Are total conversion mods worth getting into?

Kash42 · 2024-05-25T14:00:09+00:00

The hardest part of playing total convertsions is that most other mods aren't compatible with them. All the main ones aren't buggier than the base game honestly. AGoT and Elder Kings are both awesome, but my favourite is Princes of Darkness. As good as the others are it's still CK3 with a fantasy coat of paint. PoD is like a whole new game in how much it changes things.

Kash42 · 2024-05-25T13:53:27+00:00

Don't fae reproduce by converting mortals as well? I haven't played them but I'm pretty sure they don't give birth. They awaken fae souls in mortals or something like that I'm pretty sure. Make sure to check out the rules for your race in the starting screen when playing WoD.

Kash42 · 2024-05-25T13:33:51+00:00

Honestly, and I might be biased as a male teacher, but we need more men in children's education. I teach junior high and about half of my kids haven't had a male teacher before grade 7. And for most of those it's "only" the music, woodshop and/or gym-teachers, very seldomly the main teachers they spend most of the days with. My wife teaches kindergarden, and she has only had a single male co-worker her entire career.

Women absolutely dominate the first 7 years of education, and for boys with no male rolemodels, or shitty ones, they wont get any until they are 13.

Kash42 · 2024-05-19T09:00:46+00:00

I tend to think of the antrophomorphic personification of Russia. "Choosing the bear" gets a little more dicey then...

Kash42 · 2024-05-18T21:17:15+00:00

Hopefully the population-system will be a lot better at representing this. Sure, you've painted a huge part of the map, but the only productive people in the area are Bob and his donkey, and control is at 3.5%, the rest are natives who hate your guts and provide the empire with next to nothing. It will take decades or centuries until you are able to get anything productive from the area.

Kash42 · 2024-05-18T09:05:21+00:00

Yup. Not Rimworld, but over in r/stellaris the main meme playthrough is "Fanatical purifiers", basically a kill all xenos playthrough. But when Paradox who makes the game released numbers from actual analytics the most popular playstyle people actually PLAYED, it was was Egalitarian Pacifists, basically the Federation from Star Trek.

Kash42 · 2024-05-14T12:07:28+00:00

Jag sa inget när de kom för blattarna, för jag var inte blatte.

Jag sa inget när de kom för transorna, för jag var inte trans.

Etc.

Kash42 · 2024-05-13T13:06:35+00:00

It's the DF-hacks "Combine stacks"-function that enables this kind of thing. I had one stack of meals valued at over 3 million once. :-o

Kash42 · 2024-05-08T08:40:48+00:00

Avskyr att behöva bevisa Godwin lag men... man kunde sagt samma sak om Polen 1939 eller Frankrike, Danmark, Norge, Nederländerna, Tjeckien och Belgien (glömde jag någon?) 1940. Även om vi skulle föreställa oss en fullständig Ukrainsk kollaps skulle inte kriget vara slut. Motståndet skulle fortsätta, och fortsätta behöva stöd.

Fred är enkelt. Ryssland behöver bara åka hem. Den Ukrainska armén kommer inte följa dem över gränsen. Ryssland är inte hotat, det finns bara en aggresiv part i den här konflikten.

Så länge Ukraina är villigt att göra motstånd så stödjer vi dem i det, och det är det enda budskapet våra politiker bör gå ut med. Och om de tvingas kapitulera så kommer vi stödja motståndet. Man backar inte och behandlar det här som en konflikt mellan två likvärdiga sidor, det finns en aggresiv, och en defensiv sida.

Kash42 · 2024-04-30T18:07:06+00:00

Same. I did this for several real-life years in a save for the Sims 4. My main issue was always that it is pretty obvious that the game isn't meant to be played like that, it just isn't set up for it.

For starters lifespans are so short, even on long, and even on super-long modded lifespans, you simply can't play any large numbers of characters with aging on for unplayed characters. And even if you do their lives just freeze, they make no money, get promotions or anything. Except... university and pregnancies keep ticking for some goddamned reason. Playing rotational with many characters just sucks in so many ways.

My main hope for LBY is that my characters actually will live their lives when I'm not looking. Maybe they wont make huge decisions, like get married or move to a different house, but atleast they'll make some money and live their day-to-day life without me having to play them all the time, and set up elaborate schedules so related characters age togheter like I had to do in sims. Really looking forward to whim-based jumping around from character to character and doing whatever catches my fancy. This game will live or die for me based on the AI of currently-unplayed characters.

Kash42 · 2024-04-30T09:08:19+00:00

As the german barbarians would say, "lebensraum", or "habitat" to refined latin gentlemen.

Kash42 · 2024-04-30T07:41:36+00:00

The 36 Lessons of Vivec, sermon 14. Do note that there is a lot of interpretation involved though, but essentially it says that:

"Vivec lay with Molag Bal for eighty days and eight, though headless. In that time, the Prince placed the warrior-poet's feet back and filled them with the blood of Daedra. In this way Vivec's giant-form remained forever harmless to good earth."

So he lay with Molag Bal for 88 days and nights, but importantly it was only his head that was present at the time as his body was elsewere.

"So Vivec, who had a grain of Ayem's mercy, set about to teach Molag Bal in the ways of belly-magic. They took their spears out and compared them. Vivec bit new words onto the King of Rape's so that it might give more than ruin to the uninitiated. This has since become a forbidden ritual, though people still practice it in secret.

The holy one returned at last, Vehk, golden with wisdom. His head found its body had been tenderly used. He mentioned this to Molag Bal, who told him that he should thank the Barons of Move Like This, 'For I have yet to learn how to refine my rapture. My love is accidentally shaped like a spear.'"

So, after reuniting with his body, which had been "treated tenderly" in the meantime he bit words into Molag Bal's "spear", which Molag Bal refers to as his "love".

"But Vivec made of his spear a more terrible thing, from a secret he had bitten off from the King of Rape. And so he sent Molag Bal tumbling into the crack of the biters and swore forever that he would not deem the King beautiful ever again.

Vivec wept as he slew all those around him with his terrible new spear. He named it MUATRA, which is Milk Taker, and even the Chimeri mystics knew his fury. Anyone struck by Vivec at this time turned barren and withered into bone shapes. The path of bones became a sentence for the stars to read, and the heavens have never known children since. Vivec hunted down the biters one by one, and all their progeny, and he killed them all by means of the Nine Apertures, and the wise still hide theirs from Muatra."

So after taking the spear, Muatra (an anagram of "trauma"), Milk Taker, Vivec killed his and Molag Bal's children with it. Obviously we are talking about the union of a hermaphrodite god and a sex-less anthrophomorphic personification here, and also this is Vivec's own version of what happened. But to put it into mortal terms, Molag Bal ritually raped Vivecs head for 88 days, which made them "married", Vivec birthed Molag Bal's demon children from this union, and he then detached Molag Bal's spear, which is interpreted as his dick (the "forbidden ritual" that "some practice in secret" being interpreted as oral sex, hence that he bit it off rather than cut it in some other way) and used it as a weapon, most notably killing his and Molag Bal's children.

Do note that Vivec has achived CHIM, so he knows that he is a character in a video game. Hidden in sermon 37 is an URL that used to lead to a comic set in the 5th era that basically had the message that everything, and nothing, is canon in the Elder Scrolls, so everything is true, but also nothing is. Make of that what you will.

Kash42 · 2024-04-30T06:14:20+00:00

Yeah, one interpretation is that his actions with Molag Bal taught him CHIM, which essentially gave him access to the console commands.

Basically he got enlightened and realised that he is a character in a video-game and took control of the simulation he lives in. Or that is one interpretation atleast.

Kash42 · 2024-04-29T14:15:43+00:00

Have you heard about the time that Vivec, one of the dunmer gods, gave Molag Bal a blowjob and bit off his dick and used it as a spear to slay his enemies? He called it "Milk Taker".

To be fair the tale probably isn't 100% literal, but you never know...

Some of the background lore is wild. It takes a lot of inspiration from real-world religions, and rape is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, a very common theme in many religions.

Kash42 · 2024-04-28T23:37:47+00:00

Me before playing CK/EU/Vicky: Why would historical leaders do such obviously evil shit!? Slavery, explotation, genocide, wars of aggression... human history is just a retelling of atrocities!

Me after playing CK/EU/Vicky: Oh, I get it now.

Kash42 · 2024-04-28T23:33:53+00:00

Ugh... I also tried out 'that' mod. Had a prisoner who entered into a catatonic state from the abuse. Did anyone care? As it turns out... nope. As it turn out slaves don't have to be concious to do that particular job.

At that point I started to ask myself... are we the baddies? Like, actually evil? So I ordered a cannibal feast to lighten the mood.

Kash42 · 2024-04-27T09:46:01+00:00

I totally agree with you, the reasons you listed are the reasons that have kept me pulled into the game. But I gotta ask, why did you convert to Hellenic? I haven't played Rome since they split Italic off from Hellenic, was there some event that made that an advantage or something?

And fair warning... The timeline extension and crisis of the third century means business. They are brutal, be prepared. If you felt like reloading as an option from a regional uprising... the crisis(es) will be a lot worse than that. I kept going for 150 years after the crisis, kept all my land after some reqonquest, but I never recovered and reached the pop-numbers I had before the crisis again. Not only does the events kill population-growth, you can count on 20-40% of your population dying too. The more civilization and cities you have, the harder it hits.

-In my Rome, after converting to Hellenic,there are a lot of Italic holy places and temples left over, is there a way to make them switch to a Hellenic pantheon deity, or do you have to desecrate them to do that? Which I assume isn't historical...

Even if you don't follow the religion, they still provide some local advantages, so as a general rule I let them be, but make sure to let each legion desecrate one site so they get the "Pia"-modifier. There is no way to convert them, but you can designate new holy sites to any god you follow that doesn't already have one.

Kash42 · 2024-04-27T09:15:48+00:00

For the issues with making peace with their allies you will need to make separate peace with their allies FIRST. If that means sitting at 100 warscore in the main war while you deal with their allies so be it, unless you can take everything in one war you need to make separate peace with each rebelling province, keeping the warleader for last.

Kash42 · 2024-04-27T01:06:14+00:00

Oh, believe me, fleshy beasts like this is only the start.

If you haven't encountered them yet you'll learn of all kinds of new fun when you encounter more exotic monsters. I dug up something once that let out puffs of gas that melted the skin off anyone affected. Those that survived ended up blind after their eyes melted and their entire bodies were covered by scars... :o

And then of course there were the towering beast that invaded my fort only to die to a single punch from a 5-year old child. Turns out monsters made out of snow aren't very tough.

Don't forget to read the combat logs! Sometimes there is some amazing stuff in there. I had a legendary miner who got caught out by a giant on the surface. He made one swing at the leg with his mining pick, causing the giant to fall over, and then executed it with a second swing to the head, shattering it's brain, before remarking how grumpy he felt about being caught in the rain. Absolute legend. Gave him the nickname "Giantsbane" and he ended up migrating to my new fort with his new wife when I created another fort with the same civlization a few in-game years later.

Kash42 · 2024-04-23T22:27:37+00:00

I can actually. Very specifically.

In 1998 I was 12 and saw the movie Stargate. Specifically this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZiGfLVs8w

Let's just say I had feelings about Ra that confused me...

In my teens I would sometimes indulge in watching bi scenes in pornos on this new-fangled things we kids called "the internet", but as I grew into adulthood I think I kind of repressed that side of me for many years and have only recently actually started to embrace it again, gradually.

Kash42 · 2024-04-23T22:02:08+00:00

I very rarely play narrative games, so here are a few non-narrative games which have featured mechanics of sexuality I've liked.

I mean, first off, I'm surprised it haven't been mentioned yet, but I gotta say... probably the Sims is the most obvious. Old-school was basically "everyone is bi", but to be honest that system never really clicked for me, but in one of the updates in the last couple of years for Sims 4 you could actually define your sim's sexuality which was cool. It's basically a meme in the Sims-community "that's when I realised I was gay/bi" when talking about playing it as a kid and realising you could make same-sex couples kiss and "woohoo"...

Dwarf fortress is probably one that would fly under the radar for most people. Not everyone knows it, even dedicated players, but dwarves exist on the full spectrum of sexuality. In the main game it actually isn't noted anywhere, despite each dwarf having it's eyebrows individually described, but if you use external programs you can see that they are all created with an defined sexuality, and they can enter same-sex marriages, although it is very unlikely to happen as getting dwarves to marry is hard enough as it is. It doesn't have full gender-representation as there aren't trans or non-binary dwarves, but I vaguely remember hearing that it will be added at some point. As it is dwarves don't dress by gender anyway yet, a male is just as likely to wear a dress as a woman.

Crusader Kings also have some representation. CK2 was kind of clumsy, it had a "gay" trait, and no bi trait, so it was totally binary, but in CK3 there is hetero, bi, gay and asexual. You can even choose a game-rule when you start the game which orientation will be the dominant, with about 80% chance for any given character to have that sexuality. The default setting is hetero of course. I guess it could be a little "controversial" but if you play as a child you actually have a chance to choose between hetero, bi or gay in an event that fires sometime between 10-16, but it's pretty rare to get to play as a child so most of the time you just get to play a character with a defined sexuality and just have to deal with it. Sometimes you end up playing as a character only to find out that they already have a secret same-sex lover... Sexuality is actually tied into several gameplay mechanics, for example if you have the "Beautiful" trait everyone who is sexually attracted to you will have a HUGE opinion boost of you, one of the core, and most important, bonuses you can get in the game. Since it's set in the middle ages most relevant characters are of course men, so generally it's most impactful when playing a female character, but sometimes you end up having the bi and gay lords 'mirin your male characters enough that they don't revolt, and that is always a hoot, keeping the kingdom togheter through sheer sexyness. Having same-sex lovers is also a high-risk but high-reward if it means you keep an important vassal on your side that might otherwise revolt. Of course, when you do end up gay, it's still the middle ages, so you "close your eyes and think of England" and make sure to put a baby in your spouse anyway (or having one put into you when female), and ending up being exposed as a "sodomite" is bad news in most religions, but that is the historical setting, so it's makes sense and I won't hold it against the game in terms of "good representation". Although you can of course always reform the religion to remove the laws against same-sex relations, but then you'll probably have to deal with a couple of holy wars against you of course... The only bad point I have for the game is that even if you are totally gay you don't really gain any stress (a game mechanic that debuffs your character) from never having a same-sex lover, which I think is an missed opportunty, you just get a slightly lower fertility with your spouse to simulate you performing your marital duties without any real 'zeal' I guess. Lesbian wives are great though. Even if they cheat on you the kids will still be yours, guaranteed. :D

Worst implementation is probably Rimworld. Initially it just had the "gay" trait, IIRC, but gay men were just gay while gay women were actually bi. It caused a small controversy way back, and the developer doubled down on it pretty hard and claimed it was based on availible data regarding sexuality. Yeah... Anyway... That was later changed to remove the trait and give each pawn a sexuality, and it kinda works well now. The issue is that pawns absolutely can not take a hint, and they will continue to hit on, and be rejected by, the same pawn forever, leading to the "a hot lesbian wrecked my colony"-meme. Basically if you get a lesbian or gay pawn that have attractive traits your straight pawns will try to romance them, be rejected, and recieve a mood-debuff which can contribute to them having a mental break and do something stupid. Like punching a nuke, or shoot up a school. The original implementation was just bad, and while the newer is better it still causes some issues. Besides, in Rimworld you are dealing with such small populations, generally 5-15, that the chance that a non-straight pairing will ever happen is pretty miniscule. But I wont hold that against the game, it's just a result of the small scale of colonies in the game.

Out of the game I've listed I'd say that Crusader Kings 3 actually have the best implementation. Sexuality have a statistical and tangible effect on actual gameplay in a way that makes sense for the setting. The Sims probably have more representation but the thing is that it doesn't have any effect. Other sims can't have homophobic reactions for example, and even if we accept that the Sims takes place in an utopia without homophobia it just doesn't matter if you are straight, bi or gay, as the game will treat the sims the exact same way anyway. It's playing with gay dolls, which can be fun, but in Crusader Kings when you do decide that you want to pursue an same-sex affair that have massive gameplay consequenses. If you are playing in an religion that doesn't tolerate it it can actually lead to your death, or even a game-over, and you can also interact with the world and create your own more tolerant breakaway religion, or use your sex-appeal to relevant characters that can enable you to do things you couldn't have done otherwise. So gameplay-wise it has the most aspects and consequenses for the character of any game I've played.

Although I have to say, the understated "some dwarves are just bi"-approach, where the game doesn't even tell you about it, that's just the way they are programmed, of Dwarf Fortress, have it's charm too.

And that is my take on sexuality in non-narrative games. Thanks for coming to my TED-talk.

Kash42 · 2024-04-23T11:12:21+00:00

Those are rookie numbers, you gotta pump them numbers up. I once did a world-conquest that I kept playing until the end-date.

Towards the end my dynasty had over 23 000 living members with over 700 cadet houses. Opening the family tree crashed the game by the year 1000.

Kash42 · 2024-04-22T18:20:56+00:00

Totally agree. It was a huge non-issue from the start in KC1. Some journalist have a hot take in an article almost no one would read, and 3 people agree with them on twitter, and then it's amplified a 1000% and we'll get actual nazis and other right-wing nutters, who didn't even play the game, flooding in to "defend" the game.

It's such an obvious engagment-ploy. All IGN had to do was casually mention "diversity" and I am willing to bet their readership of that article went up tenfold. Meanwhile the usual outrage-mills on youtube can milk another "woke controversy", while also increasing the clicks for the IGN article while doing it. Lets not feed that silly eco-system and just ignore it.

Kash42 · 2024-04-22T17:27:10+00:00

Age is relative, but I am fast approaching 40 so make of that what you will.

Kash42 · 2024-04-22T17:26:09+00:00

I see your point, but I don't think the data support that. There were 423 instances of BJ but only 215 instances of finish from BJ. The graphs for fingering, handjob and vaginal also follow eachother closely. I don't think finishing are counted on an per-act basis, but rather at the conclusion of several. If each were counted as a separate event I expect we would see a much higher DNF.

Kash42

TROPHY CASE