Mods for first playthrough / conflicting fixpack mods?

[ottoman3]

Hi, I'm a great fan of Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, KotOR, etc but I never played Dragon Age. I looked for mods to enhance my experience and to fix the remaining bugs/annoyances, but there seems to be no "right" answer. So far I have the following mods on my list:

• DAO-Modmanager
• Dragon Age Redesigned
• Steal Cooldown Reduced
• Character Respecialization
• No Helmet Hack
• More Hairstyles
• FtG UI Mod
• Camp storage chest mod
• Detailed Tooltips
• No Ladder Comments in All Violent Voice Sets
• Madd Gift Guide / Gift Guide - Awakening
• Advanced Tactics / Advanced Tactics Clustered Tactic Condition Fix
• Advanced Quickbar
• Morrigan Restoration Patch Dialog Fixpack
• ZDF Dialog Fix
• Dialogue Tweaks

 

I wanted to install the following two mods but they seem to have a few bugs:

 

Qwinn's Unofficial DA:O Fixpack: According to http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-Origins/Dragon-Age-Community-Creations-Spoilers-Allowed/Recommended-and-Compatible-Mods-For-a-First-Time-Player-14309018-1.html the fixpack from Qwinn "is buggy when combined with other, more up-to-date mods".

 

Dragon Age Rules Fixpack: In the thread http://www.shsforums.net/topic/48090-dao-recommended-mods/ there are a few bugs mentioned...

 

Fix - No Stealth Drop on Friendly Spells makes Darkspawn Chronicles unwinnable
Tweak - No Helmet has a tendency of forgetting which helmet you were wearing
Tweak - Auto Loot - Kills breaks some quests
Tweak - Remove Modal VFX Ground AoE causes a couple of Sustained AoE abilities to actually do nothing.

 

According to other sources, there are no problems with the mentioned mods. My question is, should I install these last 2 mods or do they create too much bugs? Are they necessary? What is your experience? And in what order should I install the mods?

 

Please don't tell me to play the first time without mods. I don't have the time to play a game numerous times and when I start playing Dragon Age, I want the best possible experience right for the first time because I probably won't touch the game again for the next few years.

Edited December 26, 2013 by ottoman3

[Thandal]

First: the DA-series game engine (Eclipse) has no "load order" in the way that some other games do. So don't worry about that.

 

Second, I suggest you review the wiki article: Using Dragon Age Mods for Dummies, for reference.

 

Third: You will want to play DA:O numerous times.

 

Fourth: Your list of mods...

 

a) The "Ladder" voice mod is only needed if you choose one specific voice for your PC.

Otherwise, does nothing.

b) Qwinn's FixPack and/or the DA Rules FixPack (I use both) do more to correct the glitches with attributes, spell effects, and other game-play hiccoughs by the developers than any others. (Just as MRP fixes some crucial dialogue-tree hiccoughs.)

c) Character Respec is pointless for a one-shot. You won't know any better until at least your third playthrough. (But it may be useful then. I prefer to live with the consequences of my choices!)

d) DA-Redesigned is one of the more complicated and cumbersome mods to employ.

Definitely one to select... later.

e) DAO-ModManager is required if you have any ".override" mods, (but you don't list any) and otherwise only useful for ".dazip" mods, which the built-in "DAUpdater.exe" can handle just fine. Not saying it isn't worthwhile (I use it myself) but for a single playthrough without any of the unique mods it supports... no need.

 

Lastly: The only mods I would add to your list are: "ZDF for MRP", and (if you swing that way) "Equal Love" and/or "Polygamey".