So the game is new, so I personally don't expect many mods to be released right now apart from the few we have and several dozen ReShade mods. That being said, as someone who has played this game quite a bit, there is still several issues I'm personally experiencing that I notice seems to be a consistent issue with the game. Not game breaking bugs, or anything like that, just things that honestly kill the experience. Below I'll list a few things that could definitely be added to improve this game for potentially hundreds of players considering Ubisoft is more than likely never going to add these options, and even if they do, it won't be until the end of the games life cycle.
1- Always have your equipped hood, helmet, mask on, even during cutscenes. (This is a constant issue with all past RPG AC games, don't know why they wait so long to implement this or ignore it entirely)
2- Viewpoints being actually useful and showing players more of the map rather than just a couple hundred feet. Like how old games did. If not, revealing the map in it's entirety.
3- All points of interest immediately exposed. (It's weird how Naoe has lived in this area her whole life but doesn't know where a single thing is. It's unrealistic to say the least)
4- The ability to change hair, or add/remove facial hair. This was a no brainer, they allowed this in both Origins and Valhalla. Surprised they don't have this in this current game. (I personally noticed that with the Onryo mask for Naoe, it gives her long white hair. Maybe that asset can be taken and turned to Naoe's basic hair color.) Especially since Yasuke has two variants, clean shaven and full beard. Maybe allowing the player to choose between the two?
5- Allow Yasuke to parkour (maybe?). This is obviously a toss up, but playing an Assassin's Creed game, you'd expect the ability to parkour for your characters. Gets disappointing for some players who do like playing Yasuke, but are forced to move slowly. Doesn't have to be a copy of Naoe's parkour, could just be he has better balance on beams, doesn't break ropes, doesn't destroy hay piles, can actually climb at decent speeds, etc. That's up to the players choice though, it just seems like a weird gimmick to have, because it feels like a punishment for trying to play him.
6- All shops contain an 'All in one' section. So this way, instead of waiting for shops to resupply new gear, weapons, pets or hideout customization options, you can just buy it all from one vender and be done with it. I personally had to run from store to store for about an hour just to find a single mask to match an outfit that Naoe had. It's kind of ridiculous.
7- The ability to switch seasons whenever you want. This sounds silly because this is already seen as a feature, but maybe it's a bug, but for me personally, i've only been able to switch to a new season one time. Every other time, it just says the ability to switch seasons is unavailable. Like I said, could be a bug, maybe Ubisoft will add it in an update to make it truly free form for the seasons, but idk yet.
8- The ability to lock seasons. It sucks playing in your favorite season in game (Mine being Spring), and because I did one mission, i'm some how in Summer already. I think a ton of people would like the ability to lock in a specific season. Pairing this with the ability to change seasons whenever you want, I feel like this would make the game astronomically more fun for players.
9- Take off season specific, day/night specific missions so players can do them when they want or are able to. Allowing them to play the game, instead of waiting for literal hours just for a few seasons to change to the one season that their mission is tied to, or to do a night time mission during the day.
10- Make animals like dogs/puppies and cats/kittens stop running away from the player. It sucks when you're just trying to collect a new breed of dog or cat, and the second you get close they freak out and sprint away. It's not like a 50/50 chance that they'll let you pet them, it's more like a 20/80 chance or less. I have over 30 hours in the game and only have been successful at petting two dogs and one cat because all the other run away.
11- Allow Yasuke to enter Nobunaga's castle without him getting attacked by guards. It's weird how even though they all remember you and like you, they get violent the second Yasuke tries to step foot in that restricted area he once worked at.
12- Remove the grid system for your hideout customization. It sucks when you're going for a specific style, but the grid wants you to be in a specific area instead of you placing the item freely. Especially if you're trying to place a building slightly closer to another building, but because it's hitting a white square that's connected to that other building, you're not allowed to place a new structure. It's a dumb and kind of limiting aspect they decided to put in.
13- Allowing unlimited placements for all objects in the hideout customization. I didn't even realize they had a limit for this until I started trying to place down a few lamps. At some point they stop letting you place down a specific item if it's used too much. It's either that, or maybe i'm just bugged. I don't know though.
14- Replace/remove the Igan Roll perk. It's cool I guess to not take fall damage, but it takes away that risk factor of careful planning. Obviously you have the choice to buy that perk or not, and even when you do, you aren't forced to use it. If it is replaced though, the only thing I think should be replaced is the awkward and slow animation for her roll. Maybe just switch it to the animation where she lands on her feet in the classic ninja style squat and jumps back up into her full sprint. The awkward roll could be used for Yasuke though to help him negate fall damage.
Now I have a couple of personal preferences down below, so hopefully maybe one day someone can mod this in. This is probably a much more difficult thing to add in though.
1- Replace the character models for Naoe and Yasuke with their original concept designs
2- Remove Yasuke's dreads and replace it with short hair or even an afro (maybe this can be added into a quality of life mod that allows hair/facial hair customization)
3- Maybe change out character models with ones from other games. Like Nioh, Rise of Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, etc. As long as it's not just another Deadpool/CJ/Joker skin, then cool.
4- AI voices of different characters. An example would be how someone for Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, modded the ability to use Keanu Reeves voice over the main protagonists voice via AI utilization. It's a little clunky, but it's enough to get the job done. Using this to maybe change the voices of Yasuke or Naoe to whatever character/person you want
5- Make certain headgear non character specific
6- Maybe a lightsaber mod? (this one is silly, but I love lightsabers)
7- Lastly, maybe some more combat animations and finishers? Yasuke and Naoe both have similar styles to that of characters off of For Honor. So maybe if animations are capable of being ripped from that game and placed into here in order to add tons of more variation to their combat finishers, then i'd love to see it. Animations can be taken from Kensei, Shinobi, Shugoki, Orochi, Kyoshin, Aramusha, and more. (I should mention, I only thought of this because I remembered Yasuke has a special ability that is also a move that Shugoki uses in For Honor, where he charges at you to bear hug you and break the enemies back)
That's pretty much everything I can think of at this moment. That being said, here's the concept art for Naoe (and supposedly Yasuke) that I brought up a while ago.
Assassin's Creed: Shadows (Quality of life mods)
in Mod Ideas
Posted
So the game is new, so I personally don't expect many mods to be released right now apart from the few we have and several dozen ReShade mods. That being said, as someone who has played this game quite a bit, there is still several issues I'm personally experiencing that I notice seems to be a consistent issue with the game. Not game breaking bugs, or anything like that, just things that honestly kill the experience. Below I'll list a few things that could definitely be added to improve this game for potentially hundreds of players considering Ubisoft is more than likely never going to add these options, and even if they do, it won't be until the end of the games life cycle.
1- Always have your equipped hood, helmet, mask on, even during cutscenes. (This is a constant issue with all past RPG AC games, don't know why they wait so long to implement this or ignore it entirely)
2- Viewpoints being actually useful and showing players more of the map rather than just a couple hundred feet. Like how old games did. If not, revealing the map in it's entirety.
3- All points of interest immediately exposed. (It's weird how Naoe has lived in this area her whole life but doesn't know where a single thing is. It's unrealistic to say the least)
4- The ability to change hair, or add/remove facial hair. This was a no brainer, they allowed this in both Origins and Valhalla. Surprised they don't have this in this current game. (I personally noticed that with the Onryo mask for Naoe, it gives her long white hair. Maybe that asset can be taken and turned to Naoe's basic hair color.) Especially since Yasuke has two variants, clean shaven and full beard. Maybe allowing the player to choose between the two?
5- Allow Yasuke to parkour (maybe?). This is obviously a toss up, but playing an Assassin's Creed game, you'd expect the ability to parkour for your characters. Gets disappointing for some players who do like playing Yasuke, but are forced to move slowly. Doesn't have to be a copy of Naoe's parkour, could just be he has better balance on beams, doesn't break ropes, doesn't destroy hay piles, can actually climb at decent speeds, etc. That's up to the players choice though, it just seems like a weird gimmick to have, because it feels like a punishment for trying to play him.
6- All shops contain an 'All in one' section. So this way, instead of waiting for shops to resupply new gear, weapons, pets or hideout customization options, you can just buy it all from one vender and be done with it. I personally had to run from store to store for about an hour just to find a single mask to match an outfit that Naoe had. It's kind of ridiculous.
7- The ability to switch seasons whenever you want. This sounds silly because this is already seen as a feature, but maybe it's a bug, but for me personally, i've only been able to switch to a new season one time. Every other time, it just says the ability to switch seasons is unavailable. Like I said, could be a bug, maybe Ubisoft will add it in an update to make it truly free form for the seasons, but idk yet.
8- The ability to lock seasons. It sucks playing in your favorite season in game (Mine being Spring), and because I did one mission, i'm some how in Summer already. I think a ton of people would like the ability to lock in a specific season. Pairing this with the ability to change seasons whenever you want, I feel like this would make the game astronomically more fun for players.
9- Take off season specific, day/night specific missions so players can do them when they want or are able to. Allowing them to play the game, instead of waiting for literal hours just for a few seasons to change to the one season that their mission is tied to, or to do a night time mission during the day.
10- Make animals like dogs/puppies and cats/kittens stop running away from the player. It sucks when you're just trying to collect a new breed of dog or cat, and the second you get close they freak out and sprint away. It's not like a 50/50 chance that they'll let you pet them, it's more like a 20/80 chance or less. I have over 30 hours in the game and only have been successful at petting two dogs and one cat because all the other run away.
11- Allow Yasuke to enter Nobunaga's castle without him getting attacked by guards. It's weird how even though they all remember you and like you, they get violent the second Yasuke tries to step foot in that restricted area he once worked at.
12- Remove the grid system for your hideout customization. It sucks when you're going for a specific style, but the grid wants you to be in a specific area instead of you placing the item freely. Especially if you're trying to place a building slightly closer to another building, but because it's hitting a white square that's connected to that other building, you're not allowed to place a new structure. It's a dumb and kind of limiting aspect they decided to put in.
13- Allowing unlimited placements for all objects in the hideout customization. I didn't even realize they had a limit for this until I started trying to place down a few lamps. At some point they stop letting you place down a specific item if it's used too much. It's either that, or maybe i'm just bugged. I don't know though.
14- Replace/remove the Igan Roll perk. It's cool I guess to not take fall damage, but it takes away that risk factor of careful planning. Obviously you have the choice to buy that perk or not, and even when you do, you aren't forced to use it. If it is replaced though, the only thing I think should be replaced is the awkward and slow animation for her roll. Maybe just switch it to the animation where she lands on her feet in the classic ninja style squat and jumps back up into her full sprint. The awkward roll could be used for Yasuke though to help him negate fall damage.
Now I have a couple of personal preferences down below, so hopefully maybe one day someone can mod this in. This is probably a much more difficult thing to add in though.
1- Replace the character models for Naoe and Yasuke with their original concept designs
2- Remove Yasuke's dreads and replace it with short hair or even an afro (maybe this can be added into a quality of life mod that allows hair/facial hair customization)
3- Maybe change out character models with ones from other games. Like Nioh, Rise of Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, etc. As long as it's not just another Deadpool/CJ/Joker skin, then cool.
4- AI voices of different characters. An example would be how someone for Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, modded the ability to use Keanu Reeves voice over the main protagonists voice via AI utilization. It's a little clunky, but it's enough to get the job done. Using this to maybe change the voices of Yasuke or Naoe to whatever character/person you want
5- Make certain headgear non character specific
6- Maybe a lightsaber mod? (this one is silly, but I love lightsabers)
7- Lastly, maybe some more combat animations and finishers? Yasuke and Naoe both have similar styles to that of characters off of For Honor. So maybe if animations are capable of being ripped from that game and placed into here in order to add tons of more variation to their combat finishers, then i'd love to see it. Animations can be taken from Kensei, Shinobi, Shugoki, Orochi, Kyoshin, Aramusha, and more. (I should mention, I only thought of this because I remembered Yasuke has a special ability that is also a move that Shugoki uses in For Honor, where he charges at you to bear hug you and break the enemies back)
That's pretty much everything I can think of at this moment. That being said, here's the concept art for Naoe (and supposedly Yasuke) that I brought up a while ago.