Overview
Cosmetic mods (mods that add new eye colours, hairs, skin tones, etc) to be used by your character are not compatible. This means that, if you install more than one cosmetic mod at the same time, you won't see the resources added by all of them in the Dragon Age character creator unless you make them compatible first.
This tutorial will explain how to install more than one cosmetic mod for Dragon Age making all of them compatible so you can access the resources they add from the character creator.
Required tools
- Notepad or another tool that allows edition of txt files
How the character creator works
Dragon Age character creator looks for the resources (skintones, eye colours, hairs, hair colours, etc) in a xml called chargenmorphcfg.xml. The character creator will show you only the resources that are listed in that xml file.
Most cosmetic mods add their own chargenmorphcfg.xml file that contains the vanilla respurces plus the ones added by the mod. But, if there is more than one chargenmorphcfg.xml file in your Dragon Age override folder, the game won't know which one is the right one to be used and the character creator won't work properly. That is the reason why, when installing more than one cosmetic mod, you will have to add the resources the new mod adds to the lists in the chargenmorphcfg.xml file that is in your override folder.
- Notes
- * If you are installing cosmetic mods that add resources used by NPCs, and you don't want them for your character, you don't need to edit the chargenmorphcfg.xml as this file is only used by the character creator. But, if the mod adds a new xml file, delete it or your character creator will probably won't work as you want it to.
- * If you are installing a mod that adds tattos made for the toolset modifying the chargenmorphcfg.xml won't work. Refer to this tutorial Using custom tattoos with Dragon Age character creator instead.
You can also use the recently updated and improved: CharGenMorph Compiler, made by TerraEx, to combine the '.xml' files from multiple mods automatically. More information about this utility can be found here: Using Dragon Age Mods for Dummies. But, if this tool doesn't work for you or you would prefer to make the changes manually, don't worry. You can edit the chargenmorphcfg.xml using any txt editor (e.g. 'Wordpad' works well with this file format.)
chargenmorphcfg.xml structure
Open the chargenmorphcfg.xml and you'll see that it has several sections. Each section begins with a tag like this: <section name> and ends with a tag like this: </section name>. Some sections have also subsections for each of the races in game to indicate that some resources are available only to some of the races and genders and not to all of them.
The xml file has the following sections:
- <heads>: contains the list of preset faces that are loaded in the character creator. All presets end with a *.mop extension.
- <hairs>: contains the list of hairs that are loaded in the character creator. There is a subsection for each of the races and genders that you can use to create your character in game.
- <beards>: contains the list of beards that are loaded in the character creator. It contains subsections only for human male and dwarf male.
- <hair_colors>: contains the list of hair colours that are loaded in the character creator.
- <skin_colors>: contains the list of skintones that are loaded in the character creator. * <eyes_colors>: contains the list of eye colours that are loaded in the character creator.
- <eyes_makeup_colors>: contains the list of eye makeup colours that are loaded in the character creator.
- <blush_makeup_colors>: contains the list of blush makeup colours that are loaded in the character creator.
- <lip_makeup_colors>: contains the list of lip colours that are loaded in the character creator.
- <brow_stubble_colors>: contains the list of eyebrow and stubble colours that are loaded in the character creator.
- <crew_cut_colors>: contains the list of the scalp colours that are automatically assigned to your character when you select a hair colour.
- <tattoo_colors>: contains the list of tattoo colours that are loaded in the character creator.
- <tattoos>: contains the list of tatoo files that contains the individual tattoos that you will be able to select in the character creator.
- <skins>: contains the list of complexions that are loaded in the character creator.
The actual resources (hairs, eye colours, skintones, etc) are listed in each section or subsection like this: <resource name='resource file name'/>
Adding new resources to the chargenmorphcfg.xml file
If the mod you are installing already has a chargenmorphcfg.xml file:
- change its name to another name (like NewChargenmorphcfg.xml) and open it using Notepad in one window.
- Open your chargenmorphcfg.xml in another Notepad instance.
- Compare your xml file (chargenmorphcfg.xml) and the one from the mod (NewChargenmorphcfg.xml in the example) and copy all the <resource name='name of the resource'/> lines that are in the NewChargenmorphcfg.xml and not on your xml file, each one in its right section and subsection.
- Save your chargenmorphcfg.xml file
If the mod you are installing doesn't have a chargenmorphcfg.xml file:
- Open your xml file using Notepad or any other txt editor.
- Locate the section you want to modify: if you are adding new hairs, go to the <hairs> section, if you are adding new eye colours go to the <eyes_colors> section, and so on.
- If the section you are going to modify contains subsections, like in the case of the <hairs> section, locate the subsection of the race you are adding the hairs to: if you are adding hairs for human female characters, locate the <human_female> subsection that is between the <hairs> and </hairs> tags.
- Look at the mod files and add as many <resource name='name of the resource'/> entries as files added by the mod, replacing 'name of the resource' by each file name.
- Save your chargenmorphcfg.xml file
Retrieved from 'https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php?title=Installing_cosmetic_mods_for_Dragon_Age&oldid=3808'
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These instructions were made with Windows Vista 64bit so your screen may look slightly different if you’re using XP or Win7.
Original Tutorial from the Bioware Social Network and by Malcroix
What you must have:
The PC Version of Dragon Age Origins 2 (this doesn’t work on a PS3 or XboX)
The Mod to Equip Party Members I used version A-1 and not the most updated version. Unfortunately, that one doesn’t hide helmets, but the later version kept the characters in the appearance of their standard gear no matter what you put on them. For this tutorial to work, their appearance has to change.
There’s also a newer version of the mod: Diversified Followers. It’s more refined and current. This tutorial may not work with it, but if you can get it to work I’d go with this one because it’s updated.
Helpful but not necessary:
The Black Emporium DLC
Vaddi
The Black Emporium DLC
Vaddi
What this tutorial teaches you how to do:
Make whatever armor your companions are wearing look like something else. In this example, we’re going to replace the mage Champion set to Blood Dragon Armor on Anders.
Why would anyone want to know this?
Because you can swap armor you don’t like to look at for something you do. It will only change the look and it doesn’t touch the stats. This change will also allow you to put mage robes on non-mage characters, heavy armor on mages, and make them look basically like anything you want them to.
It’s for cosmetic reasons and fun. If this is useless to you, then plug in DA2 or Origins and rev your game back up. You can’t go wrong with that!
Instructions:
– Install the Equip Party Mod
– Download the pyGFF Editor
– First you need Hawke and Anders dressed how you want them to be. Hawke won’t matter, but Anders will need to be in something you plan to leave on him.
Note: this will not work on his standard companion armor that I’ve been able to do. This is my first modding experience in DA2, so I’m not going to say it’s impossible. It probably is possible, but I don’t know how to do it (yet.) If I figure it out, I’ll update this tutorial.
For my example, I put Anders in the Champion set. This is where Vaddi is helpful because you can use it to get any item in the game that you want.
I put Hawke in Blood Dragon Armor. This is where the Black Emporium is useful. My Hawke is a mage and normally wouldn’t have the Strength of Constitution to put on the Blood Dragon Armor. I used the Maker’s Sigh potion to change her stats and put the armor on her.
Note: You don’t have to have the Black Emporium. Fl studio 12 indir. If you don’t, you’ll need to open another Hawke who can wear whatever you want to put on Anders (or whoever.)
– Remove all Anders’ rings, belt, and staff to help keep this simple.
– Remove Hawke’s rings, belt, amulet, and weapon(s).
– Quick Save your game. This will keep you from messing anything up if there’s an accident, and it’s also easy to find. F5 is the Quicksave default key. If you have to use a Hawke who isn’t in the game with whoever you’re altering (Anders here) then you’ll need to Quicksave for that game, too.
– Download the pyGFF editor if you haven’t already
– Open Editor (not editor.exe you’ll want the file which just says Editor.)
– Open your file(s) This one is for Hawke
You’ll have something which looks like this:
You want Savegame_PlayerChar
You want Savegame_PlayerChar again
Now go down to Savegame_Equipment_Items
Open up the 1. See where it says blood chest? This tells you that Hawke is wearing Blood Dragon Armor as the chest part of the armor. You can usually tell by the abbreviations what part of the armor is what if you think a minute.
– Click on the line just below 1, and you’ll see prm000im_blood_chest in the box below. Copy it by highlighting and a right click of your mouse.
– I suggest you paste this code onto a Notepad, Word doccument, Wordpad, or whatever your favorite storage program is. That way you won’t have to look it up again if you want to do this to another character someday.
– Do the same thing for lines 2 and 3. You’ll get these codes: prm000im_blood_boots and prm000im_blood_gloves. I didn’t change the helmet, thinking it would be hidden. It’s not on the images, but you’ll need to do the same for it if you want it to match.
– Close your trees by clicking the “-“ signs and make them “+” signs.
– If you’re using 2 different files, close your Hawke file and open your Anders file. If you have them together, as I did, then skip what I just said.
– Now go to Savegame_Partylist
Open Savegame_PartyPoolMembers
Click on the party member you want to change. In this case it’s 0 for Anders
Click on Savegame_EquipmentItems
– Click on the 1. Notice you see that abbreviation cht (chest) lgt (light) and champion. This tells you you’re looking at the Champion Mage set which goes on the body. Click on it and it will open a box at the bottom of the screen.
Note: When you look at this later it’s going to Say Blood Dragon Armor but it retains all the stats, including Item Bonus, for the Champion set (at least according to when you mouse over it.)
– Go to your Notepad (or wherever you stored your codes) and copy the chest part of the Blood Dragon Armor. prm000im_blood_chest in my example.
– Paste it in the box.
Click Save
Repeat for the gloves and boots on lines 2 and 3
Go to File at the top of the program.
Save
When prompted, tell it that it’s okay to overwrite. Remember, if anything is wrong, this was just a quick save. You can always delete it without ruining your game.
You should now have Anders in the Blood Dragon Set
Dragon Age Face Replacer
* Dragon Age Origins, the Toolset and all its characters belong to Bioware and their respective owners. This blog is dedicated to their work with fiction, tutorials, and things to share with other fans.
The actual content of this blog, however, is created by me. Please do not copy it in whole or part without a link back. You don’t need my permission to paraphrase, share links, or borrow any of my content. After all, it’s dedicated to Dragon Age. You can borrow it word per word or right off the page if you give me credit by linking back to my blog. It only takes a second, it’s appreciated, and that’s all I ask.
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Whew, I just finished my first playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition! I did a fairly thorough and complete run at just under 35 hours (not including my hour on the character creation screen alone, ha!), despite Bioware’s claim of it being a 100 hour game. The only way it could have been a 100 hour game is if I 1) turned on nightmare mode, 2) did every repetitive side quest (hello, collecting Shards, anyone?), and 3) turned off subtitles and listened to all the dialogue instead.
Overall, I’d say DA:I is a great game that will be very enjoyable for anyone who likes RPGs. That being said, here are the top 10 mods that we modding folks need to create, stat!
10. Enhanced Tactics mod
I wish the combat system were less clunky and boring in DA:I. Tactical view was so irritating for me that I never used it and just hacked and slashed my way through the whole game. In fact, the only reason I ever turned on Tactical View was as a makeshift “flycam” to take screenshots. There should be a mod that expands the tactics that you and your companions can use automatically so that combat isn’t as tedious.
9. Better Hair mod
What is with Bioware spending a bajillion development hours on a great game, great graphics, and great storyline, then only spending 20 minutes on some decent hairs??? The first thing I’m going to do when I figure out how to mod DA:I is make some nice hair styles with textures that aren’t crazy shiny!
8. No Mustache Dorian mod
I know, I love Dorian’s mustache, too! But isn’t anyone at all just a LITTLE BIT CURIOUS what he would look like without his curly upper lip caterpillar? Anyone??? (My theory is that he would look way less hot without his ‘stache, but I need to see it to confirm hehehe).
Finally, the extremely talented modders behind the exceptional Skyrim Script Extender has released a version in beta that works wonderfully with Skryim SE. I'm talking a better UI experience that wasn't designed for consoles, more feature-packed mods, and more.Just make sure you download and install the version for SE and not the old Skyrim. Skyrim special edition best armor mods. What this tool allows you to do is install mods that require additional functionality that the base game engine simply cannot offer.
7. No Hood Leliana mod
Same as above – I just want to see it happen. It’s kind of like in Mass Effect where all I wanted was to see Tali out of her mask because the curiosity was killing me! Except, uh, now it’s the back of Leliana’s head I want to see. I know, I’m weird.
6. Romance Varric mod
Ok, bear with me a moment here – (spoilers ahead) how awesome would a Varric mod be just to see the drama that ensues when his crossbow’s namesake Bianca comes into the picture?! (end spoilers) Anyway, yeah, so the potential romance arc with Varric could be very interesting!
5. Dress mod for the Masquerade Ball
I was in the military for several years, so I’ve actually been in this situation IRL before. If I’m going to a ball with fantastic, gorgeous dresses everywhere, as a female Inquisitor, I want a dress. I don’t want to wear the same thing as my male date, thanks very much. I want a bedazzled mask and a blingin’ ball gown that says, “I’m a lady … a lady who is going to kick ass and take names.” Is that so much to ask?
4. Free Love mod
I’m a fan of removing all race/gender restrictions from romances in Bioware games. I don’t see anything wrong with guys being able to romance Cullen or girls being able to romance Dorian, particularly since mods only affect an individual player’s game and not everyone’s games. Oh, and it’s also imaginary, so everyone who makes a big stink about this mod (whether you’re a dudebro or a social justice warrior) can bugger off my blog, yeah? Make this happen, modders!
3. Realistic remains mod
And just to make it clear: there is no local co-op for Monster Hunter World.Now you’re playing with friends you’ll want to understand the basics as they’re essential to rounding out your character and making the most of Monster Hunter World. There are a few odd rules that you’ll need to get used to, and this guide will spell them out and make everything clear so you can be hunting with your buddies in no time. Monster hunter world all weapons. What are you waiting for?Weapons, armor, mantles and building your hunterThere are 14 different weapon types in Monster Hunter World, each one suited different attacks, creatures and hunt styles. You can also grab yourself animals and keep them in your room as pets. There’s a lot to get your head around; scoutflies, the world of Astera, crafting and smithing, eating, customizing your pouch, bounties, daily bonuses – we’ve got it all covered.For those times you just want to quickly lookup what the monster you’re hunting is weak against, and spec your gear accordingly without having to read a list of tactics.It’s not just the giant lumbering creatures you’ll want to capture in Monster Hunter World.
Ok, did no one else notice that every time you killed an animal or demon, no matter what the size of the creature, the skeleton rib cage left behind was always the same? Like, kill a nug, get a giant ribcage. Kill a giant, get a giant ribcage. It just … didn’t make sense. I’d love to see some unique skeletons and skulls left behind!
2. Armory mod for Skyhold
I kept running into the same problem of picking up cool unique weapons, leveling up past their usefulness, and not wanting to get rid of them because of their uniqueness. I wish there was an armory where I could display my favorite inventory items because it’s such a waste to sell or destroy the uniques!
1. Auto-Loot mod
OMG, please just someone make an auto-loot mod. I can’t tell you how many times I picked up Elfroot over and over again and thought how tedious and annoying it was to not be able to grab everything in my vicinity at once. This is my number one must have mod above all others!
Anyway, those are the mods I would love to see happen. Who knows, maybe I’ll even be able to release a few mods myself! If any of my readers know any other game modders, pass this along … I hope the DA:I modding community outgrows the Skyrim one someday!
Got any mod ideas you want to share? Let me know in comments!
If you're a fan of BioWare's Dragon Age franchise and are dying from waiting for Dragon Age 4 news, then maybe these Skyrim mods can help!
Bethesda's Skyrim is probably one of the most entertaining games to mod. The open-world RPG has housed stunning follower mods, to total recreations of Tamriel, and yes - even a plethora of Thomas the Tank engines. But if you're a BioWare fan like I am, there's quite a few little interesting mods out there that will allow you to combine those fandoms into one interesting player experience.
Let's get started on our top picks!
Every game is better with a broody elf, that's why there's now a way to bring Dragon Age II's Fenris into the mix. The tragically romantic elf from Tevinter suddenly finds himself in Tamriel and he even has the same voice! The only thing that's different is his heartbreaking backstory is now fitted to fit within The Elder Scrolls lore.
Who is Fenris in Tamriel?
'Fenris, a former slave in Morrowind, served the House Dres for most of his youth. His Dunmer masters forced him to endure a Daedric ritual which resulted in the unique magic markings on his skin. One day he was finally able to escape, and he ended up in Skyrim.'
Download here.
For all of Skyrim's glory, its character presets leave little to be desired. Still, without a total graphics overhaul, these simple mods let you revisit fan favourites from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II.
The first mod we are sharing is the Dragon Age Origins Followers mod by 'Andruniel'. According to the creator, 'Dragon Age Origins Followers, lore-friendly to Skyrim. Leliana, Morrigan, Shale are fully voiced. Enhanced AI. Unique follower framework. Ride own horses. Morrigan makes potions. Future: Morrigan will shapeshift in battle. Leliana will sing. Approval system. Romance. Alistair, Wynne, Zevran will be voiced.'
Some additional features include:
- Immersive recruit dialogue, bridging DAO original respective w/ TES dialogues
- Lore-friendly story & dialogue
- Unique Follower framework
- Ride their own horse when asked, or automatically when Player mounts
- Warp to Player if they fall behind or get separated
- 'Call [Name]' power included if you get separated when Followers are actively Following
- Set their Home in any Player home, vanilla or modded (needs to have Keyword 'LocTypePlayerHouse' input by the respective modder)
- Dismiss and send to city inns, Temples, or other specific places (at this point, only the Default dismiss works, papyrus is being a snotty git)
- Lore-friendly story & dialogue
- Unique Follower framework
- Ride their own horse when asked, or automatically when Player mounts
- Warp to Player if they fall behind or get separated
- 'Call [Name]' power included if you get separated when Followers are actively Following
- Set their Home in any Player home, vanilla or modded (needs to have Keyword 'LocTypePlayerHouse' input by the respective modder)
- Dismiss and send to city inns, Temples, or other specific places (at this point, only the Default dismiss works, papyrus is being a snotty git)
Alistair, Leliana, Morrigan, Wynn, Zevra .. even Shale! This is the perfect mod for those missing some lovin' from the first game in the Dragon Age franchise.
Download here.
Dragon Age Origins Change Appearance Mod 1
In case you weren't feeling the first Morrigan mod, there's one that goes more in-depth with her character customization. This one nails the sultry judgemental look that the Witch of the Wilds has down pat and it makes her a fully interactive follower!
You can download this mod right here but there is one precaution. Though many updates have gone into perfecting this mod, the creator did stop supporting it. There is an entire file showing maintenance provided as well as common questions answered, but be warned that how it is at time of download will be how it is from here on out.
From Grey Warden, to King (at least if that's what you chose), now Alistair Therin is invading Skyrim with this amazing character preset mod.
According to the creator, 'For those who wanted to play as Dragon Age: Origins' Alistair Theirin, fret no more! Modeled after the Origins version of Alistair Theirin, I have made a preset for RaceMenu so you can play as your loveable companion!'
Interested? You can get started (as well as see the other required mods), right here.
Love him or hate him, Anders has officially arrived in Tamriel. First introduced in Dragon Age Origins 'Awakening' DLC, this character became a catalyst of change that bridged the gap between Dragon Age II and Dragon Age Inquisition.
0Change Appearance For Yahoo
commentsThe creator of this mod had this to say about their beloved mage, 'I love Anders from Dragon Age, so I tried to create a character like him in my Skyrim. The character turned out quite like him, I think. You may find here 2 versions of Anders follower mod and a saved game file with main character of same appearance.'
He's both a follower and a handy mage, and you can get him for your game right here.