Tutorial: Simple Feat Blocker

This step-by-step tutorial is meant for covering the basics and the intention of being beginner friendly. The result is that this mod will not have a lot of features. It’s a simple and clean feat blocker. Nothing more, and nothing less.

Let’s start!

Step 1: Create a new mod

If you already have a mod, go directly to step 2.

If you haven’t created a mod yet (no we don’t use the already existing testmod!) then just read on and follow the instructions step by step.

Open the Create a new mod dialog from the top row menu – Conan Exiles Dev Kit actions (the little arrow next to the Conan Exiles Dev Kit button)…

Simple Feat Blocker - Create a new mod

and choose a good name.

Whichever name you choose now, it will later be the name of your pak file. So names like MyTest, Testmod or simple Test are not really good names!

Also important: this name is fixed and cannot be changed easily. Choose wisely!

Simple Feat Blocker - Create a new mod

If you see this message  and don’t know what is going on, it’s most likely a space in your mod name. Spaces are not allowed!

If we have entered a valid name and click Create the devkit will be restarted.

After the restart of the devkit, we find our mod folder in the Content Browser (bottom left of your screen) under Mods.

Simple Feat Blocker - Content Browser - New mod

Step 2: Create a ModController

I will not go into detail about what a ModController is and what you can do with it, but for manipulating the FeatTable datatable a ModController is absolutely necessary, so we will create one next.

We switch to our still empty mod folder in the Content Browser. With a right click on the empty mod folder we open the context menu and select New Asset => Blueprint Class.

Simple Feat Blocker - Create new Blueprint Class

In the Pick Parent Class dialog that opens, we unfold the All Classes section (at the bottom of the dialog)  and enter ModController into the search field. Mark the ModController entry in the search result and click the green Select button.

Simple Feat Blocker - Create new Blueprint Class - Pick Parent Class - ModController

In our mod folder a new file with the name NewBlueprint was created. This is our new ModController, but we urgently need to change the name to something more meaningful.

Simple Feat Blocker - NewBlueprint

I recommend a name that expresses what kind of file it is and also shows to which mod it belongs. For example, I use the following naming scheme for my ModController(s):

BP_MC_{mod name}

BP for blueprint
MC for ModController
and the mod name as prefix.

So for my chosen name

BP_MC_TutorialFeatBlocker

Simple Feat Blocker - BP_MC_TutorialFeatBlocker

With this we have created our first ModController.

Step 3: Add Data Table Operations

Open the ModController blueprint with a double click.

On the left side of the editor is the tab My Blueprint with the section Functions and therein the function ModDataTableOperations

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - My Blueprint - Functions - ModDatTableOperations

Double-click on it and the function opens in the main area of the editor.

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - Mod Data Table Operations

To this function we now add the node(s) for manipulating datatables, in our case we need the Remove Data Table Rows node.

Left click and hold the mouse button on the little white arrow (it’s called Exec if you hover over it with the mouse), move the mouse away until a white line appears and release the left mouse button.

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - ModDataTableOperations - Add a node

A context menu should now open. It contains only those elements/actions/nodes that are useful in the current context.

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - ModDataTableOperations - Add node Remove Data Table Rows

Click on Remove Data Table Rows.

Your function should now look like this. There are no meaningful values in the node yet. The Target Data Table is missing and also the Row IDs are not filled yet.

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - ModDataTableOperations - Add Remove Data Table Rows

Click on the small arrow to the right of Select Asset and enter FeatTable in the search field. Select FeatTable (not FeatTreeTable!) from the list.

The node should now look like this

Mod-Tutorial: Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - ModDataTableOperations - Remove Data Table Rows - Select Target Data Table

Now we add a list of Row IDs to the node. To do this, we click (and hold) the left mouse button on the square in front of the text Row IDs and drag the mouse away from the node until we see a line, release the mouse button and the following context menu should open. Select Make Array from the list.

The node should now look like this

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - ModDataTableOperations - Remove Data Table Rows - Row IDs - Make Array

That was almost it. All that is missing now are the IDs of the feats you want to remove. These are added to the Make Array node. You can get more fields by clicking on Add pin +

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - ModDataTableOperations - Remove Data Table Rows - Make Array - Add pin

With a right click on an entry you can remove a field with Remove array element pin.

Simple Feat Blocker - ModController - ModDataTableOperations - Remove Data Table Rows - Make Array - Remove pin

That’s it. In the upper left corner of the current function view, you can find the Compile and Save buttons. Hit the Compile button. If the compile is successful and returns no errors, click Save.

The Compile button should change to

Simple Feat Blocker - Compile and Save

Step 4: Cook your mod and upload to steam

The mod is done and all we need is cooking and publishing to steam.

Switch back to the main window of the devkit and press the Conan Exiles Dev Kit button from the top row menu.

Simple Feat Blocker - Conan Exiles Dev Kit button
Simple Feat Blocker – Empty Mod Info dialog

Section Mod Info

Most fields are optional, but it makes sense to fill them with content to give interested users or server admins an impression what the mod does.

A preview image is mandatory and must be provided.

Section Build

Here you can find the Build mod button. Next to it the Compress .pak option. Basically with a small mod it does not matter if you compress in or not. Normally I have activated compression for my mods, but details about the advantages and disadvantages are beyond the scope of this tutorial.

With the two buttons Active mod folder and Built mod folder (here still grayed out because we never built the mod before) you can open the windows explorer and jump directly to the sources or the cooked pak file on your computer.

Section Steam

The field Steam file id is currently empty. The ID is automatically assigned by Steam during the first upload. After the first upload you can use the button Open workshop page to jump directly to the steam workshop page of the mod.

With the Steam visibility you can adjust the visibility of your mod. You may choose between Public, Friends-only, or Hidden as your options.

The last two buttons are responsible for the upload of the mod (including the mod info from above) or only the upload of the mod info.

The last step(s)

To publish the mod on steam the following steps are necessary:

  • add preview image
  • click Build mod (with or without Compress .pak) and wait. Depending on the performance of your computer the build of the mod can take several minutes, but our simple feat blocker should not take too long even on an older computer.
  • set Steam visibility
  • click Upload built mod to Steam

Done!

How to use the mod

For such a mod, the load order is very important! The mod with the feats you want to remove must be loaded before this mod.

An example:
If you want to remove the Fashionist Armor Stand feat with this mod then the feat blocker must be loaded after Fashionist.

If you like my work, consider supporting me and my mods with a donation:

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