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Modding dragon age 2
Thursday, 3 May 2012 10:49 pmWhooo... I sort of fell of the face of the internet for a day. Work was really busy but, once I got home, I wanted to finish learning the basics of modding Dragon Age 2. What have I accomplished?
0. Struggled like mad to get the debugging console working. Finally, it worked! I learned how to give myself a mere 2 gold and how to set (or unset) romance flags, dialogue flags, etc.
1. Installed a basic pre-cooked mods that allows armor and weapons to be used by others regardless of their mage-rogue-warrior status.
2. Coded changes in a save file to Fenris' body model with a Qunari (everything is still Fenris underneath as far as stats and abilities).
3. Coded changes in a save file for four completely new companions (with the help of a starter mod!) who are fully customizable, normal companions that show up in the party picker, who level up, etc. I have Donnic as an Aveline clone as far as talent trees go, Cullen with both the templar and the berserker talent, Athenril as a rogue, and ghost-of-Wesley purely for macabre reasons.
Anders + mage!Hawke + Cullen + Donnic went off and kicked butt on the docks at night. Cullen & Donnic worked exactly just as expected, leveled up fine, and are behaving just like normal companions. *THIS* exercise was well worth the struggle in learning because it allows me to have custom characters with talent trees that no one else has (for instance, unless you play warrior!Hawke, you won't have access to templar skills). Of course, these extra companions cannot do anything beyond kick butt in battle (no dialogue, no special sauce) but tactically kicking butt with the skills and equipment I want for certain battles is EXACTLY why I learned how to do this.
Oh, and it also allows me to take amusing screenshots of all the party configurations that Varric never mentioned to Cassandra. (I have a wonderful screenshot of Mari Hawke + Cullen standing on a dock at night with the Gallows in view while Anders glared at them from a distance --- if ever there was a fic-worthy, fic-inspiring screenshot, this is one. Donnic ignored all of the stupid bullshit. ^^)
4. Learned the very basic first steps of how to mod item stats and started looking into armor customization.
5. Learned how to make a video using FRAPS that captured one of the Anders dialogue scenes with Cullen body-swapped into Anders. (Very amusing because the facial expressions were SOOOOO Anders and completely unlike Cullen. It makes me want to learn how to rip audio from Awakening so I can get Greg Ellis' Anders overlaid onto Cullen-as-Anders for ultimate laughs.) (For those who don't get the joke, Greg Ellis has always beenCullen's voice actor but Ellis also voiced Awakening!Anders.)
I'll spam tumblr in the near future with screencaps and a few things I've learned. (maybe tonight but probably not until tomorrow? work is busy)
0. Struggled like mad to get the debugging console working. Finally, it worked! I learned how to give myself a mere 2 gold and how to set (or unset) romance flags, dialogue flags, etc.
1. Installed a basic pre-cooked mods that allows armor and weapons to be used by others regardless of their mage-rogue-warrior status.
2. Coded changes in a save file to Fenris' body model with a Qunari (everything is still Fenris underneath as far as stats and abilities).
3. Coded changes in a save file for four completely new companions (with the help of a starter mod!) who are fully customizable, normal companions that show up in the party picker, who level up, etc. I have Donnic as an Aveline clone as far as talent trees go, Cullen with both the templar and the berserker talent, Athenril as a rogue, and ghost-of-Wesley purely for macabre reasons.
Anders + mage!Hawke + Cullen + Donnic went off and kicked butt on the docks at night. Cullen & Donnic worked exactly just as expected, leveled up fine, and are behaving just like normal companions. *THIS* exercise was well worth the struggle in learning because it allows me to have custom characters with talent trees that no one else has (for instance, unless you play warrior!Hawke, you won't have access to templar skills). Of course, these extra companions cannot do anything beyond kick butt in battle (no dialogue, no special sauce) but tactically kicking butt with the skills and equipment I want for certain battles is EXACTLY why I learned how to do this.
Oh, and it also allows me to take amusing screenshots of all the party configurations that Varric never mentioned to Cassandra. (I have a wonderful screenshot of Mari Hawke + Cullen standing on a dock at night with the Gallows in view while Anders glared at them from a distance --- if ever there was a fic-worthy, fic-inspiring screenshot, this is one. Donnic ignored all of the stupid bullshit. ^^)
4. Learned the very basic first steps of how to mod item stats and started looking into armor customization.
5. Learned how to make a video using FRAPS that captured one of the Anders dialogue scenes with Cullen body-swapped into Anders. (Very amusing because the facial expressions were SOOOOO Anders and completely unlike Cullen. It makes me want to learn how to rip audio from Awakening so I can get Greg Ellis' Anders overlaid onto Cullen-as-Anders for ultimate laughs.) (For those who don't get the joke, Greg Ellis has always beenCullen's voice actor but Ellis also voiced Awakening!Anders.)
I'll spam tumblr in the near future with screencaps and a few things I've learned. (maybe tonight but probably not until tomorrow? work is busy)
