Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1496755-20171111143841/@comment-3547390-20180813190703

That is a potential possibility; I couldn't have assumed that I would get into gothic like I have. It brought back a lot of hope for metal, since up to that point I felt like true metal was not really that exciting outside of Metallica. Games-wise, yes, replaying really helps a lot when it comes to content. Knowing how I am, I could probably happily live off cycling between Thief, Quake, and Unreal. Plus right now I have hope for Skyrim, especially since I have modded it to be even more unpredictable than Oblivion (Oblivion never had overpowered soldiers with axes suddenly barging into the starting room and massacring my beginning character). If that doesn't sound ideal, note I am an insane masochist and have modded this game to be as brutal as a roguelike. I am determined to get the ultimate game.

I try new stuff, I just am at a slow pace, somewhat because I tend to stick with something for months and somewhat because recording/documenting means that I like to be in a certain mood.

"Have you tried X or Y". Oh, that is one thing that drives me up a wall. You are probably quite familiar with it, but I really hate being rushed, and one way to suddenly throw pressure on me is to recommend a bunch of games I should check out. Everyone loves telling me games I should check out, like I have all this time just to check out new games and expecting me to get through them in a short period of time. Just one more piece of evidence that everyone else is moving at an extremely fast pace in comparison to me, I just like meticulously going through things. I don't want or need recommendations, I got enough of a backlog with thousands of possible Quake mods to check out, plus various other games to eventually tackle. I ramble about what I am doing, but I don't try to impose on anyone what they should be checking out.

A prime suspect? I thought you talked to the individual in question and found out his motives.

Some could say your upraising is what got you into symphonic music. I am not even sure for myself, my upraising was country and rock, nobody even knows the stuff I listen to around me. Similar to Quake, it is an excavation project, though one where it feels like finding quality is quite the challenge. My experiences with classical music mostly come from talking to various individuals; I was part of a Discord server where it seemed like every person loved classical music and had that pretentious mindset that if you didn't like it or liked some other type of music, you were stunted as a human. It all felt so false, like it was done to make them seem smarter, since classical music apparently is listened to "by smarter people". Then they say "Einstein was stupid with most things", think about some subject to talk about, and claim they are a genius in a world that can't appreciate them. It is all so narcissistic and vain... and it all comes from listening to Ave Maria. After listening to Tarja sing it in about fifteen different ways, I can't stand it. And symphonic metal can be something similar. I was friends with someone obsessed with Epica; they were determined that band belonged in Carnegie Hall and that everyone else was not a true individualist because they were conforming to the group mindset of liking other music. Note Epica is one of the most popular symphonic metal bands, making that "individual in a world of bees" mindset because you listen to a metal band a bit flawed.

Oh, I was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was younger. I wanted to be a paleontologist, I read dinosaur books constantly, and knew a lot of random facts about various dinosaurs beyond the normal level. Most kids don't really care about Baryonyx, Suchomimus, or Giganotosaurus. Obviously I was a big fan of theropods. There are plenty of dinosaur games I played around that early 2000s era. I know I played a lot of Carnivores (and Carnivores 2, though I always preferred the atmosphere of the first game). Dinosaur Digs was another one, obviously I enjoyed remaking Jurassic Park. Speaking of Jurassic Park, I remember playing Dino Defender a lot as well. I also had [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_III:_Danger_Zone! Danger Zone], but that felt like more of a Multiplayer game and thus wasn't something I generally got interested in. On the more kids-oriented side, I had Dinosaur Adventure 3D. If you want obscure, there was also Dinosaur Predators, a 1996 puzzle game that nobody really has nostalgia for and even I can barely remember beyond the sprites. I believe this is also the earliest game I ever played, predating even stuff like Thief 2.

Oh, I remember rental services. I remember when my father would bring home some new movie for us to watch. It was really rare, we never really operated like a family unit.

That would be wonderful indeed, I look forward to getting on the server with you. If you wish, we can play a strict vanilla game, it is pretty easy to swap back to it without destroying the current version as it is essentially just a mod.

Not many people would have the patience to put up with it. They might look at bits and pieces, but it admittedly is quite the gauntlet. You can only take so many pipe bomb mods before it all feels like an episode of the Flintstones. The background just keeps repeating, endlessly, with slightly recycled plots. Once in a while you get something exciting and unique, but most of the time it can be draining. This is coming from someone who is a fan of Quake and thus willing to subject myself to all of this in the first place. It also depends on the size of the mod, some can be a simple pointless change that can be written up in a few lines, while others can require hours of documentation due to slightly different death messages and a bunch of weapon changes that just make you ridiculously overpowered (always overpowered, modding communities tend to like to nerf their games and make it easier for some reason).

Me, it all depends on the individual game. I can purchase games and have some physical copies stored in boxes in the attic, but I don't have a CD drive, so it isn't really ideal to use them and I am too lazy to get a CD drive on the computer, so I instead generally just download things as needed. This usually means resorting to piracy sadly, online releases are either DRM protected or are some recent release that would be difficult to downgrade. If no download exists (the problem with even downloading games online is that usually they assume people want the patched game and not the unpatched vanilla game, meaning I am a bit of an odd minority), the alternative is to use my work computer and just transfer the files to USB as described before. I should mention that life has gotten a lot easier now that I got dual 2TB M.2 slots, I pretty much am able to comfortably store a bunch of games on my computer without caring about space. At least until I get paranoid about space and start cutting down on them, resulting in a vicious cycle where I suddenly wish to use something again.

I entirely understand that mindset and like to do that as well. I guess you could say I like variety and mods are convenient as they allow that original game, which I know I like, to offer more content or just get rid of some annoyance when I feel like it. Quake for example is nice to add a few mods that just add a bit more interactivity into the world, something that was highly criticized in 1996 and I can agree with. On the other hand, documenting would always be done with a vanilla game and I am perfectly fine playing the vanilla game and enjoying it. I guess when it comes to mods, the mentality is that it is an expansion to what they already like, sort of like why people will play Armagon (and because of how it works, it is pretty much a mod and thus not the game "in it's vanilla format"). This is also why modern source ports and other said things exist. It just allows for variety for something that was good to begin with, allowing for more gameplay.

Note also that I get bugged by a lot of "updated" things because they break other things. Thief's patches have nerfed the game somewhat, for example. I would be less apt to complain and mostly just using the original patches due to my "exploring a certain year" mindset if the game was being made more hardcore. That is essentially what I want from my mods, an experience where either it adds some features that don't harm anything or makes the game harder. Both are essentially what I have been doing for the server, though admittedly it still is far from as "hardcore" as I would like it. Eventually I want a server just for the experienced veterans at QuakeWikia, intended not for Single Player but strategic cooperation of two or more players.

The main reason I don't play fancy modern mods for Quake is because I like my chronological exploration route as opposed to just playing what everyone considers to be the best. Note I am not really a fan of HD textures, they tend to blend horribly with the world and get rid of the original artstyle. But the thing preventing say Armagon is just because I want to limit myself to 1996 content at the moment with the goal of eventually creating a server entirely dedicated to the best gameplay you could get in 1996. As I go forward, I plan to do that for every year, but obviously my slow speed means I doubt I will make it to even 1997 for a long time.

Note that Skyrim is a bit of an exception, not the rule, however. I saw Skyrim hand-holding me with giant markers pointing me where to go and being told what to do. I couldn't believe how dumb it was treating me. So I essentially felt that the vanilla game would be too hand-holding and nerfed to enjoy it. Ergo, there was no original game to really experience, and instead I began my quest to fill this thing full of mods to the point that it is a brutal nightmare.

As for Oblivion, well the original game was feeling rather bland as well. I am not a big fan of the linear progression of just getting better and better resources while having things leveled with you. I rather be entirely surprised by having absolutely anything show up; I love randomization as it allows for a lot more replayability. Combining that with methods of having your resources permanently lost means that it became a lot more high risk/high reward. I could pick up the most overpowered weapon in the game, but it could get stolen from me and I need to steal a loaf of bread while fighting an army with my bare hands to prevent dying of starvation.

Roleplaying games need mods more in my opinion since a lot of it is based on your individual roleplay experience. Say I am sheltered from the rain in a shady inn, I expect to be attacked for my shiny plate of armor if I don't have a weapon on hand. Say I leave behind a cache of resources in the middle of the city, someone should take the stuff so I can't just return to it later on after completing my mission. A FPS game is more about the vanilla experience, as it is a game. RPGs are more of trying to play a certain character and giving the player choice, so mods feel like an extension to allow the game to offer the experience I want.

I think you have heard me rant in the past, I am quite lazy and would rather not have to use DOSBox if not for my nostalgia of Quake. One thing I celebrate in 1997 is moving mostly to GLQuake; I find it a bit of an inconvenience to have to switch my autoexec lines every time I want to load a different program. Plus I rather it be based on my physical hardware, especially since my hardware is really high-end and thus all bottlenecks are just because I am highly confined in DOSBox.

Yes indeed, the head throwing mod was definitely one of the big highlights lately. A bit more comedic than anything and not really useful for general gameplay since it really nerfs Zombies, but quite different :P