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How to make your LE3 Coal Edits into the more compatible DLC Mods format

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Padme4000 edited this page Nov 4, 2021 · 2 revisions

Whether you're updating your coalesced edits into the DLC mod format or someone just wanting to make their own DLC coal edits. I hope this tutorial will help you. This page is for LE3 though will work for ME3 OT too.

First we have to make our DLC mod using ME3 Tweaks Mod Manager

  1. Go to tools > Generate new DLC Mod Starter Kit > Pick the game you're making it for. (See Figure 01)

Figure 01

  1. Fill in the DLC mod form (See Figure 02) further explanations can be found by hovering over the red exclamation points
    • Right side shows used Mount Numbers from the games as well as Mount Numbers used by mods.
    • Remember Mount number, TKL number have to be a unique number

Figure 02

  1. Now to quickly go to your DLC mod folder Right click on your mod in the left panel and click open Mod Folder (see Figure 03)

Figure 03

LE3 DLC Coal Mods

  1. First you want to unpack the games vanilla Coalesced.bin so you have a base to go off of.
    • For me it is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect Legendary Edition\Game\ME3\BioGame\CookedPCConsole
  2. Copy it into a folder preferably not your DLC folder
    • For example I put it in D:\MELE\LE3 Coalesced Edits LE3
  3. Rename the Coalesced.bin just so you know which one it is. So I renamed mine LE3Coalesced.bin (see Figure 04)

Figure 04

  1. Now drag and drop the Vanilla LE3Coalesced.bin over the ME3 Tweaks Window (see Figure 05)

Figure 05

  1. you should now have a unpacked folder named LE3Coalesced if you named it like mine (see Figure 06)

Figure 06

  1. The folder should have BioGame.xml etc (see Figure 07)

Figure 07

  1. Now in your Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAMEHERE folder CookedPCConsole copy your Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAMEHERE.bin this is your DLC's coalesced file
    • mine is in D:\MELE\ME3TweaksModManager\mods\LE3\LE3 Increased Distance for Photo Mode\DLC_MOD_LE3PhotoEdits\CookedPCConsole

Figure 08

  1. Now drag and drop your Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAMEHERE.bin over the ME3 Tweaks Window like we did for the vanilla LE3Coalesced.bin (see Figure 09)

Figure 09

  1. Your unpacked Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAMEHERE.bin should look like this (see Figure 10)

Figure 10

  1. Now we can pick what we want to edit, look through the files till you find what you want to find. For the sake of this tutorial I will be showing photomodetetherdistance like I did in my Increased Distance for Photo Mode so lets open the BioGame.xml
  • When editing vanilla or edited Coal files or anything that has long lines in Notepad++ I find it useful to turn on Word Wrap.
  • Go to View then click on Word Wrap (see Figure 11)

Figure 11

  1. This is what it looks like when we first open our Vanilla unedited LE3 BioGame.xml (see Figure 12)

Figure 12

  1. Now let's open the vanilla uniedted LE3Coalesced unpacked BioGame.xml and locate what you want to edit (see Figure 13)
    • So we'll find that the property photomodetetherdistance (2) falls under is the section sfxgame.bioplayercontroller (1)

Figure 13

  1. So first we need to understand some stuff the type/value type:

  • type="2"

    • this is found in LE3/ME3 Coalesced files and is usually the default value. As you will see with the photomodetetherdistance type

  • types we will use in our edited LE3/ME3 Coalesced edits so to our Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAMEHERE.bin

    • 0 = this will override a non-array line what this means is that this will not work for outfits even if you are only editing the effects
    • 3 = Adds the line you have written
    • 4 = Removes the line you are referencing. Must be vanilla in order to be removed
  1. So in our DLC BioGame.xml (see Figure 14)
  • We want to add the sfxgame.bioplayercontroller section under Sections
  • Property Name photomodetetherdistance
  • Copy the vanilla line Property name="photomodetetherdistance" type="2">1000.0</Property
  • Make the edit you want to make and change type to 0 so it will override the original line
  • so for me it becomes Property name="photomodetetherdistance" type="0">100000.0</Property
  • We change it to 0 as we are changing a vanilla line, not adding or removing
  • Add /Section
  • Add /Sections

Figure 14

  1. Now if we have finished our edits save the edited BioGame.xml from our unpacked Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAMEHERE.bin folder
  2. Drag and drop the Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAME.xml over ME3Tweaks Mod Manager (see Figure 15)

Figure 15

  1. You should now have Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAME.bin in your unpacked DLC coalesced folder (see Figure 16)

Figure 16

  1. Copy and paste your new Default_DLC_MOD_YOURMODNAME.bin into your DLC folder (see Figure 17)

Figure 17

  1. Now we are ready to test our mod in game before we think of releasing it (see Figure 18)
    • Refresh the list in ME3 Tweaks Mod Manager
    • Highlight your mod in the left panel
    • Click on Apply Mod
    • Click on start game and test your changes

Figure 18

  1. If all is working, you are now ready to deploy your mod into a .7z so you can release it (see Figure 19)
    • Right click your mod in the left panel
    • Click Deploy mod to 7z file for distribution

Figure 19

  1. If everything is ticked on the window that pops up you are good to go and hit Deploy to .7z (see figure 20)

Figure 20

  1. Save the zip to your desired location and click save (see Figure 21)

Figure 21

  1. Click yes on this pop window to take you to the pop up window that will let you upload the Mount Number, Mod name etc to the database (see Figure 22 + 23)

Figure 22

Figure 23

  1. Congratulations your mod is now ready to be uploaded to Nexusmods. Can't wait to see what you make

Other things you may come across in Coelesced files

True

  • whether an action is active

False

  • whether an action is inactive

If you are adding Armours/Casuals these values will come in handy:

bHideHead=True or bHideHead=False

  • If false the head is not hidden, if true the head is hidden.

bHideHair=True or bHideHair=False

  • If false the hair is not hidden, if true the hair is hidden.

bHasBreather=True or bHasBreather=False

  • If false the breather or better known as the radio is not on. If true the breather/radio is on.

PlotFlag=-1

  • when the PlotFlag is -1 it dictates to the game that the item/outfit should be in the locker as soon as you can access the locker

Little Bit extra information for adding/editing armour/casuals

So I decided to add a little example of what adding an outfit to LE3 Fullarmour would look like if you wanted to have no radio on, so it won't hide the head or hair as well. And then explain some of the extra information needed. Hopefully this will come in handy in the future for adding outfits rather than replacing them.

So the (Mesh=(Male="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHa.HMM_ARM_CTHa_MDL",Female="biog_hmf_arm_cth_r.CTHa.HMF_ARM_CTHa_MDL")

  • defines what mesh this slot uses. So for this it is the Alliance Uniform for both Male Shep and Female Shep
  • BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R is the location
  • .CTHa. is the subfolder in the PCC
  • HMM_ARM_CTHa_MDL is the model/mesh

GameEffects=("SFXGameContent.SFXGameEffect_PartBasedArmor_AmmoCapacityBonus","SFXGameContent.SFXGameEffect_PartBasedArmor_AmmoCapacityBonus","SFXGameContent.SFXGameEffect_PartBasedArmor_WeaponDamageBonus","SFXGameContent.SFXGameEffect_PartBasedArmor_ShieldBonus","SFXGameContent.SFXGameEffect_PartBasedArmor_HealthBonus")

  • This bit defines what bonuses the armour has, which I just copied from another full body armour

Id=140012,Name=711024,Description=711025,PlotFlag=-1,Type=CustomizableType_Torso

  • ID= must be a unique number so for example you wouldn't use 140012 for your mod because it is used in my mod which this example is from. But if you pick a random number it should be hard to end up with the same as someone else's
  • Name, Description I copied from another armour as well, as I noticed when null the game sometimes acted weird
  • PlotFlag=-1 so from out little key above we know this allows Casuals and Armours to auto be in the locker without having to buy them from anywhere

Value type="3"

  • as from our key above we know this means this armour is a new addition to the armours available for Shepard

(bHasBreather=False,bHideHair=False,bHideHead=False),Id=140012,Type=CustomizableType_Helmet)

  • Again from our key above this data tells us that this particular armour doesn't have radio/breather, doesn't hide the head or hair and due to the ID being identical to the fullbodyappearances it means this data is applied to that full armour.

This is an example of a Casual outfit

(Mesh=(Male="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMM_ARM_CTHb_MDL",MaleMaterialOverride="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMM_ARM_CTHb_MAT_1a",Female="biog_hmf_arm_cth_r.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MDL",FemaleMaterialOverride="biog_hmf_arm_cth_r.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MAT_1a"),Id=0,PlotFlag=-1,Type=CustomizableType_Torso)

As you can see in the mesh section we have something different, this is because for Casuals we can define what material it uses. Where in armours we can't.

So this FemaleMaterialOverride="biog_hmf_arm_cth_r.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MAT_1a"

  • is telling the game to override the base material for that mesh with HMF_ARM_CTHb_MAT_1a
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