Sleeping In -- Not Accomplished
Jan. 23rd, 2021 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWelp, actually woke up earlier than I expected. A couple of times, in fact, thanks to hearing my parents moving around the house. *sigh* At least I got back to sleep. . .still, I was up by 9:30. Dunno if it actually made me any more productive, as I was trying to download drivers for my computer a good chunk of this morning, but. . . I got a bit more done on Mom's latest puzzle re-do? *shrug*
Actually, I did do pretty well on the old to-do list, I have to say:
1. Continue working on the Valice Multiverse "information page" stuff: Check, though it’s kind of a check-in-progress – I’ve been working on the “Londerland Bloodlines” verse description through the afternoon and evening, and only just finished a bit ago! Again, see why I divided this into four stories. . . Still have to take care of the tag descriptions, but it’s almost done!
2. Watch the three Plumbella videos in my Watch Later, and keep up on Subscriptions: Check! Even got a fun bonus or two –
A) First up, time to catch up on my Sims 4 guru, Plumbella – and she actually uploaded a fourth video today, soooo:
1. A look at a new mod (currently in early access on the creators’ Patreon, thepancake1 and MizoreYukii) that applies the sliders we got for skintones and makeup to hair and clothing! Now you can faff about and adjust hair colors and clothing colors like you would skin and makeup! It’s not perfect – you can only recolor the whole object, not certain bits – and not everything is supported yet, but it’s still super cool. Seeing Plumbella get all excited over being able to have her own natural hair color in the game was very cute too. :D
2. A video (recorded around Christmas-time) featuring Mumbella and Dadbella furnishing a shell of Plumbella’s house! Despite her father in particular being noted for being rather oblivious when it comes to his surroundings, they didn’t do too badly – at the very least, the downstairs living room came out very nicely! The kitchen was the wrong color but right set-up; the dining room was totally off (Dadbella couldn’t recall the colors of the chairs HE WAS SITTING ON); the bedroom was fine, and the bathroom was half-there (and included a spare tub courtesy of Dadbella). Honestly, though, the real draw of these videos is always the family dynamic; they’re such a bunch of adorable goofballs, I swear. XD
3. Plumbella’s official review of the Paranormal stuff pack – pretty much wholly positive! There could have been more clothing for kids in this pack, and she’s a little disappointed that we only got one new wallpaper and one new floor in Build/Buy, buuuut she really likes the clothing and objects we DID get, and she’s THRILLED with the gameplay. She said a couple of times that it felt more like a GAME pack to her, with all the different things you can do living in a haunted house and leveling up your medium skill. Did you know you can offer your soul to the specters? And doing so too often will turn YOUR sim into a ghost temporarily? It’s wild. :D And of course she is thrilled to see Bonehilda back in the game, even if she’s not a fan of her “face.” XD All in all, it’s great to see her excited, and it’s great to BE excited over a new pack. :D
4. And finally, a video dedicated ENTIRELY to Bonehilda – we all knew it was coming. XD Jesse even went the extra mile with a skeleton onesie and a maid costume on top of it! And a crucifix on her floor after she was freaked out by a shadow under her door. XD But yeah, it was just a quick run-through the pack as Jesse made her self-sim, squeed over the new clothes, bought a house in Forgotten Hollow, and leveled up her medium skill doing seances and offering her soul to specters until she got the ability to summon Bonehilda. Then she sneakily added her to the family – and accidentally turned herself into a plant Sim, oops. XD It was silly and fun and makes me want to play with this pack. I might get it next weekend, barring any horrific bugs.
B) Over in Call Me Kevin land, we’ve gotten into new flavors of Chaos Mod – today’s offering was GTA Vice City! And oooh man, did Kevin SUFFER with that one. The way this version of the mod works, you input a random four-digit number at the beginning as your “seed,” and this chooses a variety of effects to put permanently on your character and game, while at the same time doing the usual timed random effect. There’s somewhat less variety in this one, but a HELL of a lot more pain – literally. One of the random effects can set your health to twice the number of “packages” you’ve found in the game, so Kevin was doing his starting missions for a couple of seeds with a health of two. We also had stuff like “astral projection,” which left your character model behind as you roamed the streets; “monster truck,” which was more of a case of “enter a vehicle and it will BLAST SPINNING INTO THE SKY;” “flinstones,” which forced you to run to power your car (and since it took Kevin until the end of the video to figure out the sprint button). . .the fun just kept on coming! It took Kevin 25 minutes of video time to complete the first two missions, and who knows how long in real time at his standing desk. At least he did get one very cool moment where he killed one of the first enemies, a chef (*shrug*) by leaping off his moped and letting it run the guy over in a cutscene. :D I hope that made up for a lot, Kevin! Especially since I want to see more of this. XD
C) And on GrayStillPlays, it was time for more Fun With Ragdolls: The Game challenge boards! “Lasers From Hell” was kind of the theme of today’s challenges, which included a super-long laser fall full of other obstacles (notably smashy mallets); a parkour course with super-thin walkways up and laser dodging along with explosion dodging (and fake ways to proceed), and another 99 billion percent impossible course with a SPINNING COLUMN OF LASERY DEATH (plus a laser fall). Gray, of course, made it through all of them, but he was not having a good time! (Or maybe he was having a great time. It’s hard to tell with Gray and his masochism, frankly.)
D) Bonus video I spotted in my recommendeds – various comedians commenting on racism they’ve faced in their Netflix specials (though the first one was kind of more classism, perhaps? Maybe both mixed together). The first two were pretty funny if kind of “ugh, our world” – the third, with Hasan Minhaj talking about being Muslim around 9/11 was – oof. Talking about wanting to give somebody a hug. :(
3. Try to track down the cause of the "Concord Crash" in Fallout 4 (starting point: disabling that cryo/pulse grenade tweaks mod, rolling back to the last save where I can be reasonably sure it was off, and heading STRAIGHT to Concord from there): Check, though emphasis on “try” – situation is not yet resolved, but I took a few steps forward on the problem, at least –
1. First stab at this came before lunch – disabled the cryo/pulse grenade tweaks mod and rolled back to the save right after Dogmeat and Victor killed the radroaches in the rain, since that’s where I started from the other day. Actually reloaded twice because the first time, I got into a rather bad fight with the damn bloodbug hatchlings that didn’t go well and decided, if I DID get anywhere near Preston, I wanted more of my health. Scrapped things in the Red Rocket while waiting out a thunderstorm-turned-radstorm, then made my way AROUND the giant horrible mosquitoes and into town. Got a little bit in – aaand game crashed, so it wasn’t that. Reenabled the mod.
2. After lunch, tried something different – started from a save from BEFORE the Red Rocket. Left Sanctuary, and skirted around the station to avoid meeting Dogmeat or triggering any of that. Cut through the house to reach Concord, and then tried going in. I think I got a LITTLE farther in than I normally do, but it still crashed. Hmmm.
3. Okay, onto one more unusual suggestion I saw floating around on the web – launching the game not through the F4SE launcher I always use on Vortex, but instead through Steam itself. Tried it out – didn't even last a minute after I checked the save/load menu and didn't see Mod Configuration Menu, meaning probably the majority of my mods weren’t even active. Not shattering my saves with THAT!
4. What do now? Ask for help from others! I girded my loins and posted something on the “Technical Help” forum over on NexusMods, with my load order and a description of what’s going on. Maybe somebody will recognize the bug and be able to tell me what’s up? No responses as of yet.
4. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike, and back with Grills and Nick in Jon’s Fallout 4 Survival Playthrough! The pair finally finished getting through all the mutants in Faneuil Hall, though it was a close one a couple of times – Grills literally ran into a mutant while trying to hide in a bathroom, then set off a boobytrap on the other end of the hall and had to race away from the explosion. Good old -1 Perception Jon strikes again! XD But he took down all the enemies – including that one Legendary Butcher giving him trouble (got a Never-Ending 10mm Pistol out of it), and he and Nick made it to the roof to find Marty’s corpse (apparently he got through the mutants, but died at the last hurdle) and the gilded grasshopper itself. Jon picked up the note, which was – very confusing, but seemed to deal with the history of one Shem Drowne? Jon couldn’t make heads or tails out of it – but as it turns out, the game didn’t expect him too, instead directing him to a grave in a nearby ghoul-infested cemetery. Grills and Nick headed over, took care of the ferals, and dug up the grave to find Shem’s skeleton, surrounded by gold, silver, and copper bars and his special Irradiated sword. Jon was openly disappointed that the “case” turned out to be more of a glorified scavenger hunt, though of course he took the goodies to break down for later.
Back at the office, Nick and Ellie chatted about the case, then Ellie directed Grills to the Earl Sterling case still open. This one was a missing person – Earl, an assistant bartender at the Dugout Inn, had gone missing some days ago, and Vadim had hired Nick to see what had happened to him. Nick was pretty certain it wasn’t an Institute snatch job, citing Earl as not nearly charismatic enough to charm anybody, and too low-profile to make a difference on the world. Jon agreed and swung by the Dugout Inn to ask Vadim what he knew and get Earl’s house key. He also tried questioning Yefim about the guy, but got nowhere thanks to failing a speech check, unfortunately.
Inside the house, Nick discovered a receipt for a facial surgery Earl was supposed to have done by one Doc Crocker. Grills promptly took them over to Dr. Sun at the local clinic to question him – Sun recalled the incident, but said that Crocker had told him Earl had left before the surgery could be done, without paying. There was then a brief interlude where the father of one of the men Grills had killed earlier in a drug deal gone wrong showed up and demanded to know what happened – Grills, with the help of his red dress, bluffed his way past him, but refused the offer to kill the guy he said actually did the deed because he didn’t want Valentine to dislike him. After that, Grills used the power of his dress to get the surgery basement key from Dr. Sun. . .and found quite a lot of blood leading downstairs. And for good reason – turns out Doc Crocker had entirely chopped up Earl like a steak. I unfortunately ended my ride just as Grills was trying to find out why from the obviously a bit unstable Crocker, but HELL. Quite the change from the first case, eh Jon?
5. OPTIONAL – if FO4 gets to be too annoying, be a horrible goose for a while: Check – after steps one through three in List Item 3, I went ahead and played some Untitled Goose Game to have a little non-crashy fun. I have completed the remaining items on the “to do (as well)” list – sailed the toy boat from the pub under the bridge near the garden; rolled a cabbage to the picnic blanket (annoying, as you can’t pick it up at ALL – must be rolled); collected the five flowers (rose was the hardest as that required a fresh pruning of it); stole the old man at the pub’s woolen hat (in fact, I did it twice – see below); scored a goal with the soccer ball (again, annoying as it can only be rolled or pecked at – and you have to roll this out of the high street and get it through both back gardens to find the goal! Easily took the longest of the lot); catch an object thrown between the gardens (took some set-up, but managed this with a sock); and helped the Messy Lady dress up her bust with things stolen from people other than her neighbor (toothbrush and glasses from the High Street, and the old man’s woolen hat from the pub – though it took a few tries to get it off him!). So that’s satisfying. But in order to fully complete the game, I also have to figure out how to complete all the regular to-do items in like six minutes (the “to do (quickly!)” list, specified as completing all items before the church bells ring). The community garden and the High Street shouldn’t be too hard – the back gardens and the pub, though. . .
So yeah, that was all -- well, okay, the videos, the workout, and Untitled Goose Game were fun; wondering what the fuck is going on with Fallout 4 was not. I just need someone with more expertise to help me, please! Why do I like this game so much. . . *shakehead* Life was easier before the apocalypse. (Which, given the state we're currently in, has multiple meanings. . .)
Anyway -- still got comments to answer and a Valice Multiverse to keep an eye on, as well as finishing up "Londerland Bloodlines" for the new verses document. Let's get the latest to-do list sorted:
1. Continue working on the Valice Multiverse "information page" stuff
2. Watch the three OXBox videos in my Watch Later, along with Call Me Kevin and Jon's Fallout 4 YOLO episode
3. Continue trying to figure out what's going on with Fallout 4 and how I can get into Concord without completely skipping Codsworth and Dogmeat
4. Get in a workout
5. OPTIONAL -- attempt one of the "to-do (quickly!)" lists in Untitled Goose Game
Again, seems reasonable for a Sunday, I hope you all agree. Fingers crossed on the FO4 front! Night all!
Actually, I did do pretty well on the old to-do list, I have to say:
1. Continue working on the Valice Multiverse "information page" stuff: Check, though it’s kind of a check-in-progress – I’ve been working on the “Londerland Bloodlines” verse description through the afternoon and evening, and only just finished a bit ago! Again, see why I divided this into four stories. . . Still have to take care of the tag descriptions, but it’s almost done!
2. Watch the three Plumbella videos in my Watch Later, and keep up on Subscriptions: Check! Even got a fun bonus or two –
A) First up, time to catch up on my Sims 4 guru, Plumbella – and she actually uploaded a fourth video today, soooo:
1. A look at a new mod (currently in early access on the creators’ Patreon, thepancake1 and MizoreYukii) that applies the sliders we got for skintones and makeup to hair and clothing! Now you can faff about and adjust hair colors and clothing colors like you would skin and makeup! It’s not perfect – you can only recolor the whole object, not certain bits – and not everything is supported yet, but it’s still super cool. Seeing Plumbella get all excited over being able to have her own natural hair color in the game was very cute too. :D
2. A video (recorded around Christmas-time) featuring Mumbella and Dadbella furnishing a shell of Plumbella’s house! Despite her father in particular being noted for being rather oblivious when it comes to his surroundings, they didn’t do too badly – at the very least, the downstairs living room came out very nicely! The kitchen was the wrong color but right set-up; the dining room was totally off (Dadbella couldn’t recall the colors of the chairs HE WAS SITTING ON); the bedroom was fine, and the bathroom was half-there (and included a spare tub courtesy of Dadbella). Honestly, though, the real draw of these videos is always the family dynamic; they’re such a bunch of adorable goofballs, I swear. XD
3. Plumbella’s official review of the Paranormal stuff pack – pretty much wholly positive! There could have been more clothing for kids in this pack, and she’s a little disappointed that we only got one new wallpaper and one new floor in Build/Buy, buuuut she really likes the clothing and objects we DID get, and she’s THRILLED with the gameplay. She said a couple of times that it felt more like a GAME pack to her, with all the different things you can do living in a haunted house and leveling up your medium skill. Did you know you can offer your soul to the specters? And doing so too often will turn YOUR sim into a ghost temporarily? It’s wild. :D And of course she is thrilled to see Bonehilda back in the game, even if she’s not a fan of her “face.” XD All in all, it’s great to see her excited, and it’s great to BE excited over a new pack. :D
4. And finally, a video dedicated ENTIRELY to Bonehilda – we all knew it was coming. XD Jesse even went the extra mile with a skeleton onesie and a maid costume on top of it! And a crucifix on her floor after she was freaked out by a shadow under her door. XD But yeah, it was just a quick run-through the pack as Jesse made her self-sim, squeed over the new clothes, bought a house in Forgotten Hollow, and leveled up her medium skill doing seances and offering her soul to specters until she got the ability to summon Bonehilda. Then she sneakily added her to the family – and accidentally turned herself into a plant Sim, oops. XD It was silly and fun and makes me want to play with this pack. I might get it next weekend, barring any horrific bugs.
B) Over in Call Me Kevin land, we’ve gotten into new flavors of Chaos Mod – today’s offering was GTA Vice City! And oooh man, did Kevin SUFFER with that one. The way this version of the mod works, you input a random four-digit number at the beginning as your “seed,” and this chooses a variety of effects to put permanently on your character and game, while at the same time doing the usual timed random effect. There’s somewhat less variety in this one, but a HELL of a lot more pain – literally. One of the random effects can set your health to twice the number of “packages” you’ve found in the game, so Kevin was doing his starting missions for a couple of seeds with a health of two. We also had stuff like “astral projection,” which left your character model behind as you roamed the streets; “monster truck,” which was more of a case of “enter a vehicle and it will BLAST SPINNING INTO THE SKY;” “flinstones,” which forced you to run to power your car (and since it took Kevin until the end of the video to figure out the sprint button). . .the fun just kept on coming! It took Kevin 25 minutes of video time to complete the first two missions, and who knows how long in real time at his standing desk. At least he did get one very cool moment where he killed one of the first enemies, a chef (*shrug*) by leaping off his moped and letting it run the guy over in a cutscene. :D I hope that made up for a lot, Kevin! Especially since I want to see more of this. XD
C) And on GrayStillPlays, it was time for more Fun With Ragdolls: The Game challenge boards! “Lasers From Hell” was kind of the theme of today’s challenges, which included a super-long laser fall full of other obstacles (notably smashy mallets); a parkour course with super-thin walkways up and laser dodging along with explosion dodging (and fake ways to proceed), and another 99 billion percent impossible course with a SPINNING COLUMN OF LASERY DEATH (plus a laser fall). Gray, of course, made it through all of them, but he was not having a good time! (Or maybe he was having a great time. It’s hard to tell with Gray and his masochism, frankly.)
D) Bonus video I spotted in my recommendeds – various comedians commenting on racism they’ve faced in their Netflix specials (though the first one was kind of more classism, perhaps? Maybe both mixed together). The first two were pretty funny if kind of “ugh, our world” – the third, with Hasan Minhaj talking about being Muslim around 9/11 was – oof. Talking about wanting to give somebody a hug. :(
3. Try to track down the cause of the "Concord Crash" in Fallout 4 (starting point: disabling that cryo/pulse grenade tweaks mod, rolling back to the last save where I can be reasonably sure it was off, and heading STRAIGHT to Concord from there): Check, though emphasis on “try” – situation is not yet resolved, but I took a few steps forward on the problem, at least –
1. First stab at this came before lunch – disabled the cryo/pulse grenade tweaks mod and rolled back to the save right after Dogmeat and Victor killed the radroaches in the rain, since that’s where I started from the other day. Actually reloaded twice because the first time, I got into a rather bad fight with the damn bloodbug hatchlings that didn’t go well and decided, if I DID get anywhere near Preston, I wanted more of my health. Scrapped things in the Red Rocket while waiting out a thunderstorm-turned-radstorm, then made my way AROUND the giant horrible mosquitoes and into town. Got a little bit in – aaand game crashed, so it wasn’t that. Reenabled the mod.
2. After lunch, tried something different – started from a save from BEFORE the Red Rocket. Left Sanctuary, and skirted around the station to avoid meeting Dogmeat or triggering any of that. Cut through the house to reach Concord, and then tried going in. I think I got a LITTLE farther in than I normally do, but it still crashed. Hmmm.
3. Okay, onto one more unusual suggestion I saw floating around on the web – launching the game not through the F4SE launcher I always use on Vortex, but instead through Steam itself. Tried it out – didn't even last a minute after I checked the save/load menu and didn't see Mod Configuration Menu, meaning probably the majority of my mods weren’t even active. Not shattering my saves with THAT!
4. What do now? Ask for help from others! I girded my loins and posted something on the “Technical Help” forum over on NexusMods, with my load order and a description of what’s going on. Maybe somebody will recognize the bug and be able to tell me what’s up? No responses as of yet.
4. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike, and back with Grills and Nick in Jon’s Fallout 4 Survival Playthrough! The pair finally finished getting through all the mutants in Faneuil Hall, though it was a close one a couple of times – Grills literally ran into a mutant while trying to hide in a bathroom, then set off a boobytrap on the other end of the hall and had to race away from the explosion. Good old -1 Perception Jon strikes again! XD But he took down all the enemies – including that one Legendary Butcher giving him trouble (got a Never-Ending 10mm Pistol out of it), and he and Nick made it to the roof to find Marty’s corpse (apparently he got through the mutants, but died at the last hurdle) and the gilded grasshopper itself. Jon picked up the note, which was – very confusing, but seemed to deal with the history of one Shem Drowne? Jon couldn’t make heads or tails out of it – but as it turns out, the game didn’t expect him too, instead directing him to a grave in a nearby ghoul-infested cemetery. Grills and Nick headed over, took care of the ferals, and dug up the grave to find Shem’s skeleton, surrounded by gold, silver, and copper bars and his special Irradiated sword. Jon was openly disappointed that the “case” turned out to be more of a glorified scavenger hunt, though of course he took the goodies to break down for later.
Back at the office, Nick and Ellie chatted about the case, then Ellie directed Grills to the Earl Sterling case still open. This one was a missing person – Earl, an assistant bartender at the Dugout Inn, had gone missing some days ago, and Vadim had hired Nick to see what had happened to him. Nick was pretty certain it wasn’t an Institute snatch job, citing Earl as not nearly charismatic enough to charm anybody, and too low-profile to make a difference on the world. Jon agreed and swung by the Dugout Inn to ask Vadim what he knew and get Earl’s house key. He also tried questioning Yefim about the guy, but got nowhere thanks to failing a speech check, unfortunately.
Inside the house, Nick discovered a receipt for a facial surgery Earl was supposed to have done by one Doc Crocker. Grills promptly took them over to Dr. Sun at the local clinic to question him – Sun recalled the incident, but said that Crocker had told him Earl had left before the surgery could be done, without paying. There was then a brief interlude where the father of one of the men Grills had killed earlier in a drug deal gone wrong showed up and demanded to know what happened – Grills, with the help of his red dress, bluffed his way past him, but refused the offer to kill the guy he said actually did the deed because he didn’t want Valentine to dislike him. After that, Grills used the power of his dress to get the surgery basement key from Dr. Sun. . .and found quite a lot of blood leading downstairs. And for good reason – turns out Doc Crocker had entirely chopped up Earl like a steak. I unfortunately ended my ride just as Grills was trying to find out why from the obviously a bit unstable Crocker, but HELL. Quite the change from the first case, eh Jon?
5. OPTIONAL – if FO4 gets to be too annoying, be a horrible goose for a while: Check – after steps one through three in List Item 3, I went ahead and played some Untitled Goose Game to have a little non-crashy fun. I have completed the remaining items on the “to do (as well)” list – sailed the toy boat from the pub under the bridge near the garden; rolled a cabbage to the picnic blanket (annoying, as you can’t pick it up at ALL – must be rolled); collected the five flowers (rose was the hardest as that required a fresh pruning of it); stole the old man at the pub’s woolen hat (in fact, I did it twice – see below); scored a goal with the soccer ball (again, annoying as it can only be rolled or pecked at – and you have to roll this out of the high street and get it through both back gardens to find the goal! Easily took the longest of the lot); catch an object thrown between the gardens (took some set-up, but managed this with a sock); and helped the Messy Lady dress up her bust with things stolen from people other than her neighbor (toothbrush and glasses from the High Street, and the old man’s woolen hat from the pub – though it took a few tries to get it off him!). So that’s satisfying. But in order to fully complete the game, I also have to figure out how to complete all the regular to-do items in like six minutes (the “to do (quickly!)” list, specified as completing all items before the church bells ring). The community garden and the High Street shouldn’t be too hard – the back gardens and the pub, though. . .
So yeah, that was all -- well, okay, the videos, the workout, and Untitled Goose Game were fun; wondering what the fuck is going on with Fallout 4 was not. I just need someone with more expertise to help me, please! Why do I like this game so much. . . *shakehead* Life was easier before the apocalypse. (Which, given the state we're currently in, has multiple meanings. . .)
Anyway -- still got comments to answer and a Valice Multiverse to keep an eye on, as well as finishing up "Londerland Bloodlines" for the new verses document. Let's get the latest to-do list sorted:
1. Continue working on the Valice Multiverse "information page" stuff
2. Watch the three OXBox videos in my Watch Later, along with Call Me Kevin and Jon's Fallout 4 YOLO episode
3. Continue trying to figure out what's going on with Fallout 4 and how I can get into Concord without completely skipping Codsworth and Dogmeat
4. Get in a workout
5. OPTIONAL -- attempt one of the "to-do (quickly!)" lists in Untitled Goose Game
Again, seems reasonable for a Sunday, I hope you all agree. Fingers crossed on the FO4 front! Night all!
no subject
Date: 2021-01-24 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-25 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-26 05:19 pm (UTC)I have the countdown page up. 1 hour and 40 minutes from this post left.
Edit: "Take a panicked poop" is now my favorite thing, bwahahaha!!
no subject
Date: 2021-01-27 04:17 am (UTC)*snork* Sounds great! XD I actually entered myself in the giveaway SimsVIP is doing for the pack, so I won't be getting it this weekend on the off-chance I can get it for free. Fingers crossed! (But given "Scared" is a base-game update, I can probably still take "panicked poops." XD)
no subject
Date: 2021-01-27 09:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-28 04:09 am (UTC)