True RPG Attributes

[size=4][b]Description[/b][/size]
[color=#D4D4D8]In the vanilla game, virtually all your Defense actually comes from the 3 equipped Pictos, while all your Attack comes from Picto Luminas that increase damage. Attributes become absolutely insignificant towards the endgame, where the only thing you need to worry about is investing in the attributes that scale with an S or A on your weapon, since that is what actually gives you your power.

During the early and mid-game, you only really need to invest some points in Vitality to avoid getting one-shot, while almost everything else goes into Agility, simply because it is the least insignificant attribute in terms of its bonuses, not because it is particularly impactful.

This mod aims to completely overhaul this system and to increase the game's difficulty. In contrast, almost all my other mods are designed to reduce it, so my other mods help compensate for the increased difficulty introduced here.[/color]


[size=4][b]Installation instructions[/b][/size]
[color=#D4D4D8]Extract the contents of the zip file into your "Expedition 33/Sandfall/Content/Paks/mods" folder. Create the mods folder manually if it does not yet exist.[/color]


[size=4][b]Main features[/b][/size]
[color=#D4D4D8]First of all, rather than recommending it, I would say that using [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/828]Pictos Archetypes[/url] with the nerfed x1.5 variant is practically mandatory. As I explained in this mod's description, you already get all your Defense for free simply by equipping Pictos. My only alternative was to take away at least half of those free stats and let you earn them back by investing attribute points into them.

Since you cannot max out all five attributes at level 99, you have to make decisions, think carefully, and adapt to different encounters. I don't know about you, but I get bored of a game pretty quickly when I don't have to think. Playing on autopilot leads to burnout much sooner.

Following the same philosophy, all weapon damage is reduced to 33% of its vanilla value in terms of Power. The only way to recover that damage is by investing points in Power. However, weapon scaling has been improved for the weaker scaling grades (D, C, and B) relative to the stronger ones. This means you can only recover up to around 50% of vanilla Power during the early and mid-game. So, if you want to hit harder, you will necessarily have to become more vulnerable. Unlike before, you can no longer have everything at once: both Attack and Defense.[/color]

[color=#D4D4D8]
[b][size=4]## Why Pictos Archetypes (Nerfed x1.5) Is Necessary:[/size][/b]

Let me explain in more detail why you need Pictos Archetypes in its nerfed version. Otherwise, you will end up being much stronger than in vanilla. Here are the stats of a level 99 character without investing any attribute points:

- Health: 2,420
- Defense: 0
- Speed: 789
- Critical Chance: 5%
- Attack: 1,347

In my mod, only two things change: Defense goes from 0 to 400, and Critical Chance goes from 5% to 15%. These are relatively minor changes. Now for the important part:

| Attribute (99 points) | Vanilla | My mod |
| Health from Vitality | 1,389 | 4,500 |
| Defense from Defense | 547 and +18% Critical Chance | 2,500 |
| Speed from Agility | 346 and +182 Defense | 1,500 |
| Critical Chance from Luck | 36% and +139 Speed | +80% Critical Chance and +400 Defense |
| Attack from Power | 156 | 800 |

All attributes still follow slightly incremental scaling formulas, meaning the points closest to 99 provide the strongest bonuses. For example, investing 50 points in Agility grants 675 Speed.

The only exception is Power, which follows a much steeper curve: 30 points grant only 120 Power, while 60 points grant only 300 Power. This is necessary because otherwise, during the early game, investing everything in Power would give you three times the damage you would deal in vanilla.[/color]

[color=#D4D4D8]
[size=4][b]## How Power Actually Works[/b][/size]

Don't let that last power detail mislead you, though. It becomes largely irrelevant towards the endgame, since both numbers are relatively insignificant on their own.

There is actually a formula that makes your weapon stronger the more points you invest in Power. Without this formula already being part of the game, creating this mod would have been impossible, at least without code injection through UE4SS.

In-game, you will see your damage increase considerably, but the increase happens to the weapon itself, not directly to your character's Attack stat. In practice, fortunately, the end result is the same for us.

Why couldn't I simply increase Power and leave it at that? Towards the end of the game, weapon damage is typically around 7,000–10,000. To achieve an equivalent result by simply increasing Power, I would have needed to set the level 99 Attack bonus to around 4,000–5,000. At level 33, investing all 99 points in Power would then give you six times the damage you would deal at that point in vanilla.

Fortunately, thanks to the formula I mentioned earlier, Power directly improves weapon damage. Since weapons gradually become stronger as you progress through the game, you never end up with absurd Attack values or ridiculous damage multipliers such as x3.[/color]


[b][size=4]incompatibilities[/size][/b]
All these files are modified; any other mod that edits them will cause incompatibilities:
BP_CharacterData, DT_CharactersLevelScaling, DT_AttributeStatScaling_Strength, DT_AttributeStatScaling_Agility, DT_AttributeStatScaling_Defense, DT_AttributeStatScaling_Luck, DT_AttributeStatScaling_Vitality and DT_EquipmentScalingTable_Weapons, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/570]Expedition Rebalance Mod[/url] mod I recommend edits this last file; it redistributes all the levels to avoid such a huge jump when upgrading the weapon from level 32 to 33. My mod needs to load first to override the other two—you don't have to do anything, as I named my mod so that it appears before the "Expedition Rebalance Mod" in the load order.


[color=#D4D4D8][size=4][b]Maybe in the future[/b][/size][/color]
[color=#D4D4D8]I want this mod to serve as the foundation for another mod that would get rid of the usual system of equipping Picto skills by spending Lumina points. Instead, Lumina abilities would be automatically equipped based on the attributes assigned to each character, creating a proper class system in the game.

This would also involve heavily reworking the Lumina abilities themselves, since characters would no longer be able to equip a set of priority Luminas so easily. I already have the basic framework of this system working, and it is definitely possible. All that remains is everything else: making the design decisions, testing everything, going back to the drawing board, and repeating the process until it's finally finished. Even in the best-case scenario, this would be weeks of work.[/color]