DragonAge mod guide

[GawainBS]

[url="http://www.bigdownload.com/games/dragon-age-origins--awakening/pc/dragon-age-origins-awakening-dlc-item-import-mod/"]This mod[/url] allows you to import your DLC items in Awakenings. About time someone corrected this disgustingly stupid move by Bioware...

[GoldDragon]

Anyone try out Bulwark of the True King (I think that is it's name)? I have it, but can't quite use it, yet.

Here it is: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Exclusive Tier 7 Shield Giveaway

Note: Limited time giveaway. Supposedly, it's Cailan & Alistair's Grandmother's shield (The Rebel Queen)

[Thing]

Chest in Camp Mod

The Chest is certainly handy for storing items that you think you MAY want to use at a future date when you're running out of space. However, since installing it, I have a problem when starting conversations with Shale in the camp - the camp background goes grey/black and it is impossible to move you character anywhere; the only solution is to abort and start again.

Anyone else hit this problem? Any solutions?

[JudgeU]

So, I just spent 88 sovereigns on the Felon's Coat and I must say I was terribly disappointed. Are there any good looking light armors in this game? Does anyone know of a mod that replaces the Felon's Coat model?

[GawainBS]

You could use the Winterforge-mod to create an item with the exact same stats, only better looking.

[galraen]

I'm running the extra dog slot, so far no problems either in the fade, or when summoning a wolf as a ranger. I'm using the latest version, and made a point of not using the whistle whilst doing the Mage Circle quest at any time.

Also tried the Character Respec mod, I got it to work eventually, by uninstalling then reinstalling , it seems installation order may be an issue here. Also f you haven't unlocked a specialisation you can't allocate it when using the potion. For instance I used it on Alistair and couldn't make him a Templar.

I'm also using the 'No starting abilities' mod, works fine for me.

[Khumak]

I ran into an even more annoying bug in the Fade that seems like it may be related.

Spoiler

I've only installed 2 mods recently, the extra dog slot mod and the official DLC Return to Ostagar. Since doing that, I've run into a problem in the fade where every time my xp bar maxes out it gets permanently stuck at max and I never gain another level from then on. Getting stuck at level 8 is not something I'm willing to put up with. I gained a level successfully in the tower before entering the fade so I suspect something is fubar with the dog mod and whatever the game does with your companions in the fade.

I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that I sometimes forget to unsummon Dog before going to camp or before meeting up with a new party member that has an option of joining. When I got to Sten, the party select screen came up and would not allow me to put ANYONE in the 4th slot. I was able to get around it by removing everyone, adding Dog, and then removing Dog but I think my game became bugged at that point.

Also I did have Dog summoned for part of my romp through the mage tower but I did remember to unsummon Dog before entering the Fade.

[galraen]

I've only experienced one technical problem in the fade and I've run with both the Dog Slot and Return to Ostagar is actually related to Shale (he doesn't turn up), I never had any of the problem you've related, so I suspect they are related to something else.

[galraen]

I've been running a few new (to me) mods recently:

Return to the Korkari Wilds An exellent mod, yes it's another dungeon crawl, but better that than the mods for horny little boys that dominate the rankings! The only criticisms I could make is the voice acting, and I feel uneasy about criticising that as Engish obviously isn't the modder's native tongue. If he/she had got a native speaker to do the voice acting it would be even better. I'd definitely give it 8/10 despite that. The only uber item I found was an awsome two-handed sword, maybe the modder shares my prejudices against the vanilla game!

Castle Cousland This is nothing but a hack'n'slash romp, not bad, but given a choice between RtKW and this I'd take the former. Nothing wrong with it, too many identical weapon and armour racks, but nothing too uber. I can only give it 6/10, but remember I'm a hard taskmaster, it's worth having, just not as professionally done as RtKW.

[dragon wench]

Some more high quality mods I've been trying:

[url="http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=615"]Alley of Murders[/url]
This is a shortish quest mod in Denerim for levels 9-12, roughly.
Very nice quest flow, thoughtfully put together, surprisingly good voice acting with a professional polish.
Highly recommended!

[url="http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=215"]Shadow Wardens Armour[/url]
Beautiful, black leather armour

[url="http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1018"]Armour of the Devout[/url]
More really gorgeous leather (including a set exclusively for Lelianna)

[url="http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1185"]Armour of the Sten[/url]
A unique armour set for Sten, distinctive and highly detailed, lovely work!

[Empty_Puppet]

Loot & Gamebalance Revision for Dragon Age: Origins

This mod for Dragon Age: Origins changes the itemization of the game. It adds about 600 new balanced items and a fully configurable loot system to the game. All the new items were created using a pattern to ensure that everything is balanced and to make sure, that there are no overpowered item combinations when using the difficult default settings.

The new items are sold by various vendors in the world, but they can also be acquired by looting dead enemies or containers. Whenever you enter an area for the first time, the new loot system randomly places the new magic items and other goodies in all kinds of lootable objects. You can even edit the percent chances to see these items drop directly. You can tweak the loot system to your liking by setting over 20 different settings. With all the new loot, you will constantly be improving your equipment over the course of the game.

The new loot system and all other changes can easily be configured or disabled by running the setup wizard at any time, even after you installed the mod. You can configure almost everything yourself or install only parts of the mod like the items or the loot system.

The mod also allows you to enable some balance changes that increase the difficulty of the game. A few misc things like a modified Auto Loot which is compatible to this mod are included as well.




All items are divided into two tiers. The item bonuses and prices have been set in a way that encourages players to buy some lower tier items, before they start to accumulate the more expensive ones.

The new tier one items can be bought from Bodahn, Varathorn, Garin and the Wonders of Thedas store while the tier two items are sold by Faryn, Cesar, Gorim and the quartermaster of the Circle Tower. They sell these items before and after the Landsmeet. Bodahn and Sandal sell the new items in every cutscene version of the party camp and later in the game in Redcliffe Castle and Fort Drakon.

The mod allows you to enable downgrading and removal of overpowered items and several other things that increase the difficulty and balance of the game like enemy health, enemy magic power and armor on items. In addition, it does some minor changes: New recipes allow crafting of up to 100 mana or health pots with a single click, it allows you to skip the Fade and it places a vendor in Denerim who sells the same herbs/recipes as Varathorn, just to name a few.

Keep in mind, that this mod has only been balanced and tested using the difficult default settings, default loot settings and the hardcore armor settings from the setup wizard, though. If you crank every setting up to the max, you will probably ruin your gaming experience.

Since many people complain about the game being too easy, this mod allows you to greatly increase the difficulty. If you select the difficult default options and the nightmare difficulty, you get a gameplay experience that is way more challenging than the original game: Everything has been adjusted to increase the difficulty and balance the game. Downgrading and removal of overpowered DLC and non-DLC stuff is enabled by default, enemies last a little longer and the player is more vulnerable. Quest rewards and loot have been adjusted, to give you the necessary income. You might also select the hardcore armor setting to increase the difficulty further.

You can use the comments or endorsements section for feedback. I always like to hear of new items that should be added, too.




Upcoming Changes

The "enable loot system for all creatures" issue will be fixed, an option for disabling single loot settings will be added and the final battle with the Archdemon will be seriously improved. I will add random abilities to the creatures that spawn during the fight and it will require a lot more movement than before, all depending on the selected difficulty setting. I am trying to turn the fight into a boss battle similar to those in classic World of Warcraft.

You know something that should be added to this mod in the future? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section.

Here is the URL of the PROJECT at nexus ...

Dragon Age: Origins - L&G Revision

... and don't forget to view the SCREENSHOTS!

SETUP WIZARD REQUIREMENTS:
The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is required to run the wizard. It is installed by default on
Windows Vista and Windows 7. If you use Windows XP, it was probably already installed
by Windows Update.

GDA FILES USED BY THE MOD IF ALL OPTIONS ARE ENABLED:
- autoscale.gda
- BITM_base.gda
- crafting_recipe_types.gda
- crafting_recipes.gda
- difficulty.gda
- materialrules.gda
- rewards.gda

ENGINE EVENTS OVERRIDEN BY THE MOD:
- EVENT_TYPE_INVENTORY_ADDED

THIS MOD LISTENS FOR THE FOLLOWING EVENTS:
- EVENT_TYPE_DYING
- EVENT_TYPE_INVENTORY_REMOVED
- EVENT_TYPE_ENTER

CURRENT REPORTED INCOMPATIBILITIES:
- Kocari Wilds

[dragon wench]

Couple more to recommend:

[url="http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1517"]Long Poisons[/url] makes the poison skill a lot more worthwhile by expanding a coating's duration to 30 minutes. I don't consider this a cheat, given the cost of the materials and the inconvenience of having to recoat every minute at the vanilla setting. (especially since Witcher's blade coatings last about 24 hours... )

[url="http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=851"]Ser Gilmore NPC[/url] This mod is extremely well done: very professional, polished, quality voice acting, good dialogue and story.



Oh, and unrelated to the above, I highly recommend the latest version of the extra dog slot, it's *much* less buggy.

[flix]

I made a DA mod guide for another forum listing almost all of the core mods I use and would recommend...I wanted to share it with Gamebanshee but it's pretty extensive and includes a lot of links, so rather than recreate the whole thing, here's a link to what I think is the current ultimate mod list for Dragon Age:

[url="http://chaoscascade.yuku.com/reply/1451/t/Dragon-Age.html#reply-1451"]Flix's Mod Guide for Dragon Age[/url]

What do you think? Anything I missed? I may add a section for items and gear.

[Jacksonmelkor]

Love these mods. Also very curious to try the huge atmosphere change one, but going to finish the game the first time through before doing so. thanks!

[galraen]

[url="http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=615"]Alley of Murders[/url]
This is a shortish quest mod in Denerim for levels 9-12, roughly.
Very nice quest flow, thoughtfully put together, surprisingly good voice acting with a professional polish.
Highly recommended!

For once I have to disagree with you DW. I've recently tried out this mod and it's broken. You can find out who the real killer is, but cannot resolve the issue with the original quest giver. Spoiler

Spoiler

It turns out he's an evil Elfophobe and will not accept that an Elf didn't do it. You then have two options effectively; kill an innocent elf, kill another innocent elf and that's it, no other option, not even kill the quest giver.

I have to give this mod 3 out of ten because of that. If the plot wasn't broken I''d give it a higher mark, but the 'dungeon' design is poor too, and the opponents ridiculously strong. If the plot was fixed I'd give it 6 out of 10.

I also realised (and this is why I started a new game) that I'd misplayed the Castle Cousland mod. I'd missed a key conversation for some reason and had only played the opening quest. Realising there was more to it than I'd though I decided to try again to see if it was as good as I'd thought. The answer is mixed. There is a lot more to the mod, but much of it is a repeat of what you've already done, There are two external encounters, the first of which I found fairly straight forward, after which you effectively have to redo the first part of the quest. The second, and final encounter uses the same map that is used when picking up the mabari war dog, and this is one hell of a battle, I'm not sure there are as many darkspawn in one place anywhere else in the game. The final confrontation can be very tough unless you have the right spell available, but the rewards are worth it, but not too uber IMHO.

The real problem with this mod, and other added quests & area mods (Return to Korkari Wilds for example) is that the added XP leaves the latter part of the game too easy. My character that I ran through this was level 26 for example and that was before the Redcliffe and Dalish elements. Also both Castle Cousland and Return to Korkari wilds have too many talent, arcane and skill books for sale.

[flix]

Galraen you can easily compensate for the extra XP and gear of such mods by using a difficulty mod such as Flash's Creatures Rescale or Nightmare Plus. Just sayin'. It makes it very rewarding.

[galraen]

Whilst that is true flix it's a shame you have to take such measures.

Also there's another aspect I didn't mention, memory usage. As we know DA retains memory of everything that happens in the areas of the game that are visited. This is why of course the save game file keeps on growing, and eventually becomes too big for the editor to handle. This obviously varies depending on the amount of memory available.

The problem for modders is that every time you add a new area you are increasing the amount of memory needed, therefore the size of a game save file and, unfortunately, the frequency of CTDs.

PS that's true of many games of course, and isn't just a criticism of DA.

[flix]

I suppose it's a 'shame.' Flash's Rescale has benefits of its own beyond the difficulty increases (which are really just an optional component). At any rate, after my first playthrough, an increase beyond nightmare was necessary even without mods IMO.

No comment on the CTD's. Haven't had a single one in a year's worth of several playthroughs of Dragon Age. Load times were nothing to blink at though.

[galraen]

At any rate, after my first play through, an increase beyond nightmare was necessary even without mods IMO.

That's undeniably true, the game is singularly lacking in the 'challenge' department. The only combats which are at all challenging are the ones where the game blatantly cheats, the Jarvia encounter for example.

I've been trying out some new (to me) mods, most of which flix recommended on the forum he/she linked to, they are:

Advanced Tactics - Liking it, a lot, adds a lot of options the game should have had from the start

PS All the mods I've mentioned can be found here

Dog gift tweaks - working well so far, but not had a lot of gifts to try out, anything that makes dog a viable companion (vanilla definitely isn't) is worth having. I'm also running extended dog talents (very good mod), and extra dog slot (can be problematic, but so far manageable, although it's a suspect regarding CTDs).

Healing received fix - Seems to do what it claims.

Ser Gilmore joinable NPC - Working well so far, no problems, voice acting is fine, and he does have one massive advantage, he isn't Alistair!

Auto Loot V1.13 - Working well, and incidentally seems to fix the Fade glitch I talked about in another thread, or at least minimises it.

Better Two-handed weapons and CNN faster Two-handed weapons - The real reason I decided to have another go, although it's very unlikely I'll get to the end of DA: O, it's getting a chore already and I've only done Lothering and the Circle! These two work well together, at long last a Two-handed warrior is actually worth playing, with these mods installed a 2H fighter is actually as good as a dual-wielding fighter.

On reflection the second most unbalancing mod I've tried is the Respec mod. With this available turning Wynn from being almost entirely useless into an instant killing machine is too easy, the same applies to Morrigan to a lesser extent. Morrigan can become uber-powerful by level 12 anyway, Respec enable you to make her and Wynn uber-powerful as soon as you get them, game over.

Of course you could, as I have this time, refuse to use Respec on them, this of course only delays the inevitable with Morrigan. Nothing of course can be done to give the game a chance if you're a mage yourself, especially if you are using the Spell Shaping mod. My advice is don't use it, it makes the game far too easy, and is without doubt the most unbalancing mod I've tried.

The bottom line is of course, Mages rule, in that respect DA:O really is a typical CRPG.

PS All the mods I've mentioned can be found here

PPS Is there a mod which disables the idiotic and infuriating killing blow poses? I do get fed up when a party member dies because my fighter is too busy striking pathetic Mel Gibson type poses rather than attacking the baddy I've told him to!

[galraen]

Follow up to the last post in a way.

I've been tinkering with the DATNG - Cleric Class v4 and running a test on the mods mentioned above.

Nothing much to add to the previous assessments, except to underling the effectiveness of the Two-Handed weapon mods.

There was debate some time ago on here about which was the more effective warrior, Two-hander or dual wielder. So I've run through the game as a Cleric, with Sten (two-hander) and Leliana (dual-wielder) with me the whole way.

As they developed the lead went back and forth constantly' as one got a new talent he/she would have the advantage, only to be hauled back or even overtaken when the other levelled up. I only used weapons available in the vanilla game with those two, and didn't give either of them books. By the time they'd both reached level 20 though they were locked on 13% of party damage, and never budged. So with those two mods, the talent trees are finally equal, highly recommended.

So, my assessment of the Cleric mod. Briliant, except for one slight snag - no way to create/edit your character's appearance, you are a Yul Brinner lookalike, no matter what you do in game. So is any other character you create with this mod active. However there is a fix you can use, baraquel, a member of DA Nexus is the person responsible for figuring it out:

I have gotten my character appearance working with this mod and version 1.03 by using the toolset to edit the player morph binary setting. Just create a new character with the appearance you want WITHOUT the cleric mod active. You can use that save game data to import your characters appearance into a saved game WITH this mod active.

The key to change is SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR -> SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR_CHAR -> SAVEGAME_PLAYER_MORPH.

Cut and past work well for doing this; place the curser at the beginning of the line of data (it's a long line) then hold down shift+end; this should highlight the whole string, press Ctrl+C, then paste (Ctrl+V).

This is a spell casting character who loves to get into the thick of the action, the area effect spells centred on the character are devastating, possibly too much so for some people's liking. The defences available mean that he/she can take the damage before the spells go off too, and without spells is a good tank. The class is treated as a warrior, so with the Human origin (why is there only one?) you can become Queen of Ferelden, or King if you're male (Consort, pffff, little does she know what's coming to her!:mischief . I only played through until arriving in Aemon's estate in Denerim, what happens from then on in the game is just too much of a piss take for me to bother with.

Love the way the game plays, game design and scripting very bad though, shame.

Final score for DATNG, 8/10, would have been 9.5/10 if it was not for the blemish in creating the character.