Mass Effect 2: Modding on the PC (by Azureum)

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RedCaesar97
N4

Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Jade Empire
Posts: 1,965 Likes: 7,408

Mass Effect 2: Modding on the PC (by Azureum) Oct 12, 2016 2:03:26 GMT

Quote

Post by RedCaesar97 on Oct 12, 2016 2:03:26 GMT

ATTENTION: The information in this thread was copied from the old BioWare Social Network (BSN) forums. All credit goes to Azureum and anyone else who contributed to the original information. I have updated some links where required, or removed some links that no longer worked.

Following this thread you will discover how to modify:

Weapons (player & squad loadout, ammo, clip size, refire, recoil, accuracy).
Armor (adding/removing armor, using npc or squadmate casuals/armors/faces, hair, eyes, colors, bonuses).
Powers (Adding regular, evolved & NPC powers regardless of class, squad bonus, loyalty & passive powers).

******** FIRST THINGS FIRST ********

A lot of the modding is done in a file called "Coalesced.ini" located in your Mass Effect 2 > BioGame > Config > PC > Cooked folder. Where it resides on your PC/Laptop is dependent on where you installed it.

If you are not sure where you can right-click on the shortcut to play Mass Effect 2 and select Properties, from there you can see a button along the bottom that will allow you to open the location, this will bring you to the Mass Effect 2 folder and you can find your Coalesced.ini from there.

Tip: I would HIGHLY recommend backing up your original Coalesced.ini, in fact I would go as far as to say this is an essential step in modding Mass Effect 2. But just for your information you can obtain a fresh one from your install disc in the Data folder within a file called data01.rar.

If you have already taken it upon yourself when finding Coalesced.ini (which will further be known as C.ini just to simplify things a little) to open it, it will appear as a garbled mess of text unless you open it with the right tool. In this case that tool is NotePad++.

Download NotePad++ from SourceForge.

If you open C.ini into your new Notepad you will find the contents much easier to read, instead of a large garbled mess you will see something like this:

EnemyDistance_Melee=300.f
EnemyDistance_Short=600.f
EnemyDistance_Medium=1800.f
EnemyDistance_Long=3600.f
InterpEnemyLocSpeed=0.15f
Response_MinEnemySeenTime=1.0f
Response_MinEnemyHearTime=0.5f
AI_Acc_Base=0.01
AI_Acc_Target=0.01
AI_Acc_InstabilityDecayRate=0.5

That's because C.ini is a not an ordinary text file, it has UNIX based End Of Line characters, which might mean nothing to you but only certain text editors understand them, NotePad++ is one of them.

C.ini also has a little extra security that normally would cause the game to crash if you make a change and try and load it. The file has a character based checksum which means it knows how many characters are in
it and if more are added or some are taken away it will not load correctly in the game. To get around this you will need a small program called ME2IniFixer that can fix the file so you can play again.

Download ME2IniFixer. (Link current as of October 11, 2016).

You will need to place this program in the same folder as your C.ini and
then Right-Click on it and create a shortcut (or Send To > Desktop).

******** MAKING A CHANGE ********

Ok so now you have the tools needed to make changes to Mass Effect, lets start with a simple mod to get you going.

When you run in-game (by holding space) there are two settings that effect it, one is stamina (the amount of time you can run for) and stamina regen (how quickly your stamina regains strength so you can run again).

To find the values to change hit CTRL + F in Notepad++ to open the Find window, then in the "Find what" box type in the following without the quotes:

"StormStamina"

Then click on Find Next and it will take you directly to the line in question.

As with all of the more basic settings in C.ini you will find an attribute along with an = sign, and then a value (attribute=value). In this case you just simply change the numbers.

Example:

StormStamina=10.0
StormRegen=10.0
StormStaminaNonCombat=10.0
StormRegenNonCombat=10.0

Those are the values from my C.ini and they should allow you to run for as long as you wish, because the stamina and regen values are the same. Repeat this for the NonCombat values as well and you have infinite storm inside and outside of combat.

Once you have changed the values to whatever you wish, save the file. Once done we need to fix the file, so go ahead and use the ME2IniFixer to do just that, it will modify the file and Notepad++ will tell you the file has been changed and will ask you to reload it, say Yes.

Now you should be able to launch the game and try out your new changes, you have just successfully modded Mass Effect 2. Also, if you DO make a mistake you can revert your C.ini back to the last change as ME2IniFixer
will create a Coalesced.ini.bak file when you use it.

******** EDITING TIPS AND TRICKS ********

I would strongly advise that when modifying sections or adding in new code, you can comment a line by using a semi-colon ( ; ). Personally I find this useful as I create a line as such:

; #1

I number sections with a hash preceding it so that if I use CTRL + F I can quickly locate a section I am working on by searching for "#1" (without quotes). Increment your numbers as necessary as it is a good way of keeping track of your edits, and you can also use a semi-colon to identify a particular piece of code:

; Auburn
Tint1Appearances=(Id=0,Type=CustomizableType_Tint,Tint=(TintParam=(ParameterName="Tint_Color01",ParameterValue=(R=0.239216,G=0.121569,B=0.078431,A=0.500000)),PhongParam=(ParameterName="Phong_Spec_Colo
r",ParameterValue=(R=0.000000,G=0.000000,B=0.000000,A=0.000000))))

I then know that the codes in that line give the color Auburn, and others who look at your code will too.

C.ini also does not recognize spaces, so you can separate any codes you wish with carriage returns, like below:

; Auburn

Tint1Appearances=(Id=0,Type=CustomizableType_Tint,Tint=(TintParam=(ParameterName="Tint_Color01",ParameterValue=(R=0.239216,G=0.121569,B=0.078431,A=0.500000)),PhongParam=(ParameterName="Phong_Spec_Colo
r",ParameterValue=(R=0.000000,G=0.000000,B=0.000000,A=0.000000))))

; Black
Tint1Appearances=(Id=1,Type=CustomizableType_Tint,Tint=(TintParam=(ParameterName="Tint_Color01",ParameterValue=(R=0.000000,G=0.000000,B=0.000000,A=0.500000)),PhongParam=(ParameterName="Phong_Spec_Colo
r",ParameterValue=(R=0.000000,G=0.000000,B=0.000000,A=0.500000))))

; Silver
Tint1Appearances=(Id=2,Type=CustomizableType_Tint,Tint=(TintParam=(ParameterName="Tint_Color01",ParameterValue=(R=0.852941,G=0.852941,B=0.852941,A=1.000000)),PhongParam=(ParameterName="Phong_Spec_Colo
r",ParameterValue=(R=0.000000,G=0.000000,B=0.000000,A=0.000000))))

Another example use of this is to separate sections like casual, torso, shoulder, arm, leg, tint1, tint1 and so on so they are easier to read as normally they are all bunched up making them difficult to find and edit easily.

******** NOTES ABOUT .PCC FILES ********

.PCC files are where the vast majority of the games assets like skeletal meshes (the actual characters you see on screen) the textures (colours of armors and faces) and sounds (game music, voices and sound effects) are stored. At this moment in time we cannot inject anything new inside them so if you are looking for alternative colored costumes you can only do this with Texmod and a user created texture file. More on that subject later on once I get to appearance mods.

****** WINDOWS VISTA / 7 USERS ******
(Note from RedCaesar97: No idea if this also applies to Windows 10 or later. This guide was written long before Windows 10 released. Assume that this also applies to Windows 10 and later.)

If you installed the game to your Program Files folder you will need to modify your folder security permissions before being able to edit Coalesced.ini without issue, if you didn't install to Program Files you should have no issues at all.

This has also been known to effect those modifying DLC content as well, so make sure you do it.

To do this navigate into your 'Program Files' folder so that you can see your 'Mass Effect 2' folder, Right-Click on it and select 'Properties'. On the 'Security' tab you will need to click the button marked 'Edit' so that you may change permissions. Highlight 'Users' and check the box for 'Allow' next to 'Full Control' and click 'Ok'.

You should be fine from there.

RedCaesar97
N4

Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Jade Empire
Posts: 1,965 Likes: 7,408

Mass Effect 2: Modding on the PC (by Azureum) Oct 12, 2016 2:03:52 GMT

Quote

Post by RedCaesar97 on Oct 12, 2016 2:03:52 GMT

******** WEAPONRY ********

We can change quite a few things in regards to weaponry, things you might want to change are the amount of ammo a gun may have, or its rate of fire, its accuracy, which squad members can use what weapons (squad members can only use 2, you can use up to a maximum of 5) and other such modifications. All will be explained in this post.

First up is changing loadout information.

******** LOADOUTS

Open Notepad++ and hit CTRL + F, then in the Find what box paste into it the following:

[SFXGame.SFXPlayerSquadLoadoutData]

This section holds all the information required to set what weapons belong to what type (assault rifles, shotguns, heavy weapons etc) of weapon:

AssaultRifles=(className="SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_AssaultRifle")

AssaultRifles=(className="SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_Needler")

AssaultRifles=(className="SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_GethPulseRifle")

It also includes a section that tells the game what weapons a player class (like soldier, vanguard, sentinel etc) or a henchman can use. Please note that henchmen can only have 2 weapons at a time, and a player class can use up to 5.

An example loadout might be:

PlayerLoadoutInfo=(className=SFXPawn_PlayerSoldier,Weaponclasses=(LoadoutWeapons_AssaultRifles,LoadoutWeapons_Shotguns,LoadoutWeapons_HeavyPistols,
LoadoutWeapons_SniperRifles,LoadoutWeapons_HeavyWeapons))

The bit we should pay special attention to is this one:

(LoadoutWeapons_AssaultRifles,LoadoutWeapons_Shotguns,LoadoutWeapons_HeavyPistols,
LoadoutWeapons_SniperRifles,LoadoutWeapons_HeavyWeapons)

If you read it carefully, you have loadout names separated by comma's, in the case of the Soldier class, you can by default use Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Heavy Pistols, Sniper Rifles & Heavy Weapons (that's 5).

If like me you find that you hardly ever use your Pistol you could change that so you use Auto Pistols instead (so as a soldier you would be able to use SMGs like the new DLC one which ordinarily as a soldier you would not be able to use). This would be an example of an updated line.

PlayerLoadoutInfo=(className=SFXPawn_PlayerSoldier,Weaponclasses=(LoadoutWeapons_AssaultRifles,LoadoutWeapons_Shotguns,LoadoutWeapons_AutoPistols,
LoadoutWeapons_SniperRifles,LoadoutWeapons_HeavyWeapons))

This stuff is basically all you would change normally, but there are other items you could change, which ones are special weapons (like the Widow Anti-Material Rifle (MassCannon), or the Claymore Heavy Shotgun (FlakGun) and also set henchman specific weapons (Legion can obtain the Widow through your research).

I would avoid editing these until your more familiar with how they work.

******** EDITING THE GUNS

To edit the guns themselves, such as ammo count, accuracy and all that other good stuff, you need to know how each gun is named so that you can quickly find the entries and make your changes, here is a fully compiled list of how the gun is named in C.ini (the class of it) and it's actual name in-game.

Heavy Pistols

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_HeavyPistol] --- M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_HandCannon] --- M-6 Carnifax Hand Cannon.

Auto Pistols

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_AutoPistol] --- M-4 Shuriken Machine Pistol.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_SMG] --- M-9 Tempest Submachine Gun.

Assault Rifles

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_AssaultRifle] --- M-8 Avenger Assault Rifle.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_MachineGun] --- M-76 Revenant Machine Gun.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_MiniGun] --- M-76 Revenant Machine Gun (Terminator 2 style).
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_Needler] --- M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_GethPulseRifle] --- Geth Pulse Rifle.

Shotguns

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_Shotgun] --- M-23 Katana Shotgun.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_HeavyShotgun] --- M-27 Schimitar Assault Shotgun.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_FlakGun] --- M-300 Claymore Heavy Shotgun.

Sniper Rifles

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_SniperRifle] --- M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_AntiMatRifle] --- M-97 Viper Sniper Rifle.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_MassCannon] --- M-98 Widow Anti-Material Rifle.

Heavy Weapons

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXHeavyWeapon_GrenadeLauncher] --- M-100 Grenade Launcher.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXHeavyWeapon_MissileLauncher] --- ML-77 Missile Launcher.

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXHeavyWeapon_NukeLauncher] --- M-920 Cain.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXHeavyWeapon_ParticleBeam] --- Collector Particle Beam.
[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXHeavyWeapon_FreezeGun] --- M-622 Avalanche.

To find any of these in C.ini just copy and paste everything for the gun you want to change (including the starting [ and end ]) into the Find box (hit CTRL + F) in Notepad++ and it will take you straight to that particular weapon.

Lets say for example we want to modify the MassCannon (Widow Anti-Material Rifle) to be more like the Incisor DLC weapon (as in the fact that it can fire more than once before being reloaded). First open the Find box and enter this weapon class:

[SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_MassCannon]

You will see a bunch of entries like this:

Damage=(X=368.3,Y=368.3)
DamageAI=0.95f
DamageHench=0.57f
RateOfFire=(X=70,Y=70)
RateOfFireAI=1.0f
MagSize=(X=1,Y=1)
LowAmmoSoundThreshold=0
bUseSniperCam=true
bIsAutomatic=false
bInfiniteAmmo=false
InitialMagazines=12
MaxSpareAmmo=(X=12,Y=12)

The one you see in bold is the entry you need to change so that the gun can fire more than once in a row. MagSize is the guns bullet magazine count so in this case one shot is fired and the gun automatically reloads itself. If we change the values for X and Y to a larger number, say 10; Then this would mean you will be able to fire 10 successive shots before
needing to reload.

Example: MagSize=(X=10,Y=10)

Now you get the basic idea behind changing weapons, let's list the most important attributes you might wish to change and what they mean.

Damage=(X=368.3,Y=368.3) --- Naturally, the damage each shot inflicts on an enemy.
DamageAI=0.95f --- The damage an AI with this weapon would inflict.
DamageHench=0.57f --- The damage a henchman with this weapon would inflict.
RateOfFire=(X=70,Y=70) --- Higher this number is the quicker the gun will shoot one after the other.
RateOfFireAI=1.0f --- Same as above but for AI.
MagSize=(X=1,Y=1) --- The amount of shots a gun can fire before reloading.
bIsAutomatic=false --- True or False, this sets if you can hold the button down to keep shooting or not.
bInfiniteAmmo=false --- If the gun uses ammo or just keeps shooting forever.
InitialMagazines=12 --- How many magazines the gun has to begin with (12 x magsize for how many shots you have)

If you adjust the aim error and zoom aim error values to lower numbers you can increase accuracy, adjusting crosshair ranges will for smaller numbers tighten your cross hair for that weapon, and adjusting recoil to smaller numbers will lessen the kick back on shots from the gun.

Those are the main values you might wish to change, they apply to every weapon so experiment with the settings until you have a setup that works for you.

More on this subject later, for now my hands are tired lol.

Last Edit: Oct 12, 2016 2:08:50 GMT by RedCaesar97

RedCaesar97
N4

Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Jade Empire
Posts: 1,965 Likes: 7,408

Mass Effect 2: Modding on the PC (by Azureum) Oct 12, 2016 2:04:06 GMT

Quote

Post by RedCaesar97 on Oct 12, 2016 2:04:06 GMT

******** EXPLORING ASSETS

By popular demand here we have a basic tutorial on how to explore PCC files to find references to outfits and other cool stuff.

I have made the vast majority of advances in the field of ME2 modding by exploring these files! Maybe you can make some advances as well.

Ok, so probably your only reason for looking into PCC files is to gather outfit information, we'll start with that shall we.

******** INSIDE THE LOOKING GLASS

You will need a couple of very important tools to take advantage of this procedure: Unreal Model Viewer and Unreal Package Extractor. You can download both here.

Put both in a folder somewhere (maybe on your desktop for now, we'll need them in a moment).

Put both in a folder somewhere (maybe on your desktop for now, we'll need them in a moment).

What you need to do now is grab a PCC file from the Mass Effect 2 > BioGame > Cooked PC folder, and copy and paste it into the same folder as the Unreal Viewer and Extractor programs, for the sake of this example, grab BioP_QuaTlL.pcc.

From there you would drag and drop the PCC file onto Unreal Viewer, a bunch of codes will whiz by on a command prompt and then you will be presented with a box showing the contents (generally a material reference). Use the Page Up / Down keys to navigate through until you start to come across the Skeletal Mesh class. Find the one you like and note down it's MDL reference from Object section, for this example I used GTH_STP_NKDa_MDL.

Once you have that we need to extract the contents of that PCC file, so go ahead and drag and drop the PCC file onto Extract.exe. A few seconds later (depending on the size of the file) you will see a folder named the same as the PCC file.

Search the contents with Windows Search for the MDL reference you just picked up. Once you see it in the search results you should be able to right click on the folder in the search result and choose Open File Location. This will open a new explorer window right to the file.

Now, we need to discern the full reference for the outfit, if you look at the path (you may need to click inside the top address bar to see it, for the reference I picked it would be something like this:

D:\\PCC Tools\\BioP_QuaTlL\\BIOG_GTH_STP_NKD_R\\NKDa

Ok, so now we need to strip out the bits we don't need, like this:

BIOG_GTH_STP_NKD_R\\NKDa

We don't need backslashes, as ME2 doesn't like them, so we'd change it to a full stop:

BIOG_GTH_STP_NKD_R.NKDa

Ok so now inside the folder we opened from the search results, you will see a folder called GTH_STP_NKDa_MDL. We need to append that to the end of the previous reference with a full stop preceeding it, so we end up with this.

BIOG_GTH_STP_NKD_R.NKDa.GTH_STP_NKDa_MDL

There we now have a full reference ready to use within ME2! But first we need to decide on how we are going to make use of that reference.

There are several outfit types, CasualAppearances, FullBodyAppearances (for all intents and purposes those two are the same, DLC armors for example use full body appearances and are not pieces like arms shoulders legs etc) and TorsoAppearances.

Full Body is the armor equivalent of a casual appearance as it acts much the same way, a full body reference.

Casual means you can only use these on the Normandy and once on Omega I believe when you are going after Morinth.

The better option is to use the reference as a TorsoAppearance and use some empty references for your shoulders, arms and legs so that they are hidden from view.

My Armor Locker 2.0 mod (Old link no longer valid, cannot find a new link) has these already implemented and also contains a copy of the Viewer and Extractor.

The armor locker mod is split into 2 parts, C.ini contains a binding to load the PCC file the menu is from and then loads a file called loadseq.txt.

Loadseq.txt contains loading statements to load up specific files that in this example contain the Geth Juggernaut reference we found earlier.

We would add a line to it like so.

OnlyLoadLevel BioD_OmgGrA_113AlamoAssault
OnlyLoadLevel BioD_Nor_002CabinKelly
OnlyLoadLevel BioP_QuaTlL

// #### Load Armor Menu #### //
Exec gui_armor_menu.txt

The line I added is in bold above and loads the PCC file the outfit we need is in. Now all we need to do is add the correct reference to C.ini in the [SFXGame.SFXPawn_Player] section:

TorsoAppearances=(Id=4,Type=CustomizableType_Torso,Mesh=(Male="BIOG_GTH_STP_NKD_R.NKDa.GTH_STP_NKDa_MDL",
Female="BIOG_GTH_STP_NKD_R.NKDa.GTH_STP_NKDa_MDL"),PlotFlag=-1)

Note the line has the outfit reference we got our hands on earlier from inspecting the PCC file.

Now provided you added that line to C.ini and have the binding from the armor locker mod me2mod file (these are text files incase you weren't aware, you can right click and Open With Notepad++ for example) and have added the reference to loadseq.txt (the two text files included loadseq.txt and gui_armor_menu.txt can both be added by putting them into your My Documents > Bioware > Mass Effect 2 > Binaries folder).

Then all you need do is go in-game and hit Number Pad 9 to load the levels in which afterwards will spring up the menu to allow you to change your armor anywhere on any map.

There you go, start experimenting!

NOTE: Do not use any other appearance mods with mine as it can stop it from working, also if you set any streaming records in your save file with Gibbeds Save Editor, don't, that'll probably mess with it too. If you have any problems with it at all, start from a clean C.ini.

Last Edit: Oct 12, 2016 2:17:10 GMT by RedCaesar97

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