[Tutorial] Create a difficulty mod!

[WNG]

↜ Create a difficulty mod! by WNG ↝

Introduction

Hello! This guide will show you how to create a simple mod that adjusts difficulty settings of the game. Difficulty mods are very popular, and for a reason: they are simple to make and can modify the game experience by a lot. In this tutorial, we will look at numerous files that can be modified to change the difficulty of the game. There's more that you can do than simply spawning in more monsters; in fact, there's numerous ways to get creative here.

I may assume you have some basic knowledge and overlook some manipulations. Feel free to tell me if anything is unclear.

I. gameengine.dbr

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records\xpack\game\gameengine.dbrThis file controls a myriad of general settings of the game. Here, you can alter some different options to make the game potentially harder. Let's have a look at some of them.

gameengine.dbr

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Rewards and Penalties

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deathPenaltyEquation: This equation controls the experience lost when a character dies.
deathPenaltyMin: Minimum of experience a character can lose upon death.
deathPenaltyMax: Maximum of experience a character can lose upon death.
RedemptionMultiplier: When the player recovers its grave, it will regain experience by the percentage set here. For reference, 1 would be equivalent to 100% and 0 to 0%.

OneShot Info

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potionStackLimit: Amount of potions the player can stack per inventory square. Remember how you could only stack 5 in IT days? I do...
scrollStackLimit: Amount of scrollsthe player can stack on top of one another.

Monster Info

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monsterRunSpeedCapMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values a monster's movement speed can have.
monsterSpellCastSpeedCapMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values a monster's casting speed can have.
monsterAttackSpeedMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values a monster's attack speed can have.
bossRunSpeedCapMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values a boss' movement speed can have.
bossSpellCastSpeedCapMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values a boss' monster's casting speed can have.
bossAttackSpeedMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values a boss' attack speed can have.

Player Info

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playerDefenseCap: The maximum value the player's resistances can have.
playerDodgePercentCap: The maximum value the player's CTDA can have.
playerDodgeProjectileCap: The maximum value the player's CTAP can have.
playerRacialBonusPercentDefenseCap: The maximum value the player's Less Damage from X race can have.
playeCooldownReductionCap: The maximum value the player's Recharge can have.
playerManaCostReductionCap: The maximum value the player's Energy Cost Reduction can have.
characterDefensiveBlockRecoveryReductionCap: The maximum value the player's Shield Block Recovery Time Reduction can have.
playerRunSpeedCapMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values the player's movement speed can have.
playerSpellCastSpeedCapMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values the player's casting speed can have.
playerAttackSpeedCapMin/Max: The minimum and maximum values the player's attack speed can have.

Proxy Info

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spawnMin/MaxModifier: Multiplier of the spawn rate of regular units in proxies (in percentage.)
championMin/MaxModifier: Multiplier of the spawn rate of champion units in proxies (in percentage.)

II. monstergamebalanceattributes.dbr

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records\game\monstergamebalanceattributes.dbrThis file is referenced in the gameengine.dbr seen above and is used to improve monsters based on the number of players and the difficulty level you play on. For example, you can decide the bonus of health or damage granted to enemy creatures here.

Look over here to find details on the characteristics you can change (it is another tutorial but the same characteristics are seen in detail here) : https://titanquestfans.net/index.php?topic=886.0

Notice how each field is an array where you can input multiple values. You have 3 options:

• 0 values: Leave empty or with a zero; the game will ignore this characteristic.
• 3 values: Input up to 3 values; the first value will be used for Normal, the second for Epic and the last for Legendary.
• 18 values: Input up to 18 values; the first value being Normal difficulty with 1 player, then 2 players... up until 6 players. The seventh value is Epic with 1 player, and so on so forth. In other terms, have 1 value for each number of players per difficulty.

III. femalepc01.dbr/malepc01.dbr

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records\xpack\creatures\pc\femalepc01.dbr
records\xpack\creatures\pc\malepc01.dbrThese files are the actual characters you can control. You can modify some of their innate characteristics. The male and female characters have technically different files, although they look identical. You could, if you so desire, make them different in certain aspects.

femalepc01.dbr/malepc01.dbr

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Character Bio

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defaultGold: Starting amount of gold when you first create a character.
Natural Resistance: Innate resistances. By default, the character has no resistances.
Character Parameters

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Self-explanatory, but you can also look at the link from step II.

Skill Manager

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masteryIncrementLevel: Determines the levels where the player unlocks their first and second masteries.
reclamationPointTiers: Sets the increment tiers when reclaiming points from a mystic.
reclamationPointCosts: Sets the cost of each tier when reclaiming points from a mystic.

IV. playerlevels.dbr

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records\creatures\pc\playerlevels.dbrThis file sets some parameters related to experience and the level-up system.

femalepc01.dbr/malepc01.dbr

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Level Up Parameters

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characterModifierPoints: Amount of attribute points received on level-up.
skillModifierPoints: Amount of skill points received on level-up.
initialSkillPoints: Starting amount of skill points when you first create a character.
lifeIncrement: When spending an attribute point in Health, it will go up by this much.
manaIncrement: When spending an attribute point in Energy, it will go up by this much.
strengthIncrement: When spending an attribute point in Strength, it will go up by this much.
dexterityIncrement: When spending an attribute point in Dexterity, it will go up by this much.
intelligenceIncrement: When spending an attribute point in Intelligence, it will go up by this much.

Experience Levels

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maxPlayerLevel: Maximal level your character can reach.