70 replies to this topic

[Kulyok]

I read all dialogue on the Wiki last week, and I keep coming back for updates, but it's still incomplete - there's no dialogue with my favourite *secret companion*, for example.

(Though they'd post all Wynne banters instead. Bleh. By the way, yesterday I finally saved the mages AND killed Wynne - felt very satisfying to save the Circle with the same main party, I didn't even know it was possible).

[berelinde]

The "Knock" mod, that lets your mage learn a spell to open locks, is very nice. Trying it now.

I tried out that character respec mod, and liked it very much, but I forgot to unlock the bard specialization first, so I had to wait until my character's influence with Leliana was high enough to want to teach it. And then she became a bard again. I never wanted to make characters other specializations than they were originally given, since I think they're assigned just fine, but I really needed to do something about that stupid skill allocation. So that's the moral of the story: if you want to give any character a specialization after using the mod, make sure you've unlocked the specialization first.

There's also a Quartermaster mod available at DA:Nexus that puts a shopkeeper in your party camp that will hold your gear for you at no cost. This is important, because the party chest can reset after dreams/combat, but the shopkeeper will have the same inventory. Granted, the shopkeeper won't be there right after the dream/combat, but if you leave camp and come back, he'll still have your stuff. Yeah, I know, Warden's Keep has a chest, but you can only put weapons and armor in it (you can give anything at all to the quartermaster), and then you have to trudge all the way there whenever you want to see if Sten can use that massive armor yet.

I'm currently trying a mod that lets your shapechanger mage learn other forms. NPC mages can't use it because it apparently corrupts their morphs, but it's good for the PC.

Winter's Forge is very nice, as well. It lets you tweak armor and weapons. It can be used to create god items, true, but if you use a little restraint, you can make or modify some nice, balanced gear. You can even name the stuff. This is the only mod I've found yet that puts use instructions in your codex. Talk about useful. The only thing that would improve the mod, IMO, is if the smith charged for the service. And voicing.

For graphics mods, I've got Chargen Package and CC_Extra Tints and Tones. I thought about Pineappletree's mod, just for the 40 hair colors and about as many skin colors, but it looked like a lot of work to modify it to suit my taste. All the eye colors are too light/too bright, and removing them involves editing a bunch of files, which sounds like a pain. [Edit: In the end, I decided to try editing that file anyway, and it worked, so I was able to make Pineappletree's Vibrant Colors play nice with the other mods. That's nice, because I really liked the pale skin tones that don't look grey and the Asian skin tones that don't look jaundiced.]

Edited by berelinde, 08 December 2009 - 02:33 PM.

[berelinde]

A mod for multi-romancers. It also lets the PC have more fun with Isabella without hardening the love interest.

I wonder if it disables the conflict banters, though... they're fun.

[Kulyok]

I'd love to try some of these, but they don't seem offer a safe escape, Weidu-like. I mean, can I keep a clean backup for these or something? If I could, I'd like to try some of these, but if not, I guess I won't screw with my(relatively clean) patch installation.

[berelinde]

On any mod that uses dazip files, disabling the content is nothing more than unchecking the appropriate box on the Downloaded Content page. I've already done that when a bag of holding mod proved to be buggy. A more complete removal involves deleting the appropriate mod folder from the Documents/Bioware/Dragon Age/AddIns folder. But yeah, kinda miss WeiDU.

This is all really strange to IE modders. We're used to working with the game files in situ, not just dumping stuff in the override. Thing is, though, these DA mods either have you put files directly into the override, where uninstallation is a simple matter of deleting the file, or they use the updater to put the files in the AddIns folder, which is kind of like another override folder, where uninstallation works more or less the same way. It was like that for NWN2, as well. Don't want a mod anymore? Just blow away the file. Game restored. That leads to greater potential for mod conflicts. Two mods affect the same file, so there are conflicting versions in the override(s). Random chaos ensues. Fortunately, a lot of these mods use formats that are easy to edit, XML and the like, so it's sometimes possible to combine the duplicate files without a lot of fuss. Wish NWN2 had been like that.

Anyway, at this point, there really aren't a lot of mods out there. We'll see how things go in six months, when more mods come out.

Edited by berelinde, 09 December 2009 - 01:41 AM.

[Yovaneth]

I'd love to try some of these, but they don't seem offer a safe escape, Weidu-like. I mean, can I keep a clean backup for these or something? If I could, I'd like to try some of these, but if not, I guess I won't screw with my(relatively clean) patch installation.

I'm working on it. Trouble is, there's way too many ways to drop files in to the override folders:

1. Local override - unzip files into the root.
2. Core override - unzip files into the root.
3. Local override - just drop in a folder.
4. Core override - just drop in a folder.

I've got (1) and (2) covered ATM. I now have to write a routine to search all folders in (3) and (4) to identify possible conflicts when a new folder is placed in the override(s).

-Y-

[Eleima]

I read all dialogue on the Wiki last week, and I keep coming back for updates, but it's still incomplete - there's no dialogue with my favourite *secret companion*, for example.
(Though they'd post all Wynne banters instead. Bleh. By the way, yesterday I finally saved the mages AND killed Wynne - felt very satisfying to save the Circle with the same main party, I didn't even know it was possible).

I have to take issue with that, Kulyok, because it *is* a wiki, after all, which we, as users, can edit and contribute to. I've been trying to add my two cents by editing in the banters that popped up and weren't in there, but a couple of people can only do so much. (That, and I've never had the secret companion along long enough to actually have his banters pop up).

Back on topic: It's good to hear that someone skilled is working on the "easy way out" for uninstalling mods in DA:O. I've been a bit hesitant with the mods, because the last thing I want is to have to uninstall and reinstall the whole thing (especially since the copy protection stuff apparently limits the number of installs, from what I understand). So I've stuck with the lock spells and the automatic equip'ing of helmets for combat.
So hang in there, Yovaneth, because if you find a solution for us, I think you'll make quite a few happy people here, including me.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Back on topic: It's good to hear that someone skilled is working on the "easy way out" for uninstalling mods in DA:O. I've been a bit hesitant with the mods, because the last thing I want is to have to uninstall and reinstall the whole thing (especially since the copy protection stuff apparently limits the number of installs, from what I understand). So I've stuck with the lock spells and the automatic equip'ing of helmets for combat.

To uninstall a mod, you just have to:
1) If the mod came in a .dazip package, just unable it from the downloadable content menu, these mods should be so small you couldn't even notice the extra space the game takes to unpack the, at least for now, when comparing to original game size, and BG2's mods.
2) If the mod came in a .zip package, just delete the files that came with the package from where you put them.
Easy.

[berelinde]

The only problem with disabling dazip mods is that you can't make changes to games in progress. Which means that if you want to try something, the game won't load unless the content is enabled.

[Jarno Mikkola]

The only problem with disabling dazip mods is that you can't make changes to games in progress. Which means that if you want to try something, the game won't load unless the content is enabled.

Have you tried that. Cause I have, and when I force load the save, I get what I desire, the mods might leave unattainable objects as a reminder, one being an invisible storage container in the camp, but that's what you get when you load a game that used the 'baggage' mod. The text is there, nothing else...
Of course I haven't tried unable a mod that alters the appearance of a party member, but you can fix that by starting a new game, not loading an old unsafe save... that's what you should do to all the BG2 mods too.

[berelinde]

DA Modder is a clever, incredibly easy to use tool that allows you to painlessly install and uninstall mods. I'm still experimenting with it, but it seems to work exactly as advertised.