Starting Over

[Wookie120]

After beating my head against the wall trying to get FO 3 to work even 25% reliably i have decided to give that game a break and try Dragon Age again. however I am unsure as to which Utility Mods I should use. Any advice?

[Kaerar]

Well I have a list of what I think are "Essential" mods that I always install as the improve the game so much. I'll list those and you can decide from there :)

 

• Advanced Party
  
• Advanced Quickbar
  
• Advanced Tactics
  
• Combat Tweaks + SP Fixes
  
• DA Mod Manager + CharGen Compendium and NBAIO Overrides
  
• Dragon Age Redesigned
  
• Improved Atmosphere
  
• Lock Bash
  
• Misha the Hoarder
  
• No Helmet Hack
  
• Qwinn's Unofficial Fix Pack
  
• Steal Improvements
  
• The Icons Project
  
• Universal Dye Kit
  
• Winter Forge
  

 

Optionals are armours/weapons as well as any cutscene alterations and the Dialogue Tweaks mod. I want to use DT but I don't know if it will conflict with anything, especially Improved Atmosphere which is just awesome, though does take a bit of setting up correctly (take the time to go through every step in the readme ;) ).

[Thandal]

I liked Kaerar's list, although it's heavier on changes to "items and the way they work" than my own.

 

("Improved Atmosphere" adds some items/materials that make your game unhappy if you later remove it [cough] Hardened Gold [/cough] but I really liked many of the other things it did. And "The Winter Forge" can be a real bear to use successfully!)

 

Here's what I've been running recently:

 

Essential:

DA Mod Manager (to manage a bunch of this stuff!)

Skip the Fade (I absolutely loathe running through that endless rat maze!)

Equal Love

Polygamey

 

Fixes for Broken Plot Flags/Quest Triggers/Dialogue Branches/Cut Scenes:

(Many of these, and any others that make similar changes, are incompatible with each other. Read the READMEs! Any or all of these are sometimes in, sometimes out. Right now -- "Out" for 1.04 testing purposes.)

Qwinn's Unofficial Fix Pack v2

- and/or -

DIalogue Tweaks

- and/or -

Morrigan Restoration Fixpack

- and/or -

Zevran Dialogue Fix

- and/or -

Gatekisses

- and/or -

Endgame Dialogue Epilogue Slide Fixes

 

Other Bug Fixes:

Steal_Fix_CD fix (shortens stealing Cool Down and fixes both pickpocket and "dog find" bugs)

Ancient Elven Boots (item never spawns for PC version)

 

Strictly for Asthetics:

PineappleTree's Vibrant Colors

More Hair Styles

du_no hat (instead of "No Helmet Hack")

Morrigan Revised v2 Facemorph

Leliana Sacred Ashes Facemorph

Leliana's Sacred Ashes Armor (Ok, not just asthetics. This is also a hugely buffed set of light armor in it's own right! Restriction - Guess Who?)

Lady of the Forest au Naturale

Nude Succubus

NBAIO

 

Strictly for Fun!:

Extra Dog Slot (adds "your" Mahari Hound to the party using the Ranger Class's companion animal slot)

Full Combatant Dog (gives Dog full access to Warrior Class skills)

Anytime World Map

 

So find whatever works for you, and remember: It's a game. Enjoy!

[Kaerar]

Nice list Thandal, as I missed a couple like the Morrigan Restoration Patch and End Game Dialogue fixes.

 

Actually just been through the Fade and realised why I dislike it so much too. Will add skip the fade too.

 

Also I use FCR (Flash Creature Rescale) as it makes all enemies uniform in difficulty. For instance the easiest Darkspawn will be pretty damn hard and the Red ones are truly scary. Whereas there are very few Humans who can stand up to DS in their abilities so they tend to be the weaker end of the scale. Revenant's are truly terrifying an Dragon's well they don't like dying much either.