Recommended DS2 Mods

My friend, I am sure that each and every one of us here has a favorite mod or ten, for each version of the game. I tend to like the mods that my friends designed and those I have created myself. Now when it comes to mods for DS1 and DSLoA I could give you a list of 224 names of people who created mods. Such as SJR, Xaa, iryan, SnowFox, witness, Ham Cat, Elys, Frilly Wumpus, Kane65, Minotaurus, Omniscient Colossus, Psychogun2003, Fire Bat, Snow Fox, that did some outstanding work. I currently have 27 mods installed but not all active just in Dungeon Siege 1. At least that many in Dungeon Siege 2, again not all active since there are conflicts. So asking me is most likely a silly idea. I have I would guess about a 3/4s of a terabyte of Dungeon Siege related stuff on various computers and hard drives. Most mods and maps when I download them I disassemble them to see how they where done. Sometimes tweaking them a bit for my own likes (never to leave my elfish hands) For example I have 3 versions of Legends of Utrae, the standard one and two that I have over the years edited and added to. The same is true of Adepts for DS1 the original was a lot smaller than myCMA2013 which now is about 139 MB

It sucks realizing that I've never really had a friend who shared the same interests and dedication as I, probably why it takes so long to get things done and accomplish my goals.. Lonely me :'( lol jk
Anyway, I grew up to DS1 and LoA and I'm pretty familiar with all of those authors, I disassembled many as well to learn about how to develop mods of my own. However, everything I ever actually made was destroyed in my hard drive along with all of my inspiration.. I spent about 5 years looking into DS1, inspired by the modders online, I made mods of my own from their content :P Iryan and Elys were my Dungeon Siege heroes when I was 13 XD I never got into modding DS2 though, I was too glued to DS1 lol. I rarely even played DS2, but when I came across the DS1 Legendary Mod my mind was blown. I've got that feeling I used to have when I was younger..only I feel so lost when it comes to DS2 coding. Hardless tried to explain it to me but my head went blank.

EDIT: I'm not exactly feeling myself at the moment, sorry if I seem a bit off. I've been up for..awhile lol

Skill points on level up has a problem. Tremor, Shred Blood and a couple of other skills from Hist of Stone and Blood Assassin do not work and if used with Monsters Improved BOTH classes lose all Powers/skills

I like DarkElf's Hair mod and Giantgnome is running well

Most of the really nice mods are already part of the Legends pack.

siggy I think you might have a conflict here.

The only alternative you have is to try to edit the mod yourself to make it compatible if there's no Broken World version. If you are unsure how to do this, I can have a look.

Err, The Legendary Mod is more of an addon than a mod as such. It adds things rather than change things.

I'd love to use the hair mod, but wouldn't that conflict with the Monster Level Adjustment mod? On a side note, I noticed recently that the Monster Level Adjustment mod kind of glitches up the level up animation that floats above your head for a little bit when you increase in level. Also I stopped using the Succubus Mod because it caused an issue in Broken World where the Blood Assassin and Fist of Stone skill tabs didn't show up at all.

On an extra side note, I've been having issues with my internet and on top of that..I'm very ill.. It's been very hard to do anything lately :/ I'm getting better though, and I hope I can get back to full-time beta-testing lol

Umm, I was just pointing out the conflict and with Skill_points_on_level_up the file is marked as proyected

Ah come on lol, I'm looking for recommended mods. I thought it was a suggestion XD sorry I'm so weird. I have better coping skills in person lol

I was recommending DarkElfs hair mod and Giantgnome mods :goofy:

And the skill points is but best if using both the skill point multiplier and damage multiplier, just do not play a Fist of Stone or Blood Assassin :silly:

Here, you are pointing out a problem in our community, there isn't a ton of mods and modders but the mods aren't compatible between each other and this is very sad :(.

The second problem created by the previous one, is that the players don't have any information about compatibility, so they are encountering bugs and give up.

It's perhaps an utopia but it would be very cool and helpful but it requires a lot of work, a community pack. A pack with all the mods of the community with an install where you could choose which mod you want to install.

As always,
See you,
HardLess.

That's a pretty cool idea, I thought of it as well. A community pack would probably require a lot of work, however I know of a few modding communities for different games that have managed to do it, it's not "impossible". I'll try and pitch in on figuring out compatibility issues where I can if this is a project the community could look forward to.

Here's a list of mods included in DS2BW Adepts

BW_Cat Mansion Boys AlphaDD (Hamcat original work)
DS2 Cat Mansion Girls DDllulu (Hamcat original work)
DS2BW Allsaves Elys
BW_Cat_ARanna_Legacy Phoenix
Fear Darkelf
Dark Elf Spells Darkelf
BW_Catmansion_Banter_Icon_v2 Phoenix
DS2-BW Quivers Beta Phoenix
Catmansion icons DS1 in DS2 v2 Phoenix
Object Highlighting Removal Mod KillerGremal
DS1_Content Pack (levelling code) KillerGremal
BW Conversation Freedom Volkan (Phoenix)
Drianjul Don't You Cry Volkan (Phoenix)
Drianjul Don't You Cry Catmansion Phoenix
Snowbrook armor v2 Volkan (Phoenix)
Snowbrook Archer V2 Volkan (Phoenix)
Amulet of the Dead Volkan (Phoenix)
Level 300 v2 Volkan (Phoenix)
Cinbri Assassin v2 Volkan (Phoenix)
6 Slots Rezzie
Clutter Removal Omicrom (for concept)
Ring Removal Omicrom
Naja model Ghastley
Cat, Serpent, Hydra models Niko Makela
Javelins Gametoast/KillerGremal
Volkan's Animated Armor Volkan (Phoenix)
Einlanzer Azrus Revell
Siege of Three Kingdoms Weapon Pack Theresnothinglft
Lurker's Weapon Pack Lurker (Eddie Wang)
Dungeon Siege Revived Francisco 'Omniscient_Colossus' Athens & Jason 'Ikkyo' Gripp
BW Auto Engage Mod Beta v0.9 Ladyfemme
Countersiege Source Iarus & WnxWanderer2k
Secret model & weapons Mcarp
Enhanced Enchanting Csimbi
Disband Mod Freakcandy

Not to mention original work included in the mod such as UI changes, support for voicepacks, new spells (some of which have been adapted and improved for the Ancient Gifts Mod) and a new spell discipline (evocation spells). There's map changes as well including an open campaign for DS2 and Broken World so you're free to play any chapter and aren't locked into a set linear path.

It's not particularly difficult to do such a compilation mod, you just have to be prepared to put time in and do a lot of playtesting. The first step is to compare what files are modified by each mod, that's where a program like Beyond Compare 3 comes in handy which compares files and folders and lets you see easily what are common files and what files are different between each mod.

Just installed the full version of Beyond Compare 3..and wow I didn't know DS2BW Adepts was that intense I'll check out all the mods I can and search for incompatibilities. I have a very mixed up schedule, but all my gaming revolves around Dungeon Siege and Heroes of Might and Magic..

In my mind a community pack is also a community work, so if someone want to see his mod in the community pack he has to create different versions in order to be compatible with other mods. But it also a community decision, like the priority of the mods, some mods are incompatible because there are modifying the same things. So some mods could be cut off from some of there parts.

I think it could be a great idea, our community is really little now, the modders are a important part of the community but if we don't have any person to play it or to test it the community could fall.

Before starting to mod this game, I didn't know anything about mods so I just install what looks good and compatibily was a big problem, on Dungeon Siege 1 in particular there were tons of mods but over 5 mods the game became instable.

And if you look over other modder community, like for Skyrim, there are well organized, they have a sort of community installation manager which manage priority and overwrite. It's harder to create that type of things for Dungeon Siege, but we could make a big installation where you choose what you want in it, like (The legendary pack + Adepts + Arrana Legacy + ...).

It'll make the life of the players much more easier, It's a gigantic work for every modders but it would be such a nice thing. The community would work with each other, and perhaps it would lead us to work together...

See you,
HardLess.

Perhaps we could have a poll for a community effort on this community pack. I'd love to see it done and I'd love to see the community all together at it's best as well. I think it's all within our reach I imagine we could categorize these installation packs based on gameplay expectations (Community Compilations, Enhanced/Improved Compilations, DS1 Recommended Additions, DS2 Recommended Additions, GPG Compilations, etc..) Of course it's a lot of work, but it would make a great addition to this community, and probably provide an easier method of mod installation for those lost when it comes to mods.

As far as increasing the size of the community, perhaps I could advertise this site with Youtube. Somebody on Youtube PM'd me asking if I could create a tutorial for installing mods on DS2, he was having issues installing the DS1 Legendary Mod. So I explained as best as I could to help him out for what was necessary, asked him what was in his resource folders, then redirected him here for additional help if needed. I'm thinking about making a tutorial on Youtube for DS1 and 2 mod installation, as well as a tutorial for installing it on Windows 7 and Windows 8 with multiplayer accessibility. I'd love to bring more people to Dungeon Siege in general.

If you direct the people here we will be glad to help. The youtube idea might work but since I do not make movies or interact with social media like twitter and facebook. Do not ask me to help.

It is not a bad idea, but there are so many mods that change the same values and therefore are not compatible the research would be extensive and a good number of the really good mods like Witness's Light and Dark Elves and Elys' Succubus should not be changed as both of the Authors are no longer modding and specificly asked that their work not be altered. Used for other things yes if one makes note that it is their work withing the mod. So to change something like that would be a major violation of the EULA. Good Luck I have very little time to help with a project so extensive. Note all of the weapon and armor mods I created will not interfere with other mods. Now some of them are specific to Cat Mansion (adepts), some specific to the standard games and some that will work with both.

Yes it is a shame that some authors do not want their work altered but at least Witness and Elys have allowed their work to be examined so that its possible some compatibility could be maintained but from the other modder's perspective.

With character mods you can maintain compatibility if you include the references to other mods in certain files like faces.gas, hair.gas, hairtoheads.gas, heads.gas, race_descriptions and character_camera.gas. If the mod doesn't exist in the resources folder then the game will ignore these references. That was how I could make the DS2 character pack compatible with the Cat Mansion Mods, Ghastley's Succubus Queen, Giants and Gnomes by Darkelf and also Elys Succubus Manager.

The biggest problem with character mods is that there has to be a different character_camera.gas for DS2 and Broken World or the characters' portraits are messed up.

Problems really start to surface when mods start to alter core files or storekeepers. Core files are things like formula.gas which Succubus Manager does alter. Many mods also alter files like spl_ds2_spellcmagic.gas or other DS2 interactive files instead of using new files.

I guess the first thing to do is to make a list of what mods players would like to see together. Then somebody will need to go through each one and compare them against other mods to see if there's any shared files and thus the risk of incompatibility. Something like a cross reference chart.

Let me know of some mods players would like to see together and I'll try to get the cross reference chart going.

After a cross reference chart was made, thought could be applied to how we could make incompatible mods compatible. Mega mods like Aranna Legacy or even Ancient Gifts would have to be treated differently. I believe it would be more sensible to try to make smaller mods compatible with them rather than vice versa.

As said, a mod list would be great in order to know what players and to see compatible.

But I think that we could do something first in order to "start" this community pack, we could make our own list of mods which just add new stuff, like weapons, armors or spells.

It would be a way to start and to give a first view of what could be a community pack for DS2.

As a start to seeing if a community mod is feasible or not, I've started on a mod compatibility list. No need to expend effort in making mods compatible with other mods if there's no issues to start with and it makes it easy to see what mods conflict with what.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2_Mod_Compatibility_List.xlsx

The file is in excel format but will open even if you have excel viewer installed. Open Office unfortunately won't open it properly. I will look at making it in another format or anyone else is free to do so if they wish and that would be appreciated as I'm very busy at the moment.

It's clear to see that there's several areas where mods will clash with other mods. One is obviously core files like formula.gas but character mods have problems because they all need to alter several common files. Mods that change the pcontent system or the store lists in maps will also conflict with similar mods.

That a nice job Iryan :),

This will be really useful, I love it. It's a good way to start.

What we could see in your compatibility list is that all those mods are compatible without any work:

Cinbri_Assassin.ds2res
combattonature.ds2res
naturetocombat.ds2res
ChantsNoQuest.ds2res
ChantsQuest.ds2res
DS1 Legendary Mod (various modules) beta30
Ironhorn.ds2res
Javelinsitem.ds2res
Snowbrook_Archer.ds2res
Snowbrook_Armor_v2.ds2res
Volkan's Animated Armor v2.ds2res
Volkan Weapon Pack Final.ds2res
Transparent_Inventories.ds2res
RingRemoval.ds2res

And this is pretty cool

What I did was to compare them with a program called Beyond Compare 3 which compare folders and files and marks what ones are common to each mod.

Just because mods share common files doesn't necessarily mean they'll crash the game or anything, it's depends on what files are conflicting. Minor conflicts would probably be ignored by the game but major conflicts would certainly make the game unstable.

The next step is to compare conflicting files between various mods and see if they may be made compatible. Also the expand the compatibility list with other mods.

I'm hopeful that we may be able to make an installer similar to the one used in the Legendary Mod that will allow the player the select what mods they what to install but I haven't checked the program yet to see how easy that will be to make.

Nice work Iryan! That's a fine list, I like how you even added permissions of the mods authors in it. I used Beyond Compare 3 to compare the files between Monster Level Adjustment and Aranna Legacy and found world\ai\jobs\actors\good\job_talk_hire.skrit, world\contentdb\components\generic\rename_screen_name_pcontentwise.skrit, world\global\flick\flick_function_killergremal_v2.gas, world\global\skrits\k_inc_hotfix_pcontent0_utils.skrit, world\global\skrits\k_inc_hotfix_pcontent0_utils.skrit were conflicting files (red) did I compare them properly? These are the only files I found that conflicted with each other.

However I think the classification 'compatible' or 'not combatible' is bit rough!? There also should be something like 'minor conflict'.

As 'minor conflict' i consider if content of two mods of overlapping without serious consequences, for example if a custom pet mod with active_skills.gas inside is overwritting the skill tunings from Hotfix mod. But if there would be two pet mods and each of them contains an active_skills.gas file (both with/for a unique pet power) then there is serious incompatibility because one of the two custom pets will have no power in-game at all.
Related to pet mods and active_skills.gas generally, there are several older mods around, and it's already good know if they are compatible with the addon.

Perhaps there also should be a classification like 'redundant', if two mod cover the same issue (with the same file, or doing the same/similar thing in different manner).

 
Concerning the Hotfix mod, it's a while since if did my own tests, but I think there are only minor conflicts with the Succubus mod, Level 300, NatureToCombat and CombatToNature (and possibly other mods too). And as mentioned, it's no real problem (from my point of view) if the active_skill.gas file will be overwritten by a pet mod – I just hope then that the active_skill.gas from the pet mod is at least fixed and tuned/balanced a bit.
As redundant I would consider the Disband mod Javelin mod Effects mod. Feature-wise the Effects mod is covered too, but for techincal reasons it's safer to treat it as incompatible.

Last but not least, the Object Highlightning mod should be compatible with the Hotfix resp. Aranna Legacy mod - that was the idea when offering them as independing mods (specially since there is no way in-game toggling the highlightning off and on).