Islands of Insight Helper

[Ryzhara]

Here is a tool to make your gameplay experience more enjoyable. For example, toggle the visual cues for completed puzzles on or off. Code and library is entirely in python, so you can see what's what.

https://github.com/Ryzhara/IslandsOfInsightHelper

[Rushin]

Oh hey, fellow modder!

I assume by those visual cues you mean puzzles staying visibly solved - permanently, even in hubs and even between playsessions.

In that case we uh, we kinda did the same in Offline Restored Mod. It also has a huuuuuge number of other fixes, and in fact for the upcoming version we're adding a large chunk of unused/deprecated content we found in the game files (including a small new enclave).

I haven't checked the source code but I assume you're manipulating the solve timestamps in the save data? Our mod operates in a similar fashion by disabling the timestamp check entirely. I would sort of recommend against changing your timestamps - our offline-only flow orb leaderboards[cetus.torstenindustries.com] filter out online mode records by looking at the timestamps (online mode had insane glitches and thus faster times which are no longer beatable). But if you don't care for participating in flow orb speedrunning then it's fine.

[Ryzhara]

Hi, Rushin,

My apologies for a late reply.

Up front statement: this command line helper is for anyone conscious of cybersecurity. That awareness includes not running arbitrary binaries from unknown sources.

I did see the Offline Restore Mod when I was looking around, but it included a DLL, and that violates my rules. I do see that the DLL might not be required, and that there may be some interesting things in just overriding content with RRMOD_PuzzleFix.pak (which I assume are blueprints) but I haven't looked inside the file.

I ended up getting focused on understanding the structure of the GVAS file, and things snowballed from there.

After figuring how to modify the GVAS, I took a multiweek journey to write my own GVAS deserializer in Python. That journey is described in some detail at the bottom of the PYGVAS readme file [github.com]. That path also encountered useful code that was unknown binary. *sigh*

The end result of my QUEST was source code that is entirely transparent, as are any changes it makes to OfflineSavegame.sav. You can verify those with your preferred file comparison tool (I'm a Beyond Compare fan). Or, you can choose to write out the before/after JSON deserialization without affecting your actual save file..

Other than installing the Python runtime and a reliance on an external, well known library (Pydantic), all the Python code is supplied in two Github projects.

PYGVAS [github.com]
IOIHELPER [github.com]

I should also give credit to the SaveStats project, as it's PHP code and JSON content helped me understand how to manipulate the GVAS content. This helper reuses one of those JSON file data blobs.

So, short story long, the answer to your question is YES, I wanted to permanently mark, or unmark, the completed daily quests. As a completionist I want to get all the cosmetics (done! yay!) but I got frustrated with repeating already-completed quests that didn't advance my progress.

Along the way I included two more capabilities:

1. Editing the Sparks balance (because cosmetics, I'd already upgraded all tech tree perks)
   
2. Marking all known daily (hub) quests as completed

Completing the progression grind is annoying because the available quests are rationed on a release schedule. I'm impatient, so I am may use the "complete them all" feature in lieu of grinding to get all the extended trail lengths. But I have to say that testing that reduced my enjoyment.

Thank you, but no, I'm not interested in competitive speed running. I love this game because it is calming and PVE. I did appreciate seeing other people before it went offline, but it's awesome in offline mode as well.

Maybe today I'll take a look inside RRMOD_PuzzleFix.pak. :)