Dragon Age Community Thread |OT| The Veilguard is on its way!

[Grimminski]

It's been so many years, I forgot this happened.

So what are the recommended mods for DAO?

I know there's the Morrigan Restoration patch, some fixes for Awakening, the make Schmmoples shut the fuck up mod, and the extra dog slot.

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I'm using this Wabbajack: https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/6108/

HIGHLY recommend you have Nexus Premium for this, otherwise you have to manually click download for each of the 300 files.

 

[waterpuppy]

I use this overhaul https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/5728 but it appears that the creator has literally just stopped supporting the mod/removed some aspects from it sooo... lol. Should still work/look good though.

I initially downloaded it like a year ago and while I might not dig every aspect of the mod I like that it focuses on simply upgrading textures to be HD and incorporating visuals/designs from the later games. Some overhaul mods do too much, especially when it comes to the "beautification" of NPCs and party members.

 

[KrAzY]

Also continued with origins. I gave up with changing settings continuously cause of the crashes to prevent them, especially since it screws up with loading screen and I'd have to lower my settings again to prevent crashes to the point I was playing on the lowest resolution. Prerendered cutscenes also wouldn't play so yeh, had to use LAA to use 4Gb cause I usually want to play the game raw with out mods.

Finished magi and redcliff with shale and ostagar dlc. Forgot how to talk to sten and zevran, especially zevran lol. Think the conversation is going great, -8 approval

 

[Blade30]

It's been so many years, I forgot this happened.

I'm using this Wabbajack: https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/6108/

HIGHLY recommend you have Nexus Premium for this, otherwise you have to manually click download for each of the 300 files.

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God I hope they finally put the subtitles to the bottom of the screen, I still don't know why anyone would put them to the top and not to mention they are tiny. I can't think of any game that does it like this.

 

[rras1994]

God I hope they finally put the subtitles to the bottom of the screen, I still don't know why anyone would put them to the top and not to mention they are tiny. I can't think of any game that does it like this.

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I am assuming they put it on top so that when they add the protag dialog options, they don't have to move the NPC dialogue?

 

[Schreckstoff]

The thing I want most is that one of the lineages is of the Amell family line, I always liked that my main Warden and Hawke were related I'd like to carry that on

 

[MayorSquirtle]

I am assuming they put it on top so that when they add the protag dialog options, they don't have to move the NPC dialogue?

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It's never been an issue with Mass Effect.

Also, in the Veilguard demo, when the dialogue wheel appears it does show subtitles of the dialogue you're responding to and it's right above the wheel instead of at the top of the screen. So it seems they did fix it this time.

 

[DPB]

So what are the recommended mods for DAO?

I know there's the Morrigan Restoration patch, some fixes for Awakening, the make Schmmoples shut the fuck up mod, and the extra dog slot.

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Unless you like reading microscopic text, you should use FTG UI Mod. By default the interface doesn't scale with resolution, everything gets increasingly tinier the higher you go, this fixes that and lets you adjust lots of stuff too.

 

[Blade30]

It's never been an issue with Mass Effect.

Also, in the Veilguard demo, when the dialogue wheel appears it does show subtitles of the dialogue you're responding to and it's right above the wheel instead of at the top of the screen. So it seems they did fix it this time.

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Oh yeah now that you mention it they did change the position for that which makes me hopeful that they finally fixed it although it would be even better to have it as an option for people who like the subtitles to be at the top.

 

[OneTrueJack]

So Morrigan has been at the center of a baby making ritual pushed by her mom, who turns out is an ancient god elf; has been sticking her nose in Eluvians since the Witch Hunt DLC; threw a fit about drinking from the Well of Sorrows; blabbed incessantly about ancient elves and Eluvians all over Inquisition; and she's NOT going to show up in the most ancient elfy of the games?

The actress has gotta be lying....

Ugh, who has the copium tank? I need a hit.

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I just can't imagine a world where Morrigan and Flemeth don't show up in Veilguard. They're both way too essential to the overall lore.

We're not talking about cameos here. This is a central storyline to the franchise.

 

[iFirez]

So Morrigan has been at the center of a baby making ritual pushed by her mom, who turns out is an ancient god elf; has been sticking her nose in Eluvians since the Witch Hunt DLC; threw a fit about drinking from the Well of Sorrows; blabbed incessantly about ancient elves and Eluvians all over Inquisition; and she's NOT going to show up in the most ancient elfy of the games?

The actress has gotta be lying....

Ugh, who has the copium tank? I need a hit.

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Am I wrong with thinking that Flemeth is dead or frozen at least? But Morrigan and Keiran are, while still important, without the soul from the ritual now?

Whatever is happening, if we don't hear one line of dialogue from Claudia Black in Veilguard, I'll be surprised.

 

[TheElderKing]

Flemeth is most likely dead. The implications during the final discussion were quite clear, to me.

While I'd love for Morrigan to come back, I'm quite pessimistic on her return.

 

[OneTrueJack]

Flemeth is most likely dead. The implications during the final discussion were quite clear, to me.

While I'd love for Morrigan to come back, I'm quite pessimistic on her return.

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She died before. It didn't really stick.

 

[Dandy]

Flemeth is my favorite character, so I hope the old girl still has some tricks up her sleeve.

 

[Blade30]

So Morrigan has been at the center of a baby making ritual pushed by her mom, who turns out is an ancient god elf; has been sticking her nose in Eluvians since the Witch Hunt DLC; threw a fit about drinking from the Well of Sorrows; blabbed incessantly about ancient elves and Eluvians all over Inquisition; and she's NOT going to show up in the most ancient elfy of the games?

The actress has gotta be lying....

Ugh, who has the copium tank? I need a hit.

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They aren't using performance capture are they? If not then I would say she either couldn't say or she wasn't hired yet. That tweet was what november 2022? Yeah it could be that it was just too early for to be involved and I would assume if Morrigan were to back she would have a similar role (and screen time) as in Inquisition.

 

[TheElderKing]

She died before. It didn't really stick.

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It's a bit different then that. She had plans in place for her survival in Origins, and while we don't know how she survived the betrayal (could be a similar situation then the above one), her essence wasn't sucked by another elven 'god'.

The dialogue with Solas made it clear she was willing to sacrifice herself for Solas' plan if Morrigan would've been able to access her godhood.

Whether that happens or not is yet to be seen, but expecting Flemeth to get back seems a bit unrealistic to me.

 

[TheElderKing]

They aren't using performance capture are they? If not then I would say she either couldn't say or she wasn't hired yet. That tweet was what november 2022? Yeah it could be that it was just too early for to be involved and I would assume if Morrigan were to back she would have a similar role (and screen time) as in Inquisition.

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I'd hope that, although even if she's back, I wouldn't bet on the same role and screen time she has in Inquisition.

 

[OneTrueJack]

It's a bit different then that. She had plans in place for her survival in Origins, and while we don't know how she survived the betrayal (could be a similar situation then the above one), her essence wasn't sucked by another elven 'god'.

The dialogue with Solas made it clear she was willing to sacrifice herself for Solas' plan if Morrigan would've been able to access her godhood.

Whether that happens or not is yet to be seen, but expecting Flemeth to get back seems a bit unrealistic to me.

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I understand what you're saying, but Flemeth to me was always one of those characters who are 10 steps ahead on the board. I just can't see them going out like that.

The character doesn't even register as being currently dead to me because I'm convinced she must have some tricks left up her sleeve.

 

[TheElderKing]

I understand what you're saying, but Flemeth to me was always one of those characters who are 10 steps ahead on the board. I just can't see them going out like that.

The character doesn't even register as being currently dead to me because I'm convinced she must have some tricks left up her sleeve.

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I understand your view of her.

I just view her whole arc in Inquisition, and her motivations, differently. She wouldn't plan ahead because she was fine in dying for Solas' plan as long as Morrigan gets her godhood.

Keep in mind that Solas had no way to beat her at that point. His powers returned after he absorbed her; before that, Flemeth would've easily stopped or kill him if she wanted to.

 

[Darkstorne]

Are there any mods that bring DAI's Qunari more in line with DA2's Qunari design? I know there are plenty that bring DA2's Qunari design into DAO, but I've never found anything similar for DAI.

I always loved DA2's Qunari design. Really unique. But with Inquisition, presumably to make the race easier to slot into the character creator, we went from this in DA2:

To this in DAI:

And it's always made me think of this:

 

[iFirez]

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Holy shit, this looks like "generic male protag" with horns. Do all Qunari look this bad in DAI?

 

[Darkstorne]

Holy shit, this looks like "generic male protag" with horns. Do all Qunari look this bad in DAI?

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The most "demonic" looking is probably Iron Bull, one of the companions in the game. Even he looks wildly different to the DA2 design.

It's really difficult trying to find any custom designs that look even remotely close to the DA2 design. Best I can find:

Still very much got the look of a human face poorly photoshopped onto a Qunari imo. But it really feels like I've been the only person bothered by it 😂

 

[JeffG]

Holy shit, this looks like "generic male protag" with horns. Do all Qunari look this bad in DAI?

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Yea, they were always a bit iffy

But DA2 only had a couple of models for Qunari.


DA2 was always the most stylized. Qunari, Elves

 

[Darkstorne]

Also this dude in DA2's Mark of the Assassin DLC. They had SUCH a great thing going on here:

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Sera is definitely not the easiest character to like. She's prickly and, as you observed, have an elf Inquisitor just adds more land mines to your interactions. All that said, I absolutely adored her and we are very happily married to this day.

A huge part of the relationship with Sera is learning to approach things on her terms and accept that she's a bundle of contradictions who doesn't always like or dislike things for reasons that are entirely rational or consistent. She needs to be left alone to feel what she feels sometimes rather than poked and prodded and I would say that's pretty true to life with some people I know and care deeply about. I hope The Veilguard has a cast as diverse, with characters who also elicit a wide range of complicated responses from me. This time around it might be the maddening one is someone I can barely stand to have around, in which case I'll be curious who they do connect with. That's a fascinating new mechanic for fleshing out the cast.

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One of the things I never really liked about Inquisition was how you could get approval/disapproval from characters who weren't even physically present for you making decisions. So even though I basically never hung out with Sera or did anything with her or to intentionally piss her off, I would make a choice and it would be like "VIVIENNE DISAPPROVES" and "SERA STRONGLY DISAPPROVES" even though neither of them were present.

And it was almost always those two, together, disapproving in unison. It felt really weird. Especially since Viv is a fascist and Sera is an anarchist, so the two of them being lockstep in disapproving of my choices felt odd.

 

[shinobi602]

To be fair, the Arishok is a very specific character design. DA2 is the only one where they went a little more out there, and there weren't a ton of different models. I prefer the DA2 designs but I guess they're more humanized now for gameplay/character creation purposes. You can see Iron Bull for example looks a little more in that direction:

Even Sten in DAO looked pretty much like a regular old dude lol:

 

[Enduin]

I really like the DA2 design for the Qunari but yeah the fact that all of them look exactly the same wasn't great. They literally had like one face model. They definitely became very soft looking in DAI. As distinct as they were in DA2, I think that was as much a part of their role in that story and they kind of exaggerated nature of that game's design. So unsurprising they are far less monstrous looking in DAI, especially as the player character. But hopefully they bring back a bit more edge to the CC in Veilguard.

 

[Slim Action]

Solid chance the Qunari will look better than they ever have in DAV, looking forward to that.

Remember when 99% of Asari in Andromeda had the same doofy face

 

[Enduin]

Remember when 99% of Asari in Andromeda had the same doofy face

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That was the worst. Just the most bland and dull looking face imaginable, over, and over, and over again. Such a stark contrast from the trilogy which had tons of different faces for the Asari. Pretty much all of the non human races suffered same face in MEA but the Asari definitely got it the worst. At least the Qunari in DA2 looked pretty awesome. And you could make an argument of it being influenced by Varric being the the story teller and they're all scary invaders from this weird religion where everyone is the same and thus look the same or some such if you really wanted to.

 

[waterpuppy]

My least favorite thing about the Qunari is the sexual dimorphism. WHYYY are the dudes all hulking muscle mountains while the ladies are weirdly dainty?

The dwarves have the same thing, it's so fucking stupid. It's not as bad in Inquisition but I still dislike that dwarven women are weirdly curvy compared to the super stocky dwarven men.

(this art is the bane of my existence, for real)
I'm happy they're doing body customization in DA:TV, maybe I can finally make a stocky woman for once.

 

[MayorSquirtle]

We've seen one Qunari Rook already and it's even more "human with horns" than DAI was but I'd still take it over those.

 

[Darkstorne]

We've seen one Qunari Rook already and it's even more "human with horns" than DAI was but I'd still take it over those.

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Noooo 😂

To be fair, the Arishok is a very specific character design. DA2 is the only one where they went a little more out there, and there weren't a ton of different models. I prefer the DA2 designs but I guess they're more humanized now for gameplay/character creation purposes. You can see Iron Bull for example looks a little more in that direction:

Even Sten in DAO looked pretty much like a regular old dude lol:

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Yeah, that's why I'm asking if there are any mods to address this in Inquisition. There are some fantastic mods for Origins to make Sten into a DA2 inspired Qunari.

Might have to dig into modding guides and try something myself, but I'm a texture artist, and I fear a lot of this is down to the model. I assume they switched to human faces to make using them as a CC race so much easier to implement.

 

[OneTrueJack]

One of the things I never really liked about Inquisition was how you could get approval/disapproval from characters who weren't even physically present for you making decisions. So even though I basically never hung out with Sera or did anything with her or to intentionally piss her off, I would make a choice and it would be like "VIVIENNE DISAPPROVES" and "SERA STRONGLY DISAPPROVES" even though neither of them were present.

And it was almost always those two, together, disapproving in unison. It felt really weird. Especially since Viv is a fascist and Sera is an anarchist, so the two of them being lockstep in disapproving of my choices felt odd.

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I mean, that makes a certain amount of sense. People gossip so news of your decisions would reach them eventually. Plus the Inquisition probably debriefs people after missions.

 

[Lord Vatek]

The normalizing of the Qunari is just one of those thing I accept for the sake of making character creation easier.

We've seen one Qunari Rook already and it's even more "human with horns" than DAI was but I'd still take it over those.

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I actually think this looks better than the Inquisition ones.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I mean, that makes a certain amount of sense. People gossip so news of your decisions would reach them eventually. Plus the Inquisition probably debriefs people after missions.

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Right, but I mean these are like..."strong disapproves" over random things I say in dialogue, not major earth-shattering choices.

And like I said it's just weird to have the fascist and the anarchist both agreeing that everything I'm doing is wrong while basically everyone else is typically cool with what I'm saying/doing.

 

[shinobi602]

Everyone in the previews was gushing about how robust the CC is in Veilguard so there might be a decent chance to make some wild Qunari designs.

 

[Stavo]

I never had any interest in playing as a Qunari in Inquisition and, tbh, I only played through it twice, so I had no idea what the Qunari PC could look like and...

We've seen one Qunari Rook already and it's even more "human with horns" than DAI was but I'd still take it over those.

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This seems leagues better than Inquisition's.

 

[JeffG]

Everyone in the previews was gushing about how robust the CC is in Veilguard so there might be a decent chance to make some wild Qunari designs.

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I always like looking at the ugly models people create. I could never use them myself, but its always good for a laugh

 

[Lady Gaia]

The normalizing of the Qunari is just one of those things I accept for the sake of making character creation easier.

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I suspect it has a fair bit to do with getting animation rigs to work well with the more nuanced facial animation that has become the norm – and that we've seen hints of already. The wider the range of bone structures and facial geometry changes they allow, the worse they'll look in motion without some pretty heavy tech investment in adapting recorded performances.

 

[BossAttack]

I hate that DAI modding is such a pain in the ass.

But, I'm probably not replaying that game before DAV releases. I think 534 hours is enough.

 

[Slim Action]

Right, but I mean these are like..."strong disapproves" over random things I say in dialogue, not major earth-shattering choices.

And like I said it's just weird to have the fascist and the anarchist both agreeing that everything I'm doing is wrong while basically everyone else is typically cool with what I'm saying/doing.

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With party approval I'm of two minds, ultimately in a perfect world I think it should be part of the difficulty/accessibility settings - "Realistic" where it isn't possible to please everyone in the party with your choices and stances, and "Relaxed" where it is.

 

[Quinton]

I hate that DAI modding is such a pain in the ass.

But, I'm probably not replaying that game before DAV releases. I think 534 hours is enough.

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Damn. I've got around 350, myself.

 

[BossAttack]

Damn. I've got around 350, myself.

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Every new character I play, I end up doing a complete playthrough. 😞

 

[MayorSquirtle]

I suspect it has a fair bit to do with getting animation rigs to work well with the more nuanced facial animation that has become the norm – and that we've seen hints of already. The wider the range of bone structures and facial geometry changes they allow, the worse they'll look in motion without some pretty heavy tech investment in adapting recorded performances.

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I do understand that and ultimately don't mind it considering the DAI Qunari kinda looked like ass most of the time, but the DAV Qunari having regular human ears with a slight point is weird. That's something that doesn't need normalization at all.

 

[Dandy]

Everyone in the previews was gushing about how robust the CC is in Veilguard so there might be a decent chance to make some wild Qunari designs.

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The fact that there is body customization is wild. Something I never thought we'd see.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

With party approval I'm of two minds, ultimately in a perfect world I think it should be part of the difficulty/accessibility settings - "Realistic" where it isn't possible to please everyone in the party with your choices and stances, and "Relaxed" where it is.

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Right. Like I'm fine with characters having preferences. That's how it should be - you shouldn't be able to realistically please everyone with every decision.

It's just those two characters specifically being remarkably consistent in disapproving everything the player does that feels very weird. The idea that the only thing a fascist and an anarchist can agree on is "you, the player, aren't making the right choices" is weird. But I guess in both of their cases the root of their disapproval is "you aren't being fascist enough" or "you aren't being anarchist enough".

 

[shinobi602]

I do understand that and ultimately don't mind it considering the DAI Qunari kinda looked like ass most of the time, but the DAV Qunari having regular human ears with a slight point is weird. That's something that doesn't need normalization at all.

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I wonder if those could be fully customizable too. If it's as deep as the previews lead us to believe, it wouldn't surprise me to see ear shape as something you could play around with as an elf or qunari.

The fact that there is body customization is wild. Something I never thought we'd see.

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I definitely wasn't expecting that, yeah. So good.

 

[JeffG]

I hate that DAI modding is such a pain in the ass.

But, I'm probably not replaying that game before DAV releases. I think 534 hours is enough.

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Damn. I've got around 350, myself.

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ha....Over 1000 hrs on Xbox. (Their app can't even show it anymore) I stopped counting playthroughs at 22. and I am playing it again right now due to The Veilguard hype

 

[Tremendo]

We're going back in the Deep Roads (not sure if the screenshots with those enormous states is meant to represent that or another area of the game), so I'd say there are good chances we could find about more about them.

It's not yet clear how Harding gains some magical abilities, also. It could be something that happens in the opening, due to the Fade tears, or maybe something related to the Titans.

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Glad about the deep roads, In previous games I always found it to be a nice change of pace from the usual stuff, a palette cleanser if you will with all of the tunnels, darkness and claustrophobia.

 

[Lady Gaia]

I do understand that and ultimately don't mind it considering the DAI Qunari kinda looked like ass most of the time, but the DAV Qunari having regular human ears with a slight point is weird. That's something that doesn't need normalization at all.

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I've come to think of the Qunari as Dragon Age's Klingons. They're an abstract concept with varying artistic interpretations over time.