Need help with modding

[hyp3r1onsun]

I experienced frequent crashes and graphics corruption in the Lothering area, to the point that the game was unplayable, with the following mods installed:
1. DAO exe LAA pre-patched
2. Bidelle’s Cosmetics
3. No Helmet Hack 1_6
4. Pineappletree s Vibrant Colors
5. Grey Wardens of Ferelden
6. White Teeth
7. Tucked hair
8. Unique Face Textures for Companions DAO Edition

Are any of these mods known for causing problems or conflicting with other mods on this list? Which ones would you recommend removing to help stabilise the game?

[coo]

I like playing the game as it was designed so I don't use many mods, so I cannot answer your main question. But I am using a mod that gives a large assortment of better hair styles, and that one is working fine for me. I cannot remember the name of the mod (I deleted the download zip file) but the name of the folder it adds in my override directory is Hairstyle Day New. I managed to get a very nice looking female human using one of these plus tweaking the character creation controls.

[Fictus22]

Can you please specify on your issue with "graphics corruption?" I have a hunch but I'd like to hear back on this first.

[hyp3r1onsun]

Originally posted by ZDuke17:

Can you please specify on your issue with "graphics corruption?" I have a hunch but I'd like to hear back on this first.

Sorry in advance if my descriptions aren't helpful.
1) Party showing up with skin missing (i.e. solid black appearance)
2) Surroundings and sky warped or block-like in appearance, with frequent black glitches
What are your thoughts?

[Fictus22]

No need to apologize, hyp3r1onsun, thank you for explaining the situation regarding the graphics. Now as for my thoughts on the matter, this is what I'd suggest:

On the White Teeth mod page, download the file "Incompatibility Fix", copy it's .BAT file into the Unique Face Textures for Companions folder in your override, and run it. If there is no folder for said mod, just run it in your override.

(Note: If you'd rather not do that at first, then simply temporary remove the "white_teeth.erf" file from your override and see if your issue is resolved.)

Reason In doing so is that the White Teeth mod doesn't just involve the teeth, but also the skin/face texture. So when you have another mod that changes skin/face textures, the two conflict depending on which is trying to load first in-game. This would cause the missing graphics on your party, since the Unique Face Textures for Companions mod deals with your party. The warped sky and frequent black glitches can be caused by the two mods playing "tug of war" with each other.

[Vashra]

First step is always to pull *all* your mods out of rotation and see if the game runs properly just with the graphics setup you have going in configuration and your gpu.

>>1. DAO exe LAA pre-patched

Shouldn't conflict with anything, and is probably more important to a working game than any other mod on your list. If you're going to mod the game anyway, I'd also go download and install Qwinn's fixpack and maybe Dain's fixpack. They both work just fine together and they fix a LOT of quests and stuff not touched by any of your cosmetic mods. I consider them both 100% essential to proper game play on the order of the unofficial Skyrim patch.

>> 2. Bidelle’s Cosmetics

I haven't worked with this, but it's possibly why you've got issues with the faces.

>> 3. No Helmet Hack 1_6

This mod is well known to be buggy and not always play well with other mods. Honestly, of the mods on your list, this is the one I would drop. The game already takes off your helmet for you when you're in face-to-face dialogue, so really the ONLY benefit you get from this mod is not having the thing on your head visibly when you're just running around or in combat (you know...those times when it makes *sense* to have metal over your face, lol). That seems like a lot of mod for very little payoff to me, but whatever. I'd let this mod go or make sure all the others work first at least.

>> 4. Pineappletree s Vibrant Colors

I've not worked with this one, but I would install it *first* of the mods in your list and run just the game with it and see if it worked all alone with your configuration/gpu before adding back in any of the others.

>> 5. Grey Wardens of Ferelden

This shouldn't be touching any files that would be causing the issues you describe, so I'd add it back in right after #4 and see if it's working.

>> 6. White Teeth

See Z's instructions/suggestions in the post above mine.

>> 7. Tucked hair

Possibly conflicting with helmet hack or your other cosmetic mods.

8. Unique Face Textures for Companions DAO Edition

Same issues.

You may end up having to choose between some of these mods because if they're trying to mess with the same files (and it looks like they are) they may not mesh well.

The order in which you load them and make new save files *might* matter, but you risk the ones that are all in override re-conflicting when you load back up because DA:O doesn't manage load order like some other games do. I'm not sure if Vortex MM forces a load order, you could look into that (I've only ever modded DA:O manually).

Good luck and Godspeed. ;)

[ADEC Inc]

The game handles load order alphabetically in your overrides folder.

[Vashra]

Originally posted by ADEC Inc:

The game handles load order alphabetically in your overrides folder.

Good to know. I was able to discern that anything in override can trump stuff in Addins and I could see there was no "mod list" for me to reorder like exists for Skyrim, but I wasn't sure how it was pulling stuff out of override.

All in all, I don't see the OP as being the sort to really suss out mod conflicts to the level we're now discussing, but I could be wrong.

[hyp3r1onsun]

Originally posted by ZDuke17:

No need to apologize, hyp3r1onsun, thank you for explaining the situation regarding the graphics. Now as for my thoughts on the matter, this is what I'd suggest:

On the White Teeth mod page, download the file "Incompatibility Fix", copy it's .BAT file into the Unique Face Textures for Companions folder in your override, and run it. If there is no folder for said mod, just run it in your override.

(Note: If you'd rather not do that at first, then simply temporary remove the "white_teeth.erf" file from your override and see if your issue is resolved.)

Reason In doing so is that the White Teeth mod doesn't just involve the teeth, but also the skin/face texture. So when you have another mod that changes skin/face textures, the two conflict depending on which is trying to load first in-game. This would cause the missing graphics on your party, since the Unique Face Textures for Companions mod deals with your party. The warped sky and frequent black glitches can be caused by the two mods playing "tug of war" with each other.

Thanks for the response, I'll give your suggestions a try and let you know if it works or not :)

Originally posted by Vashra:

First step is always to pull *all* your mods out of rotation and see if the game runs properly just with the graphics setup you have going in configuration and your gpu.

The game war running fine before I installed any mods, including the LAA patch, barring the odd crash in Denerim, so I can safely say that it was running properly at that point.

Originally posted by Vashra:

>>1. DAO exe LAA pre-patched

Shouldn't conflict with anything, and is probably more important to a working game than any other mod on your list. If you're going to mod the game anyway, I'd also go download and install Qwinn's fixpack and maybe Dain's fixpack. They both work just fine together and they fix a LOT of quests and stuff not touched by any of your cosmetic mods. I consider them both 100% essential to proper game play on the order of the unofficial Skyrim patch.

I can understand your point about the fixpacks, but personally I prefer to play the game as released, barring graphics mods. I've never used the Skyrim patch either ;)

Originally posted by Vashra:

>> 2. Bidelle’s Cosmetics

I haven't worked with this, but it's possibly why you've got issues with the faces.

I'm not sure why this one would cause the issues with the faces, since it only adds options to character creation? The same for Pineappletree s Vibrant Colors and Tucked Hair.

Originally posted by Vashra:

>> 3. No Helmet Hack 1_6

This mod is well known to be buggy and not always play well with other mods. Honestly, of the mods on your list, this is the one I would drop. The game already takes off your helmet for you when you're in face-to-face dialogue, so really the ONLY benefit you get from this mod is not having the thing on your head visibly when you're just running around or in combat (you know...those times when it makes *sense* to have metal over your face, lol). That seems like a lot of mod for very little payoff to me, but whatever. I'd let this mod go or make sure all the others work first at least.

Fair point. Deleted :)

Originally posted by Vashra:

I'm not sure if Vortex MM forces a load order, you could look into that (I've only ever modded DA:O manually).

I've only ever modded manually as well :)

Originally posted by Vashra:

Originally posted by ADEC Inc:

The game handles load order alphabetically in your overrides folder.

Good to know. I was able to discern that anything in override can trump stuff in Addins and I could see there was no "mod list" for me to reorder like exists for Skyrim, but I wasn't sure how it was pulling stuff out of override.

All in all, I don't see the OP as being the sort to really suss out mod conflicts to the level we're now discussing, but I could be wrong.

Nope, you're right there. I wouldn't have the first idea how to go about that ;)

[Dunde]

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

Originally posted by ZDuke17:

Can you please specify on your issue with "graphics corruption?" I have a hunch but I'd like to hear back on this first.

Sorry in advance if my descriptions aren't helpful.
1) Party showing up with skin missing (i.e. solid black appearance)
2) Surroundings and sky warped or block-like in appearance, with frequent black glitches
What are your thoughts?

I experienced number 2, when I played the game from custom shortcut that force the game run in one core. Yes it prevent the crash from some spells like mana clash, but I can't stand the sky warper block.
So i stsrt the game normally, but I install a mod that change visual effects of some spells like mana clash with less graphic consumption. And it works perfectly for me. I install almost all of your mod list exeept the hidden helm things and so much h more mods including qwin fix.

[Vashra]

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

The game war running fine before I installed any mods, including the LAA patch, barring the odd crash in Denerim, so I can safely say that it was running properly at that point.

Makes sense.

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

I can understand your point about the fixpacks, but personally I prefer to play the game as released, barring graphics mods. I've never used the Skyrim patch either ;)

If you mean you want the game mechanics to be how the devs intended it upon release, then I'd say skip Dain's. However, be aware that Qwinn's pretty much only touches broken dialogue scripts and/or broken quest scripts. What you just said to me sounded like, "I know they released this car with an engine that catches fire, but I prefer to drive it that way instead of sending it to a 3rd party garage for repair even though the original manufacturers can't/won't fix it themselves." I....don't get it.

I mean I get it if it messes with combat mechanics or whatever, but in the case of 'this conversation is unexperiencable because if you talk to the guy on the bridge before the guy in the bar, the guy in the bar doesn't trigger his chat like he's clearly supposed to do' or 'this quest cannot be completed because you can't ever get to the fifth box' type of a *glitch*....I can't grasp your logic of wanting to deal with that. But...I mean...do the game the way you wanna do the game and if you enjoy it enough for more playthroughs, maybe give Qwinn's a shot, see what you missed out on last time. *shrug*

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

I'm not sure why this one would cause the issues with the faces, since it only adds options to character creation? The same for Pineappletree s Vibrant Colors and Tucked Hair.

Do they not modify the face/head of your character in-game? I mean if you pick bright purple eyes off Pineappletree, do they not then show up in your profile pick and on your face in the game? If they do (or are meant to) they could be part of the problem. If not..then you're right, this mod wouldn't be a likely cause of what you described.

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

Fair point. Deleted :)

Did that fix it?

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

Nope, you're right there. I wouldn't have the first idea how to go about that ;)

Gawd, I just realized how condescending that sounded. Sorry hehe. I just meant that it would be a PITA to do more than load in the mods one at a time and see what/when/if it broke. You *can* go into the directories created by .dazip files and mess about, and there's always downloading the toolkit (if you can still find it) and tweaking things yourself to get into. :)

I'm actually toying with the idea of hunting down the toolkit and making a mod or two because I can't find a good version of something I want on Nexus.

I used to "mash" mods for Skyrim, and it got pretty intense to get everything to work together without conflicts, but I had 250 mods (not kidding) running in concert. At one point I was unpacking .bpa files and messing with the modders' source stuff then repacking them, etc. I was *almost* to the point of writing my own scripts (I did do up one *very* minor tiny cosmetic mod that just changed the color of a spell effect) for that game when Life(tm) got in the way and I remembered how much I actually hate programming ;)~~~~

[hyp3r1onsun]

Originally posted by Vashra:

If you mean you want the game mechanics to be how the devs intended it upon release, then I'd say skip Dain's. However, be aware that Qwinn's pretty much only touches broken dialogue scripts and/or broken quest scripts. What you just said to me sounded like, "I know they released this car with an engine that catches fire, but I prefer to drive it that way instead of sending it to a 3rd party garage for repair even though the original manufacturers can't/won't fix it themselves." I....don't get it.

I mean I get it if it messes with combat mechanics or whatever, but in the case of 'this conversation is unexperiencable because if you talk to the guy on the bridge before the guy in the bar, the guy in the bar doesn't trigger his chat like he's clearly supposed to do' or 'this quest cannot be completed because you can't ever get to the fifth box' type of a *glitch*....I can't grasp your logic of wanting to deal with that. But...I mean...do the game the way you wanna do the game and if you enjoy it enough for more playthroughs, maybe give Qwinn's a shot, see what you missed out on last time. *shrug*

Fair enough, I might try it on a later playthrough.

Originally posted by Vashra:

Did that fix it?

Not sure yet, I've been busy the last few days and haven't had a chance to test it yet. I'll let you know, when I find out :)

Originally posted by Vashra:

Gawd, I just realized how condescending that sounded. Sorry hehe. I just meant that it would be a PITA to do more than load in the mods one at a time and see what/when/if it broke. You *can* go into the directories created by .dazip files and mess about, and there's always downloading the toolkit (if you can still find it) and tweaking things yourself to get into. :)

No worries, I took it in good humour :)

[hyp3r1onsun]

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

Originally posted by Vashra:

Did that fix it?

Not sure yet, I've been busy the last few days and haven't had a chance to test it yet. I'll let you know, when I find out :)

Hey, I wanted to say thanks, I just completed a run through of Lothering and it looks like your suggestion fixed the issue :D

[Vashra]

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

Originally posted by hyp3r1onsun:

Not sure yet, I've been busy the last few days and haven't had a chance to test it yet. I'll let you know, when I find out :)

Hey, I wanted to say thanks, I just completed a run through of Lothering and it looks like your suggestion fixed the issue :D

Awesome :)

It really is a fun game once you get all the kinks worked out.