How to make your LE2 Coal Edits into the more compatible DLC Mods

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 LE2 though will work for ME2 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 example used is LE2)

Figure 01

2. 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 the list needs updating for mods, so may be a good idea downloading others mods to make sure that you know what mount number they use
   • So you can use a unique number

Figure 02

3. 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

LE2 DLC Coal Mods

1. First you want to unpack the games Coalesced_INT.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\ME2\BioGame\CookedPCConsole
2. Copy it into a folder preferably not your DLC folder
   • For example I put it in D:\MELE\Coalesced Edits
3. Rename the Coalesced_INT.bin just so you know which one it is. So I renamed mine LE2Coalesced_INT.bin
4. Now download Lecoal by doot. Direct Download/From Here
5. Extract LECoalLatest-Built.zip in your Coalesced Edits folder (See Figure 04)
6. Now we are going to make two batch files just to speed up the process a little. (See Figure 04)
   • Right click on the folder > go to new > Text Document

Figure 04

7. Now we want to rename the Text document to something like LE2PackCoal.bat (See Figure 05)

Figure 05

8. Can't see the extension of .txt? Go to View > Tick File name Extensions (see Figure 06)

Figure 06

9. Now we want to edit our Batch file so we can use it to unpack our LE2 Coal file (see Figure 07)
   • Right click it and click edit or edit with Notepad++ I personally recommend Notepad++ which you can download here

Figure 07

10. In this step I am showing Notepad++
    • once your bat is open type "LeCoal.exe Unpack LE2Coalesced_INT.bin LE2Unpacked" (see Figure 08)
    • Save once you have edited either via File > Save or using Ctrl + S (see Figure 08)

Figure 08

11. Now go back to your folder and double click your LE2Unpack.bat, you should now get a folder called LE2Unpacked (see Figure 09)

Figure 09

12. Look through the unpacked data to find what you want to edit, remove or add to (see Figure 10)

• I will be showing editing/adding to the BioGame.ini

Figure 10

13. Create a new text file in your DLC folder and rename it BioGame.ini (see Figure 11)

Figure 11

14. Copy the header of the info you are editing or adding to, to your DLC BioGame.ini (see Figure 12)

Figure 12

15. For this example I am using [SFXGame.SFXPawn_Player] (see Figure 13)
    • This is an area you will find clothing, armour, tints, scars for example

Figure 13

16. For this tutorial we will add one outfit to Casuals under [SFXGame.SFXPawn_Player]

So copy and paste one from the vanilla BioGame.ini. For example

[SFXGame.SFXPawn_Player] CasualAppearances=(Mesh=(Male="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMM_ARM_CTHb_MDL",MaleMaterialOverride="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMM_ARM_CTHb_MAT_7a",Female="BIOG_HMF_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MDL",FemaleMaterialOverride="BIOG_HMF_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MAT_6a"),Id=0,PlotFlag=-1,Type=CustomizableType_Torso)

Now first before we go editing it, I want to explain each section we have here.

(Mesh=(Male="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMM_ARM_CTHb_MDL",MaleMaterialOverride="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMM_ARM_CTHb_MAT_7a",Female="BIOG_HMF_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MDL",FemaleMaterialOverride="BIOG_HMF_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MAT_6a")

• This section shows what mesh it is and what material the mesh uses. Casual appearances are the only ones material override works on
• So for other things such as fullbodyappearances a material override will not override the base material the mesh uses

Id=0,PlotFlag=-1,Type=CustomizableType_Torso

• ID= should be a unique number so it won't clash with another outfit
• PlotFlag=-1 should remain -1 unless you plan on users having to buy your outfit from the store
• Type=CustomizableType_Torso this just defines it is a torso/fullbody piece

17. So now we have copied the chunk above under [SFXGame.SFXPawn_Player] if we were to edit, save and try our mod it would work, however if we were to add more outfits only one would work. So in order to add more we need to add a + sign in front of our lines.

If removing a line from the coal files then we would use - before our lines

For outfits I don't think we'd really have use for the minus but we definitely have use for the + which even when having one line is better to use just in case.

So this as my BioGame.ini would add these two outfits as armour. These are examples from my from my Casuals as armour mod

[SFXGame.SFXPawn_Player] +FullBodyAppearances=(Id=140001,Mesh=(Male="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHa.HMM_ARM_CTHa_MDL",Female="BIOG_HMF_ARM_CTH_R.CTHa.HMF_ARM_CTHa_MDL",bHasBreather=False,bHideHead=False,bHideHair=False),GameEffects=("SFXGame.SFXGameEffect_Gear_N7Torso"),PlotFlag=-1,Type=CustomizableType_Torso) +FullBodyAppearances=(Id=140002,Mesh=(Male="BIOG_HMM_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMM_ARM_CTHb_MDL",Female="BIOG_HMF_ARM_CTH_R.CTHb.HMF_ARM_CTHb_MDL",bHasBreather=False,bHideHead=False,bHideHair=False),GameEffects=("SFXGame.SFXGameEffect_Gear_N7Torso"),PlotFlag=-1,Type=CustomizableType_Torso)

• As you might notice there are a few additions here bHasBreather=False,bHideHead=False,bHideHair=False
• bHasBreather=False means my outfit won't act like it has a helmet/breather/radio
• bHideHead=False,bHideHair=False means the outfit won't hide the head or hair.
• and again Id= has to be a Unique number

another example editing other lines is the ones for my Increased Distance for Photo Mode

[SFXGame.BioPlayerController]

-PhotoModeTetherDistance=1000.0

-VehiclePhotoModeTetherDistance=2500.0

+PhotoModeTetherDistance=100000.0

+VehiclePhotoModeTetherDistance=100000.0

• The first line is the location
• The second and third are removing the vanilla lines from the game
• The fourth and fifth are adding them back in with my edits

So

• = add a new entry

• = delete an existing entry Using both together allows you to first remove a value and then replace it with your edited value

Common things you will find in the Coalesced 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

CasualAppearances

• This is where Casual Appearances get referenced

TorsoAppearances

• This is where Torso armour Appearances get referenced

ShoulderAppearances

• This is where Shoulder armour Appearances get referenced

ArmAppearances

• This is where arm parts of armour Appearances get referenced

LegAppearances

• This is where leg parts of armour Appearances get referenced

HelmetAppearances

• this is where helmets get referenced

FullBodyAppearances

• this is where full body armours get referenced