Pufferfish's Skills in FTB Skies 2: Aero

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

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.

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

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.

Pufferfish's Skills has no machines, multiblocks, power or fluids to wire up. It is a framework for skill systems, and the skill trees themselves come from separate content. Everything below is how the skill system works in this pack.^[1]

Points, experience and the skill tree

Each skill category tracks experience, points and unlocked skills for every player. When you earn a point, the game tells you with a chat message that you have a new skill point and shows which key opens your skill tree. The default key is K, and the control is listed as Open Skill Tree.^[1][4]

While you level up, a tooltip shows your progress as experience out of the amount needed, plus a percentage.^[4]

What the pack sets in its config

The category settings in spent_points_limit are set to 60 here. The same file sets exclusive_root to true and unlocked_by_default to true. The category title is "Something", and its icon.type is "item" with icon.data.item set to dirt. The background is the stone advancement texture.^[5]

The main config has show_warnings set to true and version set to 2.^[6]

If a skill tree config is broken, the game shows a toast telling you to check the game logs. If no skill trees are provided at all, a different toast tells you to add one.^[4]

How spellcasting earns magic experience

This pack uses a startup script to feed experience into a category with the id puffish_skills:magic whenever you cast spells. The script hooks into Ars Nouveau spell casts and Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks casts. The amount is rounded down to a whole number before it is added.^[7]

• Ars Nouveau: you get the spell's cost multiplied by 0.1.^[7]
• Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks: you get the mana cost multiplied by 0.5, then scaled by the spell level divided by 2, capped at 1. So spells of level 2 or higher get the full multiplier, and level 1 spells get half of it.^[7]

The script also has a testing flag that is off by default. When it is switched on, you get chat messages showing how much experience each cast added, and any errors in the script.^[7]

Commands

These commands let you manage a player's progress, which is handy for testing or fixing a save. Each one takes a player and a category.^[1]

• /puffish_skills points add and points set change a player's points. There is also a points get that reports how many points a player has in a category.^[1][4]
• /puffish_skills experience add and experience set change experience. There is also an experience get.^[1][4]
• /puffish_skills level add, level set and level get work on levels, but only if levels are enabled for that category. Otherwise the game says level is not enabled for the category.^[4]
• /puffish_skills skills unlock unlocks a skill, and skills lock locks one again. skills reset locks all skills and refunds the points.^[1][4]
• /puffish_skills category lock and category unlock control access to a category. category erase resets points, experience and skills.^[1]
• /puffish_skills open opens the skills screen for a player. There is also a category open command that opens a specific category screen.^[4]

This pack ties one Pufferfish's Skills category to spellcasting. A startup script adds experience to the "puffish_skills:magic" category every time you cast a spell from Ars Nouveau or Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks. So the way you level up in that category is by casting spells.^[7]

How magic experience is earned

• Ars Nouveau: each cast gives experience equal to the spell's cost multiplied by 0.1.^[7]
• Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks: each cast gives experience equal to the mana cost multiplied by 0.5, then scaled by the spell level divided by 2, capped at 1.^[7]
• In both cases the result is rounded down to a whole number before it is added.^[7]

The level scaling for Iron's Spells means a level 1 spell gives half of the full amount, and any spell of level 2 or higher gives the full amount. Stronger spells with higher mana costs are the quickest way to earn experience.^[7]

What about tiers?

There are no quests in this pack that involve the mod, so the quest book doesn't walk you through a progression path for it. No recipes produce this mod's items either, so there are no crafting tiers to follow.^[7]

Unverified The layout of the magic skill tree, how many levels it has and what each skill unlocks are not confirmed by the pack files available, so they are not described here.

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

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][8][9]

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][8]

• spent_points_limit is set to 60 in this pack.^[8]
• unlocked_by_default is set to true, so the category is unlocked from the start.^[8]
• exclusive_root is set to true.^[8]
• title is "Something".^[8]
• icon.type is "item" and icon.data.item is "dirt", so the category shows a dirt icon.^[8]
• background uses the stone texture at textures/gui/advancements/backgrounds/stone.png.^[8]

General settings

In config/puffish_skills/config.json, show_warnings is set to true and version is 2.^[9]

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: Aero 1.10.0 ships Pufferfish's Skills 0.19.0. The mod was already in the pack by Aero 1.0.3 or earlier, so you have had it from the early releases. Below are the mod's own changelog notes for the versions up to the one you're playing.^[10]

Mod changelog highlights

• 0.19.0 (the version in this pack): added an exchange, which lets you buy points with vanilla experience levels. It also added a level command and a new point event in the API.^[10][11]
• 0.18.3: added an option to reset experience on death and an option to erase a category on death. It also fixed a rare crash caused by background textures.^[12]
• 0.18.2: improved compatibility with command reward permissions and added a skill unlocked advancement criteria trigger.^[13]
• 0.18.1: improved compatibility of the Mine Block Experience Source and Break Block Experience Source. Experience now cannot drop below zero, and a crash in data generation was fixed.^[14]

Unverified The pack's own changelogs have no entries for this mod, so any changes the pack made to it between releases are unverified here, including whether the death options or the exchange are enabled in this pack.