DA Redesigned, Improved Atmosphere?

[ZeRoToXiN]

Hey. I have almost finished Dragon Age for the 360, so after I finish that Im going to play it on the PC. I was wondering if it is a good idea to use DA Redesigned, Improved Atmosphere, or both for my first PC playthrough. Is it recommended or even work well to use both, or is it better to use one of them individually? I really want to see the improvement of graphics on the PC from the 360, my computer can easily handle all settings maxed. It also seems that IA makes some slight gameplay changes like enemies with different armors(?), does this really have much of an impact?

 

So basically, is it best to use just DA Redesigned, just Improved Atmosphere, or both?

[Thandal]

Welcome ZeRoToXiNs!

 

Glad to have another "kid's toy" player come over to where the real (I mean more fun) game is! :tongue:

 

1) The usual advice is to playthrough the first time UNMODDED. But seeing as how you've already been through "the story" at least once, maybe in your case you should just play through the Battle at Ostagar without mods to get the sense of how things look and feel on the PC. Then you'll have a better sense of what you'd like your mods to do, and appreciate the changes they make much more.

 

2) I used to have IA installed, but it affects so many parts of the game, and is incompatible with so many other mods, (and some of the "official" DLC) and leaves so many things in an unstable (unplayable) state if you later remove it, that I have taken it out of my "Recommended List" even though I think it's an amazing mod.

 

3) See my mini-tutorial in the 2nd post here: "Using DA Mods for Dummies". There's also a link there to some more "Good Mods" lists.

 

Happy (PC) Gaming! :thumbsup:

[balthazar9086]

IA is an amazing mod, but it does change a lot of things in the vanilla gameplay. I personally love the changes (having played through DA unmodded SEVERAL times) as they provide a refreshing experience. The downside is, as mentioned by the last post, that your saved game would have a lot of bugs if you were to remove IA down the road.

 

That being said, I'd definitely give IA a chance and see how you like it, AFTER you've played the PC version through once with only a few other mods installed.

[JMarso]

I've tried both and now I go with DA Redesigned. IA changed too many gameplay points for my liking and seem to conflict with a lot of other mods I like to use. DAR is cosmetic, and even after you've installed it you can go in and selectively remove any morph files you don't like. For example, I decided to delete the modded Loghain and Howe files from the override, leaving the rest in place, and it all works fine.

 

Just my .02. I know lots of people use IA and love it.