Instead Of Doing Something Useful: The Story Of My Life

[Silver Sorrow]

You cannot view this attachment.

That's more like it.

There's an option for paler skin and heavier eye makeup, but I think she's gothy enough at the moment.

Also, there's a mod for more subtle makeup. But who needs that?   I might try that one out on another character who isn't in Slytherin...

A couple of outfit mods have been released. Some of them have form-fitting pants, which has resulted in a shitload of outraged moralists decrying the sexualization of little girls. One post I saw insisted that the author and everyone who downloads them be tracked by the CIA (or something like that).

This is the future of our society, friends.

How much do you want to bet that the people screaming the loudest are the ones with a terabyte of kiddie porn stashed somewhere?

[Silver Sorrow]

Ah, crap. Screwed up my post. Try again.

To hell with it. She's going full goth-pale.

You cannot view this attachment.

Not all that pale, right? Well, remember when I implied that the lighting was kind of wonky?

You cannot view this attachment.

Yeah. There it is.

Still, I like it. It's too bad that that's as dark as her eyebrows get, but I'm sure someone will address that in the future.

And, uh...maybe the outraged moralists have a point. This is the modded champion outfit:

You cannot view this attachment.

Not all that bad...although her butt cheeks do clip through cloaks a bit. Still, I don't think it's worth screaming at people and calling them pedophiles.

Personally...well. I'm not enthusiastic about it. I have my character wearing a cloak all the time, so I'm never looking at her butt. Oh, well.

[Silver Sorrow]

<Sorry...had to break this up to fit in the other pic.>

For the record, here is the unmodded champion outfit:

You cannot view this attachment.

Uh...well...I prefer this original version, actually. I hate to admit it, but I don't see the point of a form-fitting outfit in this setting. No, I'm not siding with the offended people. I'm just saying that I prefer this one. And it doesn't clip with cloaks.

[Silver Sorrow]

!!@#$%!! Vessnelle...makin' me question my gothgirl look...

You cannot view this attachment.

Actually impressive...this is on the lowest settings available, too. (Another week or two before my new computer's done...alas...)

And you may be wondering: what do I, the intrepid player, get for killing ten spiders and returning stolen carts to a goblin that was robbed? Well, wonder no further...

You cannot view this attachment.

That's right: spider slayer armor and a goblin-made helmet. This oughtta show those losers in the common room...

[Doc_Brown]

Another week or two before my new computer's done...alas...

Speaking of, how'd all that shake out for you, Silver?

[Silver Sorrow]

Pretty well, actually. I went through Ava Direct, since they had the customization I was looking for (although a full-blown gaming nirvana from Alienware was tempting, the $5500 price tag dampened that temptation considerably).

I ended up going with...let's see...an i7-13700K, 32gb of RAM, a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12gb, 2 2tb SSDs, an actual soundcard instead of onboard sound, a bunch of fans, and a black no-frills mid-tower case (I hate all those flashy lights).

It was not cheap either, but not exactly astronomical. I've been saving up for a while anyway.

I was actually doing the forward-looking thing, where I peer dimly into the future and think that maybe, just maybe, that 4070 might still be useful in a couple of years. I'm not so prescient as to think a $2,000 4090 could be justified, however.

The Conversation:

THEM: "But think of the speed! The power!"

ME: "I think of maybe using that $2000 to to get my damaged flooring replaced."

THEM: "So boring."

ME: "I'd rather be boring than walking on warped laminate."

And there you have it.

[Doc_Brown]

I'm not so prescient as to think a $2,000 4090 could be justified, however.

Ooh, this is poor timing then.

[Starfox]

I'm not so prescient as to think a $2,000 4090 could be justified, however.

It is not. Currently all the specialists on the net think that nVidia got batshit crazy with their RTX 40 series pricing. Want to know what a RTX40 series is really worth... cut the price by 50%, that's about it.

Far gone are the days when nVidia pretended to be the consumer's friendly option for all game loving people. Not that they ever were...

All those considerations aside... How's the game?

[Silver Sorrow]

Ooh, this is poor timing then.

Well...it figures.

But I'd be surprised if they weren't out of stock already. That tends to happen to me when it comes to hot deals, for some reason. In all areas of my life, come to think about it.

But it just goes back to the good old days of buying computers, when the big joke was "the new one was obsolete before I got it out of the box!" Some things never change.

It is not. Currently all the specialists on the net think that nVidia got batshit crazy with their RTX 40 series pricing. Want to know what a RTX40 series is really worth... cut the price by 50%, that's about it.

It's at this point where I think that open revolt might be justified.

Far gone are the days when nVidia pretended to be the consumer's friendly option for all game loving people. Not that they ever were...

Whenever the logo screen on a particular game would declare "Nvidia: the way it's meant to be played," I would always ask, "Is it? Is it really?" This was usually after being squeezed face-first through the very bowels of hell just to get the game running...usually because of some dumbass driver problem.

And then there's the GeForce Experience, which is meant to take you into a new era of invasiveness and even more problems. "Hi there! You'll need to login to this app-thingy just to access the control panel...on your own computer! Then we're gonna 'enhance' your games without asking so that they won't work at all! Isn't this the greatest experience ever!"

To be crude about it: the GeForce Experience is like having a password-protected toilet that backs up after using if you don't tinker with a couple of bits in the tank first. Some people just opt to piss in the tub, which may or may not be a metaphor for choosing AMD. It may be better, it may be worse. Nvidia is all I know.

All those considerations aside... How's the game?

Fairly good. I'm having some issues with the controls -- there are so many of them -- but I've managed, as Story Mode's pretty forgiving. The camera is odd, though. Combat has gotten to be a bit of a pain in the ass for a couple of reasons. How it goes, in second-person perspective:

1. You enter into combat...with multiple foes, usually.
2. You lock onto a specific foe (not entirely up to you, so you might try to cycle to another one) and zap 'em a couple of times.
3. They launch an attack. You:
3a. cast Protego [prompt "Q"]
3b. dodge [prompt "ctrl"]
4. You kill the first foe...eventually. Your next attack might be on a foe locked-pn behind you (again: the game wants to make these decisions for you), so you probably can't see them as you're zapping away, so you have to readjust and...
5. You hit ESC to pause so you can get a handful of gummy bears from the three-pound bag beside you, to chew and ruminate on what your life has become.
6. Now that your hands are icky, you put them back on the keyboard and say the kinds of words that would have gotten you burned at the stake in the village square back when they still had buckles on their hats.
7. Pause to clean keyboard.
8. Consider switching to a controller.
9. Reject the notion, as the control scheme looks downright insane as compared to the keyboard's control mapping.
10. Go back to the game.
11. Muddle through somehow. This may include:
11a. Swapping your spells around because you haven't yet unlocked the trait that allows you to have multiple spell groups.
11b. Casting Lumos when you should be casting Incendio, because...why not?
11c. Hitting the wrong button at the right time and vice-versa; i.e., hitting Dodge when you should be casting Protego.
11d. Continually hitting dodge like a complete moron because your big stupid hands hands can't find the goddamn Z or X, thanks to you not having enough patience to sit down with pen and paper in an effort to definitively remap your keys; you decided to just shrug and ask "how bad could it be?" when you looked at the key mapping and saw that it was a typical WASD setup. You're regretting that now, aren't you? AREN'T YOU??
12. You take forever to kill these spell-sponges. Forever.
12a. Zap zap zap zapzapzapzapzapzapzapzap! Just die already, you bastard! Zapzapzapzapzapzapzap...
12b. It isn't a true test of your combat skills until you've cast Incendio and missed or were too far away. and said very mean things about the devs' mothers.
12c. "Why am I casting Lumos? Why can't I stop casting Lumos??"
12d. "That's it. I'm reassigning something else in that slot. ...grumblegrumblegrumble..."
12e. Oh, great. Now it's pitch black. And you've just cast Expelliarmus thinking it would be Lumos.
12f. You idiot.
13. Collect all the crap your foes leave behind.
14. Apologize to the devs and their mothers, as you realize that this would've been a lot harder if it wasn't on Story Mode.
15. You're old. And you never were good at games. Reflect upon this as you wander into the kitchen for a slice of cold pizza.
16. You're out of pizza.
17. Even the pizza place that caters to the college crowd is closed. It's that late.
18. The gummy bears fail to fill the void in your gut and in your soul.

Your mileage may vary.

DISCLAIMER: I exaggerate, of course.

So I don't really look forward to combat. Exploring and little puzzles are fine by me, honestly.

But when you're not in combat, you get to experience the joy of having perhaps too much to do. They really don't want you to play anything else while this thing's installed. And that's okay. I don't have anywhere to be in particular.

With that said, I think I may have over-leveled too soon for the main plot's liking? I just completed an MQ stage that required me to be level 6 or so to start it. I'm currently at level 22.

The best thing -- and I'm not being sarcastic here -- is that I'm not expected to deal with a romance subplot. (As far as I know. I hope it stays that way.)

Anyway...yeah, I'm having fun with it, I guess.

[Silver Sorrow]

This outfit might look familiar. Just a touch.

You cannot view this attachment.

From the back:

You cannot view this attachment.

We do have fun, don't we?

You cannot view this attachment.

I have to wear a school robe over this outfit, since it feels a bit...ostentatious...as I tend to my mallowsweet plants.

Link:
Yennefer Outfit (Dark Arts)

[Silver Sorrow]

Aaaaand...they nuked the Yennefer mod. Typical Nexus. 

Rule of thumb: if you see something interesting on the Nexus, download it immediately; don't put it off 'til later. Chances are, they'll find something wrong with it (be it due to outraged assholes or vague copyright infringements) and delete it.

[Starfox]

Aaaaand...they nuked the Yennefer mod. Typical Nexus. 

That's a bit weird. CD Projekt has always been known to be very lenient regarding the use of outfits coming from their game by the modding community... as long as proper credit is given, of course... Skyrim have been using them for years, with no problem, Enderal too...

For the past couple of years though, Nexus has become somewhat weirder than they used to be.

[Silver Sorrow]

I saw someone's comment that was due to it being "a straight port," which makes no sense to me. I think most of the armors in Skyrim were straight ports from the Witcher.

There's kind of a witchhunt going on with mods right now, so...I don't know. I'm glad I'm not a creative person and releasing mods in this day and age.   But it seems to me that it was banned probably because someone got their panties in a twist due to the character's butt being clearly defined...and it only takes one easily-offended idiot to complain these days before you're gone.

Why not just stuff your female characters in shin-length skirts and shapeless robes and...wait, that's already in the game. What's next? Hijabs? Full burkas?

The butt in question:

You cannot view this attachment.

I say it makes for good adventuring gear. So there.

On a side note...and I'm not complaining, really...the devs are trying a bit too hard. Sirona with her manly voice (I think there was a mod that changed it to an AI-generated female voice and that was taken down pretty quick), and my personal favorite, a couple of women who are "married." It's the woman who gets you onto the Merlin trials, don't remember her name. She refers to her "wife," and...wait, what? Did they do that sort of thing back in 1800's Britain?

The reason I ask is that someone objected stridently to a makeup mod, claiming all sorts of societal crap concerning painted women and such. And yet...they're perfectly okay with blatant declarations of homosexuality. Okay...yeah. Sure. I know that sort of thing went on. But, uh...look what they did to Alan Turing, for example. And that was in the 1900's. Plus, they're witches. So: double-whammy.

"What're we burnin' 'em at the stake for, Bob? The lesbian thing or the witch thing?"

"Either one."

"And they're ugly, too."

"That's another good reason."

All I'm saying is that it just seems so needlessly anachronistic just to tell everyone that "it's okay to be gay!"

[Silver Sorrow]

Someone reupped the Yennefer mod: right here

If you don't want to sift through reddit's underbelly for ut, here's your chance. How long before this one's gone, hmmm?

Oh, and while you're there, pick up the Tifa mod too, which has also been reupped after being deleted almost immediately. Right here, porcupine.

...I mean, if you're into that sort of outfit. I'm not. (I prefer potentially evil black leather, if anyone's noticed by now.) I'm just saying that if you like odd adventure gear, you might like it.

On an actual gameplay note...I finished the Merlin trials. All of them. Yay. I've accomplished...NOTHING! Okay, maybe I'm far more attractive to babes than I used to be (they love me!), but still...I was hoping for something more tangible, like an email giving me a 20%-off coupon to Chick Fil'A, maybe. Wouldn't that have been nice...

And for those of you wondering about the Alohomora (unlock) spell: it takes just about forever to get to that point if you're futzing around on side quests and the like, so get used to seeing locks you can't deal with just yet.

There's also a charming little minigame that goes with it, and by that I mean "thoroughly irritating." Happily, if you're playing on Story mode you can just auto-solve the puzzle. Thanks, devs!

[Silver Sorrow]

And they are...gone!

That was fast. I look forward to the next round in this weird little game.

(The Nexus owner, btw, stated in a forum post on the Yennefer page that he doesn't have to give a reason for deleting mods. That's his right as the owner, of course...but...yikes.)

Maybe I should rename this thread to All Things Hogwarts Legacy. I intended it to be a general look at the games I'm playing, but really...all I'm playing is Hogwarts. One game at a time, son...