Milestones

Wouldja lookit that: I hit 500 posts.

Not that it's amazingly hard when you're tech support for half the people who won't read docs as well as aspiring modders in the game.

Disappointed

With v5.5 out of my fucking hair for the week or so's respite I'll get until someone declares the sky is falling and it's all my fault again, I decided to try out some of the new mods I've had downloaded that required a new game.

These include: Arwen's Realism Tweaks, A Crowded Wasteland, Real Injuries - Primary Needs, and Zombie Apocalypse.

Gotta say, I'm not liking a single one.

Arwen's follows the tried-and-true(ly annoying) formula for video game "realism". IE: I KNOW! LETS TAKE AWAY ALL AMMO AND MAKE EVERYTHING HARDER! I guess cause so many people can't shoot a gun, take a punch, or carry heavy things that they assume no one can, and thus your digital avatar's ability to do so is the height of unrealism. Worse yet, the "AI rweaks" appear to have royally fucked over my companion system. I'm still investigating that one more closely, but when I switched Arwen's off, I was able to order the companions to follow again, and they went back to normal... may not be directly related, but the empirical evidence is pretty compelling.

A Crowded Wasteland and Zombie Apocalypse are both pointless, plain and simple. They spawn hundreds - if not thousands - of enemies all out for the player's blood. Everywhere you go. In a neverending horde. I had three companions laying down fire, and they couldn't keep up with the tide. That is a shit ton of enemies, folks. I don't get it. If you can't win, what's the point of playing?

Crowded Wasteland did provide one amusing moment, though. Had ducked into the access tunnels, as I was level one and out of ammo, and two of the 'crowd' followed me into to attack... only to get promptly capped by one of the tunnel guards.

Real Injuries annoyed the holy living shit out of me in record time. With the default timescale in Fallout 3, RI has you needing a drink every minute or two. It gets old, fast. Tried resetting the timescale to real time, and we'll see if that makes it any less a pain in my ass.

Also fired up MMM RC5. It's... MMM. What can I say? Badly retextured creatures that spawn at 5x the normal rate and drop useless items.

I was hoping this batch of mods might rekindle my rapidly waning interest in Fallout 3. Quite the opposite, it turns out. I'm less inclined to play now than I was before.

The only up-side to this little endeavor, is that the endless hordes gave me a perfect opportunity to test out the new combat style I've written for the girls. Got tired of that Bethesda CHARGE "tactic"... I swear, fuckin' cherries left and right...

Anyway.

Decided to see if I couldn't monkey with things a bit, and get the girls acting like people who actually know what the fuck they're doing with a weapon.

Can't call it an unequivocal success. Fallout 3 simply doesn't have the capacity to run truly realistic fireteam level infantry tactics. Still... I've got them using cover, making proper lateral movements while under fire - rather than that forward and backward bullshit they were doing before - and engaging in combat via aimed semi-automatic fire from a distance. Still tweaking here and there, but I think it'll make a passable addition to the mod.

Now if I could just teach them to fast-rope from a Vertibird and begin every sentence with the word fuck...

RR Companions Vault, v5.5

Has been uploaded.

You know the drill. Read the changelog if you care what's new.

Cursed...

Finishing up the changelog and some final testing on v5.5, but also looking over some screenshots of Exnem's body replacer for FO3.

I make no secret of the fact that I don't really like it. I prefer Dimon99's work.

That said, I also make no secret of the fact that I loved the HGEC mod of Exnem's Oblivion body replacer, and still use it to this day.

So, I keep an eye on the FO3 replacer file entry, in the hopes that someone will do a similar mod (are you listening, Hentai? We need you in the wasteland!) for Fallout 3.

Don't see one yet, but glancing over some screenshots, I can't help but think how cool that Mothership Zeta control room looks. Damn it, I have the urge to buy DLC...

New Day

Got some sleep, some attention, and a 'breakfast' (if one can term it such at 1530) of thick-sliced, smoked bacon and green tea.

Headache's gone for the time being, and with the inflammation goes the prone-ness to eyestrain.

So, I'm going back into the GECK. And none too soon, either. Seems like every time I take a fucking day off to play Oblivion, new bugs start cropping up. This time it's the 'go home' command in the companion system.

I'll confess I haven't tested it since I installed the thing - since I have no particular use for such things - but I've got a couple ideas of what it might be.

Also think I'm going to take a different approach to the tunnel residents' inventory problems. Thus far, I've been working around the idea of a reset plugin, which just doesn't work with filthy saves. We're going to have to be more drastic...

Slowdowns

You know, modding is much easier when I don't get a massive eyestrain/sinus headache every ten minutes while trying to read anything.

One of these days, I'm either going to move somewhere with non-toxic air, or find an anti-histamine that does more than knock the edge off.

...yeah, and shortly thereafter? An honest person will become a US senator, and the PLO will make peace with the Sons of Israel.

'Test Weapon'

Been seeing references to the "Test Weapon" mod for weeks on that Japanese mod database I keep an eye on.

Never paid much attention, figured it was just another new weapon.

Saw random screenshots of the oddest thing, too: a teddy bear, wearing pieces of armor or carrying weapons. No mod title attached, just "ScreenshotXXX,jpg"

Noticed an entry today on the Nexus new files listing named 'Teddybear Spirits - Test Weapons', and clicked for the hell of it.

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10990

I can't decide whether this is disgustingly cute, or completely disturbing.

Either way, those Japanese have some issues, I'm tellin' ya...

RR Companions Vault, Naked Guards, Yet Again

Report number two of the inventory problems persisting came in earlier. I still can't replicate the problem in my own game.

Seems like a dirty save issue, but of course, no one can be fucked to clean their save.

So, I decided to try a different tack. If I can get the NPCs the hell OUT of the save game completely, they should reset fully. Problem is, simple disable/enable commands don't do that.

Ran up a plugin similar to the No Protectrons one - that removes all ten NPCs from the access tunnels totally. In theory, saving with them gone, and then removing the removal plugin, would spawn them anew, for the first time as far as the game was concerned.

Trouble is, it didn't work when I first tried it. Figured it might be another dirty save issue, and started a new game. Sure enough, works fine, now.

Still have to test to see whether it actually resets them or not.

I hate to say it, but there may have been so many changes made to the mod over the last few months that there's just no getting around needing to clean out the savegame.

Still getting the urge to wash my hands of this whole mess.

How long have I been fucking with this showering thing, now? Three weeks? And for what? People still bitching I don't tailor the mod to their whims, code still doesn't work right...

The irony is I don't even like vaults. I only got involved in this damned mod for the companion system. I could strip it out, make it a standalone master, do the CM thing... But, of course that feels like I'd be abandoning the players who actually like the vault, itself. Gods know if it wasn't tied to my girls, I'd drop this fucking mod so fast it'd cause a sonic boom on the way down.

RR Companions Vault, Sorters

Well, I have to say I'm at least somewhat impressed.

Player asked me to update the FOOK2 sorters. I said no. I don't play FOOK2, I don't want anything to do with it. Not only is it a compatibility nightmare, but it does a whole mess of stuff I don't want done to my game.

Said that I'd put the fixed version up if he or someone else wanted to do it, though.

Looks like he picked up my gauntlet. Got a PM, declaring that he had the GECK installed and was going to learn the sorter scripting... and could I give any tips.

Well hell, we've all got to start somewhere.

Truth is, I don't know how to do it, either. I know the theory, but I've never written one. I also know the theory behind a triple bypass operation, but that don't mean you want me cuttin' on your chest with my MOD 875 series folder.

So, I popped one of the existing sorters open in the GECK, and had a look. True to my damnable intuitive grasp of scripting, I immediately identified several problems with ttomwv's original script, and was half way through typing an example into Cipcis' script validator when it occurred to me that I was doing the same thing I always do: throwing my time into a sinkhole of a project I don't like, for people I don't even know. Realizing this, I decided to be slightly more indifferent. Figured up the amount of time it would take me to convey a complete primer required to make someone understand the system of scripts, menus, and tokens I was writing in my head, and deleted the example script right there.

Opted instead to link to some general help posts and the GECK wiki, and offer the same canned advice that was always given to me: "find a script that does what you want, and change it to work on your items". So, I just explained how to rewrite the existing sorter blocks to apply to new items.

Yeah, I'm a dick, I know. But I also don't have the word 'instructor' tattooed across my forehead. I spend too much time doing tech support for people who don't listen as it is.

Personally? I don't see the big damned deal about sorters. Everyone's always yammering on about them... but I think they're a pain in the ass. Instead of just taking what I don't want to carry out of my inventory myself, I run the sorter and it takes EVERYTHING, and I have to go through six containers to get back the stuff I normally carry. Where's the time saver in that?

Still, I wish luck to the intrepid scripter.

Oblivion, Part II

Still at it.

Turns out that half the mods I thought I had, I didn't. They'd bit it in past purges to 'clean up' my downloaded mods directory. HGEC was one of these. Sure, I still had like eight different modifications of it, but not the base mod that all the others require.

Others I still have, but have decided not to run in whole, as I used to. COBL is one of these. Turns out some of the problems the previous install was having were due to COBL Races; more specifically, the cosmetic resource pack that goes with said plugin. Annoying, but not insurmountable.

Installed a few weapons, map, and weather mods. Not going overboard and installing ALL the weapons and armor I had before. I didn't use the vast majority of them, and they were just eating space and causing conflicts.

When I got home from dinner, I started playing with my old companions. Man, I had forgotten how shitty Oblivion's facial textures were.

Been toying with some replacements. I miss Dimon99's facial textures. So much easier to make pretty. Still, I think I've managed to find one that doesn't totally suck. Now just to get it all installed...

Still haven't actually fired the game up and started a new one, but I've gotta say, for the first time in months, I'm having fun.

Not having to worry over compatibility with FOOK2, or whether someone's got a dirty save, or is too stupid to extract an archive properly...

GodDAMN I had forgotten how fun it is modding for me. I'm going to have to start doing it again in Fallout 3, pretty soon.

Oblivion

Got bored this evening, couldn't stand to even THINK about Fallout scripting anymore.

Decided I wanted to lookit the pretty scenery and fire pieces of wood tipped with pointy metal into people, so naturally I thought of Oblivion.

Hadn't fired it up in a while, and had forgotten about some of the... interesting things that had happened over the years to the install.

Problems all over. Tons of stuff left in the data directory that shouldn't have been... I didn't even remember what half the stuff in there was. Tried and tried, couldn't find what was causing the problems...

...nothing for it, wipe and reinstall time.

I was loathe to do it, but I checked and can reinstall the mods I actually liked and used.

The tally? more than thirty thousand files and just over thirteen gigabytes of data in C:\Oblivion\

The down side to reinstalling this mess is going to be my HGEC install. I was quite fond of the body replacer I had ended up with. Trouble is, I'd modified the replacer several times. Updated bouncing boobs, super high res skin textures... After three odd years of messing with it, I don't remember what in the holy FUCK I did to get it that way. May take awhile to sort.

On the up side, This'll at least clear out the three or four dozen sets of armor I installed but never used for various reasons.

Firefox

You gotta love it.

Power pooched while I was typing a PM reply over on the Nexus.

When it came back up, I restarted the computer, opened Firefox, and it popped right back to not only the reply form, but even had my partially typed message saved.

It Never Ends...

Heard from Einherjrar this afternoon.

Now I'm supposed to wave a friggin' magic wand and make the weapon changing script also reset the newly equipped weapon's health to that of the old weapon.

Nevermind that the GECK has no provision for doing this.

It also seems that FOSE doesn't work worth a shit. It isn't recognizing its own commands, and has decided that my OnAdd block is invalid...

I hate scripting. I really do. I hated C++. I hated fucking QBASIC. I hate php and Java to this day, and I'm feeling none too friendly towards FO3's scripting engine.

The least the FOSE crew could do is include some goddamned documentation, beyond a list of the four hundred versions of the game it doesn't work with.

Vault 1, Shower Package Problems

Alright, Universe. You win.

I give up.

I'm just going to pull the damned packages and be done with it. These script problems are violating all ostensible rules of the scripting and package engines. Means it's likely an engine problem, which means I can't fix it.

This crap has just exceeded the amount of bullshit I'm willing to put up with.

Y'know, the worst part?

Getting a PM, lecturing me about scripting, written by someone who doesn't know a damned thing about it...

Urge to pack it in and declare the RR Companions Vault a fucking write off: rising rapidly.

RR Companions Vault...

You know, the real pisser of this naked tunnel resident thing is before, the problem never occurred for Chloe or her guards. I never touched their shower packages for the 5.3 update.

The only change I made to them, was setting them to use a new script that makes them auto-heal if they have stims in their inventory, and adds, force-equips, then removes a collar - an old trick to make the NPCs equip their best gear on loading.

Neither should interfere in any way whatsoever with the shower package...

But, it's a place to start, at least.

Gods, I wish one fucking thing would work right in this game for once.

Update, Later:

While not a fix by any means, I've thrown together a plugin that will reset the tunnel residents' inventory. It'll at least keep them from running around naked while I try to get this fixed.

Interesting...

Still working on my... seeeecret project. Was doing a map marker test, and happened to have a companion in tow.

Even though the area hadn't been navmeshed yet... she followed me around without a problem.

So now, I am forced to wonder: what in the holy hell have I done to the Fallout 3 follower AI?

Next they're going to start communicating via sign language; demanding voice files and a plane to Zurich...

Attention to Detail

Or, total lack thereof.

Inspecting some vanilla statics in the wasteland, to make notes on how they align so I can try something similar (not going to be specific about what I'm working on, as it may not work out and I don't want to get anyone's interest up without cause).

It's amazing Fallout 3 works as well as it does. Looking over this, and whoever did it was too lazy to align building parts by the X, Y, Z spatial coords. Just kinda got 'em close enough and left it. Looking close in the GECK, I can see the misalignment.

It's sheer luck for Bethesda that most players - myself included - are too preoccupied playing the game to look at stuff like that in-game. Had I not seen the coords, I'd never have bothered looking closer to satisfy my curiosity.

The more I mod FO3, the less bad I feel about my still-wanting skills. As far as I can see, most of us modders are fully qualified to make a fucking game too, once the internal toolset is ready.

Remember, Kiddies: games like Fallout 3 are not completely written in hex or something. Some of the more advanced members of the team write a toolset, and the rest of the game is done in a program amazingly similar to the GECK. The dev toolset usually has more functionality, and the ability to change things the one we get access to doesn't, but beyond that they're pretty close.

New Old Blog and Comment Settings

As I did when I started this blog, you get one notifying cross-blog link.

Matt's Musing has been reborn. While I'll keep the video game related stuffs here on Nos' Mods, I prefer to do my gun talkin' somewhere else. So that's going to go over there, along with stupid links, sales on gear and parts, and general rants about society and the stupidity to which I am subjected daily.

Yeah, I rant a lot. I'm a frustrated person, what can I say? You should've seen me when I wasn't getting laid.

Also: comment posting rules have been altered. I realize many of you who come over here from the Nexus may not blog, and thus not HAVE Blogger/Google accounts. In deference to you, my (at least somewhat) loyal players, I've eased the comment posting restrictions, to allow anyone to comment, even anonymously.

Don't abuse it. I will smack down spam comments like the hand of an angry fucking God.

No captchas, as I think those are the most frustrating thing invented since centralized Government.

Updates

Uploaded new versions of the RR Companions Vault Master, RRV1 Bedroom Redecorated, and the Alternate Guards files.

Refer to the individual file entries for changelogs.

I've had to gut yet another of my modding plans today, and I'm not in the mood anymore.

Conflict, Ahoy

Eeeyep, I knowed it.

Tracked the problem down.

Seems Refurb v5 modifies Chloe's lights, and helpfully resets them to be non-persistent references, which in turn completely fucking fucks my scripting to have her turn them on and off.

Everyone: wave goodbye to the changing lights.

See? What did I say about doing cool stuff?

v5.3 Delays

Always something...

I just loaded v5 of Refurbished to take a look at compatibility, and it's become crash city.

Gotta skim through and see what's conflicting where before I upload this mess.

It's bad enough having to deal with my own ideas, I tell you...

Poof

Yeah, I went and disappeared for a couple days again, didn't I?

Needed to fade away for a bit, and unload some stuff.

Feeling better now, for the moment at least.

Anyhow.

Allowed access to the Nexus again, and so will post v5.3 after I make one more run through of settings and so forth.

A minor heads up, as well: there likely isn't going to be a Vault 1 Alternate Start mod. While I'm now familiar with the theory behind how they work, the fact of the matter is that there are several dozen settings that have to be ignored or applied to keep the main quest running right, and it would take at least a week, probably two to test and see which does what exactly, and get it all working.

Not interested in striking off on another mod path, at the moment.

If you're into the AS route, I recommend Alternate Start - Roleplayers, by Khet. It's the one I use, and works well. Vault 1's map marker is enabled from the start, so it won't slow you down much.

I also notice Fry has put up v5 of Refurbished. I gotta say, as always, it's well done... but so not me. It's just... I dunno. Gaudy? Ostentatious? I mean, the Nifty Thrifty sign in front of Chloe's...

Then again, I'm probably not the best interior decorator. I can't walk through any furniture or home furnishing store without muttering "Who buys this shit?!"

As always, though, it is well done. Don't mind me and my warped sensibilities.

And Goddamn the universe is trying to get me into trouble. Someone uploaded a Stars 'n Bars flag modder's resource to the Nexus today. Have the very strong urge to hang them up in Vault 1...

Well, they're certainly going up in my Vault 1, I just can't say whether I'll upload for the rest of you.

Excuse me while I fight down the urge to throw out a rebel yell for you all.

RR Companions Vault v5.3, Upcoming, Again

v5.3 is pretty well done.

I just got done testing the last of the updates, and everything seems to be working fine.

I, however, have been up twenty two hours now, and I'm going to lie the fuck down.

I'll upload the file tomorrow, when I'm less disgusted with the entire world.

RR Companions Vault v5.3, Upcoming

We're entering the home stretch of v5.3. I'm doing some final tweaking and testing, and should have it up soon.

As it stands now, the changes are:

Chloe is no longer hired on. She simply begins in the tunnels. Now no one will have to ask me where to find her, why it takes so long for her to set up, or complain that the new NPCs don't appear where they're supposed to. This will also remove the bitchfest I've had to deal with over the guards ostensibly attacking Canterbury residents.

Chloe's AI has received a slight modification; she now turns out most of the bedroom and shop lights when she goes to bed, and turns them back on when getting up.

Tunnel guards' shower packages have received updates, that have thus far prevented them ending up naked. Only time will tell whether it's an actual fix, though.

Sliding doors have been added to the here-to-fore empty doorways in the access tunnels. Most default to open, so you may have to look close to notice them.

Couches in the Overseer's office in Vault 1 have been fixed. They were previously floating in the air about six inches, and apparently have been since before I started working on the mod.

The wall-lean marker in the Vault 1 lounge has been fixed. Previously, it had the guard leaning up against air, several inches from the wall.

Dialog options and accompanying scripts have been modified. The companions are now set to PlayerTeammate 1 upon hiring, or being told to follow. When told to stay, or when you break up, they are set to Playerteammate 0. This is mainly so you people will stop bitching at me about not being able to talk to companions whilst sneaking. However, do note that when you speak to them while in the act of sneaking, speaking to them will cause them to stand up. This is hardcoded into the engine as far as I can tell, and I can't change it. Don't ask.

Other dialog has received updates to fix spelling, puntuaction, and just plain lame lines. Animations have also been added to several, and the code for the 'turn off your pip-boy light' has been fixed - both responses should actually turn the light off, now.

New companion feature: in the personal items dialog menu, you will be able to have your companion equip or remove their pip-boy. The 'turn on your pip-boy light' option has been set so that it only appears if the companion is wearing one.

Guh

I... hate... Chinese... made... furniture...

(just had to put together a metal futon frame for someone)

Sum1sh00tmeplzkkthx.

Train of thought destroyed. Modding intentions derailed. Work will resume later.

PSA

And now, we here at NosCo would like to give you a public service announcement, on how to tell when modding a game possibly occupies too much of your life:

Memory Lane...

Or, "Trips through Tamriel".

Was digging through some of my mod folders, and noticed a screenshot I took in Oblivion, well over a year ago.

I had to post it.



The brunette and the dark elf are Saerileth and Viconia; that I've mentioned before as partial inspirations for parts of my FO3 companion system work.

The blond is a CM companion named Mehm, based somewhat on a certain princess from an anime series my girl is fond of and has made me watch about fifteen times now. She didn't make the jump from Oblivion to Fallout 3... at least, not yet.

You may recognize the two redheads without any explanation from me, though...

As I said, I've got about a dozen CM companions of my own creation in my Oblivion folder. Vampires, Elves, Imperials, Dark Seducers... even a Golden Saint. No plans to upload them, though.

I would... but Gods know it's taking all the considerable free time I have just keeping the FO3 mess under control.

If you look close, you can also see how much I've learned about NPC face creation and editing over the last year. Someday I need to go back and work over the CM crew...

Nos' Companions Special, Upcoming

Been tinkering with the custom bodied version of the companions pack, still. It's just about done. I'm happy with most of it... save two textures.

One is one I modified for the Cohen sisters. I added them an Outcast tattoo on the left arm. Trouble is, Fallout 3 doesn't wrap the texture straight, and you end up with this:



Isn't horrid... just not quite right. I've actually got the tattoo twisted a good twenty degrees to one side on the texture to get it even that straight in game. Not sure what I can do about the curve in the center, other than try to twist it to the opposite of that design so that it wraps straight.

Second problem is with Maeva. Her original form called for black lipstick, nails, a set of horns and a spade tail (demon and all...). I've since opted to leave the horns and tail out, but wanted to add the lipstick and nail polish.






The odd bit on the face I'm not so worried about. It's caused by the fucked up vault lighting, and doesn't look like that under sunlight. The problem, you can see if you look close, is that the lipstick does not cover her entire bottom lip. This is completely contrary to how it looks in the base texture, where it does cover the entire lip. Again, weird texture wrapping at work.

The nails look okay, but I see some odd problems now and again. Trouble is, I'm not sure what's a legitimate problem, and what's just an error in the pose mod's animation file.

So, hell, I dunno. Nothing seems to work lately. Wondering again why I bother.

Fed Up

Right the fuck up.

Tired of it.

People run fucked up games, and can't be bothered to give reports more detailed than "IT R NO WERK".

You people obviously run some seriously badly written mods out there, and I'm tired of busting my ass to work out around them.

So, y'know what? Nothing else cool. Nothing realistic.

From now on, shit just appears where it's going to stay.

Chloe and her henchwomen will just BE in the access tunnels, as of 5.3.

No more whining about faction problems with your custom Canterbury mod, no more "I waited ten seconds and they didn't show up HALP!"

Nope. POOF! Set up shop. Magic. All fixed, and I can go the fuck back to working on my companions.

Scripting Fail

Essential script didn't work. It just will not do it without an explicitly called reference.

If I call the reference specifically, then the options won't work for any companions but the ones I write. Unless you're handy enough with scripting to do it yourself, at least.

Hell with it. The companions are immortal, and ever shall be.

I'm going to bed.

Inspiration

Just had a flash, and I think I know how to make the essential/nonessential dialog option for the companions work.

Gotta write this down. Where's my Post-It pad...

Nos' Load Order

Alright, in the hopes of helping some folks out who may not be able to get one running, here's where I'm gonna post my load order. I'll update it periodically, but likely as edits to this same post.

I'll add a note to the RR file entry later.

A few notes beforehand:

As I've stated before, I do not run FWE, FOOK/FOOK2, Project Beauty, or a great deal of other mods. My load order is fairly Spartan, truth be told, because first and foremost I go for reliability, and a great many mods out there simply can't turn that in.

I do have MMM RC5, Real Injuries, and Arwen's Realism Tweaks downloaded and in my data folder, but they have not, as yet, been activated. MMM has been a perpetual thorn in my side whenever I've tried to use it, and Arwen's tweaks and Real Injuries are complete unknowns to me, so I've been waiting to turn those three on until I can devote the time needed to figure out where they need to go.

Also, I do not use FO3Edit's masterupdate. At all. Ever. I recommend you do not, either. If a mod needs to be a master, its author should make it one, plain and simple. Masterupdate will cause problems with the RR series of mods. This is not conjecture or bias on my part, it is documented and repeatable and took several of us a bit of time to track down the exact cause.

FO3Edit has many useful features, that just ain't one of them.

Okay, ready? Here we go...


Fallout3.esm
Lings.esm
CRAFT.esm
CALIBR.esm
LingsFinerThings.esm
Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow.esm
20th Century Weapons.esm
RRCompanionVault.esm
Nos' RR Companions.esm
RR Vault 1 Alternate Guards.esm
Nos' Special Equipment.esm
Nos' Special Companions.esm
MoreMapMarkers.esp
ClearSkies_v2.esp
Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow in Fallout.esp
Enhanced Weather - Weather Sounds in Interiors.esp
Enhanced Weather - Sneak Bonus during Storms.esp
RR Vanilla Companion Integration.esp
RRWastelandPosters.esp
RR No Vault 1 Protectrons.esp
RR Vault 1 No Automatic Doors.esp
RRV1 Bedroom Redecorated.esp
RR Companion Vault 20thCW Supply.esp
CRAFT - Activation Perk.esp
CALIBR Ammo Schematics - CRAFT.esp
Mannequin.esp
UPP - Pack 1.esp
UPP - Pack 2.esp
UPP - Quest Perks.esp
UPP - Original Perks.esp
UPP - Experience Perks.esp
Combat Style Perks.esp
Unisex Black Widow and Ladykiller.esp
2nd-to-1st.esp
Alternate Start - Roleplayers.esp
AS-R CALIBR Patch ONLY.esp
sunglassescollection.esp
kikaiEquipment.esp
MicroBikini_recolour.esp
CSwimsuit_and_Harness_recolor.esp
wasteland_mix1F.esp
CrossRepairWeapons.esp
CrossRepairArmor.esp
LJD_ENCLAVE ENABLED MOIRA BROWN.esp
Defender .600.esp
LED pipboy light extended.esp
M1911s CALIBR Compatible.esp
Cat Outfit Only.esp
Nos' Caravan Mod.esp
OutFits.esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (TEST Container).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (Vendor).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (NPC_Settler).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (Raider).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (RivetCity).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (Brotherhood_Outcast).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (SuperMutant).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (Vault 101).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (Chinese Ghoul).esp
20th Century v4 ALIVE (Talon_Regulator).esp
20th Century Weapons Selectors.esp
LingsFinerThings.esp
LingsPrettyThings.esp
TUPAM.esp
CALIBR Ammo Loot 20thCW.esp
Owned!.esp
KillableKidsNormalHealthOptional.esp
The Groovatron.esp

Total active plugins: 68
Total plugins: 112

As you can see, most of the items in my data directory are not active. I didn't kill a bunch of mods to make my load order look better, that's the one I actually play on. The thing to keep in mind is MMM has a good dozen files in it, Arwen's is another one, and Real Injuries has seven by the look of it. Also figure in that I'm a predominantly lazy person, and for convenience sake, I keep in my data directory the editable esp versions of the plugins that eventually become the RR Companions Vault, my companions pack, alternate guards, and a few others. There's also Lox's Jessi and Kelsey, who I keep around for some occasional testing, but do not normally have active in my game.

There are also several unuploaded mods in my list. Nos' Special Companions is a test-bed, where I play with things like custom races, special scripts, and the custom bodies that are in the works for the main companions pack. Nos' Special Equipment is a collection of stuff I've scavenged mostly from this Japanese mod database I know about. I can't read a word one of Japanese, so I just stuffed the items into a new plugin, rather than try to deal with the others. I've got no rights to upload any of it, and wouldn't even know where to begin looking to ask permission, so don't even ask me.

Others are things for my personal game - like "Nos' Caravan Mod" and "Unisex Black Widow and Ladykiller" that there are a dozen other mods out there just like. I just find it easier to run up simple plugins myself, rather than download someone else's... less chance of a dirty mod, that way.

Even though you'll see it in the tutorial screenshots, AP is not active in this load order. I'm not trying to pretend I'm not a perv, but I don't normally run AP. I had updated it just before I started on the tutorial, and forgot I had left it active for testing. The new "fixes" didn't, so I turned it back off this morning. May tinker with it some more in the future, but it's not a priority by any means.

In general, the non RR masterfiles you see are fairly easy to get along with. The two Ling's masters, CRAFT, CALIBR, and 20thCW don't argue amongst themselves, and generally go wherever with little complaint. I usually keep CRAFT on top, followed by CALIBR, but I recently updated Ling's Coiffure, which included the new Ling's.esm, the documentation for which wanted it on top of the stack. I tried it there, and everything still works, so I called it good.

Enhanced Weather generally plays fine wherever. Weather mods - so long as you only run the one - very rarely conflict with non-weather mods.

The RR master files don't fight much with the others, but I keep them together for simplicity. RRCompanionVault.esm has to come first in the stack. After that comes my companions pack, as it is a master for the alternate guards and special companions files.

Your RR companions will need to follow a similar progression; coming after RRCompanionVault.esm, but before any other files that may be dependent on it. Unless you use it as a master, as well, your companion pack will not interfere with mine in any way, and they two should not ever conflict.

Other RR masters you don't see - things like the RRGuards, and 5More plugins should come directly after RRCompanionVault.esm, but before things like my companions pack. The three plugins play fine together in any order, and do not conflict amongst themselves.

Moving to esps, again, weather mods are usually best near the top. They, like their masters, tend not to conflict often, but it's best to make the weather changes early, so anything that may modify them later on can do so with a minimum of fuss. I should also note that though I have it in with them, Clear Skies is not technically a weather mod - it simply removes the icky green tint from everything.

Moremapmarkers doesn't conflict with anything so far as I know. I just shove it at the top to keep it out of my way when looking for something that is load order dependent further down.

Next we've got the RR plugins. Again, exact order doesn't really matter. If they work where I drug them the first time, I tend not to mess with it further. Remember though, if you use Refurbished, it should probably be high in your plugin list, so that plugins like the non-automatic doors, no protectrons, and posters can all do their overwriting of Refurbished's changes. Though I'll confess I'm not an expert on the interactions, as I turn on Refurbished only when I made a major change to the vault, and need to see if I broke anything.

Next we've got CRAFT and CRAFT ammo schematics. The schematics use CRAFT, and so should come after, but beyond that CRAFT load order only becomes an issue if you run something else that modifies the work bench - which is ill-advised, as the work benches are a one or the other proposition, and don't accept multiple changes at once.

Mannequin doesn't conflict with anything. it's there in the order because that's where I dropped it to keep it out of my way.

After that we have my block of perk mods. These are sensitive to load order only insofar as their relation to someone else that modifies the same perks. UPP for example adds new perks, but also modifies a few vanilla ones as I recall, so you can see my unisex Black Widow and Ladykiller mod, as well as 2nd-to-1st loaded later, to overwrite again any changes UPP may have made to normal perks. Combat Perks only adds new ones, and doesn't modify anything - that's just where it ended up.

I like Alternate Start and its CALIBR patch to load after the perk mods, in case it modifies any. Though this one will likely be getting the axe when I get the V1 Alternate Start mod going.

After that we move into items. These are new items and not modifications to other items, so they're not strictly speaking load order sensitive. Bear in mind however that if two mods add an item to the same container or room, you oftentimes only get the one that loads last.

I've carefully culled most of these from my list, over the months.

Below that, you see the order gets kind of messy. This is mostly apathy on my part. The mods therein don't seem to care where they go, so I left them where they ended up. If a problem arises, I tinker. If not, I don't fix what ain't broke.

Once you hit the 20th Century Weapons ALIVE plugins, I start to care again. ALIVE modifies the leveled lists and loot for the indicated groups. Consequently, these need to be down towards the bottom of your list, where they'll overwrite any earlier changes. MMM can conflict heavily here, as it also modifies the loot of groups like Raiders. Whichever you load last generally wins. Since I like neat guns better than salamander shit or whatever that useless mess MMM adds are, 20thCW gets the nod in my load order.

After that you get Ling's Finer Things and Ling's Pretty Things, as they both need to come after another other mods that make similar changes, for best effect. My cravan mod actually conflicts with Ling's Pretty Things - they both modify caravan guards. But by loading LPT after my caravan mod, it wins out and make the cosmetic changes to the guards, while my mod remains in effect and keep the traders and their brahmin (not modified by LPT) essential.

CALIBR loot modifies several other level lists and loot tables, so I want it loading as low as possible - overwriting even ALIVE.

Owned! modifies a great many buildings in the wasteland, so we want it low to overwrite as much as possible. Interestingly enough, Owned! is compatible with item mods. A couple of the clothing mods above put their item boxes in Dukov's place, but because Owned! modifies only the bar on the ground floor, the two do not conflict.

After Owned! we have Killablekids, which I'll confess I simply forgot about, and didn't move after installation. Again: no problem, I don't mess with it.

The last mod to load in my list is the Groovatron. It gets this coveted position because at the bottom, it overwrites all other animation mods, which seems to keep it working best.

Well, there you have it. Not pretty, not OCD organized, but it works.

A few other things to keep in mind, as you try to determine your own load order:

1) Some mods simply do not play well together. Any huge, overarching mod is a likely culprit for this. FOOK2 is the biggest offender in the universe in this regard, and seems to conflict with almost everything. FWE and MMM are also bad about this. There are supposedly ways to get the three working without selling your soul to Cthulu, but I have no idea how, so don't ask.

2) As an ancillary to point 1, sometimes it is simpler by far to simply decide which of two conflicting plugins you like better. I had a mod downloaded once that overhauled the Tenpenny suite. Trouble was, it also removed the floor of the Museum of Technology. Needless to say, it went away - the overhaul wasn't that nice. Your decisions may not be so easy, but you can usually tell which is the better or more useful mod with relative ease.

3) Once you get a working load order, leave it the hell alone. Hexadecimal objectIDs are assigned by Fallout 3 based on a mod's place in the load order. This why you have to know where your mod sits in the order to use an additem command successfully. Moving mods around can mess with this ID, and cause problems, even crashing to desktop events.

I seriously doubt I'm going to really help anyone out with this, but here it is all the same. Here's hoping you find this at least somewhat useful.

I Have Arisen!

From my place at death's door.

Damned food poisoning. I swear, the cooks at all the local restaurants have some form of the fucking black death...

Anyhow.

Alive-ish, again, for the moment, at least.

Getting some modding done today. I've already gotten v5.3 of the RR master about done. I think I have the naked guards problem solved, but only time will tell. If I can ever get the system un-fucked, I plan to expand the daily showering thing to the standard V1 residents, as well. Can't imagine living in recycled air with a dozen people who never bathe would be very much fun.

Also gotten the next version of Redecorated about ready. Like last version, this is smaller than I wanted to release, but I just don't have the time to dedicate to it right now. So I'll make do with just the new couches and rugs moved into the access tunnels. At least keep a consistent theme going.

I've also begun seriously looking into an alternate start mod for Vault 1. It seems straightforward enough, but I've learned not to be deceived by this evil, evil game.

Because of numerous requests, I'm also going to be posting my load order up here shortly. I know you can see parts of it in the screenshots for the tutorial, and apparently people are beginning to wonder how I keep it all playing nicely.

More New Screenshots

Yeah, I'm on a roll this morning. Seem to have worked out the conversion settings, and had the decent fucking sense for once to save my settings as defaults for easy loading later on. Should speed the conversion process a tish, at least.

Managed to get the jpg's going with only a two to three-fold increase in size - 500 to 800kb, rather than the previous 250 to 400kb. Quality is still good, and file size (being below a meg) should be shiny for the Nexus and Picasa both.

Want to have a look? You know you do...

First, we've got two from Redecorated, showing off the pool lighting and alternate bedroom lighting, respectively:






Next, we've got Ellie:




And two of Maeva:





Damn, I love those eyes.

Seems I still need to do a bit of work on her facial skin, though. Doesn't quite match up... Must be wearing makeup.

Yeah, that's my story... >_>

New Screenshot, Alma

Finally got Picasa to take a png file.

The downside? It "helps" me by converting the displayed file to 640x480.

Still, the difference is considerable.

Observe:

Here's one of Alma I took the other day.




Now, here's the one with upped graphics:



Pretty impressive increase in quality. Still, the increase in file size coupled with the aggravation of uploading one at a time to preserve the format makes this less than practical. Suppose I'll have to try out gif...

Edit:

Trying some new conversion settings in GIMP, since JPG seems to be the only practical format.



This is the JPG version of the same Alma picture, set up to pull the max quality I can from the JPG file format.

For the life of me, I can't tell a noticeable difference between the two, even under 2x magnification.

Downside is to get them like this, I have to convert each one by hand. It seems the third party "batch converter" plugin I've been using has been responsible for the lion's share of the quality loss.

Annoying as it is... I think the extra trouble is warranted.

Of course, this also means I'm going to have the urge to remove and retake every one of my posted screenshots...

New Screenshots

Still playing with the new graphics this morning.

Switched to making my screenshots .png files instead of .jpg, as jpg has horrible quality, even at maximum "quality".

So I ran the conversion this time from bmp to png, because the Nexus handles png images.

Wow, are they nice.

The downside? Ten times the size of the 800x600 jpg files I normally upload - or almost two and a half megabytes a piece.

I somehow doubt the Nexus would like it much, especially as overloaded as their servers are since taking up the Dragon Age mantle.

...and it turns out that my Picasa account won't handle png at all. "Some of these files may be converted to jpg before upload"

You know, if I wanted them to be fucking jpg I would have converted them myself.

Fallout 3 Graphics: System Specs, and No Logic?

Downloading the new Ling's Coiffure; I upgraded LFT earlier this morning, and pulled one of the things I bitch so much about myself - didn't RTFM. Didn't notice that he changed the BSA files on the new versions. I thought the NPCs were missing some hair styles...

Anyhow, got some time to kill while the ~250mb downloads, and the food poisoning that had me praying for death moreso than I usually do last night has finally let up, so I figured I'd ramble a bit about something that has yer 'ol buddy Nos perplexed.

As I've mentioned before, I run what one would call a 'bottom spec' system for Fallout 3. 2.4ghz Athlon64 (but saddled with a 32bit windows install), 1gb DDR2, and a GeForce 8400GS that I broke down and bought to play The Witcher.

Is an Emachine I bought in 2007, when I got tired of being held back by my postively archaic (but tough as a goddamned anvil) PIII 800, that I had been stuck with when my previous Athlon's mainboard shit itself and went off to Valhalla.

Yeah, I know, real gamers build their own rigs. I've been building my own since I was 12, when the 2x86 was still hot shit.

Eventually, I got tired of it. Last system I bought to do myself from Newegg had a fucked-from-the-box processor, and it turns out they have seven day from the date of purchase return policy on CPUs. To top it off, I paid for three day shipping, and didn't get it for five. So I had one night to try what troubleshooting I could, get it boxed back up, and shipped overnight back to them. Lost something like $75 on that fucking deal, after UPS took their bite out of my ass to make up for their slow shipping the first time.

Decided I didn't want to deal with it. Bought the Emachine, cause yeah it's a Gateway, but at least if it didn't work I had a receipt and someone to bitch to.

Gonna have to break down and do it again soon, I fear. This one still runs fine, but I can't run anything newer than FO3. Not that there's much out I want... but I see something every now and again that looks interesting. Up side being that these days, $450 or so will net me a dual core with three or four gigs of DDR3. Slap my 600w PSU and GF8400 into the new box, and I'm golden for another year or two.

Anyhow, because of my lackluster system specs, I've always run Fallout 3 near to the bottom of its capabilities. 800x600, no shadows, no HDR, no bloom, no AA, specularity and light fades turned alllll the way down. It's pretty sad, really.

Finally got tired of turning in such shitty screenshots, and decided to tinker last night... as I was in blinding pain and couldn't sleep anyway.

Cranked it up to 1024x768, activated HDR, and gave a couple bars to light and specularity fade.

Didn't get a chance to test until this afternoon here, but all I can say is "...dowhatnow?"

Not only did my substantial upping of the graphics not hurt anything... but it seems to have helped.

Performance inside V1 is still shit (twenty five odd NPCs in one cell do that), but really no worse than it was. Outside, though... It actually stutters less in Megaton than it did before.

I have no fucking idea, either. I'm beginning to wonder, though, if Bethesda wasn't too lazy to scale the graphics properly - Gods know they weren't meticulous in any other facet of the game - and the reduced settings weren't optimized as well as the "normal" ones.

Or, hell, they could have gone too far, and made bottom settings use shader 1.0 or something, and my card can't render legacy shaders correctly. Who knows.

Regardless, I'm gonna keep testing, and probably nab some more screenshots; cause wow do the girls look better now.

Y'know, stuff some decent horsepower behind 'em, and apparently my NPCs really do look kickass.

Makes me briefly wonder about a quad core system with SLI'd GPUs hooked up to a 22" HD monitor...

Of course, then I remember that a rig like that would cost enough to buy myself a 300 Whisper upper, five hundred casings, and a fucking ACOG to go on it.

You know, it sucks: being not-steadily-employed; having two hobbies, but only able to scrape up cash to indulge in one.

Much as I like Fallout 3, putting real holes in things is way more fun than doing it via digital proxy...

RR Companions Creation Tutorial

Has been uploaded.

Well, actually it was uploaded more than twelve hours ago now, but between running up and down the interstate and feeling like I'm dying, I haven't had a chance to post.

So, here you go.

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3644

It's in the miscellaneous files section, at the bottom.

Thus far, problems have already been reported from someone who apparently skimmed and did not read it all. Right next to that was a comment from someone who couldn't understand why the mod was broken and kept showing these big red diamonds on the guards and the gear door.

...does anyone read any of the documentation I write?

Seriously. I'm apparently wasting a large number of the hours of my life on text no one knows exists.

Whatever, I guess... I'm going to go do something else for awhile.

Also

While installing said mods, I just noticed that I'm in fairly dire need of cleaning out my Data directory. I've got meshes in there that I haven't used the mod for in a damned year now.

Is a wonder I manage to keep my game as stable as it is...

Short Attention Span...

With the way I latch on to things and don't let go until they're done or I have eyestrain so bad I can't read the screen anymore, I'd like to think I don't have one... but some days I wonder.

Banging around the Nexus this morning, replying to comments and checking out new mods.

See one called Zombie apocalypse. Sounds fun, I download. Grab a couple to go with it - one that turns ferals into shamblers, and a sound fix for said shambling mod.

See another mod recommended by the Zombie Apocalypse author that aids in "realism". Remember that Arwen is constantly pushing her realism "tweaks", so decide to do a search and see what they're all about, as I'm finding the game ridiculously easy with any two of my sadistic cuties in tow, and I see that Arwen recommends new game.

Start thinking about new game. Which, of course, makes me start thinking about how much I hate AS-R's starting location... which of course makes me think about the V1 alternate start mod I've been tossing around in the labyrinthine HELL that is my head...

Trouble is, I still haven't finished that damned tutorial.

So you get a glimpse of how I can be so one-track minded, yet still a complete airhead.

A leads to B, but while working on B I'm thinking about C and D. D is less trouble so I decide to do it first, but by the time I'm done with D I'm ready to start in on H and have completely fucking forgotten C. And, of course I remember a week later at five in the morning, and jump around and do it at the last second...

Don't ever let anyone tell you that having a very active mind is a boon. It's a fucking curse, I tell you.

...and of course, the Goddamned Nexus just went down again. You know, it's shit like this that erases any urge I have to become a premium member.

RR Companions Creation Tutorial, Upcoming

Yeah, I've been slacking off. Said I was going to have that damned thing written what, six weeks ago?

I'm a slacker, what can I say.

Am mostly done with it. The basic tutorial is done. Still need to write up a mod list, and a page of advanced companion stuffs - adding custom hairs, custom races, mod-weapons, and so on.

Writing the whole thing in html format, freehand in notepad. Ye Gods I had forgotten how much I hate writing html freehand.

Anyhow, when finished, it's likely going to get a separate file entry in the Nexus, and not go up as a miscellaneous download in the main file entry. That mess is cluttered enough as it is, and I want this tutorial easy to find.

...and I have to keep reminding myself not to add a paragraph tag at the end of every block of text...

Nos' Companions, Screenshots, Kate and Alma

Oh, the horrific ordeals I endure for you people.

Grabbed Kate and Alma, put them into some suitable armor, and went adventurin'.

Cleared out the SatComm relays up north, wandered along the Potomac awhile, cleaned out the Deathclaw Sanctuary, and finally ending up in Roosevelt Academy.

Lessons learned:

1) The laser rifle still sucks.

2) Alma burns through fifty cal ammo faster than Maeva does 7.62 NATO. I didn't think that was possible. 35 rounds lasted her all of about ten seconds with an AS-50. Finally defaulted to just giving her a scoped G36. 5.56mm ammo I got. Seemed to work for her, and the super muties were far too dead to complain.

3) NPCs still don't understand GAS LEAK.

And now, the screenshots I'm sure you all suffered through my rambling to get to:



Alma and Kate, posing for a photo before we began the assault on the Satcomm station. Alma, of course, is dressed as an Adeptus Sororita, with Kate wearing the Battle Scribe with Targeter outfit from Ling's Finer Things. The Sisters armor came with a helmet, but it does make it rather difficult to tell who's inside, and since I'm not taking photos for that mod...




Alma posing over a raider she capped. I really like this one. BEGONE, SINNER! Really should've given her a flamer for the full effect.




I decided to stick Kate in the other set of Sisters armor that came with the mod. Mostly because I didn't feel like carrying the crap anymore, but I also figured it might make for a neat screenshot at some point in our adventure. I was right. I call this one "Sisters of Battle" which is simultaneously somewhat witty and so very cheesy and lame. Oh well, what're ya gonna do?

That's it for the installment. Getting good screenshots is harder than you'd think. These'll be going up to the Nos' RR Companions file entry here shortly.

Ugh. More in the PM box? Notoriety has its downsides, I assure you.

Caught!

Aw, my rant got read by the subject of it.

I R ashaemd.

No, wait...

I'm a heartless asshole and don't really care.

Had myself confused with someone else there for a second. Sorry, my bad.

Regardless, to stop reveling in my own dick-ness for a moment and actually say something pertinent to the purpose of the blog here, I've got more screenshots in the works.

Alma, this time, and dressed up as a Sister of Battle, no less. I just couldn't resist...

Should also mention, FO3 screenshots are pretty decent from the get-go. Tried working one over in the GIMP to enhance it, and couldn't really make any improvements.

Now if I just had enough system to crank it up to 1024x768...

Not Even A Week...

That's right, I can't even get a freaking week off from people asking me to do something stupid to Vault 1.

What is it this time, you ask?

Look at what I got in my PM box this morning:

"So,I know probably it's a lot of work but could you please if you have time remove the npc routines to get into the pool for the next version?Or maybe if it's easier to remove the pool entirley and just add a fixed floor like a normal vault atrium or replaced by a big aquarium and on top the floor(this way the observation chamber still has it's uses)?Of course perhaps you don't want the pool removed but something like a separate version?
I'm thinking EC 0.9 and your vault are very popular mods and perhaps you could fix a lot of issues this way(if people ar having this problem as well as me).Basically any fix that let them walk around the vault without getting into the water."

The problem he was originally asking about involved crashing of the game when Enclave Commander is running.

This is the first I've ever heard of the pool causing a CTD - with any other mods.

So, apparently I'm supposed to gut one of the most popular features of the mod, destroy compatibility with Refurbished, and invalidate the central design feature of the entire fucking Vault... so one player can billet his unstable, mod-added troopers in the vault.

Look, I understand wanting to have your retinue stick with you. Gods know I do. I spent four months rewriting the RR companion system so I could keep my girls around...

But I have used Enclave Commander. I used it back in v0.75, before J3X added that Broken Steel requirement, and I'm gonna tell ya kiddies: the Enclave Troopers EC spawns have never been stable. I used to have tons of problems with them. I'd get game crashing every ten to fifteen minutes if I had more than six along... and he's talking about ten to twenty of the fuckers.

I still do not understand you peoples' fascination with trying to turn FO3 into another game.

If you want to play MW2, go play it.

Fallout 3 is a post apocalyptic, first person hybrid of RPG and shooter, focusing around story, large environments, and small scale combat. It is what it is, and while I don't mind trying to add to it... I'm also smart enough to know when to live within the limits of the game engine.

I'm sure he also runs MMM increased increased spawns and Feral Ghoul Rampage... I can't imagine the strain that poor PC has to put up with.

You guys wouldn't believe some of the "suggestions" I've gotten.

"Oh, and if you have a minute... could you completely redesign the mod from the ground up to satisfy my whim, even though it would totally alienate almost your entire playerbase? Thanks."

Got asked once to resdesign the mod to turn it into a plugin for the Real Time Settler mod.

I mean, hey, I applaud arcoolka and crew for having the ingenuity and skill to get that thing working in Fallout 3's engine... but what in the holy fuck would that have to do with an underground vault?

During my short-lived "fan request companion pack" (which was a monumentally stupid idea on my part, let me tell you...) one of the "suggestions" was a companion who had no combat ability whatsoever, but could hack special Vault-Tec computers. Needless to say, this would require a specialized quest be written... and guess who was supposed to do that, too?

It's no damned wonder the world is in the shape it is, today, with the hordes of people who apparently don't think any further than "I want this, and you should do it for me for nothing!"

I can't imagine how people like Tubal and Dimon99 and Blackie deal with it.

Of course, again, I don't want to give the incorrect impression that I think the whole community is a pack of worthless moochers with no grasp on reality.

There are plenty of fine folks out there in FO3 land. People like Sgt Ovakil, who not only gives reliable feedback, but also listens when I suggest a way to fix something, and even helps out with tech support in the file comments. Modders like ttomwv and Fry1969, who are amiable, easy to get along with, and yet still talented. People like Dimon99, who was kind enough to not only give me permission to monkey around with his work, but even answered some questions I had on working with dds files. Shockingly enough, there are also people like Merkur67 and Thorbits, who actually asked permission before modifying and re-uploading my work.

I know, I was rendered speechless, as well.

It just annoys me that for every one person I don't mind dealing with, it seems like there are ten just like the little twits you see in the World of Warcraft, who stand on a corner in Stormwind yelling "Cn i haev sum godl plz?!"

Okay, I've ranted long enough. Think I'm going to scavenge through my Mother Hubbard-like cupboards and then watch some more Farscape. Once I've calmed down, I'll either add that new code to the shower packages, or sit down and do some story writing for sweet 'lil Ellie.

RR Companions Vault, 20thCW Plugin

Yeah, I dropped the fucking ball again.

Completely forgot that the supply system plugin overrides Chloe's default inventory. So... anyone still running it would have not seen the "fix" of v5.2.

What really sucks, is I had turned the plugin off, and already deleted the modification to her inventory in preparation of fixing it to upload with v5.2. I just got sidetracked again and forgot to actually update the damned thing.

Updated now, tested out fine, seems to work okay all around.

Of course, now one of the Tunnel Guards has ended up naked...

Not a supply system issue, but one in the main mod. Means something interrupts the scripting surrounding the shower package.

I can fix it. A check on the start of the patrol package to see if DR > 0, and if not, re-add armor and weapons oughta do it.

I swear, the bugs just never fucking end in this game...

Nos' Companions, Screenshots

Said I was going to take some new and better ones, and I've been keeping my word.

The problem?

Fucking Nexus is down, again.

Ate one of my fucking file comments, too.

So sick of this shit. You'd think if they've got such a hardon for supporting the new hot game, they could be bothered to throw on enough extra hardware to handle every dipshit that plays Dragon Age or whatever it is checking for new mods every two seconds.

Can you even mod Dragon Age?

Well, something's sure as hell bitchslapping the Nexus servers around, and I doubt people are visiting for the witty commentary on the forums, so I suppose they must mod it.

Regardless, I've got a small slew of new screenshots for you all. Some have been uploaded to the Nexus, some haven't.

Here we go...



Amanda, from the alternate guards plugin, v1.6. Turned out downright cute, didn't she?




v1.6 alternate guard Raven, looking bored on guard duty. With the prisoner system gone, there isn't much to guard in the lower levels of the vault, these days.




v1.7 companions pack Maeva, showing what a stone fucking hottie she's become, and modeling a custom weapon. Normally, I wouldn't care about a Rooney-rifle'd AR, but this is the custom weapon that had my selector script borrowed to power it. Screenshot was taken not just for the companions pack, but to upload for the custom weapon... but with the Nexus down I can't upload it.




v1.7 Kate, showing that even petite girls are improved by a black bikini. Yeah, I know I'm going to hell.




v1.7 Mai, again with the black bikini. I'd say it's a recurring theme with me, but it's also a recurring theme with Type 3 outfits. Must be a guy thing.




v1.7 Celia. Gotta love a woman in a corset and stockings with a big fucking gun. Interesting side note: while watching the Farscape complete series boxed set I received for Christmas, I couldn't help but notice I unconsciously made Celia look a hell of a lot like Aeryn. Claudia Black (who played Aeryn) I will confess I always found hot, even if she is too skinny; so it's hardly surprising that my subconscious did such a thing.




The other half of the Cohen twins, as of v1.7. Sabine is dressed in a way that some would perhaps think too conservative for my taste. Truth is, I'm not hugely into skimpy clothing for the girls, it's just that there are only so many outfits for the Type 3 body that don't look ridiculous, and bikinis of various type make up a fair portion of them.




Decided to get some shots of the girls doing something other than standing around the vault. Left my normal companions behind to take a break, and brought Melody and Ellie along with me. We explored around DC, into Takoma Park, where there was apparently a mutie behemoth... In the tradition of the hunting photo, we see the girls posing with the kill, and generally looking badass.




Here we have sweet little Ellie, showing me just how much she appreciated being dressed up in Talon armor.




And here, for once, you can see me in one. Taking a break in the Ninth Circle, in Underworld, after rampaging through Takoma.




Melody, seated at the other bar in the same room. I tell you, even after all the months I've had it working, I still grin like an idiot when the girls take a seat with me.

That's it for this batch. Next, I intend to pick up a couple other girls, and get some more in-action shots for you all.

Till next time, Kiddies.

Heaven?

Well, okay, not really.

Still, I had forgotten how ridiculously nice it is to spend thirteen hours in bed without being woken up, fucked with, or otherwise annoyed.

I know it won't last. Probably won't even get a repeat... but it was nice to pretend my life didn't suck for a little while.

Updates

Fair bit going on tonight... err... I suppose 0651 counts as this morning, doesn't it? Damned lack of a sleep pattern...

Anyway.

Firstly, I uploaded a new version of my CALIBR 1911's mod. Added several new variants, thanks to new 1911-suitable cartridges in CALIBR 1.3 - including 9x25mm Dillon, 45 GAP, 45 Super, and my favorite: the 460 Rowland; also known as "what the fuck did you do to that government model?!"

Used some things I learned in getting the Vault 1 merchant up and running to line out the problems with the 1911's mod. Inventory there seems to work and respawn as intended, now.

Second: I'm in the process of uploading some more new screenshots, for the latest versions of my companions pack and alternate guards files.

Was just looking through the shots archived in my Picasa account, and am amazed how far the girls have come in the looks department.

And last, we have a little preview. Freed from my eternal struggle with the dread beast mod compatibility, I've done some more work on Redecorated, and while the next version isn't ready for release by any stretch, I thought you might like to see how the project is extending into the new access tunnels cell:





That's it for this update, Kiddies. See you later.