MSBT Merging
Note
Info in any Lythos or Cobalt Wiki page may be unnecessary, disorganized, outdated, inaccurate, missing, etc, so we highly encourage you to edit pages to improve them!
Assume everything is straight from the game unless stated otherwise & if there are any restrictions, you can code mod your way out of them.
Please use Astra.
There is some text you may not be able to edit with Astra. If you find you can't edit some text & someone hasn't made an issue already, please make one here.
While testing your Astra/TXT edits & your game is running, please use the Cobalt reload messages feature, or the Divine Dragon Debugger! Both are huge time saves, but the latter is an even bigger time save!
Cobalt uses the plain text MSBT format defined by astra-msbt.
Note
If you have a Cobalt mod currently using .msbt files, you can use this experimental tool to help with the migration to .txt.
Most of the time, you should be using Astra. If Astra can't edit/or add the text you're looking for, use the Divine Dragon Debugger to find it & the right file of where the text should be placed. Make sure you unview your text & view it again to see the effects apply in real time. Note while you can edit text with the debugger, it can't create the mod files or save the edits you made in the debugger within your mod files!
Use astra-msbt to dump MSBT bundles into plain text for editing. You can also make your own .txt files as long as they follow the proper format, which is depicted in the example below.
Warning
If any of your message labels, [MXID_Thing], contain any non Alphabet or non plain alphanumeric Alphabet characters (except underscores, _), Cobalt will panic! It'll likely stay this way for a long time. If the linked issue is fixed, maybe this too will also be changed soon after.
[MAID_QueenNia]
Lifesage Attire
[MAID_H_QueenNia]
The casual outfit of Queen Nia, a healer hailing from Aionios.
Her command of water can fell foes and heal allies in the same beat.The above will add 2 new labels to the file it is patching.
Place your unbundled .txt file(s) in /patches/msbt/, and follow the same hierarchy as the game's fe_asset_message directory (patches/msbt/message/us/usen/accessories.txt, for example).
If you wish to use a .txt file globally for any language you did not provide a localization for, place it in patches/msbt/message instead (patches/msbt/message/accessories.txt, for example).
Patches in the language folders will prevail for their respective language if available.
Warning
Your filenames must be LOWERCASE.
If you use astra-msbt to dump an MSBT for editing, you should only keep the entries that you have changed. If you include unchanged entries, you may conflict with other mods that actually do edit those entries.
You can use Unity's TextMeshPro tags in your MSBT text. You can set parts or all of your MSBT text in any color you want, using hex codes. Here is a hex color picker you can use, but you can find another online if you don't like it.
You can use it in the dialogue window, but it renders out the tags used to make rich text, until it finishes then applies it.
Dialogue.Window.-.Render.Tags.Then.Applies.mp4
The following tags don't work:<font><font-weight><gradient>
When you use the <pos> tag, in certain menus, you can see the description window resizing itself.
When.using.pos.tag.in.text.can.see.description.window.resize.mp4
You can put pre-existing sprites in your MSBT text, but not all types of sprites can be used.
Only sprite names found in the MonoBehaviour of bundles in 0100A6301214E000\romfs\Data\StreamingAssets\aa\Switch\fe_assets_ui\icon\spriteassets can be used in MSBT text. Replaced or additional sprites can't be added in MSBT text by just putting them in folder paths & this feature won't be added in Cobalt.
Here's an example of Rightful Ruler's help text edited:
[MSID_H_LucinaRing_Chrom]
+5% to most skill and
item proc trigger rates.
<line-height=70%><b><color=green>Adds to:</color></b><sprite="Skill" name="シグルドエンゲージ技"><sprite="Skill" name="リーフエンゲージ技"><sprite="Skill_P1" name="セネリオエンゲージ技"><sprite="Skill_P1" name="復帰阻止">
<line-height=70%><sprite="Item" name="Byleth_AegisShield"><sprite="Item" name="Byleth_RafailGem"><sprite="Item" name="Byleth_Thyrsus"><sprite="Item_P2" name="Bullet_Collapse"><sprite="Item_P2" name="Bullet_Freeze"><sprite="Item_P2" name="Bullet_Silence">
<line-height=70%><sprite="Skill" name="風薙ぎ"><sprite="Skill" name="瞬殺"><sprite="Skill" name="祈り"><sprite="Skill" name="旋風"><sprite="Skill" name="必的"><sprite="Skill" name="滅殺"><sprite="Skill" name="一攫千金">
<line-height=130%><sprite="Skill" name="金蓮"><sprite="Skill" name="華炎"><sprite="Skill" name="月光"><sprite="Skill" name="太陽"><sprite="Skill" name="虚空"><sprite="Skill" name="水鏡"><sprite="Skill" name="砂陣">
<line-height=100%><b><color=#f7b100>Luck</color></b><voffset=-0.15em><sprite="Item" name="Tonic"></voffset>Enchanter Surge
<line-height=170%><b><color=red>Doesn't add to:</color></b><sprite="Skill" name="絆盾"><sprite="Skill" name="デュアルアシスト"><sprite="Skill" name="デュアルアシスト＋">
<line-height=170%><sprite="Skill" name="大樹"><sprite="Skill" name="料理再現"><sprite="Skill" name="拾得"><sprite="Skill" name="天刻の拍動"><sprite="Skill" name="天刻の拍動＋"><sprite="Skill" name="閃花">
Thanks Ashai for this discovery!
When making your text, it is important to consider how it looks in each menu that can view it, especially with Draconic Vibe Crystal: Runtime Randomizer + More being a very popular mod & all.
The below chart shows the amount of lines of size 25 W's (25 is the default size of help text) that can fit in each container before the text's width changes, becomes out of view or overlaps majorly with other UI.
The table shows 5 Equip Skills container sizes since it's also popular.
| MSBT Text | Ingame View |
|---|---|
[Item_Shop_Help_Text] |
 |
[Manage_Items_Item_Help_Text] |
 |
[Unit_Info_Item_Help_Text] The picture on the right had My Code Mods: Quality of Life Mods [Cobalt Plugin] running. |
 |
[Class_Change_Skill_Help] |
 |
[Inherit_Skills_Details_Skill_Help] |
 |
[Ring_Reference_Emblem_Bond_Effects_Skill_Help] |
 |
[Ring_Reference_Bond_Ring_Effects_Skill_Help] |
 |
[Unit_Info_Skill_Help_No_5EquipSkills] |
 |
[Unit_Info_Skill_Help_Yes_5EquipSkills] |
 |
[Manage_Skills_Details_Skill_Help_No_5EquipSkills] |
 |
[Manage_Skills_Details_Skill_Help_Yes_5EquipSkills] |
 |