Dragon Age modding first time.

[Drovin]

Hey so I have used mods for Skyrim using Nexus Mod manager, and steam. And I am going to start playing DAOrigins modded. My question is , am I able to use JUST NMM or I know there is another DA mod manager do I have to use JUST that one? Or a combo of both? I ask because I have see a few mods that have the 'download with manger' green button on the page but not sure if it actually works. Any help would be awesome thanks!

[Thandal]

Welcome to Thedas!

If you like story, characters, and conversation, you're in for something special. (Open world? Not so much.)

Not sure if you've already played DAO and are just new to modding it, or haven't played it yet.

If the latter, then you might be interested to know that the recommendation of almost every experienced player is to play it through the first time without any mods at all! The exception to that rule being one (or more) of the "FixPacks" that correct programming oversights and other glitches players have uncovered. These glitches don't impact the playability so much as prevent certain conversation branches from ever being accessible. Since the conversations are one of the best features of the game (for most of us) these fixes are most welcome. :laugh:

 

DAO is one of those games that if you like it, you'll want to re-play it several times. There are five different "Origin" stories to complete during the first part of the game (hence the game's title.) And besides having male and female variations of each, there are additional changes in most of them depending on your character's class.

 

There are no game-breaking problems with the vanilla game itself (as long as you're patched to v1.05) and playing without mods the first time gives you a much better idea of the kinds of mods you might like, and then a better appreciation of what they are doing for you when you do use them. :thumbsup:

Useful links:

Using Dragon Age Mods for Dummies - This article doesn't discuss specific mods, or the mod managers, in any detail. It gives an overview of the various kinds of mods that are available for the game (there are several) and how they are (manually) installed and used.

 

Good Mods (Opinions) - This is an older topic that contains a few different players' points of view and their reasoning for using the mods they do.

 

Regarding the four (plus one utility) mod managers:

 

There are pros and cons with each. None can handle all types of mods for DAO, and one type (".override" files) can only be handled using the "DAO ModManager" (DAMM). The good news is you can use them all simultaneously. They just won't necessarily be able to manage the mods another one installed. Details below:

 

 

1. DAUpdater - Handles mods packaged as ".dazip" files ONLY. This is the game's built-in manager for "official" addins (DLC, bonus items, etc.) It was by examining the operation of this manager that the others were able to start expanding on its capabilities. It is found in the game's "\bin_ship" folder.

 

2. DAModder (DAM) - Handles mods packaged as ".dazip" files, and can extract ".zip" files and place them them in the default location, which may not be appropriate for every case. (I don't use it, so I'm not totally clear on it's capabilities or operation. Probably handles the other standard compressed files as well...)

 

3. DAO Modmanager (DAMM) - Handles ".dazip" and ".override" files ONLY. But is the only one to handle ".override" mods at all. Doesn't know what to do with ".zip", ".7z", ".rar", etc. Has a management interface to selectively activate the mods it's handling, and to configure ".override" mods.

 

4. Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) BETA - Handles ".dazip", and all the standard compressed file types, but NOT ".override" mods. Has a management interface to selectively activate the mods it's handling. Recognizes facemorph mods and their associated ".xml" files and places the pieces in specific locations, but can't manage the game's overall "CharGenMorphcfg.xml" (cgmc.xml) file for you.

 

CharGenMorph Compiler ("the Compiler") - Terra_Ex's fantastic utility for taking the drudgery (not to mention endless frustration) out of combining multiple facemorph mods into the single cgmc.xml

 

 

NOTE ABOUT NMM:

Here on the Nexus, the green "Download with Manager" button will appear for many (most?) mods, and it will work to download the file. But that doesn't mean that everything downloaded that way will work in-game. First of all, NMM has no idea what to do with other executables (like DAMM). And there are a number of mods which won't work if placed in the "default" location, or need further actions by the player to use them. For example: one of my own mods is packaged with two different versions. The player has to pick one, and place it in the appropriate folder. NMM has no way of knowing this. So in all cases, read the author's installation instructions.

 

As you can see, there's a lot more to understanding how to use mods for Dragon Age games than for TES games. :cool:

 

I usually run with 50-60 mods installed at any one time, (currently at 58 totalling over 2GB.)

Here's my own "Won't Play Without It" list:

 

 

"Must Have" DAO Mods:

Morrigan Restoration Pack (MRP)

Dialogue Tweaks (DT)

DA Rules Fixpack

ZDF (Zevran Dialogue Fix) for DT

Extra Dog Slot

Full Combatant Dog

Equal Love

Polygamey

NBaio

 

Essential for DAA:

Silverite Mine Bugfix

Sigrun Law and Order Fix

Blackblade Drop Fix

 

With DA2 there is much less from which to choose. Changes to the game's internal file structure, basic face and body models, and the lack of an updated Toolset, all contribute to there being far fewer mods for it.

 

I use:

Valuable Junk (which greatly increases the amount you get paid by merchants for all the "Junk" you collect)

Faster Runspeed (50% or 100% increase)

Monochrome Wench's Import Fix (Fixes incorrect relationship-flag imports from DAO.)

Many "appearance" mods

A whole bunch of "evolving item" mods (Play the game and you'll see why those might be nice!)

 

 

Does that get you started? :laugh:

Edited March 31, 2014 by Thandal
Fixed broken link to Nexus wiki article.

[theskymoves]

Never mind. :facepalm:

Edited March 26, 2014 by theskymoves

[Thandal]

Never mind. :facepalm:

 

Awwwww TSM, we want your thoughts too. :blush:

[Drovin]

Yes that helps a bit, I just read the comments now and when I get home I will read those links Thandal. I have played the game through once with most of the DLC on playstation 3 . So This will be the first time on PC and I am eager to mod this game with textures and maybe housing mods. I believe I used DAMM before screwing around with textures, but that was like a year ago then I saw recently the nexus message saying NMM supports all games now and I remember most of those files were DAMM files so I just thought I'd ask, realizing mod creators probabily didn't update to a nexus like format haha. I will have to learn to use DAMM again which shouldn't be too hard and like I said I will check out those links! Thanks again Thandal!

[Drovin]

The dummy link comes back to this page..you trying to say something? haha jks

[Thandal]

Sorry about that, don't know what happened there... :blink:

 

And that was probably the most important link in the whole long post! :laugh:

I corrected it above, and here it is again: Using Dragon Age Mods for Dummies.