A rather complicated question.

[arcania88]

Hey guys, I have a rather complicated question I wanted to ask. I'm new here, and to DA in general, so I apologize in advance for the show of extreme noobness I will no doubt put on.

 

Anyway, I just got DA a couple days ago. I went around and saw that the PC version had quite a few mods out there. Now, I'm not completely new to game mods, as I used to play the Sims a lot a while back and I modded my games so much that at some point it felt like I was starting to learn computer programing without even noticing it. But, that was a long time ago, and I mostly forgot how to handle these things by now. So I was hoping you guys could help me sort some things out.

 

I started off by making a new game, and created a male elf. Then I started playing, and found that I find Alistair to be freaking adorable. So I went online and looked for a mod that would allow me to be able to marry him as a guy. This is where my problems started. When I found the mod I needed, it directed my attention towards another mod that looked like I could really use, and that mod directed me towards another one, and so on and so forth. Now I seem to have a bunch of mods I want to install, but the compatibility issues are confusing me. I feel like there's a source mod which started as the base for most of the mods I want to download, and that all the other mods sorted the compatibility issues amongst themselves, but reading through every single one of them and trying to figure out which one to put in first and what to over write and not to over write...well it's just giving me a headache. I admit that laziness also plays a part in it. Therefor I was hoping that people who already downloaded some of these mods could tell me if or how I could get them to work.

 

 

TL;DR version

 

These are the mods I want to install:

 

http://social.bioware.com/project/2573/

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=781

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=336

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=928

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=630

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=429

 

(I hope it's ok to link to these here)

 

Could anyone tell me how to sort them out so that they ALL work together without one over-writing the other? Or if I even need to download all of these, for that matter. Because it looks like a lot of them contain similar content.

 

Sorry for the major rant and thanks to whoever bothers reading this~

[RustyBlade]

I can guarantee that if you use all of those you will have problems. Improved Romance and the Zevran Dialogue fix have been known to be problematic when used with other mods. If you were to eliminate those two from your list you should do fine though.

 

If this is your first playthrough you really should consider not modding anything until you have been through the entire game. On your next run you can add things and see what they actually change. It gives a better insight into what the developers were trying to achieve and where the community improved on it (plus you get the story without any risk of conflicts screwing things up.)

[arcania88]

I do feel sort of bad for modding the game so much without even playing half way through it yet, but I read that towards the end the game gets pretty buggy and I was afraid that it would ruin my gaming experience a bit. Also this is a pretty long game so I'm not sure I'll have the patience/time to play through it a second time (even though I'd love to).

 

So you're saying that if I removed those two mods the rest should work just fine? Regardless of the way I install them?

[Thandal]

I heartily second the motion to "Play your first time UNmodded". It's an amazingly great game "out of the box". Until you've experienced it that way, you can't appreciate what a mod brings to it.

 

But for your specific purpose, the last mod in your list, "EqualLove", will allow you to achieve it without changing ANYTHING else. (It works by supressing the PC gender-check for dialogue branches and plot-flag settings relating to the two three (forgot about Anora!) NPCs for whom that would otherwise be an issue.) There will be a few instances of Party Banter when your Warden will be referred to by the "other" personal pronoun, but otherwise everything will be "as intended".

 

[Edited to address new point.] Yes, it's a looooong game. That makes it even MORE worthwhile to play through multiple times. Choose a different Origin, Gender (well, not with EqualLove installed... :tongue: ) or Class, it's almost a whole new experience!

Edited November 25, 2010 by Thandal

[Thandal]

So you're saying that if I removed those two mods the rest should work just fine? Regardless of the way I install them?

For most (but not quite all) mods, "how" you install them isn't an issue. Since in DA the mods don't actually overwrite the game's files, what happens with conflicting mods is either "the game won't work at all", (it crashes when loading) or "only one of them will be active". (Precisely which one seems to depend on some non-obvious variables.)

[arcania88]

I see. It's just that some of them mentioned installing one mod on top of another to over write files or some such and that got me a little confused.

Anyway, thanks you two. For now I decided to try out Equal Love, Anyone Can Marry Alistair, and Improved Romance Scenes. Because the only thing I care about at the moment is Alistair (sad, I know :sad: ). Hopefully it wont be too much for my game to handle.

 

I'm still rather worried about all the near end game bugs I've heard about (which I doubt was something the makers 'intended' to leave in the game, so I don't see the point of experiencing it). Are they really as noticeable as people make them sound like, or is it not that big of a deal?

[RustyBlade]

Play it through once without the mods and see where its shortcomings bother you the most and then seek out the mods that will do the best job without conflicting with each other. Putting in 5 mods to solve one or two issues isn't the answer. Edited November 25, 2010 by RustyBlade

[Thandal]

I totally agree with Rusty on this. If you absolutely MUST be able to "marry Alistair" during your first playthrough despite being the same gender and wrong race, then "Anyone Can Marry" all by itself will accomplish this without impacting ANYTHING else, (of which I'm aware.)

[naomis8329]

I would also advise you getting DAO Mod Manager as this will help in installing and uninstalling mods

[Thandal]

I would also advise you getting DAO Mod Manager as this will help in installing and uninstalling SOME mods

(the ".dazip" and ".override" kinds.)

Fixed that for ya' :thumbsup: