how to mod?

[DJNInja88]

so i wasn't sure where to go to find this answer in the forum even though i'm certain there is a thread somewhere explaining but im just to lazy to go look for it but how do i mod Dragon age origins? i mean do i need a special program like i need with Fallout 3 and new vegas?

[LadyHonor]

Are you wanting to create your own mods or simply install mods for your game?

[DJNInja88]

Are you wanting to create your own mods or simply install mods for your game?

just install mods...i need to know if i need a special program to manage them like fallout mod manager manages mods for fallout 3 and new vegas

[Thandal]

@DJNinja88; It's up to you.

 

Most mods do not require any "special program" at all. Just follow the author's installation instructions. The only ones that do require one of several available manager programs are ones packaged as ".dazip" files or as ".override" files. For ".dazip" files you can use the built-in "DAUpdater.exe" found in your "\Dragon Age\bin_ship" folder. (NOTE: ".dazip" files are normal ".zip" ones but with certain specific files/folders so that the DAUpdater knows exactly where to put the pieces in the game's folders when it unzips them.)

 

That said, there are three other programs that might be useful in "managing mods":

 

• DA Manager (DAM) can handle ".dazip" and ".zip" files, knows where to place most other "standard" mods.
  
• DA ModManager (DAMM) can handle ".dazip" files, and is the only way to handle ".override" files.
  
• Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) can handle ".dazip" files, and knows what to do with the other more common types of mod files that don't require anything but being placed in the right folder. (Although it does get confused by complex mods that have multiple choices the player must make during installation.) NMM is the only one that can handle some OTHER popular games' mods as well!

 

The only other "special program" is the CharGenMorph Compiler, which is used to handle the editing of the "chargenmorphcfg.xml" file used by the game when customizing the PC's appearance during the Character Creation phase. (The work the Compiler does can also be done by hand, but that gets tedious with multiple appearance mods.)

 

All of these "unofficial programs" can be found here on the Nexus.

 

See also this wiki article: Dragon Age Mods for Dummies.

 

Good Luck! :thumbsup:

[addictinsane9]

There's something really important that nobody seems to mention much:

 

Sometimes a file is supposed to be a DAZip file, but gets downloaded instead as a zip file. You'll know because, as you unzip it, you'll see two folders, a Contents folder and a Manifest file (at least in my experience).

 

The problem is that some windows versions, when you choose to rename the file, won't let you change the file extension. So you must google how to show file extensions when renaming files for your windows versions, and change the .zip into .dazip.

 

Many, many files in nexus mods have this problem, and I ran into the solution by luckily searching one of many comment threads.

[Thandal]

@addictinsane9; True, but it's not "some Windows versions" that change the file extension automatically upon download without any notice, it's "some browser versions"! And anyone modding their game has to be (or become) computer-and-game savvy enough to figure out things like that. We generally don't tell people how to unpackage archives either, or copy-paste.

 

So it's not "Many, many files in the Nexus" have this problem... It's "Many, many people who don't understand what's going on and what their computer/browser is doing" have this problem.

 

If the author's instructions say. "Install the .dazip as usual" or something like that, but the download didn't appear as a .dazip, then one has a good idea what to do. But if little things like that are show-stoppers, then maybe one should stick to the "official" mods (also known as "patches" or "DLC".)

[addictinsane9]

I said " some windows versions, when you choose to rename the file, won't let you change the file extension." Though you are right when correcting me about the source of the problem, I wasn't addressing the source of the problem, but some people's inability to find a solution to it, however temporary.

[Thandal]

Fair point that not having the knowledge of what to do when a file is renamed during download is a problem for some users.

 

But the "don't have the option to correct the mistaken change of the file's extension" problem isn't a Windows thing, it's a browser thing. I use a browser that (a) isn't too smart for its own good and so doesn't try to rename things, and (b) let's me have full control over the name and the destination location of every download.

 

And while browsers aren't the only programs to do this (stupid) trick; "Notepad", for example, will add the ".txt" extersion onto the file name when you save anything that isn't already named ".txt", EVERY flavour of Windows lets you rename files to your heart's content. (Unless of course the file is located in one of the protected system folders and you're not using an Admin account.) Every. Single. One.

[DJNInja88]

thank you everyone for this help...but after trying to use DAO mod manger i have just giving up :( it makes no sense...i mean i get how put the mods in the DAO folder but where do i put that folder? do i put the DAO folder..inside the Dragon age origins folder? i have watched 3 videos on the subject but no mention...just says extract mod manger and put on desktop and add mods. not sure if the game just magically picks it after that or not. so im not sure what to do...i developed a bad headache just trying to figure it out :(

[Thandal]

All three of the "unofficial" mod managers (DAMM, DAM, and NMM) have you create a folder ANYWHERE YOU WANT in order to store the mods that you'll have that program manage. From there, it's the program's job to know what to do with them.

 

But note that many, many mods don't need a "manager" at all. Simply unpack the archive (if needed) and place the mod in your "\Bioware\Dragon Age\packages\core\override" folder under your user profile.

 

Did you read the wiki article I linked? Installing mods for DAO really isn't very hard. I don't bother using a manager at all (except for ".override" files, where that's the only way.)