FOREWORD:
This review article is not entirely about the official (and free) Musketeer DLC. In addition to remarks on the Musketeer and how it is actually implemented in-game, there will also be remarks about the mods that have been made for Darkest Dungeon.
MUSKETEER:
The Musketeer was initially described as a “re-skin” of the Arbalest; she has practically the same skills and class-specific Trinkets with the same effects as those of the Arbalest. She has a different backstory, different personality and different looks, compared to the Arbalest.
Yet, she is not a mere aesthetic replacement; she is actually a functional class of her own, albeit identical gameplay-wise to the Arbalest. This means that the player would be practically getting another Arbalest into the Stagecoach, and another set of trinkets that would have been useful to the Arbalest but cannot be used by her.
Her official description was later changed to clarify that she is a class of her own, but the description of her being a re-skin was retained, which can cause some confusion and consternation.
THE MODS – INSTALLATION:
The mods that have been made by the fans of the game run the gamut in terms of comprehensibility and user-friendliness, as is typical of things made by fans.
In the Steam version of the game, the mods have to be placed into the “mod” directory of the game, which is simple. For the DRM-free versions of the game on the computer platform, such as the GOG version, having the mods work is not as simple, mainly due to lack of technical support by their creators.
People have stated that the localization processes that make files compatible with the game have to be repeated for the non-Steam versions of Darkest Dungeon. This may or may not work, at least according to my experience.
I do have a work-around for this, but before that, Red Hook Studios’ instructions on mod-making would have to be mentioned. By following their instructions, the player would be making files that are practically similar to the files in the official DLC packages.
I have discovered that the easiest way to install the mod packages in the non-Steam version is to place them in the “DLC” directory instead. This tricks the game into thinking that they are DLC packages, but more importantly, it reliably recognizes the mod packages.
Afterwards, it becomes a matter of checking tickboxes in the list of “DLC” for a playthrough. However, there are some ramifications to consider.
MODS – PERMANENT CHANGES TO A PLAYTHROUGH:
Like the official DLC packages, mods are content modules that the game will fetch data from, and incorporate into the files for a playthrough. This permanently changes the playthrough.
It is not easy to revert a playthrough to what it was before the installation of a mod. The player cannot just uncheck the tickboxes for the mods that have been activated; the game warns the player that it is not possible.
The player could delete the mod packages, and attempt to launch a playthrough. At best, the game warns the player that some content files are missing and anything that is associated with those files are wiped out. For example, if the player deletes the mod for an unofficial adventurer class, any adventurers of that class are gone from the playthrough. Presumably, after the files of the playthrough are updated through the auto-saving feature, the playthrough would forever be free of the mod’s content.
At worst, the playthrough is permanently borked, at least until the mod packages are restored (and they have to be restored with the exact same directory names too).
FILE REPLACEMENTS:
If the player wishes to do things like re-skin characters, the player has to replace the files in the main game directories. The files in turn have to be made using the tools that Red Hook Studios has provided for mod-making; otherwise, the game simply crashes upon launch because it does not recognize files that have not been made with those tools.
In the case of non-Steam versions of the game, the player needs to have backups of the original files just in case something goes wrong. In the case of the Steam version of the game, they can be restored with the verification of game files (though this of course wipes out the unofficial game files).
CODE TWEAKING:
The coding for the game appears to be unencrypted C code. The player can see this by opening the “.darkest” files with any text editor. However, this does not mean that a player that knows this programming language can just change the coding for files; doing so and saving the changes somehow breaks the “.darkest” files, causing the game to fail to recognize them. Again, the player has to use Red Hook’s tools to repackage the files. This can be unpleasant to learn the hard way.
THE KINDS OF MODS TO EXPECT:
Most of the people who made mods for the game based what they do on whatever Red Hook has done, such as the file packages for the DLCs. Most modders do not have the chaps to write code of their own, but there have been a few. Therefore, most of the mods would appear to be remixes of what has already been in the gameplay of Darkest Dungeon up to the time of the creation of the mod.
ARTWORK REPLACEMENTS:
This is by far the easiest mods to make and implement, at least for people with artistic skill but little technical skill. There have been people who are not entirely satisfied with what Red Hook’s artists have done. For example, there had been complaints that the Hamlet does not have many buildings despite being a settlement, so there was a mod that changes the backdrop of the Hamlet. There were complaints that the ladies are too well-clothed, so there were mods for clothing with strategically impractical cuts. These mods are particularly popular on NexusMods.com, which is not a surprise because it is best known for not-safe-for-work fan creations.
GAMEPLAY CHANGES:
There were many things about Darkest Dungeon that aggravate even the most ardent of fans. For example, there is the acquisition of quirks and diseases at the end of quests, successful or otherwise; there were scant few fans who defended this design decision. There are also mods that make the game a bit easier, such as less expensive supply items and more gold drops. There is a mod that enables all abilities for use during combat.
Unfortunately, these are mods that are the most difficult to implement without destabilizing the game. This is because what they attempt to change is already part of the essential code of the game.
ENEMY MODS:
Not many mod-makers are eager to make new kinds of enemies, primarily because what enemies there are, are already quite nasty. Rather, there are mods that gimp existing enemies (or to use the mod-maker’s own words, “balance” them).
HERO MODS – OVERVIEW:
Some mods are replacement files for the gameplay statistics of the existing official classes, while some mods are practically new adventurers. The latter mods are particularly popular among Steam players of this game; they dominate the Workshop pages of the game. The DLC package of the Musketeer, which has long been free, was particularly helpful as a template for these mods, especially in incorporating them into the game.
Some of these unofficial classes are meant to address deficiencies – deliberate or otherwise – in the official roster. For example, there are very few classes that can reduce stress just like the Jester could, so there had been mods that introduce more of these classes. Some of these fill in thematic gaps in the roster, such as the lack of a bow user.
Some of these mods are actually adaptations of enemies, even bosses. For example, the Fanatic from the Crimson Court has been adapted as an actual class, complete with his oversized sprite.
Throughout my experiences with the mods, there are three mod-makers that stand out more than the rest. They will be described in their own sections.
MARVIN SEO’S:
In most mod circles for the game, such as on NexusMods and the Steam Workshop for the game, the adventurers that have been designed by Marvin Seo scored the highest. Having used them, it is easy to see why.
Firstly, Marvin Seo is one of very few mod-makers who have managed to copy the official artstyle well – very convincingly even. Each of this mod-maker’s adventurers even has his/her own backstory comic, made in the style of the official comics for the official adventurers.
Where most other mod-makers simply use sprite swaps of official adventurers so as to save time on making animations, Marvin Seo did not. All of the sprites for this mod-maker’s adventurers appear to be drawn and animated from scratch.
As for their abilities, critics among the fanbase have described them as either being overpowered, or gimped – sometimes for the same adventurer class. For example, the Lamia’s healing and stress-reducing abilities have been described as overpowered, because they remove de-buffs too. At the same time, her human form has been criticized as having next to no offensive capabilities, thus requiring the player to switch to her monstrous form, which inflicts a nasty Horror de-buff on party members.
SHE-PURPLE’S:
She-purple is another mod-maker that has copied the official artstyle well, but with the exception of one, this mod-maker’s adventurer classes are not exactly lore-friendly.
One of the earliest mods by this mod-maker is the Cataphract, the result of a partial collaboration with two other mod-makers that are mentioned in this article; his backstory comic is an obvious indicator of who those are. The Cataphract is loosely based on ancient Mediterranean cultures, and does fit in Darkest Dungeon.
The other two adventurers do not entirely fit in the game. One of them is a gypsy who has a backstory that does fit in the game, but one look at her is enough to figure out two obvious reasons that she does not. The mod-maker’s in-game description for what passes as her “armor” is sarcastic about these. On the other hand, she still has a following, mainly for those two very reasons.
The other ill-fitting adventurer is apparently a rendition of the protagonist from a certain Bethesda game. There are attempts to somehow make him fit into the lore, like giving him a pickelhaube helmet, though these are poor disguises. (The helmet also might not match the facsimile of the real-world time era that is used for the game’s setting.)
She-purple’s mods are few though; apparently, this is because this mod-maker is serious about working on commissions.
MUSCARINE:
If She-purple’s adventurers have been described as not lore-friendly, Muscarine’s are even more so. After all, one of this mod-maker’s earliest mods is a version of Final Fantasy VII’s Tifa Lockhart, given the official artstyle’s treatment as much as possible without diminishing her most obvious visual qualities.
The mod-maker’s later mods are not characters from other game franchises, but they are not exactly more lore-friendly either. In fact, the most positive way to describe them is how characters in the game would look like if someone tries to blend the themes of dark occult Asian horror stories with ecchi fashion tropes and implement the results in Darkest Dungeon.
On the other hand, Muscarine’s adventurers are very heavily-animated, much more so than most, official or otherwise. They may not have a lot of the dark shadows seen in the official artstyle (for obvious artistic whims on their creator’s part), but they have everything else, including the signature shadowed eyes.
EXAELUS:
Exaelus has not learned the official artstyle well, and uses the looks of the official adventurers as templates for their visual designs; many other mod-makers do this too. Fortunately, the complexity and custom-written coding for Exaelus’s adventurers make them stand out.
Most, if not all, of Exaelus’s adventurers, especially the most recent ones, are complicated to use. One of the notable ones is the Prodigy, whose abilities (except the form-shifting one) are guaranteed to move him about the party, making him incompatible with many other adventurers.
On the other hand, if the player has learned how to use them to best effect, they can be very effective – perhaps too effective. For example, there is the Fury, which is another form-shifting adventurer. The Fury has some abilities that can cause Stun or Bleed de-buffs, but all of their chances to do so start at a flat zero. To increase the chances, the Fury has to build them up by using any ability, including the aforementioned abilities.
This seems balanced, at least until the player notices that the chances to cause these de-buffs can go up to 240%, and more if the Fury is equipped with Trinkets that further bolster the chances. This means that the Fury can even Stun or Bleed enemies that are supposed to have resistances that are high enough to outright resist these de-buffs.
CLOSING WORDS:
I could go on and on about the many mods out there for Darkest Dungeon, but I would say that all it takes to notice the hurdles in making mods for this game is to look at the list of the most popular mods for this game on sites like NexusMods and Steam Workshop. Most of them will be adventurer classes, or skin/artwork replacements, because working on any other kind of mod is very complicated.
As for the Musketeer DLC, its bewildering mix of the promise of aesthetic differences and unclarified effect on gameplay is just a taste of the odd ways that Red Hook Studios does things sometimes.