The Test – A $2 scam to sell your info? A simple social experiment? Or a clever way to advertise their game vision?

Posted on 03-11-2022 by Benie


Greetings, reader. You do not know me, but I come to you to offer you a gift unlike no other. A gift, with no material value but a spiritual one. What would you say if I had the means to help you unlock a part of your mind you may not be aware of? Don’t believe me? Others have said the same and end up feeling better about themselves.
The process is very simple: I will ask you about 50 questions, and at the end I will discover your future. Though, it may be what you already know, but may not be what you know that you know. You know?
I also ask when you do give me your answers, to give me true honest answers. Even if it bugs you to answer them. As long as you give me those answers, I’ll be able to help you access your subconscience.
This isn’t physic…
This isn’t a self personality test…
This is simply nature. This is your own brain discovering a secret message within yourself.

Are you ready, to take The Test? Just relax, get a nice cold glass of water, and we shall begin the session.
Where do I begin with this game? Though I shouldn’t really call it that, as it’s more of a social experiment that seeks to open your subconscience.
And these questions? They’re for you in IRL. I got this game after I saw Game Theory play it. It is somewhat rare for me to be influenced by a game played by a Youtuber. But it’s the questions he was getting that interested me, this was no ordinary IP.
Now it’s $1.99. Do I feel I got my money’s worth? I honestly feel “no”. For a social experiment, I feel we as gamers should had been the ones that get paid to do it. And even at that, I don’t even feel it was worth $2. It really unlocked nothing I don’t already know about myself, even knowing about my stubbornness and telling me to “never give up”.
For a bot to know that, is something.. not going to lie. But I don’t feel better about myself. I could ask any good friend and they’ll tell me the same thing this bot
said, and I wouldn’t be charged $2 for it. Plus I also mistakenly spoiled the game for myself by watching a Youtuber play it. To me it killed that feeling of “this guy is talking to me and me only”.

Really wish the bot/person that looks like a combination of SCP-049 and Dr. Robotnik had different questions to ask (based on the person it speaks to). That to me would make it feel well worth the $2.
Though there’s one time this thing did kind of creep me out: when it asked “are you alone?”. In my room, yes. In this house I share with my mother, no. That was
a 50/50 question.
I said “Yes”. It asked “Are you SURE…?” How do you… do you know I’m not actually alone?! So in a way, I wasn’t fully lying. Again, 50/50 question.

EDIT: There has been an update to the game. Updated graphics, but they’ve “modified some end results” and “added 20% more questions”. Interesting. Maybe I might get better results.
They also ask for you to check out their other games, such as an episodic series
called The Advisor.

They’re hoping more people will check out this game and give their opinions, so they can take votes before Episode 2 comes.
Personally since I’m not a fan of ‘choices matter’ games unless it’s like the Mass Effect series and it clearly explains by color a good and bad response, I’m staying away from this. However if you folks are into that, please give this game a try.

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‘The Witch Queen’ campaign week 1 completed, thoughts (mostly spoiler-free)

Posted on 02-23-2022 by Benie

So I’ll try to keep this spoiler-free as much as I can.

As the title goes, this is my thoughts on completing Chapters 1 to 3 of the new DLC for Destiny 2. I gotta say, it’s worth the $40. It has quite surprised me. Though I’m talking about the story itself, not the rest of what was added (which is why I’m writing this instead of grinding to 1520+ in my Light level).
–
So here’s what I liked;
1. The story is soloable. It’s awesome. It truly makes you feel “this is your story, fighting back against Savathûn and the Hive, to take back the Light”.
The middle of the story has a curve ball that really makes you re-think the game (and yourself as a ‘Guardian’) as a whole. It really fucks with you.
Finally the ending… holy fuck that ending. Even a true endgame boss battle (that
actually FELT like a boss battle). Died 12 times, most due to being overwhelmed or from my own stupidity.
2. The ‘Hive Guardians’ don’t fuck around. They will own you. You gotta be ready to take them down, as they can do a Super just like you can. Then you gotta destroy their Ghost. And if you don’t do it in time, they will respawn just like a normal player. It is wild fighting these guys.
–
And here is what I didn’t like/don’t understand.
1. The new weapon crafting feature is one of the main reasons why I came back to
Destiny 2, because Kovo said I can have a Scout Rifle “like your Night Watch”. Now having to use the weapon in order to acquire materials after you level it up is alright.
…But then, this is where things start to suck. The gun is pretty much useless to you (if it doesn’t have the perks you want). And if you don’t have the blueprint, you have to acquire another gun of that type with that specific thing to level it up (again). And depending on the gun, you gotta do this again, and again, and AGAIN until you finally get the
blueprint.
I hope you enjoy unnecessarily long (“keep the playerbase engaged in our
game”) grinding experiences. I do not. And that’s not even the worst offender. It’s acquiring the materials you need to craft your desired weapon. It’s very, very limited right now. Thankfully I hear they are planning to fix this possibly within the next 2-4 months with more weapons to craft. Hopefully it doesn’t take longer than that (to the point we got another expansion coming).
But I’m not going to touch this mechanic anymore until I see the first issue solved in some way I see an improvement.
2. I know how they tried so hard to suit every playstyle with the Glaive that you make early in the campaign, but it.. I dunno. It feels similar to what Blizzard did with Legion, but I just don’t like it. Tried it, don’t like it. It can’t handle long to extreme long range environments (how I build my Guardians). But I gotta keep it as it’s a quest weapon.
3. Having to do public events just so I’m at specific required Light levels to continue the campaign. Didn’t have to do that with Beyond Light.
4. The season pass (‘Season of the Risen’), didn’t come with new gear. Beyond Light‘s first season pass did. I’m not sure why they didn’t. Instead they give you a bunch of blue armor and weapons to upgrade your current gear. I mean yeah, I get the ‘Become
Legend’ difficulty comes with a set of 1520 gear upon completion of the campaign. But again.. why not more gear from the season pass? Maybe they wanted to ‘spice things up a little’. Dunno.

And this is all I can say without revealing spoilers. However if you don’t care, I’ll be sharing my true thoughts of the expansion in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

So…, you’ve come here to hear my true opinions of this expansion, have you? I hope your curiosity didn’t doom you. Well then, let me start with the end of Chapter 2, which can be shown here by clicking this.
Thinking you, the Guardian, were doing good by getting these three Relics to find out why Savathûn somehow stole our Light from us to make these ‘Hive Guardians’, you were actually helping her to remember that at the end of ‘Season of the Lost’, Savathûn died from the extraction of her worm she ingested millions of years ago to only get revenge on the betrayal in the Osmium Court back on the gas giant of Fundament.

The Traveler, brought her back to life. She tricked you, and now Zavala is mad. However Ikora tells them “it doesn’t matter if the Traveler helped Savathûn. It doesn’t matter if it seems we were wrong assuming the Traveler chose humanity. What does, is we got to finish what we started!”
You are then warned of a ‘ritual’ that Savathûn is trying to bring the Traveler to her Throne World and steal the Light, rendering Guardians powerless. There is also ‘the Witness’ who sees the destruction of a species— and that species would’ve been the human race.
Arrival back in the Throne World, it seems you have failed somehow. The Traveler seems to have willingly arrived here.
But one thing Savathûn soon learned she couldn’t deceive, is dragon determination to finally bring her down. Yet I don’t feel she’s dead. Even though I died 12 times in that intense boss battle, there’s just no way. There’s no way such a well-respected lore character would go down in the first WEEK of the expansion’s launch. No. She’s alive somewhere else (and her Ghost who’s still there knows exactly where). I likely fought a decoy.

But what was interesting to me is the Traveler ‘allowed’ Savathûn’s ghost to leave by blinding you. It’s like “no Guardian, I will deal with the Ghost myself”. Almost makes me suspicious of the Traveler now. It could literally put the Ghost where Savathûn is being kept, and resurrect her. Even though this isn’t canon, it might be in the future season passes (or even in the weeks to come).
And at the very end, there’s safe assumptions the Traveler is nearly the same as the one that spoke to you (took your form) of the Darkness, and said “I am not your friend, nor your enemy”. But the reason why the Traveler is still with humanity, is we have saved it time and time again from the forces of evil. We have been doing the Traveler’s bidding in exchange for being the ones that can never die; the Guardians. However it’s not just
that, but the sacrifices that were made.
However, was the Traveler right in resurrecting you? There’s been a big handful of people who believe we’re “the bad guys”, and Savathûn was doing good by protecting the Traveler in her Throne World from the impending Darkness heading for it. But they forget, she is the queen of lies and deceit. So it’s hard to believe that. But maybe the Traveler finally saw your true nature and kept you from destroying her Ghost.
–
Anyway, it’s really too early to tell. I could be completely wrong and we truly are the bad guys, or I could be right. We’ll find out in the season passes to come. But one thing’s for certain; the Witness is coming (who likely won’t be soloable like Savathûn was, but be the end of a raid instead). And we gotta be ready to handle any threat.

[collapse]

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Crunch Time / Benie.. the raid CARRIER?! / “This better be worth it…”

Posted on 02-22-2022 by Benie

With Destiny 2’s servers being down as we patiently wait to wait hours while being part of the glorious queue time to play the game play the new expansion, I’ve been working my scales off. I didn’t think I’d be doing the (now former) current season (Season of
the Lost) and just getting done with the previous Season of the Splicer instead, Kovo and Nova were willing to help me achieve it.
One thing before I start this, I find it funny how I, in the history of playing expansion packs, am going to be playing two that start with ‘The’ (that has to do with some really bad person in power). First it was in WoW: The Lich King. And now it’s The Witch Queen. It’s just funny, and cool. One controlling an undead horde, the other controlling a bug-like horde. Except this bitch isn’t playing around.. with Guardian-like Hive who can pull their super, just like you can. PvP-like PvE. Going to be interesting.
I will freeze their asses with Stasis.
==============================================================
Crunch Time
==============================================================
I dunno what annoyed me more; having to rely on a group of five others to stop the forces of a worm god, or doing this deceiving solo content. Deceiving meaning, having to have weapons that can stun Unstoppables and Overloads (and sending waves of pain after you).
But what’s the most annoying part, I had to do this.. 49 times. That’s how much content there was in that season. But it wasn’t just those two activities. There was also story/lore bits with Mara Sov, Crow learning who he was (and who brought him down), and talking to the Queen of Lies herself: Savathûn who needs you help to sever her from her worm in exchange of knowing more about the darkness (and claiming she’s been “helping” you).
Though there was one time where she actually almost got to me: “I’m not your enemy, and you are no hero”. Kovo told me this made Vale leave Destiny 2. Goodness. I can see
why.
==============================================================
Benie.. the raid CARRIER?!
==============================================================
With Dusky, Sparky, Snowflake, Kovo and Nova on, we did Vault of Glass (the first two fights). The second one, I was with Kovo. My job was to keep everything from coming out of the pit infront of me, and I did that job as good as I can. Died twice, but not as much as the others. And we were able to complete it the second time. How I died the second time is Kovo was trying to help the others. I held the line as long as I could, but got
overwhelmed. Still, I managed to defeat the boss before I died, giving them the victory.
I was praised for carrying the raid. Like, holy fuck was I praised. Even Dusky, praised me. That’s something. That is respect well earned from him. And I enjoyed myself. Yes I was in last place in the DPS chart, but I didn’t care. I had fun. 🙂
==============================================================
“This better be worth it…”
==============================================================
With finally being done with the former season, Kovo wanted me to get an exotic weapon he felt I’d use quite a lot. With my desire to attack ranged, he felt this weapon would work. And said this thing is even used in a few raids.
The exotic is called “Ager’s Scepter”. I went through some hell (but it wasn’t that
brutal) to get it. It just felt “god.. how much effort does this damn thing TAKE?!” What I didn’t like the most is having to kill Champions of that 6 player thing (which forced me to use weapons that I don’t like using). However, after I started using them.. it wasn’t that bad. But I refuse to let Kovo be all “told ya”.
Then when I got the weapon, it has you learn how to use it (which I liked, but also didn’t as the game wanted me to deal with a boss and a bunch of screaming Taken coming after my dragon ass, (and this was solo)). But it was a good way to learn how to use it, and how
the ‘infinite ammo’ proc hits– frozen enemies hit by this thing refill your reserves clip. Started really getting into this gun.. when the proc actually worked. Kovo believed it’s because of the servers lagging.
Then came to getting the catalyst, which showed up in a chest after doing the 6 player thing. Then having to kill enemies and all sorts of other shit.
–
Let’s just say, when I finally got it unlocked and Kovo told me what to do.. it was like.. it was like…

YES!! Exactly!! I have a literal death beam of ice, that I can charge it with my Super energy! And just.. holy fuck. I can DESTROY minibosses with this fucking thing!! It feels so satisfying when I switch on the

button! Watching everything MELT that I point this thing at.. ohh god. I love it.
But I have to say this: it’s a bit funny. Me, being a fire-based dragon using an ice-based weapon. How does that even work? Now, give me a flamethrower version of this gun. I’ll be set for life. I’ll truly be melting faces with that thing.

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“What have I gotten myself into…”

Posted on 02-19-2022 by Benie

Hello. Man it’s been awhile since I last posted in there. Roughly just under two months. What do I mean by the title? Well, remember that feeling of playing a game
like Factorio, you take a very long ‘break’ from it, and then come back as a friend of yours suggests you do so as there’s a ‘endgame special event’ and it’ll be over in three days (then switches to new content), and you’re like… “what the fuck did I do?!”
That’s me, coming back to Destiny 2. The next DLC, The Witch Queen, is coming very soon.
Now when I joined, I assumed I’d be in the main menu and would head to the Tower and try to relearn the controls… Bungie however, had different ideas for me.
So apparently Xur now has a much bigger role instead of only being the rare exotic engram trader (and speaking for ‘the nine’). According to Kovo (after sending him some
pictures), a spiritual horse (that he calls “gay horse” for some unknown reason), has taken control of him and will randomly pull you out of reality just to see you squirm. And it was like if Bungie was saying to me “DANCE, BITCH!!! DANCE!!!”
I  was placed in a group of five people, and being told to do a series of challenges. Thankfully said challenges are PvE, but I didn’t expect this to happen at all. Kovo explains this as content I wasn’t supposed to see.
Looking closer, apparently this is part of the whole ‘Destiny’s 30th anniversary’ thing. There’s a new ‘timeline’ that takes you through Destiny 2’s history, starting with The Red War. It shows the seasons you were a part of.
Dunno if it’s going to last when the new DLC is released.
–
Back in reality, I looked at my character and hoo boy, I got a lot of work ahead of me. My secondary weapon slot is full (and a lot of my other slots are reaching capacity) with items I dunno if I want/need.
I got three days to get this whole mess sorted and complete the content. So much ‘fun’, and I dunno where to even get started.

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Bean Stalker aka Acrophobia Simulator

Posted on 11-25-2021 by Benie

Hello, my name is Benie. And I have Acrophobia. I don’t know how long I’ve had it, but I think what triggered it was a fear of falling out of my bed. …And THIS fucking VR game does not help with my fear!
So what is Bean Stalker? I’d definitely say it’s an underrated Indie game that deserves to be talked about more, but it’s also not without lots of bugs as it’s an Early Access game. And I’m talking, very Early Access. It came out October of this year, but it’s been getting updates and the dev cares about player feedback.
–
Anyway, Bean Stalker is based off an alternate Earth where an unusual beanstalk grew on a remote island. But instead of the old fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk”, humanity discovered this beanstalk has unique ores and other riches on (and inside) its branches. But it also has dangers which protect them.
You are known as a ‘Bean Stalker’, a brave (yet foolish) adventurer who can climb the beanstalk with modern tools and harvest resources from its branches. These resources can be used to make tools and weapons to help you better traverse the beanstalk’s many (and I do mean MANY) branches, and give you a better edge against the monsters that protect the beanstalk from intruders like you.
But the mobs aren’t the only enemy. There are also boss mobs on the much higher branches. However, there’s an even bigger threat. A threat that can kill you even when you start the game, and can never be defeated– the law of gravity. And gravity shows no mercy for an unskilled Bean Stalker. One slip up separates you from survival and losing all of your progress.
And the worst thing about it…? It’s in VR.
—
When you no longer feel brave and wanna be on solid ground again, you can head up to an Extraction Point. After pulling a lever, head to the marked location and grab ahold of the lever the game tells you to, to be extracted off of the beanstalk. There you’ll be safely transported back to your base where you can make tools and stuff.

The game is quite a lot of fun and it brought the joy I felt of doing those climbing worlds in VRChat. I recommend it, and it’s currently on sale (30% off) until December 1st. Definitely check it out.

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Checking out a horror map with Jero and MIBBIT

Posted on 08-18-2021 by Benie

Last night was fun, and full of spooks/frights created by legendary world builder OfficialSayon. Best known for the Huggi Dungeon Series.
His latest installment was a world created 2-3 months ago, called ‘Unshatted Destination‘. I’ve been there only once, and only completed the intro. I couldn’t remember where I got confused and why I stopped. I can only assume I got spooked.
Since I’m friends with Jero again and he’s interested in checking the world out.. and I needed a break from the drama I’m going though with Bisect, I decided to strap on my trackers and play it. Saw Jero was on and invited him to a Friends+ instance of the world.
I also asked MIBBIT if he wanted to join and waited patiently for the two to arrive. The reason why I made it Friends+ is incase Jero or MIBBIT have any friends they want to bring.
I’m trying to sit up on my bed and my left tracker’s charger cable gets tangled with everything. As I’m nearly done getting that done, I hear the ‘ding’ sound of someone joining the world. Tell them to please wait as I didn’t have my headset on at the time, and finally got the damn cable freed. When I put my headset back on and controllers back on my hands, it was Jero.
MIBBIT joined about a minute later and we went over all of the things to read. Hearing Jero’s reaction to some of these things was funny, especially “don’t anger the spirits” in the rules.
–
So, this world is clientside. Aka, what I do they don’t see (and vica versa). This, has lead to a few annoyances of not knowing who’s on what phase (and being told by MIBBIT to click this click that instead of allowing us to learn.. got on my nerves). Just what I need, another Wolfdog. But, we had fun. We got scared almost to death.. and it was even worse for me in full body. I had to take a few breaks to let my heart calm down. ..Whew.
Like, the first real jumpscare was a mannequin down the hall that was looking right at us in the creepiest way. I’m still sitting up on my bed (my back supported by pillows with my legs on the bed). I go first, charging my fist at this thing like a lance. Halfway down the hall, the fucker comes RUNNING at us at breakneck speed!! ..HOLY FUCK, my heart.
I almost said “Jero hold me I’m scared” without even thinking about it. Ohh geezus that scared the fuck out of us.

We’re going to try to do the rest tonight. Myself and MIBBIT (after Jero went to bed) got to Chapter 3. There are five chapters in this world.

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Multicraft’s backups VS ftbbackups – “I can do this but I can’t do what you want”

Posted on 08-17-2021 by Benie

Plus being told by Bisect in a ticket, that the use of ftbbackups is “against our TOS”.. I’m this close to just saying “fuck it. If I wanna play modded Minecraft, I’ll host it on my computer again”.
And this is all because of one of their features, that I’m paying $3.99 for (for a week’s worth of accessible backups)… isn’t working to its extent. Aka, automatic backups, and being told “Backup commencing” and “Backup complete!”. ..It’s that fucking simple! They should be thankful I’m not actually someone that runs a server that absolutely NEEDS this for my concurrent playerbase. Or they would be getting a bad Yelp review right about now.
–
So what’s really the big deal here, is a service called ‘Multicraft’. This controls what the server does at all times (when it’s running). It tells the server to post ‘Admin
Say’ commands (aka if I want the server to say ‘Hello! How are you?”, I set up a command that tells the server to do just that, and at a specific time and date) And it also tells the server to do restarts based on what the Server Admin (aka myself) sets it to.
But when it comes to the automatic server world backups, I have several messages warning that the backup is going to happen soon (until the set time is reached). However with Multicraft… the only thing a player (a non-OPed person playing on the server) would see, is the message of “Server backup commencing”. It’s an Admin Say. It is not Multicraft posting this.
Nor does it print out “Server backup complete!” So, that means… people who join the server have no idea the server backup has completed. All they would see, was the Admin Say command with “Server backup commencing”. That’s it. That’s all they would see.

This is what it says (for myself);
[Server: Turned off world auto-saving]
Server: <> Server backup commencing, this could take awhile…
[Server: Turned on world auto-saving]

This is what it says (for guests);
Server: <> Server backup commencing, this could take awhile…
—
So, do you ‘see’ the confusion here if you were part of my server? Wouldn’t you want to know when the backup is completed? The only way I know when the backup is complete is when I see ‘Turned on world auto-saving’, but it doesn’t show that for guests.
I’m thinking “hmm, if I could get an Admin Say command to ‘listen’ for that ‘Turned on world auto-saving” thing the server spits out, I could have it say “Server backup complete”. Makes sense, yes?
Contacted Bisect via a ticket asking how to do that. After some time.. they told me it’s not possible to do that. So uh.. what are my options here? I gotta have something to inform my guests!
“There is nothing we can do” they told me. “You need to contract Multicraft”. And so I did the next day (today). At least.. attempted to, as I was stopped by this;

“Please contact your hosting provider”.
I did… and they told ME to contact YOU, claiming they “can do nothing”!

“Incase there is a problem with the panel software your hosting provider will contact us on your behalf”.
Pretty sure this would constitute as a ‘problem with the panel software’. So uh…. did Bisect, lie to me? Telling me the matter is out of their control and they can do nothing about it, when this thing.. proves otherwise. I think so. And you know just how much I love being lied to (especially by a business).
But, let’s get to the really good stuff: a mod called ‘ftbbackups’.

A mod I had no idea even existed in the modpack I use, actually does inform when the backup happens and when it completes, to everyone (including OPs). Neat, huh? It does what Multicraft fails to do! …Isn’t that sad? So, why am I having to pay $3.99 for something I’m not getting my money’s worth? Plus, ftbbackups saves it to my computer instead of the server, allowing me to have multiple backups (for free).
But there’s a problem here. There’s no proper way to set the time and date I want a backup to happen. It uses an interval instead of a specific date/time.
Though that’s also not that big of a deal. It backups more frequently yes, but I’m willing to look away from that only because it informs everyone the world is backed up.

So I contacted Bisect again (via another ticket), telling them to cancel the $3.99. I also told them about ftbbackups to explain why I’m doing so (as companies usually ask “why” when you cancel a service to try and entice you to keep it). Seemed like there would be no problem, and everything would be good.
…Until I was told “Regarding using mods or plugins for backups they are against our TOS as they can cause massive storage usage and can cause potential issues on the node. You can read our TOS here”.

1. I’m not even trying to go against your TOS.
2. Again, didn’t know the mod was there. This is “out of my control”.. funny how that goes full circle, huh Bisect?
3. I don’t mind getting rid of this troubled mod you guys are against for very good reasons… IF Multicraft did it’s fucking JOB alerting everyone on my server with automatic backups!!!
Do you think I enjoy yelling at you guys? I want to have fun on my server, and know I’m getting my money’s worth! This, is not. This, needs to be fixed. This, should not even be happening (like this). Now please, don’t lie to me that there’s “nothing you can do” and contact Multicraft ‘on my behalf’ and get this thing integrated with your systems, so I can use it. Thank you. Again, I will remove ftbbackups. No problem at all. I can understand why it’s against the TOS.. but again, it’s the only thing that alerted when the backup happened. And that’s sad, guys.
Now you could say “Lol bruh! This is what you get for buying one of their Budget hosting plans! They don’t do shit for Budget customers!” Not what I remember reading when I was looking very hard at the plans and stuff like that. I saw nothing about “we’ll treat you like shit with a Budget server. Now if you switch to one of our Premium server packages we’ll treat you like the President of the United States!”

Look: all I ask for, is automatic server backups to be known (ingame) when they’re being done, and when they’re completed (even by OPs). Is that too much to ask? Hmm?

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“Went on and done it” – My own BisectHosting modded Minecraft server

Posted on 08-15-2021 by Benie

I’ve gone on and bought my own modded Minecraft server from BisectHosting. The reasons why I did instead of waiting on this, are as follows;
1. Something I can control (said this multiple times).
2. As a “side project” incase Kovo and Nova get bored with the server, and I don’t feel “it’s just me”.
3. It’s honestly reasonably priced.
4. Cave’s creating his own modpack, that’ll have a new world (which makes it feel pointless to join).
5. Shrugging off all the haters, who say “you do realize you’re wasting money when it’s just you on that server, right?”

I’ve learned quite a lot from this, even having to deal with a few server “hiccups”. Also the server has a sub-domain, which would make it easy for members of this site to join me if they wish.
It’s called: benies0server0blog.modded.fun
I originally wanted it to be: ‘benies-server-blog.modded.fun’, to have a little fun to keep the theme of this site (with the hyphens). But sadly, no special characters allowed. No hyphens allowed. Boo. 😛 As for the ‘.modded.fun’ at the end, it’s one of the things you can use. You sadly can’t customize it, else I would be ‘redirecting’ it to this site. Heh.
But anyway, with that out of the way, time to talk about what I’ve learned and those glitches I dealt with.
==============================================
1. The way the auto server restart system is setup by Bisect, it doesn’t work (as shown in Cave’s server). I had to completely rebuild the schedule, which was fairly easy to
do (thanks to them having a tutorial on how to do it). It’s almost as if they say “the way we did it is trash, you can get it working with this video!”… a bit sad with how professional they’re supposed to be here.
2. Learned how to set the server.properties file (via their ‘Server Settings’ section). But having never done a server in a very long time, there were certain things I wasn’t familiar with. Thankfully they were able to help me with that.
3. Learned how instances work.. and why they’re they’re not similar to how MultiMC handles instances (to the point they’re kind of pointless to me). More on this later.
4. Had my world reset on me once, and the settings in the server.properties file get reverted on me twice.. and not know how in the fuck it happened.
5. Had the server fail to stop properly, one time.
6. …The fuck is this ‘OPed’ they speak of? I can’t seem to turn off the ‘[Server: Saved the world]‘ message from appearing. I didn’t see this in Cave’s server. Very confused here.
7. They only do one world backup per day (and depending if you paid the $3.99 for a week’s worth of backups). This means instead of setting up a backup every Wednesday at 6pm EDT, it needs to be every day at 6pm EDT.

So as for 3, 4, 5, and 6.. hoo boy. But their latest response actually makes sense to all questions things.. but it sure as hell took a long time to get them. Eesh.
Basically in the initial world, I finally found a spot that I want to be my base. But instead of working on it – I was working on the server instead – setting up the auto restart system. I also saw that instance thing which intrigued me. Again I assumed it was similar to how MultiMC handles it– multiple different installs of different worlds and content that I set. So I did. And having got the auto restart system configured I restarted the server.
When it came back up, and I joined it, I expected to show right back where I was… but I ended up in a new world instead. What the fuck HAPPENED?! All I did was do the instance thing! Yes I also set up that sub-domain but surely that wouldn’t had fucked up anything like this!
Plus the server settings somehow got reverted back to their defaults! …Not happy right now. But, I made the best of it, looking for another potential place to call my base. Never found one.
The only good thing that came out of this was the server restart actually happening at 5am EDT. So that proves to me what was going on with Cave’s server. Stayed up to almost 6am typing what I wanted to say to Bisect’s ticket support thing, but saved it and went to bed.
–
Next day I sent it. This time I waited for over a half an hour (with my ticket on Medium priority). If you’re trying to impress me, you’re doing a bad job of it. But I got answers what certain server setting features do (as I said before). Issues 3, 4, 5, and 6 took a lot longer, but I finally got them (except 5, which is likely just a ‘server hiccup’ of it not properly shutting down).
#3, it is similar to MultiMC, but with a few extra steps. When you restore an instance, you have to click on a dropdown and pick “Load files to server and keep instance” instead of default to the other, which deletes the instance. This caught me by complete surprise when I no longer had access after a fucking Creeper decided to say “HELLO!!” and blew up a small part of my developing base. Not that big of a deal as I can fix it in Creative, but.. the instance deleting made me feel “what’s the point of having them?”
Now I realize it. And honestly, the only time I really should ever need to use instances is if I want to switch to a new modpack entirely. This should never be used as an alternative for a world backup. I understand that now.
#4, finally got explained to me. Though it still doesn’t make any sense why the server settings got reset after the server failed to shut down properly (and I never got an answer for it.. when I made NO changes since the auto restart), having them reset on me the first time does make sense. Human error. Never ever edit the server settings while the server is still running. It will not ‘save the changes’. That’s sadly not how Minecraft servers
work, and never have.
#5, is still unexplained. But again, all I can think of is a ‘server hiccup’… it just better not happen again when I need to shut it down for maintenance. That’s all I can say, or I will be making another ticket (especially if it causes world corruption).
#6, makes sense to me. The reason why I never saw that message on Cave’s server is it only shows up for people that are OPed (though my eyes saw them saying ‘QPed’, like it was kind of hidden server setting I didn’t have access to). Anyway, there is no way to disable the message (except de-OP myself and uncheck ‘Announce World Save’ in the Advanced Settings of the server control panel (though it should state “OPs can still see this”)). This is a thing with Minecraft servers.

.
Anyway, there’s no more issues that I can think of. So, back to what I wanted to originally say about this whole idea of buying my own private server.
This has nothing to do with ‘relying on Cave to keep the server up”… but it sure feels like that with the way I’m acting, doesn’t it? But whatever, it’s done and I do not regret my purchase.
I’ll still play on Cave’s server while Kovo and Nova are around, but I’ll have mine when they’re not. Especially when Cave finalizes his modpack and then switches everything. Since I said for #5 (the original things I said at the beginning of the post), that there’s no real point (IMO) to do anything progressive when the world is going to be backed up and replaced when Cave uploads the new pack.
Also I’ve noticed Cave’s being a bit “meh” of this entire thing. Yes he’s still trying to keep us together in the same server, but how I found out why the auto restart isn’t working.. he almost seems uninterested in keeping it up. I dunno. He hardly talks about the server anymore. But.. when it comes to modded Minecraft, it’s hard to find a pack that pleases everyone. And I have told him this.

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*hugs Ayana tightly* 🤗 / A new (paid) server… tempting? 🤔

Posted on 08-13-2021 by Benie

So this time, no crazy lewd stuff in the Games blog (at least I won’t be talking about it). This time, it’s all about the servers. And at the end, an.. almost tempting idea for myself that someone is currently exploring if it’s worth the money.
===================================================
*hugs Ayana tightly* 🤗
===================================================
What a very odd title for a post section, huh? Well this is all I could think of (it somewhat has to do with what I’m about to say). The previous title felt quite insulting.
So basically I’ve been worried that having the server going, is a waste of time if Kovo’s not really going to get into the modpack. So myself and Ayana talked about this half of the day and thought that he could help mine some stuff in the Nether for a mod, while myself and Cave handle the tech side of things. Great plan, huh? Kovo claims he has nothing to do, so we could give him one.
The evening came and Ayana brought the server up, telling me she fixed the script where Nova can force close the server once we’re done. But as a side-effect, the server wouldn’t be able to be force-restarted. Annndd.. the server crashed. Plus Ayana had to go to bed early. So she wasn’t on to restart it.
We contemplated on an alternative. Play another game or find another way to play modded Minecraft on a server. At the end, Cave ended up paying for a server. A dedicated server hosted by someone else for $17/mo. And the way he listed the features, is quite tempting.
–
When Ayana got this news, she wasn’t really happy with it. I had to explain the reason we went this route, because of her computer. We felt that if we got this, it would put less of a strain on her computer. So that’s basically why it was decided. We just want this to not feel like an insult to Ayana, that we’re trying to help her (and her computer).
Plus, she can join us. It’s a win-win.
===================================================
A new (paid) server… tempting? 🤔
===================================================
As said before, Cave paid $17/mo for this server. Hosted by ‘Bisect’. Never really heard of them, but they have very high praise of their 99.99% uptime and very low latency. What really has my interest is.. “unlimited modpack hosting”. Aka you can switch modpacks if you’re bored with one. So I can switch to AoE or something like that if I’m bored with the latest direwolf20 pack.
Having a modded Minecraft installation being hosted somewhere else instead of my computer (while I’m playing it) has been on my mind, because most modpacks can get quite resource demanding. But, I felt “since it’s just going to be me.. that feels like a waste of money”. That and I heard most of these dedicated server things cost an arm and a
leg. Plus I didn’t really have that much money back then.
But now after this, it’s really peaked my interest. Though, not to the point I’m going to do what Cave did. Nah. I’m going the smart way and doing some homework (aka asking questions). And from what I was told straight from the company, it really sounds promising.
There’s no contract, so no cancellation fees.
–
Now, I did some more research and found I’d be paying $25.92/mo (after all taxes and fees). But this includes having access to a week of server backups, and Advanced Support.
So, $26/mo for my own private server to host any modpack I want. All I do is pay, upload the modpack, and join it. Puts less stress on my computer.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? I can get back playing the ole direwolf20 pack, and listen
to Mr “very cool!” as I follow along.
…Yet on the other hand, why? We got Cave’s server, why pay for my own? Cave bought this server for us to play it. But with Kovo and Nova doing their own things, I’m feeling and even asked them “I dunno if we’re supposed to separate and do our own thing or stay together and work as a team”. Only one other time do I remember joining a server with friends just for us to play together, and I didn’t exactly like it as I felt I was being bossed around.
With this, I want to play together with them. I want all of us to learn how these mods work and start getting a sorting system going. …But that’s not going to happen, and so I’m thinking “if it’s just going to be myself and Cave, doesn’t this feel like a waste of money? I might as well just get my own server that I can control.”
Today it came very close to going that route as Kovo, Nova, and even Cave were having second thoughts about this modpack. And I almost felt I was being criticized for wanting to watch a video series in order to guide me instead of just diving into the mods and learning them.
But what really made me nearly place my order was Kovo saying “Cave, at least keep the server up for Benie ok?” I’m thinking “are you serious Kovo? I know you’re here just because Nova is, but.. refusing to even give these mods a chance?” But the problem with them is the modpack itself. There’s a debate going on about switching the modpack.. that I’m not in favor of (aka why I feel buying my own server might have to happen). Kovo likes to be challenged, and I like things that are chill. Nova says she’s split between us.
Cave likes Tekkit, and he’s trying to find a middle ground between challenging and chill to keep us all on one server.
I personally am against anything that isn’t a ‘kitchen sink’ modpack. Though I did give AoE a chance and I liked it (to a certain point). Honestly feel AoE would be perfect here. Then again, the modpack is less ‘challenging’ and more ‘grindy’.

I dunno, but I’m somewhat tempted to just go on and get my own server. But I am curious how Cave will approach this issue tomorrow. One good thing working for Cave is Nova’s starting to get into Tinkerer’s Construct a lot more. She knows the basics and even made her own armor set. ..But Kovo gives zero fucks about the mod.
I’m really just split between “fuck it, I’m getting my own server and leaving this
mess!” and “fuck it, I’m going to start my own base as I found a video series to help guide me!” It really depends on those two (especially Kovo), of how long they care to keep playing with this modpack being available. Kovo seems to have defaulted to “I dunno, just keep it as it is. I’ll just play vanilla.” And if that’s the case, then I’m not going to get my own server (and just establishing my own base somewhere else). This was a just incase ‘if my opinion didn’t matter’ scenario.
I don’t want to have to buy my own server, but I will if I see no alternative. Best way to look at this is one of direwolf’s ‘server play’ videos, and most of them split off to do their own thing. Except usually dire has a craft buddy that tags along with him. This time I’ll either be with myself or (occasionally) with Cave. Nova can do her own thing (she might get bored and leave.. Kovo will very likely follow).
And that’s what I’m worried about the most here. What’s the point of a public
server (that’s privately hosted) if I’m the only one that’s doing anything related with the modpack, ya know? Might as well just get my own, so I can control what happens to
it (instead of going to Cave). I can be all “you guys can join if you want. Up to you”.

…I’m not saying “I wanted to pay for the server instead of Cave”. The drama would be harder on me than it is now (when they’re coming to me instead of him). All he did was show me the very interesting, promising potential of this. He’s the one dealing with the drama instead of me, and I feel sorry for him.

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So many mods, not enough time / “Look at Benie staring.. menacingly.”

Posted on 08-12-2021 by Benie

Hmm. Let’s see -GAMES-, check. PC, check. ‘Other’.. huh. Guess it could be seen as
a ‘game’. Yep, good for me. Not sure for them. ..Oshi– this thing’s still on.
*clears throat*
–
Alright. Let’s begin.
==============================================
So many mods, not enough time
==============================================
The first game is Minecraft. Got invited to join a new server from Ayana, my friend but also one of Kovo’s and Nova’s friends. This is a Modded Minecraft server. And the modpack is a ‘kitchen sink’ style pack. It’s called ‘Enigmatica‘. There’s a handful of mods that I’m used to (that direwolf20 has played). It’s designed to help people get into mods. At least that’s the idea. However, someone like Kovo doesn’t seem to understand this. It’s
all ‘German’ to him. Huh. Sounds like my mother when I (and others) try to teach her tech stuff.
Meanwhile, I’m having a god damn fucking nostalgia trip with all the mods I remember using in the past. “OMG it has X! ..We can make a Y!!! :D” and so on. Yet process has been ridiculously slow. I’m half expecting us to dive head first into this modpack, but Kovo and Nova are doing their own things. Kovo’s doing vanilla stuff, and Nova’s… making huge underground caverns with a fuckton of torches. None of them seem truly interested in this modpack as I am.
Then there’s Cave. He’s semi-nostalgic yet more of an explorer type.
And finally, myself (again). I’m too busy simping over these mods that.. I hilariously don’t even know where to start. Without direwolf’s videos, I feel so lost. I’ve been wanting to get into Tinkerer’s Construct but.. again, dunno where to start. Not to mention the other problem.. personally, is we’re not really in the best spot to be getting into mods. Especially with everyone doing their own thing, there’s going to be times toes are going to be stepped on.
–
But now finally have some direction (a day after I first joined), but it seems it’s directed by Ayana. “We don’t need to use EnderIO when we have AE2” she says. Yet the only one that actually is trying to get us into this.. is Cave. Ayana can’t really play as she’s running the server, and that causes big lag spikes.
It’s a big mess of confusion. Kovo’s confused on what to do (again his mind’s too focused on vanilla), and Nova’s still making that large cavern that I honestly don’t understand why it’s even being made (and all it’s doing is causing lag). At this rate, there would really be no point of having the server up if everyone isn’t on board with what we need to be focused on.
==============================================
“Look at Benie staring.. menacingly.”
==============================================
During one of these instances (we’re all in a call), a familiar person to the server (TJ) joins us. This is someone who refuses to be known as cute. And it’s even more cute
when ‘he’ denies it (reason for those quotations a bit later). Kovo and a few others also decide to playfully annoy him to admit ‘he’ is cute.
Got to a point where TJ begins DMing me, RPing with snuggling and stuff. I’m not telling anyone what’s going on ‘behind the scenes’ as it.. well, totally didn’t turn into ERP. And well yeah, was definitely interesting. And one time when we were.. really ‘having fun’, I remember Cave saying in the call “Look at Benie staring at us.. menacingly”.
Remind you I was ‘having fun’ elsewhere.. *cough* and wouldn’t always move when more fun was happening.
…I tried my best not to say (later on when TJ logged off for the night (aka fell asleep) after feeling quite satisfied in my virtual arms) “well I just [RETRACTED] a femboy, and I enjoyed it!” in the call. Because oh lord the level of embarrassment I would be
feeling (especially Kovo’s reactions).
Friends with benefits > Looking for true love. Less of a headache, having the same
fun, and less of having to say no. …But, just remember to, ask for age before? That’s important too. Fortunately for me, ‘he’ is above that age. So, phew.

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