Outward Archipelago

A mod for Outward: Definitive Edition that adds support for the Archipelago multiworld multi-game randomizer. Our philosophy thus far has been to add as many Archipelago location checks as we can without changing the base game experience too much. This way, an experienced Outward player should be able to figure their way through their first randomizer without needing to consult our documentation. We have, however, made the following changes to the base game:

• Added an Archipelago connection status icon overlay throughout the game, including menus.
• Archipelago messages, including the chat, now appear in the in-game chat window.
  • Players may send messages to the Archipelago chat via the in-game chat window by prefixing their message with /ap (the space is important).
  • Archipelago chat commands, such as !hint, may also be sent this way (e.g. /ap !hint).
• Added an AP Item item to the Outward game to serve as a placeholder for items that have been randomized.
• Added Quest License passive skills that serve as progression items.
  • Main quest NPCs now refuse to talk to you about the main quest unless you have the corresponding Quest License skill.
• Replaced most skills and unique items in Outward with Archipelago location checks.
• Added Archipelago location checks behind the first completion (pass or fail) of every quest in the game.
• Modified the friendly Immaculate side quest so that the friend immaculate never dies, can give a reward at every location, and can give an extra reward for visiting him in all four original zones.
• Added a Skillsanity mode where skills offered by skill trainers are now randomized.
• Optionally added location checks for activating the Cabal of Wind altars in each region, and added their boons to the item pool.
• Option to add Breakthough Points to the item pool, which also adds location checks for speaking to each of the skill trainers that teach Breakthrough Skills.
• Added support for Archipelago's death-link mode.
  • Death-links recieved will result in the player's death.
  • Any player deaths, for any reason (outside of another death-link), will send a death-link to the Archipelago server.

The intended experience for this mod is to player a single save file (perhaps with legacy chest items) from beginning to end after successfully connecting to the Archipelago server. However, we do not restrict you to only playing one save file. If you create a new save file, that new character should be sent all the items that you previously unlocked in that Archipelago multi-world. You can then switch back and forth between the save files and both saves will be sent any items that were obtained in the other. You may find this behavior useful if you somehow find yourself accidentally soft-locked. We do intend to remove all potential soft-locks that we find, but this will still be useful for early versions of the game. However, we advise caution with attempting to play this mod with old save files. While we do not prevent you from doing so, you may find that save file altered in a way that makes it un-playable without the mod.

Regarding 2-player co-op, we have not fully tested this scenario. Joining a friend's game who is playing in an Archipelago multiworld will require installing the mod yourself, but only the host needs to connect to the Archipelago server. We make no promises, though, about what will happen to your location checks if you let the guest do the work.

How to play

First, you will need to host or join an Archipelago multi-world. For this, you will need the corresponding Archipelago APWorld, outward.apworld, available from this project's main repository, here. We defer further instructions to the Archipelago website.

After installing this mod and getting your Archipelago server connection details, you will need to provide these details to the mod. This can be done through the config file BepInEx\config\com.daemonarium.apoutward.cfg. You can find this config file through R2ModMan by navigating to Other > Config editor, or by navigating to your Outward install directory. If the config file does not exist, you can create it by launching the game with this mod installed and then immediately exiting from the main menu.

If everything is working as intended, you should see a connection status icon in the upper-right hand corner of the screen that looks circular with a depiction of a chain link inside. A full chain link means that you are connected to the Archipelago server and are good to start playing! A broken chain link means that we could not login to the Archipelago server. Actual images of the two icons are as follows:

= connected = not connected

If you have trouble connecting to the server, you will need to consult the mod's log file to get a more detailed message of what is going wrong. In R2ModMan, the log file can be found by going to Other > Settings > Locations > Browse profile folder, then navigating to BepInEx\LogOutput.log, or by navigating to your Outward install directory.