Modding The Banner Saga

[strange_carrots]

Well, suffice to say modding isn't quite supported yet, but we have the seeds of something such sprouting over here :) feel free to join in on the discussion and contribute. Stoic's Tech Director John is active in the thread as well

http://stoicstudio.com/forum/showthread.php?2038-Modding-Can-we-have-it

[mattcat83]

Is there a way to remove the level cap on a current save file? Or redistribute the previous levels' points?

I always hate it when RPGs have you allocate points early on in a game when you're still figuring out how it works only to later discover that such point distributions were irreversible mistakes without starting a new save file.

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by mattcat83:

Is there a way to remove the level cap on a current save file? Or redistribute the previous levels' points?

Can't remove the level cap, as the current game is built round having only five levels (ranks).

You can redistribute the points by editing your save-games. Open the JSON files with a text-editor, and check how the structure goes. It's pretty simple.

There's used to be a feature to redistribute points anytime in-game, in the Heroes tent, by L/R mouse clicks. This feature was locked by default, but could be easily unlocked via modding. Sadly, when the tablet versions came out and the Steam versions got updated in parallel, Stoic dumped the Right-click functionality altogether, so this feature does no longer work...

[Shalldar]

Great!

[Röbton]

Anyone gotten the editor to work with a steam folder on a different harddrive? http://puu.sh/mT0wy/181f84c6b0.png

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Röbton:

Anyone gotten the editor to work with a steam folder on a different harddrive? http://puu.sh/mT0wy/181f84c6b0.png

I haven't tried using Zeno since the last update, but the original version worked as expected (or as *I* expected) on a different harddrive.

Most of the time, I use John's stand-alone/simple JSON editor, to tweak data directly in the game's compressed JSON.Z files: https://github.com/jwatson000/tbsdec

[enderandrew]

Has anyone made any mods yet?

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by enderandrew:

Has anyone made any mods yet?

Apart from the fan-made localizations/translations, none that I know of

[ChefGuevara]

Ive never done modding myself,but i was wondering if this would be possible.Didn't get much of a response on the stoic forums,so i thought i would try here too. I feel like the crit chance mechanic is underutilized,so i was wondering if this would be possible. Adding another effect to the Stone Wall ability wherein every time you take damage,you could accumulate an additional 5% chance for a crit on the following turn. I figure since on-hit abilities like Return the Favor are in the game,it can't be impossible,right?

[Aleonymous]

Critical hits are used extensively in the second game, together with other RMG-based mechanics like Dodge (avoid STR dmg) or Divert (avoid ARM dmg).

The current Saga1 engine might support other implementations of CRIT, apart from item buff, as the latter just alters a hidden (hard-coded) combat parameter. However, what you are proposing seems quite harder (nigh impossible) to implement, because you'll need to introduce a new "counter" that: (a) counts the times a stonewalled hero is attacked, (b) is reset at the end of the hero's next turn. I don't think such "counters" can be added to the combat engine by means of modding...

[Le_Banc]

Originally posted by Röbton:

Anyone gotten the editor to work with a steam folder on a different harddrive? http://puu.sh/mT0wy/181f84c6b0.png

That might be a bit late (only half a year - better late than never !) but the "Game Install Folder" for Zeno config is the "tbs" folder. In your example you should have "F:\Steam\steamapps\common\tbs".

I also have encountered some difficulties with the tool : the manifests were not showing in the different pages but it resolves itself by closing then re-opening Zeno.

[Aleonymous]

Thanks for the solution, Le_Banc!

[Njã¥l]

Any reason this game isn't using the Steam Workshop?

[Aleonymous]

I suppose it requires man-hours and/or money (that the devs currently don't find affordable) to integrate SW support for the game. John (the technical director of Stoic) has said multiple times that it's his "dream" to have SW support. I suppose once the last part of the trilogy is out and the game-engine is finalized, they could consider doing that. Problem is that many modders (me among them) have seen their efforts go to waste when a new patch for the game is released that chages the file-structure or this-and-that variable...

[Njã¥l]

I see. That makes sense.
I was idly thinking of how a map of Norway would have looked like with a dredge invation and all. Alot of local info about the small regions and fjords would have to be collected.

[Aleonymous]

That would be super cool :) Updating the game map with that of Norway would be easy, if the same picture dimensions are preserved. However, to include all the the locations and "activate" them on click would be more tricky, as all respective icons are hand-drawn (the cyan overlay when you hover on a location).