Today we’re sharing Padme4000’s interview!
Hey Padme4000, thanks so much for doing this interview with us! Would you mind introducing yourself for people who may not be familiar with you or your mods?
Hi, I’m a neurodivergent disabled modder, who loves creative outlets. Such as modding, singing, acting and 3D modelling/renders. I have modded games where we can make or alter the main character that we play.
Could you tell us a little bit about your gaming history too? Any standout games from your childhood, or favourites now?
I got into gaming thanks to my brother and dad, the first game I remember really enjoying was the classic Prince of Persia games. But the games that really got me into gaming were the original Baldur’s Gate games, which in turn got me into Bioware games.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines being another game I really got into. I think I loved how RPGs put you into their worlds. The games being another creative outlet.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of my favourite games along with the Dragon Age games and Mass Effect.
These games interest me the most, not just because we can edit a character, though I feel that adds an extra layer of immersion and gives it a personal touch. But because these games generally have such great stories to tell.
You’ve made a lot of mods for a variety of games, but what was it that drew you into modding in the first place?
It came around during a big change in my life health-wise, where I needed something to occupy both my mind mentally but also creatively.
So I started with messing around in Blender making renders, and then eventually I wanted to see what I was making in renders be it the outfit combinations or the hairs in-game. Which led me to modding.
My first official mod being a retexture of the casual outfit in Dragon Age: Inquisition for the Inquisitor. I didn’t mind the design so much as I wanted different colours.
Padme4000's first retexture mods for each game.
You’ve made some really expansive mods in terms of character creation for both Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. What draws you to this style of mod creation?
I really love being creative, and for me, character creation is a big playground for creativity.
I used to be very self-conscious of interactions with my mods, thinking but what if someone doesn’t like it? But now I look at it as, what if even just one person likes it? That is enough for me.
So being able to give people new hairs, heads, outfits and colours to use is a way for them to be able to connect to their characters.
Games sadly don’t have limitless resources to add content in to character creators, even if they would want to. Even the best character creators, have some people saddened that there isn’t a hair, head, or a colour available that they would want to use.
That is where modding comes in, and what I love about character creation modding.
The modding resources you’ve created and shared have been invaluable for a lot of people in both the Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition communities. What inspired you to work on these and share them?
I know how overwhelming learning something new can be, and resources really can help with that. So I wanted to share the things I learnt, ranging from guides to templates.
I also have brain fog from one of my health conditions, so I can forget how I did something if I haven’t done it in some time.
This was also a big part that inspired me to create resources because resources aren’t only great for when we first want to learn something, but also for when we want to refresh our minds on a topic.
On that note, as someone who creates modding resources to help others, what would you say is the biggest challenge people face when starting out with modding?
I feel the biggest challenge is knowing our limits. Some can jump in the deep end and thrive learning that way, while others learn best pacing themselves with smaller projects to begin with.
Knowing which is best for us, is a first good step in learning modding. As learning in a way that isn’t best for us can quickly lead to things feeling overwhelming.
So if someone starts on something big and it starts feeling overwhelming, set the project to the side. Then start on small projects, maybe things that will later help with creating the big project.
Like, say someone wants to create a custom race mod for a game, maybe have the small projects be learning how to create new heads, hairs or horns for the game. So when it comes to creating the race, that part will be something you already know how to do.
As a pretty seasoned modder now, were there any particular challenges you faced while creating mods for both Baldur’s Gate and Dragon Age? And were these challenges unique to the games, or more general?
I think the challenges were like other games. Learning what was possible and what wasn’t possible, as I got into modding both games during their early days. Though for Dragon Age Inquisition I really got into it during 2019 when I first started using Frosty Editor.
It’s funny thinking that I’ve been modding Baldur's Gate 3 now since 2020. Releasing my first mod (another retexture) 20 days after it had entered early access. My modding resources for the game starting November of that year along with the start of my journey with making hairs for the game.
During your time modding, are there any techniques or approaches you’ve discovered that you wish you’d known when you first started?
Add things in batches. By this I mean making mods with more than one asset, I used to make all the assets and then take in-game screenshots. Which is tiring. What I do now is create things in batches, go in-game, take screenshots and start on the next batch. This also makes it easier to pause and carry on next time. As less likely to forget to take a screenshot of an item.
When modding different games, do you find you have to approach each one differently?
Some things do have different approaches, the biggest differences for me have been between Far Cry 5, Frosty Editor games, Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Baldur’s Gate 3.
I won’t go into every instance, as this will likely end up an essay otherwise.
Frosty Editor games require the meshes to have very specific names on the mesh parts in order to import back into the editor. We are also sadly limited for DAI/MEA, not sure on the other games supported by it though. As with DAI/MEA, you can only replace existing meshes/textures this means if your mesh needs several textures we actually have to make them into one.
Baldur's Gate 3 when making head mods, it’s vital to keep to the vanilla order of the head parts so visual effects can work with them when applied. For example, you want the eyes to be the third part of the mesh so things like speak with dead can work on them. As it looks for it being .2 to in the GR2. GR2’s starting from .0
BG3 textures are also set up differently to the typical diffuse, normal and specular textures found in the other three.
Far Cry 5 to begin with was a lot of Hex editing, then later Unreal + Hex Editing.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition being the most lenient when it comes to what you name things in your mesh editor of choice. Like BG3 you can use as many materials in a mesh as you technically want. Where applicable it is best in fact to use more than one material, as having all textures in one reduces the quality of the texture. So a 4096 texture split into 4 actually becomes 1024 textures instead.
Now for some meshes, 1024 isn’t going to be noticeable but on bigger meshes like ones worn by the NPC’s/Shepard will be more noticeable. Especially if your textures get any artefacts in them.
A comparison of Padme4000's personal improvements with this head mod from early access (April 2021) of BG3 until my full release version in (May 2024) of this particular head.
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard coming out this week, are you looking forward to playing it? And do you see yourself modding this game as well?
I am very much looking forward to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Already pre-ordered it, and indulged in some of the merchandise as well.
As for modding the game? Yeah, I definitely see myself modding that as well.
From a modder’s perspective, are there any features or aspects of the upcoming Dragon Age game that you hope will make modding easier or more enjoyable?
From looking at showcases on YouTube from Bioware themselves and other people showcasing the game, I am hoping the ability to alter body shape means that outfits use an autosnapping like system.
As this would mean making outfit mods would hopefully more easily support all races.
I also really hope it is easier to add things as new assets, rather than only able to replace existing ones. Not sure if this was a limitation of DAI or not, but I would love this for two reasons:
- New assets mean we won’t be affecting NPCs that also use those assets.
- Better compatibility between mods.
Are there any projects you’re working on at the moment that you could give us a little insight into?
I just finished my take on NPC Heads for Tav mod which was a big project, as I set up the files to be unique to the mod. This way people wanting to use an NPC head for their Tav, but maybe mods that affect the original NPC won’t have it affect their Tav.
It is also a new framework alongside my NPC Eye Skin and Hair Colours for Tav and NPC Hairs for Tav mods for my NPC as Tav/Dreamer presets.
This way if something does get a bug, it will only be updating one mod rather than maybe all 4. Which hopefully is not only an easier experience to handle for myself, but the people using my mods.
I also converted some of the heads to other races, for the first version of the mod. With support for WotD Aasimar - Script Extender Edition and Flutter and Whimsy (Fairy Race) as well.
I have also started the process of creating my own custom race. Which I have named Cursed Merfolk. This was a WIP project that has been in the background for quite a bit, but as of the release of the Official Toolkit I have actually been able to get the base of the mod setup.
So it is onto creating the assets for the mod.
The current description for my race:
The Cursed Merfolk are a race descended from your run-of-the-mill Merfolk, however somewhere in their ancestry line they were cursed some even say banished from their homes under the sea maybe even by Umberlee herself.
It will have four subraces, though their descriptions are very much still a WIP.
One of the subraces will be more like the ones people think of when they think of merfolk. Which will be the Siren subrace. But others are inspired a ton visually by the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis which always reminded me not just of insects but aquatic creatures as well.
Cover image for the P4 NPC Heads for Tav (npc companion and origin) mod.
Lastly, is there anything you’d like to say or share with the community?
I know this is likely a bit cliche, but I wish everyone happy modding and happy playing.
Thanks once again Padme4000 for this interview. As always, if you have any recommendations for future mod author interviews, send them my way or drop them in the comments below!
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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingI've wanted to get into modding since I infected my family PC by clicking on dumb stuff on a Sims 2 mod archive back in the day, and now that I can actually start learning stuff, I've been completely overwhelmed.
Your point about knowing what we can do and want to do is a weird balance I'm still trying to work out!! Textures are one item that's been interesting me so it's cool to see a bit more on your process and experience.
I just bought the Mass Effect collection so I'll have to check out your mods for those games, too (my first time playing them)!!