To play an RPG on the PC is to play a modded RPG. This has been the mantra of the dice-rollers for years, continually tweaking and altering our beloved games and, of course, fixing all the 'mistakes' the developers made, as those hard-to-please fans are always keen to do. BioWare's Dragon Age 2 is no different, and we've collected here 10 useful mods for any wannabe Champion of Kirkwall. Dark days are coming; you'll need all the help you can get.
This is meant for people interested in modding Dragon Age II. With the files provided, the tutorial included and the application known as GDApp, you´ll be able to change difficulty settings, player and companion abilities and alter anything to do with leveling.
I know it may seem daunting, but it really is quite simple. If you are interested in this, proceed. Otherwise, I won´t waste any more of your time. I´ll make it brief and simple, regardless, this will be nothing more than a starting point and a few pointers to help you along the way. It will be broken up into three segments: difficulty, leveling and abilities. Difficulty Creatureranks and Difficulty are your main difficulty files. Creatureranks.gda alters the relative health and damage values according to rank. Difficulty.gda alters health and damage values across all ranks. The combination of these two factors is what makes the game easier or more difficult. Actually, there´s a few columns for each apart from health and damage, but you might want to start there. There´s one that controls how often enemies use abilities, another that controls how much health they gain from health potions, another that specifies how much force they put into an attack, etc., etc., etc. But, for the time being, I suggest keeping it simple. Levelling: Exptable.gda is the only relevant file as well as the easiest one to read. On one column you have the amount of xp required to reach a given level, on another the number of specialization points you´ll get, and on two others the number of ability points and attribute points you´ll receive. Alter at your convenience. Abilities: Abi_base.gda is the main file. Persistent.gda deals with sustained effects and AoE radii. Passive_abilities.gda relates to passive bonuses, as indicated by the properties.gda Abi_base.gda - This is probably the most daunting and intricate looking one. For all intents and purposes, the first couple of dozen columns are irrelevant. With the exception of cooldown, cost, level and point requirements, the only ones you´ll use are the ones entitled float. These specify damage, physical/elemental force, effect duration, chance to affect, CCC chance and multiplier, etc., etc., etc. These are largely self-evident. If you look at an ability´s tooltip in-game, you can almost always go back and figure out what each column refers to, what each value does, and tweak it as you see fit. That is all I´ll mention for now. It is not my intent to give a detailed explanation, as I feel that would be off-putting for most folk. With the little I have mentioned, however, you can do an awful lot. My final advice, then, will be this: always back up your mods before changing anything. If there´s one thing I´ve learned about Dragon Age II is that it is very sensitive and it does not like change. If anything is out of place with the abi_base, persistent or passive_abilities, for instance, all in-game upgrades will be rendered useless. That means that even if you´ve upgrades Pommel Strike, for instance, it won´t register, and all CCCs will stop working. That´s your tell-tale sign, and you can always see it in the tooltip of any upgraded ability you may have. If you have a back-up, you can always replace the broken mod with the old, working version. No harm, no foul, no fuss. Happy modding!
Dragon Age 2 is best on PC, but these mods make it even better.
By Andrew Smee
The best mod repository for Dragon Age 2, as well as other RPGs like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series, is the group of dedicated Nexus websites. There you'll find hundreds to thousands of tweaks, changes and fan-made content to fiddle with to your heart's content. If you've never dabbled with PC mods before, it's a breeze for Dragon Age 2. Simply drop the mod files in your BioWare/Dragon Age 2/packages/core/override folder that's tucked away in My Documents, though be sure to always read the specific installation instructions of any mods you install. As a side note, the Characters folder located there is also where your save games are stored, and it's always a good idea to make a backup of those before you go meddling with electronic innards.
Of course, since Kirkwall has only been in need of its Champion for just over a week, most of the mods so far available for Dragon Age 2 are of the simple cosmetic variety, but there are still some essential tweaks available. With any luck there will soon be mods as ambitious and sweeping in scope as were made for Origins, adding huge amounts of depth and extra fun for PC players.
CHARACTER GENERATOR REVAMPHawke's default appearance, both male and female, is striking, unique and heroic. This makes it a shame when one tries to tweak it, being lumbered with one of the blank, bland appearance presets to try and wrangle a distinctive visage from. This mod lets you modify the default Hawke face, allowing you to make a distinctive Hawke who's all your own without having to prod at a featureless NPC-alike noggin until you reach something half-decent. DRAGON AGE ORIGINS SAVE IMPORT GENERATORLike BioWare's Mass Effect, Dragon Age 2 supports importing your saves from the first game, keeping track of all the important actions and decisions you took and affecting your Dragon Age 2 playthrough in subtle ways. This handy-dandy tool allows you to create an Origins save, tweak all the relevant decisions made during a full campaign, and pops it out ready to be imported into a new career for Dragon Age 2. Perfect if you lost your saves for Origins, or are looking for a different perspective on familiar events. HIGHLIGHT TOGGLEIt's a wonder why BioWare didn't make this an option in the first place. This simple yet hugely helpful mod simply turns Highlight Objects into a toggle, meaning that you'll no longer have to run around everywhere with your pinky finger straining to hold down Tab all the time. It also adds a handy Autorun button as well for those long-distance travellers. FACIAL TWEAKSBringing a touch of cosmetic surgery to the land of Thedas, these mods change key characters in subtle ways that benefit their roles. Mostly by making them not look so funny-looking. It's a popular option, as new facial morphs are the most popular mod category on the Nexus at the time of writing, with multiple mods for some characters. Here's three that most benefit from a touch of class: Knight-Commander Meredith loses her anomalous girlish blonde locks in favour of a more mature grey as befitting her voice and role, Aveline loses the sledgehammer jaw while not transforming into a Barbie doll like other mods insist on doing and there's also one for Anders that's more in keeping with his roguish Awakenings appearance – though sadly it doesn't do anything to temper his constant whining. Choose the ponytail look for him – somehow, a gigantic greased quiff isn't really befitting of his character.
Posted by6 years ago
Archived
I will be continuing to edit this thread to add new mods as I find and try them out. Mods added more than a week after the original post will be indicated like this.
Important programs:
Game Play and Environment:
Game Fixes (There are many, but these are the ones I use):
Extended Gameplay:
Create A Character Enhancement:
Armor:
Companion and NPC Appearance Tweaks (there are MANY but these are my favorites):
New Companion:
Dog:
Romance Expansions (Note: by romance I don't mean the sex cut scenes, I mean more meaningful interactions and extended story points):
Romance Expansions continued (Spoilers for ending) (Thanks to /u/ItamiOzanare for formatting help):
Naked people (All links NSFW):
Edited or Extended Sex Scenes (All links NSFW):
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