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About this mod
Changes starting parties and items, creates a Civilians skillset, and adjusts multiple mechanics. Check description!
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
*This allegedly works with the DLC, but until someone tests it (as I don't own it), I'm not sure. Let me know!*
I made this mod to fix the things I didn't like, but wanted to leave the general gameplay and balance of the game intact. This isn't a mod for breaking the game with incredibly over-tuned changes. This is more about fixing the balance of the starting parties and changing a few things that took too long or didn't make much sense.
There are two versions uploaded:
New Party - Changes the starting parties and balances starting items
Original Party - Keeps the original starting parties but still balances starting items
Both versions have all the other changes
Starting parties and items (updated in 5.0):
1. Adventure - Removed Brute, added Pugilist; Influence increased to 120 from 30
Reasoning: Now that there's a new class, might as well grant an opportunity for everyone to start a new game with it. As far as starting items, gaining 30 influence and losing 5 Raw Materials is essentially a financial wash. If you look up some evaluations done, Influence is about 1 to 1 value to Krowns, although the devs like to think otherwise.
2. Merchant - Removed Warrior, added Archer; same starting items
Reasoning: Merchants would never want to hire a crew who couldn't handle bandits and since bandits always have archers, there's no reason a group of merchant guards shouldn't, either. Starting items stay the same, as they're what I used to balance all the starting items around, value-wise.
3. Deserter - Removed Ranger, added Brute; Raw Materials increased to 30 from 10
Reasoning: If this group deserted the guard, it's very unlikely they have any rogue-like soldiers. I'd imagine they'd be well balanced and less assassinee. Raw Materials went up to match cost effectiveness.
4. Farmer - Removed Brute, added Warrior; Bread increased to 30 from 10
Reasoning: A group of farmers wouldn't have a large, brutish person with a hammer or mace, but they would have a person with an axe. You know, cause trees? I liked the theme of multiple pitchforks for this, so I left both of them in. The archer also makes sense, as they would probably be hunting, as well. Bread went up to match cost effectiveness.
5. Bandit - Removed Brute and one Ranger, added Warrior and second Archer; Removed all (2) Braised Chicken, added 20 Leather, increased Cloth to 20 from 6
Reasoning: Don't be fooled by the class name Brute. Fighting all these bandit groups, you would notice they don't really use them at all (except for the incredibly powerful and heavily armored ones later on). They typically have daggers, axes, and bows. So, this group got adjusted to have the same sort of theme, only two Rangers makes no sense at all, since the very first, statically available recruit is, in fact, a Ranger. So you think people will want 3 Rangers??? You can just ignore him, sure, but the reality is that most small bandit groups do NOT want to have a lot of face-time with their enemies. Given the option, they'd want to shoot first and ask questions later. 2 Archers lets them do that. The items were adjusted to make sense of the cost effectiveness and the story that pops up after starting the game (they stole from the 'wrong person' who is now out to find them... for 2 cooked chickens and 6 cloth????).
6. Pirate - Group unchanged; Wood increased to 30 from 10
Reasoning: Just cost effectiveness.
7. Tavern - Group unchanged; Removed -15 Raw Materials
Reasoning: Cost effectiveness again.
Civilians Unleashed (new in 2.0, updated in 3.1):
1. Civilians (like refugees, etc) - Full skill tree created
Reasoning: It feels pretty bad to see civilians be completely incapable in a fight (except for some story fights against you). If you've 'borrowed' them from their freedom and try to use them, there's no armor available to create beyond the 10-pt Rags set. So, I thought it would be fun to give the civilians a cool skillset concept around the idea of slowly learning how to be in combat and focusing on dodging and running, rather than standing and fighting. They don't get to wear light armor or anything, just basic clothes, so keep that in mind when you decide to place your cook on the battlefield (good CON, at least)!
Level 1 Run - Disengages without AoO, moves up to 5 distance, and clears Burn condition <-- the base skill
Level 2 Beast Mastery - Capable of controlling your animals in a fight
Level 3 Alacrity - Has a 40% chance to dodge ranged and AoE attacks
Level 3 Anticipation - When attacked, you have a 50% chance to not be Engaged and will also hit them with an AoO
Level 5 Hand-to-hand Combat - Applies Disarm for 1 round (melee only)
Level 5 Sweet Spot - Applies Destabilization for 1 round (ranged only)
Level 8 Unstoppable - Can run through units in combat
Level 8 Dodge - Gain Dodge at end of turn, causing the next attack to miss (removed if you move) <-- that thing Merchants get but no one else!
Level 10 Second Weapon (all)* - Swap between weapons in combat
Level 12 Class Specialization - Pick something you've skipped before
*Due to this being unintended on civilians, you can just pick any weapon and then equip a second of that type (so you can ignore that it says Bow)
Requested Additions (new in 4.0):
1. Plague-ridden and Creeper types (normal, snow, sea) - Basic skill tree created
Reasoning: Requested addition that adds a bit of fun without being OP.
Level 5 Carrion-Eater - Killing an enemy cancels next food consumption
Level 7 Tendon Rupture - Damages target and applies slow or bleed if already slowed
Other Adjustments (updated in 5.0):
1. Volunteer trait - Increased value to 30% from 10%
Reasoning: Everyone keeps wanting this thing to mean completely free. There's a concept called Voluntold in the military (usually). You may have volunteered for something, by ways of your parents or commanding officer telling you to. That doesn't mean it's free. While I agree 10% is essentially worthless, 100% breaks the game concepts of paying people to risk their lives.
2. Armor Layers Blacksmith upgrades - Decreased required level for Tier 1 layers to 0 from 3
Reasoning: If you make the basic clothes called Rags, you get upgrade slots for layers. However, the devs decided to remove the ability to use them. I disagree with that decision, so back it goes! This is ultimately because of Civilians Unleashed, but applies to all armors.
3. Velvet Pouch Tinkerer backpack accessory - Increased value to 50% from 20%
Reasoning: This effectively gives you about 5-8 more tries before breaking (difficulty dependent). Yes, lockpicks are super easy to make, but honestly, if you're breaking lockpicks made of iron after just 5-7 light taps, you've done something very wrong in how you make them. The game mechanic does need to exist to make lockpicks consumable, though. There are also mini-games that use the mechanic of Noise. The item should be useful, but at 20%, it never was. It doesn't help that lockpicking is incredibly frustrating to begin with, due to it using 300 of 360 degrees, requiring very slight movements.
4. Artful Dodgers knowledge perk - Increased value to 30% from 10%
Reasoning: One of the worst timesinks in this game is waiting for Suspicion to fall off, and it's especially annoying when you're trying to "play as you want," which is supposedly the very concept this game is based on. Yes, there are consequences to actions, but timesinks are not fun and the guards having homing missile-like precision for where you are on the map is also very obnoxious. This will help a tad on the waiting times without fully breaking anything.
5. Location Markers knowledge perk - Decreased cost to 0 from 1
Reasoning: This should have been part of the base map... You won't start with it unlocked, but you can pick it up for free.
6. Methodical Exploration knowledge perk - Decreased cost to 0 from 2
Reasoning: Same as above. Should be part of the base game map.
7. "Find a way out" Cursed Village skill - Increased value to 12 from 3
Reasoning: I don't think I have to explain this one at all, but uh, yeah. Super annoying and 3% is just no where near enough. I tried on extreme with a party of 5, well-equipped people at equal level and got decimated by round 5. Either you're expected to have a lot of party members or you're expected to min/max. Neither feels nice as a requirement.
8. Profession XP - Decreased multiplier to 1, 3, 3.5, 4 from 1, 4, 4, 4
Reasoning: Another timesink, but understandable. I keep seeing mods with half XP, but that seems really harsh. The base game XP per profession level was 20, 80, 320, 1280. You can see the 4x multiplier going on. It's now 20, 60, 210, 840. This is a 32.35% drop in total XP required, so a nice middle-ground.
9. Run Stamina recovery rate - Decreased value to 1 from 1.2 for normal recovery; Decreased value to 1.2 from 1.5 for tired recovery
Reasoning: This is essentially a 20% decrease in time required for stamina to return, which, when timed, was just 2-3 seconds saved for either. Very much a QoL change.
10. Max camera distance - Increased value to 80 from 40
Reasoning: This just allows for zoom to go farther out when in battle. Doesn't affect world map, unfortunately.
11. Hitching Post camp item - Increased Tier 1 and Tier 2 carry capacity bonus to 15 from 10; Increased Tier 3 carry capacity to 20 from 10
Reasoning: This is essentially giving you 4 saddlebags for free. I was going to allow it to hold 6 ponies, instead, but there was no space on the item for the extra 2 and they just stood there without animation. Looked really odd. Also, this is mainly because pony adjustments are so prevalent in other mods that I decided to add this for anyone swapping to mine.
12. Watchkeeping Stool camp item - Increased value to 60% from 10% for Prisoner watch; Increased value to 20% from 10% for Rest Danger
Reasoning: So this item is interesting and you'd think, reading the name, it was just a tiny, little stool you might find in the back of the village bar, where the bartender goes to drink, away from prying eyes. But you'd be wrong. It's not a stool. It's a literal watchtower. So why would this literal watchtower only give you 10% of a chance at either of these things? Well, the main intention seems to be to ensure your camp, from a gameplay mechanics point of view, doesn't HAVE to have 4 friendlies always surrounding all your slaves... ehem, prisoners. Yes, I know the stocks exist, but if you're playing for the first time, that's not something you know and if you play Region Locked, well, that's a number of levels away, and essentially the 4th map you go to (if you go West first, instead of East and then North). Also, if you want to play a smaller party, you really can't afford 4 party members surrounding each of them, and the only argument anyone can make is "but you can puzzle piece the camp together!" Yea, that looks dumb. So I did this to fix the annoyance of camp looking like a geometry assignment and also to relieve the smaller parties of their personnel burden. The at rest danger thing was just an added bump, cause literal watchtower.
13. Whip camp item - Decreased prisoner trust hit to -80 from -100
Reasoning: This is honestly a useless item. I keep trying to find a way to make it feel better to use. I have a solid idea, but the code never works... This is just to slightly adjust the negative impact and make it slightly easier to build trust back after using it (not that you ever will).
I made this mod to fix the things I didn't like, but wanted to leave the general gameplay and balance of the game intact. This isn't a mod for breaking the game with incredibly over-tuned changes. This is more about fixing the balance of the starting parties and changing a few things that took too long or didn't make much sense.
There are two versions uploaded:
New Party - Changes the starting parties and balances starting items
Original Party - Keeps the original starting parties but still balances starting items
Both versions have all the other changes
Starting parties and items (updated in 5.0):
1. Adventure - Removed Brute, added Pugilist; Influence increased to 120 from 30
Reasoning: Now that there's a new class, might as well grant an opportunity for everyone to start a new game with it. As far as starting items, gaining 30 influence and losing 5 Raw Materials is essentially a financial wash. If you look up some evaluations done, Influence is about 1 to 1 value to Krowns, although the devs like to think otherwise.
2. Merchant - Removed Warrior, added Archer; same starting items
Reasoning: Merchants would never want to hire a crew who couldn't handle bandits and since bandits always have archers, there's no reason a group of merchant guards shouldn't, either. Starting items stay the same, as they're what I used to balance all the starting items around, value-wise.
3. Deserter - Removed Ranger, added Brute; Raw Materials increased to 30 from 10
Reasoning: If this group deserted the guard, it's very unlikely they have any rogue-like soldiers. I'd imagine they'd be well balanced and less assassinee. Raw Materials went up to match cost effectiveness.
4. Farmer - Removed Brute, added Warrior; Bread increased to 30 from 10
Reasoning: A group of farmers wouldn't have a large, brutish person with a hammer or mace, but they would have a person with an axe. You know, cause trees? I liked the theme of multiple pitchforks for this, so I left both of them in. The archer also makes sense, as they would probably be hunting, as well. Bread went up to match cost effectiveness.
5. Bandit - Removed Brute and one Ranger, added Warrior and second Archer; Removed all (2) Braised Chicken, added 20 Leather, increased Cloth to 20 from 6
Reasoning: Don't be fooled by the class name Brute. Fighting all these bandit groups, you would notice they don't really use them at all (except for the incredibly powerful and heavily armored ones later on). They typically have daggers, axes, and bows. So, this group got adjusted to have the same sort of theme, only two Rangers makes no sense at all, since the very first, statically available recruit is, in fact, a Ranger. So you think people will want 3 Rangers??? You can just ignore him, sure, but the reality is that most small bandit groups do NOT want to have a lot of face-time with their enemies. Given the option, they'd want to shoot first and ask questions later. 2 Archers lets them do that. The items were adjusted to make sense of the cost effectiveness and the story that pops up after starting the game (they stole from the 'wrong person' who is now out to find them... for 2 cooked chickens and 6 cloth????).
6. Pirate - Group unchanged; Wood increased to 30 from 10
Reasoning: Just cost effectiveness.
7. Tavern - Group unchanged; Removed -15 Raw Materials
Reasoning: Cost effectiveness again.
Civilians Unleashed (new in 2.0, updated in 3.1):
1. Civilians (like refugees, etc) - Full skill tree created
Reasoning: It feels pretty bad to see civilians be completely incapable in a fight (except for some story fights against you). If you've 'borrowed' them from their freedom and try to use them, there's no armor available to create beyond the 10-pt Rags set. So, I thought it would be fun to give the civilians a cool skillset concept around the idea of slowly learning how to be in combat and focusing on dodging and running, rather than standing and fighting. They don't get to wear light armor or anything, just basic clothes, so keep that in mind when you decide to place your cook on the battlefield (good CON, at least)!
Level 1 Run - Disengages without AoO, moves up to 5 distance, and clears Burn condition <-- the base skill
Level 2 Beast Mastery - Capable of controlling your animals in a fight
Level 3 Alacrity - Has a 40% chance to dodge ranged and AoE attacks
Level 3 Anticipation - When attacked, you have a 50% chance to not be Engaged and will also hit them with an AoO
Level 5 Hand-to-hand Combat - Applies Disarm for 1 round (melee only)
Level 5 Sweet Spot - Applies Destabilization for 1 round (ranged only)
Level 8 Unstoppable - Can run through units in combat
Level 8 Dodge - Gain Dodge at end of turn, causing the next attack to miss (removed if you move) <-- that thing Merchants get but no one else!
Level 10 Second Weapon (all)* - Swap between weapons in combat
Level 12 Class Specialization - Pick something you've skipped before
*Due to this being unintended on civilians, you can just pick any weapon and then equip a second of that type (so you can ignore that it says Bow)
Requested Additions (new in 4.0):
1. Plague-ridden and Creeper types (normal, snow, sea) - Basic skill tree created
Reasoning: Requested addition that adds a bit of fun without being OP.
Level 5 Carrion-Eater - Killing an enemy cancels next food consumption
Level 7 Tendon Rupture - Damages target and applies slow or bleed if already slowed
Other Adjustments (updated in 5.0):
1. Volunteer trait - Increased value to 30% from 10%
Reasoning: Everyone keeps wanting this thing to mean completely free. There's a concept called Voluntold in the military (usually). You may have volunteered for something, by ways of your parents or commanding officer telling you to. That doesn't mean it's free. While I agree 10% is essentially worthless, 100% breaks the game concepts of paying people to risk their lives.
2. Armor Layers Blacksmith upgrades - Decreased required level for Tier 1 layers to 0 from 3
Reasoning: If you make the basic clothes called Rags, you get upgrade slots for layers. However, the devs decided to remove the ability to use them. I disagree with that decision, so back it goes! This is ultimately because of Civilians Unleashed, but applies to all armors.
3. Velvet Pouch Tinkerer backpack accessory - Increased value to 50% from 20%
Reasoning: This effectively gives you about 5-8 more tries before breaking (difficulty dependent). Yes, lockpicks are super easy to make, but honestly, if you're breaking lockpicks made of iron after just 5-7 light taps, you've done something very wrong in how you make them. The game mechanic does need to exist to make lockpicks consumable, though. There are also mini-games that use the mechanic of Noise. The item should be useful, but at 20%, it never was. It doesn't help that lockpicking is incredibly frustrating to begin with, due to it using 300 of 360 degrees, requiring very slight movements.
4. Artful Dodgers knowledge perk - Increased value to 30% from 10%
Reasoning: One of the worst timesinks in this game is waiting for Suspicion to fall off, and it's especially annoying when you're trying to "play as you want," which is supposedly the very concept this game is based on. Yes, there are consequences to actions, but timesinks are not fun and the guards having homing missile-like precision for where you are on the map is also very obnoxious. This will help a tad on the waiting times without fully breaking anything.
5. Location Markers knowledge perk - Decreased cost to 0 from 1
Reasoning: This should have been part of the base map... You won't start with it unlocked, but you can pick it up for free.
6. Methodical Exploration knowledge perk - Decreased cost to 0 from 2
Reasoning: Same as above. Should be part of the base game map.
7. "Find a way out" Cursed Village skill - Increased value to 12 from 3
Reasoning: I don't think I have to explain this one at all, but uh, yeah. Super annoying and 3% is just no where near enough. I tried on extreme with a party of 5, well-equipped people at equal level and got decimated by round 5. Either you're expected to have a lot of party members or you're expected to min/max. Neither feels nice as a requirement.
8. Profession XP - Decreased multiplier to 1, 3, 3.5, 4 from 1, 4, 4, 4
Reasoning: Another timesink, but understandable. I keep seeing mods with half XP, but that seems really harsh. The base game XP per profession level was 20, 80, 320, 1280. You can see the 4x multiplier going on. It's now 20, 60, 210, 840. This is a 32.35% drop in total XP required, so a nice middle-ground.
9. Run Stamina recovery rate - Decreased value to 1 from 1.2 for normal recovery; Decreased value to 1.2 from 1.5 for tired recovery
Reasoning: This is essentially a 20% decrease in time required for stamina to return, which, when timed, was just 2-3 seconds saved for either. Very much a QoL change.
10. Max camera distance - Increased value to 80 from 40
Reasoning: This just allows for zoom to go farther out when in battle. Doesn't affect world map, unfortunately.
11. Hitching Post camp item - Increased Tier 1 and Tier 2 carry capacity bonus to 15 from 10; Increased Tier 3 carry capacity to 20 from 10
Reasoning: This is essentially giving you 4 saddlebags for free. I was going to allow it to hold 6 ponies, instead, but there was no space on the item for the extra 2 and they just stood there without animation. Looked really odd. Also, this is mainly because pony adjustments are so prevalent in other mods that I decided to add this for anyone swapping to mine.
12. Watchkeeping Stool camp item - Increased value to 60% from 10% for Prisoner watch; Increased value to 20% from 10% for Rest Danger
Reasoning: So this item is interesting and you'd think, reading the name, it was just a tiny, little stool you might find in the back of the village bar, where the bartender goes to drink, away from prying eyes. But you'd be wrong. It's not a stool. It's a literal watchtower. So why would this literal watchtower only give you 10% of a chance at either of these things? Well, the main intention seems to be to ensure your camp, from a gameplay mechanics point of view, doesn't HAVE to have 4 friendlies always surrounding all your slaves... ehem, prisoners. Yes, I know the stocks exist, but if you're playing for the first time, that's not something you know and if you play Region Locked, well, that's a number of levels away, and essentially the 4th map you go to (if you go West first, instead of East and then North). Also, if you want to play a smaller party, you really can't afford 4 party members surrounding each of them, and the only argument anyone can make is "but you can puzzle piece the camp together!" Yea, that looks dumb. So I did this to fix the annoyance of camp looking like a geometry assignment and also to relieve the smaller parties of their personnel burden. The at rest danger thing was just an added bump, cause literal watchtower.
13. Whip camp item - Decreased prisoner trust hit to -80 from -100
Reasoning: This is honestly a useless item. I keep trying to find a way to make it feel better to use. I have a solid idea, but the code never works... This is just to slightly adjust the negative impact and make it slightly easier to build trust back after using it (not that you ever will).