Monday, August 16, 2010

Vault Redecorations

Having an introspective evening.

Not going to bore you all with the deeper ruminations of my twisted-on-a-good-day psyche; but I will say that my meandering eventually led me to the file tracking list on the Nexus. This, of course, saw me noticing that new images had been uploaded to the RR Master as well as Refurbished.

Looks like Fry has another version getting close to ready for drop.

Looks... nice. Really.

Seems he and I had several of the same ideas for the vault; save that he actually implemented his, rather than wasting time on other diversions.

New textures galore. It really is a class act.

If I still had any self esteem, this would bite a big hunk out of it. Does make me think that I'm likely wasting the time I put into my Remodel.

I have the GECK open in the background as I type this; the quest edit window open, showing the dialog for the new guarding options that don't even work.

This causes another though to occur: There is a difference between passion and obligation. This may seem obvious so some of you, but spend long enough, mired deeply enough in something, and if you have any sense of responsibility at all... that line begins to blur.

One day you look up and realize it's a year later, and that you're spending eight hours a day six days a week working on a mod - adding features you don't think it needs - and answering vapid questions from morons who would have difficulty powering on an iMac without fucking it up.

Granted, I've answered a lot of vapid questions in my various capacities as a gunsmith over the years... but when your day job sometimes involves making cement blocks explode from a hundred meters away it tends to buy some extra leeway in the bullshit department.

Sorry, memory lane. Anyway.

I hit that point with the mod a few months ago. Been largely in neutral since.

The whole row with the most recent malcontent really brought it into focus. I started thinking about just how little of the companion system's "features" I use. Armory, wardrobe, group orders, class changing, guard package, sleep system; it's all worthless to me.

Now I sit here, writing in more guard options. A movable home marker I don't think the mod even needs. Working on NPCs I don't like...

...Why?

I can't change the vault. Can't make it what I want it to be. Can't make the residents not suck. Can't give it the story I want.

Why soldier on?

The question may well be rhetorical. I sure don't have an answer for it.

Then again, I don't have any answers for the rest of my life these days, either, so I suppose it's at least consistent.

11 comments:

  1. This may sound crazy, and you'll either love the idea or want to shoot me, but...

    Perhaps it's time you spent some time away from this mod you've taken over from someone else and think about using what you've learned to create a new mod that's entirely separate from the RR deal, something entirely of your own creation in which you don't have to worry about future alterations harming someone else's mod.

    ("There, Dianna, you've said it. Now stop holding your breath. Exhale. BREATHE!")

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  2. You can't see it (obviously) but that did win you about a half a smile from me.

    No, don't worry - no ill will incoming, Kiddo.

    I've thought about it. Tonight, in fact.

    Problem is, I'm going to want my companions. Sooo I either have to have it require RR, or I have to write in another, similar companion system.

    Then what? They compete for users? People decide which they prefer to create a companion in?

    I can surpass the RR mods by a long stretch, don't misunderstand. I can do a similar mod, and do it right...

    ...but considering that RR was where I learned those skills, it seems a little...

    Ungrateful?

    And what of the other modders?

    Say I do it. Say to hell with it all, and unveil a real live, working version of Nos' Tower that involves its own companion system, game-wide quest, and other such goodies.

    Where does that leave people like you? You put a shit-ton of work into your scouts. Am I supposed to expect you to redo it all when I defacto discontinue support for the RR Companions Vault?

    My own plugins; hell, those are easy. I've moved NPCs between plugins before, I can do it again - and it's not like I don't know how to write a working companionscript.

    I just... feel like I'd be abandoning those few faithful I've attracted during this little exercise.

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  3. I don't think you would be abandoning anyone. The RR mod will still be there on the Nexus, my mod isn't going to vanish so my work wasn't for nothing. I didn't say delete the files from the site. Just turn your attention to a new project. Don't worry about those other modders. It's not like they're gonna be crushed by anything we do anyway. And there's already more than one companion system for the game so it's not like a new one is gonna destroy anyone's life. Don't worry so much about everyone else and worry about what you want to do. People like me will adapt, and I can always create another set of companions. That's what I enjoy doing.

    Besides, you said you can surpass the RR mod by a long stretch. I'd like to see that, especially since I suspect no one but you could live up to that claim.

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  4. Im sure we will addapt and overcome.

    And the last year has been a fun quest. Besides the point its been a safer world with you inside making mods and me and the rest inside playing them :)

    Hummm,,havent herd a peep about the Tower in 7 or 8 months. Ya go man I for one am behind you all the way.

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  5. I'll think about it. I've got a few ideas, but I need to investigate a bit; see what's possible (and practical) and what isn't.

    JoshNZ (author of AP) released what he calls "FOSE Extended" the other day, that includes among other things some commands that will allow a script to reset an NPC's hair style. This, naturally, would offer me a lot of new and interesting things for my characters. Need to see if it works, though. His scripting can be... interesting.

    That and a few other goodies from FOSE itself would likely end up making an inclusion into any new project from me.

    And Sarge, you haven't seem much on the tower because I've been tossing around the idea of adding it to the Vault 1 Remodel. The problem being, why put three or four houses into one mod? Seems a little much; to me at least.

    Fortunately, I'm used to losing my damned mind and taking up and/or abandoning new projects, so I saved the Nos' Tower plugin that already had the tower exterior set up and navmeshed in the river.

    I want you both to know I hate you for the sleep I'm going to lose to this even in the planning stages.

    ...but not right now. There's a documentary on the "Gates of Hell" on History.

    Must not riddle the Tower with occult goodness...

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  6. "Must not riddle the Tower with occult goodness..."

    I've been spending so much time with Doom lately that this comment immediately conjures images of a Hellish fortress on the edge of the wasteland, its jagged spires piercing the polluted sky like fangs, as if Leviathan has bitten into the very world itself; its oppressive gray walls stretching out like tentacles constricting the very life from the landscape; its bloody ramparts adorned with the bones of any mortals foolish enough to attempt to breach its fortifications, only to lose their immortal souls to the voracious hunger of the Dark Citadel...

    ...or it could look like Tenpenny Tower with quaint music playing in the lobby.

    It's a shame Doom's textures are so low-res; the things I could think of...

    And hey, if aliens can snatch up the Lone Wanderer, why not have a mod pitting our hero against the Legions of The Abyss?

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  7. A darkened foyer; the air smelling of stale decay. Walls, covered in geometric designs that make one's head hurt to concentrate on for any length of time. The very shape of the room seemed wrong somehow - as if the angles of the walls weren't correct to produce the interior's shape. Perhaps the worst part was the palpable aura of... unease. In the distance, a soft scratching sound from inside one of the walls...

    Alright, I'll quit before launching into the cultist bit. Gods, Lovecraft was a hack.

    Maybe it's just that it takes more than vague whispering and footprints in the mud to scare me.

    ZOMG TEH FISH PPLZ R GUNNA GIT MEH!

    Anyway. The one glaring flaw I can see in your Lone Wanderer vs. Legions of Hell is that I'm... y'know... on their side.

    Any quest line from me involving the infernal is going to consist of death and destruction.

    Maybe some light pillaging, just for fun.

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  8. Time to add my thoughts. I would love to see something that is you and just you. The mod will always be around and people will always say what they like more on this or that but the fact is simple. It's your work and people can see where you learned from.

    I hope that made sense. I wish more quests were in the game that were meaningful now that I think about it but maybe that is just me.

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  9. Okay, a few things on the NPC front - I do use some of those commands, such as the changing of the clothes and armoury. Others... not so much. I don't think that I have ever used the group commands - kind of want to now though. I don't think that I would ever use Class changing, but that is just me.

    I will say that your NPC system torpedoes that godsawful Phalanx system that they shackled to FOOK. I don't think that I have looked at FOOK in months because of it....

    Maybe you do need to put 'finished' on the Vault, and start something new, or take the basic concept, move it somewhere else, and build fresh. Maybe start a whole new area, off in its own world space. (Heck, a The Pitt Redone might make you feel better.... The original had some nice ideas, but so little implementation....)

    Mind you, my characters tend to be Boy Scouts, looking to do good deeds in a dark world. So I might not enjoy your vision of The Pitt.... :P (Hello, Mr. Flagg? I got your package....)

    The Auld Grump, I should probably go see if FOOK is still shackled to the Phalanx millstone.

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  10. See, this is actually why I hold back so much on doing anything involving real quests.

    I am an evil bastard. Delivery quests, message services; stuff like that doesn't interest me. Save the meek? Meh. Screw 'em. But, wiping out all of Big Town to ingratiate yourself with one of the new factions on the block? Or maybe selling all of Lamplight into slavery...

    (ooh... I like that one *leaves note for self for later*)

    I just think the quests I find fun would put off a lot of players.

    Fr'instance, my favorite quest in Oblivion was in the Dark Brotherhood; where you're tasked with going back into the sanctuary and "cleansing" it - killing the people who trust you and consider you family.

    Always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. (Remember the evil bastard part?)

    Consequently, I stick to the theory that it's probably a bad idea for me to create real factions and institute quests with any sort of persistent results.

    Putting the Tower into play is a constant temptation, but I still haven't decided for certain.

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  11. Heh, if you remember Mr. Randall Flagg, not too many people would be keen on opening whatever package he might have been waiting on....

    (Worked for the Old Firm, you know.)

    The Auld Grump

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