User:Pepoluan/Metalog/Mass Effect 2

Original Metalog
17:35, June 21, 2017 (UTC)


 * Begin Metalog

20:26, June 21, 2017 (UTC)


 * Managed to successfully b0rked my ME2 installation while trying to apply ALOT.
 * Will reinstall after sunup. Too tired otherwise.

16:38, June 22, 2017 (UTC)


 * Had started (re)downloading ME2 half an hour ago. It's still going
 * Afterwards, will install the following in this order:
 * All DLCs in the order of release as listed in the DLC page.
 * "Patch" mods:
 * binkw32
 * Arrival Triggering Mod
 * Illium landing movie mod
 * No Mini Games
 * ME2 Vignette Remover
 * ALOT
 * Remove Shared Cooldown Mod
 * "Texture" mods
 * Blood Be Gone
 * ME1 Style Object Selector
 * Female Texturepocalypse

20:14, June 22, 2017 (UTC)


 * Just past 3am here, and now installing ALOT. Fingers crossed that this will actually work this time; last time, it puked in the middle with some sort of exception.

02:39, June 23, 2017 (UTC)


 * Just woke up, noticed with great happiness that, this time, ALOT installation is successful! Total time taken: 1h53m
 * So, the previous failure of ALOT installation, which resulted in the game becoming b0rken, probably was because I already installed some other mods, and MEM got confused seeing modified files.
 * Will continue with installation of other mods later when I reach office.

15:11, July 23, 2017 (UTC)


 * So, I found out that there's a way to make all powers affect enemies despite their defense. That, in my opinion, is less OP than the "Remove Shared Coldown Mod". Also, it's more... 'logical'/consistent, in-universe, to have a shared cooldown (based on the description in the codex -- which in summary said that any powers require the user to kind of "rest" their nerves for awhile).
 * Unfortunately, there's no way to remove the "Remove Shared Cooldown Mod" without reinstalling the game. So, I'll play the current playthrough until its conclusion first. Then, before starting the next playthrough, I'll mod the game so that all powers affect enemies regardless of defense.
 * That said, I will still use the "Infinite Ammo" cheat/tweak, though.

A New Beginning
13:23, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm uninstalling ME2 to start clean. I'll also delete the "D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Mass Effect 2" folder to ensure that there will be no 'leftover mods'.

13:27, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm also removing the "Binaries", "BIOGame", and "News" folders, plus the "systeminformation.xml" file from the "My Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect 2" folder.

13:40, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * Just started (re)downloading ME2.
 * Afterwards, will install the following in order:
 * All DLCs in the order of release as listed in the DLC page.
 * "Patch" mods:
 * binkw32
 * Arrival Triggering Mod (already in ME2Recalibrated)
 * Illium landing movie mod (already in ME2Recalibrated)
 * No Mini Games
 * ME2 Vignette Remover
 * ALOT
 * ME2Recalibrated [NEW]
 * "Texture" mods
 * Female Texturepocalypse
 * Giftfish's Textures for ME2 [NEW]
 * Blood Be Gone
 * ME1 Style Object Selector (will try without, to properly experience the new "Giftfish's Textures". Will install if ME2's object selector gets too annoying...)

14:12, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * Download done (for quite some time, actually. I got caught up in downloading mods). Now time to run it for the "first" time (can't install DLCs otherwise).

14:21, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * "First run" done. Had a scare when game wouldn't start; apparently, "first run" cannot be done in 1366x768. Changed the resolution to 1360x768, started the game, and then changed the resolution from within the game. Now, on to installing some DLCs!

16:02, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * Now installing ALOT for ME2. ALOT is being installed with the following settings:
 * ALOT for ME2 6.0 - Textures
 * ALOT for ME2 6.7 - Update
 * Ellise's Illusive Man Complexion Tweak
 * Ellise's Jacob Complexion Tweak
 * heleuss's Better Hair Textures
 * heleuss's BroShep High Quality Textures
 * heleuss's FemShep High Quality Textures
 * TheDarkFalon & CreeperLava's HR Weapon Textures

16:29, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm starting to regret my decision to allow ALOT Installer to backup ME2 files... it's taking waaay too long, and consuming huge disk space... :(
 * After all, if things don't work, I usually just nuke the whole installation and start over...

16:54, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * So, ALOT backup had just finished and... IT HASN'T INSTALLED ANYTHING?!?! Because I did not download several weapon textures?!?
 * Talking about wasting a lot of time -_-
 * Oh well, let's download those weapon textures.
 * (ALOT installer actually allowed me to install without those textures... but it just didn't ask me whether I should go ahead or not right after backing up the files; I had to click the install button again.)

16:59, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * Holy heck! My hard disk is full?! Brb, deleting files...

17:36, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * Freed up 50+ GB on my hard disk, a great part from nuking the ALOT Backup... there goes 1 hour of my life waiting for the backup to complete down the drain... :(
 * Oh, the tool I used to help me see disk usage -- and thus determine which files to delete -- is WinDirStat. Ignore its age; it runs perfectly well on the latest Windows 10 64-bit.

17:40, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * Just started ALOT installation.
 * Since it's past midnight local time (my timezone is UTC+7), after installation done, I won't start a game, but run a defrag instead; all the file-mangling done to reach this point certainly had made my hard disk horribly fragmented.

18:36, April 9, 2018 (UTC)
 * 1:35am local time here, and ALOT is still chugging at 67%...
 * I'm going to let installation finish overnight. No chance for defrag tonite, it seems... it'll have to wait until I get back from work.
 * Signing off for the night.

12:05, April 10, 2018 (UTC)
 * This morning (local time UTC+7), I woke up to find that ALOT had finished installation with no error messages.
 * Now I'm continuing with ME2Re.

12:21, April 10, 2018 (UTC)
 * Huh, ME2Re installation is strictly manual-only. Not for the faint of heart. I hope I have installed it properly...
 * On to the next mod on the list!

03:32, April 11, 2018 (UTC)
 * Just finished installing Giftfish's texture using ME3Explorer's TPF Tools

03:34, April 11, 2018 (UTC)
 * Finished installing "blood be gone"

12:25, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Doesn't work. Game keeps being stuck at the "Error connecting to Mass Effect 2 Server" pop-up.
 * Gonna nuke the install, and do it again, but this time with test along the way.

A New New Beginning
12:29, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Nuked the install, and reinstalling from Steam.

13:29, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Reinstallation done. Got distracted by the cat :)
 * Doing a "first run".

13:31, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * "Direct3D not available because the computer is locked"? That's a new error message....
 * Okay, I'll reboot my PC.

13:48, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * After reboot, I'm running the configurator utility.
 * Setting things the way I set it before.

14:10, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * "First run" successful, and can start a new game.
 * Time to install all DLCs + DLL Patcher.

14:43, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * All DLCs and DLL Patcher installed successfully (can start a new game).
 * Let's do something I missed the last iteration: Build the "texture tree" for "TPF Tools" (part of ME3Explorer).

15:24, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Treebuilding done! Took 33+ minutes to finish, but it's finally done. And backed up :-)
 * Now, let's start installing the mods -- and test new game after each batch.
 * First batch: "No Mini Games" and "Vignette Remover"

15:28, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Installed "No Mini Games" by simply overwriting the .pcc files
 * Since this is a 'gameplay' mod that does not change any textures (heck, it actually bypasses some textures!), I figure it won't affect the Texture Tree.

15:33, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Installed the "Vignette Remover" mod, again by simply overwriting .pcc files.
 * And, based on the mod's README, it seems that this mod works by removing (i.e., bypassing) a certain image-processing step during scene render, instead of replacing some textures. So, again I think this won't affect the Texture Tree.
 * Now, let's do the "New Game Test"!

15:56, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * They work! On to the next batch!
 * Ahh... the next batch is: ALOT. One (collection) of (texture) mods on its own in a batch. I'll read up about its impact on the Texture Tree, and install.

16:21, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... I've changed my mind.
 * ALOT explicitly tells me to install it after "content mods". ME2Re is (mainly) a "content mod" (as it changes the plot progression system). So, I'll install ME2Re before ALOT.
 * Here goes...

16:47, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Done up to and including Step 2. Added the DLC to TExplorer, then backup the tree & thumbnails
 * Done up to and including Step 3 (patching LotSB and Zaeed DLCs)
 * Also 're-added' DLC folders of the above 2 to TExplorer, then (again) backed up the tree and thumbnails

16:55, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Installed ME2Re's textures using TPF Tools. No errors were found, so we're good to go to the next step.

16:58, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Installed ME2Re's (optional) Launcher changes.
 * Will now do a "New Game Test" (and Launcher test).

17:18, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Both tests successful!
 * Now on to the next batch, which again I have modified to be: "Female Texturepocalypse" and "Blood be Gone"

17:33, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Installed "Female Texturepocalypse" using TPF Tools. Things to note:
 * After running "Analyse with TExplorer", some textures are flagged with "MIPS" error/warning; running Autofix on them seems to fix the textures
 * Texture installation takes quite some time because some textures affect a LOT of .pcc files
 * Installation finished with no additional errors, though. So I 'built' a new "fixed" .tpf file for this mod.

17:35, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Installed "Blood be Gone" using TPF Tools. Similar to "Female Texturepocalypse", the texture (only one for this mod) got flagged with "MIPS" error/warning, and also (seems to be) fixable using Autofix.
 * And, as before, also 'built' a new "fixed" .tpf file.
 * Now, for "New Game Test"!

17:55, April 13, 2018 (UTC)
 * Test successful!
 * Next batch: ALOT. I'll let this run overnight; too tired to wait until its completion.
 * I'll skip the "backup" step this time. Not worth it; I'll just nuke the installation if things don't work out.

04:58, April 14, 2018 (UTC)
 * I've let the ALOT Installation to run overnight, and it has finished without error. (A few hours ago probably, but I just woke up).
 * Let's do the usual test.