by theygamesIt’s been a bit of a wait, but official mod support for Darkest Dungeon 2 is about to arrive – although it’ll be coming piece by piece rather than as a complete suite. Developer Red Hook Studios says it’s rolling out the initial components of its mod support next month, with more to follow over the course of the year.
Red Hook says that the new engine it used for Darkest Dungeon 2 has made adding modding and mod support more complicated endeavors compared to the original Darkest Dungeon, an RPG game with a vibrant and thriving mod scene. Given Red Hook’s interest in keeping that going in Darkest Dungeon 2, as well as the studio’s plans for console launches and the Kingdoms DLC, the developers felt it would be better to get some tools into modders’ hands early and build on that foundation over time.
“Our plan is therefore to release mod support in incremental stages, with each update building upon the last,” the studio explains. “We believe getting access to some modding capabilities sooner is better than waiting for a fully finished modding experience that would take significantly longer to deliver.”
So what’s in the first wave of mod tools? Red Hook says that when the first modding update launches, which should be before the end of June, it’ll include “the initial mod loading/overwriting logic” and integration with the Steam Workshop. With those tools, modders will be able to edit any of the game’s exposed .csv files, which include values for just about everything that happens in the game (think damage values, modifiers, stats, or anything else that needs a numerical value to work).
Red Hook says you’ll be able to create new items “from scratch,” and define new hero palettes. Looking forward, the studio says it eventually wants modders to be able to create custom characters, and that it’s eager to work with the game’s modding community to determine what to prioritize.
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