Filter for up-to-date mods?

[dragonseth07]

Hello, Nexus community. I've been looking through the DA:O mods, and I was initially very excited about many of them. I was very eager to try them out. One reason I'm getting the PC version of the game is so that I can mod it. I've been playing the XBox version for a long time, and the rampant bugs and inconsistencies finally broke me. Advanced Tactics, Combat Tweaks, the Unofficial Fix Patch, they all looked amazing. And then I found that none of them were up-to-date. Most of the mods on the Top 100 list appear to be compatible with 1.03, and no later. And many of them don't appear to be compatible with Awakening. This is depressing, to say the least. Is there a filter I couldn't find, for listing mods that are compatible with the latest release?

 

More than anything, I want something like the Unofficial Patch created in Oblivion. It fixed virtually every bug in the game. It appears that the closest thing here is not up-to-date with the game. http://social.bioware.com/project/2563/

 

Edit: It appears that Advanced Tactics does work with the most recent files. So, that's cool. I'm still looking for a bugfix patch, though.

Edited May 7, 2012 by dragonseth07

[Thandal]

"Qwinn's Unoffical Fixpack" (Only available on the BSN.)

"Dragonage Rules Fixpack"

And there are minor ones for most other truly annoying bugs (like the "Silverite Mine".)

 

(Advanced Tactics is well known as "not playing well with others". It breaks many mods, and causes/has other incompatabilities.)

[dragonseth07]

"Qwinn's Unoffical Fixpack" (Only available on the BSN.)

"Dragonage Rules Fixpack"

And there are minor ones for most other truly annoying bugs (like the "Silverite Mine".)

 

(Advanced Tactics is well known as "not playing well with others". It breaks many mods, and causes/has other incompatabilities.)

 

Thanks for the link to the Rules Fixpack. I will definitely look into it. I saw Qwinn's (that's what that link in my post was to), but in looking at it and the discussion around it, it appears to be incompatible with 1.04 or Awakening. That's why I was looking for an alternative.

 

I'll keep AT's incompatibilities in mind, as well. Thank you.

 

I'm gonna guess, then, that there is no filter for mods that work with the most recent release? That's unfortunate. But, it's just something I'll have to deal with, I guess.

[ThingTheWiz]

Don't hestiate with the Qwinn fixpack - my DA:O and Awakenings are the most recent versions and I have encountered no major issues. The Morrigan dialogue fixpacks are well worth adding for improved immersion and atmosphere.

[Thandal]

Indeed, MRP is a must-have for me.

 

And I also have had no problems running Qwinn's under 1.04 (now 1.05) and Awakenings.

 

There really isn't an "incompatibility" issue in the sense of anything breaking using a fixpack that was written prior to a particular patch. Just that a specific fix might not be recognized/applied in some circumstances, (or might actually already be fixed within the game itself.)

[rogue7E]

I have Patch 1.05 and have had no problem with mods from that standpoint (to my knowledge anyway). Most of the mods I use (approx. 100) don't seem to have an issue with the patch number. There might be a handful of mods that the creator applied to a specific build code, but I think that's rare. Most mods are dated, simply because the modders left the field to play with DA2. Some modders, thankfully, revisit once in a while to keep us happy with thier updates/revisions.

 

The real problem lies with mods being incompatible with one another. This happens once in a while. It's a trial and error kind of thing. It happens a lot with vendors. It takes a very skilled modder to include/test for compatibilty before uploading the mod files. Fortunately, there are quite a few very gifted and conscientious modders who do their homework before releasing their work for us. Then again, there are modders who barely know what they're doing, so their mods wind up causing problems (sometimes BIG ones).

 

Before I use a mod, I read the comments about that mod. If there seems to be a lot of confusion from users about how the mod is to be installed (sometimes modders assume it's obvious when it's not to most non-modders), or if the user must perform a lot of manipulations because the modder was too lazy to incorporate them, or if the mod mysteriously breaks something in-game (even another mod), or the mod simply doesn't work as advertised, then I don't use it, no matter how intriguing it may sound in the description.

 

Also, be very careful about your selection of mods before your game, and even more careful about deleting mods while you're still playing that particular character. In deleting a mod, you are made to Force Load your saved game (because some of the original content is now missing!) and this could seriously break the game that you've already invested so much time in. So, go ahead and use mods, but be careful about their manipulation while playing a certain game. If you don't like a particular mod that you've installed, then simply don't use it. You could also start a new game without that mod added to the mix.

 

Also, use DAUpdater, DAModder, and DAOManager to install/uninstall mods if you aren't doing that already. These tools take all the manual manipulation out of the equation. Once you learn how to use these simple tools, they do all the work for you in matter of moments.

 

Also, if you add mods for the Character Creator (CC), to add new preset faces, hair selections, eye/hair colors, etc, then absolutely use the CharGen Complier to mesh all these mods so they work together in harmony. The Compiler creates one XML file (if you have multiple XML files in your override directory, then you are going to have problems with the CC, or you won't have everything available that you expect to have).

 

Now, to the point of your question: I don't know of any filter (other than what has already been mentioned). So I'm no help there. It seems that if one exists, then it's not widely publicized. As has been mentioned, there are mods that fix/improve dialog for specific NPCs, and I've had no problems using those.