You know, I've got to learn not to just agree to shit out of hand.
NeilUK02 asked me to look over his companions, tell him what I think, etc. Of course, I said yes.
Got everything running this morning... and two hours later I had three pages of notes written on problems with the two companions.
I'm going to do a bit more empirical testing before I turn in my results, but there have been some lessons learned already:
1) The 'bigger breasts' rework of Exnem's body texture still looks like absolute shit. Makes the NPCs perpetually look like they haven't had a shower in a month.
2) Exnem-ized bodies and textures do NOT like being put in Type 3 clothing. Makes the skin look like butterscotch pudding with a chocolate swirl.
3) Earache42 apparently didn't transfer the racial changes in Ling's over to the Pretty Things .esp. (Presumably) Inadvertent, uncleaned changes to Caucasian race in companion plugin = LPT no longer displays correctly. Took me a minute to figure out what in the holy hell had messed up Moira like that...
4) Not separating the custom join dialog in my companions pack from the default container quest seems to have been a less than ideal idea, in retrospect. Conflict, ho! One of these days I have to start being less lazy. Then again... who knew the damned system would actually catch on someday?
5) 'Pure Rage' armor in Ling's is bugged. Put a companion in it, and she froze in mid-animation, and held that fucked up position no matter what I did. Removed armor, returned to normal on the spot. I guess with that many custom outfits, something was bound to slip through eventually. This, of course, being one of my companions who can normally wear Type 3 clothing without incident.
6) Somehow, Brooke and/or Bernie seem to be interfering with my custom combat styles. I've played with my load order a bit and it helped, but I need to test further.
7) Truly, there is no rest for the wicked.
Never went with Xnem's - given the near starvation diet that so many in the wastes have the breasts would only be large if they had babies either on the way or sucking.
ReplyDeleteType 3 mostly, though I like Type 5 as well, not as much support for the latter.
I may need to reinstall again, only myself to blame - I added one mod too many, looks like, and suddenly I have giant exclamation points all over the place. On items that I have had since the last time I had to reinstall, not that long ago.
Getting rid of the offending mods has not fixed the problem, so it looks like I am going to have to install again.
The worst thing is that one of the new mods really wasn't worth downloading in the first place. >:( Cheat items, giant bobbleheads, talking dogs (what the Hell is it with the damned talking dogs?).
Going through with FO3Edit, but I am not holding out too much hope - some of the missing images are from 20th C. Weapons, I reinstalled it, but still no go.
It doesn't help that some of my favorite mods are on the big side, RR Vault and your Remodel and Companions, Dynamic Weather, Fellout (and a bunch of associated mods), Jessi and Kelsey (I like your NPCs, but I have had the girls for a long time :) ), CRAFT, Ling's, Mart's....
Almost a hundred mods, some just ones that I used for a bit, then ignored after finishing (quests mostly). Dumb, dumb, dumb. New computer, better graphics, and I had to see how far I could push it.... Too may mods to be very effective playing with the load orders.
The flip side is that Oblivion has even more mods up and running, and is doing just fine. :-/ And some of those are pretty big too. (The landscape mods are pretty darned huge.)
The Auld Grump
Possibly stupid question on my part here, but you DID remember to remove and reapply archiveinvalidation after removing the mods, yes?
ReplyDeleteElse, the only possibility is that there's still a mod someplace using them. Well, that or a massively corrupt savegame.
That aside...
I want to like Exnem's work, I really do. I use Hentaiguy's rework of the Exnem package in Oblivion, and have for like three years now.
But the one in FO3 is just so... icky. Mottled, dirty looking textures, huge aureoles, and some shadows that neither nature nor man could possibly produce without the aid of an airbrush.
Plus, there's the whole lack of neat outfits thing.
And, I won't say I know him... but I've talked to Dimon99 a few times, and he's a cool guy. Knows his game, is friendly to people using his work, and was willing to share a few tips with me on texture compression.
His body also has WAY more options. Everything from svelte little ALICE up to DAYUM Cali.
I don't worry too much about the starvation diet's affects on teh bewbz. As I've opined before, once you put glowing-eyed demon women into the game? You're pretty well past the point of having issues with the suspension of disbelief. Plus, they've got insta-healing syringes. I'm sure they've also got do-it-yourself bust enhancers or something.
NUCLEAR POWERED BOOB JOBS!
*ahem* Sorry.
Anyway.
I can agree on the stupid mods. I occasionally try one on a whim, and it rarely ends well. Last one was Jury Street Girls or something... not only did it have technical issues, but I had called how the story ended after like twenty minutes.
The girls of course roll you and steal your stuff, and you're supposed to go bare-knuckle to take them out and get it all back.
...trouble was... this is ME, we're talking about. When I got rolled, I woke up in the basement with two of my girls. Went back upstairs.
The thieving harlots went to go fisticuffs... and were promptly cut in half by a colossal redhead with a belt-fed weapon. I think the "fight" lasted some six seconds.
Turns out the only thing worse to bring to a gunfight than a knife is your bare hands. Who knew?
That was always one of my biggest beefs with Oblivion vs FO3, too. Running a hundred mods there is no big deal. Try it in the "improved" form of the engine and you're playing craps every time you start the game up. I swear there's no rhyme or reason to it, either.
Yep, on and off with the invalidation. Any time I even think that a mod might mess with the graphics. :-/
ReplyDeleteMy favorite 'bug' is still the one with the Vault, the swimming pool, Jessi, and the Dance Party running... For some reason Jessi would delay putting on her clothes getting out of the pool, and start dancing starkers. :P No sir, not complaining about that one. I am pretty sure it was a quirk of sequencing, that the 'get dressed' part was delayed by something in her AI, and then she would start dancing before it could kick in. If you talked to her she would put her clothes back on, so I always pictured myself telling her 'put your clothes back on young lady!' or some such.
I was able to recreate that bug time before last, but since the remodeled Vault doesn't seem to have Dance Party it just doesn't happen any more.
Ah, Jury Street Girls - I wish that there was an alternate ending or two - the first time I ran into them I was playing a martial artist. Bare fists they did not last long - I punched them, stunned 'em, and otherwise ruined their day.
The stupid mod that I think may have been part of the problem was 'A Little Mutant Problem'. A trifle too sophomoric for my taste. Mission to get weed, talking dogs, little tiny super mutants.... Just plain dumb. :(
I will agree that characters with their ribs sticking out and their skin peeling from constant radiation exposure might be a bit much - though The Pitt has a bit of that. (I think your gals might like the Pitt, and the demon girl would feel right at home. The place is nasty.
Dimon's Type 5 is my favorite in regards to FO3, but Type 3 has a lot more clothing available. For some reason I seem to have a lot of clothing mods on my list, everything from bikinis to LBDs. I seem to recall liking Babe or Eyecandy for Oblivion. But in FO3 Type 3 is the way to go.
Doing a system backup right now, so I can't go in and mess with the load order. Last time I tried it also misplaced my saved games, calling up a bunch of 000s instead of the files. Restarting the game fixed that, but it reset the problem when I went to Megaton.
I think that it was a house mod that caused the initial problem, somehow that mod also managed to mess up the sky. Or that mod in combination with any of the ninety odd mods I had running at the time. (A Rivet City tower home. I didn't even look to find the house when I got a glimpse of the sky.)
Ah well, up too late, waking too early. Time for bed.
The Auld Grump
Damn, the backup is taking a long time. :( 33% done - I don't remember it taking this long last time, and that was only a week ago.
ReplyDeleteWhen it gets done I want to check to see if it might be a corrupted save, rather than actual mesh and texture problems. :-/ Should have been the first thing I checked out.
The Auld Grump
Yeesh. Sorry, would have replied to the other comment... but Blogger wasn't showing it until this evening.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, just how much crap are you backing up?
One of my first troubleshooting tricks anytime I have a massive mod problem is to either start a new game, or load my 'clean' save at the V101 entrance. Amazing how many problems a dirty save will cause.
I'll confess the Pitt tempted me sorely. While O:A was boring garbage, all the emphasis on flexible morality in the Pitt seemed like it might be more fun. But then came the bug reports. Missing meshes, bad navmeshing, audio problems, missing items. Am never sure how many reports are just the same idiots that plague, and how many are legitimate problems.
that plague me.
ReplyDeleteNote to self: do not proofread your posts while watching the Simpsons.
Oh, yeah. Also:
ReplyDeletehttp://personalarmamentreviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/replica-gatling-gun.html
*knifetwist*
Yipe! I am pretty sure that the ACW group I was with did not spend much more than a tenth of that! (Another example of 'Replicas can be more expensive!' in action.)
ReplyDeleteMind you, the 1877 Bulldog replica that I drool over is $36,500 http://www.usarmamentcorp.com/accessories.php Not exactly pocket change. :P 1,000 rounds per minute - faster than a WWII machine gun, .45 caliber ammunition. Was sometimes mounted on vehicles, including a few attempts as mobile firepower. (If you think that a Gatling is inaccurate, picture it on top of a moving coach.... :) ) Shining brass and bronze. One of the late versions (189?) used a drum magazine. in 1879 they added a traversing mount - increasing accuracy and adding the ability to maintain aim on a moving target.
Other modifications included the Bruce Feeder - very much akin to the Pedersen Device. Jamming was greatly reduced from the gravity feed on previous models.
The Auld Grump
Sliiiiiight disagreement:
ReplyDeleteMG42 can throw 196gr hunks of copper jacketed lead in your general direction twelve hundred times a minute.
That bit of OCD on my part aside... I really do not understand the fascination with these things.
Had an No4 Enfield with a brass buttplate once. HATED that thing. It would not stay polished no matter what I did. Up the brass content to a quarter or more the total surface of the weapon and/or its mount and I don't see it can possibly be a good thing.
...That, and having owned one, I know what 45-70 costs, even to roll your own. If you don't load your own you're really screwed, since I've learned with my 45 Colts that when they tack "Cowboy Load" onto the box, ammo doubles in price; even if it is BP or a substitute.
If I've got to deal with something that weighs a hundred pounds and is ungodly expensive to shoot, I think I'd just pony up the $200 for a DD stamp and get a Lahti M39.
Or maybe one of those sweet new Mechem NTW's. Mmm. 14.5x114mm...
...Wait, what was I saying?
Then I probably shouldn't bring up Nordenfelts. :P Nordenfelt eventually merged with Maxim, who's gun had eclipsed the Nordenfelt.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will admit that I should have said 'many WWII machine guns.' instead of 'a WWII machine gun'.
While unpolished brass and bronze can be considered ugly, it causes fewer problems than rusting iron.
Part of the attraction for me is that these were at a technological cusp - when weapons capability vastly outstripped the conventional tactics of the time. Part of the reason that I am more interested in a WWI Mk I or Renault tank than in an M1 Abrams - they were not merely leading edge, they were bleeding edge.
The Brown Bess, by comparison, as a mature example of the available technology - tried, true and reliable. I like firing the things, knowing how solid the tech was for the time. The Bulldog, likewise, is a mature example of an outdated technology.
As for the cost of loads - a Brown Bess is a cheap date. :)
The Gatling on the other hand, more than $50 for 250 rounds - 15 seconds of fire.... The ACW group does indeed roll their own, but we would sometimes go through more than a thousand dollars worth of ammo in an afternoon, back in the eighties. The biggest reason I never fired the Gatling - you had to buy or make your own cartridges.
And my computer just told me that backup has failed. Let me see if I can figure out why. :-/ (At a guess there is something wrong with my USB cable....)****
Changed the cable, and five minutes later it is further along than it got in 24 hours last time. How much of that is from the previous attempt is anyone's guess. I think that it spent most of the time stuck at 33%.
Speaking of retro - I am going to spend much of tomorrow watching the Emma Peel years of The Avengers on DVD. (Last week was spent watching Disney's Gargoyles as research for a game I am running in a month or so. Gargoyles was much better than I expected, one of my players has been foisting the show off on me for years. She hugged me when I told her I was going to be running a Gargoyles Steampunk game when the current campaign ends. :) She has a signed poster on her wall from Gathering of the Gargoyles a few years back.)
The Auld Grump
In regards to our previous, ummm, musical discussion - the internet is a scary place in its depths you can encounter such things as Finnish Polkas.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgrGRcjyzVw
ReplyDeleteThe Auld Grump
I'm failing to see what's bad about that song. I rather liked it.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I listen to Helium Vola, so y'know...
Here, try these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OlB_Pb-ucw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9RNC3etX8
(five minutes later) Sorry. Found a Nox Arcana cover of Veni Veni Emmanuel and I kinda shut down while it was playing. Going to have to spring for at least one of their CDs...
ANYWAY.
One thing you should bear in mind about my disinterest in most weapons that were cutting edge a hundred years ago is in 2005 I ended up becoming a rather hardcore pragmatist where weapons are concerned, and completely quit buying 'toys'. Lost pretty much all interest. Before then, I collected stuff where I could just because I thought it was neat, or had never shot one before.
I watched Katrina, and sat down and took stock. "If I had to walk out of here today, right now," I asked myself. "What would I do?"
I owned thirteen rifles and four or five handguns at that time. Only two of the rifles did I possess even a hundred rounds of ammo for. Two others - an Oberndorf-made 1896 Swedish Mauser and a 1943-refurbished 91/30 Mosin Nagant - I didn't even have a full twenty rounds each for.
I figured, in the event of an emergency that required leaving my home, I'd have two choices: be bogged down trying to carry everything, no matter how useless it was from a practical standpoint; or leave it behind to possibly be used against me or someone I care about at a later date.
Pared my equipment down, and used the proceeds to fund one good rifle, with one of the toughest optics money can buy, and a mess of decent ammo.
It was a couple more years that I spent trying to find the "best" rifle for me, but it ended in my acquisition of a lightly used 18.5" M1A, and my converting it into a semi-auto MK14 Mod 0.
Toys are kind of like drinking Coke. Used to slam the stuff like it was going out of style, but I laid off completely in an admittedly probably vain attempt to save what little enamel I have left on my teeth. Now? Not only do I not miss it, but I don't really care for the taste, anymore.
While I still think things like the Volcanic Repeater, the 45-120 in general, and the LeMat revolver are neat... I have no interest in actually attempting to own any of them. I am, as people have been telling me most of my life, "no fun".
The only reason I have such a fetish for the big Casull is the sheer versatility. The bitch of a revolver will run anything from 45 Colts loaded to less power than a standard 45ACP, up to full-house 454's that buck the bottom end of the 45-70-in-a-carbine power scale. If you can handle it, a 7.5" 454 makes a decent stand-in for a carbine inside 100m.
But, to flitter back to less serious discussion, I agree about Gargoyles. One of the few decent things Disney has ever done. Surprisingly adult, in places; though I maintain it would have been better all round if they had just let poor Goliath nail Elisa and be done with it. Would have saved so very much tension.
Yeah, Gargoyles was actually very good, at least the first year and a half that are available on DVD. For some reason Disney decided that the rest of the series did not need to be on DVD - and what the heck is up with half season sets, anyway?
ReplyDeleteMuch more mature than I expected, the fey were dangerous and powerful, and MacBeth had been maligned by Shakespeare & Co.. And it was apparently Home Away from Home for the crew of the NCC 1701D. Good stuff. I was also amazed at how busy the creator of the series has been in the fan community, even all these years later.
I will need a VHS player to see the rest of Jen's collection - she recorded the series when it was first run. I may need to borrow one, though they are pretty darned cheap these days.
And in regards to Levan Polkka, I like the song too, but damn it's hard to get out of your head.... I wish that I could understand the lyrics.
The Auld Grump
All I can tell you with the Gargoyles thing is have patience. These companies have decided that it's best to fuck people out of as much money as humanly possible.
ReplyDeleteSo you get seasons split up into "parts" - each conveniently priced the same as a full season from a less bastardly company, and they delay releasing further seasons until anticipation has suitably built.
They do the same thing with anime. Case in point: a couple months ago now I picked up Black Lagoon. It came out originally as seasons 1 and 2, parts 1 and 2 of each season. To the tune of $50 a part. Seemed like an interesting series... but $200 interesting? No way in hell. So I waited. Year or two later, there's now the "complete boxed set" of both seasons for $39.99. That I bought.
S'kinda like the stock market. Give it awhile to clear out the suckers, and you'll see a better opportunity.
Gargoyles was actually pretty decent past season one. It's been awhile... but I remember in the later seasons, Eliza, Goliath, and that dog... thing end up in a boat from Avalon, being transported around to random adventures by the mists.
Not a series at the top of my list, but it didn't completely suck.
And it is indeed time for a full clean instal, again. :( Going back to my first save, just inside of Vault 101 before heading out to face the Wastes, the problems are still there.
ReplyDeleteAh well, now I have a list of mods to avoid....
In regards to the Gargoyles DVD sets... Disney formally announced that they would not be releasing the rest of the series, about four years ago now, looks like they meant it. :-/ And they wonder why people pirate. (I don't pirate, some friends of mine had their first CD show up on P2P before they even got their own copies - the person who burned the DAT to disc put it up.)
The Auld Grump
I dunno. While I wouldn't put it past Disney to be that annoying, they like money WAY too much.
ReplyDeleteWhoever owns the rights to the Transformers animated series originally released it up through season two several years ago, and then 'discontinued' it all 4evas n 4reelz, yo. Few months ago they or someone else reintroduced it all, and is even selling the mess as a total series box.
If the money is out there - and for Gargoyles, it has to be - someone will release it sooner or later; unless the owners of the rights refuse to come to an agreement.