Custom Data / Custom Game Config settings not working on Steam Deck?

[Insanitys Muse]

Hi there,

At some point previously, I had tweaked a few settings in the Customdata file and played a few battles with it. But then took a break - not sure if there were any updates or if so how many, but I've gone back in and tried to change some things both in CustomData and in the actual GameConfig file itself, and they don't seem to do anything in game.

As an example, to test it out when I noticed nothing seemed to be working, I set min and max AP gains to like 9000 and did a fight and got the normal, expected amount of AP.

This is without the DLC if that affects anything. The game works fine, it just isn't reflecting the changes I make (which seems like it's impossible but idk)

[Mechalibur]

So just to make sure, are you adjusting the files in the steam directory files, or the one in your documents folder (Documents > Fell Seal > customdata)? Adjusting them in the steam directory won't do anything, they have to be changed in the documents folder path.

Just to be safe, I'd also like to point out it needs to be the customdata folder and not customdata_examples.

[Insanitys Muse]

Originally posted by Mechalibur:

So just to make sure, are you adjusting the files in the steam directory files, or the one in your documents folder (Documents > Fell Seal > customdata)? Adjusting them in the steam directory won't do anything, they have to be changed in the documents folder path.

Just to be safe, I'd also like to point out it needs to be the customdata folder and not customdata_examples.

Well on Steam Deck / Linux, it's Home > Fell Seal > customdata right? Which is the file I was trying. I also pasting the same changes into the _examples version (which I assumed wouldn't work but figured I'd try).

I could try modifying something other than the AP settings to see if that has any effect but for sure the AP gain ones don't seem to be working

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by Insanitys Muse:

Well on Steam Deck / Linux, it's Home > Fell Seal > customdata right? Which is the file I was trying. I also pasting the same changes into the _examples version (which I assumed wouldn't work but figured I'd try).

I could try modifying something other than the AP settings to see if that has any effect but for sure the AP gain ones don't seem to be working

Can you copy-paste what lines you're attempting to alter? There are multiple areas which affect AP gains. Similarly, are you ensuring that the proper header is in your document? What I mean by this, is most edits are done under the [Game] heading, and if that isn't in your document, it won't do anything.

Secondarily, perhaps enabling the Debug Mode (or just editing your savefile) could be a way of getting a ton of AP, if that's all you're trying to do.

[Insanitys Muse]

Here is what I am testing. Edit: This isn't what I was initially going for, but when I noticed my changes weren't taking effect I wanted to keep it simple and noticeable and then I could always reload a save if I figured it out, but nothing has worked recently.

[Game]
; AP Gains stuff.
APGainMin=9400
APGainMax=9590
ApGainVicarious=0.40
ApGainBonus=0.10
ApGainStoryBonus=1.75
ApGainMvp=0.35
ApGainBenchedRatio=0.8
ApGainBenchedVicariousRatio=0.8

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by Insanitys Muse:

Here is what I am testing. Edit: This isn't what I was initially going for, but when I noticed my changes weren't taking effect I wanted to keep it simple and noticeable and then I could always reload a save if I figured it out, but nothing has worked recently.

[Game]
; AP Gains stuff.
APGainMin=9400
APGainMax=9590
ApGainVicarious=0.40
ApGainBonus=0.10
ApGainStoryBonus=1.75
ApGainMvp=0.35
ApGainBenchedRatio=0.8
ApGainBenchedVicariousRatio=0.8

Are you testing on the first couple encounters btw? The game has the first few fights locked to certain things to not incentivize "farming them". Try on map 5 or onward. Also look at the further parameters, as you might want to adjust some of them:

; AP Gains stuff.
APGainMin=85
APGainMax=140
ApGainVicarious=0.15
ApGainBonus=0.10
ApGainStoryBonus=1.75
ApGainMvp=0.35
ApGainBenchedRatio=0.5
ApGainBenchedVicariousRatio=0.8
; Upon running a patrol, the AP gains will be lessened if the patrol max level is lower than the average level of the player deployed units.
; The reduction will kick in if the player's average level is this much higher than the enemies.
; Also affects GP gains.
ApReductionDisparityRatio=0.2
ApReductionPerDisparityChunk=0.2
ApReductionMax=0.8
ApReductionDisparityMinLevel=2
; When running the easy maps for low levels, the AP will be reduced by this amount at all times if the user's average level is above the patrol max value.
ApReductionForEasyMaps=0.25
; If the map max level is that much lower than player's units (not just deployed, all of them), then the
; AP/GP gains will be lowered by this much if we are not already reducing them with the above.
ApReductionDisparityGlobalRatio=0.5
ApReductionDisparityAmount=0.20
GoldReductionDisparityAmount=0.4
; Upon recruiting a new character, they will start with that much AP for each job.
; Exact amount is: find 6 characters with most AP totals, average all their values. New recruit gets NewRecruitStartAP * value for each class.
NewRecruitStartAP=0.4
NewStoryCharacterStartAp=0.4

[Insanitys Muse]

Hmm yea my recent testing was definitely more on the early maps, because they are the fastest to test things on.

Back when I was first messing with the settings I had included some changes to those other AP settings but some of them I'm not 100% sure what direction they go - e.g. is the APReductionDisparityRatio a number to be set at 1 to effectively remove it, or 0? That's why I removed all that stuff when trying to test it out

[Conan The Librarian]

Random thought from another Steamdeck user:

Do you have multiple storage / drives on your deck?

One person said they found the solution when they found that the proper folder was on their internal storage on their Steam Deck as opposed to their additional one.

[6 Eyes Studio]

Hmm, that's interesting. We're not doing anything specific on our side tied to Linux or the SteamDeck, so there's no "gotchas". Your changes should also be obvious in the early maps: some values might be 'tuned by the system', but they are still based off the core values, so something like 9000+ AP should be quite obvious.

I'm not too familiar with the Steamdeck, so I can't help about the possibility of different storage enviroments and such.

A few things of note that could be useful though:

1.
Linux is case sensitive for file names, so what look like a correctly named file might not be.
Deleting the files in "customodata_examples" to force them to be re-generated by the game should output the correct "file name cases" in that folder. Then, you can copy the wanted file into your "customdata" folder, thus ensuring it has the correct cases. Then modify that file.

Note that the "stuff inside the file" is not case sensitive, just the filename itself.

2.
We're not technically using "Home > Fell Seal > customdata" as our folder. We're using what the OS reports as the folder when asked for "Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments" (then adding Fell Seal/customdata), which is normally the above location. But it is conceivable that could be something else, like Conan mentioned about a user having other storage drives or changing some preferences somewhere.

Again, deleting the contents of customdata_examples to force the game to regenerate them should tell you if you're in the correct folder: if the game does NOT create new files in that folder, then it's using a different folder somehow.

Could be worth checking for error files too, just in case, but I don't think changes to the GameOptions.txt file can actually generate errors, so probably not.