Question2

That's a difference of opinion i guess. Writing code to do something, sure that's programming. Figuring out which files to open? I don't think most people would call that programming. If the wiki assumes that you know exactly which file does what, that's a huge assumption because that information isn't included anywhere from what i can tell so only bioware devs would know. I mean, how are you supposed to find out what file contains what? Even if you take a programming course, they are not going to know because this is a game specific question. Also thanks for suggesting the advanced search option, apparently thats turned off by default in windows 7 so i didn't see it. The .uti doesnt appear to be encrypted...it's just that it won't appear in the palette for some reason? I can extract it just fine but i can't edit it properly and there is no tutorial on how to get the toolset to open a DLC item...

I'm not even doing programming here. I'm stuck trying to figure out which files contain what, something the wiki doesn't actually tell you because nobody bothered to make a reference table for this and everyone seems to be jealously guarding the knowledge for a 5 year old+ game for some reason. I do have the rights/privileges to make the changes that i want to make, i'm not sure why this was brought up. It doesn't help to say "do the research" when that info isn't available anywhere. If it is, please tell me where it is because it's not on the wiki from what i can tell. I'm happy to go read a guide or something if it actually includes the info i'm looking for. But it's pointless to tell people to look for information that doesn't exist. Not sure why you brought up the search function either because that only searches via filenames, and it wont find the excel file with the combat animation figures that way (try it if you don't believe me). Right now i'm stuck trying to figure out how to edit DLC items in the toolset, but as i mentioned in my last post they just won't appear in the toolset no matter what i do and again, the wiki makes no mention of how you are supposed to get them to appear.

Its not possible to edit an existing string? Okay. I think i found the code for it : case ABILITY_TALENT_AURA_OF_PAIN: { // apply damage to caster ApplyEffectDamageOverTime(oCreator, oCreator, nAbility, PAIN_INTERVAL_DAMAGE, PAIN_INTERVAL_DURATION, DAMAGE_TYPE_PLOT, Ability_GetImpactObjectVfxId(nAbility)); fInterval = PAIN_INTERVAL_DURATION; break; } If i delete this, it shouldn't do damage to the reaver right? I found some excel files in D:\Dragon Age\tools\Source\2DA, but i can't figure out which one has the racial animation speeds. I've already checked more than a dozen files in there. Any idea which file would have it? I also ran into a problem with trying to edit DLC items in the toolset. For some reason the toolset can't find it...not even if i place the DLC data into the D:\Dragon Age\packages\core\data directory. I tried extracting the .uti files manually from the .erf and opening them in the toolset, but i just get gibberish and the toolset refuses to let me use the object inspector to edit the .uti (and since i can't find it in the palette, i have no way of using the object inspector to view the .uti). Any ideas on how to do this? Wiki doesn't say anything about editing DLC items... http://i.imgur.com/r2biFRl.png

Another thing which i am trying to do is modify a mod's .gda file so that it only increases the out of combat movement speeds (the mod itself increases combat speeds as well). Heres what the .gda file looks like : http://i.imgur.com/xLpFFBK.png I should be able to delete pretty much everything except the races used by the player characters (as it doesnt matter whether NPCs move fast out of combat or not). The problem is that i dont know how to reverse the combat speed changes the mod did....elf combat speed is set to "5.59999990463257" for example and i don't know what hte original value is. How do i use the toolset to find that? I'm guessing i need to change the animation combat speeds to default too...

Okay apparently the toolset cant compile anything if its set to anything other than english for non-unicode programs, weird. Anyway i think i managed to compile and export without any problems, thanks. Now im trying to edit spell tooltips in the combat tweaks mod. This tutorial (http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Adding_a_new_spell_tutorial#Updating_your_ability) only talks about creating an entirely new tooltip...not how to edit an existing one. I found the string reference from the mod's source files (ABI_ct.xls), but the string editor refuses to let me edit that string, saying that it belongs to a resource that is already checked out? I can't find out what resource it is as it doesn't actually tell me and i didn't check out anything. To complicate matters, i had to go to the single player module to find that string because i can't see any way to import the source code for the mod in as a module...i want to edit the tooltips that are already present in the mod's source files, not the default single player ones. How do i do this? In regards to aura of pain in talent_aoe_duration.nss : case ABILITY_TALENT_PAIN: { // if hostile if (IsObjectHostile(oCreator, oTarget) == TRUE) { ApplyEffectDamageOverTime(oTarget, oCreator, nAbility, PAIN_INTERVAL_DAMAGE, PAIN_INTERVAL_DURATION, DAMAGE_TYPE_SPIRIT, Ability_GetImpactObjectVfxId(nAbility)); } break; } } If i wanted to make aura of pain not deal damage to the reaver using it, do i simply remove the oCreator lines?

Thanks, but the scripting tutorial doesn't even mention the word "compile" for some reason. There would probably be a lot more mods if there had been better tutorials. To start off with, I created a new resource in the toolset titled "additem.nss". In the notepad like window, i copy pasted the script, which is the additem script modified with one extra line to spawn the amaranthine guardhouse key, and then clicked compile script. The toolset then tries to save the script, but it always hangs midway. What am i doing wrong? Nothing in scripting overview or the scripting tutorial says anything about the toolset hanging when you click compile. Edit : Language setting might be an issue here, testing now. I'm looking at the tutorial you linked btw, and it helped a lot, thanks. But what do i do when i already have the source code files for an existing mod, and am not trying to modify the core resources? Is there a quick way to compile all the .nss files other than individually adding new resources for them then compiling? I can't seem to open the .nss files in the toolset for some reason...

mcgoy : the problem is, the wiki tells you nothing about how to edit a mod, if you look in the tutorial section it only has tutorials on how to create something from scratch, but not how to edit an existing mod. For example i have a mod's source code here, which is a folder of .xls files and a folder of .nss files. The wiki doesn't say anything about what file i am supposed to open or using what option in the toolset. theskymoves : Thanks, i opened up the engineevents.gda file for the two conflicting mods. But it just shows three columns, ID, EVENT_TYPE and string. It doesn't tell me what does what exactly. How am i supposed to make the two of them compatible then?

I have the mod source files, but i have no idea how to open them in the toolset (or which ones to open actually). Im trying to edit talent/spells, just changing some numbers around and the description. How do i do this? (Also if anyone knows how to edit engineevents.gda like tinman said here : http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/229926-dragon-age-single-fixes-endorsements/page-53 that would be great)

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http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/229926-dragon-age-single-fixes-endorsements/page-53 According to this, having both the fix pack and combat tweaks installed will prevent you from turning blood thirst off. Does anyone have a workaround or fix for this? I tried this mod : http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=759 and http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1041 but as far as i can tell the "fix" for blood thirst does not work at all.

So you have to start a romance first before those options become available?

You can advance quest states with the debug commands, but i noticed that the debugger does not appear to give you any option to reverse quest states (e.g. set a quest back to the beginning). Does anyone know if this is possible?

I thought both the kiss/tent scene was supposed to be achievable outside of a romance? Thats what the wiki implies anyway.

Im using disc, i dont know why there is a mods/override folder under my game install folder if you guys dont have it...maybe the mod manager put it there?

The full path is Dragon Age/Mods/Override, AKA game folder/Mods/Override. All mods i put in that folder do nothing, whereas they work just fine if i put it into the bioware override folder.

Dropping mods into that folder does not do anything because DA only looks at BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override....even with DAModder pointed at Dragon Age/Mods/Override, mods in that folder do nothing.

Are you able to get the kiss/tent scene WITHOUT entering into a romance with morrigan?

The wiki isnt clear on this.... -How does +% chance to dodge attacks work? For example if you have 50% chance to dodge an attack due to defence, does +10% dodge chance make it +60% or +55%? -Walking bomb supposedly does a lot of damage, but even with 50+ spellpower, it obviously inflicts very little splash damage when the victim dies. Why is this?

The way the game is setup, all you need is a tank in massive armor to draw aggro and thats it. Everyone else may as well be in light or no armor because they are not going to get physically hit anyway (except for some very rare physical AOE attacks). More armor = more fatigue = less stamina to spam abilities so i cant figure out why you would want to use medium armor. Heavy armor itself is only used till you get access to massive armor. There are so many top tier massive armor sets in the game that theres really no reason to use medium armor...and most of the massive armor sets are very easy to get (cailan's set and warden commander armor is easily obtained right after lothering).

This seems like a pretty common problem but the mod creators have dissapeared and i cant get in touch with them. Im playing as a female warden and i have tried using both equal/free love mods and the equal love mod with the morrigan restoration patch (including the optional equal love fix) but i cannot get the kiss/tent scene options even at +55 approval. I can only get the tent scene option if i use the console to manually start the romance. Does anyone know how to fix this?

I dont see anything on that page that explains how to open and edit an item....

-Cant use runes (huge difference in damage, two grandmaster silverite runes is +20 damage PER HIT vs one of the most common enemies in the game) -No set item bonuses -No stat buffs from accessories, etc -Weapons/armor are MUCH weaker than what a normal character can use -Talents are extremely limited and do not synergize or scale well (you get 3 trees of talents for normal characters, dog gets one, shale gets one per mode, talents in other modes dont affect the other modes) At around level 10 you can pick up very powerful items like the warden commander set and starfang, whereas shale's top tier crystals only show up at around level 20. Even comparing shale/dog with their top tier equip vs other characters with early equip, other characters come out ahead. Oghren with the legion of the dead and helm of honnleath and some accessories gets 34 armor. Shale in tank mode with brilliant natural crystals only get 20 armor. And this is with Oghren specced for damage with a two hander. Shale's buff mode leaves her defenceless and is much weaker than Leliana with song of courage. Except that Leliana with song of courage can still attack and do insane damage with a decent bow. Shale's ranged mode doesnt seem to have a basic ranged attack and her talents all have long cooldowns so im not sure how you are supposed to keep her in ranged mode and be useful. And her damage mode cant match the damage output of any character with or without runes. Dog's only saving grace is that overwhelm is bugged and does not check for physical resistance (why isnt there a fix for this? this is a massive bug!). I just stick dog/shale in the camp because they are too weak to bring along for anything...

The betrayal at ostagar seemed very much like a plot device. Loghain's reasons were weak and even if he didnt want Cailan as king, he should have realised the downsides of the plan when facing an army of darkspawn (blight or no blight). Losing a good portion of your army, morale from losing the king and the inevitable civil war was not conducive to the war effort and as a seasoned general, Loghain should have realised this. The fact that his army didnt mutiny when Loghain ordered the retreat instead of sticking to the plan was amazing enough. Especially considering this was the plan he was pushing for at the war council. Unfortunately Bioware was probably trying to stick to their tried and tested "plot device occurs, the authorities are retarded, your party of heroes needs to gather allies and help defeat the ancient evil" plot that they have been reusing repeatedly. If you look at knights of the old republic, mass effect and dragon age, the basic plot is the same. They all involve travelling around and finding allies to help defeat some ancient evil. Bioware needed the king to die or the NPCs would be too competent without the PCs.

I started to play origins again recently and i was surprised to find that nobody had bothered to consolidate all the unofficial fixes. It took me more than an hour to track down most of the ones i needed and download/install them. Nobody even bothered to zip them up and upload them for easy downloading. Does anyone know how to use the toolset to open a item from the default game?