Techie help.

[scarylady]

Hiya.  I haz a problem.

I never play Origins anymore, even though I want to, cos ever since Awakenings it's insanely difficult to make it recognise that I have a disc in the drive.  I have no idea why - I even bought a new disc at one point, in case mine was faulty.

Anyway.

The question is this.  If I buy the Ultimate Ed off Steam, so I never have to use a disc again, will it work with my existing char files/mods?  Does a Steam installation keep the folders in the same place as a regular installation?

Comments

[twist_shimmy]

You'll have to keep the mods in a different folder, but I think the saves are in the same place.

Though yes, the mods and saves will work, assuming you rebuy all the DLC. The keys will be linked to your old discs, unfortunately, so if you load saves with old DLC content it will lock you out.

Lenna and I have shared save games and as long as both computers have the exact same DLC you can swap games just fine. The instant the DLC differs, though, it goes wonky.

[scarylady]

I own all the DLC's already, and the Ultimate Ed comes with Origins, Awakenings and all the DLC's included.

Does that mean it will work or it won't? I'm confused now. My Bioware account has my CD keys and DLC's registered to it.

I'm assuming that Ultimate Edition off Steam will count as a completely separate install from my existing one, and that I'll have to load all my save games into the new folders and install all my mods from the ground up. Is that right?

[twist_shimmy]

Yes. And if it has all the DLCs, it should work just fine. It will count as a brand new install. You just:

1) Put your mods in the mods folder, which will default to program files... steam ... Dragon Age Origins (it will take a bit of hunting. I would Google it.
2)Copy your game files into the saves file. Keep a backup in case anything corrupts, but if all the DLC is the same, it shouldn't.

[msbarrows]

I have the Ultimate Edition of DA:O, the relevant directories for it are:
- My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Characters - characters and saves
- My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Screenshots
- My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\AddIns - mods
- My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override - other mods

Which ones the mods get stuck in seems to vary depending on whether you're using something like the modmanager or manually installing them.

And if you need to find it, the actual game is installed in:
- Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\dragon age ultimate edition

And the toolset goes in the "tools" subdirectory of that.

[scarylady]

In that case it's fortunate I backed up my DA folders before I started my Steam install. If Steam overwrites the stuff in My Documents/Bioware, I'd lose two years of chars and mods.