TSM Improved Elemental Damage for DAO/DAA v.1.0

Date: 2019-10-24
File Under: why bring a glass cannon to a fight when you can bring a glass ICBM, amirite?
Author: theskymoves

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Requirements:
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Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

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Description:
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Removes the elemental damage bonus cap in both DAO and DAA (by raising that cap to an number that is unachievable, without cheats).

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Details:
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Per the Dragon Age Wiki,

"Any kind of Elemental Damage (cold, electricity, fire, nature, spirit), e.g. from Spells, Runes, Poisons, Bombs, and Staves dealing Elemental Damage, is modified as follows:

Damage = BaseValue * AttackerDamageModifier * TargetResistanceModifier

Note: Certain creatures are immune to some types of elemental damage.

AttackerDamageModifier

There is a separate modifier for each type of elemental damage. This modifier is normally 1.0. It can be increased up to a cap of 1.3 with items that have a +X% {cold/electricity/fire/nature/spirit} damage property, e.g. Spirit Hands and Elementalist's Grasp.

Note: In Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, +X% {cold/electricity/fire/nature/spirit} damage properties are not capped at +30%. The new cap is +50%."

If I am understanding the wiki explanation correctly, it is very easy to exceed those 30/50 caps, by stacking the bonuses from multiple equipped items, i.e. in Origins, equip Morrigan with Robes of Possession (+20% cold damage bonus) + Ashen Gloves (+20%) + Amulet of the War Mage (+5%) + Frostshear (10%) + Hailstone (+5%) + Wintersbreath (+10%). That's a 70% bonus to cold damage (!).

And in Awakening, all it takes is one item: Soulbound, the ring dropped by the Baroness in the Blackmarsh, has a +100% spirit damage bonus!

While there is a mod which attempts to lift the cap on elemental damage bonuses, it has several issues: the GDA is improperly named (preventing the changes it makes from taking effect) and even if it did work, it would only do so in the base game, as Awakening requires its own file.


I've edited the properties.GDA and properties_gxa.GDA files (for Origins and Awakening, respectively), raising the cap for Elemental Damage bonuses to 500%. (Again, that's fire, spirit, cold, nature, and electricity damage only.) I haven't touched any resistances or changed anything else.

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To Install:
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Copy the tsm_improved_elemental_damage folder to the game's manual override folder ([user]\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override).

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To Uninstall:
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Delete the tsm_improved_elemental_damage folder.

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Known Issues:
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Will conflict with any other mod editing the lines 55/56/57/58/59 of properties.GDA and properties_gxa.GDA.

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Notes and blather:
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See the Dragon Age Wiki for a fuller explanation of damage bonuses.

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Version History:
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10/24/2019 - v.1.0

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Contact:
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http://kinlochhold.tumblr.com

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Tools Used:
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pyGFF
GDApp
Dragon Age ReadMe Generator