This is a mirror post from BuyMeACoffee with some additional technical content
I wanted to share a sneak peak for two of my upcoming mods for the latest game in the survival adventure-craft genre: Windrose.
More Ring and Necklace Slots
This mod was originally inspired by a similar mod by a Nexus modder Baradrim. His mod added more necklace and ring slots for new characters- which meant you had to give up on your existing saves. My friends and I had about 40 hours of playtime into the game at that point, so I wanted to see if I could tackle creating a mod for existing characters.
The mod is fully dynamic, you can choose exactly how many ring and necklace slots you want (1-10 each). Stats and Stat Bonuses all stack, so you can create some very interesting builds. Or, at the very least, keep your mining ring and your combat rings on at the same time.
There's a small easter egg for dedicated players, if you run the tool with the --nocap flag, you can set the rings to any unbounded number you want.
I figure with 10 fingers, 10 toes, and some creativity, you can fit at least 20+ rings on your character (for realism, of course).
Double Glove Slots
I love this mod for two reasons.
- It makes the Armor grid a nice even number, so all the slots boxes are filled out with no empty spaces
- You get an extra 2-set bonus to play with
Normally, in Windrose, if you have 2/4 of an armor you get a small set bonus, and 4/4 of the same armor pieces you get a better bonus on top. With 5 equipment slots in vanilla, this leaves one piece of armor not really doing anything.
With an extra glove slot, you can take that extra piece and your new additional glove to get an extra 2-set bonus.
This means you can have up to four set bonus effects at the same time.
- Two 2-set bonuses + One 4-set bonus
- Three 2-set bonuses
It's a nice small change to your gameplay, making you just a bit more powerful and happy with your build.
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TIL
While these mods were pretty simple in scope, they lead me to learning a wide variety of tools in ecosystems I was only laterally familiar with.
Here's some of the things I learned:
- How to build python files into executables using pyinstaller and moving to Nuitka as well as automating these processes
- Signing executables for much cheaper using Microsoft's Azure Artifact Signing Service
- How to read and write to a sequentially written database like RocksDB
- Using tools like FModel, retoc, repak, and UAssetGUI
- Ghidra 💀
- UE4SS, dumping C++ headers, and running lua mods
- Better understanding of how VirusTotal works and how Nexus reviews mods that are executables
After about two weekends, I walked away with a much wider knowledge base on decompiling, injecting, inspecting, and modifying code.
The full tool can be found here:
Windrose Equipment Slots Patcher
Windrose Equipment Slots Patcher (WEPS) the backbone for these mods. It's a single tool that allows you to patch your existing character with additional slots- anything from ring and necklace slots to an additional glove slot.
Repository: https://github.com/DeveloperBlue/windrose-equipment-slots-patcher
What's Still In the Queue?
You may be excited to hear about what else is in progress:
10 Hotbar Action Slots
10 Hotbar Action Slots is another slot modification mod that expands your hotbar from 8 items to 10 (or 12).
The functionality is actually done- additional slots are rendered, they can be interacted with, and keybinds event work (9, 10, Minus, and Plus). All the slots fit on one row, and work well with other UI adjustment mods (scaling, moving, etc.)
The only thing preventing this mod from going to release soon is a visual bug. I am currently unable to get the keybind tooltips to render correctly. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's a certain level of polish I'm hoping to solve this week before putting it out there.
And if I can't solve it, rest assured I will still release it in one form or another- maybe as a beta v0.9.0 release.
Shipward Bound
Shipward Bound is a potion similar to Homeward Journey that allows you to teleport directly to your flagship.
It was inspired by the Player Respawn on Ship mod by RogueTomatoMDEV.
The concept is very similar to Homeward Journey, a drink that teleports you back to your last spawn location (home). It aspires to be craftable from the alchemy table and fit right into vanilla.
Just don't drink one if your flagship is at the bottom of the ocean...
This mod was the longest and most difficult to create. It involves unpacking assets, modifying them, and repacking them using a variety of tools.
Injecting into the alchemy table was the next biggest issue. I'm very strict about not wanting to overwrite .pak files-- it would solve a lot of my problems, but it would conflict with any other mods that try to do the same.
If it's not something I can solve in a short amount of time, I may release it anyway as a .pak and include instructions for users on how to "merge" incompatible mods themselves.
Nexus Mods
More Ring and Necklace Slots - https://www.nexusmods.com/windrose/mods/472
Double Glove Slots - https://www.nexusmods.com/windrose/mods/473
You can expect these mods to be released within the week, as I wait for approval from Nexus.
These mods were a fun weekend project, it was nice to take a break from stricter projects and mess with some game files again.
If you made any interesting builds using any of these mods, I would love to see them. Send some build shots over to [email protected].
If you enjoyed some of these mods and want to see more, consider contributing to my BuyMeACoffe. https://buymeacoffee.com/michaelrooplall
Stay tuned.
Michael
