THE DRAGON AGE 2 RELEASE STICKY

[twist_shimmy]

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!

Comments

Re: Let the modding begin!

[elysium_fic]

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.

Re: Let the modding begin!

[dragonreine]

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?

Re: Let the modding begin!

[scarylady]

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 :)

Re: Let the modding begin!

[dragonreine]

LOL I'm just... insanely picky about my favourite LI in DA:O. sorry!

I'll probably give a hand at modding out Ali and Teagan, but I have no access to the Toolset due to playing DA: Origins as a rented game *AUGH*, so yeah, unless someone explains to me in small, simple words how I can export the headmorphs to others.

Re: Let the modding begin!

[elysium_fic]

It's actually very easy. If I can do it, anyone can.

First off, download these three things:

ERFpack

DA Face Replacer (Be sure to download the 120 version, and it requires something called Python, so follow the link and install that as well.)

.mor files for all the DA2 characters.


For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll pick on Teagan.

Step 1: find the .mor file in that last item you downloaded for the character you want to mod. Anders, Nathaniel, and Alistair (all three versions of him) will be in the DAO Companions folder. Teagan is in the \Human\m folder.

Do yourself a favor and make two backup copies of the .mor file, because you will be renaming one in Step 2, and overwriting the other in Step 10 and 11.

Step 2: Rename the .mor file to hm_cgn_001.mop (for males) or hf_cgn_001.mop (for females)

Step 3: Place that .mop file into a folder, and name the folder whatever you like, preferably something descriptive and easy to remember. For example: Big Beak Teagan Preset.

Step 4: Drag that folder over Gibbed.Bioware.ErfPack.exe (from the erfpack tool you downloaded and unzipped) and drop it there. No need to "open" the exe. Just drop the folder on it.

Step 5: In the directory where your folder from Step 3 was located, you should now have a file called (for example) "Big Beak Teagan Preset.erf"

Step 6: (this may change depending on your operating system. I use WinXP, so I'm not sure about others) Drag and drop the .erf file you created into you My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age 2\packages\core\patch (you may have to create the "patch" subdirectory)

Step 7: In the character creator, both at the beginning of the game and in the Black Emporium Mirror of Transformation, the third preset (after the first two default Hawkes) should now be DA2!Teagan.

Step 8: Tweak the face and save your game, preferably with a savegame name that is easy to remember (example Teagan Fix.)

Step 9: Open the DA Face Replacer. Click the big Source button on the right and find "TeaganFix.das" in your My Documents/Bioware/Dragon Age 2/Characters/YOUR CHARACTER NAME/Saves/Slot# directory. (If the savegame you just did was the most recent, it SHOULD be in the Slot # folder with the highest number, unless you deleted some saves along the way.)

Step 10: Click on the Destination button on the lower right, and find the original .mor file for the person you wish to replace (from Step 1). Teagan would be "hm_teagan.mor" or "Copy of hm_teagan.mor" or whatever. It will warn you that hm_teagan.mor will be overwritten. Click okay. (this is why you want to backup the originals)

Step 11: Click the green ... button at the bottom.

Step 12: If the file you saved was named anything other than hm_teagan.mor (for instance, "Copy of hm_teagan.mor" or whatever) rename it to its "official" name.

Step 13: Repeat Steps 3 and 4, putting your new hm_teagan.mor into a file folder with an easy to remember name (such as Teagan Face Fix) and dragging it over Gibbed.Bioware.ErfPack.exe to make it into Teagan Face Fix.erf.

Step 14: Place Teagan Face Fix.erf in your My Documents/DA2/packages/core/override, load up the game, and enjoy your new Teagan!

(Be sure to get rid of Big Beak Teagan.erf in your My Documents/DA2/packages/core/patch directory before you create a new character, or else Big Beak Teagan will be your third preset again.)

Note: If you want to start from scratch instead of using the existing Teagan already in game as your base, you can do so. Just omit steps 1-7 and start with Step 8.

Re: Let the modding begin!

[elysium_fic]

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.