Running DAI (Steam Version) with both DAI Mods and Frosty Mod Manager

[Whiskeyjoel]

Alright, so I have been struggling the last few days with getting the Steam version of this game to run with both DAI Mod files from Nexus mods, and the newer Frosty Mod Manager mods.
After a lot of trial and error, I figured out how to get them talking to each other. There were a ton of forum posts and articles elsewhere telling me to do all kinds of crazy stuff, but none of those were to do with this specific version of the game. In the end I didn't have to do any of it, and the process was actually relatively simple. So hopefully this will help anyone else who has the Steam version of DAI get both mod managers working together! I am writing this with the assumption that people already know how to setup and install DAI Mods through the DAI Tools Loader. There are lots of guides/youtube vids on how to do this if you don't know.

1. Download your selected mods from Nexus, and unzip them to your mods folder inside DA Tools Loader. This is just to keep all your DAI mods together in one place, so if you don't have this folder, just make one
2. Run DAIModManager, and select the mods you want to run. Hit the merge button and wait for the program to do its thing.
3. Navigate to C:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Dragon Age Inquisition/Update
4. Inside the Update folder, you will see two folders named Patch, and Patch_ModManagerMerge. Make backups of both of these folders and place them somewhere easy to access, such as your desktop.
5. Open Patch_ModManagerMerge and copy the files inside it. Now open the Patch folder and paste the copied folders, allowing them to overwrite. Now delete the Patch_ModManagerMerge folder.
6. Navigate to C:/Program Files/Origin, right click on Origin.exe, and select Properties. Open the Compatibility tab, and under settings, select "Run this program as administrator". Save and exit. Make sure that Origin is not already running on your computer. This is very important, as Origin is a piece of ♥♥♥♥ program designed by the Devil himself to torment you into insanity very finicky program
7. Now navigate to wherever you downloaded Frost Mod Manager to, and do the same thing with FrostyModManager.exe.
8. Run FMM, and make sure to correctly set your game directory. Should be C:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Dragon Age Inquisition.exe
9. Apply your Frosty mods, then click Launch. A popup window will come up from Origin telling you that you are running the program in compatibility mode. Agree and move on. Next a regular windows popup will appear asking for administrator privilege for Origin. Hit yes again.
10. The game should now launch, with both DAIMOD and Frosty mods active

*Important* If you decide to change your DAIMOD selection later, you will need to move your backup Patch_ModManagerMerge and Patch folders back, allowing the original Patch that you backed up to overwrite the new Patch folder. Once this is done, make your mod changes and hit merge. Now you will need to repeat step 4. Once this is done, you will need to navigate to C:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Dragon Age Inquisition, and delete the ModData folder, which is a folder that Frosty creates. Once this is done, you can launch the game again, which will prompt FMM to create a new ModData folder. This step is very important, as if you don't delete the previous ModData folder, the game will launch but will be stuck in an infinite load screen

If the game fails to launch from FMM, open your task bar and make sure that nothing Origin related is running in the background. Origin MUST be running in compatibility mode for it to launch through FMM. Origin is a very finicky program. You will probably grow to despise Origin, if you don't already. I sure do.

[Cambionn]

Edit: This makes it boot trough Frosty, but some Frosty mods don't load where they did on the Origin version. Also tried the "set path to Frosty in origin command line" fix but at last not working yet.

__________________
Thank you!

I played hundreds of hours on the Origin release with both mod managers and never had an issue, but today I switched all my Origin games to Steam games because it was cheap now and even tho it still uses Origin, I find a native Steam version where the playtimecounter, achievements, shared screenshots, etc are all in Steam nicer than running it as non-Steam game in Steam, as well as the discussion pages and such being nicer. I don't even hate Origin per se, but I liked everything on one place and Steam is much nicer anyways.

Anyways, the administrator thing together with removing the ModData folder to force it to regenerate from scratch (which is a common Frosty issue to sometimes break it) caused it to work. Yes, even despite having a fresh install of Frosty where I made the ModData on the Steam install, it still needed to be forced to regenerate the modded patch. Sometimes Frosty just needs that.

Personally, I like to just rename the original Patch folder to Patch_bak and rename the Patch_ModManagerMerge to just Patch, then edit the package.mtf to remove the line about the modmanager and change the version number to 12. It's nice if you often alter your modlist, as you can just delete the Patch folder and remove the _bak from the backup one and your back at a clean install. It saves a few copy-paste actions and having to press override prompts, but it comes down to the same result

[markornikov]

This procedure doesn't seem to work anymore, nor anything else i found on the steam forums

It really shouldn't be this hard to mod a game, I also assume Origin is the culprit this time

[LukanGamer]

Originally posted by markornikov:

This procedure doesn't seem to work anymore, nor anything else i found on the steam forums

It really shouldn't be this hard to mod a game, I also assume Origin is the culprit this time

Be thankful EA garbage engine can even be modded at all.

[Vashra]

Originally posted by LukanGamer:

Be thankful EA garbage engine can even be modded at all.

That really is the crux of it. ;)

I'm running with 8 .daimod files patched in now, with no particular issues, but I haven't bothered with anything requiring frosty.

[markornikov]

Originally posted by Vashra:

Originally posted by LukanGamer:

Be thankful EA garbage engine can even be modded at all.

I'm running with 8 .daimod files patched in now, with no particular issues, but I haven't bothered with anything requiring frosty.

But how?
I also only use .daimod files, but can't get them to work with only DAI mod manager either..

[glowsticky]

I could not for the life of me get any mods to work yesterday with DAImod or Frosty so whatever... I'll just play without them. Weren't life changing mods anyways

[🌹𝓜𝓡𝓞𝓩𝓤𓃵]

hello I have a problem with Dragon Age Inquisition and could you please help me because when I download the DAI Tool Suite loader and unzip it in origin games I get this error when I turn it on (there was an error occurred while getting the project list) do you know what to do?

[barzai]

Excellent and helpful post, especially the part about fully exiting Origin before launching the game...I find it's best to close it from the icon that's either on the taskbar or in the "hidden icons" tab of the taskbar.

If you don't mind my asking, is there some reason that you use DAI Mod Manager at all? I have about a half-dozen .daimod flies I'm using (Ancient Sigils, Easy Runes, Fonty - Georgia, No Perk Requirements, TMM Irritating Dialogue Combined, and Unlock Masterwork Crafting) but Frosty loads 'em up just fine.

I do appreciate that you can't load configurable .daimod files from Frosty but most of those (e.g. Fonty and TMM Irritating Dialogue) have been supplemented by a basket of non-configurable versions or superseded by Frosty versions.

[NeutronVortex]

Originally posted by 💙𝓜𝓡𝓞𝓩𝓤🌹:

hello I have a problem with Dragon Age Inquisition and could you please help me because when I download the DAI Tool Suite loader and unzip it in origin games I get this error when I turn it on (there was an error occurred while getting the project list) do you know what to do?

At a guess, whatever server the DAI Tool Suite loader is trying to download the files from doesn't exist anymore(and hasn't for years, I know I tried it long ago.)

Thankfully, you can download the DAIModManager directly from the link on this forum post(choose Direct Link 64 bits):
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/daitools/latest-version-announcement-t1068.html

DAIModManager can't read mods from inside .zip or .rar files so you must extract them first.

Create a Mods folder and place all your mods inside(they can be in sub-folders) -- the path to this folder is the 'Mod Path' you must set in DAIModManager. Enable/Disable the mods you want to use and sort their priority with the up/down arrows at the bottom if needed and choose merge.

If you don't plan on ever using Frosty, you can ignore steps 3-10 of the OP's post.

[DargonBlak]

i use Frosty Mod Manager to load DAI Mods and Frosty Mods.

Works like a champ. No fussing required.

Frosty Mod Manager has probably been updated since this thread was started 2.5 years ago

[カイラ]

I tried to mod in 1 hairstyle, after 3 hours of trying I gave up... it's just too much damned hassle.

[Neo King Arthur]

I'm trying to use the no approval loss at halamshiral mod that's Frosty-only mod. Just this one mod, and for some reason it ends up messing up my entire game. Now I have uninstalled, and reinstalled the game through Steam. And I can't even launch the game at a clean state without any mods installed directly through Steam. Frosty is too much of a damned hassle and corrupted game just for trying to use 1 frosty mod.

DAIMOD is just so much simpler, you install the mods, and that's it, no need to fiddle with launcher and stuff. It's just a shame that nobody makes DAIMOD anymore now. Even for something simple such as the one I'm trying to use.

[Fion]

Originally posted by カイラ:

I tried to mod in 1 hairstyle, after 3 hours of trying I gave up... it's just too much damned hassle.

Just be sure: You have the Ultra Settings on Mesh Textures? Because thats NEEEDED for it to work.
I use the Morrigan Hairstyle for Frosty and it works flawlessly. Throw it into Frosty, activate and Ultra Mesh should be the only things you need.