Ok I said I'd make a list of the Mods I have installed for Mass Effect. Sorry it took me a while.
All my mods are just tweaks and adjustments, nothing that actually changes vanilla in any meaningful way or alters what the core experience is like.
This list is spoiler free
First off, some pointers;
You will need the Mass Effect Mod manager. It works the same as the Mod Manager used for Skyrim, but this one is specific to Mass Effect. You can find it here
For textures, the Mods and Tweaks manager has automatically included the program needed to mod textures for the game. I don't need to teach you how to use these programs as they have built-in tutorials and on screen instructions that walk you through everything.
I learned this the hard way. Only change textures AFTER you have added all the mods you want (that are not texture based). If you change the textures and then want to add more mods, the mod manager will stop you because this confuses how it applies the mods + textures. So make sure to do ALL your mods before you add texture changes.
Whatever else mods you add, make sure to add the LE1 Community Patch, the Unofficial LE2 patch, and the LE3 Community Patch. These are general patches that fixes bugs. That's it. They just fix bugs. But they are essential.
Ok! With all of that out of the way, here you go! No "read more" thing, we die like men.
1: Default Femshep Retexture.
This was actually one of the main reasons I wanted to mod my game. This mod's texture doesn't change Jane Shepard's iconic design, it just uh... makes it better. Mostly because a bunch of game dev dudes are not the best to understanding things like.... make up.
This texture makes Shepard look less like a straight guy's idea of a drag queen and more like an actual person who knows what they're doing would. It also gives her freckles better placement and makes her eyebrows.... less like that.
I love this mod to death. I nearly cried when I saw how good she looks in-game
2: Iconic Femshep Hair Fix For LE3
For reasons unknown, Bioware did not give Jane Shepard her iconic hairstyle in the third game. (Probably for the same reason nobody has the right blood colour in the third game either) This makes sure she has the right hair style in the finale.
3: LE1, LE2 and LE3 Garrus and Turians - Face and Eyes Textures
I'm only linking the first game's but make sure to get the same for the 2nd and 3rd game.
For whatever reason, the Turians often get shafted in the texture department. There is also a bug which has apparently been fixed in the Legendary Edition where Garrus' texture will load in super low res.
This just fixes some resolution issues, fixes their eyes, and just improves the over-all skin texture. Again, this made Garrus and the other Turians look so good I almost cried.
When the third game launched, there was an app you could get for your phone (irl I mean) where the characters would message you depending on decisions you make in the game itself. Including getting messages from whoever you decide to romance. Sadly the app was never available in my country, but the screenshots were circulated a lot.
(He's asking if you wanna fuck)
Anyway, with the app now defunct, this mod adds ALL the messages into the game itself to appear in your in-game emails instead.
Highly recommend not only for the romance ones, but because in one of the best DLCs in the final game, you get to hear everyone essentially yelling at each other in the Normandy Discord chat, and I imagine that's basically what these messages kinda are.
5: Some mods that restore things that were accidentally removed in the Legendary Edition
Admiral Daro'Xen Restored
Kirrahe Makes Good
Missing Codex Restored (ME2LE) BUGFIX
Genesis Intro Dialogue Undo Mod - Legendary Edition
6: Kasumi Dress ported to Citadel DLC
You get a cocktail dress in the 2nd game as part of a mission which has also become rather iconic.
This ports it over to the third game for a specific mission which required formal wear.
This mod isn't essential at all, I just like the 2nd game's dress a lot
7: Casual Underwear for Femshep
For reasons I'm sure will forever remain a mystery to us 🙄 Shepard's default underwear in the game is like.... lacey and frilly and shit?
That's fine if you like that sort of thing but it really clashes with her personality as well as like... it doesn't make a lot of sense? And in the modder's own words:
"I discovered the butt window on femshep's underwear today which sent me into a spiraling modding frenzy (that and fuzzy memories of how awkward the ME3 cutscenes-)"
Anyway this mod replaces the horny game devs' underwear with something that's more in character for her.
(also low key Athletic underwear is a lot sexier imo)
The Team Mates wear their casual outfits while on the Normandy or on a non-threatening world like the Citadel. I like this one because I always felt it must be uncomfortable for them, especially when Shepard is allowed to wear her casual outfits on the ship.
There is also this mod for LE2
The casual outfits for some squadmates in the 2nd game are optional, such as Jack wearing a prison uniform on the ship which I personally would not put her in because she's too chaotic to keep that sort of thing on.
The woman was gonna be walking around topless for the 2nd game until EA told Bioware "no" ffs.
9: Cerberus Ladies Wear Cerberus
Bioware never patched the 2nd game so that the Cerberus women actually wear Cerberus uniforms. This fixes that.
"LE3 Opening Remaster aims to improve the opening cinematic of Mass Effect 3, using remastered footage from an early ME3 Xbox 360 demo, as well as diversifies the opening text scroll if the Arrival DLC was completed."
In the 2nd game you could invite Shepard's SO to her cabin to hang out. Someone made a similar mod for the 3rd game 👀
12: LE3 Prologue Outfit Customization
The third game's prologue is weird if you have a specific casual outfit you like to put Shepard in (it's the hoodie... we all know it's the hoodie) and she doesn't wear it.
This mod let's you decide which outfit she should be wearing in the opening to better match how you've been dressing her in the 2nd game.
13: Garrus with No Visor and New Outfits (LE2)
Gives Garrus some more outfits he can wear rather than just his green one and optionally removes his visor when he's wearing his casuals (or always if you just dislike the visor).
The visor is lore important so I keep it on him most of the time... but I have it removed for when he's wearing his casuals because it's just kind of awkward for him to have it when he and Shepard start sleeping together.
Also he just looks better in blue than green ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mods I couldn't install because I had already installed textures :(
LE1 and LE3 Diversification mods.
"A project designed to diversify LE1 through increased population count, better species' population balancing, outfit/appearance diversification and overall breathing more life into the world."
This includes adding female turian NPCs to the first game (they were only given a model in the 3rd game because something something video games) As well as giving the Elcor their walking animation.
The Diversification project is busy being worked on for the 2nd game as well but for now is only applicable to Omega.
I'm only linking to the first game's mod but you can find the third game's from the same creator.
Please note; Diversification mod and Variety are mod are TWO DIFFERENT MODS and may cause clashes if you install both.
I want this mod so bad..... I might risk breaking my game just to add it I swear sldjfsdklfjksd
And that's everything I use!
Before anyone asks, I don't have the "ALOT of textures" mod installed despite it being really good for no other reason than it replaces the signs into english text and that just bothers me for some reason. Especially since the most common spoken language by all species is "Trade". So having signs in english just doesn't make sense to me.
Shepard is an Alliance marine. She would know how to read Trade.
There is also a mod to improve lighting to an insane degree but I haven't messed with it because it requires a seperate program to introduce modern lighting engines to older games and I am too intimidated by it to try it.
Anyway I hope this helps!
