Custom Hawke in DA:2

[Kandy_Kitten1989]

Hi all,

I'm remarkably new to using the Dragon Age Keep and have started a game on DA:2 so that my previous gameplay history all comes together in Inquisition.  However, my custom Hawke is not appearing in the Keep, no new name, no custom appearance, no nothing, just the default Hawke.  I was told that your custom Hawke can appear in Inquisition, and I'm just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong?  Why isn't he appearing in the Keep?  Was what I was told completely untrue?

It's such a shame, because I would absolutely love to see my Hawke appear in game!

Thanks in advance for all your help!

[mcsupersport]

Yes and no...

I know great answer, and totally unhelpful, so let me explain.....

Both the oiriginal DA and DA2 worked at importing your game, and I think in the later DA2 the old Bioware site was up and they still used it.  I can't remember for sure exact dates and time of such but basically for DAI they created the DA Keep to handle the imports and for a time they mined data off the old Bioware site to do this.  But like everything else, things change and since Bioware was part of EA, they migrated all the old site forums and such over here to Answers, and for a time left in the background the Bioware site importing so DA and DA2 still worked.  Now more time passed and I am guessing they tired of upkeep on the legacy site so they shut it down, thus both DA and DA2 no longer have a site to report their data to.  So you play both games and want your data to be in DAI...cause that was one whole great thing about the series.....and now DA and DA2 uploads no longer work.....result, is you can still get your data into DAI, but it requires YOU to work at it to do so.  You have to personally log into DAKeep, create or edit a character there and then fill out the tapestry choices as the same as you played the game for them.  Once you get everything set, races, sexes, choices, and such, then lock it down and set it as export default world and you should be good to go.   Not the best system, but considering the age and changes in systems, probably the best you could hope for.

Now as to Hawk appearing into DAI....yeah, BUT the graphics engines are different and character looks didn't transfer well(even if they could do the transfer, which see above).  So for whatever reason, they didn't offer a face import but instead when Hawk appears, you are pulled out of the game and back into character creator screen for Hawk and you get to recreate in the new graphics engine your Hawk as close as you can.....or you can say to heck with this and just use default Hawk.  I don't know how much will carry over to the next installment so you will have to decide if the effort is worth it. 

[Fred_vdp]

To be clear: Even before the BioWare website shut down, you always had to use the Keep to manually set your world sate. The only things that ever imported to the Keep were basic information, such as character name, race, class, gender, and avatar. The old BioWare site had a system where progress and screenshots were uploaded, but that was so you'd have a storybook that you could read,. That info couldn't be used in the Keep.

@mcsupersport Did the upload of basic info end when the BioWare Social Network shut down? I thought it still uploaded basic info from DAO and DA2 to the Keep. Regardless, it was never really useful because it took 20 seconds to set that up manually.

[mcsupersport]

@Fred_vdp

I thought, and I may be misremembering, when the Keep first came out it  did import story choices as well as name, and such.  I know my first tapestry was done with almost zero input from me and simply verifying and looking at what was imported.  I think after they closed Social for new accounts and such they limited it a bit more, but the original export over to the keep was much more than basic information to my recollection.   Now mind you this was 4 years or so ago, so I may not be correct in this, but this is what I recall.  The Keep offers a great tool for game devs if they wish to use it, as it can greatly enhance a story such as Dragon Age. 

As far as still importing, it is my understanding that they have stopped this.   I don't know if I heard this officially, or if it was just a matter of numerous people saying it doesn't work and internet rumor. 

[Fred_vdp]

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@mcsupersport wrote:

@Fred_vdp

I thought, and I may be misremembering, when the Keep first came out it  did import story choices as well as name, and such.

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I always had to do it manually, and I have 17 playthroughs now (it's an illness). From day 1 I've been telling people here that it always required manual input, so it would be really embarrassing if I were wrong. :D

I believe that the text format used on the old BioWare Social Network was incompatible with the Keep. If I understand correctly, choices were uploaded to BSN in plain text and screenshots, not as variables.

[Kandy_Kitten1989]

Thank you guys, all for your support and explanations.

I have no objections to working manually with the Keep, actually that's kind of fun! ha ha but when I go to create the Tapestry, the Hawke in my game is just the default Hawke - he hasn't got the name I've given him or anything.

Nevertheless, if I get to recreate him in DA:I, that's fine by me too.  I'm addicted to customisation in any game, so I'm just wondering, does the Keep take a while to update or something?  I've not been playing DA:2 for very long at all, do I have to progress further for him to appear in the Keep?  All silly questions like this.

But thank you all again for your support, I have been so confused!