226 réponses à ce sujet

[Onix Sunstone]

Im normaly content mod crasy, I make mods for other games but with this game I worry to much it will break the base game & cause issue with later offical addons. I put this firmly at Biowares door not the modders ofc & we even seen them fail with there offical addons that didnt help my mental state towards trying mods witch is a shame since iv seen some looking real good.

[TMZuk]

AmstradHero wrote...

Thanks for the feedback - that kind of information is useful to know. I've spent quite a lot time reading through BioWare's dialogue trying to get a similar style of conversation as is used in Dragon Age. But I don't have the benefit of editors like a professional title.  That said, I think standalone modules should get a little more leeway in terms of their "style" - I'd argue that since they're not part of the main campaign hence don't have to conform exactly to the formula and nature of the core game.

Stand alone mods do get more leeway, since they are selfcontained, and therefore don't have to fit in as such.

ArmstradHero wrote...

I'd love it if modders could afford to hire even semi-professional voice actors and have lines recorded "properly", but seeing as we can't make money off our projects, we'd have to ask for donations and use that money to hire them. I can't see that happening any time soon.

I am well aware, of course, and that is why i recommend using text only. I don't know if you have played BG2 redux, but as the makers have simply used to original voices, and BG2 was only partially voiced, a lot of the mod was unvoiced, and I didn't mind that at all, although others might. Also, I recently found a little gem of an RPG; Drakensang: The Dark Eye, and that's - in the English version anyway - only partially voiced, and again, it doesn't bother me at all.

ArmstradHero wrote...
That said, I don't mean to turn this into a post defending modules - I appreciate that part of the reason you're picky with quest modules is due to the quality of the writing and voice work. I know I'll do what I can to ensure that my mods meet a high standard in these areas as well as in the technical aspects. And that was my aim in creating this thread - to identify reasons why mod/modules aren't used by players and the potential means to address those issues.

I -do- appreciate the modding community, don't get me wrong there. And I am certainly looking forward to your new project, as I did like Alley of Murders. An idea came to me while reading and writing this, not certain if it is feasible. But if you are a group of modders, perhaps you could try contacting an acting school? I would imagine that there are gamers studying to become actors, and who might lend a hand for fun? Just an idea, I don't know if it is feasible.

Finally... I once owned an Armstrad CPC 6128. Your nick invokes nostagia.

Modifié par TMZuk, 21 décembre 2010 - 06:08 .

[Pericles]

 I don't use mods on this game because I'm still working through Mods and Modules in NWN and I don't think Ill be finished that anytime soon.

[Proleric]

I wonder whether it's general opinion that mods shouldn't attempt voiceover?

We haven't published our stuff yet, but the proof-of-concept we've done with some of the community voice actors struck me as stunningly better than text-only.

Am I kidding myself?

Regarding standards, the wiki has information on compatibility, reserved ranges and so on, which the best authors take into account.

Just as only a few movies merit 4- and 5-stars, players will find that some mods are better than others (in every respect, from installation instructions and compatibility to dialogue and gameplay).

It would be a pity to pass over "The Godfather" or "Amelie" just because most other films aren't as good.

In the absence of a player-generated star rating that we can filter on (which we did ask for), I guess word-of-mouth and comments are the best guide.

Modifié par Proleric1, 22 décembre 2010 - 06:37 .

[SSV Enterprise]

I'm not really interested. That's all.

[Bahlgan]

Been a long long while since I had lurked on these forums. Thought I might shove some valid input along here.



I do not anticipate such a thought as mods to be cheating *ahem* UNLESS they pertained to attributes such as a werewolf class (which obviously breaks lore, canon or not) or mods which foretell of interesting yet false events such as the Return to Korcari Wilds.



Now, I am not saying anything along the lines that these mods are not interesting or just plain suck; in fact I admire the ones behind their computers crafting such creativity, and to those I tip my hat, which I am not wearing one at all.. Ok then, not a hat, I bow and salute, there we go!



I DO believe, however, in using mods which I strongly believe will "fix" the game or make it much more enjoyable without breaking the boundaries of such original content. Like the HD 2.0 that just makes graphics better I hear; I would indulge the living hell out of that mod for higher satisfaction. I would enjoy using mods which allowed me to change the color or "skin" of certain weapons or armor; only would change such on weapons or armor which had a dull physical output such as Keening Blade and Veshialle - both are just typical tier 7 outlining... Lame... Would indeed love stuff like that.



Behold: I do have a couple of mods in my mind that I have saved dear precious to me for last. These mods and whether or not their existence fractures the boundaries of legal or illegal gameplay are entirely debatable but here we go: V



First off, I support all mods which will allow you to grind against monsters for loot and experience. I do not know what, in the twelve days of Christmas, Bioware was thinking when they left out/forgot to chip it in those options, but every single RPG I have ever played had given me the chance to level up my character or gather materials and make profit if I ever felt unprepared. Also every RPG I have ever played had given me the chance to use that currency to purchase all the good stuff. Some people may call that crap or cheating, I just called it "getting a certain percent of the game complete". I believe I recall there being a couple mods which allow you to sell items for a enough sovereign to cover all the legendary purchases. Now THIS I believe to be cheating.... Unfortunately there is no grinding to be had... Thus I see no alternative.. Guess that undoubtedly makes me a cheater in this game then... Oh well..



Second, any mods which allow you to either re specialize your character in ORIGINS, or add certain amounts of skills to your characters, which I know is cheating too. Only thing is, I only planned on having two tomes in Awakening which would give me two skills. That's about it. After all, there ARE no skill tomes in Awakening; I believe I am just adding what I think should be in game.



As a conclusion to this long and seemingly monotonous post, I do believe that certain mods are fun to try out which can be considered cheating. But the mods which I hold a clearly distinct passion for are those which I view as a fix to the game, not a break.

[AmstradHero]

Onix Sunstone wrote...

Im normaly content mod crasy, I make mods for other games but with this game I worry to much it will
break the base game & cause issue with later offical addons. I put this firmly at Biowares door not the modders ofc & we even seen them fail with there offical addons that didnt help my mental state towards trying mods witch is a shame since iv seen some looking real good.

So I would then ask what can modders do to ease your worry? Can I say that I've not had a single issue with incompatibilities with Alley of Murders? And not a single bug report for maybe 6 months or more? If you don't trust BioWare to deliver working content - have you bought it, or have you steered clear of official DLC too?

TMZuk wrote...
... i recommend using text only. I don't know if you have played BG2 redux, but as the makers have simply used to
original voices, and BG2 was only partially voiced, a lot of the mod was unvoiced, and I didn't mind that at all, although others might.
...
I -do- appreciate the modding community, don't get me wrong there. And I am certainly looking forward to your new project, as I did like Alley of Murders. An idea came to me while reading and writing this, not certain if it is feasible. But if you are a group of modders, perhaps you could try contacting an acting school? I would imagine that there are gamers studying to become actors, and who might lend a hand for fun? Just an idea, I don't know if it is feasible.
Finally... I once owned an Armstrad CPC 6128. [smilie]../../../images/forum/emoticons/wink.png[/smilie] Your nick invokes nostagia. [smilie]../../../images/forum/emoticons/grin.png[/smilie]

As much as I liked BGR and think everyone involved deserves credit for their work, the static characters and click-through dialogue did feel somewhat clunky to me in the Dragon Age engine. Don't get me wrong, I still like it, but for me that design doesn't quite work. But as with the VO for Dark Times, I don't mind it because the other elements that make the game do work. As with pretty much any game I've ever played, I can identify things that do and don't work and why I do or don't like them. If I couldn't do that, then I couldn't really consider myself qualified to be able to make mods.
The idea of contacting an acting school is an excellent idea... I might just steal that one.  Also, I totally understand that you appreciate the modding community - the fact that you took the time to reply with a thoughtful and considered response to this thread indicates as much. I know that I definitely appreciate the time that you've taken to do so - I imagine other modders reading this thread would feel the same.
Lastly, I'm glad my nick invokes some nostalgia. I'm always pleased when someone knows what an Amstrad is.

SSV Enterprise wrote...
I'm not really interested. That's all.

Simple question: Why?

Bahlgan wrote...
I do not anticipate such a thought as mods to be cheating *ahem* UNLESS they pertained to attributes such as a
werewolf class (which obviously breaks lore, canon or not) or mods which foretell of interesting yet false events such as the Return to Korcari Wilds.

(I'll preface this response with a disclaimer that I had my own reasons for not feeling RtKW was quite up to scratch, but I still commend the modders for the effort they put into it)

I'm not sure I follow, you want to be allowed to "level up" through grinding, but you don't want to download additional quest mods which would in theory allow you to do "plot-driven grinding" because they aren't canon events written by BioWare? According to BioWare's canon the Grey Warden didn't go around grinding for money and experience, yet you want to do that, but you're worried that mods that allow you to do extra monster killing and money gathering aren't canon?

This is a genuine question - I'm just trying to work through your reasoning here and how I (and other modders) can convince you to try out my (their) content.

Modifié par AmstradHero, 22 décembre 2010 - 10:34 .

[Nyaamos]

I would say the most important thing is to have detailed instructions how to install the mod and also what exactly it changes(They can be very long it doesnt mattter because thats way better than searching for additional information in comments or other ways). And to have a manual version too incase u would want to make the mod compatible with other mods. I seriously dont understand how ppl can be put off when the modder lists all their files for information and also gives compatibility advices to make the mod work with other mods.



Saying u only want the dazip format and thats it would make many ppl lose the option to make mods compatible easily and therefor would atleast prevent me to download them.



And saying going through six folders is so much and complicating is kind of a joke right? Its always the same folders and u can also just make a shortcut to your override folder if going through them everytime aggravates u. But please dont say that the modder shouldnt give out the manual version and instructions to make them compatible with other mods thats just nonsense and would leave alot of mods to not get downloaded at all because ppl dont want to give up on another one.

For example would be the dialog tweaks,morrigan fix pack and zdf mods can all be easily be made to work with each other when using the manual version and even have nice advices what to delete to make everything work. If the authors only put out the dazip version and no file list and compatibility and advices many ppl would be forced to decide which bug fix they want just because some ppl find it so bad that there are also instructions for the manual version (u know u can just ignore those instructions if u dont want that version).



(And no im not a mod maker. I just like using them)

sorry for my bad english.

[ladydesire]

@Bahlgan: I prefer to have a purpose to my XP gain, so it feels less like grinding (I do enough of that in City of Heroes when I play that). Also, I think Bioware designed the game's monetary gain so you didn't have all of your companions in the best gear as a part of its balance.



@Nyaamos: I'm not opposed to logical uses for the override, like fine-tuning module compatibility; what bugs me is when mods dump things in your override (like certain class mods I won't name) or only come in an override version and have no other option for installation. If I do end up installing them, I usually have to fire up the toolset and create a module to put the files in so I can disable it if needed. Also, I've seen stand-alone mods that require that you are not using any mods that alter core gameplay and the authors' won't accept bug reports unless you can reproduce the problem without such mods.

[Bahlgan]

AmstradHero wrote...

I'm not sure I follow, you want to be allowed to "level up" through grinding, but you don't want to download additional quest mods which would in theory allow you to do "plot-driven grinding" because they aren't canon events written by BioWare? According to BioWare's canon the Grey Warden didn't go around grinding for money and experience, yet you want to do that, but you're worried that mods that allow you to do extra monster killing and money gathering aren't canon?

This is a genuine question - I'm just trying to work through your reasoning here and how I (and other modders) can convince you to try out my (their) content.

I will be happy to answer you. Thought I had earlier, but my reply wasn't created. In my opinion, grinding, no matter how big or small, is always necessary to get your character prepared. I agree with this statement only if there is no list of quests or objectives to have completed at hand. As far as your question about mods goes pertaining to storylines, they don't register in my mind as MY OWN PERSONAL canon; they register as the canon of the modders who made them, and for others who might like a little additional content. See, I am NOT trying to say I don't believe their mods to be cool (as I said earlier, I admire their creativity) but I have a strict code of how my stories are done - by my way only. I know it's complicated and don't expect anyone to understand, but I would ask that you believe this to be my reasoning.

And you're correct about your statement that grinding is not a part of the lore (that's why I made something up in my story) instead of "grinding" the crew had discovered gargantuan chasms created by Darkspawn in a paltry few locations around Ferelden. It is with these chasms that my crew had fought and pushed back the darkspawn enough to find the appropriate loot and EXP.

I hope this helps.

@Bahlgan: I prefer to have a purpose to my XP gain, so it feels less like grinding (I do enough of that in City of Heroes when I play that). Also, I think Bioware designed the game's monetary gain so you didn't have all of your companions in the best gear as a part of its balance.

I understand, grinding is extremely boring after a short while for most. Fortunately I am extremely fortuitous and reserving when it comes to doing something I don't like for something worth achieving. I myself would not need to grind if I knew how to maximize my level in the game And purchase all rare, powerful, and lore items in the game WITHOUT having to use the trap glitch in the game.

Then it seems that, according to my philosophy, no one will ever be able to complete 100% of the game's attributes. The only argument I see here is the Multiple Playthroughs statement, however I still believe in finding all the items. It's just who I am.

[AmstradHero]

Bahlgan wrote...
As far as your question about mods goes pertaining to storylines, they don't register in my mind as MY OWN PERSONAL canon; they register as the canon of the modders who made them, and for others who might like a little additional content. See, I am NOT trying to say I don't believe their mods to be cool (as I said earlier, I admire their creativity) but I have a strict code of how my stories are done - by my way only. I know it's complicated and don't expect anyone to understand, but I would ask that you believe this to be my reasoning.

So my understanding here is that you basically play through the game once as a  "canon" playthrough and won't replay it, and while you respect mods, you can't/won't include any non-official (i.e. not released by BioWare) material as part of that playthrough as it does not conform to BioWare's official canon?

In that case, it doesn't appear that I (or anyone else) as a modder could do anything to persuade you to try out their material if it modifies or adds to the core storyline of the Warden. Would this change if they were standalone adventures (potentially set in Thedas) instead of being part of the main campaign? (Possibly involving another character apart from the Warden, and thus not interfering with that canon.)

Modifié par AmstradHero, 26 décembre 2010 - 01:21 .

[ladydesire]

AmstradHero wrote...

Bahlgan wrote...
As far as your question about mods goes pertaining to storylines, they don't register in my mind as MY OWN PERSONAL canon; they register as the canon of the modders who made them, and for others who might like a little additional content. See, I am NOT trying to say I don't believe their mods to be cool (as I said earlier, I admire their creativity) but I have a strict code of how my stories are done - by my way only. I know it's complicated and don't expect anyone to understand, but I would ask that you believe this to be my reasoning.

So my understanding here is that you basically play through the game once as a  "canon" playthrough and won't replay it, and while you respect mods, you can't/won't include any non-official (i.e. not released by BioWare) material as part of that playthrough as it does not conform to BioWare's official canon?

I think that's close to what he means, with the exception of mods that allow him to "grind" to levels that Bioware doesn't expect us to get to and gain all items that they don't expect us to be able to acquire within the framework they set up.

In that case, it doesn't appear that I (or anyone else) as a modder could do anything to persuade you to try out their material if it modifies or adds to the core storyline of the Warden. Would this change if they were standalone adventures (potentially set in Thedas) instead of being part of the main campaign? (Possibly involving another character apart from the Warden, and thus not interfering with that canon.)

Perhaps that would be a possibility.

[Bahlgan]

AmstradHero wrote...

So my understanding here is that you basically play through the game once as a  "canon" playthrough and won't replay it, and while you respect mods, you can't/won't include any non-official (i.e. not released by BioWare) material as part of that playthrough as it does not conform to BioWare's official canon?

Not necessarily my FIRST playthrough, but i will make an official "canon" (by my definition) playthrough second or third time around, and be more than certain that by this time I experience and sate my immersion by 100% and then some. You are, however, correct about the lore though. Chances are, on my official playthrough, that I will not be doing any sort of mods like mentioned previously unless they were approved and funded by Bioware. Even still, before I do so I must absolutely do my research on said subject. 

In that case, it doesn't appear that I (or anyone else) as a modder could do anything to persuade you to try out their material if it modifies or adds to the core storyline of the Warden. Would this change if they were standalone adventures (potentially set in Thedas) instead of being part of the main campaign? (Possibly involving another character apart from the Warden, and thus not interfering with that canon.)

Hmm.... Now that isn't necessarily true, unless we are speaking of my official playthrough. I would be happy to try them out on a side character, or a character fantasized for exercise purposes. You do raise an interesting question in the end, however. It might or might not help. Few aspects that WOULD help however are to know that they are:

A) NOT, NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT disapproved by Bioware
somewhat voiced - I realize this might be impossible, but only if you could grind and or level up with these experiences might I take into account what is mentioned.
C) Some sort of DLC/mod that can truly make fanatics such as myself undisputedly immersed in gameplay. When it comes to this, I am perhaps the strictest person I know. Please please, for the record, do not take it personal if I do not try out any mods unless they are as well done as Bioware's. If this is not possible, then I apologize.

A mod that I would be interested in, for grinding purposes (including leveling and item/sovereign farming), would be the one I mentioned should be earlier: Chasms opened up around a few locations around Ferelden, such as: 1-between Orzammar and Redcliffe, 2-between Brecillian Forest and Lothering, and 3-between Denerim and Soldier's Peak. This is something I had in mind which would give reason why the Warden would slay many more than just a measly thousand.

Just off the record, I am now in the mood to openly discuss with you my reasoning behind this particular thought on the game. It would require much more time than I have at this very moment to discuss with you. Please do PM me if you are in the slightest bit interested. Nice talking to you

I think that's close to what he means, with the exception of mods that allow him to "grind" to levels that Bioware doesn't expect us to get to and gain all items that they don't expect us to be able to acquire within the framework they set up

That is correct, the mods which allow me to level up and get my items (as well as the HD 2.0 mod and those which alter the skins of items) are those I would certainly use without the slightest recluse. Of course this is subject to change depending on which playthrough I make. My reason for grinding is because I could never reach max level by the time the game ends without the infinite traps glitch in Lothering. As said, I would stop taking advantage of this once my Warden would hit 13. Keep in mind, I would have this done RIGHT after Ostagar and BEFORE ever touching anything else, be it Redcliffe, Orzammar, Circle Tower, or Brecilian Forest.

[Leinadi]

I think what happens to me is that I tend to be more "reluctant" to use mods on games that I really enjoy in themselves. I find Dragon Age to be pretty well-designed, a lot of thought has gone into it and so forth. And so, any mod that I install (beyond simply fixing bugs and that I mean) would have to match that level of design. Not just in gameplay, but in terms of writing as well.

Alley of Murders fit in quite well I thought for example, and so I enjoyed that. But I think it's very rare that you find a mod that really fits in well.



The mods we typically see for NWN1 and NWN2 are a different ballgame because they are most often standalone (I'll gladly play those for DA as well I might add), and they can set their own pace, their own design, their own writing, their own tone and so forth.



On the other side of the spectrum is a game like Oblivion, which I didn't really enjoy at all in its vanilla form. But this had the side-effect of me really modding the hell out of the game and at least being able to gain some enjoyment from that.

Since it's similarily open-world, I *thought* I'd mod New Vegas in a similar way as well. But again, I really enjoyed vanilla New Vegas and so I am much pickier in terms of what mods I choose to incorporate into my playthroughs.



I would use some stuff like the mods that change some appearances and so forth but to me, that is generally speaking such a non-issue that I just don't care enough to do it.

[Runedorf]

As a 360-player I can't use mods, but I will say that I wouldn't use them if I played on PC either, for several reasons.



One, I like to keep the game in its original shape. It provides for better quality both story-wise and gameplay-wise. Appearance mods and such things only break the immersion for me, in all honesty. Make do with what you've got; no reason to start screwing things up when it's not even necessary. What I have to back this up is that most of the appearance modding I've seen has been strongly related to anime, something that doesn't belong anywhere near Dragon Age, in my opinion. All these pictures in the Character Creator forums of "Grey Wardens" with pink half-arsed custom hairstyles that look like they're taken from Sailor Moon are just cringeworthy. The thought of them in my game is nauseating.

Secondly, there's the potential of the mods generally decreasing the satisfaction of playing the game in that glitches can't be all too rare and such. I mean, the backwards-shield bug in Awakening caused me to reroll to a character without shield, so I'm pretty picky about things being as they should be.

As for story-and-conversation related mods, I'd never download one because I have read lots and lots of fan fiction in my days and found some true gems of literature, but I have never even -once- found a single story in which the characters seemed like themselves. The mistake a lot of people do is to make the characters more of themselves than they really are. As such, I save myself disappointment by not having any intention of downloading mods with additional dialogue.

Lastly, as abovementioned, there's the issue of being afraid of downloading them and stuff. The "technophobia" issue.

[Erika T]

I will probably be really unpopular with this comment, but... I dont want people whose professional skills I have absolutely no idea about mess up my game, but also, I want the game as it is, not a modified game, but one that fits with the lore and all.



Cheater mods are out of the question - this game is playable perfectly without cheating. It is really not too hard.



Appearance mods: not necessary. I want the characters as the developers dreamed them - why change? as for the PC character mods - there are really enough options to customise. Having long floaty hair or a differently shaped mouth for Leliana really doesnt do anything for me - why bother?



Romance mods and such - these add a few extra scenes, and interesting options such as hug alistair mod, slap morrigan mod etc - its interesting to look at on youtube, but it would get boring after the third click, and why dig into my game for three clicks? it doesnt add more and it doesnt change anything, at the end of the day you only have so many options. If someone could do a sten romance mod and make it playable throughout the whole game (instead of one scene) with proper dialogues and options for approval, disapproval etc and alter the ending and the story properly, now that would be different - but thats not doable.



Super armor or items etc mod - again, why bother? there is so much exciting stuff in the game already.



The only kind of "mod" I would ever try if there were standalone adventures which very very closely follow the lore and the characters. But this is called a dlc, not a mod. (I think )



Thats just my opinion anyway.

[AmstradHero]

Runedorf wrote...
As for story-and-conversation related mods, I'd never download one because I have read lots and lots of fan fiction in my days and found some true gems of literature, but I have never even -once- found a single story in which the characters seemed like themselves. The mistake a lot of people do is to make the characters more of themselves than they really are. As such, I save myself disappointment by not having any intention of downloading mods with additional dialogue.

This isn't actually too much of a problem when it comes to mods with additional playable content. Modders don't have access to the voice actors for the companions, hence can pretty much only reuse whole or partial lines taken from the game itself. I put this in Alley of Murders, but in a couple of cases spliced together two short sentences to give a more relevant/appropriate interjection. (Ser Gilmore and Dark Times have subsequently done this too) Given we're just reusing their words in different situations, I wouldn't say they can deviate (much, if any) from their core personality.

Erika T wrote...
I will probably be really unpopular with this comment, but... I dont want people whose professional skills I have absolutely no idea about mess up my game, but also, I want the game as it is, not a modified game, but one that fits with the lore and all.

It's not an issue of being unpopular. It appears modders have the issue of players saying "I don't want to download a mod because it won't fit with the lore". This means the problem for modders adding playable content to the main campaign is this:

How can a modder tell the players who do not want to try lore breaking mods that they have done everything in their power to retain consistency with the lore and style of Dragon Age?

I spent a lot of time in Alley of Murders doing exactly that, particularly addressing any unusual circumstances or events. Yet in some cases it appears players are looking for "lore breaking elements" when they do not exist simply because "it's a mod hence poorly written". For example, in Alley of Murders, there is a tranquil who is assisting templars. The player immediately assumed that this meant that the tranquil was casting spells and fighting - which would obviously not be possible. Admittedly I could have modified the dialogue to explicitly state one or more ways in which he was rendering assistance - ENCHANTMENT! - but this seemed like overkill (or Sandal mimicry).

I know I'm not the only modder who goes to a lot of effort to ensure consistency with DA's existing lore. We may not have access to everything that BioWare have written about the game, but we've got an awful lot of information from the game and other sources of lore. And you know, sometimes, the fans know more about the lore than the developers themselves.

How can modders prove that we love lore as much as that guy?

Modifié par AmstradHero, 27 décembre 2010 - 09:42 .

[Erika T]

So Amstradhero - can I ask a question back - why do you do mods? Do you use other peoples mods? and if so,

[Erika T]

sorry. I meant : and if so, how do you know for sure that it wont break the lore / your game?

[AmstradHero]

A fair question.

For playable mods:
I load up a save from my first Dragon Age character, from around the time you're investigating the alienage. I play through the mod with this character, and assess how it fits with lore, how buggy it is and what other changes it might make. If I feel the quality is good enough and it does not mess with Dragon Age lore, I'll happily leave it enabled for any other characters to experience. If not, I'll provide feedback to the author about what I did/didn't like and my suggestions for how they can improve it and I'll disable/remove the mod.
As for breaking the game - mods shouldn't do that, and modders are likely fiddling with something they shouldn't be if they do. Regardless, I'll check the comments/feedback to make sure that a mod is "safe" before I download.

Weapons and armor:
I don't use them. Some of them look absolutely gorgeous (though some look like Dragon Age meets WoW), but they are typically overpowered and thus make me feel cheap or the gameplay far too easy. However, items that are not too WoW-ified (ie gaudy and bright magical glowy bits) and comparable to vanilla items in terms of cost/power would definitely be on my download list. Unfortunately, I haven't found any yet.

For cosmetic mods:
Firstly, I end up removing new colour/hairstyle mods everytime I open up the toolset to create new characters for my own mods, because I don't want to demand that players have them installed. I don't mind if players want to use those hairstyles for their character, but I feel it's not necessarily a good thing to demand players install other mods in order to be able to use mine. I do like the extra options that they offer, though I tend to avoid the overly extravagant hairstyle options. (I don't like my characters to look like the lead from Heavenly Sword with ridiculous hair)
I don't use any mod that changes the appearance of existing characters - I will agree that this feels like a lore break.
Mods that improve texture/visual quality are a nice bonus.

Dialogue fixes:
Haven't installed any, yet.
I didn't encounter issues with the vanilla game - I guess I was lucky? I also note that there are some conflicts with some of these. When I feel I'm going to have another big stint at playing the game instead of modding, I'll definitely look at getting a "compatible" set of fixes.

Modifié par AmstradHero, 27 décembre 2010 - 10:13 .

[LadyJaneGrey]

I won't use a mod that sends off a strong "vanilla-game-sucks" or "alternate-universe" vibe.

If it has six steps written all in technical terms, I won't use it.



That being said, I have found and enjoyed several mods. Thanks to the people who put in the time and effort to give this computer gaming novice another reason to pop in the game disc! :^)

[Bahlgan]

I think what happens to me is that I tend to be more "reluctant" to use mods on games that I really enjoy in themselves. I find Dragon Age to be pretty well-designed, a lot of thought has gone into it and so forth. And so, any mod that I install (beyond simply fixing bugs and that I mean) would have to match that level of design. Not just in gameplay, but in terms of writing as well.

This right here, I second. For those who might be confused with my reasons, this is another viewpoint as to my hesitance to "bob for apples" that are the mods many try today.



@AmstradHero - one more thing, I will take a look at the Alley of Murders, I am sure it is an exquisite piece; you do seem to be a very serious modder. I respect that. But like a couple on here, I expect to be able to experience mods with a snobby high standard. I realize this is outrageous which is why I am an easy critic and don't expect any mods to be done with voice acting... Unless once happened to allow us to imitate the voices through some ventrillo. Idealistic, isn't it?

[Remmirath]

There are some mods I might use, some I just never will. I typically avoid mods. I suppose I just prefer to play the game as-is for the most part. It depends on what type of mod, though.

Armour/Weapon Mods: Most of these simply aren't to my taste, and many are also overpowered. If I were to look for an armour or weapon mod, I'd be looking for something more realistic, not less as most of them seem to be.

Quests/Campaigns: I'm very wary of them, since I tend to be rather picky about things fitting in with lore. If they seem to, and I like the concept, I might give them a try - but even so I probably wouldn't, in honesty. I'd just look and think 'well, that's kind of neat, but I'll pass'.

Appearance for NPCs: I don't want to change the way the NPCs look. It would make them seem different people to me, and I'd rather have somewhat flawed faces with character than perfectly beautiful ones anyhow. I won't use these, no matter what.

Appearance for PCs: I might, possibly. Extra hair styles or something. I've no interest in weird hair or eye colours, but I'm not fond of many of the hair styles. However, I'll avoid anything that will affect the NPCs as well, because that gets back to the issue above.

Dialogue Fixes/Bug Fixes: These I will use, since they're fixing things that don't work right, not changing things.

Extra Scenes/Add-ons: Anything that actually adds more dialogue (that wasn't already there), or more scenes or such to the already existing campaign, I'll simply ignore. It's very difficult if not impossible to get the character exactly right, and I'm picky about such things.

[KyleOrdrum]

I picked up DA:O on my PS3 due to my current computer being a little old and I wanted to be running it on better than "low" settings. That being said, in older games like Oblivion, I ran enough mods to eventually break the game and fragment my saved games.



Thing is, I refused to use mods until I'd played fully through the game. I wanted to know what I was fixing before I started toying with it. So in general, people who are comfortable with mods and don't use them, are probably content with the game as is.