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**Anvildude**

Boy do I have a mod for you!

My own mod, in fact. See, I know enough about the game and modding that my big issue isn't finding other people's mods to add, but rather that there's too much which I want to add to it.

So far, my most 'fleshed out' is a 'Crafting Overhaul' I've been putting together that fixes the corundum issue, adds in more options for Draugr weapons (primarily by making them Bronze instead of steel- with the change in quality that entails) and fiddling with a couple other things. But I've also used it to add in simple clubs (super-low damage, but you only need a single firewood to craft) and the like. I gotta get back into it, I think- add in a variety of other wooden weapons- maybe a 'shiv' for a dagger, a mallet, a maul, that sort of stuff. Still need to design and add a bronze warhammer for the Drauger, though...

**nels1031**

About 3/4th through a complete Pillars of Eternity playthrough.

I’d forgotten so much about the lore and my choices that when I got into PoE2 and it started quizzing me about my previous actions, or allowed a save game import for a Character I don’t even remember playing, I felt compelled to replay it so that its still fresh in my memory.

Story Mode for the win! Still get jacked up by the Adra Dragon...

**Wyrmalla**

Anvildude wrote:
Boy do I have a mod for you!

My own mod, in fact. See, I know enough about the game and modding that my big issue isn't finding other people's mods to add, but rather that there's too much which I want to add to it.

So far, my most 'fleshed out' is a 'Crafting Overhaul' I've been putting together that fixes the corundum issue, adds in more options for Draugr weapons (primarily by making them Bronze instead of steel- with the change in quality that entails) and fiddling with a couple other things. But I've also used it to add in simple clubs (super-low damage, but you only need a single firewood to craft) and the like. I gotta get back into it, I think- add in a variety of other wooden weapons- maybe a 'shiv' for a dagger, a mallet, a maul, that sort of stuff. Still need to design and add a bronze warhammer for the Drauger, though...

Oh, to be honest when playing a game like Skyrim I wind up downloading a load of modder's resources/ overhaul mods and stripping out all the models. Then I build my own levelled lists from there. Porting Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and merging it with some of the other otherhauls into the Shivering Isles was a time sink (someone released their a patch for OOO years later, but as with many modders, I didn't release mine). Checking conflicts for hours is no fun at all. What do you mean I'm running too many scripts? Fine let's Google search how to convert an .esp into a .esm/ . bsa. :(

**krodarklorr**

Still hacking away at Kingdom Hearts in preparation for the third one. I have beaten 1.5, Re:Chain of Memories, 2.5, and am on the last of the 3 stories for Birth by Sleep. Of course I also watched all of 358/2 Days cinematics before playing 2.5. Afterwards, on to 2.8!

Also playing Baldur's Gate on my phone while at work, and when on my PC I got back into Skyrim and finally beat the main storyline 7 years after starting my one and only save file. Thinking of starting fresh on Legendary difficulty. IF not, I'll be playing through KH2.5 on Critical Mode Level 1 to see how far I can get.

**ZergSmasher**

Started playing The Talos Principle. It's a fun puzzle game in a beautiful setting, and it raises some interesting philosophical questions as part of the narrative.

**Kroem**

Wyrmalla I agree on the modding front, we need more mods to add bog standard equipment rather than world ending hyper swords!

Sounds like others in this thread are quite ambitious with modding, my only experience is using a .pak file editor to remove realm divide from Shogun 2:TW.
I've never played an Elder Scrolls game though so maybe it is easier than I think :-p

I do love how many games are embracing modding now, Field of Glory II has a client within the game where I can just go an click the mod I want, and everything works without me needing to be a computer boffin!

**nels1031**

Well, my 2 year long self imposed embargo of Pillars of Eternity 2 news+rumors to avoid spoilers seems to have backfired spectacularly.

So I spent roughly a week and a half replaying Pillars of Eternity 1 and xpacs to squeeze all the content I could, completed all quests/bounties, always chose benevolent speech options and such. I had expected the game to import my choices, abilities/spells and such(ala its spiritual liege, Baldurs Gate 1+2). Didn’t think the items or money would make the trip over to the new game, so wasn’t worried about that.

Turns out your character starts over anyway. feth me. I could’ve been knee deep in the new game by now, instead I was elated last night to finally finish (literally right before making the jump, you know which one if you played PoE)Grieving Mother and Durances annoying pep talk quests that took forever to unlock.

I mean, I love PoE and kind of needed the lore refresher and I know I’ll love PoE2, but damn what a waste of time.

**Anvildude**

The reason you see so many Elder Scrolls and Fallout mods is that Bethsday basically released the programs they used to make the games,and said "Have fun".

**Kroem**

Yea I remember the G.E.C.K coming with Fallout 3.

it is a shame that Creative Assembly have moved away from being MoD friendly. You used to be able to rely on there being at least one LOTR mod for every total war game!

**Wyrmalla**

Mods are viewed in two ways by companies. Something to draw in new players to increase the longevity of a game's shelf life, or a thing which detracts from the sale of DLC. Its not uncommon for games to be release without modding tools, but a tonne of microtransactions. Why spend money on a microtransaction to give you loads of in game money when you could mod it in, etc?

With the last generation's fixation on this type of monetization modding became a bit more restrictive. Though at the same time we saw games including in game map editors, etc. However in those cases they weren't that robust, and microtransactions tended to still be present - thus not cutting into the company's revenue. The companies caring more about short term revenue of this monetization, than the long term sales of the game through a modding community. Why support the longevity of a game when that could mean reducing the sales of its sequel (we already have Farcry III, why do we need Farcry IV?).

Dedicated modding tools are great though. Games die without them. Of course with a dedicated enough following fans have made their own tools, but that's rare. With them there's all sorts of creativity, with modders having the potential to make whole new games (the Dark Mod for Quake comes to mind. Which turns it into a Thief style game). Bethesda's aware of this, and support their community by releasing their own tools (which begs the question that if they're just porting the tools, why don't other companies do this). At the same time they try and sell microtransactions. However, their series have had long term mod support. ...And their paid mods aren't very good.

DLC offer a quality of content generally above regular mods, so they're still viable. Mods which add say just a suit of armour, one which is already available for free and with more content, not so much. They had attempted to monetize modding, but did it very poorly. Modders generally produce their work as fans, without wanting money, though some income is still appreciated. That's what Bethesda tried to do, however what they sold as quality mods turned out to be just retextures and other junk unfortunately. Meanwhile we continue to see loads of quality free mods coming out on other platforms.

Its difficult to play certain titles without them. Bethesda games in particular. Though I suppose I view them like, well, roleplaying "modules". Download a quest mod, play it, then uninstall it once you've completed it and the like. Its difficult to play Skyrim for example without the Museum mod bringing back content one would expect from the series. Though even the good Elder Scrolls games like Morrowind would be shallow without hundreds of mods running (which on the subject of mod tools. The engine for that was seen as limiting for the larger mods, so they ported it to Unity. Now you can run all the new lands mods at once, or have multiplayer, etc). Playing games which don't support them feels a bit weird, as you sit there feeling annoyed at something, with the inability to change it, or wanting to keep playing the game outside of its main story.

**Anvildude**

I mean, Skyrim HAS had 3 successful DLCs, as well as re-releases of various kinds. And make note of what those mods were- Dawnguard, which added in entirely new mechanics and large, intricate questlines around those mechanics- new factions, new skill systems, new spell effects. New, mechanically unique weapons and enchantments in the form of the crossbows and the rune-slam enchantments.

Hearthfire, which added in not only new homes, but an entire new home CRAFTING system, as well as adoption and marriage options that weren't present before.

And Dragonborn, which added new Shouts, Solthsheim (an entire new island!) new characters, MORE new spells, etc. etc.

These are things that modders can make, with the tools available, but which are DIFFICULT to make WELL without access to the original development team.

Same with things like the VR port- that's something that can't really be easily modded in, but can be done with access to the original code systems and documentation a LOT easier.

That's what DLC ought to be, in comparison to Mods. Any and all games should allow for the creation of new items and the recombination of existing game mechanics, if only to allow for bug fixing or rebalancing. But DLC should straight up add to the game as a whole.

**A Town Called Malus**

I just completed my second playthrough of Alien Isolation (on Hard, as before). Grabbed the ID tags I was missing and also managed to get through without dying or killing any humans.

Only achievement I'm missing now is getting killed by the Alien 100 times

**krodarklorr**

So I just go to Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD and I have to say...

What the heck?

I was not expecting to sign up for Kingdom Hearts Neopets.

**Voss**

nels1031 wrote:
Well, my 2 year long self imposed embargo of Pillars of Eternity 2 news+rumors to avoid spoilers seems to have backfired spectacularly.

So I spent roughly a week and a half replaying Pillars of Eternity 1 and xpacs to squeeze all the content I could, completed all quests/bounties, always chose benevolent speech options and such. I had expected the game to import my choices, abilities/spells and such(ala its spiritual liege, Baldurs Gate 1+2). Didn’t think the items or money would make the trip over to the new game, so wasn’t worried about that.

Turns out your character starts over anyway. feth me. I could’ve been knee deep in the new game by now, instead I was elated last night to finally finish (literally right before making the jump, you know which one if you played PoE)Grieving Mother and Durances annoying pep talk quests that took forever to unlock.

I mean, I love PoE and kind of needed the lore refresher and I know I’ll love PoE2, but damn what a waste of time.

if it makes you feel better, Deadfire in its current state is also a waste of time. There are a lot of mechanics and companion interaction problems (and save import problems). You're better off waiting for the DLC and the numerous tinkering patches and seeing if the game is actually in a good start then. Currently I'd say its in a worse state than poe1 was on release.

Bugsidian strikes again, though many people are missing the problems because they aren't software related, so 'don't count'. Story and companion problems are worse than graphics glitches, I say.

**Crazyterran**

Stellaris and BB2. The new Stellaris expansion is really good from what ive seen, even id it killed my two save files.

**Kroem**

Fair point Anvildude, Skyrim has somehow managed to make room for mods and DLC.

I finished Darksiders 2 yesterday, the last act and the ending felt very rushed sadly but overall I really enjoyed the game and feel set up for the release of Darksiders 3 now!

I'm debating whether to go back and play the first one, maybe if I see it on sale I will.

**Paradigm**

On a whim, I decided to install KotOR 2 on my Xbox One to see how the Original Xbox Backwards Compatibility Thing worked... I am about 15 hours into it now, and struck by several things:

1) The backwards compatibility is (mostly) great. The games get a proper HD treatment, running at a really smooth frame rate and crisper than they've ever been (in other words, I can actually read the text now without squinting!

). Battlefront 2 fares even better here, that game is now so sharp and so slick, and the draw distance seems greatly increased as well, cross-map sniping is doable even on the biggest maps, which wasn't really the case on the original Xbox. I've had a few bugs, mostly reloading save files, but I'm not sure if that's unique to the BC version.

2) Damn, this game is good. I last played it when I was about 11, and I'm appreciating it so much more this time round. The graphics may not have aged well but the writing certainly does, this is Star Wars at its best and doing everything I love about The Last Jedi's take on The Force and the Jedi/Sith dichotomy way earlier. The combat and general mechanics are surprisingly nice too, especially since I'm now able to appreciate it's clear DnD-inspired roots (I think you could convert a lot of the game back to a PnP RPG with relative ease, I may well give it a shot at some point).

3) I have no idea how 11-year-old me ever completed this... I think it really must have been brute force and ignorance, because even a decade later I'm still finding some of the quests a little confusing to work through, and that's after actually understanding the mechanics... I did finish it the first time round, but I am more and more convinced that was sheer perseverance and luck.

I am genuinely surprised at how much I've got into this; there are far more recent games (of a similar type) that I find have aged far worse, and I'm enjoying this as much as any RPG I've played of the current generation. I'm sure the Star Wars name and a healthy dose of nostalgia helps, but still, when I booted it up I expected to immediately bounce off after an hour or so.

I shall also have to finally go back to KotOR 1 now, I never actually played that. While I know 'the twist', I know nothing else about the story/characters ect whereas with 2 I have at least hazy memories of how it all goes and can definitely recall the ending. It does all remind me that I'd pay a silly amount of money for a current-gen SW game in this style, but if that remains absent, it seems the shiny redux of the classic KotORs will more than suffice.

**KamikazeCanuck**

Wyrmalla wrote:
Fallout 1.5: Resurrection - a total conversion mod for Fallout 2.

Whilst searching the topic of total conversions I came across this charmer. A Czech mod translated into English which brings a whole new story to Fallout. Set in New Mexico between the first two games (before the Legion comes in and takes over years later), you play a wastelander who's lost their memory (did I mention you wake up in a cave full of mole rats? ...For reference, in the original Fallouts mole rats were the size of bears).

Its of a similar size to the original games, with plenty of quests. Now I would say that despite this I would have liked another couple of towns or more custom assets, but meh, mods (it did take them 10 years to make). Reviews had said that the English was bad, though I think that it must have had an update as I had no problem with it. I definitely prefer its tone compared to the newer games, where the default setting for every situation is "things have gone to hell", and its up to you to either improve things, or exploit them (most situations push you towards the later). Compared to 3 and 4's constant need to make you a goodie two shoes.

I would criticise the difficulty. Its not bad over time, though there's some situations which are too much. I can't see how you're supposed to complete the last location aggressively (rather than sneaking in). Enemies can crit you for 150 damage, or the sheer number of them doing 15-40 damage each would be enough to take out anyone. For reference I wound up cheating to give my character the best stats and armour to see how far you could make it, and they still died. Besides that, for anyone without the best equipment, Ghouls (one of the weakest enemies in the older games) are fairly tough. Two shots with an anti-material rifle with big guns maxed tough. ¬¬

Modders do love just making content hard, instead of carrying over the vanilla difficulty. Once you have a group of allies (hiring yourself out as a caravan guard is an essential way of making money) makes these encounters not as awful however.

Another issue was finding the higher tier weapons. Checking the game files there was a load of guns that I never found in the game (vendor loot respawns every day). The best weapons typically could be found in quests, though guns which would give you the edge before then in the harder content seemed lacking (I had an Assault rifle by the time I'd made it to the second major town. That was the highest tier small gun that I ever had drop - so I had to swap to big guns to remain viable in the end game).

Caps were a problem too. There was occasionally situations where vendors would offer an item through dialogue rather than their trading menu - meaning you had to give them the bare caps, instead of bartering. The problem being that you could have 10K worth of gear that you could trade, but the vendor only had 100 caps, so you couldn't purchase that 1K item they were offering (eventually I just gave myself 100K caps).

If you enjoyed the early games in the series I'd recommend this mod. It fits in with them game play wise quite well, with most large locations having a half dozen quests for each of the joinable factions in the area (typically 2-4). The tone's darker than the newer games, with many more opportunities for negative karma choices. "Wanna go abduct some tribals and harvest their organs? Hey, trade in that companion of your's and we'll give you a discount on your next transplant!"

Sounds interesting. I should go back and play those games.

**feeder**

Just go my hands on a SNES mini so I will be wallowing in nostalgia playing F-Zero and Starfox and many more.

**KamikazeCanuck**

Haven't posted in a while because I've been playing Civ 5 endlessly. Taking a break from that to try out Battlechasers Nightwar.

**Anvildude**

Yeah, I played Kotor2 first as well, and haven't gotten to playing KotorI.

Problem is, Kotor II wasn't 'finished'. The final boss and level weren't fully realized, and the story wasn't completed- they just sort of sewed together the bits they had. But what they had was brilliant.

I tried doing a Sith playthrough of KotorII once- wasn't able to do it. I just... I couldn't be evil enough.

**Low_K**

Multiplayer Ghost recon:Wildlands with my brother and a friend.

Single player Euro Truck Simulator 2. I have nothing with trucks and stuff, but that game is very enjoyable. Especially with mods.

**Paradigm**

Anvildude wrote:
Yeah, I played Kotor2 first as well, and haven't gotten to playing KotorI.

Problem is, Kotor II wasn't 'finished'. The final boss and level weren't fully realized, and the story wasn't completed- they just sort of sewed together the bits they had. But what they had was brilliant.
hy wou
I tried doing a Sith playthrough of KotorII once- wasn't able to do it. I just... I couldn't be evil enough.

Yeah, I do recall the ending being somewhat... abrupt. Abrupt to the extent of making the original ending to Mass Effect 3 look polished and fulfilling!

However, with games I tend to find the value much more in the journey than the resolution, and the game more than delivers there.

The trouble I have with playing an evil character in these kinds games is that they all rely on people coming together and following you, and I guess I don't see how that really works with an overtly evil (rather than grey antihero) protagonist. Why would Garrus follow a renegade Shepard? Why would Leliana in Dragon Age follow an evil Warden or Inquisitor? Same goes for KotOR, redeeming several cast members via the path of the Jedi is far more believable and interesting to me than corrupting them towards the Sith.

That said, the meta trouble is that I want my RPG protagonists to be likeable for the 30-odd hours I'll spend with them. I don't want to play a game that long where my character is hateable after the first hour, so I default to good guys most of the time.

**Anvildude**

And it wasn't even that. It was, like, I thought a certain option was the 'more EEEEVIL' one, and I get Paragon points from it! It was confusing.

**ZergSmasher**

I've gone back to Civilization: Beyond Earth for a little while now. Never actually played a whole game before; I always got distracted by something else at some point and when I decided to play again I started over because I forgot what I was working towards.

**A Town Called Malus**

Paradigm wrote:
. Why would Garrus follow a renegade Shepard?

Because renegade Shepard does what needs to be done and doesn't let red tape get in the way.

Garrus has a very strong personal view of what is right and wrong. He absolutely hates it when rules get in the way of what is, in his opinion, justice, especially when the rules don't actually help anyone (such as what happened with Saleon in the first game).

My first playthrough of the series was renegade all the way through ME1 and 2 and then paragade in ME3. None of the actions I took ever seemed like ones Garrus would, or indeed did, object to.

**Paradigm**

A Town Called Malus wrote:
Paradigm wrote:
. Why would Garrus follow a renegade Shepard?

Because renegade Shepard does what needs to be done and doesn't let red tape get in the way.

Garrus has a very strong personal view of what is right and wrong. He absolutely hates it when rules get in the way of what is, in his opinion, justice, especially when the rules don't actually help anyone (such as what happened with Saleon in the first game).

My first playthrough of the series was renegade all the way through ME1 and 2 and then paragade in ME3. None of the actions I took ever seemed like ones Garrus would, or indeed did, object to.

But then there's the stuff in ME3 like shooting Mordin to maintain the Genophage or siding with Legion and prompting Tali to commit suicide on Rannoch... ME2 Renegade is a no-nonsense badass, but ME3 Renegade is a monster that I can't see most of the crew willingly following, no matter their history prior to that. Doubly so for the likes of Tali who is consistently good and pure of heart throughout the series.

Maybe this is somewhat coloured by the fact that I always play Shep as the biggest of Big Damn Heroes, and the Renegade style is more nuanced than I give it credit for, but there are certain actions that I just can't rationalise certain characters going along with.

**Crazyterran**

I only ever hit renegade prompts - shooting the krogan, pushing the black sun guy out the window punching through the guy from the books sword. Any badass moments i hit, pretty much.

Pure paragon otherwise.

**Voss**

Paradigm wrote:
A Town Called Malus wrote:
Paradigm wrote:
. Why would Garrus follow a renegade Shepard?

Because renegade Shepard does what needs to be done and doesn't let red tape get in the way.

Garrus has a very strong personal view of what is right and wrong. He absolutely hates it when rules get in the way of what is, in his opinion, justice, especially when the rules don't actually help anyone (such as what happened with Saleon in the first game).

My first playthrough of the series was renegade all the way through ME1 and 2 and then paragade in ME3. None of the actions I took ever seemed like ones Garrus would, or indeed did, object to.

But then there's the stuff in ME3 like shooting Mordin to maintain the Genophage or siding with Legion and prompting Tali to commit suicide on Rannoch... ME2 Renegade is a no-nonsense badass, but ME3 Renegade is a monster that I can't see most of the crew willingly following, no matter their history prior to that. Doubly so for the likes of Tali who is consistently good and pure of heart throughout the series.

Maybe this is somewhat coloured by the fact that I always play Shep as the biggest of Big Damn Heroes, and the Renegade style is more nuanced than I give it credit for, but there are certain actions that I just can't rationalise certain characters going along with.

Eh. Considering the turian relationship with the krogan, I doubt Garrus would object to maintaining the Genophage. Tali's suicide was essentially random and you can talk her out of it with the right build, though it was motivated by her deep seated racism and not at all by a pure heart or whatever that is supposed to mean. She doesn't want to.live in a galaxy where the geth are accepted as people.

**A Town Called Malus**

Voss wrote:
Paradigm wrote:
A Town Called Malus wrote:
Paradigm wrote:
. Why would Garrus follow a renegade Shepard?

Because renegade Shepard does what needs to be done and doesn't let red tape get in the way.

Garrus has a very strong personal view of what is right and wrong. He absolutely hates it when rules get in the way of what is, in his opinion, justice, especially when the rules don't actually help anyone (such as what happened with Saleon in the first game).

My first playthrough of the series was renegade all the way through ME1 and 2 and then paragade in ME3. None of the actions I took ever seemed like ones Garrus would, or indeed did, object to.

But then there's the stuff in ME3 like shooting Mordin to maintain the Genophage or siding with Legion and prompting Tali to commit suicide on Rannoch... ME2 Renegade is a no-nonsense badass, but ME3 Renegade is a monster that I can't see most of the crew willingly following, no matter their history prior to that. Doubly so for the likes of Tali who is consistently good and pure of heart throughout the series.

Maybe this is somewhat coloured by the fact that I always play Shep as the biggest of Big Damn Heroes, and the Renegade style is more nuanced than I give it credit for, but there are certain actions that I just can't rationalise certain characters going along with.

Eh. Considering the turian relationship with the krogan, I doubt Garrus would object to maintaining the Genophage. Tali's suicide was essentially random and you can talk her out of it with the right build, though it was motivated by her deep seated racism and not at all by a pure heart or whatever that is supposed to mean. She doesn't want to.live in a galaxy where the geth are accepted as people.

Indeed. And it is possible to come out of Rannoch with both the Geth and Quarians if you shout at them hard enough.

And then consider that those choices are made in ME3, when the entire galaxy is burning and the cold calculus of war dominates every decision. Garrus doesn't mind if you save the Krogan (at least if Wrex and Eve are alive), but he would also understand perfectly if you don't, as the Salarians are potentially the more reliable and immediately useful allies (krogan have no warships, for example).