Syn, hey mate. I’ll try to answer you as best as I can.
In regards to the question of if you should play the ‘vanilla’ game first and complete that journey or start off with the Grimmer and Grimmest, well… I’d say you’re most likely gonna have a hard time going through everything Grim Dawn has to offer if you play with the mod as your first experience. The mod is made for masochists. A gorgeous experience, extremely enjoyable as well, but without a prior deep understanding of the encounters, you’re gonna have a hard time getting through. Also the leveling speed/curve is inflated with the mod, so you will most likely end up almost hitting 85 on normal/veteran already.
Jiaco is probably the best recipient of that question, but I’ll go on and answer anyways. v0.5 is the latest version he released just a couple of days ago and when there’s a new version, you’re most likely gonna need to not only overwrite the mod files, but perhaps even delete them first. This will not wipe your progress though. You can even play the same character in both ‘vanilla’ and the mod if you follow my instructions here (shameless plug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZM1pji35s).
The mod is imbalanced, intentionally so. It does not affect the core mechanics of the game, does not add new content and does not in any way affect the individual power of classes. It does skew the deadliness of the encounters you will experience though and that’s where the imbalance is stemming from. It is also more rewarding, because by the shear fact of having to fight that many more elites and bosses, you will level faster and through that obtain more loot.
Hope that helped, mate. If you need any other information, feel free to hit me up if you can catch me live on Twitch.
Thank you so much for providing that information, Zeranamu & Depravities! Essentially, I was really looking for confirmation because I play Grim Dawn as a single - pass experience. Meaning that, at least to date, I do not reload a new game session. I explore every inch of the game world, kill every mob I encounter, but I do not farm areas. I try to experience the game as naturally and progressively as possible.
As a result of this, I only allow myself to exit a game session once I reach a Rift Portal that only has new content in front of it. Luckily for me, I have just reached one in the form of the Underground Transit Rift Portal on the way to the Warden.
Jiaco, if you could please confirm whether, when updating from one version of the mod to the newest, that the files can simply be overwritten or, in fact, do need to be totally deleted first?
I think I will begin Grimmer, Grimmest tonight to see what it is like. Most likely, I will love it and continue on with a brand new character, totally leaving behind this Vanilla LVL 19. I just wanted to know whether it would really enhance the enjoyment of the game as a whole without detracting too much from the original integrity.
It seems Rick Grimes will rise again! (For like the 5th or 6th time, now :rolleyes:)
@Syn et al…I will keep naming the mod the same in order to keep toons compatible with newer versions.
Playing the Necro version last night with 4 skeles and the mod in the merged form is not very hard…not sure if due to mastery of Necro or issue during merge.
Maybe it just because the NEC is imbalance now.
NEC（NCFF） still need tons of balancing fix.
and I’m glad to get our works merged together to provide more fun in further version, if you agree:p
keep in touch:)
BTW : would you mind that if I release the merged version or individual grimmest mod at Chinese GD community? (Of course with credit and a Link to here:p)
Try it on ultimate and tell me if you feel the same.
I understand it feels easier on normal, elite levels, but without actual gear for the mod, it would make ultimate impossible if it was tuned down properly.
Next time I get the chance, I will post about how to include grimmest in other mods. It seems that I need to just open source the proxies and the pools and leave it up to other modders to make available a grimmest version.
But to answer your question, yes, use it as you like. But you might wait until the next version with a modified boss spawn count. There are a few adjustments coming by the end of the weekend.
Jiaco, this is Mamba’s response to the above question of mine. Could you just confirm if Mamba’s step by step is going to work so that I can use GD Stash for the stash management feature for characters created in Grimmer, Grimmest.
I hope I explained my request correctly. Thanks, bud!
Cannot help you. Not twinking at all in Grimmest. Do not even have my BS-recipes. Did you check out the link in the OP. Depravities has posted a video about this kind of stuff iirc.
one quick help would be to confirm that you changed no items / added no items / removed no items (whichever of these are true, I assume all 3 are) in which case he has to jump through no hoops to import the mod database.arz and can just use the vanilla one
Thank you to both of you for continuing the break down of this discussion topic.
Mamba, as a result of Jiaco’s confirmation, can you detail what steps I must take in order for the second instance of GD Stash to work correctly?
If this is simply a different way of asking a question I have previously - I apologise. I am really not very confident when it comes to tasks like these and I really want to get it right the first time.
set it up exactly like you did for the vanilla game, ie import the vanilla database.arz, as that will be the easiest.
The one change is the dir you spacify for the save file, for vanilla it is my documents/my games/Grim Dawn/save this time it will be the subdir in which the mod stash is, not sure is save/grimmmest or save/user/grimmest, but that should be easy to figure out
For loading modded chars, see the discussion in my thread
in which case he has to jump through no hoops to import the mod database.arz and can just use the vanilla one