I think you could also take a big hacky shortcut and just crack open my mod with the pak extractor, remove everything that ISN'T the AI files, and adjust the ... meta files (the files that tell the mod what it's name is and stuff) so that it thinks it's a slightly different mod instead of thinking it's the original mod. But that may not be a shortcut if you can't figure it out, and I remember it being a little puzzling in itself.

And it wouldn't let you release your mod on the Steam workshop or easily share with friends.

Your resulting .pak mod file should resemble the Shared.pak file, probably. It should definitely resemble my own mod file, so you can reference that for folder structure, compare it to the folder structure you've ended up with in your exported .pak file, and adjust things accordingly if things aren't right. It's probably easier than I'm making it sound.

And if you figure it out you'll feel really empowered and smart. I guarantee it.

3. Create the right folder structure in the right part of the mod's folder so that your replacement files end up in the right place. (I mention in the Reddit post I linked below that the AI Archetype files should ultimately end up in Public\Shared\AI\Archetypes, and that they're in that subfolder in the Shared.pak game file.)

4. Get the original Archetype files from the Shared.pak file (using the pak extractor I mention in the reddit thread), modify them however you want to, put them in your mod folder, and export (or whatever the term is) the mod from the editor.

I think something you'll have to do will be along the lines of:
1. Make a mod in the editor but don't actually modify anything from the editor.

2. Find where the mod's folder is. (All the mod's files end up arranged in folders that mirror the file structure of the game, so that any changed files can easily replace the original game files.) Per this thread, it's probably Data/Public/MODNAME. Or maybe Data/Mods/MODNAME. "Data" may be in the game's install location. Probably.

Maybe the AI files are some of the things alluded to on this page [docs.larian.game] that aren't accessible from the editor. I'm sitting here scratching my head a little trying to remember if there was secretly anything counter-intuitive that you might run into as a roadblock, in trying to make what should in theory be a relatively simple file replacement mod of some relatively simple text files (the AI archetype files).

For you, the challenge is making sense of basic usage of the mod tools (which I think are the "Divinity Engine 2 Data" DLC), and finding the AI files. I actually guess I made a Reddit post that included a mention of where those files are, a while back. It may be possible to open them from inside the main modding tool (Divinity 2 engine or whatever) instead of using a pak extractor to crack them open, or maybe it isn't?? I don't remember now.

It depends how determined (and fundamentally computer-literate) you are :p

The reasons I said it's a hassle for me are
1. Needing to install the game, and the game's mod tools, again.
2. Needing to remember (or re-search) where to look to find the AI files that can be changed.
3. Probably needing to remember fundamentals of how to use the mod tools. Which DO make modding easier than a lot of other modding for other games, but are still fundamentally a challenge to learn to use.

And as I've already said, it's a considerable hassle to make adjustments to the AI and then contrive scenarios in-game (or in the mod tools) to test and see if the desired changes are actually happening. It's just time-consuming.

Ok fair enough.

Yes I know why the devs dumbed it down, I actually had several e-mail back and forth with them in regards to this topic. And yes you correct, they did not want the AI to be smart like humans because of how difficult the game would then be.

Which bloody sux, because now the difficulty is the opposite for me!

Ok, so if you are saying its a hassle does that mean its going to be hard for me to try and mod this aspect myself if I make an attempt later tonight. I have 0 experience in modding :)

iirc there's an article/interview somewhere online with the devs where they mention that the "smarter" AI was basically too depressing for players, what with it pragmatically murdering the ♥♥♥♥ out of them. The AI in the released version of the game seems more tuned for "drama" than effectiveness. e.g. it behaves more like a bunch of individual kinda-dumb people instead of a single coordinated murder-brain.

I'm not gonna release the AI part as a standalone, because
1. it's a hassle, and
2. I never tested it thoroughly enough to figure out if it's actually Good, quality-wise.

and if possible, could you release this standalone mod that improves AI? lol

ok thanks for the quick reply.

I may try testing the modding my self then. I really hate how the enemies do not gang up on one character in vanilla, because it is a very effective strategy to use. Why do the devs purposely dumb the AI down lol?

It's a rrrrrrrelatively not-terribly-hard game to mod, from what I can tell (I mean it basically has free developer tools made by the devs for modding it), so... I'd uselessly encourage you to try making the AI-only mod you want on your own. :p The AI tweaking was iirc some of the last stuff I worked on in this mod and once I figured out where the files were it wasn't a ton of work to change them.

It's just hard to tell exactly what effects your changes have. That's the tedious part.

I haven't thought about this mod in a while, but from what I remember of working on it, the AI is programmed in such a way that you can relatively easily adjust how much "value" it puts into various (pre-defined) choices.

For example, the default AI puts LESS weight on attacking a target that's already under attack, so they prefer NOT to gang up. I adjusted the numbers to try to fix this towards ganging up. Then I lost interest in Divinity: Original Sin 2 too quickly to bother with thorough testing.

is it possible to have a version with only this aspect of the mod:

Smarter, more ruthless AI!
That's the only part of this mod I want to use. And has anyone actually tested this?

Are enemies actually smarter?
Do they use more powerful spells more often, like knowckdown, battering ram, teleport, chicken claw etc?
Do they focus fire?

aaha yea the Ai really need to be design to like more ground fetish instead of suicidal ones, i actually break up the .txt document for their Ai behavior but it's confusing atm *can't decide which to focus on, anyway the current modified AI of yours is good enuf thanks m8

P.s Just left whereas Mage's preference to cast Aoe / Modify it to use self-teleport to get to the ideal location, or target the nearest enemies first something along that. "That could perhaps be fixed by increasing their preference for avoiding damage" that could work!

(the main reason it's hard to fix the AI all-at-once is that it's hard to tell what exactly some of the preference/priority values apply to, and it's hard to tell what number values will have what kind of effect, since the way the numbers are multiplied and calculated is different between some of them. So it's easy to change but takes a lot of testing to confirm/evaluate.)

One could also modify all the mages in the game to make sure that they all have many self-teleports so that they'd always have the option of self-teleporting to good locations instead of walking. :P

And actually since you mentioned "getting to the highest ground", if I recall correctly one of the variable preferences IS preference-for-high-ground.

And all the preference files are divided into different character "archetypes", so you could pretty easily make it so all the Mages in the game have an enormous, unreasonable high-ground fetish.

ahaha, I actually got bored of Absolver too by this point. Currently playing Overwatch and Artifact (the new Valve card game that everyone rips for its monetization system.)

Something to understand about the AI in this game is they're designed with a list of "things to prioritize" and strengths to each priority, all defined in text documents. And all I did was change the prioritization values, because it seemed that the AI had been designed to be able to be a lot smarter, but the devs deliberately made the AI act dumber because it was depressing for players to not be able to feel smarter than the AI. (I remember reading a quote in an article that suggested as much.)

So for this mod I never did get into coding entirely new behaviors. Just moved numbers around.

As an example, where you said Mages with AOE will take a lot of damage to deal a lot of damage: That could perhaps be fixed by increasing their preference for avoiding damage, or decreasing their preference for dealing damage.

Maybe you can code em to get to the highest ground and stay there as long as possible or use more movement skills to get to their target. That's just what the AI lack most.

ps. tired absolver but the non-existence anticheat made it unplayable for a multplayer game...

Yea! Its partially succeeded.

Archer tends to stay away and fire instead of walking into your character's face

But Mage that has AoE abilites such as Blinding Radiance or Flaming Tounges will still walk thru all these flag of Atk of Opportunity to get to the centre of the enemies mass for a maximum AoE dmg, which mostly get their health havled.

Maybe it's possible to write 'em to use more Jump or Teleportion abilities to get their target or themselves to a ideal position instead of Walking thru the crowd.

Or up thier awareness against possible dmg when making a move
haha thanks for the mod anyway!

Which is part of the reason why I don't wanna split it into a separate mod: I'm not even sure if the AI portion works , really.

(The other part of the reason is just that it's a hassle to split it into a separate mod and I have 0 enthusiasm.)

Oho, did that succeed? The attempts-to-improve-the-AI were some of the last things I did in this mod before I suddenly got super bored of the game in general, so I only tested the adjustments a little.

Thanks! Ai doesnt seem to mindlessly walk inbwt atk of opportune often now

Could you do a standalone mod that improves AI?

thanks for the response!

@Makeshift
ah, yeah, I ended up changing Sucker Punch to be a throwing dagger skill (and I even changed the animations and properties to make it very distinct from the Scoundrel throwing dagger which is now "Void Dagger"). To really know what the current state of the mod is you gotta read through the change notes.

as for splitting it up: 2lazy, this was/is basically just a big sprawling public experiment, birthed of my own dissatisfaction with some existing mods, and my realization that modding this game isn't all that hard (although it did get a bit thorny at times). Right now I'm kind of hugely bored of D:OS 2 tho so if someone wants something else from this mod they oughta crack it open themselves, like I did when I wanted something else from a mod.

p.s. i know this really isn't the venue for this advertisement, but: Absolver is a really sweet game if you like fighting, and thinking, and thinking about fighting.

"All In, Sucker Punch, and Flurry were changed to be more distinct, and useful!" is the mod working correctly? cause i have throwing dagger as the skill for all one handed weapons even axes and swords.

also have you considered breaking your mod up into multple mods? i like some of this but some of it i'd like not to change.

Yes, I also want a separate mod for just AI! Can we have it, please? ^_^

hmm, I may split the AI component off then and release it as Unfinished/Experimental AI Tweaks or something

From what i've played this mod, it makes the AI smarter, and although i don't think its 100% complete, i really don't like the other changes that it comes up with, i would much rather have them as individual mods, specially the AI component, i'd do it myself but i don't have the time, patience nor experience.

setting up* a mod

I answered that below.
"Eventually probably. I don't think the AI buff has quite succeeded at this point... this whole mod is kind of just one sort of sprawling experiment to make what changes I want to the game, so it's kind of a testing ground for various concepts including the AI buff, which, if I get it right, I'll probably release as a separate mod."

Right now, my interest in D:OS2 as a whole has kind of withered, though. But I did make this post explaining a bit about how to mod the AI, if anyone else wants to try. It's really not that difficult. You just gotta learn the basics of setting a mod, and then you just gotta adjust some pre-existing numbers that affect "what the AI considers a valuable action."

https://old.reddit.com/r/DivinityOriginalSin/comments/9g7akg/psa_the_ai_is_deliberately_inefficient_and_its/?st=jmkwsgi8&sh=3e2c8691

Could you do a standalone mod that improves AI?

👌 thanks 😁😁

(Warfare increases ALL physical damage, even intelligence-based physical damage. Like Necromancer damage in the unmodded game.)

@Geake get Warfare. For example, a guy with Geo or Hydro 2, high Intelligence, high Warfare, and a "water" (now Physical) staff can have a grand old time dealing high physical damage with both warfare skills AND geo/hydro ranged attacks.

Skill ground and water They can't cause additional damage because he is physical damage... Must rely on intelligence

Wouldn't it be better if most of the aspects of the mod were individual mods? There are certain new mechanics i love and others that i don't like.

另一个被禁用的有趣功能是......

“战争”增加了对物理装甲的伤害，而不是所有物理伤害。

（而Aerotheurge会增加对魔法护甲的伤害。）

有趣的想法。 但是，我不能轻易创建它。 力量=护甲在游戏中实施但禁用。 我启用了它们。

我可以看一下“ATTRIBUTE INSANITY”mod来学习如何进行更复杂的更改。 但是，我不喜欢mod如何以不适用于NPC的方式更改玩家角色。 我不知道这是否是故意的，或者创作者无法使某些效果对每个人都有效。

无论如何，我不确定我是否认为这些变化是好的。

另外，我忙于其他事情。

（对不起，如果这很难理解。）

兄弟，1记忆加1%命中，1烈焰+5%火焰抗性，1寒冰+5冰霜抗性 以此类推怎么样？

That's fair, and thanks for the reply. I'll happily pick up that mod when you feel it's ready.

Eventually probably. I don't think the AI buff has quite succeeded at this point... this whole mod is kind of just one sort of sprawling experiment to make what changes I want to the game, so it's kind of a testing ground for various concepts including the AI buff, which, if I get it right, I'll probably release as a separate mod.

Is there any way to get the AI buff as a standalone mod? I am very interested in the difficulty increase, but not the combat revamp.

减少躲闪

此外，如果“Malady”（旋律）仍然难以营救，请告诉我。

只是为了澄清，你想要哪一个？：

更躲闪。

减少躲闪。

翻译很糟糕所以我不知道我是否理解你的评论。

可以小老弟 来中国玩我请你大保健

我希望能稍微提高一些血量和护甲的加成，然后降低一点闪避会更好！

@按摩侠

我增加了旋律的健康并降低了敏捷的闪避加值。

（我正在使用谷歌翻译。对不起，如果这很难读。）

@everyone else, another update. Check them change notes. Changed some stuff. Most significantly, I hopefully changed the Defend Malady scene plausible instead of wildly impossible. Hopefully didn't make it too easy, though.