Mod Loading Order

[naomis8329]

I'm beta testing and have had to take some mods off that seemed to be causing a problem. Unfortunately things have gone really crazy and I'm unable to recruit Zevran (cann't even find him) nor can I do side quests in Redcliffe.

 

I'm going to have to uninstall and reinstall the game to hopefully rid my system of any settings that maybe intruding on what I'm doing.

 

My question is quite simply "Is there a load order", ie in Oblivion we had a load order that users followed in order to avoid crashes, conflicts etc. I was wondering whether there was anyway in which to do this for DA. For example I usually install in this order:

 

Game

Official DLCs

Cosmetics

Utilities/Game Changes

Dialogue Tweaks

Weapons/Armor

Quests

 

Does anyone know if this is correct or if there is another way of loading mods so that conflicts can be overridden etc.

 

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

[RustyBlade]

Best order:

Main Game

Awakenings and 1.03

Official DLC's

1.04 patch

Add your mods.

 

Keep in mind that too many of those high powered dungeon crawl mods will wreak havoc with your game. Only use one at a time for best results.

[naomis8329]

Thank you will give it a go. Having fun (I think). Will see if I can correct the mess I've made.

[arsanix]

I can't find a direct answer to this either but it seems that modules are loaded based on the order in the AddIns.xml this also determines their order in the Downlable Content Menu.

 

 

 

 

I got some interesting info on module order and "conflicts:"

From the Bioware forums.

[RustyBlade]

Certain mods will conflict with other mods; that is inevitable. Any GDA with "base" in its name will certainly conflict with another of that genre. It is trial and error. Use what you can use, fix what you can, keep what you must have and dump the rest.

[naomis8329]

So even if the base.gda is renamed pertaining to the mod it is associated with it will/can conflict?

 

How do you open GDA files? That must be a real noob question but I've only recently "relearnt" how to open xml files to modify (in the last 12 months through playing DA) as I had a breakdown in 2004 and have "forgotten" how to do some of the most simplest things in computing. Its annoying since at times I know I should know how to do things but the knowledge seems to be lost in the filing system I laughingly call my brain. I learnt programming in SQL/Oracle and C++ but even now it can be double dutch even with my books it doesn't make sense. However I digress and must apologise.

 

I ask this question as chargen files can be modified and altered to show what you want, can GDA files be modified in the same way thereby correcting conflicts? I don't know what they contain so this may be a no go, especially if they pertain to objects or specific scripts.

 

Thank you for your help in this.

[DarkeWolf]

Ok, bare in mind that I have absolutly NO experience in doing so, but I know that what you need is a gda editor for working with them, Naomi.

http://social.bioware.com/project/755/

 

Afraid that I can't really be any more help than that, but that will at least get you started. ;)

And will answer your PM reply tomorrow ;)

 

Cheers!

[amabras]

Ok, as you are an expert in C++ I guess this won't help much but ... hey there has been no post about this in this folder, so I give it a try.

When installing mods also consider the incompability problem. Dialogue Tweaks causes some incompabilities with other mods. Maybe that causes some of your problems. I experienced that myself when I installed a lot of mods and then I lost control about what I have installed. So the best thing is to keep all the zip folders with their read me's or to make some notes about what you have installed. With this method the chances of incompability crashes are less.

 

Hope that this helped. Otherwise, sorry for the disturbance.

[naomis8329]

C++ was many years ago, like I said the ether took a great deal in 2004, Still can't find my "Dummies" book :-(

 

Mind you reading can also be a problem as I forget what I've read and then have to start again. I tend to do flow charts or write things down like a to do list you know

 

1. Fill Kettle

2. Plug in Kettle

3. Get out cup

4. Put in tea bag etc etc

 

Sad isn't it.

 

Relearning more each day and getting better at remembering stuff.

 

You know what you said about dialogue tweaks may have been the crunch. Things were pretty much okay till I put that back on. Needed it for the Zevran Dialogue Fix Mod. However, not being able to find Zevran at all after 5 hours play and covering all of Fereldan in trying to do so is still a mystery to me especially as I had ZevranASAP installed and the cutscreen worked so I know it was being picked up. Maybe Zev got fed up waiting and went home...

 

 

DW.

 

Thanks for the link downloaded and will take a look. Mind you this may be more than I'm counting on to try to sort but what the heck, I can't do any harm by looking :-)

[DarkeWolf]

No problem. Like I said, I'm sorry that I cant really be more help than that, but I have no understanding of gda files. :confused:

And I promise, I'll get back to your pm soon. Havent had very much free time here lately :(