I got Minecraft again, thanks to my BF / Checking out a really cool world

Posted on 08-05-2021 by Benie

(Most of this post’s original content has been removed as it’s not Games related, and rewritten in the General blog. I was too much on a ‘rant rampage’ and I need to stop doing that. Sorry)

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I got Minecraft again, thanks to my BF
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I was playing Sea of Thieves solo, totally not trying to avoid my BF from wanting to join me. For ones that are curious to what I mean, you can read about it here in the General Blog.
Heading for an outpost to sell my loot.. while also VERY carefully watching this fucker at the same outpost I was heading to. Thankfully when they left, they headed on a mainly NNW trajectory(and I’m going ESE), allowing me to sail back safely. So yeah, that was a bit of a white knuckle moment.
Made it back, sold my stuff and then sank my poor ship. It had gotten into a fierce battle with an emergence skeleton ship (and won). But it needed a rest and I gave it a proper sendoff (including an achievement for doing so).

Then Wolfdog asked me “you have Minecraft right?” Explained the crap that I lost access to the email my old account is connected to and I’m SoL until Mojang does their stupid migration thing.
“want me to get you the game again so you can set up a new account” he asked.

My face when he asked that.
“Aww hun, you don’t have to.” I said, reminding him about his financial situation and how I didn’t want him to hurt because of me. But he said it won’t and didn’t mind doing so. He mainly wants to show me a ‘very cool’ Minecraft world that has to do with Disney’s themeparks.
Half of me felt this was really suspicious, of why he’s suddenly being so generous in wanting to help me out. He’s never done this before. Not even Kovo offered to do this. Still I did accept it, offering to pay back the kindness in full (financially or some other means). But he didn’t really mind doing it, saying he “understands what it’s like to not have access to an old account anymore”.
I logged into my old Microsoft account. …Uhh. Are you fucking serious. Was there a fucking chance I could had retrieved my old account anyway?! Did my old account become part of my Minecraft account?!?!?!
Dunno. It never said “multiple accounts detected” when I redeemed the key he gave me. So uh, maybe yes maybe no? Never got to see if I could possibly access my old account as I felt Wolfdog wanted me to get this done ASAP. So I did.
Tried to join the server he wanted me to join. Wouldn’t allow me with the current version of Minecraft (1.17.1). It requires version 1.22.2 instead. He (unnecessarily) walked me through the process of downgrading the version. Thanks for the instructions hun but I know what I’m doing here.

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Checking out a really cool world
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The world (or, server actually) is called ‘MCParks‘. It features every single park owned (or built) by Disney. And I’m still shocked.. that Disneyland is the original. For the longest time I thought Disneyland was a ‘cheap knock-off’ for California. While it doesn’t have as many attractions and rides as Walt Disney World’s ‘Magic Kingdom’ in Florida (plus Epcot and Universal Orlando Resort), this park makes up showing charm and top notch themed rides.
So he starts off telling me that you can listen to realtime music and sound that affects where you currently are in the server, by typing /audio and clicking the link. Then logging into their server and clicking ‘Connect’. I started hearing music based off the area (as if I was right there IRL).
We start off of him showing me this Tiki place and teaching me how to interact with certain things to make them work. And I must admit, it’s pretty cool. But it wouldn’t possibly prepare me for the ‘Tiki Room’. The birds, things coming from the ceiling, moving heads. ..Impressive work! He tells me Disney themselves actually helped with the server to make these rides as authentic as possible. These things use scripting never before seen in Minecraft.
Rode on the Pirates of The Caribbean ride. I can see why Orion and a few others said Chapter 1’s Tall Tale’s intro is based off of this very ride in Disneyland. Even having the familiar “DEAD.. MEN.. TELL.. NO.. TALES..”
Even met Jack Sparrow in Minecraft form. Really wild.
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But what really made my night.. they have Haunted Mansion in this!! 😀 This ride has been recreated so many times– in GMod, in VRChat, and now in Minecraft. And it’s just as fucking epic as before. Even having a ‘special twist’ near the end of the ride seeing.. what appears to be your player’s tombstone. EESH!
“Hurry BAAAACK!! .. Hurry BAAA-AAACK!! …Be sure to bring your.. DEATH certificate! We’re… dying.. to meet you!”

I’ll pass, thanks.

But yeah. I had fun. Really awesome server. Can’t wait to see what else they come up with. I’m wondering if they’re going to go beyond Disney’s parks and recreate all Six Flags locations (or even better.., the water park in Santa Claus, Indiana). It’s just fucking wild they were able to recreate all of these parks in a perfect 1:1 ratio (using Google Earth’s satellite images and help from Disney themselves).
And holy FUCK the special events they do at 11am, 4pm and 9pm EDT. Mad props for doing things that seem unbelievable they were done.. in Minecraft of all games!!
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Since then I got OptiFine installed, got a 32x texture pack, ‘made‘ (more like edited thanks to minecraftskins.com) a new skin for myself, and even got Vivecraft working. And holy fuck it looks even better in VR! A bit more laggy though in certain places, but still. Wow. It increases the immersion.
Now if only I had a system powerful enough that has an RTX 3090. ..In VR. Holy FUCK the realism!

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Looking back at my old Wurm posts

Posted on 07-18-2021 by Benie

Ho-ly-fuck! What a journey it’s been since I started playing Wurm. Hmm.. isn’t this what most Youtubers or Twitch streamers say when they reflect on the past?
To go from someone who was forced to depend on friends yet also wanting to live on my own as I felt I was being taken advantage of.. and sadly to this day I haven’t changed that mindset (with Kovo needing my help for raiding in Destiny 2), then finally discovering I could use an alt to help me survive off of fish stew for years, and eventually got the power to use ‘Refresh’ and feed myself once every 16 hours (I think it was, but who knows if that got nerfed into the ground by now).
Not to mention, I also remember.. what a bad toxic friend I was to angry. *sighs* Why in the fuck did he put up with me for so fucking long, is just.. I dunno.
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Go from being scared of everything that moves, to becoming a seasoned fighter and learning the ways of the Wurm Dragon Warrior. Getting that 2H axe from Exodus and receiving training on how to handle mobs was the best day I ever had.
What would had been even more awesome, would be if I was trained by an actual Wurm Dragon Warrior. But I honestly shouldn’t complain.
Sadly I wasn’t taught how to move my body to handle trolls. Never got my Body Control up. This was ‘taught’ to me by a fellow dragon in honorable combat during an Impalong. But instead of slaying me, they offered their reward as a token of friendship.
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And also holy fuck was my typing horrible back then. So many small paragraphs and not properly phrasing certain things. Plus the typos. So many typos. I’ve really improved since then.

Despite all the complaining I did back then, Wurm still gave me something to do. And I almost kind of wonder if any of the evil Wogic of the past 4+ years has been addressed in such a way by the devs, or if it’s still the same. Such as finally allowing people that don’t have a deed to brand their horse (so they can put a saddle on
it, or animals can finally eat on grass tiles with trees and flowers).

Most of my complaints came from.. honestly not having a clear picture of what to do. To move or not to move. To be a nomad or to keep living on a deed. Yet there’s also the number crunching aspect of Wurm that grinds my gears, such as never getting to 40 in Animal Husbandry (AH) for me to ‘Care For’ more than 4 animals with
Premium (Perm) time. It was mainly because of how little I was getting from grooming animals. It’s such a painful skill to grind.
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But probably the stupidest thing of all, is more of a personal one: having a person’s name being the deciding factor to attend an Impalong or not, just because they were part of the staff at the time.
I should’ve went. Probably would’ve had a blast. Because I keep forgetting to just be myself. I had worked hard to get my fight skill up. Why did I let someone’s name control my emotions like that? At the end of the day, we’re still all human beings.
Bet not even that champagne-drinking dragon was perfect. She likely was lacking in areas that I excelled.

Though that wasn’t the reason why I stopped playing. Sure it was a combination of
reasons, but it was.. losing interest in the very thing I enjoyed doing; exploring these worlds and checking out what people have done. Having to keep my defensive equipment in top physical form (my armor and my axe) got annoying too, of how much money I’ve wasted getting them re-imped.
Could had taken the time to improve my Armor and Weaponsmithing skills, and did the imping myself. The reason I never did is how painful I’ve heard it was to do so. Likely still is. I really doubt this main core of Wurm would ever be made easier for casuals, as the game would likely die off.
Just Netflix and left click in menus for hours. Such a great life. ..Just not the life for me.

.
But.. I dunno. Next year would be five years since I last quit Wurm. If I was to come back for another five years (assuming I’ll even live that long), either I would end up being trapped in a deed that was once mine, or moved to Tap Dance. Either way I’d definitely feel bad. I had the perfect place for a deed in Cele, but I kept fucking with it.. kept getting bored with it, just like I was in the past.
Would take a miracle to bring me back this time. Not memories, but changes in Wurm’s core to make the grinding a lot more tolerable. So what if I finally got 70 in Blacksmithing? Woopy fucking do. I don’t have Mining high enough to support that with high quality lumps. Plus I couldn’t even imp my own damn carving knife, as the game sees it as
a “weapon” (which requires Blades Smithing).
HOW is something that’s only designed to shape wood, a WEAPON?! And you can fuck right off with the whole “LOLOL WOGIC” crap. I don’t want to hear it.

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‘Welcome back to VRChat.’– DJ’s daemons, I need longer cables, FavCat is pretty much dead, a good time with Novice

Posted on 07-13-2021 by Benie

What. a. day it was. A pretty crazy day. Having completed Horizon Zero Dawn a second time, I wanted to play VRChat to check out any new worlds that popped over the span of two months since I last played.
Found this rather interesting escape room called ‘Pop Escape!’. You’re supposed to be placed in a room where you must escape, but instead the entire instance is the escape room. ..Escape world? Guess you could call it that.
The first puzzle alone had me confused. Person lost the key to the staff room and the last known location is a room for kids. There’s four spots for blocks and you need to do something with them.
It was becoming past 5am for me and decided it was time to head to bed.

In the afternoon I hung out with DJ. He told me how he has people watching his back for any assholes that want to fuck with him. That’s good.
Getting close to dinnertime, he starts having issues with his IRL body. Trying to calm him down the best I can. Then he says it feels like someone stabbed him, and he starts acting really, really weird. He says a daemon is taking control of him. ..Apparently he’s into Satanism and the devil is now telling him to “murder”. This is really starting to concern me as I don’t know what to do about this. Dunno if this is another one of his personalities and he’ll be all “sorry for scaring you like that”, or him actually being possessed by the devil.
The 6pm alarm rang, and DJ was still acting very strange. I wanted to stay with him, but I also knew I had to eat.
So I chose “I had to eat” (as RL always comes first) and left him a message, hoping he’ll read it and understand I wanted to be there for him as much as I could. As I was warming up my food, I came back and saw this random person with him. I tried apologizing to DJ and he’s all “I scared you away”. No, not at all.
The person was telling him to burn essence candles or something like that to ward off the daemon. Heard my microwave buzzer beeping its head off telling me dinner’s ready. Told both of them I would be back on in an hour, and left VR.
…Sadly I didn’t make it back in time as DJ and the guy had left five minutes after I came back on (couldn’t be in full body at the time as they needed charging), but DJ did tell me after I went to bed last night the person did help him, but he feels weak and is sorry for “scaring me”. Again I told him he didn’t.

Next thing I did was go see why Lunar kept requesting invites to join me when I was with DJ. She never explained why, but I hung out with Sparky as he introduced me to a few of his friends (and his new BF). There was even a person from the Mystery Skulls discord here as well, so that’s cool. 🙂
Kovo later joined after I put a rather hilarious quote that Sparky said. Basically we were
in MEROOM, and you know those props in it. Sparky was smacking me with a riding crop. I grabbed it and smacked him with it instead, and he says “harder daddy!!”.. I pause for the longest time and tell him “I’m quoting that!”, and he’s all “NOO nonononono!!”
But I end up forgetting to do so as I was enjoying myself with Sparky’s really funny friends. Yet later as I was hanging with them, Sparky comes up to me and says “I don’t see the quote”.
Well thanks for reminding me Sparky! …Wow, you just dug your own grave there. Both Kovo and Nova immediately respond to it, and Sparky’s so. pissed. at me! HAHAHAHA!!
And that’s when Kovo popped in, and then he changed it where I felt a bit embarrassed. He’s all “well you are a bad dragon!”… WOW Kovo. Wow. Wanted to punch him from embarrassment as he kept chuckling, but it’s all good. 🙂
Hung with Sparky’s friends as Nova came on and showed Kovo the avatar she got. It’s one of these “mom protogens” I now see walking around. They’re really tall, and holy fuck their ass is BIG. Anyway, some of Sparky’s friends started heading to bed. That’s when I asked Kovo and Nova if they wanted to check out the escape world (so I could get help with it).
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They too were stumped at the first puzzle, but the solution is literally on the door. Can’t believe I didn’t see it before. The second one was kind of easy.
Near where the two assume is the last puzzle, I got D/C’d. Came back and was locked in the lobby, as late-joiners can’t join (even though they were the instance owner). That’s bullshit.

Something else that’s bullshit I discovered (not related to this), was noticing FavCat wasn’t organizing my avatars anymore. Huh.. I got the latest update of the auto updater. What gives? …Turns out the author of the mod went the same way emmVRC’s author went. They too caved to the VRChat devs, because of VRC+.
So it’s another dev trying to convince people “they need the money”, and also warning it’s not out of the realm of possibility more mods which try to work around VRC+, may
be ‘forced’ to stop working in favor of the devs. Claim to show the devs that modding isn’t all bad.
Personally, this is the wrong way to approach the issue. But this may be the only way to address it.
And…FUCK!! FavCat was one of my (if not THE) most valued useful mod(s) I’ve downloaded, due to this very need to keep my personal avatars organized in neat lists! Without it, I have to search now! I HATE THIS!!
There is some (but in my opinion VERY slim) hope over the horizon, with talks of a similar system of personal avatar lists (but for VRC+). …I would actually pay for this, and not look back. VRC+ (currently) has very few reasons it’s worth the money.
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If they add avatar lists…
Shut Up And Take My Money Futurama GIF - ShutUpAndTakeMyMoney Futurama Fry GIFs
Seriously. I’ve been too used to FavCat to do without. I don’t care about the avatar searching. I don’t care of the personal world lists, or personal friend lists. Personal avatar lists are what I’ve wanted for a very, very long time. Make it happen VRChat!! PLEASE!! I will forgive you for all the BS and questionable updates over the years.

Moving on, Kovo did an instance to the Room of The Rain and we hung out there. Nothing majorly exciting, just friends joining us from time to time. Then the two wanted to hop off.
I joined DragonRoy and hung out a bit with him, then saw Novice on and may or may not had lied that “a friend of mine wants me to see them”. He believed me, and I said how I would be back to see him when the other friend was done. ..That may or may not had been another lie. 😛
Sorry Roy, but sadly you don’t really hold a candle to Illunovice. In Novice’s home world, I asked him what he’s been doing and how he’s been surviving. One thing, he actually missed seeing me. That’s really sweet. 🙂
I explained the reason I left. Never mentioned DJ (wasn’t even on my mind), only what Kovo said about full body. He felt the same way I felt. Though Kovo isn’t exactly wrong, he shouldn’t really be focusing on something that doesn’t need to be focused on. Let people do what the hell they wanna do with their full body, you know?
I got mine where my avatar can closely do the pose I do IRL, without having to set up the stupid pose.
He actually got in full body and we laid together (both in full body). He even wanted to ERP. I mean hey, having full body does make it more realistic. And overall it was great to be with him again. 😉
I really missed him. And I’m glad he missed me.

He wants to be in a friends with benefits ‘relationship’ with me, and I gladly accepted. Just to be with Novice is all I really care about. 💛
Starting to get late for him and he wanted to go to bed IRL, but I convinced him to stay on an hour later. That’s when I got this picture above. I love pics like this, but getting the picture almost never happened, as my right controller decided to ‘commit die’ on me the moment I was moving my camera into position. Plus the charger cables for my trackers fell out.
Ok, seriously… first thing tomorrow: go to Amazon.com, buy longer Micro-USB male-to-male cables! I was able to test the compatibility earlier by plugging in the cable for my headphones into my waist tracker, and it fits perfectly. So these will work as well. They’ll be arriving by Friday. Very good. 🙂
Getting everything plugged back in and my controllers plugged in, I put my headset back on and got the picture.

Sometime after that, Novice says he really needs to get to bed and he hops off. Knowing I need to charge everything up, I hop off too.
And that’s what happened yesterday. What a great day I had. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better.
(Spoiler.. it was really, really really bad)

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Horizon Zero Dawn (Complete Edition) completed.. thoughts

Posted on 07-11-2021 by Benie

Didn’t think I’d ever be touching this game again, but I decided to get it during the Steam Summer Sale this year.
Seriously, how long has it been since I played this on my PS4? 3-4 years now. …WOW. Thought it would’ve been longer than that! That’s just nuts! So that means this PC port came out probably 3-5 months after when it was a PS4 exclusive?
Now this is the ‘Complete Edition’, including the latest bug fixes and the Frozen Wilds DLC. And I must say, the end of the DLC helps to (somewhat) answer some unanswered questions of the base game.

So, how does the game fair from the PS4 version? How’s the control mapping? How’s the graphics and the FPS?
Let’s say it shows the age of my GPU. When focused in another window and then going back to the game, the framerate tanks here and there as the game loads. There were also a few instances where apparently I was moving so fast the game threw me into the loading screen and then brought me back.
A few ‘hitches’ here and there when NPCs talk to Aloy. Just going to say the game wasn’t
as “buttery smooth” as it was on my PS4. Quite sad. However nothing major. All machine fights were pretty smooth with the occasional micro dips in framerate.
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Getting the game to run was a pain. First time I launched, the game appeared in my secondary monitor. And when telling it to appear in my primary, I suddenly had 1FPS that didn’t stop (even with restarting the game) until I had to Alt+Enter twice to force the game into Windowed mode. The only other issue was the lengthy 1-3 minute loading
screens (sometimes even when fast traveling).
Other than those issues, gameplay’s still as brutal as it was before. But remembering I beat on my PS4, I wasn’t about to use cheats to play it now. But remembering bits and pieces of the hell I went though (Corruptors, Deathbringers, Thunderjaws and Stormbirds always puts an “Oh man..” thought in my head).
The new machines in the Frozen Wilds… they’re even worse to fight. Can’t ‘cheese’ them. They have similar attacks to Ravengers, but do their lunge attacks a lot more frequently.
They’re very ‘jumpy’ and love charging head-on into you, giving you hardly any time to line up a shot. Even using the Ropecaster on them is risky, as the Frostclaws alone have managed to break out of my attempts to tie their ass down. They’re insane and can be seen as minibosses (IMO).
Stalkers are still annoying to fight, but I’ve learned a few Tearblast arrows gets rid of their main bullshit attacks (sniping and cloaking). At least it’s easy to know when Stalkers are around with the red proximity mines.

And well, that’s about it. Took about 4-5 days, but I beat it. I also completed (not 100% completed though) the DLC.
Spoilers are just below.

The Frozen Wilds spoilers

So this discusses the AI introduced into this DLC. Once known as ‘Spirit’, now officially known as ‘CYAN’. The wiki lists her as “Mini-GAIA” the fact she’s overseeing the Yellowstone caldera (to prevent the Supervolcano from erupting).
After Aloy ‘defeats’ the Daemon (aka HEPHAESTUS, another rogue subsystem of GAIA. The one that helped GAIA build the machines she needed to help get Earth’s atmosphere back to the way it was), CYAN answers some burning questions. And what she reveals is quite interesting.

Yellowstone National Park was shut down for this ‘Firebreak’ project, and a lot of crazy theories rose from it (one being how the government was creating mutated creatures).
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Ted Faro (infamously known for the ‘Faro Plaque’ that ended life on Earth) actually funded the Firebreak project. This was way before he created his ‘Peacekeepers’. He also helped reverse the very thing that affects us to this day– “catastrophic climate
change”. BIG OOF. :/
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HEPHAESTUS isn’t destroyed, infact it wasn’t even there to begin with. CYAN received a message. Being quite lonely, she assumed it was from “human survivors more advanced than the Banuk”. It had a trojan inside, that quickly took control of her before she could defend herself.
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CYAN assumes why HEPHAESTUS is “pissed”, is because its machines are hunted and killed. But to say “OK, then lets just stop hunting machines” isn’t going to change anything– the damage is already done. But the only way to fix this is repair GAIA.. a likely plot into Horizon Zero Dawn 2.
And that’s a ‘maybe’ all in itself. Some people theorize saving GAIA isn’t going to
stop HADES and HEPHAESTUS (and any other rogue subroutines out there), that restarting anew is the only way (which means wiping out everything all over again).
Maybe HADES is the ‘good guy’ here? Quite interesting.
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A speculation to the device found that’s part of a base game side quest, where Aloy discovers docile machines in a Banuk camp, could had been from the explosion
of GAIA trying to stop HADES.
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Aloy asks about the Metal Flowers. CYAN assumes they came from a scientist that worked on one of the subroutines for GAIA.
As for the poetry, CYAN assumes it came from its creator.

–
Before leaving, Sylens chirps in happy that you found all of this data for him (once again doing nothing as usual). He kindly reminds you that both HEPHAESTUS and HADES “both want you dead”.
He continues on saying “one day, we may have to stop it”. Like in the next game, huh? Then Aloy tries to bring dirt she discovered about Sylens (of working for a ‘Banuk Conclave’), which he tries to shut her up.
Huh.. what are you hiding, dude?

[collapse]

.
And that’s officially from me. I’m really curious on what will happen in the plot when the next game Horizon Zero Dawn 2: Forbidden West comes out on PC (probably sometime in 2023 or so).
Hopefully we’ll discover why it’s ‘forbidden’. Though I might do something fun and make
a Top Tier list for machine difficulty in the base game and the DLC. I’m pretty sure the new machines will be getting an ‘S’ ranking, while the Watcher might be getting the lowest.

Posted in Other, PC Game Reviews, PS4 | Comments Off on Horizon Zero Dawn (Complete Edition) completed.. thoughts

Fallout 76: Dazed and Confused, and also a bit annoyed

Posted on 06-13-2021 by Benie


This classic track from Led Zeppelin is how I feel about this game, where it has highs
yet (mostly) lows of struggling at this unforgiving game.
But, what the hell is even going on here? ..Why am I playing something so–so hated by fans of the series? Simply because of Kovo occasionally playing it with Nova and a few others. Just like Warframe, just like Destiny 2.
What Kovo told me, got my interest. That and boredom was setting in. Well, has been for a few weeks. It’s bad enough when I got full body yet I’m.. reminded of my health.
Enough about that though. So, how is Fallout 76 after all the work Bethesda has tried to do in order to make the game better (after all the lies and the “it just works” promise from Tod Howard)?
I really couldn’t tell you, to be perfectly honest; when I lost my ‘gamer’ status many years ago (possibly due to RL age). Really wanted to try out this game. But when the game finally went on sale in the form of being able to play it free for this weekend (started June 11th).. I wanted to back off on the idea. Still installed it, played it a bit. Customized my char.
…Didn’t want to leave my vault room. Decided to use the bed to sleep instead. And that’s when I noticed.. this.

Food and Thirst micromanagement. I’d turn this shit off if I could, but I cannot. Was thoroughly pissed at this. Bad enough I have to manage my carry weight. but having to also manage food/water?! What fucking kind of a game is this?? Uninstalled.
Kovo helped to clarify things, saying I don’t really need to worry about it. Felt I didn’t give the game enough of a chance and reinstalled, forced to recreate my char. Apparently you have to leave the vault to prevent this.
With Kovo now helping, I made my way out of the vault and set up a C.A.M.P. Kovo built a house for me near the once mighty Ohio River (still as muddy and dirty as it is now, but now with radiation). Looks pretty good, and I liked it. Can’t really remember everything else that happened, but we did run into one of Kovo’s old friends who gave me a sniper.

Overall… never have I played a game I desperately WANT it to win me over. But it seems to enjoy pushing my face into the dirt telling me to eat it and yelling “that’s all you’ll ever be!”
My biggest struggle has been simply, survival. Sure I have food, water, and housing (all thanks to Kovo though.. that I honestly don’t deserve any of it), but I don’t have a good enough weapon to defend myself with. I need something that its recoil isn’t insane. Not to mention the ‘stable’ 20FPS framerate doesn’t help with both my aim and my mood when I keep being swarmed.. trying to do my damn quests. Yeah, I can’t even do my starting quests.
This has lead to my friends helping me. Now normally you’d appreciate working with your friends, that it creates good bonds working as a team. But I– my brain is wired wrong. I see it as embarrassing having to be carried.. having to be protected. It feels disturbing as a soloer. The main reason why is, simply my fault. I have absolutely ZERO survival skills in Fallout games as I’m always using trainers to give myself infinite everything.
This is a kick in the head for me, and it reminds me that if I’m not ready for this BS.. I’m not going to be ready IRL either. That’s a very scary feeling incase a post-apocalyptic event like this were to happen.

Friends helped me to get some Power Armor (except it’s not a full set as that would be kind of too easy honestly). But the issue I’ve had since Fallout 4 is still there..

The HUD not fully fitting in the screen with a low resolution.
Not to mention still forcing me to use WASD when in Build mode. *facepalm* Yeah, that’s still a thing as well.

Again.. WHY am I playing this game, when it keeps kicking my ass?! Mainly, boredom. Just like blowing $1,500 on a new headset + trackers and not using them anymore as I feel there’s “no purpose”. It’s shiny and new, and now it’s not anymore.
Guess I keep hoping something good happens that gives me an advantage. I’ll even pay for this ‘Fallout 1st’ subscription service, as it gives me the ability to play on a private instance and has a junk storage thing with unlimited capacity. Plus, free Atoms.

Just, Bethesda… with all of this money, give me a chance to play my way! Ok? Don’t take my money and burn it! I want to enjoy this game with my friends, not be forced to say “I can’t handle this anymore” and feel looked down upon (even when they say “we understand”).
I just don’t feel it. I constantly feel judged, that I have no right to bitch as they deal with the same BS that I do (and they don’t bitch about it. They get it done). ..Why can’t I be like that?!

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Budget Cuts 2, a difficult/annoying spin-off game

Posted on 05-31-2021 by Benie

When I saw this game released, I assumed this would be a direct sequel that would start after the end of the game. So I tried to complete the original.. I cannot. Final boss is hard even with a walkthrough.
Let me just say, it does not. However it uses the physics and playstyle of the original game.
You start off in a train. The robots know about you from the original and have guards to protect the train (from you, as you’re ruining the lives of robots).
So no more of trying to keep yourself from literally being axed by robots taking over the jobs of humans, you’re robot enemy #1.
The first level alone is quite tricky. There is some level of hand holding (but nothing obtrusive), and the rest you need to figure out what to do on your own. And.. apparently there’s reports of a bomb on the train. Must be that rogue human’s doing. Damn humans!

Once you survive the first level, you get a new tool that’s exclusive to this game. A bow. Loading an arrow is quite tedious. You basically have to switch from the teleporter to the interaction tool, then hold down the button you currently have the bow equipped to, then grab an arrow and load it.
Firing the bow is even worse. It’s bad enough I have really bad hand eye coordination with the throwing knives (especially when I’m about to be shot at and I’m panicking throwing knives all over the fucking place like a badly calibrated machine gun), but now you gotta use a bow to reach distant enemies. I dunno what viewpoint I need to look through in order to not miss my shot. Plus the game doesn’t really tell you.
I could not save my fucking life if this was IRL, nomatter how hard I try. Luckily it isn’t. It’s only a simulation (that I suck at). lol

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A grim future for VRChat…? Or a stepping stone for peace between dev and player?

Posted on 05-20-2021 by Benie

So if you’ve been active in the emmVRC Network discord server, you likely know what has happened today. But if you’re like me who has been living under a rock until now, you’ll likely be madder than a wasp.
As most as you know, last month was a mass banning of VRChat modders. The moderation team flexing their muscle. In doing so, showed their ass to the world and they were forced to reverse course.
For a month, the VRChat team and modders have tried to work out a plan to allow these peaceful mods while also adhering to VRChat’s ToS… and it seems this is the outcome of those talks.
I expected a much better outcome than what I read in the emmVRC #announcements channel. So anyway, I saw this in the patch notes.

“you will need an active VRChat Plus subscription to add more favorites to your emmVRC List.”
Assumed the VRChat devs put a gun to the mod author’s head and said “if you want to stay alive, you will strip your unlimited avatar bullshit. I am TIRED of you circumventing around our idiotic limits! Cease and desist or further action will be taken!”
Instead (after reading the announcements) I had the truth of what happened; it was the mod author caving to VRChat. I didn’t think I’d ever see the day, and it only made me regret when BlueBio got me into modding.

Now before I continue, I need to make two things clear here.
1. The second (bolded) part is if you don’t have VRC+. You will still be able to keep what avatars you currently have favorited and can use them as long as you want (as long as the avatar author doesn’t delete an avatar you like of course).
2. This was never mentioned in the announcement, but emmVRC no longer blocks VRC+ ads, so you would need to use something like ‘VRCPlusPet’ to hide them.

Right then, in the announcement the mod author sees this as ‘letting VRChat grow’ and “they need your support to do so”. I never really did care about support, to just use the product when I need and for them to shut up about it. However those products aren’t like VRChat, which is quite a huge game for just hanging around infront of a mirror in full body.
In my opinion, if VRChat wants to grow so badly… then stop hating safe mod creators and actually work with them. Incorporate some of these very useful mods into the game that help with stability and security (for all users, not VRC+ people). They need to prove to us that they truly do care, by making an announcement wanting to work with
the VRCMG (short for VRChat Modding Group) discord server in the favor of the community (instead of greed).
The VRC+ money will flow after that awesome news.

…But I just don’t see that happening. Ever. They have their head so fucking up their ass they don’t see this would help them in the long term, or feel this is caving to mod
creators (and the community with 3/4ths of them brainwashed thinking all mods are evil).
Pisses me off. But guess what? …I’m still going to be using their platform. If I hated the game I would not be playing it at all. I hate the direction it’s going, and them having zero transparency with their community.
But all of my friends are here, and I can’t leave them. This isn’t like WoW. I actually do have friends I care for a lot. I also hate the fact Kovo can no longer join like he used to due to all the shit they’ve added.

..
So, might as well enjoy the ride while it lasts. One day either they’ll find a way to get me banned for using mods, or make the MelonLoader devs block access to their game.
Could happen tomorrow. Could happen next week. A month or two. A year or two. ..It’s unknown when it’ll happen, but it will happen. And there’s not a fucking thing anyone can do anything about.
If I get banned, it’ll be on me. It’s not the mod creator’s fault.
But when it does happen, hopefully by then a ray of light will shoot into the darkness. A portal will open up, showing a new homeworld with better control, security and stability.
ChilloutVR. Right now, it’s a seed. It needs time to germinate and blossom into a hopeful beautiful social game. Once it’s finally ready to blossom into the fabled ‘VRChat
killer’, maybe my friends will join it and then realize the VRChat team’s an ass for copying several of CVR’s ideas and acting like they created it first.
I said “hopeful” a lot. Well.. I PRAY this game will turn into the VRChat killer some of my friends have been saying and cause VRChat’s playerbase to shrivel up like a raisin. They need this to happen in order for them to WAKE THE FUCK UP!!

Posted in Other, PC, VR | Comments Off on A grim future for VRChat…? Or a stepping stone for peace between dev and player?

A debate of when (or if) to wait for full body

Posted on 05-16-2021 by Benie

Hello again! ✋ Bit of an interesting topic that I have, which I’m hoping you folks could possibly help me with.
As some of you know, I now have the Valve Index. Recently I had to set my play area to Standing only as I was getting tired of A: the direction the play area was facing (always facing away instead of toward my computer).
And B: adjusting my base stations was fucking up my headset’s central pivot point (it tilting to the left or the right instead of straight on).
That and I was losing tracking with my right controller. Turns out my TV’s rotation was fucking up the beam to base station B. I have to have it angled along the wall for the beam to not be blocked. And thankfully the mirror I have near this base station doesn’t seem to be causing issues (as I heard mirrors fuck up the beam).

With these issues hopefully no longer a concern, I’m still planning to get full body on my birth month. But hearing about ‘tracking 2.0’, ‘tracking 3.0’ etc etc has me concerned with the global electronic shortage going on that’s not just affecting gamers but the suppliers themselves.
Scared I’m going to “get screwed” if I don’t act now (even though I can’t really afford it the month since getting the Index. Gotta be an adult and cover bills/food first). Yet noone’s really told me if there would be a concern of this. Everyone I talked to is all “awesome! Awesome! Bet you’re hyped!” instead of “uhh.. if you’re going to get them, you better get them soon.”

So I ask you folks: do any of you know if there’s signals of concern about getting full body between now and August? Please let me know in the usual channels. Because a lot can happen in three months.
I’m really not sure which full body tracking kit I should get, but I (of course) want one that works well with the Index (and all other SteamVR-based VR headsets).

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When you just can’t wait for your birthday

Posted on 05-06-2021 by Benie


This probably doesn’t look legitimate to you. A crappy Photoshop. ..Well, if the Valve Index was a game that you can download, I wouldn’t be doing this.
Because I’ve legitimately bought the full VR kit today! YES! So excited! ..But also so nervous at the same time. Of course I felt this when I bought my first headset, fearing it isn’t going to work for my room and stuff like that. And now I’m going through it again but with extra steps (setting up the base stations and powering them on, drawing my playspace within SteamVR using a controller instead of a bulky headset, learning the new finger tracking/emote system in VRChat). All of that good stuff.
And if I like it enough (really hope I do as it’s literally the most expensive VR headset I ever purchased), I’m gonna go with full body. And best of all, I’ll already have the base stations. All I’ll need are the trackers.

I assume Steam will be sending me an email once my headset has been shipped to me. On their store page, estimated delivery is “4-8 business days”– a pale comparison to what it was a year ago, when it took people 4-8 months to receive their kit.
Anyway, that means it could arrive by next week, or the week after that. And to prepare for my move away from WMR, I’ve gone on Amazon and bought stands for the base stations (to arrive on the 12th). From what I see in this new room, I shouldn’t have any issues setting them (the stands) up.
Friends I talked to who convinced me to get the Index, tell me the v2 Base Stations (that the Index uses) require no link cable– they link to the headset wirelessly instead. So the only cable is the AC power cord.. and this alone is going to be an interesting challenge due to where the outlets are in this room.

But looking at several videos, it’s likely either I’m going to need a power strip or extension cord for one of them, and should be able to plug the other directly into the outlet my computer’s attached to. It’s also pretty cool (yet also in an odd way), that you have to actually assemble the AC adapter for both base stations. The reason they did it this way is the way everything’s being is packed into one box– headset, knuckles controllers, base stations, etc etc. Plus Valve is a clever company. They want to do things differently.

==========
That’s it for now. I’ll be posting pics when I get the box (and the unboxing that people have seen 50+ times).

Update: My Valve Index order has been shipped! But the day I get it.. I really wish they picked a better day. It’ll be the day… my father would’ve had his 69th birthday (if he was still alive).
May 11th. The stands haven’t been shipped yet, still waiting for a confirmation.

—
Update 2: It’s HERE! Got my stands too!
Finished assembling them. They were a pain in the ass, mainly connecting the rod to the stand. It has two plastic washers that go on both sides of the glass case. With only two hands, the nut it came with kept popping off. But using one washer, I was able to tighten it enough to my liking.
With those done, it was time for the main event. And the shipping box alone is adorable.

Along with the typical warning labels used by shippers, there’s Portal’ish ones and Valve Index ones. Nice, Valve. 🙂 Now if only you had a “no crowbar manic” as a reference to
no Half-Life 3. lol
And now.. *Legend of Zelda chest opening music plays*


..da na NA NAAAAAAA!!!! 😀
Didn’t think I’d ever get this. But, here it is. My very own Valve Index!

Checking out (and feeling) the parts;

The controllers feel very, very light in my hands.
–



The base station cables are quite long, so long I was able to plug this directly into the plug without needing to use an extension cable. Very happy about this.

And finally, the headset itself;


Though funny thing. As I was getting these pictures, I noticed the lenses were showing a picture. Putting on the headset, was a very uncomfortable to look at image of my desktop. Was trying to render it in the resolution of my monitors and.. wow, crosseye.
So note to self: unplug when not using.
EDITOR NOTE: This is no longer an issue after I set up my playspace. Can leave it plugged in no problem.

Setup phase, not as easy as most of these Index install videos show. They should all have a label on them that reads: ‘your results may vary’.
My setup (or I should say ‘pre-setup’) went like this. I had to update everything (likely firmware updates due to the dire warning of “irreversible damage to your headset”) if you so much as breath on it.
Well maybe it wasn’t that dire, but firmware updates can fuck up your day if they aren’t installed properly. There was also this issue where I had to plug in the controllers to my computer to get the firmware update, and Windows is like “DURR.. wut do I do with THIS?!”. A restart fixed it.
And what I could say being “mind blowing”.. the base stations receiving firmware updates while still connected to the stands. Possibly through wifi, but.. that’s the first time I’ve seen a firmware update being installed wirelessly. That was wild.

With that all done, it was time to setup my playspace. Aaaaaand.. I had this.

Excuse me. OFF?! They are not! Turns out the headset wasn’t fully seeing the base stations and had to be placed in the exact center of the room.

That’s more like it! And once again.. I drew my playspace poorly. Even with a controller I still screw up this. But at least I don’t think I have to worry about it shifting around on
me (unlike WMR).
But finally…

No ‘SteamVR Tutorial’ came up when clicking Next, as I ready have it installed. And then came the fun part (after dinner as it was nearly 6pm by the time I got done).
Tried out ‘Aperture Hand Lab’. Cute little demo that teaches you how to use the finger tracking, what a forever handshake is like (and something else, but I won’t reveal spoilers).
Was going to play Boneworks too, but decided to go right for VRChat.
The true fun part came with this… not able to move at all or use finger tracking. Turned out OVR Advanced Settings was causing it for some unknown reason and it had me quite concerned. I thought it could’ve been my old WMR bindings causing a conflict, but it wasn’t. Thankfully the issue seems to have fixed itself since I managed to re-learn how to to do the Playspace Mover side of it.
—
Two other issues plaque me. One fixed, one still unknown its reason. The first issue is something I’ve seen when playing VRChat that I just assumed was “lag” or “bad framerate”. But trying to hang out with friends and having this weird water-like texture pulling thing happen whenever someone moved in a mirror, started to get on my nerves.
Tried playing Boneworks, and it’s happening there too (though more subtle). So clearly it’s not just a VRChat issue, but an issue in SteamVR or the headset itself.

Asked in Reddit, while trying to think of possible troubleshooting steps I could take. The main one was update GPU drivers. Had to run AMD Cleanup Utility to safely remove the old drivers, due to the warning from the patch notes. How it “may delete AMD chipset driver folders” if you did a factory reset (and the installer wanted to).. uhh. That’s bad. Chipset drivers are for CPUs, and that would’ve fucked me over.
As my pessimistic side told myself– “watch this not fix it”. Sure enough, it didn’t. But at least I have the recommended, latest drivers for my GPU. Started playing around in SteamVR’s settings. Noticed ‘Motion Smoothing’ being an option. ..Huh. Sus!
Turned it off, problem FIXED! …Wow. Took me two hours, fearing it might be an issue with the headset itself or old hardware.

==
Second issue, not so easy. This has happened twice, where I launch SteamVR and all the sudden I get very odd choppy framerate in Windows. Yet my CPU, RAM, and GPU are behaving normally.
But so far, this issue hasn’t popped back up.

..
In conclusion, I’ve learned the following;
1. The headset has no built-in volume control. Could be a problem when it comes to Voicemeeter.
2. The headset’s cable is just as long as the extension cables I use for WMR, where I don’t need them. I even laid down in bed to see, and it’s.. it’s awesome. Less cables to deal with when I’m done with VR.
2a. Speaking of those extension cables, I can’t even use them anyway as during the firmware update, learned the headset has to be directly connected to the back of the computer.
3. The headset’s power adapter is the same size and shape the base stations use, so it perfectly fit in the last two outlets I had at my computer.
4. Noone’s really blown away about finger tracking anymore in VRChat. It has lost its newness to where some say “it wasn’t needed, it was all a ploy to sell the headset”.
5. I can charge the controllers while I play. Nice!
6. The headset has a button next to one of the mic holes that seems to only be used to pull up the SteamVR menu. Kind of pointless IMO.
7. The base stations work great. There’s still a few hiccups here and there, but nothing major. I can finally stand up, put my hands to my sides and pretend I’m in Desktop
mode (and not lose tracking). No longer “feel poor” anymore (especially with a $1,000 electronic brick on my face). 🙂
8. The Index has no built in auto shutoff feature. This is both nice and bad. Nice that I don’t have to do what I had to do for WMR, but bad as it could burn out the lenses.

I still want full body. 😀 But I’m going to force myself to wait ’till my birthday for that.
As for “HOLY COW BEST RESOLUTION!!”.. I honestly haven’t seen it? Looks and feels just like my Samsung Odyssey+ (but with ‘added features’). However I definitely haven’t really seen the screen door effect.
One thing I can say is (as I said above), I no longer “feel poor”. I feel like one of the big boys now who literally worked their ass off to get it (or has rich parents.. or in my case SSI that is now survivors benefits which kickstarted me into Indexville).

Posted in VR | Comments Off on When you just can’t wait for your birthday

The end of VRCSDK 2.0…? Not if we stand up.

Posted on 04-26-2021 by Benie

# of times I said “2.0 content creators” in this blog post: 5

Greetings! No this blog is not dead. I’ve been on hiatus for 4-5 months now and I’m back to hopefully get back to posting again. And what better thing to start posting with than more BS from the VRChat devs, huh?
Going by the title, you either fall in one of five categories.
1. “Ehh, 3.0 is better.” -This post is for you
2. “..Wait WHAT?! They’re going to DO WHAT?!” -This post is for you
3. “I upload avatars, but I’ve never heard of this.” -This post is for you
4. “I’m no content creator. Why would this apply to me?” -This post is for you
5. “I’m confused. What are you talking about?” -This post is not for you (but you’re welcome to read it anyway)

Simply put for the people who have probably never even heard of VRChat, since its launch back in late 2017, players were able to upload their own custom (or public) avatar, as well as worlds. I won’t give an explanation of my struggles uploading my first avatar, but the system has remained unchanged since. This era is called “2.0”, due to the fact it uses the same triggers and script system it’s currently using in SDK 2.0, since Unity 5.6 (the first Unity version I used).
Last year, changes were on the horizon in the form of ‘Udon’ and ‘Avatars 3.0’– the future of VRChat content creation. Avatars 3.0, feeling similar to 2.0 except for one major change; layers taking over a single Animator Override Controller. This system is quite powerful, giving more freedom of control to do more complicated stuff (such as having an actual custom sitting animation as an example). The problem is it’s very hard to learn compared to 2.0.
The documentation for 2.0 is literally everywhere on YouTube, from uploading your first custom avatar to setting up a basic toggle animation (for pulling a gun out or whatever you wish to do). You can even find documentation from 2018 relating to this.
3.0’s documentation.. not so much. Plus getting help from the VRChat Discord? Hah.. have fun waiting days for a response. This has gotten so bad that Kovo of all people taught me how to use it, as noone came to his aid.. he self taught himself.

Two weeks ago, VRChat released a dev stream explaining the reasoning behind all the hiccups with the game during multiple weekends in a row, claiming “your VRC+ money went to hiring new developers!” As much as I want to call BS.. I cannot as I have no proof.
As the stream was nearing its end, they talked about the future of VRChat. Unity 2019 will be the new Unity version we’ll be using. When, dunno. But likely early 2022.
What is concerning, is it seems they want to push players into using 3.0 and ditching 2.0. Now change is good for all of us, but it’s not for long term 2.0 users (like myself and several others). One major player is the horror master himself, OfficialSayon. His worlds use 2.0 scripting to provide scares and frights for anyone willing to join his many worlds. So if VRChat decides to say “you 2.0 content creators need to get with the times and update your work to 3.0!”, this will have disastrous consequences.. hell, 90% of VRChat’s content uses 2.0, including VRChat’s homeworld and Hub world.
This isn’t just an unwillingness to upgrade to 3.0, it’s like I said before– 2.0 is easier to learn.
Before I continue, let me make something clear: if they get rid of 2.0, worlds and avatars that use the system will NOT immediately die. But when another VRChat update comes around that could break something (and it’s your world and/or avatar(s)).. guess what? You can’t fix them!! Without 2.0 existing, there’s nothing you can do about it. Months if not years of effort, will be lost.

Sayon himself explained the issue to the VRChat devs in hopes to have any sort of backwards compatibility when the Unity 2019 upgrade releases.
And what was their response to it? They will let us know if there are any issues/problems with older content “that we don’t plan on addressing/fixing upon upgrade”.
That you don’t plan on addressing/fixing…? What does that tell you? Limited to no support to 2.0 content in the future, sounds like to me. They add on that “VRCSDK2 is ‘considered deprecated’ for creation.” The term ‘deprecated’ (in tech terms) simply means one thing has replaced another. But instead of getting rid of the original thing, they’ll keep it around with backwards compatibility. In VRChat’s case, it’s “unknown at this time”.
Feels like to me they’re saying “look.. if you don’t want your stuff to break, take this time to move to 3.0.” Not everyone can (and/or wants to).

So if you’re a loyal 2.0 content creator, I’d be very concerned for the future of your work.
But hope is not lost.. not yet. For friends of OfficialSayon have launched a special Discord server that will be used as a petition, in hopes VRChat will understand that they will be throwing 2.0 content creators under the bus if they continue this route.
But even if you’re not a content creator. Say you simply enjoy the Huggi Dungeon Series. If they remove 2.0 and something breaks one of Sayon’s worlds, he won’t be able to fix it.
How does this make you feel, knowing your favorite content creator is powerless to do anything (thanks to this)? Angry? Wanting to quit? I don’t blame you. That’s why this is just as important to you as it is to all 2.0 content creators.
But really, it’s up to you of how you see this. This may not even phase you, and you’d be willing to jump on the 3.0 bandwagon. By all means do it, there’s nothing stopping you.
However if you feel “this injustice will not go unpunished”, please consider clicking here to join the Discord community, and feel free to express your support for either your own work or the work of 2.0 content creators. Every message counts, as they hope to get 15,000 signatures. Maybe then VRChat will listen.
Or then again, maybe we’re forced to either go with 3.0 or move to ChilloutVR. Let’s hope that doesn’t come to fruition.

Posted in Other, PC, VR | Comments Off on The end of VRCSDK 2.0…? Not if we stand up.