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About this mod
Adds new merchants, items, NPCs, creatures, and more. Plus, dwarf ladies.
- Permissions and credits
Kirkwall Expanded
Overview
Kirkwall Expanded is a mod that adds new NPCs (including dwarf women), new creatures, new merchants, new items and item properties, a few new quests, a new crafting option ("Cooking"), pets, mercenaries, house decorations, and more. (Also, more belts and other accessories than anyone would ever, ever need.)
This mod is English language and contains a large amount of text, as well as some English-language audio. Apologies!
Updates
2-18-2023: Minor update to fix an issue with Inquisition DF textures, plus a couple of minor bugfixes.
9-19-2022: Updated again to fix a dependency issue with Inquisition Dwarf Ladies.
9-19-2022: Updated to fix a bug that potentially caused the quest "Remains of the Outlaw Bearded Beast" to break. This bug won't happen in all playthroughs, but if you were using version 1.6 and encounter it, download the fix script in optional files.
9-5-2022: Updated to version 1.6. Updates include two new Mercenary options, new optional Kaddis and Mabari coat color options, a few new consumable "trap" items, and a new version of Dwarf Ladies (moving them from DAO models to DAI models). Also did some minor tweaking/bugfixing of Bounty Board items. Please read the mod description for explanations of new elements.
When updating, remove all previous versions -- including override and extras -- of Kirkwall Expanded. Do not mix elements from previous versions. Best practice, as always, is to wait until a new playthrough to update. DEFINITELY, if updating and using the new Inquisition Dwarf Ladies, do not update in the middle of an Act. Wait until you have completed an act, but before you have loaded into any new areas, to make the change.
Also note that I have separated everything that has Inquisition assets into its own folder, "Inquisition Elements." If you don't want any of the DAI aspects in your game, you can feel free to remove the entire folder. However, if you're using *any* of the Inquisition aspects, you MUST keep the "Inquisition Assets.erf" as the other erfs rely upon it.
I also removed the "Persistent Livestock" extra and just folded it into the main mod. Now livestock you purchase persist regardless.
6-22-2022: Updated "Persistent Livestock" file in the Extras to account for changes made in 1.5. The earlier version could cause some quests not to update properly even when KE is loaded on a new game, so if you were using the old version of it and run into an issue, let me know and I'll see about fixing it for you.
6-4-2022: Updated to version 1.5. Large update including new components to the mod, a few new extra files, some additional tweaks/clone eradication, some "restored" quests, and a couple of new quests created by me.
Because this is a pretty significant update, I would *not* recommend updating in the middle of a playthrough. It (likely) won't break your game, but it may cause some weird minor issues, and likely make some of the new quests impossible to complete.
Full list of changes/additions:
Spoiler:
-- Added the "Bounty Board." See main description for details.
-- Added the "Upgrades Shop." See main description for details.
-- Added some dialogue to most of my merchants.
-- Removed the "Deserter" clone in the Gallows in the prologue. (A lot of them have helmets, but there were two that shared the exact face and it was pretty obvious.)
-- Removed a couple of Dalish clones when confronting the templars in Act 2 and Merrill's quest in Act 3.
-- Changed the headmorph of Olaf the Armorer in Hightown, since he was sharing it with a Fereldan in Darktown who also happened to be the guy who breaks into your house in Act 3 and is hiding in the closet. I really don't think they're meant to be the same person.
-- Removed Lady Elegant from the Viscount's Keep, as I also think this was not intentional, since she has vanilla noblewoman dialogue there.
-- "Restored"/recreated several quests that had text in the talktable and unused plotfiles. Six fetch quests spread across Acts 1 and 2, the "Missing Ingredients" quest from Mistress Selby's board in Act 2, and the Black Vials quest.
-- Added a couple of new quests of my own.
-- Changed a few headmorphs of my added NPCs, and changed all children that I'd added from DAO models to DA2 models (since the DAO models stood out a bit). And Levyn now has eyelashes.
-- Added a new merchant, "Marcia Arthurius," to the Disused Passage to go along with the restored "Missing Ingredients" quest. (Plus a few new items to go along with her.)
-- Three new Extras files -- "Child Lia," "Fool's Gold Every Time," "Swap - Pet Ram to Mabari"
-- Optional bugfix for a rare issue that can occur with the Arishok's duel.
Show
-- Added the "Bounty Board." See main description for details.
-- Added the "Upgrades Shop." See main description for details.
-- Added some dialogue to most of my merchants.
-- Removed the "Deserter" clone in the Gallows in the prologue. (A lot of them have helmets, but there were two that shared the exact face and it was pretty obvious.)
-- Removed a couple of Dalish clones when confronting the templars in Act 2 and Merrill's quest in Act 3.
-- Changed the headmorph of Olaf the Armorer in Hightown, since he was sharing it with a Fereldan in Darktown who also happened to be the guy who breaks into your house in Act 3 and is hiding in the closet. I really don't think they're meant to be the same person.
-- Removed Lady Elegant from the Viscount's Keep, as I also think this was not intentional, since she has vanilla noblewoman dialogue there.
-- "Restored"/recreated several quests that had text in the talktable and unused plotfiles. Six fetch quests spread across Acts 1 and 2, the "Missing Ingredients" quest from Mistress Selby's board in Act 2, and the Black Vials quest.
-- Added a couple of new quests of my own.
-- Changed a few headmorphs of my added NPCs, and changed all children that I'd added from DAO models to DA2 models (since the DAO models stood out a bit). And Levyn now has eyelashes.
-- Added a new merchant, "Marcia Arthurius," to the Disused Passage to go along with the restored "Missing Ingredients" quest. (Plus a few new items to go along with her.)
-- Three new Extras files -- "Child Lia," "Fool's Gold Every Time," "Swap - Pet Ram to Mabari"
-- Optional bugfix for a rare issue that can occur with the Arishok's duel.
Previous Updates:
Spoiler:
2-3-2022: Not an actual update, just uploaded a few of my less messy script sources in case they'll be helpful to someone. I am in no way an expert at scripting, and yes, these are the less messy ones, haha. Try not to judge. :)
12-19-2021: Updated with a couple of minor bug fixes: rune packs should no longer occasionally give recipes instead of runes; fixed an issue with an item name not displaying properly on use; tweaked a couple of prices; removed a couple of NPCs spawned by Crowd Control in the Hanged Man Act 3 that were clipping through Isabela in her gift cutscene.
12-9-2021: (Sorry for all the updates folks! Just working out a few kinks.) Updated both char_stage files to give Tallis the correct tag, so she won't stand right in the middle. Also did a few under-the-hood tweaks to my quests. Additional file in Extras: Persistent Livestock, which prevents animals such as goats and hens from disappearing once you acquire them.
12-8-2021: Quick fix to stop pets from becoming selectable in the character select screen at some point in the game. (Was this hilarious? Yes. Is it ideal? Nononononono.) There may still be a point or two when they're briefly available for selection when you click on Hawke; closing the partypicker should fix this. Also added an optional file of upscaled painting textures (for the home decorations, not default paintings) done by Marcus22Khaar!
12-6-2021: Minor update changing the location of the toy rabbit decoration in the Hawke Estate, because its ear was clipping through the camera during Anders's romance scene. OOPS. (Thanks for catching that, Khaar!)
Show
2-3-2022: Not an actual update, just uploaded a few of my less messy script sources in case they'll be helpful to someone. I am in no way an expert at scripting, and yes, these are the less messy ones, haha. Try not to judge. :)
12-19-2021: Updated with a couple of minor bug fixes: rune packs should no longer occasionally give recipes instead of runes; fixed an issue with an item name not displaying properly on use; tweaked a couple of prices; removed a couple of NPCs spawned by Crowd Control in the Hanged Man Act 3 that were clipping through Isabela in her gift cutscene.
12-9-2021: (Sorry for all the updates folks! Just working out a few kinks.) Updated both char_stage files to give Tallis the correct tag, so she won't stand right in the middle. Also did a few under-the-hood tweaks to my quests. Additional file in Extras: Persistent Livestock, which prevents animals such as goats and hens from disappearing once you acquire them.
12-8-2021: Quick fix to stop pets from becoming selectable in the character select screen at some point in the game. (Was this hilarious? Yes. Is it ideal? Nononononono.) There may still be a point or two when they're briefly available for selection when you click on Hawke; closing the partypicker should fix this. Also added an optional file of upscaled painting textures (for the home decorations, not default paintings) done by Marcus22Khaar!
12-6-2021: Minor update changing the location of the toy rabbit decoration in the Hawke Estate, because its ear was clipping through the camera during Anders's romance scene. OOPS. (Thanks for catching that, Khaar!)
Installation
Inside the download, there are two folders: a folder labeled "kirkwall_expanded" and a folder labeled "Kirkwall Expanded - Override." The "kirkwall_expanded" folder MUST BE PLACED IN YOUR ADDINS FOLDER, NOT YOUR OVERRIDE. Your addins folder should be located in one (or more) of the following places.
C:\...\Documents\Bioware\Dragon Age 2\addins
C:\...\Origin\Dragon Age II\addins
C:\...\steamapps\common\DragonAge 2\addins
It can be placed in the Documents addins folder or in the game's installation folder and will work regardless, just make sure it is in your addins folder and NOT your Override. If you do not have an addins folder, you can create one. The mod absolutely relies upon the "kirkwall_expanded" folder being in your addins, and will not function properly otherwise.
The "Kirkwall Expanded - Override" should be placed in your Override. I'm releasing it this way because I have separated the files in the "Kirkwall Expanded - Override" folder into different erfs for easy removal. Everything in that folder is optional, but recommended.
If you are using my A Farewell to Clones mod or my original The Lowtown Marketplace Revival mod, REMOVE THEM. Both of those mods are included in this mod and their files will conflict.
Kirkwall Expanded is best used on a new game, as changes to areas won't take effect after they have already been loaded. If you want access to all new quest content I added, you MUST load it before the start of Act 1.
Components
Merchants
Spoiler:
There are a number of new merchants added to the game, primarily located in the Lowtown Bazaar. Note that since the layout of Lowtown changes between Acts 1 and 2, some of them move their stalls between acts, but they're all generally in the same area.
Merchants have a chance to refresh some of their wares each time you enter their area, and certain items will become available in their shops as the game progresses, so check back.
Jocelyn's Bits and Baubles
Jocelyn is across from the Accessories and Weapons merchants in the Lowtown Bazaar. She and her shop won't be active until you have visited Gamlen's house at least once. (She's... busy.) Jocelyn sells some foods items, as well as the pet cat. If you have the optional Wigs download, she will also sell the wigs (there are ten of them in total). In Act 2, she sells a couple of house decorations.
Gavin's Mercantile
Gavin is located to the left of the Accessories merchant. He sells some Common Clothes variations, if you happen to want those, as well as various accessories (including Lifeward Amulets) and some food items. In Act 1, he sells the pet Ram. In Act 2, he'll have a house decoration, the house "cleaning" items, and the mercenary contract for Maraas.
Adalind's Essentials
Adalind is located next to Gavin. She sells primarily farm goods sorts of items, including cooking ingredients and food items. In Act 2, she'll sell the Cookpot, if you want to do cooking at home.
Orzammar and More
Rina and her shop are located near the entrance to the market, next to the fishseller. She sells mostly dwarven-themed items, including some armors for Varric (if you're using an equip-your-party sort of mod), the pet nug, the pet spider, and the mercenary contract for Eris.
Fenne's Fantasticals
Fenne's store is available beginning in Act 2, in the location where Vincento's store was in Act 1. She sells mainly accessories, some recipes, and a house decoration.
The Seasoned Scholar
Starting in Act 2, the bookseller will set up shop at the entrance to the bazaar. He sells primarily codex entries, because I thought it would be fun. Most of the codex entries are taken from DAO, but a couple appear to be in DA2 itself and simply not utilized.
Elseworld Wares
Cornelius's shop is located in Lowtown Night, in the location where Vincento and Fenne's stores are during the day. He primarily sells mage-themed items. He has the pet Wolf and pet Dragonling, and all mage mercenary contracts.
Genevier's Orlesian "Imports"
Genevier is located in Lowtown Night, in the place where Anso stands during Bait and Switch. She won't become available in Act 1 until both Bait and Switch and Sharp Little Pinpricks are completed. In Act 2, you'll need to complete Hometown Breed for her to appear. She does not appear in Act 3. She sells primarily MotA items, which means you also need Mark of the Assassin installed for her to appear. She will also sell the pet wyvern and pet fennec.
Brigitte's Boutique
Brigitte is located in Hightown, next to Jean Luc. She mostly exists to sell items from my apparel mods, as that was a component of the original Lowtown Marketplace mod, and I didn't want to remove that functionality. If you have my apparel mods, you can check in her wares and see if you can buy the outfits instead of using the console to access them. She also sells Noble Clothing Variants, so she's not just sitting there with empty wares if you don't have any of my other mods.
Enchanted Endeavors
Marcia Arthurius is located in the Disused Passage accessed via the Docks - Night map. She was added to go along with the "Missing Ingredients" quest that you can pick up from Mistress Selby in Act 2. She is available in all three Acts, but if/when you complete the "Missing Ingredients" quest, her store will change to receive new items. Her store is mage-oriented, and a couple of the new items will grant you specific mage abilities (meant to be useful in the event you want a specific spell but don't want to spend the points needed for previous required skills).
NOTE ON THE PRICING OF ARMORS AND ACCESSORIES: anything with the "Improves With Level Up" property will scale to your level once you buy it. This means that items in Brigitte's store are likely to downgrade as soon as you purchase them, because I apparently set their original levels very high. On the other hand, most accessories sold by the other merchants will immediately upgrade as soon as you purchase them. This means two things: first, they're more powerful than they appear in the store, at least in later acts. Secondly, you can immediately sell them back for a much higher price than you purchased them for. There's nothing I can do about that. If you want to cheat yourself some money? GO FOR IT. This mod might well make you broke anyway.
Show
There are a number of new merchants added to the game, primarily located in the Lowtown Bazaar. Note that since the layout of Lowtown changes between Acts 1 and 2, some of them move their stalls between acts, but they're all generally in the same area.
Merchants have a chance to refresh some of their wares each time you enter their area, and certain items will become available in their shops as the game progresses, so check back.
Jocelyn's Bits and Baubles
Jocelyn is across from the Accessories and Weapons merchants in the Lowtown Bazaar. She and her shop won't be active until you have visited Gamlen's house at least once. (She's... busy.) Jocelyn sells some foods items, as well as the pet cat. If you have the optional Wigs download, she will also sell the wigs (there are ten of them in total). In Act 2, she sells a couple of house decorations.
Gavin's Mercantile
Gavin is located to the left of the Accessories merchant. He sells some Common Clothes variations, if you happen to want those, as well as various accessories (including Lifeward Amulets) and some food items. In Act 1, he sells the pet Ram. In Act 2, he'll have a house decoration, the house "cleaning" items, and the mercenary contract for Maraas.
Adalind's Essentials
Adalind is located next to Gavin. She sells primarily farm goods sorts of items, including cooking ingredients and food items. In Act 2, she'll sell the Cookpot, if you want to do cooking at home.
Orzammar and More
Rina and her shop are located near the entrance to the market, next to the fishseller. She sells mostly dwarven-themed items, including some armors for Varric (if you're using an equip-your-party sort of mod), the pet nug, the pet spider, and the mercenary contract for Eris.
Fenne's Fantasticals
Fenne's store is available beginning in Act 2, in the location where Vincento's store was in Act 1. She sells mainly accessories, some recipes, and a house decoration.
The Seasoned Scholar
Starting in Act 2, the bookseller will set up shop at the entrance to the bazaar. He sells primarily codex entries, because I thought it would be fun. Most of the codex entries are taken from DAO, but a couple appear to be in DA2 itself and simply not utilized.
Elseworld Wares
Cornelius's shop is located in Lowtown Night, in the location where Vincento and Fenne's stores are during the day. He primarily sells mage-themed items. He has the pet Wolf and pet Dragonling, and all mage mercenary contracts.
Genevier's Orlesian "Imports"
Genevier is located in Lowtown Night, in the place where Anso stands during Bait and Switch. She won't become available in Act 1 until both Bait and Switch and Sharp Little Pinpricks are completed. In Act 2, you'll need to complete Hometown Breed for her to appear. She does not appear in Act 3. She sells primarily MotA items, which means you also need Mark of the Assassin installed for her to appear. She will also sell the pet wyvern and pet fennec.
Brigitte's Boutique
Brigitte is located in Hightown, next to Jean Luc. She mostly exists to sell items from my apparel mods, as that was a component of the original Lowtown Marketplace mod, and I didn't want to remove that functionality. If you have my apparel mods, you can check in her wares and see if you can buy the outfits instead of using the console to access them. She also sells Noble Clothing Variants, so she's not just sitting there with empty wares if you don't have any of my other mods.
Enchanted Endeavors
Marcia Arthurius is located in the Disused Passage accessed via the Docks - Night map. She was added to go along with the "Missing Ingredients" quest that you can pick up from Mistress Selby in Act 2. She is available in all three Acts, but if/when you complete the "Missing Ingredients" quest, her store will change to receive new items. Her store is mage-oriented, and a couple of the new items will grant you specific mage abilities (meant to be useful in the event you want a specific spell but don't want to spend the points needed for previous required skills).
NOTE ON THE PRICING OF ARMORS AND ACCESSORIES: anything with the "Improves With Level Up" property will scale to your level once you buy it. This means that items in Brigitte's store are likely to downgrade as soon as you purchase them, because I apparently set their original levels very high. On the other hand, most accessories sold by the other merchants will immediately upgrade as soon as you purchase them. This means two things: first, they're more powerful than they appear in the store, at least in later acts. Secondly, you can immediately sell them back for a much higher price than you purchased them for. There's nothing I can do about that. If you want to cheat yourself some money? GO FOR IT. This mod might well make you broke anyway.
Pets and Mercenaries
Spoiler:
Pets are... well, pets. You summon or dismiss them by using an item you can place on your quickbar. They're mostly just around to be cute, but they do also have a couple of functions in game. You can have one pet active at a time.
Pets are divided into two categories: combatants and gatherers. (Although only four of them are actually combatants; the rest are gatherers.) Combatants will fight alongside your party, just like your dog. These pets are the Dragonling, Miniature Wyvern, Spider, and Wolf (in Act 2 -- in Act 1 it's still a pup). Gatherers have a chance of bringing you loot -- usually junk, but sometimes potions -- each time you summon them or enter an area.
Upon purchase, you will be prompted to name your pet. Once a pet is purchased, "rename" items will become available at the store you purchased them from, in case you change your mind.
Pets will persist when you travel to new areas, but may become stalled at the entrance or stop following you after a while. As far as I can tell, this is a vanilla issue, as it also happens with your dog. Saving and reloading will get them to follow you again. They can't be summoned while at home (including at Gamlen's) or while in the Fade. Three of the pets will appear lounging at your home if you purchase them -- the cat, fennec, and nug.
Gathering pets are: Cat, Fennec, Ram, Nug, Rat, and [redacted].
If you don't wish your pets to gather or fight, there is a special ring sold by Adalind that will prevent it.
Mercenaries function in a similar manner to pets. Once you purchase their contract, you will be given an item that can be used to summon or dismiss them. Mercenaries will also charge a small fee each time you summon them, but since they persist through areas, it's not going to break your bank. Once summoned, mercenaries will fight alongside your party. You can have one mercenary active at a time. (They can be used along with pets, so you can have one of each.)
Please note that mercenaries tend to be pretty OP. Khaar and I both did all of our testing on Hard, and we never managed to kill them. They might not keep you from dying (although if you have a mage merc... they might) -- but unless you're playing on Nightmare, odds are nothing's going to take them down. Which is sort of a shame, because I implemented "Hazard Pay" for them if they die in your service, and no one is likely to ever see it. You have been warned: if you're super worried about balance, don't use mercenaries.
All mercenaries have five armor/appearance options. These function as consumable items (potions) that will become available for purchase in the shop where you bought their contract. Once you use an appearance option, you'll need to dismiss and re-summon the mercenary for it to take effect (or save and reload).
Mercenaries are:
Eris, dwarf female warrior. Her contract can be purchased at Orzammar and More in all three Acts. She's a "runic knight" -- so if you see her occasionally use something that looks like magic, that's what it is. Because she's a female dwarf, and all DF animations were ported from DAO, her functionality is somewhat limited -- she has her own abilities, but she's not super useful in battle. Mainly she exists in case you want a dwarf lady to run around with you on your adventures.
Cornelius, elf male rogue/mage. That's right, my Lowtown Night merchant moonlights as a mercenary. He's an apostate who uses a bow, because unlike some apostates I could name, he thinks carrying an enormous staff around might just clue the templars in. He sells his own contract in all three Acts. Note, however, if you're going to have Cornelius tag along with you, you can't shop at his store while he's active. You'll need to dismiss him to access it. If you have my Mage Specs mod, Cornelius will have some Fade Weaver abilities and use them in battle.
Levyn, human male mage. Levyn will become available in Act 1 at Cornelius's shop after you meet certain conditions. His availability is dependent upon some of your DAO choices, as well as specific choices you make in Act 1. A new game with KE installed must be used for Levyn's contract to appear. His contract requires DAO plot flags not present in the vanilla world vault.
Athenril, elf female rogue. Athenril will be available in Act 2 if you sided with her in the Prologue, completed her Loose Ends quest in Act 1, and either gave her the goods or lied to her about them. (Essentially: don't piss her off.) Her contract is sold by the Shady Merchant at the Docks.
Maraas, qunari male warrior. Maraas is available at Gavin's shop only in Act 2. This is due to the preferences indicated by his vanilla dialogue. Normally, when you speak with him in Act 3, he tells you he won't work for you because you have a title -- that's why I set him in Act 2, before you become Champion. If you purchase his contract in Act 2, you will still be able to use him in Act 3, and he won't show up in the Hanged Man to tell you why he won't work for you. If you don't purchase his contract, he will be there as normal. Note: much like Isabela, Maraas doesn't want to go near the qunari compound. That means he won't appear in the Docks Act 2 during daylight, and cannot be summoned there. This is intentional.
Sketch, elf male mage. Sketch will be available starting in Act 2 at Cornelius's shop, once you've completed his Sketchy on the Details quest.
Charade, human female rogue. Charade operates differently in that you'll automatically receive her summon item by reading her letter after completing the Gamlen's Greatest Treasure quest in Act 3, and she doesn't charge a fee for summoning her. Her appearance options will be available at Jocelyn's shop after you've received her summoning item.
If a mercenary does happen to die in your service, their "Hazard Pay" will kick in. The next time you summon them, you'll need to pay double the amount of their hire cost. (Two exceptions to this are Maraas, who doesn't have hazard pay, and Charade, who doesn't charge you anyway.) This is only in effect the first time you summon them after dying, and it's not cumulative, so if you do manage to kill them (and kudos to you, if you do), they won't become outrageously expensive or anything.
Mercenaries are also set to level up with you and will gain new abilities as the game progresses. Like pets, Mercenaries may get stuck at the start of a level (or the end of a fight) and stop following you. Again, you'll need to save and reload for them to follow you again.
Show
Pets are... well, pets. You summon or dismiss them by using an item you can place on your quickbar. They're mostly just around to be cute, but they do also have a couple of functions in game. You can have one pet active at a time.
Pets are divided into two categories: combatants and gatherers. (Although only four of them are actually combatants; the rest are gatherers.) Combatants will fight alongside your party, just like your dog. These pets are the Dragonling, Miniature Wyvern, Spider, and Wolf (in Act 2 -- in Act 1 it's still a pup). Gatherers have a chance of bringing you loot -- usually junk, but sometimes potions -- each time you summon them or enter an area.
Upon purchase, you will be prompted to name your pet. Once a pet is purchased, "rename" items will become available at the store you purchased them from, in case you change your mind.
Pets will persist when you travel to new areas, but may become stalled at the entrance or stop following you after a while. As far as I can tell, this is a vanilla issue, as it also happens with your dog. Saving and reloading will get them to follow you again. They can't be summoned while at home (including at Gamlen's) or while in the Fade. Three of the pets will appear lounging at your home if you purchase them -- the cat, fennec, and nug.
Gathering pets are: Cat, Fennec, Ram, Nug, Rat, and [redacted].
If you don't wish your pets to gather or fight, there is a special ring sold by Adalind that will prevent it.
Mercenaries function in a similar manner to pets. Once you purchase their contract, you will be given an item that can be used to summon or dismiss them. Mercenaries will also charge a small fee each time you summon them, but since they persist through areas, it's not going to break your bank. Once summoned, mercenaries will fight alongside your party. You can have one mercenary active at a time. (They can be used along with pets, so you can have one of each.)
Please note that mercenaries tend to be pretty OP. Khaar and I both did all of our testing on Hard, and we never managed to kill them. They might not keep you from dying (although if you have a mage merc... they might) -- but unless you're playing on Nightmare, odds are nothing's going to take them down. Which is sort of a shame, because I implemented "Hazard Pay" for them if they die in your service, and no one is likely to ever see it. You have been warned: if you're super worried about balance, don't use mercenaries.
All mercenaries have five armor/appearance options. These function as consumable items (potions) that will become available for purchase in the shop where you bought their contract. Once you use an appearance option, you'll need to dismiss and re-summon the mercenary for it to take effect (or save and reload).
Mercenaries are:
Eris, dwarf female warrior. Her contract can be purchased at Orzammar and More in all three Acts. She's a "runic knight" -- so if you see her occasionally use something that looks like magic, that's what it is. Because she's a female dwarf, and all DF animations were ported from DAO, her functionality is somewhat limited -- she has her own abilities, but she's not super useful in battle. Mainly she exists in case you want a dwarf lady to run around with you on your adventures.
Cornelius, elf male rogue/mage. That's right, my Lowtown Night merchant moonlights as a mercenary. He's an apostate who uses a bow, because unlike some apostates I could name, he thinks carrying an enormous staff around might just clue the templars in. He sells his own contract in all three Acts. Note, however, if you're going to have Cornelius tag along with you, you can't shop at his store while he's active. You'll need to dismiss him to access it. If you have my Mage Specs mod, Cornelius will have some Fade Weaver abilities and use them in battle.
Levyn, human male mage. Levyn will become available in Act 1 at Cornelius's shop after you meet certain conditions. His availability is dependent upon some of your DAO choices, as well as specific choices you make in Act 1. A new game with KE installed must be used for Levyn's contract to appear. His contract requires DAO plot flags not present in the vanilla world vault.
Athenril, elf female rogue. Athenril will be available in Act 2 if you sided with her in the Prologue, completed her Loose Ends quest in Act 1, and either gave her the goods or lied to her about them. (Essentially: don't piss her off.) Her contract is sold by the Shady Merchant at the Docks.
Maraas, qunari male warrior. Maraas is available at Gavin's shop only in Act 2. This is due to the preferences indicated by his vanilla dialogue. Normally, when you speak with him in Act 3, he tells you he won't work for you because you have a title -- that's why I set him in Act 2, before you become Champion. If you purchase his contract in Act 2, you will still be able to use him in Act 3, and he won't show up in the Hanged Man to tell you why he won't work for you. If you don't purchase his contract, he will be there as normal. Note: much like Isabela, Maraas doesn't want to go near the qunari compound. That means he won't appear in the Docks Act 2 during daylight, and cannot be summoned there. This is intentional.
Sketch, elf male mage. Sketch will be available starting in Act 2 at Cornelius's shop, once you've completed his Sketchy on the Details quest.
Charade, human female rogue. Charade operates differently in that you'll automatically receive her summon item by reading her letter after completing the Gamlen's Greatest Treasure quest in Act 3, and she doesn't charge a fee for summoning her. Her appearance options will be available at Jocelyn's shop after you've received her summoning item.
If a mercenary does happen to die in your service, their "Hazard Pay" will kick in. The next time you summon them, you'll need to pay double the amount of their hire cost. (Two exceptions to this are Maraas, who doesn't have hazard pay, and Charade, who doesn't charge you anyway.) This is only in effect the first time you summon them after dying, and it's not cumulative, so if you do manage to kill them (and kudos to you, if you do), they won't become outrageously expensive or anything.
Mercenaries are also set to level up with you and will gain new abilities as the game progresses. Like pets, Mercenaries may get stuck at the start of a level (or the end of a fight) and stop following you. Again, you'll need to save and reload for them to follow you again.
New Optional Inquisition Mercenaries:
Spoiler:
Thee-Eyes, human male rogue. Yes, the Artificer trainer from DAI (who is a known contact of Varric Tethras!). You can purchase his contract from the Shady Merchant at the Docks in all three Acts. Three-Eyes has a couple of special abilities: first, he'll toss out both elemental mines and bearclaw traps on occasion, so if you see those scattered on the battlefield, he's the reason. Second, he will (optionally) disarm traps and pick locks for you. The first time you summon him, the "Command Rogue" ability will be added to Hawke. Place it on your quickbar, and whenever Three-Eyes is active, you will be able to use the ability to command him to either disarm a trap or pick a lock for you. (You need to be within a decent distance of the trap or chest/door for him to unlock it.) Three-Eyes himself is optional and can be removed from the "Inquisition Elements" folder. Additionally, if you want Three-Eyes but don't want the lockpicking ability, that is in a separate erf "Pets and Mercs - Lockpick Ability" and can be removed at any time.
Thomas, human male warrior. Yes, this is Thom Rainier, who is a Marcher by birth and is known to have worked as a mercenary before assuming his secret identity. We wanted to keep this lore-friendly, and believe the timing mostly works (since there are inconsistencies in the lore/codex entires of some dates in his timeline) -- and if not, well, Varric is telling the story anyway; he can fudge some dates! But in keeping with that, Thom is not available for Legacy, Mark of the Assassin, or the final events of Act 3. And if you're thinking, "Wouldn't they recognize him??" Well, this Thom Rainier has no beard. ;) However, since I understand this may not line up with everyone's ideas of lore-friendly, Thomas is optional, and his file can be removed at any time.
His contract is available from the Shady Merchant at the Docks, starting in Act 2.
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Thee-Eyes, human male rogue. Yes, the Artificer trainer from DAI (who is a known contact of Varric Tethras!). You can purchase his contract from the Shady Merchant at the Docks in all three Acts. Three-Eyes has a couple of special abilities: first, he'll toss out both elemental mines and bearclaw traps on occasion, so if you see those scattered on the battlefield, he's the reason. Second, he will (optionally) disarm traps and pick locks for you. The first time you summon him, the "Command Rogue" ability will be added to Hawke. Place it on your quickbar, and whenever Three-Eyes is active, you will be able to use the ability to command him to either disarm a trap or pick a lock for you. (You need to be within a decent distance of the trap or chest/door for him to unlock it.) Three-Eyes himself is optional and can be removed from the "Inquisition Elements" folder. Additionally, if you want Three-Eyes but don't want the lockpicking ability, that is in a separate erf "Pets and Mercs - Lockpick Ability" and can be removed at any time.
Thomas, human male warrior. Yes, this is Thom Rainier, who is a Marcher by birth and is known to have worked as a mercenary before assuming his secret identity. We wanted to keep this lore-friendly, and believe the timing mostly works (since there are inconsistencies in the lore/codex entires of some dates in his timeline) -- and if not, well, Varric is telling the story anyway; he can fudge some dates! But in keeping with that, Thom is not available for Legacy, Mark of the Assassin, or the final events of Act 3. And if you're thinking, "Wouldn't they recognize him??" Well, this Thom Rainier has no beard. ;) However, since I understand this may not line up with everyone's ideas of lore-friendly, Thomas is optional, and his file can be removed at any time.
His contract is available from the Shady Merchant at the Docks, starting in Act 2.
Because pets and mercenaries use a script that needs to be fired on every level load, they are considered optional. If you don't want Pets and Mercs in your game, remove the "Pets and Mercenaries" erf from the "Kirkwall Expanded - Override" folder.
Note on Char_Stage: Because of the method I used to allow you to name your pets (basically, I added them as invisible followers), I had to edit the char_stage.are file, otherwise the vanilla one expanded to try to accommodate all the invisible pets. This is in a separate erf from the Pets and Mercs file and can be removed without issue. I do, however, recommend using it if you have no other mods that conflict.
Cooking
Spoiler:
Cooking is just a new little crafting option that I made to craft all of the foods I added to the game. To access cooking, you'll need to either use the Cookpot in Lowtown (located next to Adalind's shop in Acts 2 and 3) or purchase the Cookpot and use it at home. (It will be located next to the fireplace, near the other crafting stations.) Cooking itself isn't implemented until Act 2 and none of the recipes will be available until then, but you can start gathering ingredients in Act 1. For the most part, there are more ingredients than you'll actually need -- they don't require many of them. I added more into the game than are necessary, in case people miss them.
Because I can't edit the GUI files, you'll note the Cooking GUI is a clone of the Rune GUI rather than Potions, that it doesn't display the name "Cooking," and that it won't list the number of your ingredients. Unfortunately, unless/until I learn to edit those files, my makeshift Rune Cooking will have to do.
Not every food item has a recipe. Bronto Bone Soup (sold by Rina at Orzammar and More) doesn't have one, since none of my ingredients made sense for it, and Lowtown Chowder, which can be purchased at a cookpot near the entrance to the bazaar, is meant to be a "mystery" stew, so it doesn't have a fixed recipe, either.
Cooking is optional, and its files are separated into their own erf in the "Kirkwall Expanded - Override" folder for easy removal.
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Cooking is just a new little crafting option that I made to craft all of the foods I added to the game. To access cooking, you'll need to either use the Cookpot in Lowtown (located next to Adalind's shop in Acts 2 and 3) or purchase the Cookpot and use it at home. (It will be located next to the fireplace, near the other crafting stations.) Cooking itself isn't implemented until Act 2 and none of the recipes will be available until then, but you can start gathering ingredients in Act 1. For the most part, there are more ingredients than you'll actually need -- they don't require many of them. I added more into the game than are necessary, in case people miss them.
Because I can't edit the GUI files, you'll note the Cooking GUI is a clone of the Rune GUI rather than Potions, that it doesn't display the name "Cooking," and that it won't list the number of your ingredients. Unfortunately, unless/until I learn to edit those files, my makeshift Rune Cooking will have to do.
Not every food item has a recipe. Bronto Bone Soup (sold by Rina at Orzammar and More) doesn't have one, since none of my ingredients made sense for it, and Lowtown Chowder, which can be purchased at a cookpot near the entrance to the bazaar, is meant to be a "mystery" stew, so it doesn't have a fixed recipe, either.
Cooking is optional, and its files are separated into their own erf in the "Kirkwall Expanded - Override" folder for easy removal.
New Items and Consumables
Spoiler:
I added a large number of new consumables, mostly "food" items that act as potions, as well as new elemental bombs/grenades. All of the new food items share a cooldown with each other rather than with normal health potions, so they provide an extra bit of healing, if you need it. Most of the foods will restore an amount of health and add an additional, temporary boost to the user. I also added a modified version of the cut potion "Spindleweed Brew," which will increase your movement speed for a time.
New grenades do share a cooldown with normal grenades. Their damage is a bit less than that of Fell Grenades -- dependent upon the enemy. Since enemies have different weakeness, some grenades will end up doing a significant amount of damage to them. Which means they may, again, be a little OP, since their price is also much less than Fell Grenades. That said, the price adds up fast, and when testing I was perpetually broke because of it. Recipes for new grenades become available starting in Act 2. Note that some of the ingredients they require come either from Potions or Runes, because those ingredients made more sense for them, but none of them are as difficult to obtain as Fell Grenades.
New in 1.6: "Trap" items that can be laid on the battlefield are now available for purchase from Adalind and Cornelius. Adalind sells Bearclaw Traps (leghold, essentially) and Cornelius sells Elemental Mines that exploded on contact. (Mines can also be dropped pretty much directly on an enemy and explode immediately.) Note that they're extremely cheap and there are an infinite number of them, because their utility in battle is somewhat limited. I was making them anyway as an ability for Three-Eyes, so I decided to add them for player use also.
There are also items that serve other functions: there are rename potions for both Hawke and Dog, and food items that will add points to Hawke's personality types, in case you want to, say, be mean to people in select circumstances, but not by default.
Lifeward Amulets: These aren't really consumables, as they're accessories, but they need a special note here. There are two types of Lifeward amulets -- the first functions similarly to that in DAI, in that after they kick in, they'll be destroyed. (You'll need to look at them in the inventory screen for them to vanish, but the effect will only trigger once.) The second is a property that will trigger once before disappearing. Note that if you're taking a large amount of damage at once, you may die too quickly for the Lifeward effect to trigger. Lifeward effects do not stack, so do not use Lifeward Amulets along with Lifeward Potions.
Companion Upgrades: New upgrades for companions can be purchased at various stores. These will become available after a companion has been recruited. Except for Sebastian's, they're all in Act 1 only.
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I added a large number of new consumables, mostly "food" items that act as potions, as well as new elemental bombs/grenades. All of the new food items share a cooldown with each other rather than with normal health potions, so they provide an extra bit of healing, if you need it. Most of the foods will restore an amount of health and add an additional, temporary boost to the user. I also added a modified version of the cut potion "Spindleweed Brew," which will increase your movement speed for a time.
New grenades do share a cooldown with normal grenades. Their damage is a bit less than that of Fell Grenades -- dependent upon the enemy. Since enemies have different weakeness, some grenades will end up doing a significant amount of damage to them. Which means they may, again, be a little OP, since their price is also much less than Fell Grenades. That said, the price adds up fast, and when testing I was perpetually broke because of it. Recipes for new grenades become available starting in Act 2. Note that some of the ingredients they require come either from Potions or Runes, because those ingredients made more sense for them, but none of them are as difficult to obtain as Fell Grenades.
New in 1.6: "Trap" items that can be laid on the battlefield are now available for purchase from Adalind and Cornelius. Adalind sells Bearclaw Traps (leghold, essentially) and Cornelius sells Elemental Mines that exploded on contact. (Mines can also be dropped pretty much directly on an enemy and explode immediately.) Note that they're extremely cheap and there are an infinite number of them, because their utility in battle is somewhat limited. I was making them anyway as an ability for Three-Eyes, so I decided to add them for player use also.
There are also items that serve other functions: there are rename potions for both Hawke and Dog, and food items that will add points to Hawke's personality types, in case you want to, say, be mean to people in select circumstances, but not by default.
Lifeward Amulets: These aren't really consumables, as they're accessories, but they need a special note here. There are two types of Lifeward amulets -- the first functions similarly to that in DAI, in that after they kick in, they'll be destroyed. (You'll need to look at them in the inventory screen for them to vanish, but the effect will only trigger once.) The second is a property that will trigger once before disappearing. Note that if you're taking a large amount of damage at once, you may die too quickly for the Lifeward effect to trigger. Lifeward effects do not stack, so do not use Lifeward Amulets along with Lifeward Potions.
Companion Upgrades: New upgrades for companions can be purchased at various stores. These will become available after a companion has been recruited. Except for Sebastian's, they're all in Act 1 only.
Upgrades Shop
Spoiler:
Starting in Act 2, a new blacksmith shop -- "Eilspeth's Anvil" -- will be located in the Merchants Guild in Hightown. This shop can be used to alter your equipment in a number of ways. The first, easiest way, is that you can purchase a number of items that act as consumables to add new properties to your equipment. These are:
-- "Evolving" -- adds the "Improves with level up" property to the item currently equipped in the specified slot.
-- "Rune Slot" -- adds an additional rune slot (up to three) to the item currently equipped in the specified slot.
-- "Customize" -- changes some of the properties of a specific item to better match the class of the character it's currently equipped on. (For instance, it will change the stats on a pair of boots from Rogue stats to Mage stats if you use the item while it's equipped on a mage.) This is potentially a bit OP, but it also costs a not insignificant amount of money, so have fun.
The second aspect is that it will remove restrictions from an item. Because you're most likely wanting to remove restrictions on an item you cannot currently equip, this is handled in a different manner. At the back of the shop, there are three anvils -- "Armor Alterations," "Accessory Alterations," and "Weapon Alterations." Clicking on these anvils will bring up a pop-up field for you to type in the name -- the EXACT name -- of the item you wish to alter. (In order to do this, I edited the "popuplayer.gfx" file -- this is also altered by WADDI - Expandable add item script with input window, so if you're using that mod, it's possible its edits will override mine, depending on where you locate the mods. This won't be a huge problem, except that you might not be able to alter some specific items. If you don't want to use my populayer.gfx, I placed it in its own erf, so it can be removed from the Override at any time, but please note that doing so will make it more difficult to alter your items.)
All alterations cost 1 gold/sovereign, and if you can't afford it, the alteration won't take place.
The item "Aurvar's Prize" for some reason uses a curly apostrophe instead of a straight one, and can't be altered because of this, but so far that's the only item I've come across that doesn't work.
Note: I'm honestly unsure how the alterations will work in non-English versions of the game.
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Starting in Act 2, a new blacksmith shop -- "Eilspeth's Anvil" -- will be located in the Merchants Guild in Hightown. This shop can be used to alter your equipment in a number of ways. The first, easiest way, is that you can purchase a number of items that act as consumables to add new properties to your equipment. These are:
-- "Evolving" -- adds the "Improves with level up" property to the item currently equipped in the specified slot.
-- "Rune Slot" -- adds an additional rune slot (up to three) to the item currently equipped in the specified slot.
-- "Customize" -- changes some of the properties of a specific item to better match the class of the character it's currently equipped on. (For instance, it will change the stats on a pair of boots from Rogue stats to Mage stats if you use the item while it's equipped on a mage.) This is potentially a bit OP, but it also costs a not insignificant amount of money, so have fun.
The second aspect is that it will remove restrictions from an item. Because you're most likely wanting to remove restrictions on an item you cannot currently equip, this is handled in a different manner. At the back of the shop, there are three anvils -- "Armor Alterations," "Accessory Alterations," and "Weapon Alterations." Clicking on these anvils will bring up a pop-up field for you to type in the name -- the EXACT name -- of the item you wish to alter. (In order to do this, I edited the "popuplayer.gfx" file -- this is also altered by WADDI - Expandable add item script with input window, so if you're using that mod, it's possible its edits will override mine, depending on where you locate the mods. This won't be a huge problem, except that you might not be able to alter some specific items. If you don't want to use my populayer.gfx, I placed it in its own erf, so it can be removed from the Override at any time, but please note that doing so will make it more difficult to alter your items.)
All alterations cost 1 gold/sovereign, and if you can't afford it, the alteration won't take place.
The item "Aurvar's Prize" for some reason uses a curly apostrophe instead of a straight one, and can't be altered because of this, but so far that's the only item I've come across that doesn't work.
Note: I'm honestly unsure how the alterations will work in non-English versions of the game.
Kaddis and Coat Colors for Dog
Spoiler:
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Optional coat color changes for your mabari, along with a variety of kaddis/warpaint options, all created by the awesome ThaliaGraces! Kaddis must be "initialized" by first reading the codex entry located in Lirene's shop. Once it is initialized, it will create an auto-save; either reload this auto-save, or save and reload yourself in order for the initialization to complete. Afterward, you will be able to buy different coat color options (available from Marcia Arthurius in the Disused Passage) and different warpaint options (available from Jocelyn in Lowtown).
Coat color changes are purely cosmetic, but each kaddis has a different effect, such as buffing the party, periodically healing the party, lowering cooldowns, or allowing a non-rogue Hawke to detect and disarm traps. Most of the time, cosmetic changes should apply immediately upon use of the kaddis or coat color item, but you may need to dismiss and re-summon Dog for the correct kaddis effect to kick in.
There are also removal items if you want to revert to your old dog or remove kaddis altogether.
Kaddis is optional and can be removed at any time. Note that Kaddis will be incompatible with any other Dog mods, including cosmetic changes. There is an optional compatibility patch for magpiedragon's Improved Mabari Model.
Coat color changes are purely cosmetic, but each kaddis has a different effect, such as buffing the party, periodically healing the party, lowering cooldowns, or allowing a non-rogue Hawke to detect and disarm traps. Most of the time, cosmetic changes should apply immediately upon use of the kaddis or coat color item, but you may need to dismiss and re-summon Dog for the correct kaddis effect to kick in.
There are also removal items if you want to revert to your old dog or remove kaddis altogether.
Kaddis is optional and can be removed at any time. Note that Kaddis will be incompatible with any other Dog mods, including cosmetic changes. There is an optional compatibility patch for magpiedragon's Improved Mabari Model.
House Decorations
Spoiler:
Starting in Act 2, there are a number of small house decorations you can buy to add to the Hawke Estate. Once purchased from merchants, these items will appear in your home and remain there. If you change your mind and would like to remove a decoration after you've purchased it, you can buy a "House Cleaning" item from Gavin's Mercantile. Entering the Hawke Estate with this item in your inventory will remove all decorations permanently. (If you remove them in Act 2, you will be able to re-purchase them in Act 3.)
The two Paintings options will spawn a "Change Painting" trigger near (but not directly on) the paintings in your bedroom and by Sandal's enchantment table. Clicking this trigger will cycle through the different paintings options. By default, the painting trigger is turned to "off" -- so once you purchase your paintings, you'll need to click the "Change Painting" button for the first painting to appear. You'll also need to turn the paintings back on in Act 3; you don't need to re-purchase it, just re-select your chosen painting.
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Starting in Act 2, there are a number of small house decorations you can buy to add to the Hawke Estate. Once purchased from merchants, these items will appear in your home and remain there. If you change your mind and would like to remove a decoration after you've purchased it, you can buy a "House Cleaning" item from Gavin's Mercantile. Entering the Hawke Estate with this item in your inventory will remove all decorations permanently. (If you remove them in Act 2, you will be able to re-purchase them in Act 3.)
The two Paintings options will spawn a "Change Painting" trigger near (but not directly on) the paintings in your bedroom and by Sandal's enchantment table. Clicking this trigger will cycle through the different paintings options. By default, the painting trigger is turned to "off" -- so once you purchase your paintings, you'll need to click the "Change Painting" button for the first painting to appear. You'll also need to turn the paintings back on in Act 3; you don't need to re-purchase it, just re-select your chosen painting.
Quests - Mine
Because I added a huge amount of items for purchase in the game, to help offset the amount of money you can spend, I also added a few new quests. They're mostly fetch quests, but there are a couple that are a bit more involved. Note: in Act 2, one quest is only available if you have Legacy installed. It will show up on the Chanter's Board at the start of the Act. If you accept Sketchy on the Details (or another Chanter's Board quest) and leave the board without accepting the new quest, the board may deactivate. You'll need to reload or re-enter the area for it to become active again.
There is one quest you might access in Act 3 that uses an item that requires a blood mage; if you're not one yourself, Merrill will work just fine.
If you installed Kirkwall Expanded after you had already begun Act 1, you may end up with fetch quests you cannot complete, as their recipients won't appear in areas that were loaded before KE was installed.
(Also, the quests help with the money issue, but not totally. I am aware this entire mod is one giant money sink.) If you're looking for a guide for the quests I added, you can check out the article I added here.
Quests - "Restored"
In Version 1.5 of the mod, I added in several quests that were already partially completed in the game. These quests are:
-- "Missing Ingredients" - Act 2, picked up at Mistress Selby's Board in the Docks.
-- "Baubel's Broken Shield" - fetch quest
-- "Ancient Elven Laces" - fetch quest
-- "Rusted Symbol of Andraste" - fetch quest
-- "Heron's Scale" - fetch quest
-- "Seal of the All-Father" - fetch quest
-- "The Route of Dervin de Bois" - fetch quest
-- "The Splintered Order of the Vials" -- Black Vials quest for DA2.
Note on the Black Vials quest: in order to keep the quest from auto-completing after finishing Act 1, I gave it its own category in your quest list. I tried to follow DAO's method for these quests as closely as possible, but it's not a perfect match. There are two Black Vials to be found in each act, and if you miss one of them, the quest will complete and be removed from your log upon beginning the next act. The Black Vials quest is separate/optional and its erf can be removed from your Override without issue.
Spoiler sheet for vial locations:
Spoiler:
-- Act 1, Wayward Son, "Splintered Barrel" in the little cave with glowing lichen
-- Act 1, Act of Mercy, "Twisted Roots." (This one can be hard to locate, but I provided a picture of it in the images.)
-- Act 2, Dissent, "Broken Chair" in one of the little open areas with loot
-- Act 2, A Bitter Pill, "Pillar of Skulls" in the area where you find Orana
-- Act 3, The Bone Pit, "Smoldering Logs" (in the main area, should be easy to find)
-- Act 3, A New Path, "Debris Pile" in the cave where you fight the demon
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-- Act 1, Wayward Son, "Splintered Barrel" in the little cave with glowing lichen
-- Act 1, Act of Mercy, "Twisted Roots." (This one can be hard to locate, but I provided a picture of it in the images.)
-- Act 2, Dissent, "Broken Chair" in one of the little open areas with loot
-- Act 2, A Bitter Pill, "Pillar of Skulls" in the area where you find Orana
-- Act 3, The Bone Pit, "Smoldering Logs" (in the main area, should be easy to find)
-- Act 3, A New Path, "Debris Pile" in the cave where you fight the demon
The Bounty Board
Spoiler:
Just a fun little extra thing with "bounty" quests that you can pick up. The Bounty Board is located in the Lowtown Bazaar, next to Gavin, and once activated will begin to add quests for you to pick up and complete. The bounty quests are all essentially to find and kill a specific target located somewhere in Kirkwall. (The details will be provided, so you don't need to go searching randomly, don't worry.) Once you have taken down a target, return home and check your mail to receive a reward.
To activate the board in Act 1, read the letter "An Opportunity" at your writing desk in Gamlen's house. The board should automatically be active in Acts 2 and 3, provided the mod was installed prior to the beginning of the Act.
You can obtain a total of five bounties each Act, from a list of seven possibilities; this means that each time you play, you may receive different bounties from your previous playthrough, and very likely they will come in a different order. Bounties are added at random as you progress through areas, and the closer you are to the end of an Act, the higher the probability that they will be added. You'll want to check back at the Bounty Board occasionally to see if new ones have been added. There is also a quest - "Cleaning Up Kirkwall" - that is added to your log as long as the potential for bounties is available. Once you complete the last available bounty for the act, this quest will be removed, to help you keep track of whether or not you should be checking the Bounty Board.
Most of the Bounties are pretty straightforward. Admittedly, some of them got a little weird. They vary in difficulty (though only a couple will pose much of a challenge) and in general, the reward is based upon difficulty. Note: most bounties will not attack you until you approach and speak to them. There are two where this isn't the case, but they aren't difficult. This means you can clear out the areas before fighting them, which you'll likely want to do. The plot marker for the bounties might not appear on the map the first time you enter an area -- if the plot marker doesn't appear, just exit and re-enter the area (or reload) and it should pop up.
Additional bounties in Act 1 are not added to the board until you complete the very first bounty, so you'll want to do that early on. Progressing through the game naturally, you're very likely to receive all five bounties well before the end of the Act, but if you're still waiting on one and you're finished with an Act otherwise, I recommend leaving and entering Lowtown a few times; that will eventually trigger it.
Note on Act 2: one of the potential bounties is only available if you imported a game from DA:O that met specific qualifications. This is because this bounty is a character from DA:O that can possibly be dead. If this bounty pops up for you and you're *sure* the character was killed in your DA:O save, let me know and I'll look into it.
And a note on the boots you get from completing the first bounty: These have a special property on them that isn't totally visible. The first part of it is increased movement speed -- it gives you a slight boost to walk speed; however, this effect is removed whenever you enter combat or a cutscene, something I have been unable to avoid. To get it to kick back in, you need to open your inventory screen and hover your mouse over the boots. Annoying? Yes. But to give it a bit of fun, I added something additional to it: it has a random effect that is applied each time you do this. Generally it boosts some property -- one of your attributes, attack speed, resistances, etc. You might not be able to see what this effect is, but it's there! And it will change each time you re-apply the speed boost.
There's apparently an unfinished Lowtown Bazaar board with quests that you can pick up that are partially finished. However, I didn't restore that (yet). I made this instead. Oops.
The Bounty Board is optional and can be removed from your Override without issue.
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Just a fun little extra thing with "bounty" quests that you can pick up. The Bounty Board is located in the Lowtown Bazaar, next to Gavin, and once activated will begin to add quests for you to pick up and complete. The bounty quests are all essentially to find and kill a specific target located somewhere in Kirkwall. (The details will be provided, so you don't need to go searching randomly, don't worry.) Once you have taken down a target, return home and check your mail to receive a reward.
To activate the board in Act 1, read the letter "An Opportunity" at your writing desk in Gamlen's house. The board should automatically be active in Acts 2 and 3, provided the mod was installed prior to the beginning of the Act.
You can obtain a total of five bounties each Act, from a list of seven possibilities; this means that each time you play, you may receive different bounties from your previous playthrough, and very likely they will come in a different order. Bounties are added at random as you progress through areas, and the closer you are to the end of an Act, the higher the probability that they will be added. You'll want to check back at the Bounty Board occasionally to see if new ones have been added. There is also a quest - "Cleaning Up Kirkwall" - that is added to your log as long as the potential for bounties is available. Once you complete the last available bounty for the act, this quest will be removed, to help you keep track of whether or not you should be checking the Bounty Board.
Most of the Bounties are pretty straightforward. Admittedly, some of them got a little weird. They vary in difficulty (though only a couple will pose much of a challenge) and in general, the reward is based upon difficulty. Note: most bounties will not attack you until you approach and speak to them. There are two where this isn't the case, but they aren't difficult. This means you can clear out the areas before fighting them, which you'll likely want to do. The plot marker for the bounties might not appear on the map the first time you enter an area -- if the plot marker doesn't appear, just exit and re-enter the area (or reload) and it should pop up.
Additional bounties in Act 1 are not added to the board until you complete the very first bounty, so you'll want to do that early on. Progressing through the game naturally, you're very likely to receive all five bounties well before the end of the Act, but if you're still waiting on one and you're finished with an Act otherwise, I recommend leaving and entering Lowtown a few times; that will eventually trigger it.
Note on Act 2: one of the potential bounties is only available if you imported a game from DA:O that met specific qualifications. This is because this bounty is a character from DA:O that can possibly be dead. If this bounty pops up for you and you're *sure* the character was killed in your DA:O save, let me know and I'll look into it.
And a note on the boots you get from completing the first bounty: These have a special property on them that isn't totally visible. The first part of it is increased movement speed -- it gives you a slight boost to walk speed; however, this effect is removed whenever you enter combat or a cutscene, something I have been unable to avoid. To get it to kick back in, you need to open your inventory screen and hover your mouse over the boots. Annoying? Yes. But to give it a bit of fun, I added something additional to it: it has a random effect that is applied each time you do this. Generally it boosts some property -- one of your attributes, attack speed, resistances, etc. You might not be able to see what this effect is, but it's there! And it will change each time you re-apply the speed boost.
There's apparently an unfinished Lowtown Bazaar board with quests that you can pick up that are partially finished. However, I didn't restore that (yet). I made this instead. Oops.
The Bounty Board is optional and can be removed from your Override without issue.
New Creatures and NPCs
Since I was editing several areas anyway, I went ahead and removed all low-res/low-poly NPCs manually from those areas, and added in new NPCs -- including female dwarves ported in from DAO. No longer is Kirkwall strangely empty of dwarf women. And now Varric can have a Cute Dwarven Serving Girl in the Hanged Man, as requested. Additionally, A Farewell to Clones is part of Kirkwall Expanded, so all of the clone removal present in that mod is also here.
I also brought in some creatures from DAO to add to the game's atmosphere, including ravens, rats, dogs, cats (well, these are from Witcher 3), various livestock, and squirrels.
Note that the DAO aesthetic doesn't entirely match DA2. ...But it's still better than the low-res NPCs hanging around everywhere.
New in 1.6: Updated dwarf female NPCs from the DAO models to DAI models. This was done for a couple of reasons, such as to more closely match the DA2 aesthetic, and to allow dwarf female NPCs to use the DA2 animations. This also allowed me to add some dwarf female enemy characters. (Note that the optional Sigrun cameo is still her DAO model, since the entire point of her cameo was to bring her on over from Awakening.) However, since I figure some people may prefer the original DAO versions, the Inquisition Dwarf Ladies version is optional. I set it up so that you *should* be able to swap between them without issue (after you've updated -- do not update to Inquisition Dwarf Ladies from 1.5 mid-playthrough) -- but there may be a few hiccups if you do, so best practice would be to wait until you've completed an act if you want to swap.
Crowd Control
Along with the areas I manually edited, I created a script to automatically replace all remaining low-res/low-poly NPCs in areas of the game I didn't touch. (Editing them all manually would have been a nightmare, plus would make compatibility even worse.) This is an optional file and can be removed from the "Kirkwall Expanded - Override" folder without issue, as I'm worried adding that many NPCs may affect performance on some PCs. Please note, also, that because the replacements are done randomly, you may still run into duplicated morphs. Because they're set to change outfits, however, the odds of you running into the exact same morph in the exact same outfit are somewhat lowered.
Because of the way the script is set up, I couldn't replace the servants in the Blooming Rose with servants. So you'll have some fancy-dressed people in the kitchen and pantry of the Blooming Rose. But they're just chilling, it's okay.
In addition to the Crowd Control erf, there's also an "NPC Cycler" erf that will dynamically change the NPCs created by Crowd Control each time you enter an area. NPC Cycler is an additional option and can be removed without issue, but requires the Crowd Control erf to work in the first place.
Wolves on the Wounded Coast
An optional file to change the Mabari on the Wounded Coast in Act 2 to wolves. This is Act 2 only, as the Mabari in Act 1 are actually grouped with human fighters, so it makes sense to have them together. At the moment, they still have Mabari sounds.
Sigrun Cameo - Beta
This file will add Sigrun to the Deep Roads along with Nathaniel in the "Finding Nathaniel" quest. She will be with him when you enter the area, and fight alongside you as you look for survivors. Originally, I was going to set it up that she'd only appear if you have her recruited and alive in Awakening, but since part of that is currently bugged in Awakening itself, for the time being she will always show up. If you don't want her to appear, remove the erf from the "Kirkwall Expanded - Override" file.
For now, she's only in one of the actual cutscenes, because they were a huge pain to edit, and I can't get her headtracking to work properly. So I'm considering this particular component of the mod to be in beta.
Miscellaneous Fixes
I did a little bit of bugfixing of things I came across in the making of the mod. These include:
-- If you lie to the Raiders in "Finders Keepers," they should no longer get stuck on the Docks for the rest of the Act.
-- Leonato in the Blooming Rose has dialogue indicating he's meant to be an elf, not a human, so I made him one.
-- Vanilla merchants in Hightown and Lowtown had no facefx; they should now.
-- Olaf's Armory has an actual crate now in Act 3.
Extras
A number of extra options can be downloaded from the "Extras" file. These are:
Spoiler:
-- "Wigs" -- equippable hairs as helmets that will be sold by Jocelyn. Helmets will not appear in cutscenes. These are using KS Hairs meshes/textures and require the KS Hairs file to work, so this is in a separate download. There are ten wig options in total.
-- optional Char Stage variation moves Carver and Bethany so that they don't overlap, in case you're playing with both siblings alive.
-- The "Child Lia" erf will change the character Lia in the quest Magistrate's Orders from an adult to a child (since she is referred to multiple times as being a child). She will still appear as an adult in Act 3.
-- The "Fool's Gold Every Time" erf will trigger the Act 2 quest "Fool's Gold" even if you have an import where Nathaniel is alive. (It's normally mutually exclusive with the Act 3 quest "Finding Nathaniel" -- this will activate it in addition to Finding Nathaniel, making it so you can do both quests. Probably don't use this unless you know you have a save where "Finding Nathaniel" will be active.) If you do "Fool's Gold" and Merin survives, he will show up along with Temmerin in "Finding Nathaniel" and have a bit of dialogue.
-- The "Swap - Pet Ram to Mabari" erf is a request to change the Pet Ram you can by from Gavin in Act 1 to a second Mabari. This Mabari is a gathering pet only; it will not participate in battles at all. Sounds on it aren't perfect -- sometimes it barks when summoned, sometimes it doesn't.
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-- "Wigs" -- equippable hairs as helmets that will be sold by Jocelyn. Helmets will not appear in cutscenes. These are using KS Hairs meshes/textures and require the KS Hairs file to work, so this is in a separate download. There are ten wig options in total.
-- optional Char Stage variation moves Carver and Bethany so that they don't overlap, in case you're playing with both siblings alive.
-- The "Child Lia" erf will change the character Lia in the quest Magistrate's Orders from an adult to a child (since she is referred to multiple times as being a child). She will still appear as an adult in Act 3.
-- The "Fool's Gold Every Time" erf will trigger the Act 2 quest "Fool's Gold" even if you have an import where Nathaniel is alive. (It's normally mutually exclusive with the Act 3 quest "Finding Nathaniel" -- this will activate it in addition to Finding Nathaniel, making it so you can do both quests. Probably don't use this unless you know you have a save where "Finding Nathaniel" will be active.) If you do "Fool's Gold" and Merin survives, he will show up along with Temmerin in "Finding Nathaniel" and have a bit of dialogue.
-- The "Swap - Pet Ram to Mabari" erf is a request to change the Pet Ram you can by from Gavin in Act 1 to a second Mabari. This Mabari is a gathering pet only; it will not participate in battles at all. Sounds on it aren't perfect -- sometimes it barks when summoned, sometimes it doesn't.
Arishok Duel Bugfix
This is just an optional file for a bug that occasionally occurs while fighting the Arishok. When fighting him at higher levels, there's sometimes a bug that prevents you from progressing -- you level up, and the cutscene doesn't trigger; instead, the Arishok just keeps trying to smack you, even though he is very dead. This bug occurred in ONE of my KE test playthroughs, but it's not consistent -- regardless, I thought I'd provide a fix in case anyone else encounters it. What this does is moves the exp you receive from killing the Arishok to come after you start Act 3. Same amount of exp, different location, no leveling up to stop the cutscene from triggering. There are two versions included -- one compatible with DLC Timings and one for vanilla. (Technically the DLC Timings one can be used regardless, it's just the vanilla fix is much, much simpler. DLC Timings version will grant you your Arishok exp as soon as you begin the DLC rather than at the start of Act 3.) This makes some tweaks to three lines of the "rewards.gda" file, so if you're using something that includes the ENTIRE rewards.gda, you'll have a potential incompatibility.
Compatibility
I did my best to keep KE as compatible with other mods as possible, but because of needing to edit area files, there will be some conflicts. Anything that edits the same area file I did will be incompatible. And I edited a ton of them. At the moment, however, the only one I know of (aside from my own mods which were rolled into this one) is NPC Gear Immersion Tweaks. The files for Grace and Samson will conflict with Kirkwall Expanded. (The Gallows Act 2 and Lowtown Night Act 3, specifically.) I did create an optional file to change Grace's Act 2 outfit in a different manner, and have included that as an extra file.
The other potential conflict is any file that alters the char_stage. However, KE's char_stage file is optional and can be removed without much issue.
Again, A Farewell to Clones is incompatible and MUST be removed. All of its changes are a part of Kirkwall Expanded. I'm leaving it up as a separate file for anyone who doesn't want to use KE.
My original version of this mod, The Lowtown Marketplace Revival is also incompatible and must be removed.
Note that screenshots from both Khaar and me have some other mods (particularly some high-res retextures) shown in them. KE itself does not mod these textures.
NPCs change clothes between acts also has some incompatibility, as that mod alters the vanilla GDA lines for clothing items, which some of my dwarf clothing items rely on. I'll work on uploading a compatibility patch at a later date. Thanks ladyluck278 for identifying this conflict for me! Update: there is a compatibility patch available for this for version prior to 1.5. Versions 1.5 and above do not need it, as compatibility is included.
List of Vanilla Files Altered:
Spoiler:
and111ar_andersshop.are
and211ar_andersshop.are
and311ar_andersshop.are
dae110ar_lowtown.are
dae110ar_lowtown_nt.are
dae120ar_hightown.are
dae121ar_keep.are
dae130ar_undercity_darktown.are
dae170ar_gallows.are
dae210ar_lowtown.are
dae210ar_lowtown_nt.are
dae220ar_hightown.are
dae221ar_keep.are
dae230ar_undercity_darktown.are
dae270ar_gallows.are
dae310ar_lowtown.are
dae310ar_lowtown_nt.are
dae320ar_hightown.are
dae321ar_keep.are
dae330ar_undercity_darktown.are
dae370ar_gallows.are
mcr370ar_gallows_nt.are
mcr371ar_gallows_prison_nt.are
qcr220ar_hightown_nt.are
qcr221ar_keep.are
lgt111ar_rand_sewer_1_nt.are
lgt211ar_rand_sewer_1_nt.are
lgt311ar_rand_sewer_1_nt.are
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_1_05.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_3_04.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_3_05.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_5_01.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_5_02.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_5_03.plo
plt_lgt210pt_ingredients.plo
plt_lgt000pt_lite_vials.plo
popuplayer.gfx
dae020cr_merch_armor.utc
lgt210_magu_selby.cnv
pro000cr_soldier1.utc
lgt000_chanter.cnv
plt_cod_ltr_gamlen_charade.plo
rdr111ip_at_warehouse.utp
lt_0_lowtown_a2_33_0.rml (minor tweak; some books were clipping and flickering, so I adjusted them)
gen00fl_dog.utc (Kaddis only)
The "Child Lia" erf alters her Act 1 UTC -- "one101cr_lia.utc" and several of her CL files to adjust camera placement.
The "Fool's Gold Every Time" erf alters Temmerin's conversation file, "nat380_temmerin.cnv"
I also edited the NOBC and NOBD files for human males, to fix tinting.
...and a couple of CL files of Nathaniel's and EVERY CL file of Temmerin's, which I am not going to list because they are NUMEROUS.
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and111ar_andersshop.are
and211ar_andersshop.are
and311ar_andersshop.are
dae110ar_lowtown.are
dae110ar_lowtown_nt.are
dae120ar_hightown.are
dae121ar_keep.are
dae130ar_undercity_darktown.are
dae170ar_gallows.are
dae210ar_lowtown.are
dae210ar_lowtown_nt.are
dae220ar_hightown.are
dae221ar_keep.are
dae230ar_undercity_darktown.are
dae270ar_gallows.are
dae310ar_lowtown.are
dae310ar_lowtown_nt.are
dae320ar_hightown.are
dae321ar_keep.are
dae330ar_undercity_darktown.are
dae370ar_gallows.are
mcr370ar_gallows_nt.are
mcr371ar_gallows_prison_nt.are
qcr220ar_hightown_nt.are
qcr221ar_keep.are
lgt111ar_rand_sewer_1_nt.are
lgt211ar_rand_sewer_1_nt.are
lgt311ar_rand_sewer_1_nt.are
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_1_05.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_3_04.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_3_05.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_5_01.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_5_02.plo
plt_lgt000pt_ultra_5_03.plo
plt_lgt210pt_ingredients.plo
plt_lgt000pt_lite_vials.plo
popuplayer.gfx
dae020cr_merch_armor.utc
lgt210_magu_selby.cnv
pro000cr_soldier1.utc
lgt000_chanter.cnv
plt_cod_ltr_gamlen_charade.plo
rdr111ip_at_warehouse.utp
lt_0_lowtown_a2_33_0.rml (minor tweak; some books were clipping and flickering, so I adjusted them)
gen00fl_dog.utc (Kaddis only)
The "Child Lia" erf alters her Act 1 UTC -- "one101cr_lia.utc" and several of her CL files to adjust camera placement.
The "Fool's Gold Every Time" erf alters Temmerin's conversation file, "nat380_temmerin.cnv"
I also edited the NOBC and NOBD files for human males, to fix tinting.
...and a couple of CL files of Nathaniel's and EVERY CL file of Temmerin's, which I am not going to list because they are NUMEROUS.
Credits
This mod only exists thanks to the mod authors who very kindly let me use their mod assets. Huge thank yous to everyone on this list (and big apologies if I forgot something -- please me know and I'll fix it)!
tmp7704 -- various meshes and assets, including dwarf proportions, tucked hair, and dwarf female warden armours.
SammyJC -- absolutely necessary assets in the creation of dwarf ladies, from SJC's Patchy Skin Fix, SJCs Tints And Textures, and SJC's Eye And Lash Texture Replacements.
freezedriedbrains -- eyebrows for dwarf ladies from Rose's DAO Redone - Default Replacements
Shanamah -- some kid hairs and morphs from More Hairs for Kids and Diversified Children
anzolino -- Fenris new robes (used for mercenary outfits; I didn't edit Fenris)
honestRope -- Natural Skin for skin tints for Gavin and Fenne
magpiedragon -- kindly allowing me to make a compatibility patch for Improved Mabari Model
NewActionPotential -- some upscaled DAO textures from AP Neural Enhanced Textures v3
Sapphim's Tutorials -- Great resource for learning about plot and dialogue editing.
Automatic Item Delivery - Tutorial and Template -- patch for compiling DA2 scripts
Obsidian Dawn -- photoshop brushes and such used in my icons and banner.
QuenchedSteel -- the Blender to DA2 Export Script and various resources from Modding Grab Bag.
Playable Elfs Beta -- for the creation of new elf and dwarf male morphs
The Dragon Age 2 Character Creator - for the creation of new morphs + some dwarf ladies.
stasismind -- pretty much all inquisition textures (plus the bulk of the Inquisition Dwarf Lady character creation), all the lovely dog coat and kaddis textures, cat textures, sword textures, and basically creating textures any time I said, "I need this!" <3
Marcus22Khaar -- please hold this man responsible for the inclusion of Thom Rainier, thank you
The Witcher 3 assets are used with permission of CD Projekt Red, and may not be used for any monetary gain.
Jenya66 -- some dwarf lady morphs and various assets from her DAO mods, creation of some morph elements for Inquisition Dwarf Ladies, plus helping with ideas and encouragement!
Padme4000 -- assisting with morphs and various Inquisition elements -- thank you so much for your help!!
beccatoria -- much brainstorming and handholding, and most importantly, not (yet) adding me to her book of grudges (I think)
And finally, my Dragon Age partners in crime Marcus22Khaar and stasismind for all the testing, screenshots, silly ideas, not-so-silly ideas, bug-hunting, and general camaraderie. Spacecat salutes you, my friends.