Mod 101

[ScarletPhoenix]

Hello there! I've just gotten the game recently and I've read that there are a few essential mods needed to improve on it as well as make gameplay better. Would someone mind helping me with knowing how to install them and such. Its my first time doing such a thing and I really enjoyed the game on console when I played it before.

[Vashra]

There's a big sticky post at the top of this discussion forum all about that....study up. The one that is probably truly *necessary* (to fix bugged quests and such) is Qwinn's Fixpack. It comes as a (huge) zipped file that extracts into a (still kinda huge) .dazip file, and right now there is also a NECESSARY emergency patch that gets dumped into override. Once you install Qwinn's keep a copy of his affected file manifest somewhere so you can check it against whatever other mods you pick because if the choice is Qwinn or some other mod, I'd go with Qwinn.

Install happens one of 3 ways:

1. Use a mod manager and pray

2. Find the DAUpdate.exe in your DA folder and double click it, then drag/drop .dazip files into its screen to select and install them (do not extract the .dazip file first, if it says .dazip, it's as uncompressed as it needs to be...but some folks put .dazips into zips which isn't confusing at all).

3. Drop loose files into /packages/override (you may need to make the override folder) within the DA directory. It's prudent to keep all of any one mod's loose files in a named subdirectory so you can pull it out later if there's an issue (and to keep things tidy) This means your override directory will have subfolders with names like "Make Dog a Nug" or "Bill's manboob mod" or whatever it is you kids are into these days ;)

4. If individual mod authors tell you to do anything different or more specific, follow their instructions...carefully. Back up any file they tell you to move/delete/edit BEFORE you move/delete/edit it.

5. Be aware that quite a lot of mods (especially dazips) can be messy if you hot swap them. Better to exit the game entirely, load or unload the mod files, reload the game, check or uncheck any DLC boxes (most .dazip mods end up showing up in the installed DLC list).

6. Disabling mods in the DLC folder does NOT guarantee their effects will disappear entirely from the game. Extra Dog is notorious for bugging dog on human nobles if you activate it before reaching Lothering, and just having it in the DLC but not selected was enough for it to bug three of my runs (but I love it too much to care so I ran around with a dog named....Dog...till I found a way to fix it).

7. Don't double install mods. If you've put it into \packages\override in Documents\Dragon Age, you don't need to also stick it into override in the actual Dragon Age game files directory. Having said that a couple mods (like forced messy kills) seems to work better in the official games directory override folder than in the one off Documents or vice versa.