Very Vampirey Monday
Aug. 2nd, 2021 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWell, it was also "putting in a new drivway"-y -- yes, we had our driveway redone today, after booking an appointment like a month ago. Took 'em about three hours to arrive, break up the old driveway, and set up and flatten out the new driveway. Can't be driven on for four days minimum, probably closer to a week -- which is exactly why I took this week off. XD It looks good so far -- hopefully it stays that way! I want this to work out and not need to call them back for any stupid repairs.
But yes, other than that, decent amount of vampire and Hitman action -- see below:
1. Edit some more on "Londerland Bloodlines," and/or continue working on the VTMB Sims 4 Challenge: Check on the first before lunch – I got through Alice’s scene with picking up Knox’s “Hunted Hunter” quest right after playing the game (see below). She’s sussed him out, but given that it was him (and Mercurio) telling her all about vampire blood saving people, she’s willing to give him a hand. Knox has handed over the license for Crumb, confirming it’s not who’s been stalking him, but that it’s the only lead he’s got. He’s also told her Trip is good for weapons as well as drugs – and because I thought of it while editing, confirmed that he hasn’t actually seen Tung since this started. His Nosferatu master has resorted to burner phones to keep in touch. Felt appropriate, and a good way to explain how he got his instructions while not being able to tell the Fledgling where his master is. (Imagine if you could do that for speed-run purposes? It would be kind of funny. XD) Next up, meeting Therese and learning about haunted houses!
And then check on the second throughout the day! Yeah, lunch ended up being late because of my parents wanting to wait until the guys repaving the driveway were done, so I ended up doing some more with my Bloodlines-themed challenge while waiting for it, then adding to it later in the afternoon before beanbags. It’s coming along well, though I have hit the part where I have to assign each clan its vampire powers, and I still need to figure out if a few of them are open to all vampires or only certain clans. . .still, I’m farther along than I ever have been on this thing, which makes me happy. :)
2. Clear as much of the Hitman 3-related content out of my Watch Later and keep up with YouTube Subs: I’m going to call this a 75% check – I only got two of the four Hitman 3 videos in my Watch Later, and only two of my three Subs videos, but I did watch an extra H3 video that would have gone in the WL anyway, so. . .yeah. I still think I’m ahead on the day, and I can catch up on my missed James Turner tomorrow.
A) Started with the OXBoxers playing the Seven Deadly Sins DLC escalations for Hitman 3 –
I. “Hitman 3: SHUT UP, PEACOCK! | Hitman 3 Pride DLC Escalation” – Mike and Andy take on the Pride Profusion, where 47 must impress the Peacock with his ability to pull off creative and increasingly-difficult kills. . .or disappoint it by taking the “easy” option each time. Andy was on the controls, but Mike had the role of Diana, so as you might imagine, when the first escalation offered a choice between knife and explosions, Mike DEFINITELY had Andy pick explosions. XD And Andy then proceeded to get “Silent Assassin” for the easy explosion kill. XD They actually did try to do the “proper” assassination for the second level (sneaking around eliminating people with antique lethal syringes without being spotted), but after multiple failures in even getting anywhere NEAR their targets, they gave up and opted for the sniper rifle. Which then they proceeded to screw up by moving around and hopping onto different rooftops and drawing all the attention when they really didn’t need to. And the third level. . .well, Mike was on the controls for that one, so you think Andy would have forced him to do it super-cleverly and stealthily – but even Andy can’t resist the call of a beautiful pirate saber. XD So yeah, Peacock thoroughly unimpressed, but the boys gave no shits. XD
II. “Hitman 3: LIFE LESSONS FROM A FROG! | Hitman 3 Greed DLC Escalation” – Mike, Andy, and Jane take on the Greed Enumeration! Andy was on the controls again, with Mike and Jane offering encouragement and advice as they sought to feed a frog greedy little gold coins picked up from their various kills (and if you do feed the frog, you can get some nice bonuses on top of everything. . .) Levels one and two proved pretty simple, with Andy going through them with his usual grace and eliminating everyone with very little trouble (he didn’t even NEED to feed the frog for the first one, but did so anyway just so he could take the dagger; the second one he did get the climbing ax to murder people with, but also used the fire axe because it was handy) – the third one. . .welp. First, Andy managed to eliminate the first target with his freshly-purchased Goldballer pistol, only for a nearby bystander, after freaking out, to PICK UP HIS PRECIOUS COINS. And when Andy tried to eliminate him – well, he FAILED somehow, despite shooting the guy in the NECK. Meaning the escalation ended when the guy spotted him, because you couldn’t be seen doing anything illegal in the final escalation! And THEN he got spotted the minute he BOUGHT the gun because he forgot to immediately put it away, and THEN, after successfully killing the first target AGAIN and deciding to just move onto the second one (at MIKE’S advice, no less – you know things are going wrong when HE’S the voice of reason), he got immediately spotted by a guard on the other side of the balcony he vaulted. Is it any wonder when he FINALLY got a chance to eliminate his first three targets, he decided “screw you frog,” took only the coins from the one he could reach, and then left without doing the next two that popped up? Disappointing the various creatures representing the Deadly Sins is kind of a theme with these videos anyway now. . .
III. “Hitman 3 LUST ESCALATION: Who's the Secret Admirer? | Hitman 3 Seven Deadly Sins DLC” – Andy, Mike, and Jane take on the Lust Assignation, which I assume is the most recent of the DLCs, given this episode just came out today! Jane was on the controls this time, doing a mystery-themed mission where you have to find safes, where Lust has stored clues toward the identity of her secret admirer. You have to figure out the identity of the admirer and present them with her bouquet from a small pool of people on the main dance floor (which has been kitted up in a very fancy way). You may kill the others if you want, but it’s not necessary. Now, the previous two episodes I watched were just under 40 minutes to do all three levels of the escalation.
This one was an hour, and only showed level ONE. (Though, admittedly, due to the nature of the mission, this one might not actually be a proper escalation? I’m not sure.) Mostly because it took Jane a hilariously long time to actually START the mission (distracted as she was by fairy light physics and making jokes about 47 in his lust-suit looking like Pitbull the singer), and when she did – well. Finding the safes was hard enough, but a lot of them had people around, and that was her downfall – she kept attracting attention when she REALLY couldn’t afford to, and thus kept having to knock people out and hide them in bushes or bins or what have you. She had to do basically four in a row while trying to crack one safe outside at one point! All while stubbornly refusing to use the “blinding darts” Lust had provided them to play with. . . And when she and the others had finally found enough clues to figure out who the admirer is (it’s different every time), and Jane went to pick up the bouquet to present it –
She sucker-punched one of the dancers, making them all terrified noticers. Which meant she couldn’t present the flowers to the admirer. And her attempts to just knock everyone out and solve this by dragging the unconscious body to Lust just ended in her getting killed. So they had to REPLAY THE ENTIRE LEVEL off-screen so they could present the bouquet properly and get an ending. Whew! Mike is probably feeling a lot better about dying at the very beginning of the Peacock’s last challenge (trying to break into the secret ICA lab in front of a bunch of dudes) now. XD
B) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin and more Buddy Simulator 1984! Yes, everyone’s favorite psychological horror game disguised as a fun adventure! The game advanced a little further this time, with Kevin’s buddy “The” putting in turn-based combat, the ability to recruit party members (Morton the skateboarding rock and Scoobert the lisping baby in Kevin’s case), and a whole little adventure outside the town fighting monsters who have stolen this sea monster’s babies/eyes. Also the much meaner monster from last time abducted the mayor of the next town they visited; Kevin named his very first combat move “shitting myself” and begged the townspeople to help him in a speech, and the game continued to glitch out with messages about not wanting to be alone anymore or how something is all its fault whenever Kevin went near a broken NPC or goes down a secret super-long hallway where he shouldn’t go. The AI got very annoyed with him, as you might imagine. XD Though, apparently, his attempts to treat his teammates right with compliments and being generally positive with people means he might get the “neutral” ending instead of the “bad” one. . .we’ll see if and when he plays it again!
C) And then it was time for GrayStillPlays and more Solar Smash! The creators foolishly added an update where you can make a section of earth invincible (from everything but the sun exploding), and even more foolishly made that section fully customizable. Gray was immediately in there with the custom planet generator to see what was the smallest section of planet he could shove life onto. We had tire earth, french fry earth, onion ring earth (which he ended up freezing and turning into frozen calamari ring earth after coring out the middle), tent spike earth, and plus sign/Phillip’s Head screwdriver earth – all of which he could add land to and shove people onto. Hell, a lot of them had MORE PEOPLE than actual earth! Of course, all of them ended up suffering terrible and awesome fates, because the same update also added SPACE DRAGONS THAT YOU CAN PERSONALLY DRIVE IF YOU WANT. Gray said he would totally drive a dragon if he could, and that is why he is one of my favorite YouTubers. That and the torture. XD
3. Playeither Sims 4 or Bloodlines: Check to the second – I figured, since I planned to work on Bloodlines-related stuff, I might as well play some of it. (I also discovered that no, my game does NOT have to be super blurry if I don’t want, it DOES support the resolution of my current monitor! At least on the Unofficial Patch it does. . .nice.) My current character is a Tremere, Crystal Acaster, who has a background thanks to the patch that makes it easier for her to level up her Thaumaturgy, but keeps it so she can’t raise Dominate past 3. Considering how powerful and useful “Blood Strike” already proved to be in the fight against Dennis and his goons, I think this is a fair trade. XD (Admittedly I did DIE three times in that fight, but that’s because I wasn’t watching my health like I should have been.) I did the tutorial when I tested out the game initially after getting this computer, so I started in Santa Monica – she’s done Mecurio’s two initial quests (getting the Astrolite – I was hoping to Dominate it out of Dennis, but no dice. . .also, this may be an Unofficial Patch thing, but her “Dominate” dialogue options are in the same font as the Malkavian’s “Dementation” ones. O.o), and picked up both E’s and Knox’s quests. Left her in the Asylum, getting ready to talk to Therese – my plan for her is to FINALLY make myself choose a different ending than “Independent” and go Strauss-flavor Camarilla. Makes sense for a Tremere, I feel.
4. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, and back to Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! Finished up Episode 4 today – Miss Jon’s travels to get to Tenpines Bluff took her past Thicket Excavations, aka “Glitch Quarry” because – as Past!Jon found out – the low-res “far away” textures don’t always deload when you get up close to see it in all its high-res (for 2015) glory. Miss Jon tried to get more caps out of Sully to help him drain the place, but failed thanks to a bad speech check – she helped regardless, got a level-up out of it, then went back and shot him later to punish him for not bowing to her speech check. XD She then traveled back to Concord after taking Advanced lockpicking for her next perk, raiding all the safes she couldn’t get to before. After that she ended up by Bedford Station, and had her first encounter with feral ghouls! Which Past!Jon took out pretty easily, though he had a few little “oh!” moments thanks to how fast they are. (Past!Jon, you have no idea how easy you have it. . .) From there she found her way to Tenpines, where she was briefly startled by the settlers’ hostility until she explained she was with the Minutemen. They told her about the raider camp in the Corvega plant and agreed to consider joining up with the cause if she helped them out. Miss Jon agreed, then took all their currently-grown tatos back to Sanctuary via fast-travel to give her settlers a more varied diet and finally clear out Sturges’s little “this is how you build settlements” quest. She ended the episode getting the “this is what you say to the people holding Nick Valentine hostage to resolve the situation peacefully” hint from Mama Murphy (who now sits in a little wire-fence cage beside the turret), and taking a level of the Scrapper perk to get more out of guns she doesn’t need so she can upgrade the ones she does. :) Good stuff – and it makes me want to go poking at Fallout 4 again for my own gaming purposes. . .
Additionally:
-->Another five rounds of beanbags in the lovely weather – I had 3-2-W-W-3, Dad had W-W-2-2-2, Mom had 2-3-3-3-W. Not too dissimilar to what happened yesterday, honestly! But everyone won one and that makes me happy. :)
-->Got my pictures into the drafts for this week’s Newcrest Adventures update on Victor Luvs Alice – only two posts this week, as it was pretty standard “follow one of the adults to the science lab” stuff. Still, good to be ahead!
Yeah, not too shabby, I feel! :) Feels good to have some nice, productive time at home instead of feeling trapped at work. Especially now that I'm over the worst hump with my period. However, as the deadline of my self-imposed bedtime looms, let me set up tomorrow's to-dos and then head to bed:
1. Write some more on "Learn to Love Again"/work some more on my Sims 4 challenges
2. Catch up on as much Plumbella as possible and keep up with YouTube Subs
3. Play some Sims 4 (either Chill Save or Newcrest Adventures)
4. Get in a workout
5. Get tumblr queues sorted
Yeah, gotta make sure the Newcrest Adventures update is ready, along with stuff for the rest of the week. I'm hopeful I should get most of this done, though! :) Night all!
But yes, other than that, decent amount of vampire and Hitman action -- see below:
1. Edit some more on "Londerland Bloodlines," and/or continue working on the VTMB Sims 4 Challenge: Check on the first before lunch – I got through Alice’s scene with picking up Knox’s “Hunted Hunter” quest right after playing the game (see below). She’s sussed him out, but given that it was him (and Mercurio) telling her all about vampire blood saving people, she’s willing to give him a hand. Knox has handed over the license for Crumb, confirming it’s not who’s been stalking him, but that it’s the only lead he’s got. He’s also told her Trip is good for weapons as well as drugs – and because I thought of it while editing, confirmed that he hasn’t actually seen Tung since this started. His Nosferatu master has resorted to burner phones to keep in touch. Felt appropriate, and a good way to explain how he got his instructions while not being able to tell the Fledgling where his master is. (Imagine if you could do that for speed-run purposes? It would be kind of funny. XD) Next up, meeting Therese and learning about haunted houses!
And then check on the second throughout the day! Yeah, lunch ended up being late because of my parents wanting to wait until the guys repaving the driveway were done, so I ended up doing some more with my Bloodlines-themed challenge while waiting for it, then adding to it later in the afternoon before beanbags. It’s coming along well, though I have hit the part where I have to assign each clan its vampire powers, and I still need to figure out if a few of them are open to all vampires or only certain clans. . .still, I’m farther along than I ever have been on this thing, which makes me happy. :)
2. Clear as much of the Hitman 3-related content out of my Watch Later and keep up with YouTube Subs: I’m going to call this a 75% check – I only got two of the four Hitman 3 videos in my Watch Later, and only two of my three Subs videos, but I did watch an extra H3 video that would have gone in the WL anyway, so. . .yeah. I still think I’m ahead on the day, and I can catch up on my missed James Turner tomorrow.
A) Started with the OXBoxers playing the Seven Deadly Sins DLC escalations for Hitman 3 –
I. “Hitman 3: SHUT UP, PEACOCK! | Hitman 3 Pride DLC Escalation” – Mike and Andy take on the Pride Profusion, where 47 must impress the Peacock with his ability to pull off creative and increasingly-difficult kills. . .or disappoint it by taking the “easy” option each time. Andy was on the controls, but Mike had the role of Diana, so as you might imagine, when the first escalation offered a choice between knife and explosions, Mike DEFINITELY had Andy pick explosions. XD And Andy then proceeded to get “Silent Assassin” for the easy explosion kill. XD They actually did try to do the “proper” assassination for the second level (sneaking around eliminating people with antique lethal syringes without being spotted), but after multiple failures in even getting anywhere NEAR their targets, they gave up and opted for the sniper rifle. Which then they proceeded to screw up by moving around and hopping onto different rooftops and drawing all the attention when they really didn’t need to. And the third level. . .well, Mike was on the controls for that one, so you think Andy would have forced him to do it super-cleverly and stealthily – but even Andy can’t resist the call of a beautiful pirate saber. XD So yeah, Peacock thoroughly unimpressed, but the boys gave no shits. XD
II. “Hitman 3: LIFE LESSONS FROM A FROG! | Hitman 3 Greed DLC Escalation” – Mike, Andy, and Jane take on the Greed Enumeration! Andy was on the controls again, with Mike and Jane offering encouragement and advice as they sought to feed a frog greedy little gold coins picked up from their various kills (and if you do feed the frog, you can get some nice bonuses on top of everything. . .) Levels one and two proved pretty simple, with Andy going through them with his usual grace and eliminating everyone with very little trouble (he didn’t even NEED to feed the frog for the first one, but did so anyway just so he could take the dagger; the second one he did get the climbing ax to murder people with, but also used the fire axe because it was handy) – the third one. . .welp. First, Andy managed to eliminate the first target with his freshly-purchased Goldballer pistol, only for a nearby bystander, after freaking out, to PICK UP HIS PRECIOUS COINS. And when Andy tried to eliminate him – well, he FAILED somehow, despite shooting the guy in the NECK. Meaning the escalation ended when the guy spotted him, because you couldn’t be seen doing anything illegal in the final escalation! And THEN he got spotted the minute he BOUGHT the gun because he forgot to immediately put it away, and THEN, after successfully killing the first target AGAIN and deciding to just move onto the second one (at MIKE’S advice, no less – you know things are going wrong when HE’S the voice of reason), he got immediately spotted by a guard on the other side of the balcony he vaulted. Is it any wonder when he FINALLY got a chance to eliminate his first three targets, he decided “screw you frog,” took only the coins from the one he could reach, and then left without doing the next two that popped up? Disappointing the various creatures representing the Deadly Sins is kind of a theme with these videos anyway now. . .
III. “Hitman 3 LUST ESCALATION: Who's the Secret Admirer? | Hitman 3 Seven Deadly Sins DLC” – Andy, Mike, and Jane take on the Lust Assignation, which I assume is the most recent of the DLCs, given this episode just came out today! Jane was on the controls this time, doing a mystery-themed mission where you have to find safes, where Lust has stored clues toward the identity of her secret admirer. You have to figure out the identity of the admirer and present them with her bouquet from a small pool of people on the main dance floor (which has been kitted up in a very fancy way). You may kill the others if you want, but it’s not necessary. Now, the previous two episodes I watched were just under 40 minutes to do all three levels of the escalation.
This one was an hour, and only showed level ONE. (Though, admittedly, due to the nature of the mission, this one might not actually be a proper escalation? I’m not sure.) Mostly because it took Jane a hilariously long time to actually START the mission (distracted as she was by fairy light physics and making jokes about 47 in his lust-suit looking like Pitbull the singer), and when she did – well. Finding the safes was hard enough, but a lot of them had people around, and that was her downfall – she kept attracting attention when she REALLY couldn’t afford to, and thus kept having to knock people out and hide them in bushes or bins or what have you. She had to do basically four in a row while trying to crack one safe outside at one point! All while stubbornly refusing to use the “blinding darts” Lust had provided them to play with. . . And when she and the others had finally found enough clues to figure out who the admirer is (it’s different every time), and Jane went to pick up the bouquet to present it –
She sucker-punched one of the dancers, making them all terrified noticers. Which meant she couldn’t present the flowers to the admirer. And her attempts to just knock everyone out and solve this by dragging the unconscious body to Lust just ended in her getting killed. So they had to REPLAY THE ENTIRE LEVEL off-screen so they could present the bouquet properly and get an ending. Whew! Mike is probably feeling a lot better about dying at the very beginning of the Peacock’s last challenge (trying to break into the secret ICA lab in front of a bunch of dudes) now. XD
B) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin and more Buddy Simulator 1984! Yes, everyone’s favorite psychological horror game disguised as a fun adventure! The game advanced a little further this time, with Kevin’s buddy “The” putting in turn-based combat, the ability to recruit party members (Morton the skateboarding rock and Scoobert the lisping baby in Kevin’s case), and a whole little adventure outside the town fighting monsters who have stolen this sea monster’s babies/eyes. Also the much meaner monster from last time abducted the mayor of the next town they visited; Kevin named his very first combat move “shitting myself” and begged the townspeople to help him in a speech, and the game continued to glitch out with messages about not wanting to be alone anymore or how something is all its fault whenever Kevin went near a broken NPC or goes down a secret super-long hallway where he shouldn’t go. The AI got very annoyed with him, as you might imagine. XD Though, apparently, his attempts to treat his teammates right with compliments and being generally positive with people means he might get the “neutral” ending instead of the “bad” one. . .we’ll see if and when he plays it again!
C) And then it was time for GrayStillPlays and more Solar Smash! The creators foolishly added an update where you can make a section of earth invincible (from everything but the sun exploding), and even more foolishly made that section fully customizable. Gray was immediately in there with the custom planet generator to see what was the smallest section of planet he could shove life onto. We had tire earth, french fry earth, onion ring earth (which he ended up freezing and turning into frozen calamari ring earth after coring out the middle), tent spike earth, and plus sign/Phillip’s Head screwdriver earth – all of which he could add land to and shove people onto. Hell, a lot of them had MORE PEOPLE than actual earth! Of course, all of them ended up suffering terrible and awesome fates, because the same update also added SPACE DRAGONS THAT YOU CAN PERSONALLY DRIVE IF YOU WANT. Gray said he would totally drive a dragon if he could, and that is why he is one of my favorite YouTubers. That and the torture. XD
3. Play
4. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, and back to Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! Finished up Episode 4 today – Miss Jon’s travels to get to Tenpines Bluff took her past Thicket Excavations, aka “Glitch Quarry” because – as Past!Jon found out – the low-res “far away” textures don’t always deload when you get up close to see it in all its high-res (for 2015) glory. Miss Jon tried to get more caps out of Sully to help him drain the place, but failed thanks to a bad speech check – she helped regardless, got a level-up out of it, then went back and shot him later to punish him for not bowing to her speech check. XD She then traveled back to Concord after taking Advanced lockpicking for her next perk, raiding all the safes she couldn’t get to before. After that she ended up by Bedford Station, and had her first encounter with feral ghouls! Which Past!Jon took out pretty easily, though he had a few little “oh!” moments thanks to how fast they are. (Past!Jon, you have no idea how easy you have it. . .) From there she found her way to Tenpines, where she was briefly startled by the settlers’ hostility until she explained she was with the Minutemen. They told her about the raider camp in the Corvega plant and agreed to consider joining up with the cause if she helped them out. Miss Jon agreed, then took all their currently-grown tatos back to Sanctuary via fast-travel to give her settlers a more varied diet and finally clear out Sturges’s little “this is how you build settlements” quest. She ended the episode getting the “this is what you say to the people holding Nick Valentine hostage to resolve the situation peacefully” hint from Mama Murphy (who now sits in a little wire-fence cage beside the turret), and taking a level of the Scrapper perk to get more out of guns she doesn’t need so she can upgrade the ones she does. :) Good stuff – and it makes me want to go poking at Fallout 4 again for my own gaming purposes. . .
Additionally:
-->Another five rounds of beanbags in the lovely weather – I had 3-2-W-W-3, Dad had W-W-2-2-2, Mom had 2-3-3-3-W. Not too dissimilar to what happened yesterday, honestly! But everyone won one and that makes me happy. :)
-->Got my pictures into the drafts for this week’s Newcrest Adventures update on Victor Luvs Alice – only two posts this week, as it was pretty standard “follow one of the adults to the science lab” stuff. Still, good to be ahead!
Yeah, not too shabby, I feel! :) Feels good to have some nice, productive time at home instead of feeling trapped at work. Especially now that I'm over the worst hump with my period. However, as the deadline of my self-imposed bedtime looms, let me set up tomorrow's to-dos and then head to bed:
1. Write some more on "Learn to Love Again"/work some more on my Sims 4 challenges
2. Catch up on as much Plumbella as possible and keep up with YouTube Subs
3. Play some Sims 4 (either Chill Save or Newcrest Adventures)
4. Get in a workout
5. Get tumblr queues sorted
Yeah, gotta make sure the Newcrest Adventures update is ready, along with stuff for the rest of the week. I'm hopeful I should get most of this done, though! :) Night all!
