to create items or add new effects to exiting abilities (the latter I'm trying to do).

There are three ways of making new GameDataObjects

1. Go to a row in the list of GameData types (e.g. Abilities -> GenericAbility), right-click it. This lets you create a whole new object of that type, filled with default values.
   
    
2. Go to a row in the list of GameData objects (e.g. Valorous_Echoes), right-click it and select "Duplicate". This will let you create a duplicate of that object.
   
    
3. Go to a gamedata tab, then right-click on a row that points to another gamedata (such as GenericAbilityComponent -> Attack) and select "Assign Duplicate".
   This will allow you to create a duplicate of that object, and the row will now point to that duplicate.
   
    

There are some more info iirc in the documentation https://gitlab.com/noqn/apotheosis/-/blob/main/Docs/Usage.md

Edited May 18, 2023 by Noqn

[abot]

I recently discovered this amazing tool and started using it trying to tweak the Ultimate Challenge into something else, in doing so I realized as a suggestion probably a nice improvement for the tool would be to allow for vertical scrolling in the Quests\Events tab or similar where you may need more possible vertical entries.

Also unrelated but do you have any hint on how to disable Wael challenge from the Ultimate Challenge? I managed to disable trial of iron just fine, but disabling
Game Data\Global\GodChallenge\Wael\ObfuscateNumbers seems to only work with the separate Wael Challenge, not for the Ultimate Challenge (which does not seem to set it as true by itself)
Maybe it is just hardcoded somewhere, but I am asking in case I'm missing some obvious setting

[Noqn]

Ultimate has ActivateAllChallenges set to true, I would guess this 1) activates all other challenges or 2) overrides all relevant settings (including ObfscurateNumbers) to true.

If it's the former, then setting ObfscurateNumbers in Wael challenge to false should prevent it from activating in the Ultimate.

If it's the latter, then you'd have to set ActivateAllChallenges to false and set all the challenge-related properties to true manually instead.

[abot]

Thanks.
In my experience setting ObscurateNumbers in Wael challenge to false works with ultimate challenge disabled selecting Wael challenge as separate option, but not if you enable the ultimate challenge.
I'll try disabling the ActivateAllChallenges from within the ultimate settings but there are some challenges for which I can't find the equivalent separate toggle inside the ultimate settings (e.g. a toggle for Hylea challenge/Vela which is the most important defining the ultimate IMO, without that it is not even comparable) so I was hoping on a hint to find them somewhere else.
Basically I wanted to disable Iron mode because it is too punishing/discouraging/a time sink for most players (and that works, basically changing Triple crown to Double Crown) and Wael because it is not much difficult but just annoying for people trying to learn/test new strategies.
Then I have added more quest objectives (limited to 24 entries for now, no more space for quest events) and more time to achieve them/explore the world (50% extra time available for Eothas challenge)

[EDIT] Wait... maybe I found it, there is a promising empty ability field and a couple of Vela abilities available...

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by abot

[Noqn]

33 minutes ago, abot said:

I'll try disabling the ActivateAllChallenges from within the ultimate settings but there are some challenges for which I can't find the equivalent separate toggle inside the ultimate settings (e.g. a toggle for Hylea challenge/Vela which is the most important defining the ultimate IMO, without that it is not even comparable) so I was hoping on a hint to find them somewhere else.

Ah right. I think you could try removing the ActivationPrerequisites conditional from Hylea's (and Galawain's?) challenges, which currently prevents them from being used with the Ultimate. (Press the pen icon, remove all text, then press accept.)
This way you should be able to get all challenge effects.

6 hours ago, abot said:

I recently discovered this amazing tool and started using it trying to tweak the Ultimate Challenge into something else, in doing so I realized as a suggestion probably a nice improvement for the tool would be to allow for vertical scrolling in the Quests\Events tab or similar where you may need more possible vertical entries.

Thanks! I found a similar error in the convos character mapping list last update, I'll make sure to fix these instances too!

Edited May 20, 2023 by Noqn