Mass Effect Legendary Edition Modding Post
Finished my first playthrough of ME1LE last night. I did get most of the way through the game on release (Well, everything through Therum/Feros/Noveria including most side missions) but decided to wait for the modders to do their magic before finishing. So I put LE on hold and did a bunch of other gaming before coming back to it a few weeks ago now that ME3TweaksModManager and the modding tools had been out awhile.
There’s been a ton of great mods released so far, and several of the big modding projects are working on being remade for the LE games. But LE1 felt like enough had come out that modding was ready to be played. So here’s what I installed and what it did.
Going to start with the bigger ones which are most highly rec’d, and end with the ones that are more about personal taste.
First of all, you just need ME3Tweaks Mod Manager to install the mods. It’s pretty easy to set up, and to use. If you have a paid account to NexusMods, you can even download mods directly from the website to the mod manager. Be sure you import the mod, and then on the main menu Apply Mod to install it and choose options, if available.
Also, launching the game from the Mod Manager launches you right into whichever game you’re on in the MM at the time, bypassing splash screens and the game selection screen. Much faster.
If you don’t install any other mod, at least install this one. Tons of bug fixes, lore fixes, etc. Has it always bugged you that Kaidan wears heavy armor in the Eden Prime drop scene? Fixed. Know how it makes no sense that Elanos Haliat is a human when clearly he should be a Turian? Fixed. So many little things are fixed. Install, and enjoy a much more lore friendly and less buggy game.
A Lot Of Videos (ALOV) for LE1
(Including optional Relay Jump Remaster) Psst… Bioware did not, in fact, upscale all the cutscene videos for LE. (I actually helped a little at the beginning of the ALOV project but had some stuff come up so I couldn’t finish helping, but I definitely saw how they were all still mostly in like 1440 or 1080.) So the ALOV team painstakingly did all that work which Bioware should have done in the first place. Truly upscaled 4k cutscenes, for all 3 games. Thanks modders.
This is so good. It’s so, so good. One of the things that over and over again we’ve all said is how it should have been done in the first place is now… done. Saren starts the game looking just a little different than a “normal” Turian, but not obviously a guy with tubes and mechanics sticking out of him. When he meets with the council, he’s wearing a robe over body so what little reaperized bits he has are covered. He looks a little different on Virmire, before looking fully changed finally on the Citadel, where his appearance actually feels shocking. Really well done, actually lore-friendly, makes Nihilus and the Council not look like complete morons for not asking why someone they’ve known for many years is now half machine.
Where, once again, Bioware failed, the modders succeeded. Made a post about this recently with screenshots. But yes, the full DLC, some of it ported in, some of it completely remade, is now seamlessly integrated into the game. Sure, it’s a couple of hours of inconsequential fighting with a few rewards, but if you miss it, it’s amazing that it exists at all in the LE now.
Same-Gender Romances for LE1
You probably already know what this does. Do you want to play MShep and romance Kaidan from LE1? Or Femshep/Ashley? Here ya go, fully doable with virtually no difference from the het ship.
But even if you are romancing Liara, or doing Femshep/Kaidan or MShep/Ashley, or doing no ME1 romance at all, I still highly rec this mod.
Because of the way Bioware designed the dialog wheel, it’s really hard to know what lines exactly trigger the romances, thus accusations of being “ninjamanced” (or starting a romance with a character you didn’t want to just by being nice to a companion) were born. This mod really helps avoid that. Read the description and you can easily tell exactly what lines to avoid using to stop the romance from triggering. You’ll want to make sure you do this for all of the 3 companions you don’t plan on romancing.
There was also a bug in Liara’s dialog in the base game that DIDN’T stop the romance from triggering even if you selected the right dialog. The LE1 Community Patch fixed this, but even if you don’t install it, this mod also fixes it.
Marks UNC missions you’ve unlocked on the Galaxy Map. Definitely does get a bit cluttered until you start knocking out those missions, but really worth it.
Reveals ALL of the mineral and misc. locations on all the planetary maps from the start. No more driving around planets hoping you find everything, if you feel like you need to clear everything on every planet. I don’t have a screenshot of a planetary map, so take this pretty Mako screenshot instead.
“This mod delays the Council’s message about Virmire until all three initial missions (Therum, Feros, and Noveria) are completed, rather than delivering the message after only two of the three are completed. It also delays Kahoku’s message about Cerberus until Feros and Noveria are completed, since UNC: Cerberus features enemies introduced in both missions.“
The timeline feels more natural, and forces the Cerberus questline make more sense, imho. Enjoy the screenshot of one of the Cerberus bunkers since it’s hard to actually have a screenshot for this mod.
A few choices here to remove some of the sexism directed towards Femshep in various areas of the game, and another to remove the Consort stroking your face. I’ve always hated the face stroking, my Shep would have definitely taken a polite step back there. So to be able to have a calm interaction with the Consort, who I otherwise like, without the touching was great.
I didn’t remove the sexist dialog, I personally feel like it’s part of Harkin’s personality and just more fuel to dislike him, and I like Femshep standing up for herself. But I love that it’s an option for those who choose to install it.
N7 Mako and Unlimited Sprint and Boost - The Mako is better in LE1. These mods make planet travel much better. And also very long sprint (as long as your weapon is out) is really nice, if immersion breaking, to make it around the hubs faster.
Normandy Rapid Transit - Adds a Normandy option to Citadel Fast Travel to land you at the docking bay if you want to avoid the elevator. I didn’t use it much, since I like the elevator in LE1 now, but it was nice to have the option.
Skip Minigames - I saw the spinny blocks minigame exactly once the whole game (on Noveria while breaking into the office near Lorik Qui’in’s office.) Aside from that, every minigame cost 0 Omnigel to skip. It was so, so nice.
Iconic Fashion Party - All companions stay in their Iconic armor look (N7 Onyx for Shepard, Phoenix for Ashley, Non-N7 Onyx for Kaidan, Agent for Garrus, etc.) no matter what armor you are actually wearing. Removes options of having your entire team in Phoenix armor if that’s your thing. But everyone has a consistent look throughout the game and nobody will ever have to sport banana colored armor just to survive. Will still change the look from Light –> Medium –> Heavy armor when you/companions can equip heavier armor though.
Morlan’s Famous Iconic Armor Shop - Adds another store to Morlan that only sells iconic armor (see above). Not really necessary if you just want to keep them in the look if you have Iconic Fashion Party installed, but it IS another shop where you can find better armor, especially for like, Tali, who can be really hard to find armor for if the RNG isn’t nice. So why not install it?
Black Market License - Adds additional armors and weapons into the game which, TBH, are probably overpowered, or at least equal to Spectre gear. The armor will override Iconic Fashion Party but the stats are great, and it’s a unique look that isn’t in the basegame naturally. Adds a license to the Normandy Quartermaster so that he sells these items, as well.
Elements of Comparative Weaponry - Makes weapon stats more accurate and make more sense.
Lets you and your companions wear your Normandy outfit on the Citadel. The only thing is that you still have your guns on your back if you’re at a part of the game where you still might fight on the Citadel, so it’s a bit immersion breaking there. Will have you in casuals in Port Hanshan once fighting there is done (so like if you go back after completing Peak 15.)
Also puts Garrus and Wrex in casual outfits on the Normandy, as well as the hubs.
Just a small non-texture mod that uses a different model on Dr. Heart’s ships for the failed experiments. Does not un-vanilla the game. Sorry for the dark screenshot, THEY’RE ALL DARK. I took my photomode screenshots for color, not clarity. :)
ME3 Alliance Armor for LE1
Puts the generic marines (and a few named ones) throughout the game in more lore-friendly armor. A few good customization options in this one. I had my on-duty soldiers guarding the Normandy in Alliance armor instead of their casual blues as well.
There are several hair mod options which also do not un-vanilla the game, many of which look really nice, but I chose not to use any for LE1, keeping her normal hair, going to use some for LE2/LE3.
There is ALOT for all of the LE games, adding in even better textures where they could be better. As always, you cannot install other mods after installing textures without going through a restore process, so decide do do texture mods carefully and only when you’re done with other modding and have tested to make sure your game is stable.
I really didn’t feel like adding in textures for this run, though, so I could easily add more mods as they came out. Maybe next time I play, once the modding scene has slowed.
There are many non-ALOT choice texture mods, like one that gives Benezia a full outfit, complexion textures for Shepard and companions, new outfits, etc. Can’t wait to use them, later!
Also, there’s just like, a bunch of other mods on the Nexus that I didn’t use but others will probably like! Just because I chose not to use something doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome.
Anyway, once again, thanks to the modders for making incredible contributions to fix the bugs, tweak the game to taste, and restore entire cut content. If you’re on PC, I highly suggest giving modifying your game via mods a try. The mods are mostly built around using ME3Tweaks / Mass Effect Modder, which were written from the ground up to be as stable and friendly as possible, so it’s pretty easy to keep a stable game if you follow directions.
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