With the recent release of BioWare’s epic, open-world RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition, which runs on the supposedly “un-moddable” Frostbite 3 game engine, avid PC modders have taken on the challenge of dissecting the PC version of Dragon Age: Inquisition in order to gain the ability to create mods for the game – with varying degrees of success.
Already, there have been a couple of “mods” discovered for the game, including CheatEngine hacks that allow for Dragon Age: Origins‘ classic isometric perspective as well as a cheat that gives players the option of exploring Thedas with naked party members.
Fortunately, it appears that more traditional PC modders have taken it a small step further, allowing for texture and hair model replacement within Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Read more details on the progress of current Dragon Age: Inquisition mods below:
Dragon Age: Inquisition Mod Progress
A group of modders on BioWare’s official forums, including prominent ones that did extensive work on both the PC versions of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Mass Effect 3, have reportedly created a tool that allows for the viewing of Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s assets.
The aforementioned Dragon Age: Inquisition mod tool allows for the perusal of game assets and save files (CAS and DAS, respectively).
The following comes from the group’s home page:
“Want to change the pajamas you are forced to use in Skyhold? Give hair to Solas ? Make Leliana red-headed again? Here we discuss what we know so far. We even have a tool to view the game’s asset files (CAS) and the game save files (DAS), courtesy of Warranty Voider (ME3 modding tools) and Ehamloptiran (Skyrim modding tools), both who did many mods for games.”
As mentioned in the above quote, the current set of mod tools only allow for relatively small modifications to Dragon Age: Inquisition, such as hair and texture replacers (seen in the featured images and below).
However, many individuals on both BioWare’s forums and /r/DragonAge are anticipating more complex Dragon Age: Inquisition mods (custom armor/weapon sets, game save editors, et cetera) in the future.
Note: Solas’ ponytail hairstyle created by Adela
Due to the inherent structure and modding limitations of the Frostbite 3 engine, larger mods such as Skyrim-esque quest mods are most likely not possible at this time, but with the skill and diligence of those at work modding the game – anything is possible. Fingers crossed.
In closing, you can view a couple of responses from game developers to questions regarding Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s mod potential and its lack of a toolset below:
Mike Laidlaw, creative director at BioWare:
@newfujitsu Not by default, but I never underestimate the moxie of modders.
— Mike Laidlaw (@Mike_Laidlaw) November 13, 2014
David Gaider, lead writer at BioWare:
“Completely different engine from the first two games, remember, and thus a completely different engine architecture. From what I’ve heard about Frostbite in other games, it’s an incredibly difficult engine to mod—but I’ve honestly no idea how much that applies to DAI.“
Pete Soderlund, co-founder of DICE:
“If you look at the Frostbite engine, and how complex it is, it’s going to be very difficult for people to mod the game. Because of the nature of the set up of levels, the destruction, and all those things, it’s quite tricky, so we think it’s going to be too big of a challenge for people to make a mod.“
Cameron Lee, producer at BioWare:
“We’ve talked about it. We’ve looked into it, but I mean the Frostbite engine: it’s very hard to do that stuff. Maybe we’ll do something on that, I don’t know, but it’s a lot of effort to put something like that together in a way that all fans can use it, not just your hardcore game students or game developers.”
What are your thoughts on the potential of Dragon Age: Inquisition mods? Are the ones shown above as far as modders are going to get, or do you think there will be more complex mods in the future despite the difficulty of the Frostbite 3 engine?
Also, what types of mods would you like to see for Dragon Age: Inquisition ideally?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.