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About this mod
Arcania is a vanilla+ item pack that aims to improve the Borderlands 2 experience without interfering with the game's vanilla mechanics. Currently containing more than 100 weapons, shields, grenade mods, and relics, each with its unique mechanics!
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Arcania 0.3 is finally here, featuring a ton of new items, changes to existing ones, and much more!
Most important changes:
- Arcania now features a Python script that runs together with the text portion of the mod, thus requiring TextModLoader as an additional dependency. Installing Arcania now works like installing any other SDK mod.
- A big portion of Arcania’s items have been rewritten, or changed to a point where updating from 0.2 to 0.3 would break or straight up delete them. It is highly recommended to start a new character on the new version of the mod, unless you don’t mind losing your items or having them change in unintended ways, like having parts they should not have.
- Custom item rarities have been removed. Items that are only obtainable from a specific source are now blue uniques; weapons that had their rarity downgraded this way have had stats adjusted to compensate for it. Items that can be obtained from a certain loot source as well as world drop sources are legendary or pearlescent rarity. Raid boss-specific drops are seraph rarity.
- Introducing: dynamic spawns and dynamic loot pools! Certain enemies will now respawn only after completion of the side mission related to them. Arcania quest rewards now become farmable from a specific enemy or boss after the mission has been completed – check the loot sources in the spreadsheet. Note: In order to have the loot pools andspawns function properly, a map reload is required.
- Arcania now features improved weapon cards. They are now decluttered – that means removing redundant/obvious effects written out on the cards (stuff like ‘+50% weapon damage’ or ‘Fires as fast as you can pull the trigger’) and changing the presentations for some stats to be more visually appealing. This applies to both vanilla and Arcania gear. Arcania guns with non-obvious effects now feature a short description of said effect on the weapon card.
- Salvador off-hand fixes. Man, was thata pain in the butt… :D Arcania guns now function much, much less wonky when held in Salvador’s offhand. Skills activated by guns no longer go away completely when you Gunzerk with two of the same skill gun and unequip one. More info on changes to particular gun skills in the Sal Offhand Fixes section.
- Custom enemies are finally here!... sort of. Well, one custom enemy. In Southern Shelf – Bay’s Ebonfloe area, two named badass bullymongs called The Arctic Apes lurk around, ready to kick an unprepared vault hunter’s ass. If you manage to slay them though, you have a chance at obtaining a new legendary item! Stay tuned for more custom enemies in future updates.
Check out the remaining changes in the full 0.3 changelog!
What to expect
- 92 new unique weapons (17 assault rifles, 15 shotguns, 20 pistols, 13 SMGs, 15 sniper rifles, and 12 rocket launchers). Expand your arsenal and find dozens of new ways to blow your foes' faces off! Each of the items can be obtained from a certain mission, enemy, or lootable object, with a vast majority of legendary items being obtainable from all suitable loot sources.
- Signature gear! You will get a special item for completing the first mission of the game based on the character class you're playing as. Jump into Arcania with your character's first weapon!
- Non-unique Jakobs shields! Shields of the Jakobs manufacturer provide bullet deflection and reduce damage taken from deflected bullets. They're gonna think twice before shooting you again!
- Non-unique Jakobs grenades! Just like their weapons, Jakobs grenades feature high, non-elemental damage.
- 20 new unique shields!
- 13 new unique relics!
- 13 new unique grenade mods!
- New in 0.3: decluttered item cards. A lot of item card presentations have been removed or edited to make them easier to read. Arcania weapons that feature complex, non-obvious effects now include a description of the effect on the item card.
- The mod file includes a spreadsheet with each item's drop source as well as an explaination of its mechanics.
What not to expect
- Gear replacements. Everything added by Arcania is a brand new item that can exist together with vanilla gear. Everything obtainable in vanilla Borderlands 2 is also obtainable with Arcania from the same sources.
- Rebalances and character overhauls. Arcania aims to improve the vanilla experience without changes, nerfs, or buffs to vanilla balance. That includes unchanged vanilla skill trees.
Requirements
- Arcania was made with and requires Command Extensions to create the new gear. Make sure to install that before running the mod.
- Sanity Saver is required for the gear not to be deleted on a save-quit.
- New requirement in 0.3.0: Text Mod Loader. Arcania now features a Python script as well as a regular BLCMM file, so Text Mod Loader is required for the mod to function properly.
Compatibility
- Like every other mod made using the Python SDK, Arcania is NOT compatible with co-op.
- Any other mod that uses hotfixes will likely mess with Arcania's hotfixes. That means anything that edits loot pools is not gonna work properly.
- Rebalance mods that don't affect enemy drops might work, though I can't guarantee it.
Installation
- You can check out this video for step by step installation instructions. Big shoutout to Mithril for making it!
- Install all the requirements for the mod, following guides provided by their authors;
- Download Arcania 0.3.0 and extract the .zip into another folder. It should include a folder called Arcania, and an Excel file called Loot Sources - that is the spreadsheet containing all of the gear's descriptions and drop sources;
- If you installed everything correctly, you should now have a Mods folder among your BL2 files - drop the Arcania folder in there;
- Launch the game and open the Mods menu. Arcania.blcm should appear among any other mods listed there.
Future
Arcania is a mod in an early development stage. The gear might not be properly balanced, and there might be bugs or other issues I have missed. Feedback on balance as well as bug reports are greatly appreciated. In the future, the mod is gonna feature:
- Many, many more items!
- Class mods, both unique and non-unique ones
- More custom enemies
- Raid boss 'item sets' - each raid boss is going to drop four specific seraph items related to the boss' fight and mechanics. A few of those already exist in the mod - try them out!
- More rewards for story missions, ensuring you get to experience the custom gear during every playthrough of the mod.
Special thanks to:
Shadowevil, for making BL2 modding a thing;
apple1417, for providing many, many modding tools;
ZetaDaemon, for an absolute TON of help figuring out various aspects of modding;
Exotek & Juso, for creating BL2 Exodus - Arcania's biggest inspiration;
All of the amazing people in Shadowevil's discord who helped me with designs and coding;
And most importantly - you, for downloading the mod! Have fun!
Most important changes:
- Arcania now features a Python script that runs together with the text portion of the mod, thus requiring TextModLoader as an additional dependency. Installing Arcania now works like installing any other SDK mod.
- A big portion of Arcania’s items have been rewritten, or changed to a point where updating from 0.2 to 0.3 would break or straight up delete them. It is highly recommended to start a new character on the new version of the mod, unless you don’t mind losing your items or having them change in unintended ways, like having parts they should not have.
- Custom item rarities have been removed. Items that are only obtainable from a specific source are now blue uniques; weapons that had their rarity downgraded this way have had stats adjusted to compensate for it. Items that can be obtained from a certain loot source as well as world drop sources are legendary or pearlescent rarity. Raid boss-specific drops are seraph rarity.
- Introducing: dynamic spawns and dynamic loot pools! Certain enemies will now respawn only after completion of the side mission related to them. Arcania quest rewards now become farmable from a specific enemy or boss after the mission has been completed – check the loot sources in the spreadsheet. Note: In order to have the loot pools andspawns function properly, a map reload is required.
- Arcania now features improved weapon cards. They are now decluttered – that means removing redundant/obvious effects written out on the cards (stuff like ‘+50% weapon damage’ or ‘Fires as fast as you can pull the trigger’) and changing the presentations for some stats to be more visually appealing. This applies to both vanilla and Arcania gear. Arcania guns with non-obvious effects now feature a short description of said effect on the weapon card.
- Salvador off-hand fixes. Man, was thata pain in the butt… :D Arcania guns now function much, much less wonky when held in Salvador’s offhand. Skills activated by guns no longer go away completely when you Gunzerk with two of the same skill gun and unequip one. More info on changes to particular gun skills in the Sal Offhand Fixes section.
- Custom enemies are finally here!... sort of. Well, one custom enemy. In Southern Shelf – Bay’s Ebonfloe area, two named badass bullymongs called The Arctic Apes lurk around, ready to kick an unprepared vault hunter’s ass. If you manage to slay them though, you have a chance at obtaining a new legendary item! Stay tuned for more custom enemies in future updates.
Check out the remaining changes in the full 0.3 changelog!
What to expect
- 92 new unique weapons (17 assault rifles, 15 shotguns, 20 pistols, 13 SMGs, 15 sniper rifles, and 12 rocket launchers). Expand your arsenal and find dozens of new ways to blow your foes' faces off! Each of the items can be obtained from a certain mission, enemy, or lootable object, with a vast majority of legendary items being obtainable from all suitable loot sources.
- Signature gear! You will get a special item for completing the first mission of the game based on the character class you're playing as. Jump into Arcania with your character's first weapon!
- Non-unique Jakobs shields! Shields of the Jakobs manufacturer provide bullet deflection and reduce damage taken from deflected bullets. They're gonna think twice before shooting you again!
- Non-unique Jakobs grenades! Just like their weapons, Jakobs grenades feature high, non-elemental damage.
- 20 new unique shields!
- 13 new unique relics!
- 13 new unique grenade mods!
- New in 0.3: decluttered item cards. A lot of item card presentations have been removed or edited to make them easier to read. Arcania weapons that feature complex, non-obvious effects now include a description of the effect on the item card.
- The mod file includes a spreadsheet with each item's drop source as well as an explaination of its mechanics.
What not to expect
- Gear replacements. Everything added by Arcania is a brand new item that can exist together with vanilla gear. Everything obtainable in vanilla Borderlands 2 is also obtainable with Arcania from the same sources.
- Rebalances and character overhauls. Arcania aims to improve the vanilla experience without changes, nerfs, or buffs to vanilla balance. That includes unchanged vanilla skill trees.
Requirements
- Arcania was made with and requires Command Extensions to create the new gear. Make sure to install that before running the mod.
- Sanity Saver is required for the gear not to be deleted on a save-quit.
- New requirement in 0.3.0: Text Mod Loader. Arcania now features a Python script as well as a regular BLCMM file, so Text Mod Loader is required for the mod to function properly.
Compatibility
- Like every other mod made using the Python SDK, Arcania is NOT compatible with co-op.
- Any other mod that uses hotfixes will likely mess with Arcania's hotfixes. That means anything that edits loot pools is not gonna work properly.
- Rebalance mods that don't affect enemy drops might work, though I can't guarantee it.
Installation
- You can check out this video for step by step installation instructions. Big shoutout to Mithril for making it!
- Install all the requirements for the mod, following guides provided by their authors;
- Download Arcania 0.3.0 and extract the .zip into another folder. It should include a folder called Arcania, and an Excel file called Loot Sources - that is the spreadsheet containing all of the gear's descriptions and drop sources;
- If you installed everything correctly, you should now have a Mods folder among your BL2 files - drop the Arcania folder in there;
- Launch the game and open the Mods menu. Arcania.blcm should appear among any other mods listed there.
Future
Arcania is a mod in an early development stage. The gear might not be properly balanced, and there might be bugs or other issues I have missed. Feedback on balance as well as bug reports are greatly appreciated. In the future, the mod is gonna feature:
- Many, many more items!
- Class mods, both unique and non-unique ones
- More custom enemies
- Raid boss 'item sets' - each raid boss is going to drop four specific seraph items related to the boss' fight and mechanics. A few of those already exist in the mod - try them out!
- More rewards for story missions, ensuring you get to experience the custom gear during every playthrough of the mod.
Special thanks to:
Shadowevil, for making BL2 modding a thing;
apple1417, for providing many, many modding tools;
ZetaDaemon, for an absolute TON of help figuring out various aspects of modding;
Exotek & Juso, for creating BL2 Exodus - Arcania's biggest inspiration;
All of the amazing people in Shadowevil's discord who helped me with designs and coding;
And most importantly - you, for downloading the mod! Have fun!