Help with editing an existing mods dbr files using Asset Manager

Grim Dawn Modding - Tutorials and Help
1

Hello,

I’m using Dawn of Masteries(Dawn of Masteries at Grim Dawn Nexus - Mods and Community), and I’m trying to change the amount of skill points I get per level. I figured the easiest way to test whether I was doing it correctly was to change the amount of skill points I got my first level up then run through a quick game to see if it worked correctly.

After changing the value in playerlevs.dbr, I hit build and everything seemed to be going fine. A prompt appeared asking me if I wanted to delete an unassociated file. I hit No to All, and it continued the process. I did notice that the Asset Manager was still removing lots of files anyways even after I said no.

Once I opened the game, I realized that it was completely unplayable. The inventory wasn’t functional and after I got to level two, I discovered the skills menu was also not working. After I uninstalled and reinstalled the mod, I loaded it again with the same character. This time, the mod was working perfectly fine to my knowledge, and I did see that I had a different amount of skill up points compared to the usual three.

I’m a completely novice modder, but it feels to me like I edited playerlevels.dbr correctly, but due to the Asset Manager deleting “unassociated” files, the game wasn’t functional. I was wondering if there was any way to force the Asset Manager to never delete files or if I did anything wrong?

2

No idea, but what you would need to do in this particular case is keep the original .arc files and only use the .arz AM builds.

For that to be built correctly, you will need the expanded skilltree template (available on the DoM Nexus page). Place it with the vanilla templates, not in the mod dir

3

I sort of understand what you mean but not really. I’m extremely confused on what to do. my general idea of what to do would be to extract dom.arz, insert playerlevels.dbr/make my changes, then repackage the whole thing using Asset Manager correct?

I’n hitting a snag in that I don’t know how to extract dom.arz. I’ve tried reading the forum tutorial on it, but I don’t have any prior knowledge in CS and I can’t really what the process is.

4

Basically correct, but simply not deleting anything from the arz should work too.

Too extract arz (and arc), use archivetool

5

Okay got it. That’s where my issue currently is though, I don’t know how to use archive tool even after I’ve tried reading the forum tutorial on it.

6

You can use Asset Manager to unpack too: Question about extracting resource arc files

7

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I used AM, selected the DoM folder, then extracted it to my new mod folder, then inserted in the changed .dbr file. When I hit compile this is what happens. I did try to download the templates folder and place it in templates section, but this didn’t change anything.
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This is what my current extracted tempaltes folder looks like so I believe I extracted it properly.

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8

Did you put the templates here (I think this is the directory for DoM’s templated that Mamba meant):
Grim Dawn\working\database\templates

This might be not be the proper advice and not needed (first check the above) (some experienced modder please correct me in that case) but how are your AM options now when trying to compile after unpacking while having a proper Attempt1 folder with DoM unpacked and templates there?

If you changed them somehow to unpack DoM, I’d try to revert them back to standard ones from here: [Script][Basics]Modding Beginner's Guide I - #2 by Elfe

Also by Compile do you mean Build? Did you select the mod in Mod → Select → Attempt1 in Asset Manager?

9

Did you put the templates here (I think this is the directory for DoM’s templated that Mamba meant):
Grim Dawn\working\database\templates

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I’m going to try and do a fresh attempt from the top. I’m starting off by extracting DoM using the asset manager and setting my working directory to my mod, Attempt1.

At the end the status bar says failure to open template archives for the Grim Dawn expansions, which is showing I think because I’ve entered the additional browse/source directories and put the file locations of my expansions there. I don’t think this is impacts anything but wanted to mention it just in case.

After that I’m changing my working directory out from Attempt1 back to Working, then extracting the game files there. Then I’m selecting None underneath Mod so that I can make changes to the vanilla game.

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I don’t think I need to touch any of the contents my mod Attempt1, since I’m not changing anything about the DoM in there, just the amount of skill points I get per level.

This next part is where I’m currently stuck at. My intuition is to copy the contents of Downloads\Templates-82-1-0-1584897467\templates, then paste them into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\Working\database\templates and hit replace for every file, but I’m not sure how to proceed and don’t want to accidentally do something wrong.

I believe I’ve done everything correctly so far on this latest attempt, and once I figure out how to put the templates files in it should be working.

10

Hmmm… not sure if I fully get your method (I haven’t done it in this particular way) but if you don’t want to change DoM’s files / add files to it (attempt1) then what’s the point of unpacking it, rebuilding it (with the help of downloaded templates), just download the packed mod and run it in a standard way on top of your hard-modification to playerlevel (which can be done in various ways). If DoM does contain this playerlevel file though (I assume it does not) then it will overwrite it.

If on the other hand you want playerlevel changes to be contained just in your attempt1 mod (and not in standard game) then you need to make all changes in working/mods/attempt1 and rebuild it.

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11

Yeah you’re right this is what I’m going to do. Would I just change playerlevel inside of the asset manager then hit build?

12

I will tell you a method I use that I use that’s the cleanest I think and actually doesn’t require you to change game’s files (which is handy because then they are not overwritten when the game’s updated).

  • now you copy or move mod_name.arz that you just built (from Grim Dawn\mods\mod_name\database)

    • but rename it to database.arz

    • put it in Grim Dawn\mods

      • so basically copy two levels higher and with a name change to database.arz

  • make a shortcut to Grim Dawn .exe you’re using (can be put wherever you want), this can be:

    • 64 bit Grim Dawn from Grim Dawn\x64\Grim Dawn.exe

    • Grim Internals from Grim Dawn\GrimInternals64.exe

    • 32 bit Grim Dawn from Grim Dawn\Grim Dawn.exe

  • add /basemods (preceded with one space) as argument to the shortcut:
    lazy_launch

  • you can optionally rename this shortcut so that you know it launches Grim Dawn with your playerlevel modification

  • now you launch the game from the shortcut

    • it will have your player_level changed

    and select DoM custom game (standard unmodified DoM copied to Grim Dawn/mods folder)

and that’s how how you can run DoM on top of your playerlevel change without hard-modding game’s files and having to rebuild DoM

(of course won’t work if DoM has playerlevel file overwriting your change which is probably not the case)

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13

if you only need 1 file changed, then import your playerlevel file, make the changes.
Then in Asset manager, right click on the file and select build. Dont have to have the rest of the files extracted even

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14

This worked perfectly! Thank you so much for your help and your time.

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