Pufferfish's Skills in FTB Skies 2

Pufferfish's Skills is a framework for building fully configurable skill systems. On its own it doesn't hand you a ready-made set of skills. It gives pack makers and creators the tools to design skill trees, and gives you the screen to spend points in them.^[1]

The pack includes version 0.19.0, built for 1.21 on NeoForge.^[2]

Who it's for

• Players: the mod is just a framework, so skill trees have to be installed separately. The mod page suggests the Default Skill Trees mod and Pufferfish's Attributes as the easiest way to start in a general setup.^[1]
• Creators: skill layouts are JSON driven, and there is a dedicated online editor to make designing them easier. There is also an API for extending the functionality and managing skills.^[1]

Handy things to know

The mod's default keybinding for opening the skills screen is K. Check your controls menu if it doesn't respond, because I can't confirm from the sources whether the pack rebinds it.^[1]

The mod also comes with commands for managing progress per player and per category. You can add or set points with /puffish_skills points, add or set experience with /puffish_skills experience, and unlock skills with /puffish_skills skills unlock. Resetting skills refunds the points, and /puffish_skills category erase resets points, experience and skills together.^[1]

Where it fits in progression

Unverified The sources I have don't say which skill trees the pack ships, if any, or where the skills system fits into the pack's progression. Check the skills screen in your own world to see what is available.

Good news: there's nothing to craft to get going with Pufferfish's Skills. It's a framework for skill systems, so the first steps are about opening the skills screen and checking that a skill tree is actually loaded.^[1]

Step by step

1. Press K, the default keybinding, to open the skills screen.^[1]
2. Look for a skill tree. The mod itself only provides the framework, and the trees come separately from other mods or data packs.^[1]
3. If you see a toast saying no skill trees were provided, no tree is loaded. The mod tells you to add one. If you see a toast about an invalid configuration, check the game logs.^[3]
4. Once a tree is loaded, hover over the experience display. The tooltip shows your progress as current experience out of the amount needed, plus a percentage.^[3]

Useful commands

If you have permission to use commands, these are handy for testing. The command /puffish_skills points add takes a player, a category and a count, and gives you points. The command /puffish_skills experience add takes a player, a category and an amount, and gives you experience. The command /puffish_skills skills reset takes a player and a category, locks all skills in that category and refunds your points.^[1]

Unverified Which skill trees this pack ships, how you earn experience and points here, and any pack-specific changes to the mod's configuration could not be confirmed from the available sources. No in-pack recipes or quests for this mod were found either, so there are no crafting steps to follow.

This mod works differently from most in the pack. It has no machines, multiblocks, power or fluid systems. Pufferfish's Skills is a framework for building fully configurable skill systems, so the "mechanics" are all about skill trees, points and experience.^[1]

A framework, not a ready-made tree

The mod itself only provides the system. Skill trees come separately, for example from the Default Skill Trees mod, and the project page suggests pairing it with Pufferfish's Attributes. If no skill tree is provided, the mod shows a toast saying that none were provided and that you need to add one.^[1][3]

There is also an online editor for designing skill layouts, and an API that lets other mods extend the system and manage skills.^[1]

Using it in game

The default keybinding to open the skills screen is K. Experience progress is shown in a tooltip in the form current/needed with a percentage.^[1][3]

If something is wrong with the setup, the mod shows a toast telling you the configuration is invalid and to check the game logs.^[3]

Commands

The mod's commands take a player and a category, plus a count, an amount or a skill where one is needed.^[1]

• /puffish_skills points add and /puffish_skills points set add or set a player's points in a category.^[1]
• /puffish_skills experience add and /puffish_skills experience set add or set a player's experience in a category.^[1]
• /puffish_skills skills unlock unlocks a specific skill. /puffish_skills skills reset locks all skills in a category and refunds the points.^[1]
• /puffish_skills category lock and /puffish_skills category unlock lock or unlock a whole category.^[1]
• /puffish_skills category erase resets points, experience and skills for that category.^[1]

Configuration in this pack

Configuration is JSON driven, and you can reload it without restarting the game using /reload.^[1]

In the main config, the pack sets show_warnings to true and version to 2.^[4]

The category file in the pack sets title to "Something", with an item icon (icon.type) of dirt (icon.data.item) and the stone advancement texture as the background. It also sets unlocked_by_default and exclusive_root to true, and spent_points_limit to 60.^[5]

Here's what the pack's own script tells us about how Pufferfish's Skills progression works. The pack has a skill category with the id puffish_skills:magic, and you level it up by casting spells from two other mods. This is a pack-specific setup, so don't assume it works this way in other packs.^[6]

How you earn magic experience

Every time you cast an Ars Nouveau spell, the pack adds experience to the magic category. The amount is the spell's cost multiplied by 0.1, rounded down to a whole number.^[6]

Casting an Iron's Spells spell works a bit differently. The experience is the spell's mana cost multiplied by 0.5, and then multiplied again by the spell level divided by 2, capped at 1. So a level 1 spell gives half of that experience, and anything from level 2 upwards gives the full amount. The result is rounded down to a whole number as well.^[6]

• Ars Nouveau: spell cost x 0.1, rounded down.^[6]
• Iron's Spells: mana cost x 0.5 x the lower of (spell level / 2) and 1, rounded down.^[6]
• Both go into the puffish_skills:magic category.^[6]

Tiers and unlocks

Unverified The sources I have don't cover the skill tree itself, such as how many tiers it has, what each skill gives you or how many points it costs. There are no in-pack recipes for this mod's items either, so I'm not guessing at any of that.

Pufferfish's Skills is a framework, and its configuration is JSON-driven. You can reload changes without restarting the game by using the /reload command. This pack keeps its settings in just two files, and I'll walk through every value so you know exactly what you're getting.^[1][4][5]

Category settings

These live in config/puffish_skills/category.json and define the skill category you see in the skills screen (press K by default to open it).^[1][5]

• spent_points_limit is set to 60 in this pack.^[5]
• unlocked_by_default is set to true, so the category is unlocked from the start.^[5]
• exclusive_root is set to true.^[5]
• title is "Something".^[5]
• icon.type is "item" and icon.data.item is "dirt", so the category shows a dirt icon.^[5]
• background uses the stone texture at textures/gui/advancements/backgrounds/stone.png.^[5]

General settings

In config/puffish_skills/config.json, show_warnings is set to true and version is 2.^[4]

Unverified The sources don't list the mod's default values for these options, so I can't say which ones this pack changed. They also don't explain exactly what spent_points_limit and exclusive_root do in play, so check the mod's documentation before relying on them.

FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 ships Pufferfish's Skills 0.19.0, and the mod was already in the pack by 1.0.1 or earlier. Here are the notable changes from the mod's own changelogs, newest first.^[2]

0.17.0 to 0.19.0

• 0.19.0 (the version in this pack): added exchange, which lets you buy points with vanilla experience levels. Also added a level command and a new point event in the API.^[2][7]
• 0.18.2: improved command reward permissions compatibility and added a skill unlocked advancement criteria trigger.^[8]
• 0.18.0: fixed the order of categories not being preserved, and added the player to skill events.^[9]
• 0.17.3: added the Smelt Item Experience Source and fixed the Craft Item Experience Source so it only counts crafting.^[10]
• 0.17.1: added anti-farming to the other experience sources, added tamed actions to experience sources, and fixed item stack components parsing.^[11]
• 0.17.0: added an API to import and export player data, plus a category description option.^[12]

0.16.x releases

• 0.16.8: fixed resizing when switching categories, transparent color parsing and an incorrect background position.^[13]
• 0.16.7: added a required mods option.^[14]
• 0.16.6: improved game rules compatibility and added Ukrainian translations.^[15]
• 0.16.5: fixed screen resizing and some incompatibilities, and added a new points indicator.^[16]
• 0.16.4: added a test entity operation and fixed anti-farming state being shared between experience sources. You can also now close the skills screen by pressing its keybinding again.^[17]
• 0.16.3: added pagination to the skill screen, fixed a crash when a skill reward unlocks the same skill, and improved the item stack test operation.^[18]