This is the official guide for modding Pirates Outlaws.

1. Subscribe mods you like in steam workshop.
   
2. Launch the game in steam and select “Play Mod Launcher”.
   
3. Select mods that you want to play with.
   
4. Play.
   

First, to mod Pirates Outlaws, you don’t need any skills or tools about coding. What you need are tools for creating art assets and editing excel files. For editing excel files, you need Microsoft Office Excel. For creating art assets, you can use Photoshop or any other software you like.

Put the folder of your mod in “Steam\steamapps\common\Pirates Outlaws\PiratesOutlaws_PC\Mod”.
Important: Your mod needs to be inside 2 layers of folder with the same name as your mod. Because the steam workshop will replace the first layer folder name to be a unique workshop ID.

Execute the tool “lib.exe” in “Steam\steamapps\common\Pirates Outlaws\PiratesOutlaws_PC\lib” and select the folder of your mod to generate txt files based on the excel files (The game program reads txt files instead of excel files). This will cost some time, depending on the amount of excel files in your mod. Also you can copy the content in excel and paste in txt by yourself (Use Ctrl+A in your excel to select all content).
Then start the game in steam, select “Play Mod Launcher” to test your mod. (local) means it’s your local mod, the mod you subscribe from workshop will not have this.

Download the tool “Pirates Outlaws Mod Uploader” in your steam library.
Edit information of your mod in excel file “ModInfo” and put the mod icon in the folder “Image”.
Click “Add” in Uploader, then add the first folder layer of your mod and the image of your mod show in steam workshop. Write the name and description of your mod. Check all of these and set the visibility. You can set the visibility to be “private” and test by yourself, when the mod is ready, you can change the visibility in steam.

Update your mod: select the mod you want to update in the mod list, click “Edit”. Check the content you want to update before you publish.

Here we list what you can mod for Pirates Outlaws and level of their difficulty. You can find more information in their respective guide section. Most things we suggest you add new ones instead of modifying existing ones, this can avoid a lot of conflicts and bugs with the existing game and other mods.

• Skins. Difficulty: easy. New skins can be added.
  
• Cards. Difficulty: normal. New cards can be added.
  
• Relics. Difficulty: normal. New cards can be added.
  
• Packages. Difficulty: normal. New packages can be added.
  
• Upgrades. Difficulty: normal. New upgrades can be added.
  
• Heroes. Difficulty: hard. New heroes can be added.
  
• UI. Difficulty: easy. New UI cannot be added, but existing ones can be modified.
  
• Backgrounds. Difficulty: easy. New backgrounds cannot be added, but existing ones can be modified.
  
• Enemy skins. Difficulty: easy. Existing enemies’ skins can be modified.
  

We have prepared several samples for you, including almost all the categories you can mod. For example, if you want to create a new hero, subscribe our sample mod “official sample _ hero”, copy it and paste, then rename the pasted one. In this way you can easily know all the necessary art assets and excel files for creating a new hero. Then you just need to follow the guide to replace or edit these art assets and excel files to create your new hero.

Rename and replace all the images in the folder “Image”.
Edit all the excel files in the folders “Table” and “Localization”.

Subscribe the mod “Official assets”. We will prepare some existing art assets and excel files in this mod.
You can check these existing excel files to learn how the game designer implemented cards, relics, heroes, and other contents.
And before you edit your excel files to create new contents, you can search similar contents in existing excel files in mod “Official assets”, copy the similar contents to paste into your excel files, then just need to change the ID and several necessary cells in excel.

You can find all the mods you subscribe in “Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\1046300”.

Each content in excel files has its ID, you need to edit the ID with specific rules and keep consistent for all the place using the same ID.
In the mod “Official assets”, all the ID in excel files are numbers. But in the official sample mods, all the ID in excel files are strings, like “ModCharacterID(1)”. This is because these ID need to be unique and the program needs to avoid conflicts among different mods.

Every excel file has its own format and rule for ID.
Here is the list of rules for each ID.

In this section we will introduce some basic mechanics and structure of Pirates Outlaws. This is very important, if you want to mod something more than visual, you have to understand this part. We suggest that you open the excel files “HighAction” and “Card” in the official mod “Official assets” when you read this section.

First, all the effects and functions in battle are implemented by “BaseAction”. For example, “TH_AddAmmo” means reload, “TB_AddHealth” means heal. And “BaseAction” is the most basic unit in this game, you cannot create new “BaseAction” or edit existing ones. What you can do is creating a new “HighAction” to execute these existing “BaseAction” with different parameters, or combining different “BaseAction” to build a more complex “HighAction”. Then execute these “HighAction” in excel files “Cards”, “Relics” or other excel files.

The list of “BaseAction” you can find in the excel file “Reference” in mod “Official assets”.
To execute a HighAction, you need combine its ID with some parameters. For example, this is a cell in the excel “Card”:

The function of this cell is to execute the HighAction “1002”, with some parameters. About HighAction “1002”, you can find it in the excel file “HighAction” in “Official assets”.
In this way, you can check excel files “Card”, “Relics” and “HighAction” in “Official assets” to learn the complete working flow for all the cards and relics.

Format and parameters
From the image you can see that the complete format to execute a HighAction is composed with 8 parts.
“1002,0,1,211,6,null,null,Melee/Melee_Kick”

• Part 1: ID of HighAction
  
• Part 2: Magnitude
  There are two different type of HighAction: instant and continuous. For instant HighAction, this part will be 0. For continuous HighAction, this part will be at least 1. For continuous HighAction, there is a consuming timing which you need to set in the excel file “HighAction”. The magnitude will reduce 1 at the timing, when it becomes 0, the continuous HighAction will be removed.
  
• Part 3: Execution times
  
• Part 4: Target
  For instant HighAction, this part is the target of this HighAction. For continuous HighAction, this part is the target when this continuous HighAction is triggered.
  
• Part 5: Value 1
  In the excel “HighAction”, there is a cell “Determine”. You can put some condition in, if it is true, or there is no condition, the BaseAction1 will be executed, otherwise the BaseAction2 will be executed. And this part is the parameter of the first BaseAction in BaseAction1. If put “null”, it will use the default parameters in the excel file “HighAction”.
  If there are at least 2 parameters, use “!” to separate them.
  
• Part 6: Value 2
  The parameter of the first BaseAction in BaseAction2. If put “null”, it will use the default parameters in the excel file “HighAction”.
  
• Part 7: continuous HighAction owner
  A continuous HighAction needs an owner (like put a buff on a character). This part is the owner of the continuous HighAction. For instant HighAction, you need to put “null” in this part.
  
• Part 8: Name of VFX played when HighAction takes effect.
  In the excel file “HighAction”, each HighAction has a default VFX. If put “null” in this part, it will play the default VFX.

Here are two examples to help you understand this section.
Example 1: “1002,0,1,211,6,null,null,Melee/Melee_Kick”
This is the function of the card “Punch”: “Melee. Deals 6 damage.”

• Part 1: 1002. In the excel file “HighAction” you can find that ID “1002” is “MeleeAttack”.
  
• Part 2: 0. It means this is an instant HighAction.
  
• Part 3: 1. It means this HighAction will take effect 1 time, “Deals 6 damage (1 time).
  
• Part 4: 211. it means the target is the nearest enemy. About the meaning of target, you can find in the excel file “Reference” in the mod “Official Assets”.
  
• Part 5: 6. This HighAction has no “Determine”. The BaseAction1 will take effect. 6 is the parameter of the BaseAction “TB_Damage_Melee”.
  
• Part 6: null. This HighAction has no “Determine”. The BaseAction2 is “null”.
  
• Part 7: null. It is an instant HighAction. So, this part is “null”.
  
• Part 8: Melee/Melee_Kick. In the excel file “HighAction”, you can find that “1002” is using the VFX “Melee/Melee_Straight”. Here the card “Punch” needs to use a different VFX, so put the name of the VFX you want to use, the program will give priority to what you put.

Example 2: “3004,3,1,0,null,null,321”
This is the function of the card “Brawn”: “Skill. Applies Rage x3.”

• Part 1: 3004. In the excel file “HighAction” you can find that ID “3004” is “buff_Rage”.
  
• Part 2: 3. “Rage” is a continuous HighAction. And the consuming timing is “SelfTurnEnd”, so “3” means it will stay 3 turns.
  
• Part 3: 1. When the owner of this HighAction attacks, it will be triggered 1 time to increase the attack damage.
  
• Part 4: 0. In most situation, target “0” means the source of action, target “1” means the target of action. When the owner of Rage attacks, the target of “increase attack damage” is the source of the action “attack”, so this part is “0”.
  
• Part 5: null. “Rage” is a common condition in game and its function is fixed, so the game designer just set the all the parameters in the excel file “HighAction”. Other common conditions like “Weakened”, “Blind”, are the same, this part needs to be “null” to use the default parameters.
  
• Part 6: null. The same as part 5.
  
• Part 7: 321. It means any target you choose. This card can be used to yourself or any enemy.
  
• Part 8: null. In this example there is no part 8. Only when all the parts behind are “null”, you can omit these parts. Be careful, here part 5 and 6 are “null”, part 7 is not “null”, so part 5 and 6 cannot be omitted.

About the specific structure of the excel file “HighAction”, you can check the name of each column at the third line of the excel, combined with excel files in mod “Official assets”, it is not difficult to know the function of each column. There are many columns are useless for modding, just keep the same as the official samples.
Check the BaseAction list and more details in the excel file “Reference” in mod “Official assets”.

EventAction is functions which can be executed out of the battle. Some relics working out of the battle are using EventAction.

For example, the relic “Bread”: “+8 max HP.” When you get this relic, it will execute two EventAction:
{"name":"ChangeHealthMax","values":["8"]},{"name":"ChangeHealth","values":["8"]}
And when you lose it, it will execute one EventAction:
{"name":"ChangeHealthMax","values":["-8"]}

Check the EventAction list and more details in the excel file “Reference” in mod “Official assets”.

• Images
  There are 4 images (5 images if the hero has a special pose) you need to put in the folder “Image”. 1 skin image (1 special pose), 1 skin card for selection in hero panel, 2 avatars for UI.
  
  You need to rename them with your own names, 2 mods having images with the same names will have conflict with each other.
  
• Excel files
  There are 3 excel files need to be edited in the folder "Table".
  

You can adjust the pivot of images by editting the excel file “ExtraAssetsPivot”.
You can modify the initial deck and add some relics for a skin. You can use this feature to test your new cards and relics.

The skin of Bear Tamer is not a single image, for now you cannot make a skin for Bear Tamer.

• Images
  You just need to put all the images of your new cards in the folder “Image”.
  
  
• Excel files
  There are 4 excel files need to be edited in the folders "Table" and "Localization".
  
  
  About the card ID. The card ID needs to be between ModCardID(1) and ModCardID(1000), and you need to edit the upgraded version in the excel as well. The ID of upgraded version needs to be the ID +10000, so it’s between ModCardID(10001) and ModCardID(11000).

• Images
  You just need to put the relic image in the folder “Image”.
  
  
  
• Excel files
  There are 3 excel files need to be edited in the folders "Table" and "Localization".
  
  
  About the relic ID. The common relic ID needs to be between ModRelicID(1) and ModRelicID(1000). The hidden relic ID needs to be between ModRelicID(10001) and ModRelicID(11000).

Hidden relics
There are many functions in game are implemented by “hidden relics”. For example, most heroes’ abilities are implemented by getting one or more hidden relics. They are invisible to player and can be added to player by many ways.

Package is a pack of cards and relics, so besides the cards and relics, you just need to add 2 images for the package UI and edit 1 more excel file to set it in the Storage panel.
For all the cards and relics in package, you need to set “UnlockState” in excel files “CardsFall” and “Reclis” to be 0. And the max number of cards and relics in a package is 6.

Essentially upgrade is a hidden relic added to your hero at the start of each game. So, you just need to create a hidden relic to implement the function, then add 1 image for the upgrade UI and edit 1 more excel file to set it in the Storage panel.

• Images
  A hero needs all the images for a skin, several hero cards, and 1 image for hero ability. 1 relic image if the hero has a start relic (like Fortune Teller).
  
• Excel files
  There are 9 Excel files need to be edited in the folders "Table" and "Localization".
  
  

You just need to replace the UI and background images which you want to modify in the folder “Image”. The new images you use need to be the same name, format and size with the existing ones.

Replace the images in the folder “Image”, keep the same name with the existing images.
Edit the excel file “ExtraAssetsPivot” in the folder “Table” to adjust the position of the enemy. You can test your enemy skins with the enemy in the first battle in Pirates Bay, then change the name to the enemy you want to replace.

There are many variables in the game, you may need to get the value of them when you create new content. The format is <VariableName>. If the variable has parameters, put the parameters just after the name of the variable, each one separated by symbol “:”, like <VariableName:1:2>.

Here are some common variables, like <Ammo>, <Coins>. And there are 2 special types of variable, they are defined by players: FightData and AdventureData. You can save any value and do some calculation with them, then get the value of it when you need. FightData will be reset to 0 after each battle. AdventureData will be reset to 0 after each game.

For example, the cards “Booster Shot” and “Booster Strike”, you can increase damage for all the Booster cards, this function is implemented by creating a FightData “Evolution” to save the extra damage for Booster cards. Every time you use Booster cards, increase this FightData.
Check the variable list and more details in the excel file “Reference” in mod “Official assets”.

There are many parameters in excel files, when you see some numbers and don’t understand the meaning, you can check the excel file “Reference” in mod “Official assets”.

A continuous HighAction has two timings:

• Trigger timing
  The function of a continuous HighAction will take effect at the trigger timing of this HighAction.
  
• Consume timing
  The magnitude of a continuous HighAction will reduce by 1 at the consume timing.

Check the timing list and more details in the excel file “Reference” in mod “Official assets”.

Keyword is a string attached to cards, relics or HighAction, to give some common feature to them. In the excel files “Card”, “Relics”, and “HighAction”, there is a column for keyword.

For example, if a HighAction has the keyword " "AK_Crit"", it means the attacks from this HighAction (Only HighAction for attacking will use this keyword) will be critical hits.

Check the keyword list and more details in the excel file “Reference” in mod “Official assets”.

All the text in game are in the localization excel files. For each language there is a excel file, you just need to edit the excel file of your language, then delete the excel files of the languages you don’t need. The official sample mods are using the English one.