Overview
This is a quick and easy guide to modifying the Mass Effect 2 Coalesced.ini file to disable help messages OR all on-screen notifications.
Contents
- Tools Required
- Modifying Coalesced.ini
- Closing
Tools Required
Notepad++[notepad-plus-plus.org] – Required for editing Coalesced.ini, the main settings file for Mass Effect 2. Using regular Nodepad or Wordpad to make changes to the file will cause the game to fail to start. I recommend integrating Notepad++ into the Windows shell when you install Np++, for easy access.
ME2 ini fixer[www.nexusmods.com] – Required to recompile the ini in order to finalize changes made. NOTE: This may not be required to change “MaxDifficulty=” flags for the hint system, but to be safe use it anyway.
Modifying Coalesced.ini
Once you’ve downloaded both tools, you’re ready to begin. To disable ONLY help messages, do the following:
- Navigate to steamapps/common/Mass Effect 2/BioGame/Config/PC/Cooked
- Drop the ME2 ini fixer into this folder.
- Open Coalesced.ini with Notepad++.
- Press Control + F and search for “BioHint” no quotes.
- From lines 4714 to 4738, the m_aHints options, set the command “MaxDifficulty=3” to 0 instead of 3.
- Save the changes made in Np++, close it, and run the ME2 ini fixer. It will make a backup of Coalesced.ini and your changes will be made.
Finally, if you wish to disable ALL popup messages, at step 4 switch line 4712, “m_bEnabled=TRUE” to “FALSE” no quotes, save, close, and run the ME2 ini fixer.
Closing
That’s all there is to it. If you also find the mouse sensitivity settings lacking, you can edit them too while you’re in here.
NOTE: I have not played extensively with all on-screen messages disabled, but from what I can see, there isn’t anything that will prevent progress at any point.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully this guide will come in handy for those in the future who wish to replay the original Mass Effect trilogy, especially now that a wealth of information has been lost to the closure of Bioware’s forums.