I’d originally intended to write a weekly series about different builds, a sort of “build of the week” that went into various possibilities for various circumstances. There are, however, already a million sites and threads in forums up about that, not to mention the various sites devoted to character building and theory crafting. While I’m a big subscriber to the “but it’s not been done by me” method of writing, I know my limits and I’m really not sure I have all that much new and interesting to offer in that field. So welcome to my new new weekly series – the TSW addon spotlight!
I love addons. I love tweaking my games just exactly to my likes and tastes, and I usually have tons and tons and tons of addons in the games I play – actually I won’t even consider playing an MMORPG that doesn’t allow addons. I have as much fun customizing my games as I do actually playing them, so I am watching the slowly growing stable of addons for the Secret World with absolute delight. I hope the modding scene for TSW remains vibrant and active!
Today is an ironic day to be starting a series about addons, as this morning’s patch has broken TSW addons. But never fear, several talented modders have found a workaround. Forum posters Belidos and Viper explained what to do – it simply requires editing one line in the affected files, and copying another file to a new location. It seems this patch accidentally caused the game to stop looking for custom files, so moving them into the default file will fix many of them. As is always the case – be very careful when editing anything in default files! If you’re going to try this, make sure you back up everything before you change it. It will also likely require further fiddling once this problem is fixed, so if you’re not comfortable mucking around with game files, you can wait as it will be fixed on Funcom’s side. For those wanting to make sure it’s kosher to attempt, it has been endorsed by a Funcom community manager. But I will note it’s still an unofficial fix, so make sure to back everything up just in case.
I’ve only tested it with one mod – the one I’m about to talk about. Viper’s Deck Manager!
This amazing little addon allows you to create an unlimited number of decks, save them, and load them quickly on the fly. It was one of the first addons created, and it was the first addon I installed. It’s a great improvement to the official gear manager. While the gear manager does allow you to change gear along with your power layouts, it is limited to 8 slots, which seems like a pathetic amount and isn’t nearly enough to fill my build needs.
One of the great things about The Secret World is the ability to completely customize your character build to meet the current situation. I have tons of builds – single target, AoE, healing, soloing, builds for specific zones, fighting specific monsters – I just love creating new layouts, and every time I sit down to play I come up with more. How could I possibly limit myself to 8 builds? With Viper’s amazing deck manager, I don’t have to! It won’t change gear, but I change my gear far less often than I change my abilities, and I personally find the freedom from having to update my builds every time I get a new piece of equipment to be very welcome.
Has anyone else given this addon a try? Are there any mods you find indispensable? I’d love to know!
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A must have to be honest.
Nice write up!
Xbox 360!