Aetherial Endeavors

Aetherial Endeavors expands Outward Definitive Edition with new classes, magic, quests, equipment and crafting options. It's for players who want more to discover in Aurai, more ways to build a character and useful improvements to inventory management, travel and co-op.

The goal is to add variety and keep the game challenging. Alongside the new content, the pack reworks existing skills, weapons and combat mechanics, so expect some things to work differently from vanilla Outward. It is intended for both solo and co-op play.

What the pack adds and changes

• More character builds. Additional trainers and skill trees include Crusader, Dragon Knight, Necromancer, Martial Artist, Juggernaut and Kazite Blademaster. Champions of Elatt adds Paladin and Cleric, while Mendicants adds the Itinerant Scholar and its Ki-based skills. Classfixes also changes existing skill trees, giving familiar builds different options.
• More magic and support skills. Rune and sigil changes, mana weapons, runic equipment and scrolls expand the magic available. Supportive Rune Sage and Crusader add options for players who want to heal and support their co-op partner.
• More equipment to find and craft. New knives, crossbows, weapons previously used by NPCs, armor, backpacks, tents and enchantments give you more gear to choose from. Elemental Armory adds craftable elemental weapons, including options for Stormcancer's weapons. WeaponBalancePatch and the equipment mods also change some existing items.
• More quests and recipes. Champions of Elatt adds a questline, a boss encounter and holy relic weapons to restore. Quests of Aurai adds more quests, while the cooking, alchemy and crafting mods expand the meals, potions, bombs and equipment you can make. AntiAlchemyAbuse is included to limit profit from potion crafting.
• Clearer information and easier inventory management. CombatHUD, improved item descriptions, stash filters, crafting categories, enchantment previews and water skin improvements help with the everyday parts of playing. The Swamp Map shows the missing bridges on the Hollowed Marsh map. Instant Take Items removes the need to hold the pickup button, and Hold to Aim Bows lets you aim by holding the button and stop aiming when you release it.
• Travel and recovery. Soroborean Travel Agency adds caravan travel options, travel potions help you get around, and meditation restores health, stamina and mana. Press Fn + F5 while in-game to change available mod settings. Find SkilledAtMeditation in that menu to adjust how quickly meditation restores your stats.
• Co-op features. Share recipes, use the host's stash and help each other with support skills. To change the difficulty, player limit or shared quest rewards, press Fn + F5 while in-game and find Raid Mode. Everyone should use the same pack version and gameplay settings.

New in 2.4.0

More classes and quests with Champions of Elatt, more weapon crafting with Elemental Armory and its Stormcancer addon, plus Crafting Materials. Mendicants returns with an experimental compatibility fix. This update also adds a clearer swamp map, instant item pickup and hold-to-aim bow controls. See the Changelog tab for the full list.

Aetherial Endeavors Fixes 0.1.15 installs automatically with the pack. It fixes problems with trainers, skills, items and some mod interactions. It runs when the game starts; there is nothing extra to set up.

The pack and fixes are still experimental. Mendicants' new compatibility fix needs more in-game and co-op testing. Back up your saves and mod profile before updating an existing playthrough.

Changing mod settings: Fn + F5

While in-game, hold Fn and press F5 (Fn + F5) to open the mod settings. If your keyboard uses the function keys directly, press F5 on its own.

Find the mod you want to adjust in that menu, then read the descriptions beside its settings. For example, Raid Mode has options for the number of players, difficulty and shared quest rewards. SkilledAtMeditation has options for how much health, stamina and mana meditation restores.

You can change the options shown here while in-game without editing mod files yourself. Not every mod has settings, and the options available depend on the mod. You can leave the supplied settings as they are if you just want to install the pack and play.

For co-op, agree on gameplay settings with your group and keep them consistent on everyone's game. Changing a setting on your computer does not guarantee it changes for the other players too.

The included gameplay settings

The pack includes these Raid Mode settings:

• Up to two players, with Raid Mode's default difficulty adjustment for the number of players. Its extra Hard Mode option is off.
• The stability rework is enabled, changing when enemies stagger and fall down.
• Reviving a teammate burns 40% health and stamina, reducing those maximum stats until the burnt portion is recovered. A healing item isn't required to revive someone.
• Skills awarded by story and side quests are shared with the group. The options that give every player a separate copy of an artifact item are off.

To change these, open the menu with Fn + F5 once you're in-game and find Raid Mode. You can also increase the player limit there if you want a larger group. Other mods use their own settings unless you have already changed them in your profile.

Bank of Aurai interest is set to 0%. Deposited silver won't earn extra money over time.

Known issues

Some extra mods may conflict with this pack. If you add any, install and test them one at a time. I've chosen the mods I feel add the most content and variety while keeping balance in mind.

• Mendicants: the included patch addresses the Jinx conflict with NPC Weapons and Classfixes, but the combination is still experimental. Other skills and co-op interactions need more testing.
• Champions of Elatt: its author reports occasional enemy syncing issues in co-op.
• NPC Weapons: with Classfixes, some weapons may not count as the weapon type a skill expects. Its author also reports that some weapons fire more projectiles than intended. The fixes patch does not cover these issues.
• Crossbow Master: use Crossbow Shot only with crossbows. The author warns that using that skill with a normal bow is gamebreaking.

I may continue to adjust the balance and add fixes or mods as the pack develops.

Thanks and feedback

Thanks to all the mod creators and the Outward modding community. I couldn't put this pack together without your work. Enjoy the pack! <3

For feedback or bug reports, message mr_strain on Discord. Include the pack version, what happened and whether you were playing solo, hosting your own world or joining someone else's. If you have the game's log file, include it too.

Changelog

2.4.0

New content

• Champions of Elatt 1.1.0: adds Paladin and Cleric classes, a questline with a boss encounter, new armor and holy relic weapons to restore.
• Elemental Armory 1.0.7 + Stormcancer Addon 1.0.7: adds craftable elemental weapons and upgrades, including options for Stormcancer's weapons and knives.
• Crafting Materials 1.0.2: adds ingredients used by the new crafting recipes, including elemental stones and shards.
• Mendicants 0.3.0 returns: adds the Itinerant Scholar class and Ki-based skills. The included fixes patch repairs Perfect Self and Clarity and adds experimental Jinx compatibility with NPC Weapons and Classfixes. More in-game and co-op testing is still needed.

Quality of life

• The Swamp Map 1.0.2: shows the two missing bridges on the Hollowed Marsh map.
• Instant Take Items 1.8.5: pick up items without holding the button.
• Hold to Aim Bows 1.0.1: hold the aim button to aim and release it to stop.

Pack update

• Updated Aetherial Endeavors Fixes to 0.1.15. It installs automatically and includes the earlier fixes. See its changelog for individual repairs.
• Kept the existing Raid Mode settings and 0% bank interest.
• Updated the pack description and kept the Fn + F5 instructions for changing mod settings in-game.

2.3.0

This update revises the mod selection, adds several quality-of-life improvements and includes Aetherial Endeavors Fixes 0.1.0 automatically.

These changes are compared with the published 2.2.0 pack.

Added mods

• Shared Recipes 1.0.1: adds recipe sharing between co-op players.
• Akiroth's Stash Filters 1.0.2: adds category filters to the stash, making stored items easier to find. This replaces the filtering feature we wanted from StashCraft.
• Extended Crafting Categories 1.0.0: separates recipes into those you can craft, those with some ingredients missing and those with all ingredients missing.
• Outward Water Skins 1.0.0: moves the water-type indicator to the top of the container icon. This is a display change, not a change to thirst or water effects.
• Enchanting Visualizer 1.1.1: shows the areas where enchanting pillars should be placed, making the setup easier to understand.
• Custom Effects 1.1.1: a support library that other mods can use for custom skills and effects. It does not add a standalone class or quest by itself.
• Aetherial Endeavors Fixes 0.1.0: the pack's experimental repair patch. It installs with the pack and runs automatically when the game starts. Its five repairs are listed below.

Updated package

• Replaced Morgenni's DirectVisuals 0.2.0 with Direct Visuals 0.2.2, using its newer Direct_Visuals package name. The new pack requests this package instead of the old one.

Removed mods and why

Some removals address problems encountered in this pack or warnings from mod authors. Others reduce overlapping changes and conflicts with eachother or any unbalanced mods i felt were to much.

• StashCraft 1.0.1: it wasn't working correctly in this pack. Akiroth's Stash Filters now provides the stash-filtering feature.
• Mendicants 0.3.0: removed because NPC Weapons' compatibility notes warn about Mendicants conflicting with SideLoader ExtendedEffects. NPC Weapons remain in the pack.
• Runic Bow 1.3.0: its author lists an incompatibility with Sinai's Mana Bow. Mana Bow is the option kept in this pack.
• Runic Magic Awakened 1.0.2: removed to reduce overlapping Rune Sage changes while keeping Classfixes and Supportive Rune Sage. This is a precaution about competing spell edits, not a claim that every combination will crash.
• Chakram Reloaded 1.0.2: Classfixes already changes chakram skills. Reloaded adds another set of mana costs, cooldowns and skill requirements, including stronger default Pierce and Arc settings. Keeping the Classfixes setup avoids those competing changes; removing Reloaded was a balance and simplicity choice.
• Weapon Enchant Expansion 1.0.0: its author documents overlapping enchantment files with WeaponBalancePatch and describes the expansion as not balanced. The pack keeps WeaponBalancePatch's enchantments and leaves out this extra layer of enchantment power.
• Armor Enchant Expansion 1.0.1: removed for balance. Its enchantments were chosen around equipment themes rather than balance, and the pack already has plenty of equipment bonuses. This is not a confirmed incompatibility with the retained armor mods.
• UniqueAndIconic Weapons, Equipment and Armors, all 1.0.1: these include full item definitions that can overlap other weapon and armor changes. They were removed to avoid competing item edits. This was an overlap precaution, not a finding that every item was broken.
• Turn Off Runic Lantern 1.0.1: Supportive Rune Sage already lets you turn off Runic Lantern by casting it again. The separate toggle mod was redundant.
• Reworked Skill Spells 1.0.0: left out to keep fewer separate rebalances of vanilla skills alongside Classfixes. This is a choice about the pack's skill setup, rather than a verified crash fix.
• Blood Mage 1.0.1: no longer part of the selected class lineup. The other included magic classes remain. This records a selection change, not a confirmed incompatibility with those classes.

What the fixes patch addresses

• TrainersOfAurai 6.0.2 / CustomAttributes 1.1.0: restores the missing connection used by Gentle Fist's healing effect.
• DragonKnight 2.1.1: repairs the mismatch between Last Stand and the TinyHelper library used by the pack.
• WeaponBalancePatch 1.8.1: corrects a broken tag in the Priest's Prayers enchantment recipe file so that file can be read properly.
• Weaponry and Enchantments Additions 1.3.9: corrects the mismatched tag in the Palladium Knuckles item file.
• Skip Logos 1.3.1: repairs the missing field assignment behind its startup error and adds checks for an unavailable field.

The patch only edits files it recognizes and backs up the originals before changing them. It skips unfamiliar versions and can reapply the repairs after a supported mod is reinstalled. No separate setup is needed.

Other changes

• Bank of Aurai now comes with interest set to 0%, so deposited silver won't earn extra money over time.
• Updated the pack's automatic download list to match the revised selection and include the fixes patch. New installations will no longer request the removed mods listed above.
• Rewrote the README to explain the content, solo and co-op features, and remaining known issues more clearly.
• Kept the existing modpack icon and the Raid Mode settings from 2.2.0. This update does not apply a new difficulty preset.
• Kept Classfixes, Supportive Rune Sage and Sigil Magic Revamped. Their overlapping spell changes still need testing. The NPC Weapons and Crossbow Shot limitations remain explained in the README.

Continuing an existing playthrough

Back up your character saves and keep a copy of your old mod profile before updating. Removing mods can affect items and skills already used by your characters. Updating the pack may leave old mods installed, so check your profile against the removal list before continuing.

This release and its fixes patch remain experimental. The patch's automated checks passed; gameplay and co-op testing of the complete pack is still pending.