Should codex mod previews tell you what the mod does?

[Kristal8008]

Modding is very innaccessable point of the game where either you have to ask 1000 questions in the q&a chat, or consult the wiki constantly.
The codex does keep track of your progression, but should it maybe do more?
It would still keep track of your progression, but I think that it should also tell the description and drop location, I think it would make mods a lot more accessible to a lot more players.
Don't even think it would affect the game negatively in any way, you already get the entire mod list by just using some square brackets, but that seems like a really weird way to interact with the game when the codex exists and could be used that way instead, you could even just search by the mods description rather than the name of it, which might be useful when you're trying to search for something obscure like life steal, which the names of those mods are not at all similiar to each other, you got life strike, amalgam daikyu target acquired, hunter's recovery, etc.

I think these are good reasons for the previews to not be ???? ????????? ??? ?? ???????? but something actually helpful, while still giving you the ability to track your progress of mods.

[trst]

Or players can figure things out themselves through trial and error, it isn't that hard.

As for the actual question there's not much of a reason to not fully display mods since chat linking shows what they do at all times. Though I'd say to not overwhelm players it should only show mods that can be obtained through the content you've unlocked (ie: not showing TennoKai mods until Whispers is complete). And only showing the location they drop in instead of each enemy so that scanning retains its purpose.

[(NSW)Greybones]

That’s a tricky one, since I’m a big proponent of the “Guide a little bit, but don’t give away too much” idea that facilitates experimentation and rewards discovery.

I think the Codex does an okay job at informing players and being a reference for how to mod, but it could do with a polish and passover to make it the source of information that doesn’t give everything away, but can still guide. And also I’d like to see more lore information for scanned enemies beyond what they’re weak to and what mods they drop, expanding on the little descriptors.

Oh, and what damage type they do, so that I know what I’m being hit by and how or whether I need to act on that information.

Regarding hidden mod descriptions though…. personally I prefer the discovery. Not sure how to fix it while keeping it appropriately vague? You can bypass it by linking in chat and clicking, but I like that some things are kept in the dark with a bit of guidance, since the mods do show where we can get them from even if it doesn’t say what they do.

edit: 🤔 Maybe the descriptors could be vague enough that it conveys the idea behind the mod, without going into the nitty gritty

Edited December 25, 2023 by (NSW)Greybones

[(NSW)Greybones]

What questions are you asking in chat about mods?

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

One of the many themes of the game is "You woke up in a cryopod and got thrust into this war." 

You have the technology and the means to start discovering, but you have to actually leave the ship and scan things manually and walk around yourself. 

[Kristal8008]

As someone who went into end game content 100 hours in, It has been very painful since not knowing which mods exist really hurts the experience, since you only know of the mods that you got, which are usually pretty weak, even though some of the better mods are very accessible, just gotta have to do this mission once or twice, or kill this enemy a few times, stuff that you either know how to get, or stumble by chance by just constantly hitting your head against the wall until an actually decent mod appears.

[(XBOX)K1jker]

Yes it should

[SneakyErvin]

Yes since the stats of new mods etc are already revealed in patch notes and you can get them by linking aswell in the game chat. So not having it show in codex seems like an archaic remnant from a game that was years and years ago.

[Kristal8008]

Just realized, this is already the case with arcanes, though they're not in the codex and rather in their own screen.

[Tombsite]

On 2023-12-24 at 10:30 PM, Kristal8008 said:

I think these are good reasons for the previews to not be ???? ????????? ??? ?? ???????? but something actually helpful, while still giving you the ability to track your progress of mods.

It would also give you a reason to target some of them for farming. Right now it's more of a completionist checklist.

[PublikDomain]

Yes, it should be changed. Not only is it poor for discoverability, it's also completely pointless since chat-linking the name shows the description anyways.

On 2022-04-18 at 8:49 PM, PublikDomain said:

Unowned mods in the Codex are also censored with question marks instead of a description. This is unnecessary since players can simply chat-link the item to see the text. This "feature" should be retired and mods should just be legible by default.

 
This "feature" is redundant and only makes it harder to find information.

When the "means to start discovering" these mods when new players have to "figure things out themselves" is really just typing [mod] in chat... Oh no, people wouldn't have to jank their way around the archaic and pointless menu, how terrible.