peopleofthedas | THE DRAGON AGE 2 RELEASE STICKY

OMG YOU GUYS IT'S GONNA BE

(more thanks to

cave_fatuam who probably had no idea I was going to abuse this graphic so badly.)

Tuesday looms, my darlings. It looms, and we are ready for it. (Why no, I've not slept; I still have saves to rebuild!)

So here's the deal. We want everyone's plunge into DA2 to be a) fun, and b) spoiler-free, so please read the bullet points below.

Until further notice, all Dragon Age 2 posts shall be relegated to this thread. This will keep the comm from exploding and also allow those of us who aren't playing it yet/have no desire to play it to continue on as normal.
Use the comment title space to put in a topic like you would for a standalone post. If you think it might be spoilery for an area/character/wevs, post that first thing so those of us who don't want cameos/LIs/game plot detailed can scroll on past to something else.
Hmmm. Screenshots. I guess post them as links so we can click if we want to see and avoid if we don't. (Note to self: FOLLOW THIS RULE.)
DA drabbles/fic/art may be posted separately to the comm within the next couple of weeks. Just not right now. We need to get everything settled.
You'll note a series of new tags going up for DA2 characters, as well as a da2 spoilers tag. Use these when the time comes. :D

Okay, good? Good. Dive on in.

::EDIT:: Mods are coming out already. Wanna check them out/post one you just found? This is the thread for it.
::2nd EDIT:: This is about to go off sticky for another announcement, so I'd subscribe to the entry/save the link. Though it will also be available via sidebar!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's not much, but if you would prefer to have one sibling or the other, regardless of your class, there is a mod out now that temporarily switches your class (in name only) at the appropriate time so that the sibling you've chosen continues on as your companion.

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2140

Edited 2011-03-09 21:50 (UTC)

We probs need a DA2 mods thread/tag, if one of our luvverly moderators has a moment spare?

I'll add the tag to the techie section.

Figures it would be xatmos. He's done two of my favorite mods: Adopted and Lock Bash. I am badly wanting the second, because Varric can't unlock anything.

If you're tired of your mages running around with a big obvious "Hello, I am a mage" sign strapped to their back:
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2150

If you're tired of having a Heal spell that's useless in combat because of the 40 second cooldown:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/307/index/6446277

To unlock companion skill trees so you can have Merrill without losing healing:
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2158

To replace all giant spiders with Mabari:
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2166

And my personal favorite--a complete revamp of the character creator that allows you to change default!Hawke:
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2145

Edited 2011-03-14 01:34 (UTC)

YUS!

There is an Alistair fix out: http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2192

Not sure it really suits my idea of what Alistair would look like, but it's much better than it was.

Yike, his face is too broad, and that is not a Theirin nose.

Yeah, I think I may try my hand at this, despite the fact that I'm lousy with the character creator. Apparently you can use the chargen/Black Emporium to make a PC face and then use the Face Replacer tool by NewByPower to export that face to a morph.

Not sure on the how, but something has to be done about this. It cannot stand.

(Too bad it can't be done with elves, so I could take a crack at Zevran.)

Okay, I got a tutorial for making faces. Giving it a shot. I'd like some opinions before I release it. Anyone see any details that need fixing?

This is King Alistair, which I figure will be the cleanest-cut and closest to Origins!Alistair of the three possible Alistair's that can appear in DA2. Once I have this tweaked to my satisfaction, I will use it as the base for Warden and Drunk Alistair.

https://picasaweb.google.com/rcdcontact/AlistairDA2?authkey=Gv1sRgCIub4Iqe5Iyv9QE&feat=directlink

(I need a good archive of Awakening!Anders screenshots, and I can repeat the process with him.)

Well, I finally did it. My first mod, ever.

Alistair in DA2

Also:

Nathaniel in DA2.

I fixed his eye color, but didn't mess with his nose, which I suspect should be bigger and look more broken. I didn't want the hassle tonight. Perhaps in a few days.

Confirmed working. Although Alistair looks a bit... round?

In what way? Are you thinking the face needs to be longer or narrower? The nose is way too soft. Alistair in Origins has a very bony nose, but there's no way to achieve that with the character creator in DA2.

Eyes smaller, face narrower. The cheeks are a tad full and the cheekbones a bit too broad, methinks.

Narrow nose... something like this?

The second nose option, with the nose size lowered, makes for a decent narrow nose, and fiddling with the nose height, bridge options, nostril options and tip options you can even make a decent Roman nose.

I found that to make the illusion of a narrow nose, you have to shrink the nose size of any option, then really lower the nose height. Have you tried that?

She should have sent the zillion or so interim attempts to you to check, rather than me. I don't have an artist's eye :)

Edited 2011-03-15 23:13 (UTC)

Re: Let the modding begin!

dragonreine - 2011-03-16 12:16 (UTC) - Expand

elysium_fic - 2011-03-17 06:12 (UTC) - Expand

Thanks, I will work on that.

Unfortunately, I saved these characters in the Black Emporium, and I seem to have a hard time loading up into the Black Emporium. About 4 times out of 5, it just freezes during the loading screen. So we'll see if we can get any of them to load.

*pokes his little tummy*

No more cheese for you, m'lad.

OK, have now just done the Alistair scene for the first time, unmodded for now - I'm avoiding changing anything on first run.

But, I have to say this:

PLEASE, PLEASE, FIX TEAGAN. He's just... wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Far wronger than Ali.

He's missing his goatee or at least, it isn't quite so filled out.

He turned around suddenly and I thought Alsitair was going to have to duck. I've seen avians with blunter noses.

I've tried my hand at modding Teagan....

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2272

Does it look all right?

It looks a hell of a lot better. Do you have screenshots from the char creation screen, so we can see him from lots of angles? That's how Elysium tweaked him. The nose is pretty important, or he'll just look like any old red-head with a braid.

If you want to dump a load of shots on me to discuss, you have my email addy from when I was betaing for you.

Sent e-mail. The email I'm using is a Gmail one, FYI.

In DAO his goatee was more filled out.

There is NO option to fill out said goatee, since DA2's stubble is so sparse and the "beard" options are literal beards/'staches . The only way to make it look "thick" is to severely darken the stubble to emphasize it, but that gets the odd eyebrow =/= hair color mismatch.

elysium_fic - 2011-03-17 15:24 (UTC) - Expand