Inside the spoiler tags are any problems i encountered, and their status's.
URGENT DISCOVERY (25th Sept 2015): It seems background streaming isnt always required but this may be mod-dependant. I was experiencing crashing on the Overlord DLC (as you enter Atlas station) and i discovered if i disabled the Streaming fixes that the crashing went away AND i was still able to play as an NPC, Veetor in this case. At first i thought it was only because the Quarian assets would have been loaded anyway (as thats where alot of the geth resources are as well) buuut when i returned to the Normandy and changed shepard to Veetor as casual wear, it worked! AND I HAD GLORIOUS SOUND! ....This requires more investigating as i was told the streaming fixes were required to have sound when using mods, and to even use the mods at all.
UPDATE ON URGENT DISCOVERY (5th Oct 2015): So i've confirmed it (partially anyway), the streaming fixes are only required when trying to play as one of your squad. If you try it on any other NPCs (I tried a generic turian) then it loads perfectly without the streaming fixes and you get to keep all the level sounds/normandy sounds/etc... Woohoo!
General Bugs/Sacrifices/Serious Errors
Spoiler
So by using these, as i said some sacrifices are to be made. Please see below.
Game crashing to desktop - Usually occurs when trying to use one of the "Re-cook' mods just after the loadscreen dissapears.
Solution: Wait about 2s before using any bound key to 'Re-Cook' assets
Game crashes on (MISSION) - This is because of the 'streaming fix'
Solution: Unload all mods for that mission or play as an NPC character that isnt one of your squad, playing as a non-squad member doesnt require the streaming fix and so can be loaded without it and thus resolves the crash problem.
Thane Recruitment: Unload all mods or game crashes with "Runtime terminated in an unusual way..."
Shepards head is still present when using a casual outfit like Tali or Veetor
Solution: None at this time, apparently AzertyKeys over at Reddit is working on solving this.
All sounds are gone and re-loading doesnt help.
Solution: This is because of the streaming fixes, either disable the streaming fix and use a mod that doesnt require it or unload all mods.
Using your Re-Cook mods, in some levels/maps i can see parts of the Normandy (Fish tank/etc)
Solution: None at this time. This is a sacrifice of using assets that arent loaded in the level/map your in, for example the Turian and Krogan assets arent always loaded in some areas. Simply adding a keybind to 'OnlyLoadLevel (ASSET PCC HERE)' is not sufficent as you then need a way to re-apply the NPC/Armor pieces and thats why the locker opens as well because we tell the game to literally spawn the locker/cabin area and then open it. If anyone knows a way around this i'd love to hear it!
The collector vessel mission is broken, i get back to the shuttle and the screen goes black but thats it. Then im killed by husks. Why?
Solution: Unload all mods, restart the mission (loading a save file partway through does not work).
Quick Updates (Last Update: 6th September 2015)
Spoiler
Here will be any major file revisions that include more than just 1 fix/new mod.
New mods added for Turian and Krogan and also re-cook mods. The Re-Cook mods are absolutely required when using some mods. Pay attention to the notes in the mod! Also corrected alot of the other mods to add blank armor pieces with increasing ID numbers to prevent errors (101, 102 and 103 for blank pieces). It is safe to overwrite any files.
Edit: 01st Sept 2015: Even though i succeeded in doing the Quarian Soilder, it seems the engine will flat out refuse to load it anywhere there is no Quarians as NPCs. For example the Garrus recruitment mission, no Quarians so even with the commands in the .me2mod to load the relevant PCC file (BioP_QuaTlL)? It doesnt work. If this is fixable please do let me know! Whenever you get to a point where your chosen NPC isnt in a part of the game, before the level starts you will get a headless shepard in default N7 armor because the engine hasnt loaded the relevant PCC. I have tried keybindings and also directly editing the .ini files to try 'Force cooking' the relevant PCC but to no avail. I also cant find any of the Quarians other than Tali, the rest are a generic male/female model with what seem to be some _MAT (material) changes. Makes sense as all you'd need to change for the other Quarians is their suit texture. As a result however the Quarian Soilder, at the moment is unusable in any area that is void of Quarians. Bummer. I thought bringing Tali along may force the game to do it but nope, since Tali is in a different PCC file that only has her in it and not the generic Quarian model it still didnt load.
Status: FIXED! Ahahaha its FRELLING FIXED! ...Sorry...I've been up all night trying to fix my awesome Quarian. I DID IT.
Turns out the command i was using was either wrong or buggy loading the PCC (StreamLevelIn).
For anyone wanting to use this please download the revised file now named "Play as Veetor or Female Quarian" below and delete the "Play as Quarian Soilder". It is now setup automatically so Male Shepard is Veetor and Female Shepard is the Female Quarian who is with Veetor on Tali's Loyalty Mission. I only noticed the Quarian models were Veetor and the female when i decided to google it up. After playing Mass Effect 2 for so long you think i'd have known. The only difference between the actual Veetor and the player is the visor color. The suit is otherwise an exact match. So im calling him Veetor!
There is one...sliiiight caveat to this. You NEED to also download and overwrite the old Customize Armor Anywhere file as i have had to add the following command "Onlyloadlevel BioP_QuaTlL" to it, each time you want to use a model from that PCC and its not loaded by the game (Like in Garrus's recruitment mission for example) you need to manually 're-cook' it, so pressing the P key (or whatever you change the bind to) may take longer and longer as you add more things to it to load those models because as soon as you press it, it runs the entire command, so if you added, for example another 4 Onlyloadlevel commands it may take a while. With mine theres an extra 2s loadtime before the locker appears. You can get around this by only changing the command i added and substitute your own. This 're-cook' method allows you to have Any models from the PCC file mentioned, Anywhere in the game so long as you re-cook the file. This will only need done in those levels where that PCC file isnt usually loaded, and you will know when this happens when you see your Shepard at the squad power/weapon screen and is distorted, headless or otherwise malformed! Also if using this on the Normandy? You will need to either bald your Shepard entirely using Gibbed, or take the fast route and shrink the head a little as when using this, Shepards head is coded to be loaded for all casual outfits and i cant find a way around it. The HideHead=True commands are there but dont work on casual outfits it seems. BE AWARE THAT ANY HEAD SIZE CHANGES WITH GIBBED ARE PERMANENT AND MAY CAUSE AWKWARD MOMENTS ON NORMANDY SUCH AS DEBRIEFINGS WHERE YOU CANT 'RE-COOK' THE PCC IMMEDIATELY.
Revised files: [REMOVED. IS INCLUDED IN UPDATES FILES ABOVE]
Geth Troopers - Elite/etc
Spoiler
So i tried to change Shepard into a generic geth trooper, one you'd find on Tali's Loyalty or that planet you find with the geth on it. It works...but its horrible. Most of the Geth body materials are human flesh, even changing the materials didnt help. If anyone knows why and howto fix it? By all means give it a shot!
Info Update Curtosey of Reddit user AzertyKeys: The problem you are encountering unfortunately isn't fixable in coalesced.ini, I don't know why it happens to some people and not others but basically materialoverride does not work for them unless it's for casual appearances armors.
The way for you to fix this is to make a custom texture mod. (I have requested he do this (he did offer) so i can see if its at all possible to somehow make it work later with ME2ModManager.)
Status: BROKEN BUT BEING WORKED ON
Helmet Variations for Turian/Batarian/etc
Spoiler
So after digging in more PCC files i wanted to see if i could get a Turian Blue Suns or Batarian but it seems their respective parts arent whole. So the Turian Blue Suns visor is TUR_BRTb_HVYa_MDL whereas the helmet portion is TUR_HGR_HVYa_MDL. Same goes for Batarian and i cant figure out howto load both onto the one helmet area. I can load the helmet portion but the visor isnt there and if i try loading the visor even on its own nothing happens. Would be nice to get working. Playing as Garrus is awesome but i thought, for those who wanted a Turian other than Garrus, or even a Batarian from a merc group, this would be cool.
Status: BROKEN BUT BEING WORKED ON
Info Update Curtosey of Reddit user AzertyKeys: for the visor unfortunately it's not possible for Shepard to use more than one model in her head slot for now, I'm actively working on a fix for this (and many other things) which will make things much simpler later on.
Generic Turian Head
Spoiler
Turian head (TUR_HED_PROBase_MDL) does not animate properly and for some reason, using it despite the ,bHideHead=True flag being there, doesnt hide Shepard's head so his ears and hair can be seen. Generic head looks great cosmetically though if used with armor. The Armor itself works wonders however i'd recommend, for now, you use it with Garrus's head. File for this is in the Quick Update above!
So you probably actually knew this was possible. I've beaten Mass Effect 2...i dont even know how many times now and i went looking again to see if we could change Shepard to look like Garrus, or Legion or anything else in fact. Back when i first looked i came up empty. Turns out i didnt look hard enough and in the depths of the old BioWare Social Network there were some .me2mod files that allow us to do exactly that, we can have Shepard look like Garrus, Tali, Thane, heck even Legion if we want. I was even able to use Tali's version to create a Quarian Soilder (now discovered as Veetor) from her loyalty mission that we can use
Alas there are some sacrifices you must make if you'd like to use them. To save you time...well...actually for the low cost of 50minutes of your life you can see these customisations in action and then decide if you'd like to use them!
Here's 2 videos of these mods in action. The first showcases the mods themselves and the second is more of a gameplay sample to more emphasize on the problems you may encounter. I've seen people on the Forums here and elsewhere who've wanted to play as another species in Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 and whilst this is just a stopgap i think some may find it fun. Just remember....sacrifices. Enjoy!
VIDEO 1: Showcasing the mods - They work!
VIDEO 2: Gameplay sample - Collector area and Tali's Recruitment Mission - Cook mod vs already cooked assets by game
So, you've watched the video and decided this would be worth it? Or maybe you just want to improve the files/add fixes/create your own? Great! The files are below;
Sidenote: These files shouldnt ever dissapear, but if they do please let me know and i'll re-upload them! As well as being online they are archived on 3 different platforms so there should be no trouble.
Please be sure to check any [SPOILER] areas, especially the Quick Updates as there could be fixes, or new things to add to the experience!
Sooo you've got the files, but now what? If you just want to apply the .me2mod files then copy the ME2 Mod Manager to a conveinent place, i stored it in /Documents/BioWare , run the program, select the mods you want and run the game from the Mod Manager. (BEWARE ANY EDITS YOU'VE MADE TO INI FILES MANUALLY OR WITH OTHER PROGRAMS WILL BE RESET. (Keybindings/etc))
If you want to make any fixes or edits, i am going to assume you already know what your doing. However for those willing to learn, this is where i had to start; [Click!] (ME2 Modding is possible II (PC Only))
That post may be daunting, but its what helped me make that Quarian Soilder (now known as Veetor) possible! And even though its only usable as combat armor i am proud of it :')
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