Magical Waifu Wonderland in Minecraft

Like the Ark post previously, this is a wrap-up/showcase of the Minecraft instance I've been playing. It used a weird, self-made pack focusing on magic, new dimensions and weeaboo trash; fun while it lasted, though of course I didn't get nearly through all the available content before my interest waned.

Here's a overview of my base. I tried to keep my building above-ground for a change, adding new buildings for each purpose. The result was a cute little hamlet, though I couldn't manage a consistent architecture or color palette. The Torchmaster mod was so nice for being able to keep the base area safe without spamming torches all over the place. Especially with the very nasty nighttime mobs from Grimoire of Gaia to deal with.

Here's the interior of my house. The first building of the base, over time it grew less important as storage and the like was moved elsewhere. I enjoyed decorating it, though. A lot of the furniture here came from the Chinjufu mod, great for that Japanese aesthetic.

A cozy place to relax with your Friends.

This is the storage room, using a neat mod called Arcane Archives. I really liked it as a relatively simple yet aesthetic storage solution.

Featuring a shy bunny-maid.

Finally, the room for enchanting, potion making, and other magic goodness. Also functioned as a trophy room; you can see some of my progress from the Twilight Forest.

Like I said, I didn't get nearly as far as I wanted and only visited a few dimensions, though I did defeat the Ender Dragon, for a a change. After a while I started getting the urge to try a more low-key, rustic playstyle again, going for a "Terrafirmacraft-lite" experience. However, while I was contemplating, I stumbled upon a standalone game, Vintage Story, that appears heavily inspired by the TFC, with hopefully less of the jank that results from being bolted onto the Minecraft engine. And it even has mod support! Be still, my heart.

My Ark: Valguero Server for Little Babies Who Don't Know How to Ark

My partner and I recently wound up an Ark server we'd been playing on. It was on the new Valguero map, with some mods, mostly QOL stuff and decorative bits. Server settings were pretty easy, both of us were pretty noobish when it came to this game so we treated the server as kind of a training-wheels learning experience.

We divided the labor- he is more interested in building and infrastructure projects, while I enjoy the exploring and combat and animal raising aspects of the game. We shared resource gathering duties. It worked out pretty well, and for the most part we were able to focus on the parts of Ark we enjoy while still progressing as a mini-tribe.

I wanted to share some pictures he took of our base, which was cool as hell if a bit laggy. Castles, Keeps and Forts Remastered is responsible for the building pieces- my partner spent a lot of time looking at real castles to get an authentic-feeling layout.

The trees were provided by one of Eco's mods- more on them later.

We took over the whole peninsula in the center of the map. Took a long time to secure the area, and the massive wall we had to build probably contributed a lot to the lag in the base. It was so huge you couldn't even load it in all at once, which was such a shame.

This doesn't even show the whole peninsula. It was a lot of space to try and keep spawns out of.

It was functional as well as pretty. All our crafting and storage was conveniently located near the animal pen for easy drop-off of resources. My only issue was finding space to stash breeding projects; my partner vastly underestimated just how much space a bunch of bangin' dinosaurs take up.

His pride and joy was our garden. Beautiful, with plenty of crop plots, and small pets ambling about. Eco's mods are so much fun to decorate with. I ended up coming to the garden sometimes just to sit and take in the atmosphere.

It's hard to pick a favorite spot, but mine might be the dinosaur topiary garden.

On my end, I got to experiment a lot with taming, breeding and using dinosaurs. There were successes- like figuring out how to breed for and stack mutations, or stealing and hatching a wyvern egg, and failures... but that's Ark for you.

RIP Jade, my beautiful Aberrant Spino, died to my own stupidity.

We had fun, and certainly learned a lot. Next time we play we decided we want to do a progression series, starting on the Island and working our way through the bosses and story. I also have more mods I want to try out, naturally. I recently got an SSD, so hopefully loading in will take less than 20 minutes this time...hopefully.

Going Elsweyr in Oblivion

Oh, I have a blog? I forgot.

Well here's an update, then, before the end of the year. I've been playing a few games, including some less-moddable ones, for a change. MMOs and mobile games- just the worst! 

But of course, in the end, I always come back to Oblivion. After bungling a Thieve's Guild job, my clumsy cat burglar was forced to flee Cyrodiil 'til the heat died down a bit. This gave me a great opportunity to explore the province mod(s) of Elsweyr. I use the plural because there have actually been several mods that add on to the original work of Iliana. I think it's a sign of a truly great mod that creates its own mini-ecosystem of submods like this. After spending some time in the province, I understand why.

The amount of work that's on display here is incredible. The desert land of Anequina has been realized to a remarkable degree; everything from the cities to the landscape itself feels very unique and distinct from the vanilla game, with tons of custom meshes used. Even within the province there's distinct cultures; the rough-and-tumble Orcrest is very different from the shining domes of Dune. The new breeds of Khajiit are very cool, and helped sell that this was an alien culture.

 I almost had a Morrowind-y feeling exploring the province; Elsweyr is a much less safe and civilized place than ol' Cyrodiil. In fact, because of this mod, some of the biggest baddies from WAC were wandering the deserts looking to chomp my poor kitty's butt. She really isn't a terribly effective fighter, and I ended up turning the difficulty slider down (way, way down).

I've been to most of the major cities of Anequina at this point, and am now wandering about looking for adventures. Most of the quests available here are short but sweet; my favorite adventure so far has been thwarting a fiendish saboteur from Valenwood in his attempt unleash a plague upon the cat-people.

The mod has been relatively stable- I've encountered a few bugs here and there, but I can't be certain that they're the fault of the original authors since I'm actually using an unholy merged ESP of several Elsweyr mods (no longer available on Nexus), and who knows what trouble that's caused. A little bit of Construction Set knowledge goes a long way to deal with such things, though. 

All in all, I'm having a lot of fun so far, and I still haven't seen everything in Anequina. Then there's a newer mod that adds some of Pelletine as well. Well, here's to many more adventures in 2019! 

Playing a Klepto-Kitty in Oblivion

So, I started a new character in Oblivion. I've been wanting to do a new thief playthrough, with the goal of actually doing the whole Thieves' Guild questline- something I have yet to accomplish. I've played thief and stealth-focused characters before, but none of them found the Guild a very good fit. I had a Bosmer who stole purely for the thrill, and didn't have any interest in dealing with fences or Robin-Hood codes of honor. Another, "ethically-challenged" Argonian, joined the Guild but soon found that he preferred the more exciting (and less self-righteous) life of an assassin.

But I figure that it's high time I actually played through the Thieves' Guild proper. Introducing Kzhirra, a fun-loving Khajiit open to new and radical interpretations of the concept of personal property:

She loves fashion, especially when she can get her clothes for free!

She's actually one of the Khajiit sub-breeds added by the Elsweyr mod, which I am very much looking forward to playing through for the first time. I actually have a number of mods revolving around the province; the nightmare of sorting through and patching all these has been one of the biggest things delaying this playthrough. Hopefully I've got it all sorted out right (hope is a lie).


Though Kzhirra is still low-level and hopeless at combat, she's been a blast to play so far. I've been having a lot of fun moving through the various underground communities added by Nernie's Thieves Grotto mod. This modder does wonderful work with the poor and lower-class areas of the game, creating places that are beautiful, unique, and yet authentically rotten.

I always roleplay my characters to some extent; though I'm definitely not as hardcore as some people, I find that even a little roleplay can really breathe life into the game mechanics. For example, I know that when Kzhirra's stealing something, as long as that sneak crosshair isn't lit up at the moment of theft, I've gotten away scott-free. It could be broad daylight with half a dozen people in the room, yet none will be the wiser. But I find trying to actually remain undetected- working at night when a mark is asleep, staying in the shadows, cut-and-running if a guard does see me prowling about, has been a lot of fun and actually makes me feel more of a proper cat burglar. With the balance changes added by Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, it's more of an effort climbing the ranks and gaining the respect of the Gray Fox. When Kzhirra does eventually earn her place among the legendary thieves (or gets run out of the province), I'll know that she's definitely earned it.

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.

Stardew Valley and Chill

(This is an older post that I forgot to actually publish to the blog. Nice going, me!)

When I started playing some Stardew Valley recently- after not having touched the game since soon after its release- I didn't much consider the modding aspect. I'd seen that a Nexus Mods portal existed for the game, but figured it would likely be confined to graphics replacers and the like. I just wanted to relax and do some farming, maybe marrying Shane in the process (I'd been so sad to learn, during my first playthrough, that he wasn't available to woo).

Soon enough, however, I found myself in the familiar state of wanting to make some changes to the game. My biggest priority was in fact the graphics, which while vibrant and cheerful can be a little weary on the eyes with how bright and saturated they are. So I set to see what was out there in terms of replacers. 

In the process, I was pleasantly surprised to find a much larger and more substantial modding community than I had expected. There are a number of mods which alter or add to the game content; many of these being based on the SMAPI tool. Because I have no self-control, I ended up with a substantial modlist- and more mods hoarded away for potential future playthroughs. The list is in fact too large to detail fully here. Suffice to say that it includes without a doubt the most important mod- the one that allows me to have multiple pets, thus saving me the agony of having to choose between the equally adorable dog or cat. For my humble homestead I chose the picturesque Whitewater Farm, to be filled with Overgrown Fairy Buildings.

Mixed into this list were also a fair number of graphics replacers. Just A New Map Recolor, Classy New Interior, and A Toned Down Stardew Valley mellowed out the colors of the environment, while Vintage Interface kept a consistent tone in the menu. I really loved the look of Kal's portraits of the town's eligible singles because I am weeaboo trash, and so to keep at least some aesthetic consistency I used Variant Anime Portraits for the rest of the villagers. 

The results of these and other changes were striking to me. None of it altered the core gameplay of Stardew Valley; even in the larger graphical changes I felt the game's charm and fundamental heart were preserved. But some aspects of the game that previously had been somewhat disarmed by the vibrant, cheery colors now came to the surface. 

Before, Stardew Valley seemed like a pastoral paradise. When Sebastian or Abigail talked of feeling trapped in their small town, I thought it sounded absurd. But in my latest playthrough, I thought I could understand their claustrophobia a little better. The darker, more muted interiors gave the town a more run-down feeling. I saw the marks of poverty, and it seemed easier to believe the residents who talked about the struggles of living in a small, isolated community.  There's a lot of pain in Stardew Valley underneath the surface, even if it never truly overtakes the relaxed, wholesome atmosphere of the game.

I should stress that this isn't something that mods injected into the game, nor do they fundamentally change the character of the experience. Yet I think it's interesting to consider how mods can enhance aspects of the original work, to complement them and present them in new ways to the player. I gained a new respect for the writing of Stardew Valley on this playthrough, an aspect which didn't at all factor in to my initial desire to revisit the game. I found a world that seemed far more compelling and fleshed-out than I remembered. 

This experience has really impressed on me that mods can be more about "fixing" a game, or wholesale altering it to fit one's own preferences or fantasies. Mods can be something akin to a pinch of salt in a dish- something to enhance the natural flavor and goodness of the food, of the experience of eating the meal. I hope that analogy makes sense, anyway. I never was any good at cooking.

Pretending I'm Cultured in Second Life

Someone who only knows Second Life as a land of ugly people and Youtube troll videos might be surprised that it has a pretty robust art scene. I've enjoyed going through various exhibitions and artistic builds- some of which take advantage of the nature of the platform to offer an experience impossible in the physical world. I've stood in a desolate plain filled with figures prostrating themselves before an overhead UFO; another time, I was carted along in a miniature train through a world of floating, colorful child-like drawings.

One of my favorite places, though, takes the complete opposite approach. The Vordun Museum and Gallery creates an experience as close as possible to its physical counterparts. From the grounds outside, to the gallery itself, and even to the gift shop. 

I'd say the only thing missing is the loud tour groups blocking the view and snapping flash photos.

I'm impressed by the attention to detail in the whole thing- you can tell The Vordun is a labor of love. Besides the build itself, the exhibits I've seen have been high-quality. There's a variety on display- historical and contemporary alike. I feel this can be a bit disorienting as you move between exhibits- suddenly going from the European Masters to a modern solo exhibition based on psychological horror gives me something like artistic whiplash. On the other hand, I can understand that it's just not practical for the proprietors to keep the space purely in one theme or another.

One particular feature of this museum that I quite like is the audio tour provided for the main exhibit. For those unfamiliar with such in RL, these typically come in the form of small headsets that one can dial for voiced commentary on a particular piece or portion of the exhibit. This functions much the same at The Vordun, with the headset provided in the form of a HUD. It's quite charming and informative in a more immersive way than notecards or the like.

I feel that The Vordun is more than just a facsimile of a real museum; it stands on its own as a worthwhile experience. I'd go so far as to say that if it is not completely comparable to a physical gallery, it is very close in terms of artistic enrichment- and the self-satisfaction about how cultured you are.