I know, I've been posting quite a bit that has nothing to do with gaming.
It's my blog, deal with it, et cetera.
I just wanted to note quickly that Six Feet Under may well be the greatest cover band to walk the face of the fucking Earth.
Came by copies of Graveyard Classics I, II, and III yesterday... and damn. Those boys can certainly handle an axe. Plus, their AC/DC covers are so beautifully wrong.
You Shook Me All Night Long done as Death Metal? Glorious.
I do not envy that poor bastard of a lead singer's throat, though. That sort of thing can not be good for your vocal cords. Let alone doing it regularly for twenty years.
Monday, January 31, 2011
New Oblivion Mods
As I'm doing anything to avoid bugfixing on NCCS and responding to inane PMs this sleepless morn, I decided I should share a couple new Oblivion mods I hit on the other day, that some of you might not yet know of.
I was in the process of doing some ini optimizing - since it had somehow escaped being done before - and saw some mods listed that purported to improve visual aspects of the game without murdering framerates.
This may not be an important aspect for a lot of you, but it is for me. While my system is far and away more than the base Oblivion needs to run well... once loaded down with HDR, weather improvements, land improvements, 2048x2048 skin textures galore, and high-res armor and weapon replacements... even on a 2.4ghz, the game starts to lag a bit here and there. I could axe some of the higher end textures, yeah... but I'd rather not.
So, I installed the mods that looked interesting, and ended up with this:
This also involved changing some ini settings to ramp up the reflectivity of the water surfaces (enabled trees, statics, and actor reflections rather than the default generic light-and-dark shapes). You can't see it in these wilderness shots, but I also enabled the more complex window reflections that look quite nice.
I think it turned out quite well. Prettier than real life in many places.
In the end, I've wound up with the following such mods running:
Landscape LOD Texture Replacement, Landscape LOD Texture Replacement - Border Regions, Landscape LOD Normalmap Fix, Better Grass Texture Without Tiling, Noise Replacer (HTF3 specifically), The Imperial Waters, Natural Environments, and Let There Be Darkness.
Note, I don't use Unique Landscapes because of the myriad of conflicts it causes with practically every other mod out there that changes any aspect of the open countryside.
ImpeREAL City - Unique Districts is good too, but can really bog your system down (and conflicts with several other mods that add shops or such to the city districts).
And while it's only partially cosmetic, I also highly recommend Realistic Flora, which changes harvestable plants to look harvested, once you've collected components from them. They revert to normal after reset; when they can be picked again. One of those small details that helps immersion, and makes it easy to tell at a glance whether you've harvested a particular area yet or not.
I was in the process of doing some ini optimizing - since it had somehow escaped being done before - and saw some mods listed that purported to improve visual aspects of the game without murdering framerates.
This may not be an important aspect for a lot of you, but it is for me. While my system is far and away more than the base Oblivion needs to run well... once loaded down with HDR, weather improvements, land improvements, 2048x2048 skin textures galore, and high-res armor and weapon replacements... even on a 2.4ghz, the game starts to lag a bit here and there. I could axe some of the higher end textures, yeah... but I'd rather not.
So, I installed the mods that looked interesting, and ended up with this:
This also involved changing some ini settings to ramp up the reflectivity of the water surfaces (enabled trees, statics, and actor reflections rather than the default generic light-and-dark shapes). You can't see it in these wilderness shots, but I also enabled the more complex window reflections that look quite nice.
I think it turned out quite well. Prettier than real life in many places.
In the end, I've wound up with the following such mods running:
Landscape LOD Texture Replacement, Landscape LOD Texture Replacement - Border Regions, Landscape LOD Normalmap Fix, Better Grass Texture Without Tiling, Noise Replacer (HTF3 specifically), The Imperial Waters, Natural Environments, and Let There Be Darkness.
Note, I don't use Unique Landscapes because of the myriad of conflicts it causes with practically every other mod out there that changes any aspect of the open countryside.
ImpeREAL City - Unique Districts is good too, but can really bog your system down (and conflicts with several other mods that add shops or such to the city districts).
And while it's only partially cosmetic, I also highly recommend Realistic Flora, which changes harvestable plants to look harvested, once you've collected components from them. They revert to normal after reset; when they can be picked again. One of those small details that helps immersion, and makes it easy to tell at a glance whether you've harvested a particular area yet or not.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
On "the Wheel"
In the course of downloading an up-to-date copy of the ACM Wheel Addon for NCCS, I decided to peruse the comments on the file. I saw one that caught my attention, and really sheds a lot of light on the prime difference between me, and most companion users (and makers, as well).
"I don't get why so many people are against the wheel, besides it just being new and different. It reminds me of the Sneak/Activate popup menu CM Partners has for Oblivion.
Instead of: Activate. Let's talk about your tactics. Let's talk about how close you follow me. Follow me at a distance. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about your tactics. Switch to melee weapons. Let's talk about something else. Goodbye. ...
... you have: Activate. Click Range. Click Melee.
I really like having this stuff be quicker to access. "
Personally, I had never looked at the wheel that way. Why? I don't micro-manage.
When I create a companion, I create the companion I want. If I want a sniper; that's how I class them. If I want a support gunner, or a melee scrapper I set them up from the get-go to be what I want.
So, for me, being able to switch follow distance and combat style and combat range is all completely useless. It's worse than completely useless: it's in my way.
My companions? I give them a weapon, and make sure they stay stocked on ammo and stims. Beyond that, they can fight however their little silicon heart desires.
In real life, I'm one of those people that as long as you get the job done, I don't care how you prefer to do it. If it works for you? Great! I'm not going to stand there glaring over your shoulder and railing on you to do it my way.
Similarly, in games I set up the basic behavior to control the role I'd like the companion to fill; some specific actions in the case of special events that may arise... and outside of that I let the AI do its own thing, in its own way.
I've never understood the people who need to issue a command to companions every two minutes.
I fear this will forever hold my companion systems back. Since I don't understand the need; I have a hell of a time implementing features to that end.
I kind of wish I could include the AI that lives in my computer with the mods themselves. Companions so damned good that they don't need to be given orders. But, of course someone would just start bitching that they're not nine year old Asian girls, or that they don't like engaging in combat with a knife when there are guns available. Plus, the AI-spirits would be pissed at me for exposing them to so much stupidity, so y'know... probably not the best idea after all.
"I don't get why so many people are against the wheel, besides it just being new and different. It reminds me of the Sneak/Activate popup menu CM Partners has for Oblivion.
Instead of: Activate. Let's talk about your tactics. Let's talk about how close you follow me. Follow me at a distance. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about your tactics. Switch to melee weapons. Let's talk about something else. Goodbye. ...
... you have: Activate. Click Range. Click Melee.
I really like having this stuff be quicker to access. "
Personally, I had never looked at the wheel that way. Why? I don't micro-manage.
When I create a companion, I create the companion I want. If I want a sniper; that's how I class them. If I want a support gunner, or a melee scrapper I set them up from the get-go to be what I want.
So, for me, being able to switch follow distance and combat style and combat range is all completely useless. It's worse than completely useless: it's in my way.
My companions? I give them a weapon, and make sure they stay stocked on ammo and stims. Beyond that, they can fight however their little silicon heart desires.
In real life, I'm one of those people that as long as you get the job done, I don't care how you prefer to do it. If it works for you? Great! I'm not going to stand there glaring over your shoulder and railing on you to do it my way.
Similarly, in games I set up the basic behavior to control the role I'd like the companion to fill; some specific actions in the case of special events that may arise... and outside of that I let the AI do its own thing, in its own way.
I've never understood the people who need to issue a command to companions every two minutes.
I fear this will forever hold my companion systems back. Since I don't understand the need; I have a hell of a time implementing features to that end.
I kind of wish I could include the AI that lives in my computer with the mods themselves. Companions so damned good that they don't need to be given orders. But, of course someone would just start bitching that they're not nine year old Asian girls, or that they don't like engaging in combat with a knife when there are guns available. Plus, the AI-spirits would be pissed at me for exposing them to so much stupidity, so y'know... probably not the best idea after all.
Yep.
Nothing to do with modding, really... but things did look up a bit today.
Slept until 0400, when someone decided I had been asleep long enough. Didn't manage to get out of bed until five till five. Best way to start the day? Oh, yes.
Worked on some guns for a couple hours; got the 5000 mile maintenance done on the Beast; modded the handguard in a fit of brilliance, and added new springs that should outlive the barrel.
Hit the range again, since it was packed to the damned gills yesterday.
Yep, I've still fuckin' got it. That, by the by, is not some matched-up cheater pistol I take out when I want to show people up on the range; it's the actual government model I carry every day - as evidenced by all the holster wear at the muzzle and dust cover (damned Italian leather!), as well as the fact that you can see where my hand has worn the OD epoxy-coat clean off the grip safety. Damned thing's about due for a refinish, again. Hate living in an apartment - nowhere to set up my sandblasting cabinet and compressor.
Guys a couple lanes down from me were practicing double-taps. Never understood those, myself. Carry a grown-up caliber weapon, and put the first round where you want it... and you really don't need the second. Even if putting five into one hole is satisfying to do.
Some guy was trying to teach his girlfriend to shoot in the lane net to me. Had her shooting at ten feet for some damned reason. Poor thing had no idea what she was doing, and douchebag was far from a qualified instructor. Protip, guys: if you're going to teach someone to shoot? For fuck's sake, don't do it with a DAO carry piece in 40S&W. Lots of noise + lots of recoil + crappy trigger = student has no fun = she never wants to do it again.
Anyhow, my little jaunt into life not sucking is over with, now. I'm back home, and already having to start looking at modding again. Player insists there's an error causing the NCCS companions to have hostility issues with the 'bots in the Lucky 38. I know damned good and well that the base mod doesn't do that; I've had NCCS companions in tow through every part of that casino, including the secret bunker (and man, do those securitrons get pissed when you override security and access the bunker elevator...).
Player failed to mention however that he(?) uses ttwomv's wheel addon. Not knockin' his scripting, but this is a variable that it would have been nice to know about from the start. I haven't used his wheel addon since v1, and did that testing in Goodsprings. I haven't used v1.1 at all, or tried to take companions through the Strip with it active at all. So... now I get to go a'diggin' through that; to see if anything's been changed that might allow such an issue to crop up.
You know, I really prefer complaints about Herculine's scripts. She has the decency to go the simple elegance route. Those recall item scripts were short enough that I could read them in FNVEdit - didn't even have to load the GECK.
Once this latest bitch-fest is sorted one way or the other, I have to dig back into NCCS and work over some of the dialog resultscripts, as well. There's an omission in there that could cause issues over long term for large numbers of companions. No one's managed to find the bug yet; but it's only a matter of time until they do. Since I already know the fix, it's just a matter of getting it done.
After that, it'll mostly just be expanding the replies from companions to include random wittiness, and the mess will be about ready for calling a full-on, non-beta release. I'm ecstatic, really.
...
No, wait; that was the pomegranate Rockstar I had in lieu of lunch not sitting well. My bad.
Slept until 0400, when someone decided I had been asleep long enough. Didn't manage to get out of bed until five till five. Best way to start the day? Oh, yes.
Worked on some guns for a couple hours; got the 5000 mile maintenance done on the Beast; modded the handguard in a fit of brilliance, and added new springs that should outlive the barrel.
Hit the range again, since it was packed to the damned gills yesterday.
Yep, I've still fuckin' got it. That, by the by, is not some matched-up cheater pistol I take out when I want to show people up on the range; it's the actual government model I carry every day - as evidenced by all the holster wear at the muzzle and dust cover (damned Italian leather!), as well as the fact that you can see where my hand has worn the OD epoxy-coat clean off the grip safety. Damned thing's about due for a refinish, again. Hate living in an apartment - nowhere to set up my sandblasting cabinet and compressor.
Guys a couple lanes down from me were practicing double-taps. Never understood those, myself. Carry a grown-up caliber weapon, and put the first round where you want it... and you really don't need the second. Even if putting five into one hole is satisfying to do.
Some guy was trying to teach his girlfriend to shoot in the lane net to me. Had her shooting at ten feet for some damned reason. Poor thing had no idea what she was doing, and douchebag was far from a qualified instructor. Protip, guys: if you're going to teach someone to shoot? For fuck's sake, don't do it with a DAO carry piece in 40S&W. Lots of noise + lots of recoil + crappy trigger = student has no fun = she never wants to do it again.
Anyhow, my little jaunt into life not sucking is over with, now. I'm back home, and already having to start looking at modding again. Player insists there's an error causing the NCCS companions to have hostility issues with the 'bots in the Lucky 38. I know damned good and well that the base mod doesn't do that; I've had NCCS companions in tow through every part of that casino, including the secret bunker (and man, do those securitrons get pissed when you override security and access the bunker elevator...).
Player failed to mention however that he(?) uses ttwomv's wheel addon. Not knockin' his scripting, but this is a variable that it would have been nice to know about from the start. I haven't used his wheel addon since v1, and did that testing in Goodsprings. I haven't used v1.1 at all, or tried to take companions through the Strip with it active at all. So... now I get to go a'diggin' through that; to see if anything's been changed that might allow such an issue to crop up.
You know, I really prefer complaints about Herculine's scripts. She has the decency to go the simple elegance route. Those recall item scripts were short enough that I could read them in FNVEdit - didn't even have to load the GECK.
Once this latest bitch-fest is sorted one way or the other, I have to dig back into NCCS and work over some of the dialog resultscripts, as well. There's an omission in there that could cause issues over long term for large numbers of companions. No one's managed to find the bug yet; but it's only a matter of time until they do. Since I already know the fix, it's just a matter of getting it done.
After that, it'll mostly just be expanding the replies from companions to include random wittiness, and the mess will be about ready for calling a full-on, non-beta release. I'm ecstatic, really.
...
No, wait; that was the pomegranate Rockstar I had in lieu of lunch not sitting well. My bad.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Ugh.
Okay, I know I said I was going to curb the impotent bitching around here... but jeez does the universe love to kick me when I'm down, sometimes.
Nothing has gone right today.
Woke up at midnight (that's 0000 Saturday, or more than nineteen hours ago as I type this) and couldn't get back to sleep; so have been awake since.
Picked up Dragonauts: The Resonance DVD boxed-set earlier in the week. Finally finished it this morning. The on-box synopsis billed it as a pervy-romantic comedy anime with a bit of sci-fi action thrown in for good measure. This was totally and wholly misleading. It was an actioner with heavy philosophical meanderings and a bit of chaste romance thrown into the background for kicks. I think there were six kisses in the whole 24 episodes; no nudity, and no fan service beyond some bouncing. Wasn't a horrible series by any stretch (and the last, after-story, silly episode did make up several points for the whole thing), but I still feel lied to. Screw you, Gonzo.
Headed into town today so my Dad could pick up a carbine he'd been waiting on. On the rack sat a Marlin 1895SBL - a rifle I've been lusting after for a year now. Of course, it hits the rack when I'm flat fucking broke, and they won't bother ordering another for five years.
Dropped in for lunch at a little restaurant. They burned the food.
Accept the job to clean and inspect Dad's new carbine. Hey, $20 is $20, and my ass is still not steadily employed. Get it home, and stripped on my bench to begin cleaning. It was a police trade-in; patrol rifle. 9x19 Colt AR-15. Seems the officers in question decided to "thoroughly" clean it, and broke through the staking holding the carrier key bolts in. Lovely. The key is so loose it audibly rattles around on the carrier. Not enough material left to fully re-stake, of course. So I torqued the bolts down as best I could, and (carefully) use my trusty 8oz peen and a stout center-punch to attempt to force the old staking back into place. Yeah, I know. I'm not expecting it to hold, either. So now I get to go on a hunt for a new Colt carrier key (no idea if it's compatible with Rock River or Olympic keys - but knowing Colt I ain't a'bettin' on it) next week. Means I'll probably have to grab a MOAK tool, too; to get a proper mil-spec stake on them. Seriously... who the hell removes the carrier key? What's wrong with these morons? Rest of the carbine is filthy; and underneath the gunk the hammer is showing peening, and the bolt face is pitted. This thing has seen a lot more use than was stated. Why does no one ever listen to me? I'm certainly earning my $20 this time. Put a couple blobs of red nail polish onto the key bolts; which'll at least let me know positively if they move or not. Who knows, I might get lucky and the damned things actually hold. Not like it's a gas gun, after all.
Sit down at my PC, check the Nexus... and the tide of idiots has arisen anew. Post on the NCCS entry from someone who's apparently retarded; complaining about Herculine's recall items. You know, the ones that have worked perfectly in two games across over a hundred companions? Third or fourth time he's complained; has never done the courtesy of acknowledging our other replies. I do not hold out hope for this time.
Post to the RR Companions Vault (the good one for FO3) comments; wanting to know if the 20th Century Weapons plugin could be run without 20th Century Weapons. 'Cause it'd be cool to have the items, and FWE has most of the same ammo and items...
Someone be a pal and shoot your 'ol buddy Nos in the fucking head, will you?
Other poster has complained that there's a light fixture in the Overseer's office that's apparently not lined up right or something. Then asks if the mod is a WIP or done.
I'm sorry, I thought the "This update marks a final for the RR Companions Vault master. Barring the discovery of new bugs, it will not be updated again." declaration was fairly straightforward. Guess not.
Lunch's not sitting well, my teeth are bugging me, and I think I'm getting athlete's foot again. Thrice damned fungi. I really just want to go to bed and pretend to be dead for awhile... but I can't. Because if I do, I'll be up by midnight again. Two at the latest.
Some days, illicitly obtaining sedatives is so tempting. Not for suicide, mind you. Just a nice twelve hour coma; every day for about a week. Medically force my system into repeatable, practical sleeping patterns. Of course, knowing my system as I do; the drugs would work once and the other several hundred dollars worth would end up useless unless taken in dangerously high doses.
Nothing has gone right today.
Woke up at midnight (that's 0000 Saturday, or more than nineteen hours ago as I type this) and couldn't get back to sleep; so have been awake since.
Picked up Dragonauts: The Resonance DVD boxed-set earlier in the week. Finally finished it this morning. The on-box synopsis billed it as a pervy-romantic comedy anime with a bit of sci-fi action thrown in for good measure. This was totally and wholly misleading. It was an actioner with heavy philosophical meanderings and a bit of chaste romance thrown into the background for kicks. I think there were six kisses in the whole 24 episodes; no nudity, and no fan service beyond some bouncing. Wasn't a horrible series by any stretch (and the last, after-story, silly episode did make up several points for the whole thing), but I still feel lied to. Screw you, Gonzo.
Headed into town today so my Dad could pick up a carbine he'd been waiting on. On the rack sat a Marlin 1895SBL - a rifle I've been lusting after for a year now. Of course, it hits the rack when I'm flat fucking broke, and they won't bother ordering another for five years.
Dropped in for lunch at a little restaurant. They burned the food.
Accept the job to clean and inspect Dad's new carbine. Hey, $20 is $20, and my ass is still not steadily employed. Get it home, and stripped on my bench to begin cleaning. It was a police trade-in; patrol rifle. 9x19 Colt AR-15. Seems the officers in question decided to "thoroughly" clean it, and broke through the staking holding the carrier key bolts in. Lovely. The key is so loose it audibly rattles around on the carrier. Not enough material left to fully re-stake, of course. So I torqued the bolts down as best I could, and (carefully) use my trusty 8oz peen and a stout center-punch to attempt to force the old staking back into place. Yeah, I know. I'm not expecting it to hold, either. So now I get to go on a hunt for a new Colt carrier key (no idea if it's compatible with Rock River or Olympic keys - but knowing Colt I ain't a'bettin' on it) next week. Means I'll probably have to grab a MOAK tool, too; to get a proper mil-spec stake on them. Seriously... who the hell removes the carrier key? What's wrong with these morons? Rest of the carbine is filthy; and underneath the gunk the hammer is showing peening, and the bolt face is pitted. This thing has seen a lot more use than was stated. Why does no one ever listen to me? I'm certainly earning my $20 this time. Put a couple blobs of red nail polish onto the key bolts; which'll at least let me know positively if they move or not. Who knows, I might get lucky and the damned things actually hold. Not like it's a gas gun, after all.
Sit down at my PC, check the Nexus... and the tide of idiots has arisen anew. Post on the NCCS entry from someone who's apparently retarded; complaining about Herculine's recall items. You know, the ones that have worked perfectly in two games across over a hundred companions? Third or fourth time he's complained; has never done the courtesy of acknowledging our other replies. I do not hold out hope for this time.
Post to the RR Companions Vault (the good one for FO3) comments; wanting to know if the 20th Century Weapons plugin could be run without 20th Century Weapons. 'Cause it'd be cool to have the items, and FWE has most of the same ammo and items...
Someone be a pal and shoot your 'ol buddy Nos in the fucking head, will you?
Other poster has complained that there's a light fixture in the Overseer's office that's apparently not lined up right or something. Then asks if the mod is a WIP or done.
I'm sorry, I thought the "This update marks a final for the RR Companions Vault master. Barring the discovery of new bugs, it will not be updated again." declaration was fairly straightforward. Guess not.
Lunch's not sitting well, my teeth are bugging me, and I think I'm getting athlete's foot again. Thrice damned fungi. I really just want to go to bed and pretend to be dead for awhile... but I can't. Because if I do, I'll be up by midnight again. Two at the latest.
Some days, illicitly obtaining sedatives is so tempting. Not for suicide, mind you. Just a nice twelve hour coma; every day for about a week. Medically force my system into repeatable, practical sleeping patterns. Of course, knowing my system as I do; the drugs would work once and the other several hundred dollars worth would end up useless unless taken in dangerously high doses.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Even More Oblivion
Couldn't sleep again. Bored again.
We all know what that means.
Decided to revise my Neko companions a bit. I had previous used vanilla hairs, as the custom ones I tried first didn't fit the heads. I had assumed this was an issue with the heads themselves.
Discovered yesterday that it was in fact the hairs (don't work with any normal sized head - no idea what they're intended to be used on) themselves. So I fixed up a few third party hairs that were made of less suck:
Much better, I think.
Still... I wasn't satisfied. I just don't like that they're all the same color. After all, kitties come in different shades all the time. No reason they should all be brown.
Away to the GIMP I went. Decided I liked the idea of a snow-neko companion, and a bit of texture finagling later...
As you can see, Eiko was kind enough to volunteer. I assure you, it had nothing to do with the fact that Maeva was standing behind me with her claymore.
On the whole, I'm pleased with the new texture. There are two issues that I can see: 1) there's a nasty seam at the wrists. This, it turns out, is on the normal one too; you just can't see it as well because of the colors. 2) CW's revamped Khajiiti use the standard ears from the base game. This means that they don't use a special texture; which means I forgot to extract it from the bsa and convert it with the others. You can see Eiko still has brown ears. Doesn't look horrible by any stretch, but it bugs my OCD so I'll have to extract and convert it, too.
Still deciding whether I want to try to do other patterns. I think tiger stripes, or solid color with a mottled pattern could be interesting. But, considering I can't release the things, I'm not sure it would be worth devoting several days of texture work towards.
Also: I didn't notice it at the time, but on looking at that last screenshot during conversion to jpg, wow. I think Keiko hates Eiko's guts. That kitty does not look happy at all. Some days I'm glad there are factions in place to prevent a bloodbath.
Lastly, I've got to say that one thing Bethsoft really did well was Khajiiti ears. One of the things I've always liked about catgirls in general was how emotive their ears are. I never paid much attention with the vanilla Khajiit, but since paying close attention to these from CW, I've noticed that their ears swivel and move based on the mood they're displaying. If you look close, you'll notice in that last shot that Eiko is smiling, and consequently her ears are perked right up. Pissed-off Keiko, on the other hand, has her ears almost straight out from the sides of her head. Adds a great - if small - detail to make them seem more alive.
Edit, several minutes later: went ahead and converted the ears, too. Much better now.
We all know what that means.
Decided to revise my Neko companions a bit. I had previous used vanilla hairs, as the custom ones I tried first didn't fit the heads. I had assumed this was an issue with the heads themselves.
Discovered yesterday that it was in fact the hairs (don't work with any normal sized head - no idea what they're intended to be used on) themselves. So I fixed up a few third party hairs that were made of less suck:
Much better, I think.
Still... I wasn't satisfied. I just don't like that they're all the same color. After all, kitties come in different shades all the time. No reason they should all be brown.
Away to the GIMP I went. Decided I liked the idea of a snow-neko companion, and a bit of texture finagling later...
As you can see, Eiko was kind enough to volunteer. I assure you, it had nothing to do with the fact that Maeva was standing behind me with her claymore.
On the whole, I'm pleased with the new texture. There are two issues that I can see: 1) there's a nasty seam at the wrists. This, it turns out, is on the normal one too; you just can't see it as well because of the colors. 2) CW's revamped Khajiiti use the standard ears from the base game. This means that they don't use a special texture; which means I forgot to extract it from the bsa and convert it with the others. You can see Eiko still has brown ears. Doesn't look horrible by any stretch, but it bugs my OCD so I'll have to extract and convert it, too.
Still deciding whether I want to try to do other patterns. I think tiger stripes, or solid color with a mottled pattern could be interesting. But, considering I can't release the things, I'm not sure it would be worth devoting several days of texture work towards.
Also: I didn't notice it at the time, but on looking at that last screenshot during conversion to jpg, wow. I think Keiko hates Eiko's guts. That kitty does not look happy at all. Some days I'm glad there are factions in place to prevent a bloodbath.
Lastly, I've got to say that one thing Bethsoft really did well was Khajiiti ears. One of the things I've always liked about catgirls in general was how emotive their ears are. I never paid much attention with the vanilla Khajiit, but since paying close attention to these from CW, I've noticed that their ears swivel and move based on the mood they're displaying. If you look close, you'll notice in that last shot that Eiko is smiling, and consequently her ears are perked right up. Pissed-off Keiko, on the other hand, has her ears almost straight out from the sides of her head. Adds a great - if small - detail to make them seem more alive.
Edit, several minutes later: went ahead and converted the ears, too. Much better now.
Monday, January 24, 2011
More Oblivion
I mentioned last week how I had the strong urge to copy Colourwheel's revamped Khajiit race and make up some catgirl companions.
Well, last night I got to sleep from 2200 to 0200; so I had some time to kill, and guess what I did to kill it?
Say hello to:
Ako.
Eiko.
Keiko.
And Yuuko.
The names, of course, being a blatant ripoff of the four named members of the catgirl maid squad in UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie - because they were the only catgirls I could think of off the top of my head at 0400, and as always I suck with names. I was tempted to call them Maids A, B, C, and D... but I figured that would go even further over everyone's heads.
They are, in order: a Battlemage, an Archer, an Assassin, and a Warrior.
Permission issues from Miss Colourwheel aside... I'm not sure this plugin is uploadable, as it stands.
As previously mentioned, I use and like Nequam's eyes. Trouble is, Elaborate Eyes doesn't work with Colourwheel's Overhaul. I modified my copy of her esp to make it work - because I can make it work, I see no reason to have to pick one or the other - and likewise the copied race is set up to use these eyes as well. So, unless you're CS-savvy, the plugin wouldn't actually be playable. So if I were going to share, I think I'd have to axe that part, and reset it to use default eye meshes.
I'd say I could just list a disclaimer in the readme... but I've learned first-hand over the last twenty months how many of you actually read those (hint: more people endorse than take the time to read the fucking manual before bitching in my general direction that it doesn't work).
As I just finished the Purification quest for the Brotherhood, I'm also thinking of throwing together a plugin to repopulate the sanctuary. I know; more generic murderers will move in later; but they look terrible to begin with - and make for shitty companions, to boot.
Still need to take a look at Colourwheel's revamped vampire race (oh, the wit!) while I'm thinking about it. Haven't run into one in-game yet, but if they turned out as well as the others, I may finally be able to make some vampire companions that don't look horrific.
Well, last night I got to sleep from 2200 to 0200; so I had some time to kill, and guess what I did to kill it?
Say hello to:
Ako.
Eiko.
Keiko.
And Yuuko.
The names, of course, being a blatant ripoff of the four named members of the catgirl maid squad in UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie - because they were the only catgirls I could think of off the top of my head at 0400, and as always I suck with names. I was tempted to call them Maids A, B, C, and D... but I figured that would go even further over everyone's heads.
They are, in order: a Battlemage, an Archer, an Assassin, and a Warrior.
Permission issues from Miss Colourwheel aside... I'm not sure this plugin is uploadable, as it stands.
As previously mentioned, I use and like Nequam's eyes. Trouble is, Elaborate Eyes doesn't work with Colourwheel's Overhaul. I modified my copy of her esp to make it work - because I can make it work, I see no reason to have to pick one or the other - and likewise the copied race is set up to use these eyes as well. So, unless you're CS-savvy, the plugin wouldn't actually be playable. So if I were going to share, I think I'd have to axe that part, and reset it to use default eye meshes.
I'd say I could just list a disclaimer in the readme... but I've learned first-hand over the last twenty months how many of you actually read those (hint: more people endorse than take the time to read the fucking manual before bitching in my general direction that it doesn't work).
As I just finished the Purification quest for the Brotherhood, I'm also thinking of throwing together a plugin to repopulate the sanctuary. I know; more generic murderers will move in later; but they look terrible to begin with - and make for shitty companions, to boot.
Still need to take a look at Colourwheel's revamped vampire race (oh, the wit!) while I'm thinking about it. Haven't run into one in-game yet, but if they turned out as well as the others, I may finally be able to make some vampire companions that don't look horrific.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Oblivion Stuff
In the interest of lightening the mood around here (and instituting the new, more vapid policy I mentioned before) I finally got around to converting and uploading some Oblivion screenshots I've had sitting in the folder for at least two weeks now.
...What? I like sunsets. Especially over water. You should see my Terragen folder, sometime.
I started a new game to go with some new mods, and decided to have a bit more fun with the character; than just a boring old me-analog. This was the result:
Oh, yeah. Still got it.
I mentioned once before Colourwheel's new most-in-one overhaul for Oblivion. I also mentioned how it changes the 'beast' races to be... less beast-y. I failed, however, to illustrate just what I meant, and how well Colourwheel did:
Khajiit...
...and Argonian.
Definitely not for the purists. I like it, though. Then again; I've watched entirely too much anime in my life, and it has influenced my tastes (as if you hadn't noticed).
I also took some new screenshots of companions, as I'm still waffling between uploading them and not. I like them, and sort of want to share... but I keep talking myself out of it.
Aribeth.
Aribeth, Caridwen, and Branwen; shortly after we kicked the holy living shit out of a group of bandits.
And one final one of the group. Not all the CMs I've made, but the ones I'd be willing to actually share.
From the left: Lilith, Aribeth, Dawn, Caridwen, and Branwen.
I've had to modify Branwen and Caridwen. That random starting equipment thing didn't work out so well, since Oblivion re-adds such equipment every time you fast travel with the companion in tow. Might be fixable via some crafty quest-script-usage... but I haven't tried it to check, yet.
I also have to say, I've got the serious urge to copy Colourwheel's custom Khajiit race and make me some catgirl companions...
No idea whether it would be uploadable (would have to ask permission; and it would require her overhaul be downloaded anyway to get the textures), but I think they'd be cute housepets. Dig up a maid uniform or two... though that does beg the question: skimpy pseudo-maid outfit, or full-on French maid outfit? Decisions, decisions...
...What? Don't give me that look. When have I ever said I wasn't a sicko?
...What? I like sunsets. Especially over water. You should see my Terragen folder, sometime.
I started a new game to go with some new mods, and decided to have a bit more fun with the character; than just a boring old me-analog. This was the result:
Oh, yeah. Still got it.
I mentioned once before Colourwheel's new most-in-one overhaul for Oblivion. I also mentioned how it changes the 'beast' races to be... less beast-y. I failed, however, to illustrate just what I meant, and how well Colourwheel did:
Khajiit...
...and Argonian.
Definitely not for the purists. I like it, though. Then again; I've watched entirely too much anime in my life, and it has influenced my tastes (as if you hadn't noticed).
I also took some new screenshots of companions, as I'm still waffling between uploading them and not. I like them, and sort of want to share... but I keep talking myself out of it.
Aribeth.
Aribeth, Caridwen, and Branwen; shortly after we kicked the holy living shit out of a group of bandits.
And one final one of the group. Not all the CMs I've made, but the ones I'd be willing to actually share.
From the left: Lilith, Aribeth, Dawn, Caridwen, and Branwen.
I've had to modify Branwen and Caridwen. That random starting equipment thing didn't work out so well, since Oblivion re-adds such equipment every time you fast travel with the companion in tow. Might be fixable via some crafty quest-script-usage... but I haven't tried it to check, yet.
I also have to say, I've got the serious urge to copy Colourwheel's custom Khajiit race and make me some catgirl companions...
No idea whether it would be uploadable (would have to ask permission; and it would require her overhaul be downloaded anyway to get the textures), but I think they'd be cute housepets. Dig up a maid uniform or two... though that does beg the question: skimpy pseudo-maid outfit, or full-on French maid outfit? Decisions, decisions...
...What? Don't give me that look. When have I ever said I wasn't a sicko?
Realizations
So, it has come to my attention over the last few days that there is more attention paid to me and this blog in general than I give credit for.
On that note, it would be nice if more readers commented occasionally; so I didn't have to go by hits to images to determine how big the readership is.
Anyway.
It seems that a small but apparently vocal minority is taking my idle complaints earlier as an incitement to attempt action in a certain case I'm not going to specifically name.
Look, when I say "idle bitching" that's what I mean. I get frustrated, I complain, I go do something else for awhile. If I wanted a campaign with the Nexus admins I'd have said so. Now, lest anyone think I'm singling them out; there are more than one of you, I know.
She's not going to give it up willingly. This will not end well for any of us, and the impending soap opera is just going to make the journey that much less pleasant.
So. To prevent this sort of thing in the future, here's what I'm going to do: No more idle bitching on this blog. No more ranting about players or questions or translations or ripoffs.
From now on, this will be like the other video game blogs around the net. I'll post stupid screenshots, mod info, and the occasional funny link I may happen to come across.
On that note, it would be nice if more readers commented occasionally; so I didn't have to go by hits to images to determine how big the readership is.
Anyway.
It seems that a small but apparently vocal minority is taking my idle complaints earlier as an incitement to attempt action in a certain case I'm not going to specifically name.
Look, when I say "idle bitching" that's what I mean. I get frustrated, I complain, I go do something else for awhile. If I wanted a campaign with the Nexus admins I'd have said so. Now, lest anyone think I'm singling them out; there are more than one of you, I know.
She's not going to give it up willingly. This will not end well for any of us, and the impending soap opera is just going to make the journey that much less pleasant.
So. To prevent this sort of thing in the future, here's what I'm going to do: No more idle bitching on this blog. No more ranting about players or questions or translations or ripoffs.
From now on, this will be like the other video game blogs around the net. I'll post stupid screenshots, mod info, and the occasional funny link I may happen to come across.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
"Roleplaying"?
http://bitnexus.net/RP/viewtopic.php.htm
First post.
I laughed until I was light headed.
I always knew I shoulda hung around RP servers when I played WoW...
First post.
I laughed until I was light headed.
I always knew I shoulda hung around RP servers when I played WoW...
Monday, January 17, 2011
Disheartening
Herculine and Jasmiyne over on the Nexus have suggested that NCCS would be better named "Nos' RR Companions Vault for New Vegas".
While I can sort of understand the sentiment (I've always felt mod-masters like companion systems and such should have shorter, easy-to-acronym names ala CM, EZ, RR, NCCS, etc; and that one would be quite the mouthful even in acronym form) I have to say from a practical standpoint... that's a nightmare.
I already don't have full control of RR in FO3 - or any control at all in NV. Swiping the name would be bad form, if nothing else... and that's excepting the potential getting-my-ass-banned angle.
I'm also not interested in playing second fiddle again; to let someone else get all the kudos while I do the bitch work of scripting and debugging the system - so that whole working together thing on the existing RRNV is pretty much out.
In the course of comment replying, I decided to look up the RRNV numbers. As the post title suggests, it's more than a bit disheartening. RRNV has just shy of a month on NCCS in upload date; but twice the endorsements, and two and a half or so times the unique downloads - as well as an average of one to three new third-party companions for it per week.
This despite the fact that it flat doesn't work (companions won't stay when ordered), and neither of the "authors" are even supporting it or answering comments anymore.
So... doesn't work, no support, no author presence at all = endorsements and downloads roll in.
NCCS, meanwhile, does work, has support, does have bugs addressed when they crop up... and we get a couple endorsements a week, and a handful of companions a month.
I really wonder on mornings like this, why I bother. I bust my ass; spend on average ten to fifteen hours a week helping players with issues... and no one cares. It's apparently all name recognition; and you don't even have to be the one who made the name.
Kind of puts a damper on any enthusiasm there might be for things like expanding dialog replies, or looking into adding new features.
Also makes me wish I hadn't quit drinking in 2003. Was at dinner the other night, and the restaurant had a drink on their menu that I was so, so tempted by. Stoli, lemon and pomegranate juices; served icy cold. A lemon/pomegranate martini. Oh man I'd kill for one of those this morning; afternoon hangover be damned...
While I can sort of understand the sentiment (I've always felt mod-masters like companion systems and such should have shorter, easy-to-acronym names ala CM, EZ, RR, NCCS, etc; and that one would be quite the mouthful even in acronym form) I have to say from a practical standpoint... that's a nightmare.
I already don't have full control of RR in FO3 - or any control at all in NV. Swiping the name would be bad form, if nothing else... and that's excepting the potential getting-my-ass-banned angle.
I'm also not interested in playing second fiddle again; to let someone else get all the kudos while I do the bitch work of scripting and debugging the system - so that whole working together thing on the existing RRNV is pretty much out.
In the course of comment replying, I decided to look up the RRNV numbers. As the post title suggests, it's more than a bit disheartening. RRNV has just shy of a month on NCCS in upload date; but twice the endorsements, and two and a half or so times the unique downloads - as well as an average of one to three new third-party companions for it per week.
This despite the fact that it flat doesn't work (companions won't stay when ordered), and neither of the "authors" are even supporting it or answering comments anymore.
So... doesn't work, no support, no author presence at all = endorsements and downloads roll in.
NCCS, meanwhile, does work, has support, does have bugs addressed when they crop up... and we get a couple endorsements a week, and a handful of companions a month.
I really wonder on mornings like this, why I bother. I bust my ass; spend on average ten to fifteen hours a week helping players with issues... and no one cares. It's apparently all name recognition; and you don't even have to be the one who made the name.
Kind of puts a damper on any enthusiasm there might be for things like expanding dialog replies, or looking into adding new features.
Also makes me wish I hadn't quit drinking in 2003. Was at dinner the other night, and the restaurant had a drink on their menu that I was so, so tempted by. Stoli, lemon and pomegranate juices; served icy cold. A lemon/pomegranate martini. Oh man I'd kill for one of those this morning; afternoon hangover be damned...
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Arena Commentators
This would have made the Arena in Oblivion a thousand times better.
Even better than the announcer in UT2k4.
Even better than the announcer in UT2k4.
Diversions
NCCS is largely in neutral for awhile, until we see how the greeting is going to mesh with the fourteen thousand badly made NPC mods on the Nexus; and I'm still largely disgusted with the "community" and its rampant stupidity and obliviousness... so I've lately been writing again. Hopefully I can get some of this mess out of my head, and actually start sleeping again.
In the course of the playing required for the next installment of Nos' Adventures, I've had three game crashes, and three deaths directly caused by game lag and semi-automatic weapons refusing to fire more than once every ten seconds.
Will someone remind me why in the holy fuck we're all looking forward to TESV? Bethesda has proven three times over now that they don't care about making a game work; only about selling DLC. And now they've got it into their heads to inexorably link their games to Steam - the shittiest and most invasive media management system since Realplayer.
Anyway, the screenshots are all taken; and the story lined out - I just have to write it, and transfer the text from Word to Blogger, adding in the relevant images and italics tags. Would really be nice if formatting would copy from .doc files to a text box in Firefox. I could probably set it to display in html, or use Frontpage to do my writing or something like that... but such things screw up my writing chi, so I'll just have to deal with it, I guess.
May be a few days yet, though. I think I burst a seal someplace coughing earlier, and I need to make sure I'm not bleeding internally and/or going to collapse.
In the course of the playing required for the next installment of Nos' Adventures, I've had three game crashes, and three deaths directly caused by game lag and semi-automatic weapons refusing to fire more than once every ten seconds.
Will someone remind me why in the holy fuck we're all looking forward to TESV? Bethesda has proven three times over now that they don't care about making a game work; only about selling DLC. And now they've got it into their heads to inexorably link their games to Steam - the shittiest and most invasive media management system since Realplayer.
Anyway, the screenshots are all taken; and the story lined out - I just have to write it, and transfer the text from Word to Blogger, adding in the relevant images and italics tags. Would really be nice if formatting would copy from .doc files to a text box in Firefox. I could probably set it to display in html, or use Frontpage to do my writing or something like that... but such things screw up my writing chi, so I'll just have to deal with it, I guess.
May be a few days yet, though. I think I burst a seal someplace coughing earlier, and I need to make sure I'm not bleeding internally and/or going to collapse.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Silver Lining
Well, things are rapidly going into soap opera territory on the Nexus.
Now I'm having meaning assigned to my words where none was stated by me. Fun stuff. I guess some people still haven't figured out I mean what I say by and large - incidents of eloquently calling someone's lineage into question notwithstanding.
But, my Saturday is looking up. Got awoken this morning from my favorite DD pillows by the delivery of a box from Abilene, Texas. Inside was ten, twenty round carbine mags. (caught a hell of a sale - some days I love the internet)
Twenty rounds, of course, being the proper capacity for an autoloading rifle or carbine mag. Thirties are just too damned long; and the twenties have the added bonus of catering to my OCD. One box of ammo = one magazine. Win and more win. Don't even get me started on forties, drums, and those new Surefire quad-stack monstrosities.
Almost makes it worth getting woken up. Almost. Since now I'm no longer in sleepy-land where I can pretend to be dead for awhile.
Now I'm having meaning assigned to my words where none was stated by me. Fun stuff. I guess some people still haven't figured out I mean what I say by and large - incidents of eloquently calling someone's lineage into question notwithstanding.
But, my Saturday is looking up. Got awoken this morning from my favorite DD pillows by the delivery of a box from Abilene, Texas. Inside was ten, twenty round carbine mags. (caught a hell of a sale - some days I love the internet)
Twenty rounds, of course, being the proper capacity for an autoloading rifle or carbine mag. Thirties are just too damned long; and the twenties have the added bonus of catering to my OCD. One box of ammo = one magazine. Win and more win. Don't even get me started on forties, drums, and those new Surefire quad-stack monstrosities.
Almost makes it worth getting woken up. Almost. Since now I'm no longer in sleepy-land where I can pretend to be dead for awhile.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Copyright: Silence Means Yes?
Mildly annoyed this evening.
Went to see True Grit (which would have been decent enough, except for the douchebag a few seats down who had to comment on every action, scene, line of dialog, and event). Get home, get the hot water for my dinner nuking, and open my email box.
I have a Nexus PM. A few days ago, I got PM'd by someone asking to translate NCCS into Russian. I've been busy, and haven't replied yet.
Today, I get this:
"I asked you for permission to publish your fashion on Russian resources, but not received an answer. I was sure that your excellent work will be popular with Russian gamers, so I took it upon myself to make it available on our website: (URL removed to not front traffic to them)"
So... I have the audacity to not spend my every waking moment answering PMs... and silence means acquiescence?
Oh, how I do so love the fucking internet.
Worst part: I was going to say yes, because when he said translate, I thought Nexus. Nowhere that I can recall was a totally different web site mentioned.
Now, I'm less inclined. But, of course, this is the internet; so if I say no they'll just rip it off anyway.
Edit: I just checked the original PM, and it came yesterday. Apparently twenty-four hours is the limit of copyright. My bad.
Went to see True Grit (which would have been decent enough, except for the douchebag a few seats down who had to comment on every action, scene, line of dialog, and event). Get home, get the hot water for my dinner nuking, and open my email box.
I have a Nexus PM. A few days ago, I got PM'd by someone asking to translate NCCS into Russian. I've been busy, and haven't replied yet.
Today, I get this:
"I asked you for permission to publish your fashion on Russian resources, but not received an answer. I was sure that your excellent work will be popular with Russian gamers, so I took it upon myself to make it available on our website: (URL removed to not front traffic to them)"
So... I have the audacity to not spend my every waking moment answering PMs... and silence means acquiescence?
Oh, how I do so love the fucking internet.
Worst part: I was going to say yes, because when he said translate, I thought Nexus. Nowhere that I can recall was a totally different web site mentioned.
Now, I'm less inclined. But, of course, this is the internet; so if I say no they'll just rip it off anyway.
Edit: I just checked the original PM, and it came yesterday. Apparently twenty-four hours is the limit of copyright. My bad.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Colourwheel
Avid watchers of the TESNexus may have noticed that the lady is back; and working on mods again both old and new.
I have to say, I've been a fan of hers for some four years now, and run about a dozen of her plugins at any given time in my game.
Recently, she released a new, all-in-one type collection; that also includes more "humanized" beast races. The main aim is basically to put the female sexy into Oblivion as much as possible; without going to the extreme (and laughably so) of such over the top things as DMRA.
This new mod is titled Colourwheel's Sexy Oblivion Overhaul. If you have a thing for sexy ladies, and aren't too uptight about your "lore-friendliness", you should seriously try it out.
I have it downloading as I type this. Install will likely be a bit complex for me; since I've overwritten many of Colourwheel's modified armor and clothing meshes with new ones that have BBB support. Still, I'm confident it'll be worth my time to install this one anyway. The new collection will also consolidate her other mods into one esp; for those of you who run entirely too many mods and are beginning to have issues with the number of plugins in your data directory.
Update: I've played a bit on 2.6 now, and the overhaul officially rocks. Had one incompatibility issue with Elaborate Eyes, which took me all of five minutes to fix myself in the CS. The new Khajiit girls are ridiculously cute. Anime-catgirl-esque stuff.
Other than the humanized beast girls, it's pretty much business as usual; save that it's all collected into one handy-dandy esp now. Wish it was an esm so I could make companions on the new races, though.
I have to say, I've been a fan of hers for some four years now, and run about a dozen of her plugins at any given time in my game.
Recently, she released a new, all-in-one type collection; that also includes more "humanized" beast races. The main aim is basically to put the female sexy into Oblivion as much as possible; without going to the extreme (and laughably so) of such over the top things as DMRA.
This new mod is titled Colourwheel's Sexy Oblivion Overhaul. If you have a thing for sexy ladies, and aren't too uptight about your "lore-friendliness", you should seriously try it out.
I have it downloading as I type this. Install will likely be a bit complex for me; since I've overwritten many of Colourwheel's modified armor and clothing meshes with new ones that have BBB support. Still, I'm confident it'll be worth my time to install this one anyway. The new collection will also consolidate her other mods into one esp; for those of you who run entirely too many mods and are beginning to have issues with the number of plugins in your data directory.
Update: I've played a bit on 2.6 now, and the overhaul officially rocks. Had one incompatibility issue with Elaborate Eyes, which took me all of five minutes to fix myself in the CS. The new Khajiit girls are ridiculously cute. Anime-catgirl-esque stuff.
Other than the humanized beast girls, it's pretty much business as usual; save that it's all collected into one handy-dandy esp now. Wish it was an esm so I could make companions on the new races, though.
NCCS - V0.3 Uploaded
I finished off 0.3 this morning, and went ahead and uploaded it.
I had been holding off, hoping to come up with some way to not include a GREETING... but I couldn't do it. This debacle with wardminator aside; I still get two to three "bug reports" a week from people who use voices that have no greeting in the base game. There's also the issue with the NV Shojo's child voices not working right...
New Vegas is basically a mess, where voices are concerned. I really wish players would have simply learned not to use these voices; not just to keep from having to include extra dialog myself; but because a lot of the game's voices really are pretty poorly put together.
In testing, I found most of the voices that don't have greetings also don't have goodbyes. They don't have the lines that the NPC yells when the player knocks something over, or muzzles them with a weapon. I didn't test far enough to see if they have combat dialog.
Really... it's a pretty half-assed production on Bethesda's part.
There's only the one greeting at the moment. A simple "Yes?" that should be generic enough to work for the time being. Eventually, I will add some more to become a random listing of greetings, but I want to make sure the stuff works, first.
There may well not be any voicing coming, either. By the look of it, most voices in the game don't have a generic greeting. This means that they may well likely not have a generic greeting voice file, either. Beyond that, there are simply a slew of voices, now. Twelve for female adult, alone - not counting uniques. This is going to lead to a staggering number of voice files, and I'm quite frankly not inclined to go sifting through twenty or thirty thousand voice files to pick out fifty to set up for greetings.
Setting up voicing for one, lone companion is an annoyance. Doing it for an entire system that can use any voice type in the game... that's a full-time job for a couple weeks, at least - maybe longer. I hate to be a mercenary about this, but you people don't pay me. At all. So I can't say as I'm thrilled at the prospect of jumping into that workload.
I also tossed in the code to remove dead companions from the system; so they don't get teleported after you. I still can't figure out the fascination with killing off your companions... but I will confess that this was an oversight on my part, yes. An oversight which I apologize for.
I'm also more than a bit curious how you people keep getting your companions killed. Granted, it may have something to do with the combat style I use for them, but my girls don't get taken down. I put them in decent armor, and keep them supplied with stimpaks, and they thank me by kicking the holy living shit out of anyone we come across who's dumb enough to start trouble. Then again, I tend to treat my companions as I would members of a real fireteam I was in charge of. I make sure they've got medical supplies, decent armor, a good weapon, and plenty of ammunition. To the point that I'll actually take lesser equipment myself; to kit them out better. The point, boys and girls, is to be a team; and not to have several disposable people following you around. A leader looks out for his crew; be they flesh and blood or ones and zeros.
From here, I think we're nearing non-beta status. There isn't really much more to add to the system. Stability seems to be good (as good as can be, considering the sorry state of the game engine, anyway). There will likely be some expansion of dialog to include more randomized responses just to give extra personality, but aside from that and another combat style or two, I can't think of much more that the mod needs.
I had been holding off, hoping to come up with some way to not include a GREETING... but I couldn't do it. This debacle with wardminator aside; I still get two to three "bug reports" a week from people who use voices that have no greeting in the base game. There's also the issue with the NV Shojo's child voices not working right...
New Vegas is basically a mess, where voices are concerned. I really wish players would have simply learned not to use these voices; not just to keep from having to include extra dialog myself; but because a lot of the game's voices really are pretty poorly put together.
In testing, I found most of the voices that don't have greetings also don't have goodbyes. They don't have the lines that the NPC yells when the player knocks something over, or muzzles them with a weapon. I didn't test far enough to see if they have combat dialog.
Really... it's a pretty half-assed production on Bethesda's part.
There's only the one greeting at the moment. A simple "Yes?" that should be generic enough to work for the time being. Eventually, I will add some more to become a random listing of greetings, but I want to make sure the stuff works, first.
There may well not be any voicing coming, either. By the look of it, most voices in the game don't have a generic greeting. This means that they may well likely not have a generic greeting voice file, either. Beyond that, there are simply a slew of voices, now. Twelve for female adult, alone - not counting uniques. This is going to lead to a staggering number of voice files, and I'm quite frankly not inclined to go sifting through twenty or thirty thousand voice files to pick out fifty to set up for greetings.
Setting up voicing for one, lone companion is an annoyance. Doing it for an entire system that can use any voice type in the game... that's a full-time job for a couple weeks, at least - maybe longer. I hate to be a mercenary about this, but you people don't pay me. At all. So I can't say as I'm thrilled at the prospect of jumping into that workload.
I also tossed in the code to remove dead companions from the system; so they don't get teleported after you. I still can't figure out the fascination with killing off your companions... but I will confess that this was an oversight on my part, yes. An oversight which I apologize for.
I'm also more than a bit curious how you people keep getting your companions killed. Granted, it may have something to do with the combat style I use for them, but my girls don't get taken down. I put them in decent armor, and keep them supplied with stimpaks, and they thank me by kicking the holy living shit out of anyone we come across who's dumb enough to start trouble. Then again, I tend to treat my companions as I would members of a real fireteam I was in charge of. I make sure they've got medical supplies, decent armor, a good weapon, and plenty of ammunition. To the point that I'll actually take lesser equipment myself; to kit them out better. The point, boys and girls, is to be a team; and not to have several disposable people following you around. A leader looks out for his crew; be they flesh and blood or ones and zeros.
From here, I think we're nearing non-beta status. There isn't really much more to add to the system. Stability seems to be good (as good as can be, considering the sorry state of the game engine, anyway). There will likely be some expansion of dialog to include more randomized responses just to give extra personality, but aside from that and another combat style or two, I can't think of much more that the mod needs.
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Look
You probably noticed, I added a banner image for the blog; as well as updated my avatars here and on the Nexus.
Well, the Nexus you may not notice; since it hasn't propagated through their system yet or something. Who knows how long that change will take to show up.
Anyway; The banner's a bit taller than I wanted, but I couldn't figure out a way to get it short and wide and still look cool. Just hard to show me and three NPCs in a wide format, I suppose.
Bit pretentious, I know; but I like it.
A smaller version of the banner will be going up to my uploaded mods on the Nexus soon; and added to the NCCS companion creation tutorial, too.
Well, the Nexus you may not notice; since it hasn't propagated through their system yet or something. Who knows how long that change will take to show up.
Anyway; The banner's a bit taller than I wanted, but I couldn't figure out a way to get it short and wide and still look cool. Just hard to show me and three NPCs in a wide format, I suppose.
Bit pretentious, I know; but I like it.
A smaller version of the banner will be going up to my uploaded mods on the Nexus soon; and added to the NCCS companion creation tutorial, too.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
More Flaws
I'm cooled off from yesterday. Well, mostly.
I still think wardminator is a complete jerkoff... but until they give us the ability to choke the holy living shit out of someone across the intarwebz, what're y'gonna do, y'know?
Anyway. Had another report this morning of dialog issues.
I'm not even annoyed at the players for not understanding the concept that NCCS doesn't include any greetings. I'm just... amazed.
It seems like every other mod released now, the author has monkeyed with the GREETING topic and not cleaned his plugin properly (or you know... at all).
I don't remember the influx of new modders we got when FO3 won GotY being this stupid and inattentive. I really don't.
Regardless... much as I hate to do this, we're rapidly approaching the point where I'm left little choice but to write in an NCCS-specific greeting that will override all others for the companions. It'll fix a myriad of complaints, it's true... but it'll also be unvoiced - because I'm not sorting through twenty thousand voice files anytime soon - and I like my companions having a voiced greeting. I'm sure someone will bitch in my general direction about that, too... but I think those bitches will be fewer in frequency than the "HALP MY DIALOG R NO WERK!" ones I'm getting three times a week, now.
Well... it worked well enough for CM, didn't it?
I still think wardminator is a complete jerkoff... but until they give us the ability to choke the holy living shit out of someone across the intarwebz, what're y'gonna do, y'know?
Anyway. Had another report this morning of dialog issues.
I'm not even annoyed at the players for not understanding the concept that NCCS doesn't include any greetings. I'm just... amazed.
It seems like every other mod released now, the author has monkeyed with the GREETING topic and not cleaned his plugin properly (or you know... at all).
I don't remember the influx of new modders we got when FO3 won GotY being this stupid and inattentive. I really don't.
Regardless... much as I hate to do this, we're rapidly approaching the point where I'm left little choice but to write in an NCCS-specific greeting that will override all others for the companions. It'll fix a myriad of complaints, it's true... but it'll also be unvoiced - because I'm not sorting through twenty thousand voice files anytime soon - and I like my companions having a voiced greeting. I'm sure someone will bitch in my general direction about that, too... but I think those bitches will be fewer in frequency than the "HALP MY DIALOG R NO WERK!" ones I'm getting three times a week, now.
Well... it worked well enough for CM, didn't it?
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Flaws
People create unnamed mod that adds a "modern penthouse" for the player attached to Gomorrah.
Whoopsie, gave you enough information to search out the mod there, didn't I?
One of the authors of said penthouse comes to me, says NCCS is flawed, because it uses a greeting that isn't directed at any npc; and so conflicts with his mod because it doesn't include any dialog at all.
Yeah, I know; it doesn't make sense to me either.
So... apparently, my mod is flawed in that I choose to use the base game's GREETING dialog topics to preserve voiced greetings without adding a bunch of voice files.
So now I have a two page PM detailing to me how I'm so wrong, and that I should really fix it because most players aren't expert modders like he is, and thus cannot fix it themselves.
Despite the fact that our latest malcontent was too much of a chickenshit to name his mod so I could look at the problem myself (I guess I'm just supposed to accept his word?) I easily found it by checking his posting habits on the NVNexus. They didn't even spell Gomorrah correctly. "gammarah"? Really? I swear, if the US public schools get any fucking worse we're going to be living out Idiocracy...
I see also that said author posted his maligning of NCCS in the comments of his mod.
In any event, I downloaded the latest version of the penthouse and the update. Tested, and it does cause companions to be unspeak-to-able. Ran it through FNVEdit.
Lo' and behold, tell it from the fucking mountaintop! An edit to one of the base game's GREETING topics; deleting its dialog and leaving it an empty entry.
"My mod contains no dialog yet" my pallid white ass.
Deleted his edit that ostensibly didn't exist? NCCS works perfectly again.
This, boys and girls, is a perfect example of why you should get your shit straight before you call someone out.
...And it's about to be an example of why it's a bad idea to malign someone else's work in a public forum when you're blatantly wrong...
"@wardminator:
It took me a few seconds to find your mod, since you weren't kind enough to tell me the name so I could have a look at the issues myself; but I downloaded a copy and had a look anyway.
I tried NCCS and the penthouse here at the same time, and did indeed encounter an inability to speak to companions.
If you actually did inspect your penthouse in FNVEdit, you're not much on detail. It took about twelve seconds to find an edit someone made to one of the base game's GREETING dialog topics, as seen in this handy dandy screenshot, taken of v1.1 in FNVEdit. As you can see, you deleted the infos from the 'What do you need?' greeting. This is the one that most commonly comes up for NPCs without a dedicated greeting - regardless of voice type, so naturally it causes problems. The green color of the dialog topic name, for the record, indicates an override.
Sure enough, I deleted the edit from your plugin, and NCCS works perfectly again.
Also for the record: the reason there is no greeting dialog assigned to the NCCS dialog container quest is because there is no greeting topic included in NCCS to begin with. While there are plans to add one at a later date to accommodate the number of voice types that Obsidian didn't see fit to give us one for, it hasn't been enough of an issue thus far to warrant overriding all greetings in the game for companions.
There is no flaw in my dialog that I'm aware of; save perhaps my writing style and adherence to grammar structures that aren't as widely accepted as they once were.
The flaw, I fear, is in people who edit things unintentionally, and don't take the time to clean their plugins.
Further, it would be greatly appreciated if you would get your facts straight before maligning someone's work in public like this.
Have a nice day, and a happy new year."
Yep. I posted his actual Nexus username. Fuck him, his mod, and the horse that brought 'em both to market.
If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do something else now and try to suppress the urge to delete all my uploaded mods to save me the trouble of being constantly harangued by you morons.
Whoopsie, gave you enough information to search out the mod there, didn't I?
One of the authors of said penthouse comes to me, says NCCS is flawed, because it uses a greeting that isn't directed at any npc; and so conflicts with his mod because it doesn't include any dialog at all.
Yeah, I know; it doesn't make sense to me either.
So... apparently, my mod is flawed in that I choose to use the base game's GREETING dialog topics to preserve voiced greetings without adding a bunch of voice files.
So now I have a two page PM detailing to me how I'm so wrong, and that I should really fix it because most players aren't expert modders like he is, and thus cannot fix it themselves.
Despite the fact that our latest malcontent was too much of a chickenshit to name his mod so I could look at the problem myself (I guess I'm just supposed to accept his word?) I easily found it by checking his posting habits on the NVNexus. They didn't even spell Gomorrah correctly. "gammarah"? Really? I swear, if the US public schools get any fucking worse we're going to be living out Idiocracy...
I see also that said author posted his maligning of NCCS in the comments of his mod.
In any event, I downloaded the latest version of the penthouse and the update. Tested, and it does cause companions to be unspeak-to-able. Ran it through FNVEdit.
Lo' and behold, tell it from the fucking mountaintop! An edit to one of the base game's GREETING topics; deleting its dialog and leaving it an empty entry.
"My mod contains no dialog yet" my pallid white ass.
Deleted his edit that ostensibly didn't exist? NCCS works perfectly again.
This, boys and girls, is a perfect example of why you should get your shit straight before you call someone out.
...And it's about to be an example of why it's a bad idea to malign someone else's work in a public forum when you're blatantly wrong...
"@wardminator:
It took me a few seconds to find your mod, since you weren't kind enough to tell me the name so I could have a look at the issues myself; but I downloaded a copy and had a look anyway.
I tried NCCS and the penthouse here at the same time, and did indeed encounter an inability to speak to companions.
If you actually did inspect your penthouse in FNVEdit, you're not much on detail. It took about twelve seconds to find an edit someone made to one of the base game's GREETING dialog topics, as seen in this handy dandy screenshot, taken of v1.1 in FNVEdit. As you can see, you deleted the infos from the 'What do you need?' greeting. This is the one that most commonly comes up for NPCs without a dedicated greeting - regardless of voice type, so naturally it causes problems. The green color of the dialog topic name, for the record, indicates an override.
Sure enough, I deleted the edit from your plugin, and NCCS works perfectly again.
Also for the record: the reason there is no greeting dialog assigned to the NCCS dialog container quest is because there is no greeting topic included in NCCS to begin with. While there are plans to add one at a later date to accommodate the number of voice types that Obsidian didn't see fit to give us one for, it hasn't been enough of an issue thus far to warrant overriding all greetings in the game for companions.
There is no flaw in my dialog that I'm aware of; save perhaps my writing style and adherence to grammar structures that aren't as widely accepted as they once were.
The flaw, I fear, is in people who edit things unintentionally, and don't take the time to clean their plugins.
Further, it would be greatly appreciated if you would get your facts straight before maligning someone's work in public like this.
Have a nice day, and a happy new year."
Yep. I posted his actual Nexus username. Fuck him, his mod, and the horse that brought 'em both to market.
If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do something else now and try to suppress the urge to delete all my uploaded mods to save me the trouble of being constantly harangued by you morons.
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