The purpose of this mod is to save the player’s time spent on the scanning minigame, to balance a few aspects of the game and to make the gameplay closer to the game’s lore.
Changelog:
- Jacob’s weapon loadout changed to assault rifle + heavy pistol due to his military training,
- non-combat storm stamina and regeneration 5x original value,
- like in ME1 shields don’t block powers anymore, making gameplay closer to the lore,
- second playthrough resource bonus increased to 500000, making planet scanning unnecessary,
- planet scanning speed is equal as when the scanner is not active,
- money bonus from imported savegame moved to second playthrough bonus category to make it available in NG+,
- Geth Pulse Rifle damage 2.5x of original value, this ups its DPS to the same level as the Avenger Rifle's (originally Geth Pulse Rifle's base damage and DPS are the lowest of all the equipable guns in the game),
- enemy shields and barriers (not armor) set as rechargable to remove player’s unfair advantage over AI,
- shields don’t absorb full damage on break anymore (example; before, having 1 shield point would absorb any ammount of damage on last hit before reducing health),
- added 20 top rated male face presets and 30 top rated female presets, faces codes from Masseffect2faces.com
- all ingame cinematics set as skippable. (NOTE: although all cinematics are set as skippable, some of them ignore settings from ini file and can't be skipped in game. Can't do anything about it, the game decides by itself in this case)
- logo cinematics disabled
Optional tweak in seperate Coalesced.ini version:
- health regeneration 100x slower to enforce medigel usage (NOTE: some players claim that one can't heal Shepard in ME2 with medigel. Of course you can heal him, you just need to buy Trauma Module upgrade)
Reasonings for above changes:
- Jacob is an ex-Alliance soldier. All soldiers are proficient with rifles. His original weapon loadout doesn’t have much sense and makes him underpowered. Jacob also uses an assault rifle in the Mass Effect Galaxy game.
- You can save time when running around outside of combat.
- This tweak makes almost all skills equally worth learning. It’s also closer to ME lore where shields and armor can’t block biotics and tech abilities, only barriers can.
- Scanning planets is fun during the first playthrough but I have enough of it now, when I finished the game and I’m playing it again.
- Scanner is slow, almost annoying. This tweak helps to save time.
- Originally when you repeat the game via NG+ you lose all bonuses from imported character.
- Originally Geth Pulse Rifle’s base damage and DPS are the lowest of all the equipable guns in the game. This tweak makes it just the same as the Avenger Rifle’s. This also makes Geth Troopers as dangerous as rifle-wielding mercenaries.
- If Shepard’s shields regenerate, why enemy shields shouldn’t? In ME1 every enemy’s shield regenerates just like Shepard’s. Having an unfair advantage over AI is not fun.
- This tweak makes shields work just like they did in ME1.
- Self-explanatory.
- Just to make it clear; the fact that cutscene can be skipped, doesn't mean that you must skip them. It only means you can. I'm saying this because some people think that this mod forces them to do it. It doesn't.
- Self-explanatory.
Optional:
- Even on Insanity I’ve never had to use a medigel. With this tweak I still don’t have to because a good player will stay in cover when his shields are down, but using unity is now finally worth the cooldown on a few occasions. This tweak is meant to discourage recklessness. From the lore point of view, you are still healing on the battlefield as it is intended but no longer you possess a supernatural instant troll-like healing powers. Medigel helps clothing blood and closing wounds but it won't magically bring a soldier from near-death state to perfect condition in split second when in cover.
Articles
Steps you have to do before starting to mod the Game:
- Back up your coalesced.ini [...\Mass Effect 2\BioGame\Config\PC\Cooked]
- Download Notepad++ and install it - DO NOT USE Word, Wordpad or notepad this will screw up your game
sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/files/notepad++ releases binary/npp 5.6.6 bin/npp.5.6.6.Installer.exe/download
- Download Ruby and the script to fix the CRC of the coalesced.ini
install ruby and unpack the rb script to [...\Mass Effect 2\BioGame\Config\PC\Cooked] the place where you also find the coalesced.ini Rapidshare.com
- After editing coalesced.ini file, launch CoalescedrealCRC.rb script to get fix_Coalesced.ini file and remove "fix_" prefix
Steps based on Horendus Malaih guide from official BioWare forum.
VARIOUS TWEAK LIST:
Open Coalesced.ini file with Notepad++ or other advanced text editor like Scintilla Text Editor:
A. Utility tweaks:
1.
Planet scanning is so slow. I wish I could rotate the planet faster when scanning.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXGameModeOrbital] section
- Increase ScanReticleMoveSpeed and ScanPlanetRotationSpeed values
2.
Jogging slowly around takes so much time. I wish I could storm longer out of combat.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXGame]
- Increase StormStaminaNonCombat and StormRegenNonCombat values
3.
I wish the corpses stay a little longer. It's strange that they vanish so fast.
Solution:
confirmed not working
- Search for [SFXGame.BioArtPlaceable]
- Increase m_fCorpseCleanupFirstAttemptTime value
4
I don't like the pregenerated head models at character creation. Wish I could replace them with something better.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.BioSFHandler_NewCharacter]
- Replace MalePregeneratedHeadCodes and FemalePregeneratedHeadCodes with the ones you want
B. Difficulty and balance tweaks:
1.
I don't like the new global cooldown system. It forces me to use only the most efficient skills on higher difficulties and forget about less efficient but effective ones.
Solution:
confirmed not working
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXGameConfig]
- Change UseSharedPowerCooldown=TRUE to false
2.
Why guncentric classes have easier time in ME2? I'd like to use class powers on higher difficulties but im seriously limited because shields block powers. Wish I could change that.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXGameConfig]
- Change bShieldsBlockPowers=true to false
3.
Insanity difficulty is still rather easy to me. I wish enemies could have more health/shields and Shepard less.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXDifficulty_Level5]
- Increase EnemyHealthMultiplierLow, EnemyHealthMultiplierHigh and EnemyShieldBonus values
- Decrease PlayerHealthMultiplierLow and PlayerHealthMultiplierHigh values
4.
Insanity difficulty is still rather easy to me. I wish enemies could use their powers more often. Shepard's team cooldown should be increased.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXDifficulty_Level5]
- Decrease EnemyPowerCooldownMultiplier value
- Increase SquadPowerCooldownMultiplier value
5.
I've mined only rich planets and still I have plenty of minerals. There's too much of them to encurage scanning more planets.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.BioPlanet]
- Decrease PlacedMineralsPool and optionally EezoMineralsBase with ScanBarMaxMineralSize values
6.
I like the new ammo idea but I wish thermal clips wouldn't be so sparse.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXDroppedAmmo]
- Increase PctAmmoGiven value
7.
Having to reload weapon makes the combat more dynamic but I don't like picking up ammo. Wish I could reload but get infinite ammo.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXWeapon]
- Change bCanDropAmmo=true to false
- Search for weapons [SFXGameContent_Inventory.SFXWeapon_*]
- Change bInfiniteAmmo=false to true
8.
I don't like having an unfair advantage over the enemies. In ME1 enemies regenerated their shields. I wish they regenerate in ME2.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXShield_Base]
- Change bRechargeable=false, bFastCoverRegen=false and bAbsorbDamageOnBreak=false to true
- Add bRechargeable=false, bFastCoverRegen=false and bAbsorbDamageOnBreak=false to [SFXGame.SFXShield_GethEnergy] and [SFXGame.SFXShield_GethEnergy_Player] sections
9.
Auto-regeneration feature takes away the challange from game. Not even once I really had to use medigel.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXModule_DamageParty]
- Decrease HealthRegenRate value or change bHealthRegenerates=true to false to turn it off completely
10.
I'd like to take Jacob on a mission but I find his weapon choice useless. Why can't he have an assault rifle. He's an ex-Alliance soldier, all soldiers know how to use a rifle.
Solution:
- Search for [SFXGame.SFXPlayerSquadLoadoutData]
- Change Jacob's LoadoutWeapons_Shotguns to LoadoutWeapons_AssaultRifles in HenchLoadoutInfo=(className=SFXPawn_Jacob, Weaponclasses=(LoadoutWeapons_HeavyPistols,LoadoutWeapons_Shotgun))
C. Non coalesced.ini tweaks:
1.
How can I disable logo movies?
Solution:
- Open ...\Mass Effect 2\BioGame\Movies folder and rename BWLogo.bik and ME_EAsig_720p_v2_raw.bik to BWLogo.bik.old and ME_EAsig_720p_v2_raw.bik.old
Plenty of other changes are possible, I just listed the ones that I think are worth to mention.
Please let me know if you find something not working.
I'm not responsible to any damage this might cause to your computer and/or for legal issues from bioware/EA. All modding happens at your own risk please not further than im not affilated with any programs listed in this thread. By using this guide/the download links i provided you agree with this statement.
Files
Flash's ME2 Mod v1.01
Full Version 8 commentsThe purpose of this mod is to save the player’s time spent on the scanning minigame, to balance a few aspects of the game and to make the gameplay closer...
Flash's ME2 Mod v1.0
Full VersionThe purpose of this mod is to save the player’s time spent on the scanning minigame, to balance a few aspects of the game and to make the gameplay closer...
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I don't use him all that much, but Jacob is meant to be a Vanguard which is why he was given a shotgun and a submachine. He has his biotics to balance out the lack of weapon versatility.
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has anyone encountered a bug during the mission to find veetor where the big door to the area where you first fight the YMIR Mech won't open.
Make ME2 feel new again
does this work for the origin version of the game?
"Jacob’s weapon loadout changed to assault rifle + heavy pistol due to his military training" - i completely agree with this statement ane would suggest that Commander shepard would also fall under this statement regardless of his class
thak you for your hard work on this mod. also nexus is now hosting ME mods if you want to upload this mod there too
Nexusmods.com?
(buried)
I use the trainer over at cheathappens.com (to speed up the mini-games and in-system space travel; I've only had to enable the super health cheat once before for Shadow Broker boss) - I'm concerned this mod will interfere with the trainer.
The Mass Effect games are ridiculously easy to beat. In the first game, I plowed through enemies with a maxed out Spectre-gear pistol. I defeated Saren in no time flat. Even in ME2, cheating isn't required.
I only used a save game editor once, and that was during my second ME2 playthrough when I didn't want to deal with the mining minigame.
You seriously need to cheat to play this game?
OMG!!! This mod fixes almost every bad thing this game had! Thanks! :D! PS: I just hate sometimes the new Termals (Bullets) System.