we're all mad here

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[tirsden]

And now for something a little different. Been a while since I've built up a Fallout 4 settlement, and boy was it mildly confusing to relearn keybinds as I kept falling off the structure and reminding myself that this isn't House Flipper 2. With all of Nuka World's parks tidied up, it's high time Michael gives Far Harbor proper attention. As such, we have settled into a solid foothold at Longfellow's Cabin. The general idea behind this build is that the cabin was built smack in the middle of a very old fort's ruins, where only two towers and a smidgen of walls remain. Eventually Michael came along and built all the rest on top of everything.

Let's have a closer look at the towers and outer gangways, along with the repairs done to the back shed which now holds the generator, plus a bunch of crafting stuff on the roof:

Next we've got the original cabin, which has become a good spot to make porch-donuts and buy weapons from the ghoul vendor lady who has spent so much of her charming disposition on her outfit that she's got none left for conversation. It's a little dark in here, but I plan to put in a bunch of Children of Atom lighting once I get that unlocked.

And finally, we have a tour though the upward addition to the cabin, with a more modern flare to its architecture and the essential carrot garden of "yes, this is survival difficulty, make me my noms!" Also, ammo production, because gods do we go through a lot of it with Bookworm's sneaky VATS shotgun build.

Splendid! But, we couldn't quite roam out into the fog just yet, because I've had a certain outfit in my inventory for some 200 hours... and thus we had a much-belated detour into Shroud-nanigans!

[tirsden]

This isn't how I expected to quit.

The writing for Wuthering Waves has been hit or miss since... gladiator island, really. The game lost its vibe there, real... real bad. But I gave it a chance. I gave it a lot of chances... through 5-stars I can't pull because their animations are massive motion sickness triggers... story patches that are way too long and "events" that force you to play new map content during the fresh patch phase... and a few characters the devs expected us all to like (I guess?) that I wanted to drop-kick instead because they're just toxic narcissists.

In the end, it is motion sickness that has drawn the line in the sand, but for a whole different reason... and it took me a while to figure out what the heck was going on. I tried, in 10-20 minute intervals, to do the new story quest (Mengzhou / Xuanfang Hold) over several days. Couldn't figure out why I was getting sick... it was happening during cutscenes, running around, everything. Anything. I even wondered if it was somehow the music, which has a different vibe for this patch. Maybe my long-covid was having a flare-up, and I was seeing a pattern when it was actually pure coincidence? But I could still play other games...

Today I finally pushed through the rest of the new story in three and a half hours only to end up really sick. But I'd figured out why. The new map area's environment detail level is way too high, and everything moves. Every plant, tree trunk, leaf, the stuff falling out of the sky, blowing across the screen, blowing into the camera. The fog, the heckin' air currents are all animated and moving constantly in a discordant chaos of endless triggers.

Surfaces aren't safe either. Shadows move, and way too many surfaces are extremely reflective. The reflections move. Double whammy if there are shadows on the reflective surfaces. I've been begging the devs for ages in surveys to stop making 5-star characters pull the camera around like a hummingbird on crack, and well... it seems they want to make the literal environment attack people like me too.

So fuck it. I'm done. Been playing loyally since the very early days and I really, really wanted to pull Scar... but I've also been terrified he'll be just another "nope" like so many of the other 5-stars. I guess now it doesn't matter. Maybe I'll keep an eye out for his banner, assuming he gets one at some point... and pull him with my big stash of unspent wishes because I can't pull Luuk or Qiuyuan or Hiyuki or Mornye or... and well... because it doesn't matter anymore. It's not like I can actually play the game. The graphics overhaul is affecting old content too, and even if it's not as bad there (yet), the devs have clearly decided where they're going with this game. Turning the graphics down doesn't help either, and yes, motion blur is off. As always.

Ironic that this happens not long after my main Mortefi got kicked out of my everyday team because Rebecca is a better sub-DPS. Maybe he knew it was time to go. He was the reason I stayed in the game to begin with, pulling carefully on Jiyan's debut banner purely to get pyro pistols Baizhu. Let's... just head out, mister science man. There's nothing left for us here.

[tirsden]

We're back at the House Flipper 2 gold-star attempt aimed at Ramona Spruce using the "Very Merry House" property minus the actual house. The project has passed through the window-placement stage into texturing, where one of the Sakura DLC patterns has firmly cemented itself into the new home's vibe. The inside of the princess tower stairwell is done, as well as the outside of the house in general. As for the rest... uh, mistakes may have been made in the halls...

...but we're going with the "double down" rule which has become a really good way to stretch my design sensibilities.

The master bedroom has the orange wallpaper, bathrooms are all done in the same vibe as the master bath, the kids' rooms all have the same light pink wallpaper (including the princess tower room), and the downstairs walls are done except for the kitchen and garage where I haven't decided what's going on 'em yet. Floor and ceiling treatments are also mostly missing at the moment.

Caught a pretty sunset from the tower roof earlier:

[tirsden]

Just a little Fallout 4 Nuka World, survival difficulty.

A'ight Hancock, let's haul all these weapons to the Overboss chest so our settlers don't pocket them... and pick another park section to clean up.

[tirsden]

My main base Jak is overdue for an update post, considering I put all the windows in not long after the original structure rework post some time ago. There are a few more bits and bobs around the interior, and a ton more lockers full of goodies (only some of which are pictured). The moon pool also has a collection of the advanced machines, though the vehicle goodies have been moved...

...to Morgan, the brand new auxiliary base next door:

Something about the vehicle constructor whining about the size of the moon pool when I wanted to make the tadpole scout chassis. So when in doubt... overkill! It's not very pretty, but it does the job. Here's Ashen with his adorable lil' wings...

...and he is now parked all the way out at Mei Ling base for some heavy-duty exploring.

[tirsden]

Turning a small, quiet mini-base... into my second major base:

Welcome to Mei Ling, perched over what turned out to be a relatively important area about 1800m from my main base Jak. I had kept a bunch of stuff here for a major deep base I expected to put at thermal vents... but after looking around for quite a while, I haven't found vents near any of the spots where I'd like to plunk down a base. Well, since Mei is up near the surface, there's plenty of power to be had via solar panels so I built her out instead.

She's got a moon pool with a dock for the tadpole that I, uh, never use... some of the more complex machines, and a convenient respawn bed since I've found all kinds of fun ways to die in the local neighborhood.

Mei Ling could be bigger, but Jak holds a ridiculous amount of storage and for now, this'll do. I should probably attempt to upgrade the tadpole and bring it out here so I can boop around the depths a bit easier.

Oh hey, we have visitors! :D

[tirsden]

Bella Ciao is available for download at mod.io: clickie!

Success! Bella Bianchi gold starred immediately at auction, buying herself what used to be the "Small theater" property in House Flipper 2. The project went from organic floorplan growth to textures-R-Us to finalized in about four solid sessions. Really happy with this one myself, and I even fixed the unreachable alley side of the house in sandbox mode, which just required a little paint and the white metal trim I used all over the place.

Uh... my brain's pretty dead today, so let's wander in the front door and check out the kitchen, living room, huge-ass garage, and finish the first-floor tour with the dining room and its multiple choices of lighting (pink, white which isn't shown, and oversaturated everything-turned-on) since it's by the stairs up.

Speaking of stairs, let's boop on up 'em now and look around the second floor. The master bedroom in pink is on the immediate right-hand side of the hallway pic, the yellow room is the next door down, and the light red room is across the hall from yellow. The bathroom is the final door on the left and balcony patio access is the last door on the right. The roof can be accessed via the drop-down ladder at the beginning of the hall.

I made the bedrooms reflect one of each major color segment of Bella's mood board, since her wiki page says she wants three bedrooms. Her two major complaints during the auction were too much old-fashioned furniture (guessing that's the Cozy Rosie brand rugs which I wondered about during the build) and that the walk-in closet was too small. She mentioned nothing about the number of bedrooms so we'll take that as a win. A very decent-paying win:

[tirsden]

Been wanting to work with a new, small beach house and decided to yoink a copy of the "Flooded summer house" because I thought, hey, that back section could get an addition to it... with a little enclosed courtyard of sand... wonder what that would look like... doot doot doot build build build... hmm. Interesting. Sadly, it's gonna take sandbox mode after the auction to show off the structure properly because it's backed up so close to the property edge.

So yes, we have everything cleaned up, kept some of the original textures but changed the main siding and roof color. I'm doing a floor plan challenge with the parts of the house that aren't affected by the addition.

I really like the kitchen, which is good because I'm using indigo as a challenge color since it's a set of shades that kinda flummox me in this game. The office (second pic) has some indigo going on too, using some of the original tile since that was the flood-damaged kitchen before I changed things up. The dining room is the other pic and... uhh... not sure it's working but I'm going with the "double down" rule there.

The whole thing is going to be a homeless shelter, with 5 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. I have no planned buyer for this and am keeping it that way, so the ol' creative juices can smoosh around in my brain at will.

[tirsden]

A little Subnautica 2 early-access this morning, with two new small bases and a mini stop-over adding to the safe spot roster. Firstly we have Karl in the hot biome, followed by Cato out near the ruins with his stop-over Jakande a little further out where there's a good farming location plus a [spoiler] I need to deal with later... mostly cuz I couldn't get it to work and don't remember if I'm missing something obvious since I already did one of those a while ago. The new bases aren't anything special as far as design goes, though Cato is a bit more beefed up internally with a battery charger, NOA console, and gear upgrade thingy.

[tirsden]

More work on Bella's hopefully-gold-star build using the "Small theater" property minus the actual theater. Textures are officially done, though the flooring for the dining room and living room (yellow wallpaper) isn't shown in the screenshots; it's the same concept as the kitchen floor. I wasn't sold on the gold bar counter at first, but by the time I put everything else in and recolored all the goodies, I'm liking it.

Update: Done!

[tirsden]

Start another massive gold-star attempt with so many other open projects in House Flipper 2? But of course. This time, we're building on the lot that used to hold the "Very Merry House," with sights set on Ramona Spruce. I decided her six-year-old daughter gets a princess tower, which almost hits max build height. Will it make her younger sisters horrifically jealous? I mean... in the end, I'm really more making the tower for myself but y'know... momma Ramona will prolly end up claiming it anyways. XD

As for floor plans, the first floor has the garage, living room, kitchen, dining room by the stairwell, and a half-bath plus laundry area off the kitchen:

That big dark shadow is a large flat roof I put in early-on to hold all the snow that settles by default on the tallest surfaces inside the fence-line. More on that later.

Second floor has the master bedroom with ensuite bathroom, two bedrooms for the younger siblings, two more bathrooms, a decent-sized patio, and the stairwell up to the tower:

The front walkway, driveway, and back porch area all have convenient marking plants to show where the edges of things are... and then I realized I could just snow-blow the textured areas clear after I deleted the temporary roof. Here's what the actual house's roof looks like without snow on it (copper trim doesn't show up very well even in these shots), plus a couple pics of the simple porch/walkway stuff:

Yep. Plant lady house in progress, with a dire need for windows next. The remaining catwalks around the edges of the house and tower will come down later, and I'll probably have to remove a little more snow at that point but I want the grass to keep as much of it as possible.

Oh, and the tower is officially haunted now:

[tirsden]

Yet another new project, this one in the former location of the "Small theater" as an attempt to gold-star Bella Bianchi. The structure has formed somewhat organically, as I had a vague idea of doing the split second level early on. Later, I realized I'd completely forgotten to put in a bathroom, so that got added to the second level (on the right as seen in the first pic). Then later again, "Ah crap... I forgot her walk-in closet! Argh!" As such, the main bedroom got itself a decent-sized closet built out to the railing (left side of the first pic). So if it looks like this was some brilliant shape planned from before the first brick hit mortar, it very much wasn't. Don't tell Bella. XD

Update: Done!

[tirsden]

S'more work on the Hanada family gold-star-attempt build using the "Ramen shop" property minus the ramen shop. This puppy has sat for a while cuz it's hitting eyebleed territory and well, today made that worse lol. The outside? Hmm... "I call this 'sailor uniform meets swimming pool.' It's all the rage now in home design. Trust me."

The bathrooms are mostly done, the play room has no furniture, the child's room is passable for a low-clutter environment and the nursery (not shown) has a few pieces of furniture. The master bedroom (green/black wallpaper) plus both guest rooms have the basics, though one of the latter is definitely further ahead on looking done. Texturing is ongoing for the hallways / stairwell areas, and the kitchen is, uhh:

[tirsden]

Shenanigans progress in Paralives, where drow mercenary turned gym trainer has her house all neat and tidy now. She joined the free yoga session at one point while I was trying to figure out the whole group activity concept, and then she ended up getting married to townie Juliette because things happened. I totally forgot during character creation that height is adjustable, so Tirs was way too tall until I fixed her post-marriage. She also finished up the first Breadwinner life goal, then locked in the second version of that goal before I decided to put the twosome in NPC mode and roll out another OC.

Aster the exceedingly femme gay albino struts onto the scene, making a notable amount of money in a short time compared to Tirsden's session(s), purely by painting. It was a broken way to make dough in the Sims, and it's proved broken in Paralives too. He also made a point of befriending Tirsden and her waifu. Dance party, whoo! We don't talk about how much of a fight it was to get his house put together without stairs clipping weirdly into upstairs walls, or ceilings vanishing, or... right. We don't talk about that. Or we won't shut up about it.

Lastly, I decided to throw a few more OCs into the mix, with Dante going pretty much immediately into NPC mode after I parked him in one of the cheapest pre-built places. Cato Jakande, Mei Ling, and lil' Shane also moved into a pre-built apartment and changed furnishings up a bit plus added a second small bathroom.

Mei became a cook because I kept seeing a growing signing bonus in the newspaper while playing Aster, and Cato did a bunch of work on his fitness skill and finally got a job that ended up not starting for like five days. Thanks to the daily story cards, he's snagged a few job upgrades before even setting foot at work... and then I got annoyed that Shane's grades just keep dropping no matter what I did, a rare prompt to do homework vanished from the computer the one time it was offered, and... well, it was time to change genres and punch some faces in Cyberpunk 2077 with Wednesday.

[tirsden]

Poe's Paradise is available for download at mod.io: clickie!

Knocking out another gold-star buyer build with this cozy cottage for Abby Poe. Her only complaint was that the kitchen was slightly too big. I'm not sure if that's from the square footage or the fact that it has eat-in dining. Hmm. Regardless, gold star is gold and that's what counts.

I kept the outer house shape of the "Charming Hideaway" property, though I changed the porch a little, so it doesn't count as a shell challenge. The floor heights inside are the same, but the floor plan is completely different. Let's head on inside and check out the living room and "too big" kitchen, where we will be blasted with Abby's retro-meets-cottagecore pastel smashfest of a moodboard.

Oh yeah. It's flowery funky something all up in here. And now we're heading downstairs, where Abby's wish for two separate offices has come true. First we arrive at the tiny landing hallway, where the door to the "charming" old-fashioned office is directly to our left, and the "cool" retro office door is closest to the bookcase.

Do we have enough fireplaces yet? No, not quite. The last one is all the way upstairs, keeping the bedroom warm while the bathroom fills out the last corner of the second floor.

I'm a fan of pastels myself but I think I'm pastelled-out pretty hard for a while after this. It doesn't help that I stayed relatively strict on Abby's mood board preferences, and didn't embellish with other shades of the pastel rainbow like I could have. Ah well, a virtual buyer is virtually happy.

Meanwhile, the whole reason there are soooo many fireplaces for such a tiny house is that I realized the chimney in the original build was nowhere near centered on the part sticking out of the roof. So I redid the entire chimney shaft based entirely off the roof segment, then went nuts adding fireplaces into rooms once the floor plan was in.

All of the fireplaces are on their own switches, and since they're the fancy gas kind, they theoretically have enough venting with the chimney system as-is if it were a real-world house. Not an expert on that myself... and while there aren't any fire extinguishers visible, there are several of them hidden around the house just in case of virtual oopsies.

A'ight, that'll be it for Abby. What did she give us for her little slice of charming-cool heaven?

[tirsden]

One of my bucket list items, emphatically checked off. This is lil' Shane, my original character first created for the Riddick universe long before I changed my legal name to hers. While I already have Shane as two different dolls plus a Nendo, I have wanted her as a Hero Forge tabletop mini ever since the company's debut over a decade ago. Considering the state of the world and my worsening medical conditions, I made the decision to just go for it. So here she is, safe at home in her fourth incarnation and all decked out in tiny bronze bad-assery. I used a halfling body to emulate a child, and my pictures just don't do her justice but we works with what we've gots.

Here's the preview images from the site which help see the detail better, though the grey preview is more detailed than the actual mini:

[tirsden]

When you finally find a game that lets you do really dark skin.

I finally dove into Paralives early access, and decided to start with ye olde drow mercenary Tirsden who is pretty much just like, "Oh, this again? Homeless challenge, right?" Actually, no, I'm not sure early access can handle that. Except I remember CallMeKevin just walking into vacant properties and using the stuff in the houses... hmm. Anyways. This time we're starting with an actual house.

And boy, was last night an exercise in frustration as building on uneven ground is a huge pain in the tush. Weirdly enough, it works better today... after battling with the foundation concept again and then somehow managing to get a first floor without having to use a foundation or raising the terrain to meet the bottom of the house (a trick I found via search before bed and had intended to try today but didn't end up with the slightly-floating house situation from last night).

So now I have something that actually looks like a house, albeit made of drywall and missing windows but dailies ain't gonna do themselves and I'll mess around with this again later.