Introduction
Haven't been around much -- modding, modding, playing Starfield, and more modding. For those of you who have recently subscribed, welcome.
I was eagerly awaiting the Fallout 4 next gen update. We had made jokes on Discord that something was going to break, and I had held out hope that something wouldn't. One of the first things I noticed on the 25th of April was that I no longer had mods listed on Xbox. It was weird because no one else was complaining in the official Bethesda server. So I thought maybe I'd done something wrong or my internet had gone weird. Turns out that was not the case and something had gone wrong with the update. By the end of the day, the server was full of people with the issue and it continued until recently.
This just means it's time to rebuild the load order. I've been in the Creation Kit so much that I can't remember where I was on the old character anyway. Last playthrough was an Institute build. Seeing as this update also included Enclave freebies, I'm probably going to go with America Rising 2. (As an aside, if you ever have a chance to meet the mod author, they are really nice.) I'm having a lot of fun playing Starfield at the moment though and cannot wait until the Creation Kit comes out. I have a lot of mod ideas.
Starfield Modding
Speaking of, it looks like I probably no longer have access to my NexusMods account so to those who did download my Starfield mod, thank you, but I probably can no longer keep it up there. (It doesn't have many downloads, nor was I expecting any, but I take pride in my work just the same.) I got a new phone at Christmas and the authenticator app did not transfer properly before the person at the shop wiped the data from the old phone. I do not remember enabling 2FA on the NexusMods site.
Look, I play video games. I'm not a phone person. I use it to check Discord and text family. No one gave me any type of instructions about anything so had no idea what they were doing. I had issues at the first of the year when I realized I was locked out of my Bethesda account (they had it fixed within a day), but Nexus is a fan site with a tiny staff so I'm not expecting anything to be fixed.
Anyway, I'll be posting my Starfield mods to Bethesda.net and probably to AFKMods (if they're under the size limit), and hopefully, other websites will host Starfield mods too.
Starfield Beta
If you're playing Starfield on PC, the Beta is so far amazing. I cannot wait til it's polished and comes to Game Pass. It's got a lot of cool features, some of which I didn't realize were missing.
Highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already. Give Bethesda your feedback to further improve the game. I'm sure by the time the DLC comes out in the fall, the game will be different than what we started with last year.
Fallout 4 Modding Projects
Best Dog Ever
I have a ton of dog renamers to post. Those should not take long, but I am waiting for things to settle on the Bethesda website. If you're wanting one, please either use the contact form or join us on Discord. You can submit a request from the forms in Fallout FAQ channel. Just scroll through the threads.
Vault-Tec Home and Garden
I've been elbows deep in Skyrim and Starfield so haven't done much since the first of the year with the Vault-Tec Home and Garden mod. I posted a few of the new items to my ko-fi gallery since, at their time of creation, I hadn't enough to write about other than: I r ExCite to MaKe Modzzz.
I mean. I'm always excited to make mods. So that's hardly new.
This project is something of a dream project of mine. I've been wanting to play with a mod that has as many vault pieces as possible to build the ultimate vault that looks like my Vault Shelter vault. I adore the vaults, and I love playing Vault Shelter.
See? (yeah. It sucks. That was 8 years ago, sheesh.)
VTHG started life back in June of 2023 when I first started cleaning up a vault corner windows mod with open permissions. The corner windows mod needed some TLC to fix a number of snap issues, and I had to do a lot of learning on how to do that. Plus, there were some missing pieces, and it only included the cafeteria set vault room. None of the utility pieces were included.
There is also another open permission mod that has a ton of extra pieces. It also needed a bit of attention with a couple items. Between that one, the new vault windows expansion, and all-new textures I've made, Vault-Tec Home and Garden has nearly 30 new room types. I've also made new vendor booths that will feature new dialogue for whoever is assigned (yes. Even Danse after the ending of the game - without overwriting or messing up anything), and I've been slowly but surely splicing dialogue for those new stations.
VTHG will have quests where you can send your dwellers off on missions too, like the eyebots from the Automatron DLC or Vault Shelter. I yet haven't completed the design of the desk terminal though or completed the quests.
DAmanding (Xbox players know him as CrayonKit) has made some extra buildable pieces for VTHG, but we've not gotten together to merge them into this just yet. They had a personal catastrophe at the first of the year and lost their life partner so I've not disturbed them about it. It isn't to the point where the merge is necessary anyway. It will get done when it gets done.
The file size will be rather large. The Vault-Tec DLC pieces have 16 textures on them (vanilla, not ones I've added). This increases the size of the mesh. They're between 150 and 300 KB and there are many of them. Before I realized that I'd made a mistake in the meshes, I had over 1000 pieces complete. I've had to re-do almost all of them because, well, I'm not a 3D artist. So. Yeah. There's that. (Having made a mistake and then having to redo 1000 models kinda sucked some of the fun out the making of it. It certainly slowed me down.)
I haven't taken a lot of pictures. I took some before I realized I'd broken things, but I'm not posting pics of borked models. The other stuff that's been going on is navmeshing, quest creation, splicing dialogue, writing dialogue from the spliced stuff, and making recipes. It's mainly just data entry. So from a player's perspective, pretty boring to post about. Here's some boring pics that don't really tell you anything though.
The atrium colors should be different from any other mod out there. (Should.) The "reactor" pieces are made to blend in with sirballin's Vault Rooms, but the utility signage is added to the back of the mesh, and I've created some red and blue extra bits textures. It should also roughly blend with the "reactor" pieces from Settlement Object Expansion Pack. The red bolts and red along the side are all-new textures made specifically for VTHG to set it apart from other mods.
I am excited about finishing it, but it's taking longer than I thought it would. Kitbashing models is fun but tedious, and I had not expected to break nearly 1000 models. (I had duplicated one of the ones from the modders' resource mods thinking it was ok, and it was most definitely not.) I also had not expected to have to do so much dialogue editing, and I'm not that great at it. It won't be released until it's completely finished and I'm satisfied with it though.
I want players to build a cigar lounge and found some very nice Creative Commons 4.0 Victorian models on Sketchfab that I've converted to Fallout 4 meshes. So yeah. Excited to be working on it and excited to talk about it. Just don't really have any cool pics of what I've been working on yet.
Skyrim Modding
Never ask me to name your children. I mean, I will. But you won't necessarily like it.
I released two Skyrim mods last year: Hefsten Special-Spork's Adventures in Basket Weaving and Soups, Teas, and Poisons - A Confectionery of Concoctions.
HSSA is simply updating the wall baskets in Elianora's Creation Club homes to ones more colorful. I made it for my husband to entice him to play Skyrim. (It didn't work. Every year I try, and he's like, "meh.")
Soups, Teas, and Poisons uses the new script resources provided by Skyrim's latest update to give PlayStation players a simple quest mod and some new poisoned fruits and vegetables. Poisoned apples weren't enough. So I poisoned everything.
It is still in WIP because I haven't gotten any feedback for it. No idea if PlayStation players can even access it. If you can download it, would you do me a solid and let me know if the quest is working for you or hell, is it any fun? It's available for all platforms, not just PlayStation. You'll find a chest full of goodies at the end of the quest which includes leveled enchanted Thalmor robes. (Why weren't those enchanted in the base game??)
Verified Creators Program
I've applied for the Skyrim Verified Creators Program. I am not currently making enough donations through this website or other places, so hopefully I'll get accepted and get a Skyrim creation or two sold. That way I can continue to maintain a community presence. We haven't had enough disposable income to renew my Photoshop and other subscriptions, and I need them to finish VTHG to complete the model conversion for new buildable objects.
Wish me luck!
Fallout 4 Load Orders
Are you looking for assistance with Fallout 4 Load Orders? Come join us on Discord!