Total War: THREE KINGDOMS

Total War: THREE KINGDOMS

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NDF: Ability Overhaul [BETA 1]
   
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Tags: mod, overhaul
File Size
Posted
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683.889 KB
Jun 14, 2019 @ 10:56am
Jul 17, 2019 @ 7:05am
9 Change Notes ( view )

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NDF: Ability Overhaul [BETA 1]

Description
The shortest
Adds a bunch of new abilities
Reworks many existing abilities
Unlocks all abilities right away and replaces the ability nodes.


The short
This is a wide scope ability focused mod with the intent of rebalancing and adding to the ability set of romance mode.
(Yellow turbans TBD)

Furthermore all abilities start unlocked, giving characters a much more varied and interesting playstyle right from the get go. And making sure the AI gets to use the abilities too. No more facing Lu Bu without any of his scary tools.

The end goal is for every character to have access to at least 3 major abilities, a major passive and optionally a minor ability. The core classes are finished and several characters have had extra abilities added to help expand their identity. The full scale overhaul of all characters is not yet complete and is an ongoing process, but I'm pretty happy with the spot things are at so far.

As a rule of thumb, this makes characters far more impactful, and it is intended to be paired with further changes to baseline stats across the board to tweak the complete performance of heroes.

This is all very TBD and I'm working on expanding with more abilities and more reworks over time, but as of right now this mod boasts

20 new abilities
22 reworked or rebalanced abilities

If you have any excellent ideas or comments on the design or balancing. Feel free to comment below.

WIP/TBD

More abilities!
Right now the focus is particularly on faction leaders without any unique abilities and then unique characters without any unique abilities. The sentinel and strategist classes also need more work.

More interesting replacement skill nodes for the ability nodes.
Currently I've replaced the previous ability granting nodes with some more generic improved attribute nodes. This isn't particularly flashy or interesting but I had to make up for all abilities being baseline now. In the future I'd like to incorporate things like cooldown reduction or other more interesting stats to replace them.

Gently rebalance some things like HP to help bring them in line with the more ability centric design of the mod.

FAQ
How can I tell if the mod is working?
The easiest way to check is probably to head to the custom battle menu and check if any new abilities are available. Such as Qiang Maneuvers for Ma Teng or Piercing Wit for Kong Rong.

Will every character get a full set of unique abilities?
The hope is that by the end every character will have at least one unique ability. And that's the first goal. Once that's done, perhaps there will be further expanding to do.

x ability is way too fantastical
This mod takes a looser stance to the fantastical elements than baseline romance, and several more fantastical elements are making their way in through this design. This is intended.

Will Yellow Turbans also be reworked?
Definitely. I'm just focusing on the main game for the moment.


The long

Some spark notes on the design behind this mod.

We can roughly break down the four primary factors in design like this.

  • Wu Xing
  • Class identity
  • Historical Influences
  • Gameplay concerns

A lot of care was taken to attempt to integrate the existing Wu Xing properties into the creative process. Abilities are themed both thematically and gameplaywise around central ideas related to their associated element. A good example of this is the smouldering inferno ability.

Smouldering inferno is a fire themed vanguard ability that causes an explosion on impact with a charge. Thematically, it draws from several core places.

The ability started as a simple idea. "How can I give vanguards the ability to light fires?"

I wanted to find a way to fit a fire setting ability into the fire class while keeping it consistent with the identity of the class.

Wu Xing gives us fire. And smouldering inferno is an ability themed around the concept of a smouldering flame. That fire builds from a small spark before becoming an inferno. This is represented in its requirement that you are out of combat for it to recharge (something not done in the base game!) You must linger on the sides of the field, smouldering, biding your time.

Class identity plays in because it helped form the delivery method. Fire is associated with vanguards and shock cavalry. So I wanted the ability to be formed around their core strength of charges. This developed quickly in the explosive charge. It creates a gameplay situation where you are pushed to bide your time and wait for the opportune moment to deliver your ability. Limiting the impact of the vanguard himself if you wish to use the ability. It concentrates his performance into a single devastating charge with high morale impact. This very strongly ties into the fantasy of an ultimate shock cavalry style ability.

Some concerns were faced in this design however.
1. The player might be pushed too hard into not fighting with their vanguard if the ability is too strong, creating a one dimensional method of play.

2. The player might never have to "smoulder" if the ability is available at the start of battle, meaning that part of the design never comes into play as players might just treat it as a one and done alpha strike at the beginning of the battle.

Currently, these are addressed by limiting the damage of the ability severely and adding a warm up cooldown to the ability at the start of battles.


As for historical influences.
Particularly when working with historical characters I look for inspiration in both real and romantic sources. A good example of this is Kong Rong's new "Giving of pears" ability, inspired by a tale in which young Kong Rong gives up the largest pears to his younger and older siblings. This has helped shape Kong Rong's new identity as a character focused strategist who primarily acts to buff and debuff characters instead of units.

Those are just some insights into the kind of design processes behind this mod.


Credits
Norse - DB and Design
Drunkflamingo - Design

If you want to talk shop about modding, I recommend you head to the CnC modding discord!
https://discord.gg/MYB2V5X

?????? IF THIS MOD DOESN'T WORK, PLEASE FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS ??????
Verify the following!
- This mod is subscribed to on Steam
- This mod is enabled in the CA Mod Manager
- The load order has not been altered in the CA Mod Manager
- There is no "user.script.txt" file in "Z:/Users/[UserName]/AppData/Roaming/The Creative Assembly/ThreeKingdoms/scripts". If you added one before the Workshop was posted, you need to remove it - the game is reading from the mods specified in that file, and is ignoring the ones in the Mod Manager.
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30 Comments
Austere Hare Dec 21, 2023 @ 2:35pm 
looks interesting. but im guessing its dead..? :steamfacepalm:
FibonacciSpiral Feb 2, 2020 @ 6:50pm 
How's your move going? Hope you're acclimating well!!! Would love to see an update soon.
kingguni Jan 10, 2020 @ 4:43pm 
Does this still work?
Rossy1605 Nov 9, 2019 @ 3:35pm 
just a FYI
Rossy1605 Nov 9, 2019 @ 3:34pm 
not compatible with beneath a red sky battle mod
minerunknown Aug 21, 2019 @ 9:26pm 
I know this is probably a lengthy question to ask, but how the hell did you mod abilities? No matter what tables I edit it makes no difference to the game. Just telling me what tables I need to edit, or if it's an entirely different method, would help too.
Smudgius Aug 7, 2019 @ 11:13am 
Doesn't work, checked the listed items, ctd.
Pouki Aug 5, 2019 @ 2:25am 
No problem ^^
WillAitch  [author] Aug 5, 2019 @ 1:58am 
I'll take another look at regen effects when I get back, just a bit busy atm with moving to a new country, sorry!
Pouki Aug 5, 2019 @ 1:15am 
Great job ^^
However, as everyone says, the healing ability of the Vanguard is clearly breaking the battles : he heals so fast that he can take a whole army barehanded XD