Grazhir

Great. Latest hotfix, updated mods. Game crashes every damn time.

Yes, yes, I could go to the trouble of wiping things clean and starting over, see if it launches. Then start adding mods back one at a time to see where the problem is.

Definitely not doing so tonight.

ETA: I lied. It was a quick thing to create a temp folder on the desktop and cut/paste everything to that.

Game gave the same fucked up error, but loaded this time. I went into settings—funny, nothing changed—and then exited out. Ran it again, and this time no error message.

So now I'll dump all the mods back in and see what happens.

ETA2: tried it with only UE4SS and SN2Settings - error again, but the game loaded.

Tried it with everything, crash. So...

One of the mods is crashing the game for real, so I get to play the game of adding them in one at a time to see which one is the culprit.

Yeah, Maybe in the morning, or Wednesday.

ETA3: I just can't help myself. It was BetterStorages45, a pak set. Ditched that, game works fine, but necessitated finding replacements, which I did. Mind you, my portable lockers are tiny again, but that's a small price to pay.

I've managed to complete EA content five times now. Why?

Because I'm that person, the one who keeps going, "Yeah, you know, I'm just not happy with the way I built my base over near the tower. Guess I'll have to start over, because it'd be a royal pain to refund the base and deal with the resulting weirdness."

The one time I started in Creative Mode I was very unhappy. No challenge (I mean, okay, CM!), no motivation to do the viral bloom stuff... Actually, I didn't complete that one. I was so bored I started over again in Survival Mode.

I adore building a proper base over near the tower. There's a very large-wide water current sorta left-ish of the entrance (I think it's left-ish, anyway), with a rock platform above it, and a ton of titanium under it. Hydroelectric turbines? Yes, please, and lots of them. Way more power than I need, but that's how I roll.

Problem is, as I said, I become unhappy with the design and start over. This is not helped by lacking so much in the way of pieces and decor.

This last time I speed ran the adaptations and locations for the various pieces, all so I could haul ass over to my favored spot to build.

Odds are, I'll start all over again, again, still without a properly cohesive idea of what the hell I want the base to look like.

Single-player only, because in general, I hate multi-player anything. Just call me Kirito. Granted, it'd be damned difficult to have to suffer that one player who wants to teabag people in a game like this...

Still, very in love with building in general. And yes, I'm awful and I flirt with the idea of using the console to get extra bacterial cultures so I can have more metal farms, not that I ever stick around long enough to harvest anything.

Yes, I would like a mod to automatically collect from said farms, and I'm pretty sure there is one already. Even better, was there one in the unreleased assets that does that? I forget.

And really, I still don't care that the AEP (which apparently will at some point get upgrade chips!!!!!) handles wastes or whatever. I want a kitchen, a bathroom, I want ... blinds!!!!!!!

Maybe I should just save before I start building, immediately quit, shuffle copies of those saves to a second location? All so I can build, become annoyed it's not what I want, and swap back to start over?

I dunno.

I want a proper aquarium. Yes, yes, I can do fiber to meet all my needs, but that's boring. We're not gonna die due to heavy metal contamination here, we're gonna die due to the sheer amount of plastics our prints are consuming! I want a flash slug aquarium at the very least.

PDA entries are hilarious if you take the time to read them. It's like the thing is on acid at times.

As to a comparison to SN1 and SN:BZ...

SN1 had me, and still has me, varying degrees of terrified, even though I've completed the game a few dozen times already. Doesn't matter that I know what to expect. The darkness in places, relying entirely on sonar... the sounds some of the creatures make...

BZ was a cake-walk in comparison, and entirely tedious during land segments (not to mention the claustrophobia the deeper you go). I think the only things that genuinely scared me were the ice tunnels (despite knowing there was nothing to fear) and those damn leviathans in the crystal areas.

SN2 so far... not as scared, but it is only EA. Going down the sinkhole? Okay, that resulted in an elevated heart rate, a failure to commit, and returning much later to actually get back down there. Gods only know what will be there later on with more content. [Definitely didn't help that my tadpole ran out of battery halfway down. I panicked until I realized what the problem was, so yay for spare power cells.]

I don't approve of the day/night cycle. I feel like nights are way too long.

So... Good and bad?

Good:

I love the new base building mechanics. Odd shapes, weird windows, moonpool of variable size (after all, the haul chassis requires a wider bay)... I like being able to make rooms that are a certain size specific to the needs of what's within.

The Tadpole is cute, though getting the haul chassis takes a bit. Still, that any configuration allows you to attach one portable locker (two in the case of the Haul Chassis) is fantastic.

You can whack a beacon into place anywhere, so long as you have 1x titanium and 1x copper.

Caves (so far) aren't highly confusing death-traps. Sure, they can extend quite a bit, but there's less emphasis on down-down-down through twisty and narrow access tunnels and fuck how do I get back I'm gonna diiiiiiie.

I can put two wall lockers up in one vertical slice.

Hatches are now force fields. Love love love. Alterra clearly took inspiration from Ryley's report about 4546B. (A number of things, really.)

The Wakemaker is a lovely change from the seaglide.

That growbeds are also size-adjustable.

That if you can haul enough materials to the tower, there's a nice flat area to build a mid-map base on. (Well, mid-map given the confines of the EA initial release map.)

Bad:

Beacons can't be put in inventory? *mutters* You can only carry them? *mutters more*

That fucking collector leviathan (well, there are two at present) is almost impossible to scan. It's so damn big and therefore moves way faster than you can swim or propel...

The ceilings are shiny. Sure, the reflected light from the hatches is sorta nice, but...

This used to be a quiet little apartment building. Then the downstairs tenant changed. Now I get loud noise (I'm sure they consider this ... rap? ... music) outside my window three nights running, with loud conversation (because loud music means having to speak with more volume—can no one do the fucking math here?) added to it.

[I would really not like my hearing to be damaged (more than the days of cars with no AC and driving with the window open), thank you.]

I cued up a much louder than normal run of "I Had Some Help" as just a brief respite from that godawful affront coming from downstairs.

Continues to be annoying. Something, possibly even an update to an existing mod, has causes freezing when bartering with (certain) merchants. And okay, I could work around that with some patience or avoiding certain of them.

But then it started freezing on my character's inventory (you know, just hitting 'I'), so I trashed the saves, redownloaded SKSE Engine Fixes (just in case), plus (why not) updated a couple other things that popped since then.

I also disabled a bunch of mods that I just wasn't using (like Growl, because I ditch being a werewolf as quickly as possible and never voluntarily change anyway) in order to simplify things.

the light in my kitchen—the one attached to the underside of the small cabinets high above the sink—has died. I assume whatever type of bulb or tube is used finally gave up the ghost. So okay, I ordered something I could use instead, possibly that I can painter's-tape to the wall or whatever, that can work with Alexa. I tossed a spare lamp in the corner in there (because I can't control the overhead light other than by the switch), and it only partially works. It'll turn "on" but not. Alexa can turn it back off, though. I should have the new one by Wednesday. I'm hesitant to fuck with the existing light up there, and just don't feel like alerting the property manager to the issue.

It was stupid of me. I paid for a sub to AV software, only to be bombarded with "offers" due to so many security risks to fork out more cash for other protections. I did figure out how to turn off all those pop-ups, but... I know better than this, right?

Which reminds me that I really need to watch, uh, what the hell's it called? Thundercats? Because I have a reminder to cancel my 99% unused Disney+ account (I've watched WandaVision twice maybe over the course of the year?).

[Name changed to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent.]

Day -1, Thursday: "Alex" texts me before I even finished driving to work. Could I come over a day earlier, that day? Something about the expected storm. I'm all, no. I won't get home until 8pm, couldn't be over there before 9pm. Storm would still be happening. I purposely asked for a 9-5 for Day 1 so I'd be home by 6 and there by 7.

Day 1, Friday: Get home, get packed, load the car, head out. Realize a mile or so out, as I'm mentally counting ports on the USB hub I'm bringing, that I forgot the mouse USB key, turn around to go get it. Arrive at the house to realize "Alex" and their SO aren't even there. Sure.

Walk around the car to get to the passenger door, hit ice, and go down on both knees, hard enough to draw blood on both. Wonderful. Get my stuff inside and realize I forgot the backpack. Sorry, Mum, gotta go get that. That's an extra 30-45 minutes out of my day. My fault, but still fuckin' annoying.

Day 2, Saturday: The only good thing I suppose is that I managed to get through Season 1 and some of Season 2 of The Girl From Nowhere. That aside, migraine all day long. Overslept (because I messed up on the alarm), but no biggie. Headed out to get gas, do grocery, and stop at my place to get the mousepad I managed to forget and the box stuffed full of cardboard (to leave in my brother's garage for his cardboard hand-off whatever deal).

Day 3, Sunday: Migraine again. Great. Otherwise okay until I heard a noise and looked over to see the cat in the kitchen sink. Why? Shooed cat away, saw no evidence that the cat had used it as a litter box, but it did remind me to go deal with that. I find out that there are huge clumped areas that were NOT dealt with. I must have removed 1/3-1/2 of the litter because of all the urine clumps. Fantastic!

At that point I started going into a meltdown about adults ("Alex" and SO, who are in their 20s) who apparently did not do the things they were supposed to, which included taking the trash out to the wheelie bins in the garage. On a happier note, I finished The Girl From Nowhere and sneered at the Reset version (whoever is playing Nanno isn't even close to looking the part).

Day 4, Monday: Not a terrible day, but not a great one. Cat did not finish his food (by the time I got home from work), so I go to use the transdermal ointment. Hey, there is NO package insert with detailed instructions as promised. Fine. I'll wing it. Get that done.

Day 5, Tuesday: Wake up to find out a dog shit on the carpet near the front door. A moist one. Those dogs went out at around 8 and again at 10 the night previous. Clean up what I can, saturate with whatever the hell cleaner I can find, and dump paper towels on top. Came home to a brown stair on said carpet. Oh well.

Day 6, Wednesday: Go to take the 2 wheelie bins to the end of the drive for garbage pickup and realize one of two things. Either "Alex" & SO managed to fill both of them near full between mid-late Wednesday (Day -2), so roughly 2-2.5 days, or they never bothered to take them down for garbage pickup. Fabulous. I finally turned the ceiling fan on in the bedroom, just so it'd be a bit cooler in there.

Day 7, Thursday: One of those damn chickens slipped out of the coop. Cue me trying to herd it back inside with the help of a rake. They're so stupid. It kept peering through the sides at the food I'd just left there, uncomprehending as to why it couldn't get to it.

Cleaning lady showed up (she seems nice) and did some more work on that dump spot. It's not very noticeable at this point, and she said something about a Bissell for next week...

Because the gas fire is on practically all day (because the cat has trouble retaining heat at his age), it was too fucking hot in that house. Even my mother, who has the same issue with heat retention, was complaining it was too hot (and she'd turn the thing off just to get some relief).

Day 8, Friday: Got up, stripped the sheets off the bed and remade it (which really just meant straightening out the blankets and other covers—who really needs a sheet, blanket, electric blanket, and a quilt/comforter at the same time?), then tossed the sheets into the washer (along with a set of my mother's) and set it going. [The washer later error'd out on the spin cycle.]

One more round of cat meds, chickens (including refilling the water), and then packed the car and got the fuck out of Dodge, though I did wait until my mother was fully awake and aware. My brother and his wife aren't even scheduled to land until 9pm, so I wouldn't expect them to be home before 10pm, possibly later. I was home by roughly 8.15, and got everything put away and set back up by 8.45, so not terrible.

I am home. I can actually relax for the first time in a week.

I don't even know why this surprises me. One of the things I received was a box of Ferrero (Rocher) Collection. You know, those sort of truffle-y things?

I pulled the paper cup off one and only just realized there's a QR code on the bottom.

WHY?

Christmas day, which to me, is not a happy thing. Why? Because it's the second annual family gathering thing.

Thanksgiving I usually show up an hour-ish early, sit with my mother in her sitting room, and watch the dog show. I like the dog show [except for the part where they never seem to show the dachshunds] and adore making critical comments about what people are wearing.

But ten-ish people out in the combined kitchen/living area all talking at full volume is agonizing. Then an hour at the table with the full force of all that? Blech. I bail early, thanks.

So Christmas. I go, because I drive my mother, and we use each other as an excuse to bail early. Today it was a migraine (me, and even genuine, because so much freakin' noise with that many people, again, talking, in a relatively small space) and back pain (my mother).

But the good news is that I had the bright idea to see if the printer cable (because I can't seem to get it to work wirelessly, damn it) plugged into the USB hub does work, which meant I could test plugging the bluetooth keyboard key directly into the laptop (it only has two USB-A ports and one USB-C, and one of the A ports is the hub). And voila, I can now use it if I want.

This mostly applies to anything were I need to PageUp or PageDn in a console window (Skyrim, Planet Crafter, etc.), and simply can't get that to work on the laptop's native keypad (because all those keys are combined with the numbers). But it'd also apply if I installed Fallout 4 on this and was using my usual mods, because I need a proper keypad for the positioning mod when placing settlement items. [Though with what I've been hearing about the latest update... Yay for MO2 and not being forced to update.]

Speaking of which, I now do all my mods for Planet Crafter in MO2, which is awesome, including BepInEx. Yay. [Still not entirely sure how I feel about the Toxicity DLC, though it is nice to see backstory on Sentinel Corp.]

So I'm happy. The keyboard isn't quite as tilted as I'd like (it has a built-in curve at the back to boost it rather than flip out legs), but it's functional, and is a full keyboard.

Also, I got two Cadbury Flake bars as part of my haul, and that's always a good thing.

*sigh*

Please. You are all grown-ass adults. Even my 83 year old mother can do this (I'll get into to that more in a bit). You make an appointment on the website/phone app for a vaccine? Awesome.

Now how about you fill out the questionnaire, so getting you that vaccine goes more quickly once you arrive? For those of you who do, I love you. Seriously. Thank you.

How about not saying "Yeah, sorry, I left my phone in the car—" (which is hilarious considering how many people, even older adults, are welded to smartphones) "—so I can't use the QR code check-in", or "I don't understand that stuff," or "Oh, I didn't see the sign staring me right in the face as I walked up to the pharmacy, my bad".

I was venting to my mother about it a ways back, and she kinda had the same attitude. So I said, paraphrased, "Okay. You bought tickets on a flight to wherever. Do you honestly expect you'll get to the airport, get to the gate, and just board? You think it's all dandy that you don't even bother to check in for the flight?"

"Oh, well..."

Less than 5 seconds and my mother is nodding her head, understanding where I'm coming from. She checks herself in just fine for certain medical procedures, so this is not that different.

Now, older people (I'm talking 10+ years older than me) who didn't grow up with computers (I had my first computer of any kind at maybe twelve, so 1980-ish?) have a bare excuse. Even then I have serious trouble buying it for anyone who worked a job that would have required computer use. Phones are a bit trickier. Hell, every time my mother asks me for something regarding her iPhone I poke at it, try to figure it out, and it usually but not always results in "I'll ask daughter-in-law".

I'm a lifelong Android user, and she was until she moved in with my brother and switched to his phone plan and subsequently Apple. Muscle memory is a bitch, nothing works the same way. [The last time I tried to help an iPhone-bearing customer figure out their own phone number went badly, as it's not found in the same location as on an Android.]

But you went out, bought a smartphone, use it daily, presumably, and are somehow incapable of following "open your phone's camera app, point it at the QR code, hit the link that appears, and complete the check-in".

If it's an older person, fine. I don't want to hear the excuses, I'll manually check you in (and yes, become further aggravated when I realize you've done nothing except make the appointment).

A walk-in? Sure, no problem. I'll happily get you set up, ask all the questions, and get things moving so you can get vaccinated. Thank you (most of you, anyway) for being pleasant and understanding of potential extra wait times as a walk-in.

And yes, I'm still bitching about people who walk up and say, "I'm here to pick up my sister's daughter's cousin's best friend's whatever's prescription" and stop there like I'm psychic.

Again. Name? Date of birth? Something other than a blank stare expecting a miracle of ESP? Something that's relevant to the situation?

Something that isn't, "I just left urgent care. Is my prescription ready?"

"Ma'am, we just opened two minutes ago. No, it's not ready, and it may not have even hit our system yet. Maybe agree to notifications and/or checking your phone app."

It snowed Friday. It was a shit day on waking up, but even before lunch (1.30 for us) I'd had 2 sudafed, 2 zofran, and 2 imitrex. Really not a good start. Too many people, not enough to do, so I'm all, "Yeah, if I can bail early, I'd really like to. Migraine, sinuses, nausea, etc., plus it's snowing." So I left at 1.30 for a 45m drive home. It was snowing, lightly. The closer I got to my brother's town, the worse it got. Full blown snowstorm. I slow down, obviously, and continue on through to the next town. Slid around one curve, slowed down more, watched a truck coming the other way down a hill go diagonal and slide (praying he wouldn't hit me because I wasn't about to try anything quick/sharp), and then hit the wiggle curve (long left, right, left) at the initial left, which goes down a hill. I'm already going way slower than normal, but I went diagonal at that point and slid around that curve and down, terrified and praying. No one was in the other lane, thankfully. That one town in winter is a nightmare if it's snowing. Would it kill them to go salt the roads or something? Got home safely, yes. But fuck. Immediately called work to warn my supervisor (who lives in the same town), but ended up texting instead because of call volume wait time. She took the warning and bailed at 3pm, so she'd still have daylight.

And hell, Saturday, on my way back from visiting my mother. Dude decides he needs to cut down some trees. My sister-in-law texts to warn me—she had just left to visit the small grocers in the next town over—says it's gonna be at least 30 minutes before it'll be clear. Cool. I gotta wait for the dryer to finish and get my laundry packed to go. Yeah, he wasn't done 45 minutes later. I think to myself, "I've been warned not to try the other end of the road, but..." Big mistake, but one I recovered from. That end of the "not maintained by the town" road was a nightmare of sludge, rocks in the road (kinda like stone fences had collapsed and the rocks were just left there), and looked like a bare path through the middle of a forest. I was able to back up safely to the most recent drive, back in, and turn around (complete with car coming down that "no trespassing" drive). I am grateful the wood cutter had managed enough that he could roll the cut pieces out of the way and let us by. And then I saw a car gone off the road on my way home. Back to going way slower than usual, when I was already driving well below the speed limit out of caution.

Made the mistake of watching YouTube videos, like "When Dumb People Get Fired at Their Work". Cue marathon of "Dumbest Ways Karens Died", "Spoiled Teens Learn They Can Be Arrested" and the like. The sheer amount of people who seem to think that circular arguments or stubbornly repeating the same sentences endlessly will wear down the officers and get them let loose with no consequences...? Or "my daddy's [important] so there's no way you're gonna arrest me!" statements? I kinda cheered the one time a vid showed that after threatening several times to taze the person if they didn't stop resisting, they actually went ahead and did it. Hell, the sheer number of "Karens" who got so worked up that they caused their own deaths? Near-instant karma? Also, please, for the love of God, stop saying "like" every fourth or fifth word. I thought that shit went out with the 80s. And "bro" this and "bruh" that. It's like Hammer in Xenogears.

So I'm playing Skyrim again (finally reinstalled), and my original Serana mod is currently unavailable? So I try this thing.

Appearance aside, the first damn thing I notice and think is, "This is not Laura Bailey."

Because it's not. They got someone to re-voice every vanilla line, plus all the new stuff. Okay.

Except.

Serana is not "sultry". She's jaded, a bit sarcastic, a bit heartbroken, possibly desperate for a true friend... but not sultry. This new voice sounds, well, too sultry. It simply doesn't sound like Serana.

And dear lord, getting slapped with flirting when I've barely noticed she's showed up at Fort Dawnguard, after the tense convo with Isran, and mentions of stuff like "a little nibble" and intimating she's romantically/sexually interested in my PC?

Whoa there, girl, I know it's been thousands of years, but you're moving way too damn fast. And besides, I ain't into chicks. This shit happens again I have to choose the [End romance] option with alacrity.

There's a difference between a slow warming up to the idea of maybe, possibly, potentially getting over that whole "got raped by Molag Bal to be transformed into a Daughter of Coldharbour" thing, and whatever the hell it is that's going on.

So yeah, I'll have to see on the next round (when I add in all the stuff I've subsequently downloaded) if the original mod still functions (because I have a backup from the desktop install of MO2), and ditch this one.

Do I even need to say anything about the Gold Saucer?

Christ. What the hell was that between Dio and Cloud? Yes, I'm glad I didn't have to do the play, but having to hit practically every other area on the "date"...

Driving the buggy is frustrating. I ditched it and am just running around for now. I did use it to get down to that one Lifespring, though.

Thank you, WeMod, for getting me through the parade. I suck at anything involving quick, accurate reflexes, so... Perfect score, no fuss.

I do quite like the undercity at Junon. And Shinra's Junon, while pretty, was mostly just scenery for running around looking for squads.

The ferry? Sigh. [Though it was nice to see Madame M and Andrea again.]

Cloud seems to get voluntold for a lot of shit.

Costa del Sol? That was a hell I did not deserve. An entire chapter (again) of mostly mini-games (thanks again to WeMod for getting certain companion cards quickly), followed by some fighting.

Yuffie? Geez. What little fighting I did with her in Integrade looked good, but I've yet to put her in the starting line-up.

[Don't get me started on having to track down multiple ziplines afterward for He Who Shall Not Be Named.]

Still despise MAI and wish someone would deactivate her ability to speak beyond what's strictly required.