Minecraft Mods I Think Are Pretty Neat

So, as mentioned in my last post, I wanted to point to some cool Minecraft mods I'm considering for my 1.12 mixtape modlist.

Better With Mods

There's an old, famous/notorious, surly beast of a mod called Better Than Wolves. Its creator offers it as a sharp criticism of the direction Minecraft development took, and as a vision of what he sees as better content (hence the title). A lot of vanilla mechanics are altered, and the early-game especially is more challenging. While the mod has a lot of cool ideas and interesting mechanics, it's incompatible with the majority of mods for Minecraft and has been kept on a version of the game from 2012. Better Than Mods is a "re-imagining" of the original's content that is designed with a mind for compatibility, and updated to the latest game versions. I'm excited to try it out- I steered clear of the original mod for, ah, various reasons.

Rustic

This rather charming mod adds some more low-tech and agrarian content to the game. New crops and building materials, an alcohol brewing system, pottery, and more. It reminds me of an older mod, Growthcraft, which I love.

Minecraft Comes Alive

Minecraft Comes Alive makes the boring, ugly flesh-Squidward villagers into something more resembling actual people. Aside from giving them a nose job and a face lift, villagers now have moods, personalities, and relationships between each other and with the player. You can chat with villagers, exchange gifts- even potentially marry a villager and raise a family. Even if you're not into the latter, I think the mod does much to make villagers more interesting and developed- more than empty shells to be bartered with (or stuffed into horrifying contraptions to be bred and slaughtered en masse).

Nomadic Tents

These tents are a great help for the explorer. The inside of a tent is a dimension unto itself, so that you can have a safe place to rest your head at night. But I feel it's "balanced" in a good and mechanically interesting way- after placing your tent, you have to erect it by whacking the various blocks with a mallet. This means the tents aren't just an instant escape-you still have to be careful and have a plan to set up camp as night falls.

EDIT: Unfortunately, on further inspection, this is not yet available for 1.12. My mistake!

Totemic

I love the themeing of this mod, and the way it implements magic seems interesting and unique. In the Great War of Magic and Tech Mods, one sometimes hears the critique that magic mods are merely tech mods with a different skin. So mods like this that present a more mysterious, even spiritual approach are exciting.

There are a lot more mods that I'm interested in trying out for 1.12, and others that I sigh wistfully at and hope they soon will be updated. But hopefully you can get a sense of the pack I'm working towards here- an experience not so focused on technological marvels, or world-shattering arcane power, or an intense RPG experience. Something more down-to-earth, more focused on the early game- the part of the game I most enjoy, when you're doing things by hand and "survival" is actually a meaningful struggle. Maybe in a fit of uncharacteristic un-laziness I'll put the pack up somewhere to share it- but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

I Don't Even Like Minecraft, And Yet I Keep Playing It

Minecraft. Every time I think I'm out, eventually I come crawling back. It's like a drug addiction, or a rocky relationship.

Minecraft's stupendous popularity seems mystifying at first for some observers, but I think it just comes down to the incredible potential that the game seems to offer as a creative platform. From in-game builds, to user skins, resource packs and mods, there's so many aspects that are open to the user for creative expression. The bare-bones graphics and gameplay seem like a blocky canvas that one can paint their blocky vision on.

Or so it feels to me, for about a week. Then stagnation, frustration and boredom set in. I lose inspiration and will to continue a playthrough, with half-finished builds, aborted expeditions, personal goals left hanging. I quit, swearing that this time I have learned the error of my ways, that Minecraft is just not the game for me. Then some time passes, memories fade, and I start feeling the pull. The sense of freedom, the creative inspiration. The cycle starts anew.

When I do come back, most times I want a fresh start. A new adventure, a new modlist. The Minecraft modding community is large and prolific, with new and exciting creations popping up all the time.

It's also a giant burning tire fire of rumors, drama, politics, and terrible fragmentation. I've never seen a community so split between different versions of the same game. Since Minecraft is still being updated, and each update tends to break compatibility between mods, a cycle has developed where many people stay on the old version while authors update their mods; at some point, a critical mass is reached where enough mods are ported that a large chunk of users adopt the new version. By this point, the next official update is in development, and just when everyone's getting comfortable the update is released, and here we go again.

For every update there are some mods that never get ported and new ones making their debut. Authors appear and disappear, or pass the mod along to a succession of maintainers. Some people never bother to upgrade, not wanting to lose their current playthroughs and favorite mods. The majority, though, move on, and some really innovative, fun mods get left in the dust.

So the first question facing me as I look into building a new modlist is- what version am I going to be playing? In this case, I'm thinking about the current update, 1.12. As it is- for now- the bleeding edge, a lot of mods I'm interested in aren't ported yet. But there are others I've never used before, and am eager to try out. I'm still feeling out the theme of the modlist; I prefer more focused playthroughs over giant "kitchen sink" packs that attempt to fit in as many mods as possible. But, in the next post, I'll try and spotlight some of the ones I've currently got my eye on.

Oblivion, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Potato

Out of all the games I've played, my favorite, the one that has stolen the most hours of my life, is... TES IV: Oblivion.

Elder Scrolls aficionados and people of good taste are probably laughing and/or shaking their heads. Oblivion is something of the red-headed stepchild of the series. From the three "modern" TES games, you have Morrowind, the beloved classic, Skyrim, the stupendously popular latest entry, and then you have... the potatoes.

Pictured: A screenshot of an Oblivion NPC.

I've seen Oblivion described as "the worst of both worlds" between Morrowind and Skyrim, an awkward stepping stone between the more traditional RPG of the previous game and the more action-oriented experience the series was trending towards. It suffers from an incredibly un-fun levelling system, an overuse of random- and procedurally-generated content in a bland setting (made even more so in contrast to the alien environment of Morrowind), a laughably small cast of voice actors, and of course, the infamously ugly characters of the FaceGen system.

Of course, you can mod most of these problems away, and end up with a much improved game experience. But a common opinion is that even considering mods, Oblivion comes up short- that, while you might want to smooth out the wrinkles of Morrowind and Skyrim with mods, you need an industrial-strength hot iron to mash Oblivion into something good.

I don't agree with all of these opinions. I think Oblivion does genuinely have its own strong points compared to the other games in the series. I think it is still a game worth experiencing. But honestly, I find it hard to disagree that Oblivion is a deeply flawed game. So why is it my favorite?

Well, the honest answer is that it was my first Elder Scrolls game, and so my nostalgia goggles probably warp my perception of the game's true quality.

But I think I also really do enjoy the game for what it is. I love the atmosphere, the coziness of the countryside, the beautiful score complementing the game's ambiance perfectly as I stroll along the roads. I love the writing; I genuinely believe that many questlines are among the strongest in the series. I even love some of the sillier bits, like the random conversations NPCs have that seem inexplicably focused on mudcrabs. They make for a nice background chatter, in a more realistic way than the same scripted conversations of Skyrim cycled over and over. 

I love this dumb game. And modding makes it even better.

Look Mom, I'm Blogging!

This blog is about my trials and travails with modded video games. Rants, raves, recommendations, possibly downloads if I ever make something fit for public consumption. I'm probably screaming into the void, but hopefully someone finds the madness useful or entertaining.

 If not, I'm sure it will be handy for the psychologist when I'm finally driven insane by this wonderful and infuriating hobby.

To start things off, here's some of the games I play. I don't only play modded games, but for reasons that probably make sense to the aforementioned psychologist I am most drawn to them. These games allow the user to customize their experience beyond a simple model or texture swap. Some games even allow the user to alter core mechanics and gameplay (sometimes to hilarious or tragic results).

The Elder Scrolls Series

Bethesda's beautiful, buggy mess. I love these games and they clearly don't feel the same, with how often they break, crash and implode horribly on me. I've played the three "modern" games- Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and I swear I'll get to Daggerfall and Arena someday (probably not).

Minecraft

The ludicrously popular block game that turned a lonely Swedish nerd into a lonely Swedish nerd with a party mansion. Minecraft mods are incredibly varied and can change so much of the fundamental game experience- probably because the base game itself is so simple. 

Elona

Kind of the oddball in this list, Elona is a weird open-world roguelike deal. It's very fun, and has its own cult following. It's also very Japanese. I haven't actually played it for very long, and I'm still learning all the various ways to cook the flesh of a little girl.

Second Life 

Not actually a game (and some people are Very Serious about it not being referred to as such), Second Life is really just a glorified 3D version of AOL Instant Messenger- and at the same time, so much more. I'm including it here because it is by design a creative platform for its users. So many incredible and horrible things have been made in Second Life. Horrible, horrible things.

Others

There are other moddable games that I play occasionally. Ark:Survival Evolved, The Sims, etc. And other games I want to play, and will totally get to once I figure out why Oblivion is crashing this time-

I'm looking forward to sharing my love and undying hatred of games, here on this corner of the internet. I can't promise any amazing insights or exclusive downloads, but hopefully this evidence of impending mental collapse is amusing to someone.