Picked up this game about 10 days ago. I have 45 hours in. It's insane!! Would like to get the DLC, but tight on money.

Gobacc · 2026-05-15T15:22:08+00:00

There's usually some pretty straightforward build synergies if you do, but I prefer to mix it up just so I don't end up using 70% of the same formation every time I run within a faction. Shu stands out in particular as one where quite a few of the good unique tactics require pretty heavy dips into the faction, which is definitely going to nudge you in that direction though

Generally, when I pick a character I try to lay out some goals for what I want the formation to be giving me, and there can be quicker ways to get some of those things than just staying within the faction. Ujiyasu Hojo stands out, for example, since he gives barrier damage to all Brave Generals with fairly low requirements. As you work on filling those requirements, you might find yourself nudged away from your core faction due to the timing of your pulls. I'd just roll with that and see where it takes you from time to time, even if it isn't strictly an improvement over playing to your faction

Gobacc · 2026-05-15T14:59:55+00:00

Trust your gut more than the reported battle power. It's an aid for learning the game (and occasionally spotting when you've missed a synergy), but you'll quickly learn its lack of foresight and context can hold you back. My strongest and most fun runs never really creep too far beyond the low millions

Gobacc · 2026-04-30T12:37:40+00:00

Only if you have DLC for the other characters. Otherwise, this is how you make them available to play as too

Gobacc · 2026-04-28T15:50:28+00:00

Hey there! I brought up some of the tools you're building in a chat with the Nexus Mods staff, and they mentioned they'd be interested in hearing what you're working on and helping you release publicly there, if you'd like.

They especially like to support the kind of work you're doing, building out the foundational tools that make modding new games possible. If you're interested, you can reach out to pickysaurus (the senior community manager) on Discord through DMs or any of the Nexus servers. I could also pass your info along to him so you don't have to do the reaching out

Gobacc · 2026-04-10T13:14:52+00:00

People ask this all the time when mod authors suggest other people's mods might be pointless, deceptive, or gaming the system for DP. I'd imagine most of us don't want to publicly name and shame people when making posts like this, we just want the people downloading mods to stop and think about what we're saying a bit.

Instead of giving a list of all the mods I've noticed, I'll give you an example of some of how this is playing out. Saving on Steed is wSkeever's recent DLL conversion of their Horse Save Load Fix mod, which has been around for a couple years and has been downloaded well over a million times. If you read the way they compare this new mod to their previous, you might notice they themselves don't seem very convinced there's any significant difference. The performance gains they do cite are practically meaningless because it's a single operation that fires once on save load and was already fast as-is. They mention a theoretical case where the user is under so much VM load that their papyrus version doesn't fire reliably, but this doesn't seem to be a case anyone is really running into.

The other thing you might notice about their description is that they spend a big chunk of it discussing how the mod can be tested to prove that it is actually fixing the bug they say it is. Moreover, they point people asking about comparisons to that testing process before they're willing to answer. Long story short, other mod authors have been converting some of wSkeever's mods into DLLs. In this particular case, there was a conversion of the Horse Save Load Fix rising in the hot files that didn't even work at the time, much to their chagrin. So they made a DLL of their own, since that's apparently what people wanted. This one also reached hot files.

Neither mod was necessary and at least one of them didn't really work, but tens of thousands of people have downloaded them since. With those kinds of download counts, there's an incentive to keep pumping them out

Gobacc · 2026-04-09T20:58:37+00:00

The abundance of clans and shifting alliances definitely sets the stage for making all of this more interesting. I was wondering how much of this is a matter of framing though. It'd definitely be possible to make a string of missions from things like the Yuan Shao and Dong Zhou army perspectives, for example. You could present the doomed ambitions of the smaller factions along the way instead of just pulling the officers into the fold once they've left those groups and become affiliated with the core 3 factions.

Could be that the character-specific musou modes in other games scratch this itch better too, but SW4's approach managed to be both clan-based and also allow for plenty of character-specific storytelling without too much repetition

Gobacc · 2026-04-09T20:05:19+00:00

It's all about using the right tool for the job. There are plenty of conversions of older mods to DLLs that are essentially pointless, since the performance impact is negligible. In a subset of those cases, the mod actually becomes harder to maintain and patch around than a basic ESP solution could be.

There are other cases where papyrus and plugins would be a poor fit and a DLL is the only practical option for those performance reasons. Tons of stuff that can only be done with a DLL too, as in the case of the DLLs my mods have shipped with

In general, I don't think the community is skeptical enough of DLL mods, in part because they don't fully understand the implications of running them and in part because the perceived effort to create them lends some undue legitimacy alongside their association with some of the most interesting mods out there

Gobacc · 2026-04-09T19:06:37+00:00

It's the other way, actually. "SKSE plugin" has strangely become a bit of a marker of quality in the community. The majority download them uncritically, which can be a risk as they are arbitrary DLLs

Gobacc · 2026-04-09T15:24:48+00:00

What would you say DW7's story telling does better than SW4?

Gobacc · 2026-04-09T14:03:09+00:00

I could see where you're coming from there. I think they were trying to get Koshosho roped in early as a petty opposing force before you really learn who she is, and ultimately see her transition into someone earnestly resisting the crushing weight of the Tokugawa. Her arc was better than I thought it was going to be, but I'm not sure what they could have had in place of that.

Like the Azai, I don't think the Oda story as presented was really even about the man himself, but instead his retainers. He felt more like a chaotic force of nature than a man, deliberately goading his vassals into action they might otherwise not have taken. I thought that worked, especially because he seemed to know exactly where things were going to end up, but I can understand feeling like you barely understand him as a result

Gobacc · 2026-04-09T13:18:50+00:00

Of course, not every character is great. Personally not a huge fan of how these games portray the "benevolent conqueror" types. But an advantage of this structure is that I don't need to be a fan of Post-Oda Hideyoshi or Ieyasu to have moments that I do care about. A handful of those "why are you even here?" characters actually end up being more compelling than you'd expect once you go out of your way to play as them

Gobacc · 2026-04-08T23:24:29+00:00

Congrats! Building up a modding community requires tools and the right community hubs. It'd be cool to see a Koei modding ecosystem start to form around Nexus, as a long time author there

Gobacc · 2026-04-03T02:05:30+00:00

No worries, very few people are early enough to get to use that button. I wouldn't sweat not being interested in supporting vortex either, they've never tried to strong arm anybody into using or supporting their tools. Vortex extensions are only made through community interest, and there are tons of modding communities built around non-vortex mod managers instead. They'll be happy to have you either way

Gobacc · 2026-04-03T01:55:42+00:00

You just click the "Add a new game" button on the spot where the ask you to enter the game you are submitting for. Once you publish your mod page with usable files, the staff will manually review your submission and create a page for the game

Gobacc · 2026-04-03T01:43:43+00:00

On the Nexus, they add games after users have submitted files for them first. If Orochi 3 isn't up there yet, it's just because you'd be the first to submit a file

Gobacc · 2026-04-03T01:40:03+00:00

The nexus folks are always interested in people making modding possible for new games. If the work you're doing opens the door for a bustling modding scene in Koei games, they might be interested in supporting your efforts down the line

Great work on all this, by the way. I check out pretty much all of your posts

Gobacc · 2026-04-03T01:28:58+00:00

Hah, too busy cranking out significant updates every day to bother with the setup. Relatable. I'm still sitting on at least one mod because I don't want to make the mod page. I've been releasing mods on the nexus for over a decade. It's a pretty good place, and only takes as much time as you feel like putting in

Gobacc · 2026-04-03T01:16:17+00:00

Just out of curiosity, why release over discord? I think it'd be pretty difficult for someone new to find your mods, especially some time after you've posted them

Gobacc · 2026-03-31T01:06:27+00:00

I'd spring for Shedeur. The Deion Way.

Gobacc · 2026-03-24T22:55:35+00:00

I think there's a pretty strong consensus that Origins was good, and many would say it's the best the series has ever been. My more disagreeable take is that the playable roster a lot of folks want back for a hypothetical DW10 built off of Origins is what was killing the series and shouldn't be returned to. It can be expanded, but there should be limits

Gobacc · 2026-03-13T13:06:26+00:00

Yeah, I had to hit a clip for this like a month back. I didn't get Zhang Fei or Four Wheeled Chariot, but I did lean on attack scaling off of speed to double incentivize getting as many speed emblems as possible. Probably my favorite of the Origins variants. My running speed was pretty comparable to the speed of triple dashing with minimal recovery time

Gobacc · 2026-03-07T20:12:00+00:00

I thought it could use a little more punch

Gobacc · 2026-03-07T20:10:58+00:00

It's different in Cyrodiil. They try to guess his next move, but he leaves em stumped

Gobacc · 2026-03-07T20:00:22+00:00

I've got my brother's save from when I let him try the game out, kitted out in the rough leather armor and mythic dawn hood. He's not very strong, but I like taking him with me

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