Changing gender of your character?

[zavesa]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm new here and I've found out a lot already about changing this and that to expand my playing experience.

 

 

I am courious though, is it possible, is there a way to change sex of your charachter during the game (changing appearance doesn't seem to be a problem)?

 

For example, I'll play as male human and I want to play as female as well to see different story options.

 

It took 100+ hours to reach the game's ending the first time, a lot of it spent fighting and exploring,

I don't want to do that all over again playing as a character of opposite sex just to have different dialogues...

Especially with some (scripted) fights being a royal PITA...

 

Also, I'll be installing some mods (appearance mostly) and I've just seen a new patch has come out. Any problems the patch might cause to the mods?

And do I apply the patch first, then install the mods or mods first and then patch?

[DarkeWolf]

DONT PATCH! That new patch is causing issues, there's two threads about it here at danexus already. Don't do it. ;)

[zavesa]

Yah, I saw threads on Bioware forums, game crashing and what-not...

 

What about the first thing (changing M/F)?

[DarkeWolf]

Ok, gender is determined by a tag in your character's .chr file. that tag is listed under "gender" or "sex" and is either a 1 or a 2. 1=male 2=female.

IF you wanted to COMPLETELY change your toon's gender, you'd go into your .chr file and reset that, also change it to use the female body for whichever race, and then HAVE to create a female head morph for that race.

The reason that you'd have to change all that, is because of cutscenes. Cutscenes use what is called a "dummy actor". Which is basically a generic wire mesh that is essentially a manequinn. The cutscenes read your .chr file and your savegame file, to "dress" said dummy to look like you. So that you are wearing your face, your armor, your gear, etc.

Now, the cutscenes arent very smart. They see a female, wearing male armor, with a male face, and they scream "Does not compute!" and cause some really strange and weird effects on your character in the scene. (same issue if you are trying to use say.... human features on an elf or dwarf, or vice versa).

 

Ok, now I know you don't want to do this permanently. There's a mod that has an item that lets you selectively change your gender. called metagame items, and the item in it is the "genderring". Which swtches that tag back and forth from 1 and 2. It's located here---

 

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13

 

So.... why did I tell you all of that then? Because... when you use the gendering, it has a system in it that will change your body into something that the cutscenes can translate into being either male, or female, without causing it go spaz out. Which means that it changes your body, when you use the genderring.

Female is Lady of the Forest body, and male is a skeletal warrior body. While in this mode, you wont see any of your armor. and if I remember right (its been a very long time since I used the genderring) I dont think you'll see your weapons in Lady of the Forest mode. And I think you may or may not see weapons on the skeleton, but not necessarily YOUR weapons.

 

So...its not perfect, but because of game mechanics, it still works.

 

Edit- while I dont know of any issues that have happened from it, I do NOT recommend saving a game, while under the effects of the genderring. Having a different gender listed in ur savegame that is different from your .chr file COULD cause some potential bugs, somewhere. So my advice is to undo the effect as soon as you dont need it anymore. ;)

[zavesa]

Thanks for the extensive explanation.

 

Uffffff....... :D

 

 

Must say it's too complicated for me to even try, especially when it only maybe might work.

 

Thank you anyway though.

[DarkeWolf]

If you are wanting something to just switch you back and forth, the mod metagame items that I linked to in my earlier post will do the job for you, to let you get the different reactions from NPC's, but it does switch your body out if you switch.

which itself is pretty easy to use. Just click on the genderring in your inventory, and flash! You're female. Click on it it again, and Flash! You're male again ;)

 

Eh, sorry if I overlloaded you, I have a habit of trying to explain as much detail as I can. And....I'm longwinded, lol.

[Thandal]

Thanks for the extensive explanation.

 

Uffffff....... :D

 

 

Must say it's too complicated for me to even try, especially when it only maybe might work.

 

Thank you anyway though.

 

Zavesa;

 

Are you trying to see what DIFFERENT reactions/story threads might occur if you were the *other* gender, or remove the inhibitions of the NPCs (companion and otherwise) that prevent certain paths from being available in the first place?

 

[Minor Spoiler Alert].

 

For example, as written a male PC can receive kisses from some non-companion NPCs as a reward for performing specific tasks. (And, I presume there are coresponding events which are only for female PCs, but I don't know what they are.) Normally, a female PC isn't given any dialogue option that leads to those NPCs bestowing such a favor.

 

[/Minor Spoiler Alert]

 

The mod "Equal Love", (updated by the author this week!) removes many (all?) of these restrictions from the game and allows a PC of either gender to follow any of the paths and form any of the possible in-game relationships.

 

That might help you "Get where you want to go!"