Back Online!

Tremble, peasants! For we here at NosCo once again have fully working internet access!

...Okay, now which button cues the dramatic lightning bolt...?

But yeah. Since Tuesday the 22nd, I've been operating on ever-worsening internet. When it started, it was annoying -- it would go out every half hour or so, stay down five minutes, and then be back up. Yesterday morning, I was lucky if I could get through the three pages required to check my email before the modem pooched. My last comment on the Nexus took five or six reconnections to actually get through.

Turned out to be two issues: whoever worked in the junction box last had made, as the technician put it: "a mess". The co-ax to my apartment was so kinked up he described it as a "zig zag"; and noted that the cable was so bent that the filament or whatever co-ax has to transmit the signal was broken, dropping my signal strength so low that neither modem nor cable box could keep a connection when the wind blew -- which here in the Columbia River Hellhol- I mean Basin, is always.

On top of that, something (or things) in my modem was in its death throes. Hence the worsening performance as time went on. Some swapped junction cables and a new modem later, and here I am again.

I'd love to flip Charter Cable shit over the incident, and go on a tirade about their customer support as so many others have... but I can't in good conscience. Real life issues kept me from getting in touch with tech support until Wednesday of this week (and they showed up to fix it on Thursday, so not bad time); and yes it took two visits to fix, but that was mostly my fault for not testing the "fixed" connection with a sustained download before the guy left. Other than issues with piss-poor reception on my cell phone to call tech support (which they have no control over) I found the entire process straight-forward and simple; and the tech they sent out seemed to know his business.

I have to confess, I did a Google search earlier in the week trying to check for other problems in my area -- local contractors are bad about digging ditches without calling and cutting the regional fiber-op backbone (happens at least once a year, sometimes more) -- and the entire first page of results was nothing but people bitching that Charter didn't fix whatever they had wrong. I was expecting to be left hanging; when he said that the problem was signal strength in the junction box, I figured someone in the complex had tied one too many lines in on Tuesday, and that last straw finally broke the camel's back and we couldn't get cable internet anymore.

I was wrong. They fixed me up, and after catching up on some torrents and downloading that driver update I'd been needing since Thursday (no, no: the last Thursday, not yesterday), she's still running perfectly. Not only that, but the new modem has some kind of enhancements over the old one and my connection now tops out at 2m/bit instead of 1m/bit. Sustained download speeds of 1.9 megabytes a second. Well, it ain't flyin' cars... but that's living-in-the-future enough for me.

And junction box shenanigans and burned out modems are officially considered "not your fault" so it didn't cost me one red cent.

So while anecdotal evidence may still support them sucking, my personal experience now conflicts with that; and I'm pretty happy with my internet service. Still wish I could get the Military Channel and Nicktoons TV instead of eight versions of Telemundo... but that's a rant for another day. I'm just happy I didn't end up having to switch to the local phone company's craptastic excuse for A/DSL; which I had back in '06 -- cannot say I miss those big 30k/sec downstream speeds, either. What? No, I didn't miss a zero: thirty kilobytes a second.

Anyway. Should be posts incoming. As I noted in passing in the NCCS comments the other day, I ended up with a new video card; since my long-serving 8800GTS was on its way to Video-Card-Valhalla. It's the dust. Cakes up the fan bearings, fan stops, GPU fries. Ended up catching a helluva sale on a GTX650ti 2gb; though my old-ass PC doesn't much like the PCIe 3.0 format apparently. Am hoping the new drivers I finally managed to get yesterday will help with that.

I have since assembled a mess 'o screenshots; enough for six or so posts... but couldn't do much with them when I couldn't reliably access Picasa to graft them into posts. Of course now I have to separate them, sort out the ones that aren't suitable for public sharing (I. Admit. NOTHING.), and then arrange thoughts that go with them into semi-coherency for posts... so it may still be awhile.

Okay, I Laughed

Seen in a thread this afternoon:

"Is there a load order guide that is actually a load order guide and not some fucking explanation as to what a load order is?"

"No, I'd explain to you why, but I'd be giving you some fucking explanation as to what a load order is."

FO3 Nexus Upgrade

Heads-up: there's been a code upgrade to the FO3 Nexus. I was checking over RR the other morning, and the comments thread wasn't attached to the file anymore. Hit my files listing and almost half of them had the same problem. I've filed a bug report, so hopefully they'll be back soon.

If you have any files on the FO3 Nexus, you might want to check it out and make sure everything is still as it should be.

Another One Bites the Dust

...or will in the near future, anyway.

Over the two years and change I've been running this blog, I've linked numerous times to screenshots or occasionally even files hosted on non-English sites; image boards, forums, blogs, and so on.

Sadly, these are dropping like whores during an outbreak of the Black Death.

One of the better ones that hosted a great many of the original Lovers series mods for Oblivion -- as well as body and armor mods, and a shit-ton of cool screenshots -- bought it at the first of this year.

I was cruising the other morning through Loda's FNV section -- a place where I've found a great many astoundingly cool armor and body mods over the years (there is also an FO3 section) -- and was dismayed to see a large block of moonrunes with the date of 3/31 prominently displayed.

I ran the block through a translator, and sure enough: Loda is going under at the end of March.

I used to peruse a Russian forum for some interesting mods; but it went down back in 2010.

The internet being what it is, free services appear and disappear regularly enough; but it's always annoying with mods. A modder or two always decides not to bother moving their work when an established venue dies; deciding instead to simply throw in the towel. Even the ones who do go to the trouble of moving and re-establishing themselves can take months to track down.

I've got my mod archives built up pretty solidly... but I have to confess not seeing any new armors or outfits from some of my favorite sources is a more bleak looking future, as far as my adventures in the nuclear wastelands go.

Reqiuem: MU

Well, looks like Megaupload is no more.

I suppose those of us who used it for legally uploading files can just go fuck ourselves.

For the time being, all the mods I've released here on the blog are apparently un-released, until I find another decent file-sharing service to upload them to. Once I have found such, I will update the relevant posts with corrected links.

Edit: and a thought just occurred, it is apparently the entire Mega* network, and not just Upload -- I just checked Druuler's comics (images hosted on Megapix) and they're inaccessible, too.

I have to wonder how many legitimate files this axed.

New Terminology

Reading around the internetz this mornin', happened across a new term: "Skyrimmer"; referencing, of course, people who play Skyrim.

Now, rather than add this to the 'ol mental lexicon for future attempts to appear edgy and cool, I just sat and giggled.

Maybe I've been around the darker side of the 'net too long now, but whenever I say or type the word 'Skyrimmer' I can't help but think it actually refers to a particularly intimate act engaged in by two (or hell, more -- it is the twenty-first century and all... I suppose it could be a group activity...) overly adventurous people whilst sky-diving.

Think about it a minute, you'll get it. And yes, I am that mentally warped, thanks for asking.

...I have to go now; I'm having too much difficulty repressing the urge to make more dirty jokes...

Nonsensical On A New Level

So, I've made it no secret that one of my eventual goals with NCCS is a "hardcore" mode -- that is, where the companions need food and drink as well.

With some of the recent prototype code I've gotten running on my personal companions, I'm pretty close to making that a reality.

One of the things that I'm still plotting on is how to determine when they need food and drink. I could run it as a standalone setting independent of the player's current needs level; but for simplicity's sake I'd like to tie the companions' needs to the players -- so that you all get hungry or thirsty at the same time.

Trouble is, I'm not familiar with any script function to check the player's current dehydration level, so I went banging around the GECK wiki.

You can imagine my surprise when one of the search results was this page.

What in the everloving, holy fuck that has to do with game modding I have no idea. This, I suppose, is the eternal problem with wikis: when you let anyone edit something, you can bet someone is going to go completely off the reservation. With the link in the text, it's probably spam of some sort... but one would think someone mighta noticed that shit.

I... Wait, What...?

So... I'm cruising that Japanese mod database/imagestore for FONV that I mention from time to time -- because hey, you never know when you'll run across some neat armor or a body mod that will never see the Nexus -- and running new screenshots, and I hit this one.

Now, most people would probably be looking at the redhead with the weird forehead tattoo... but eh; my redheads are way hotter; and wear better hair styles.

Me? I took one look at the screenshot, and wondered when someone made a Hugh Laurie sniper companion.

I'm not much on other peoples' companions... but I think I'd have to download that one. One question though: which Hugh Laurie do we get? George, or Gregory House? I can see either one being an amazing companion to travel the Mojave wastes with me; but I can't decide which I'd rather have. Wackyness, or nuclear snark? Oh, decisions, decisions...

I guess with the half-beard it'd have to be House, huh? I mean, he stayed clean shaven for George and all.

...Damn. Now I want a Rowan Atkinson companion too; and listen to them trade snark while we travel. Where'd I leave my Black Adder DVD boxed set, anyway...?

Shudder.

The trouble with lurking imageboards and such is that sometimes, you come across something wrong.

Very, very wrong.

Oh, man, where'd I leave that bottle of brain bleach...

...Uh...

Semi-related to the whole modding bit, semi not...

Am working on the NosCo SBH texture some more this morning. Decided I wanted to find a particular type of picture to potentially edit and graft into the texture.

I run a Google image search, as I'm doing more often these days.

...One of the results is an image from my other blog...

Do you have any idea how surreal that is?

"Hey, I recognize that picture... wait, what...?"

New Nexus Design

No, Sir, I don't like it.

Look, I can understand that the previous design was fundamentally flawed (despite being used anyway for four years) but really? I have to tell NoScript to let Jquery do whatever it wants to my browser now?

Also: too many graphical buttons. I miss text labels. Yes, they're not what the cool kids use; but they load fast and are less prone to breaking when your servers revert to suck and fail mode.

On the other hand, it was high time you guys got rid of that thumbs-down nonsense. It was used as a tool of impotent vengeance attempts and nothing more. Also, I like that anyone with editing access to a file now gets the border around their comments; and not just the original uploader. That should make it much easier to identify people of importance for the file.

Lastly: the color scheme sucks. The FNV nexus looks like a Half Life fan site now.

Well we can look on the bright side I suppose that at least they didn't use a Flash intro...


Edit:

Hm. And it also appears that the migration to the new design has wiped all rich text in comments, and lost part of the BBCode in file descriptions. I see on the NCCS page that the divider lines are gone between sections of the description.

Be Afraid.

Awhile back on my other blog, I posted a news story regarding some horrific plants that were becoming an epidemic in parts of New York state. As it often does, the conversation in the comments quickly switched topics, and ended up being about horrific insects and animals.

The Tarantula Hawk Wasp was mentioned; being as it is not only horrific, and nightmare inspiring, but is the real creature that the "Cazadores" from FNV are based on.

So while this might be mostly off topic for this blog, I thought I'd nonetheless share this image I ran across on a chan board this morning:



Now, if you'll excuse me, I suddenly feel the need to go buy an autoloading shotgun with a tube extension...


Edited to add: and Goddamn the JCS is still a sexy bitch, ain't she?

Public Service Announcement

So, if you care what the Nexus admins think is newsworthy, you may already know this; but Bethsoft got hacked. Again. This last time was on Friday.

I wouldn't normally mention it, but I got an email from them (Bethsoft) this morning, warning me about it so I thought I'd pass it on in case their forum software misses any of you.

If you have an account with them, your password has been forcibly changed, and needs to be reset.

I personally will not be resetting mine anytime soon, as I long ago abandoned Bethsoft's retard-infested forums.

That is all. Going back to my hole, now.

Note To Self:

When Google image searching samples of wood patterns to rework a weapon texture, searching for "ebony" does not return images of Diospyros ebenum or Diospyros crassiflora.

...Nothing but magazine covers and porn...

Welp. Rosewood stocks for the NosCo SBH it is...

So They Get a Motel Room...

Bored this evening, awaiting the new seasons of Futurama and Ugly Americans to start; happened to browse across some chan boards.

You see a lot of video game posts in such places. Especially hypotheticals. "The protagonist from the last video game you played is now the MC of the last anime you watched, what changes?" et cetera.

Tonight's pointless post with four hundred replies? "The protagonists from the last two games you played are now having sex with each other."

...This is too stupid for me not to keep reading.

And, oh! The answers given...

"Pokemon Trainer Red and Mega Man. Eh, I'm sure that's a fanfic somewhere."

"If I use the term protagonist loose enough for it to work with the last two games I played, that would mean Raynor (StarCraft 2) is having romantic affairs with Bismarck (Civ4), and that's simply historically inaccurate."

"Oh shi-

The Jedi Exile is getting gangbanged by everyone who isn't Galactus in MvC3.

:<"

"that's great, because that means the loli girl from recettear is getting plowed by heavy weapons guy, THANKS GUYS I LOVE HAVING NIGHTMARES"

"So, Geralt from The Witcher is having sex with Hawke from Dragon Age 2 right now... A male warrior Hawke.

I'm not as Ok with this as I thought I would be..."

Hold on, I'm giggling so hard I can't breathe at that last image...

"Female High Elf mage from Morrowind
and
Female Malkavian from VtM: Bloodlines"

Y'know, I always thought the female Malk in Bloodlines would be a tiger in the sack. Batshit insane tends to do that.

"John Shepard and John Shepard.

Oh my."

"Let's see, I'd say I'm the protagonist of EVE, so me, and... Master Chief... fuck..."

"Master Chief and Samus. Well, that went better than expected."

Huh, I think VGCats did that comic already...

"Blonde female Courier from New Vegas and female Commander Shepard from the second Mass Effect.

My courier is an unarmed specialist. I foresee fisting, and now I have a boner."

Well, I could have lived without that visual, thanks.

"Femshepard and Ladyhawke.

Not even shitting you."

You know, I remember Ladyhawke. It wasn't a bad movie, I don't care what the critics say... what's that? As in female Hawke of DA2? Oh. Yeah, that makes more sense, then.

"F.E.A.R 1, 2 and 3 put together.

So New Point Man and Paxton Fettel are raping Samuel Beckett while themselves getting fisted by Old Point Man.

Pretty much sums up my opinion of the game's quality."


What would my answer be?

Well, I was playing Sins of a Solar Empire last; which doesn't have a protagonist... so I suppose I'd have to kick back to the two games before that, which would be: my redhead female Horkew (wolf girl) character in Oblivion, and a male Nosferatu in Bloodlines (never have actually finished a playthrough as a sewer rat, so was trying again).

Now... I have watched some screwed up porn in my day -- and enacted some other screwed up stuff via video games and mods thereof... but I can say with pretty good certainty, that is one video I would not be buying a copy of. I... really don't want to see a Nosferatu naked, thanks. Like, at all. Ever. Even a female one.

So, what say you, moderately loyal readers? Care to play? Can you top my soul-scarring answer?

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go start a new Bloodlines game with a female Toreador character, answer the question again; and figure out a way to film that shit. I'll make a mint...

I Really Hate Microsoft

Editing the NCCS companion creation guide. Adding the correct logo, and figured I'd fix some misspellings while trying to decide whether to expand the content somewhat.

Since Word has a spell checker, and Notepad doesn't, I opened the htm files in Word. Did a quick spell-check, fix, et cetera.

Save the files, close; open back up in Notepad to copy my CSS template for use in a new page, and see that Word has helpfully doubled the size of each file. There are now dozens of new tags. Metas for author and revision number and date of edit; sixteen different fonts declared... Hell, there was even one listing compatibility.

...And that was about where I closed the program and restored copies from the archive.

Ya over-engineered piece of office managerial shit! I just wanted the spelling errors fixed! I didn't need my html "improved" with two hundred lines of useless garbage.

Man, I've gotta get a proper html editor, again...

...Are We Back?

Looks like posting is re-enabled, after nearly twenty-four hours. According to the tech notice, Blogger somehow ended up screwing the pooch during a bit of "routine maintenance"; which resulted in temporarily losing all content from after the Wednesday data backup.

Posts are back, as is the ability to post. Comments do not appear to have been restored. I'm not sure whether they will be or not. The tech notice is rather unspecific on that point, saying only that they're working on restoring everything.

So, if your comment never returns from its tour of duty in Limbo, that's why. I'm not going through and deleting the things.

...Also interesting, is that my saved post tags seem to be corrupted in some cases. Well, all we can do is hope they restore everything correctly, I suppose...

Huh.

Was looking over a profile in the Nexus just now, and happened to pop into my own profile; curious about how many views it had.

I noticed the second to last hit on my profile was Buddah.

I'm not sure whether to be flattered or worried.

Either way, it was over a week ago and I haven't gotten to meet the angry hand of god yet; so it must not have been anything too serious. Although my more paranoid instincts do have me wondering idly if I've been reported for something by a certain scorned modder who shall remain nameless...

Arena Commentators

This would have made the Arena in Oblivion a thousand times better.

Even better than the announcer in UT2k4.

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.