Status: Always Modding

Even if I'm not blogging about it very often, I'm still always modding my games. It's just how I am- something integral to my experience of playing PC games. In the last couple months, I've bounced around between a few:

-In Ark: Survival Evolved, I played for a time on a small private server with my partner. We were on the Ragnarok map and had a fair few mods going. One of the standouts was Castles, Keeps, and Forts, which let us build suitably grand castles that fit the style of the map quite nicely.

-In Minecraft, I puttered around building a new modlist for a magic/exploration themed playthrough. Still waiting on a couple of mods to update to 1.12 before I get going (including Thaumcraft, assuming the author doesn't quit again), but so far I'm liking the direction of the pack. Open Terrain Generator makes some gorgeous worlds to explore, and mods like Ice and Fire add cool new magical beasts to fight and tame.

I'm also planning new playthroughs of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim... eventually, and probably not in that order. Morrowind especially will be a lot of work, as it's the game I'm least familiar with in terms of modding. I watch a pretty neat Youtube channel called Morrowind Modding Showcases; he does a great job showing off a lot of cool mods the Morrowind community has produced over the years. Even if you're not looking to mod Morrowind, the love and dedication of that community is pretty incredible- and for a game that's 17 years old!

I've also spent some time in Second Life, trying to find interesting and beautiful places. I recently went to an art installation called Eidola- a fascinating exploration of vision and perception. I really liked the tone of the build, a mix of informative and artistic, grounded and spiritual. There was so much to take in that I definitely think I'll need subsequent trips to really get everything out of the experience.

So, that's my little status update. I always say I'll post more, and I always forget. What can I say? There's just so many games, and so many mods, and so little time.

Morrowind and The Breaking Point

So I've been playing a bit of Morrowind lately. This is my first runthrough of the main quest- after a few flailing attempts and short-lived characters, I finally feel like I've got the hang of the more old-school mechanics and feel of the game. Where I was mostly frustrated before, now I can actually enjoy the experience for what it is- a rich atmosphere and story, an alien world that truly feels unique with its own culture and customs. Harsh, unforgiving, but still strangely beautiful.

For a 15-year-old game, at least.

For this playthrough I've been keeping it all vanilla. I'm a firm believer in not modding a game before you've experienced the original first. You should know what exactly you want to change before you go changing it. Even someone's bare-minimum "must-have mods" list is going to be subject to personal opinion. Form your own opinions, first.

Now, there are a bunch of things I want to change, based off my current experience with the game. But I'd resisted the urge thus far, strolling around enjoying the blocky faces, the infohub NPCs, and those lovely, lovely cliffracers.

But everyone has their limit, and I found mine. What was my breaking point? Vanity, of course.

Morrowind has a surprising variety of clothing, from the familiar Imperial styles to the native Dunmeri fashions. As someone who likes to ogle their character in third-person, I was having a good time trying out various items.

But then I decided to spring for an enchanted robe from a vendor, and encountered the hideous white saran-wrap shader Morrowind uses for enchanted items. After mere minutes of walking around looking like I'd been abducted by Dexter, I broke.

Correctly guessing that I wasn't the only one who couldn't stand the effect, I settled on Pluginless NoGlow as my solution of choice. I prefer the simple replacer solution, with the least impact possible on my game. Now my character can strut her stuff in style and continue her almost!vanilla adventure.

Stunning.