Configuring a Fresh Creation Kit Install

It's been a while but I have a few mod ideas so I got the CK installed. There were a number of things to configure in the .ini files so I watched a Gamerpoets video for reminders. It only mentioned the Multiple Master Loads. Searching lead me to an aged, huge post so I summarized findings here:

1. Edit CreationKit.ini in the Game folder
2. Under [General] add/set 'bAllowMultipleMasterLoads=1'
3. All add/set 'bAllowMultipleMasterFiles=1'
4. Under [Archive] set the following three lines
5. SArchiveList=Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Update.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa
6. SResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa, update.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa
7. SResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Update.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, HearthFires.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa
8. Edit Skyrim.ini in the Documents folder
9. Under [General] add 'sLanguage=ENGLISH'

There was definitely a lot of confusion about setting these config lines from 2013 onward. Even had someone post an educational mod about it. Pretty intense!

Ultimately I only did steps 1-3. The various archive settings were a bit different. I attribute this to Oldrim vs. Skyrim SE files since there are now files like 'Skyrim - Textures0.bsa' and 'Skyrim - Voices_en0.bsa' in the Data folder. In case I need these specified I will attempt to use the Oldrim pattern.

I also remember having extra steps once the DLCs came out. Someone listed the support process as:

You need a BSA-Extractor and then you have to extract following files from the DLC.bsa files:
[DLCName]_[your language].dlstrings
[DLCName]_[your language].ilstrings
[DLCName]_[your language].strings.
you have to do this for every DLC you want to load and then you have to place the extracted files into 
Skyrim\Data\Strings\

That seems about right. Yet I'm hoping that was an Oldrim issue that's handled better by SE. If not, at least I have a first step.

I fully intend to stick with SE for tinkering but some mods never got migrated. Eventually I'll get around to making sure my Oldrim is ready by using a fantastic guide I found over at STEP.

Mod Organizer Overwrite Mod

Loaded up Mod Organizer 2 and there was suddenly a red entry "Overwrite" at the bottom of the Mod List. The description was very terse so it wasn't immediately obvious what, if anything, needed to be fixed.

Google found me a reddit that explained what was going on. When MO2 is running, all new files are created on its virtual file system. I had downloaded two creations (the Railroad Skins were free) so MO routed them to its Overwrite folder ('AppData\Local\ModOrganizer\Fallout 4\overwrite').

So I needed to decide if those files should remain isolated in the MO2 virtual file system. Since those creation club files should be in all games, I moved those files into the regular Data folder. Would have been nice if the Right-Click menu allowed that to happen automatically.

Really like how MO2 keeps everything contained the way it does. Wonder if Vortex's Mod Profiles does something similar.

Please Stop Updating

Bethesda loves to push updates to Skyrim and Fallout unannounced. Keep forgetting how to lock it down so I can wait until the Script Extender folks have a change to update. Found the reddit post so keeping it here:

1. Be sure to go to your Steam Skyrim update settings and set automatic updates to only update when you launch it (from Steam, always launch from SKSE shortcut to prevent game update)
2. Press Windows + R
3. Input: steam://nav/console
4. In the console: download_depot 489830 489833 1298692161422189837
5. Check Steam Depot for the latest manifest ID! This is the last number in that command, and has probably changed if you're viewing this months later.
6. Navigate to Steam\SteamApps\content\app_489830\depot_489833
7. Cut or Copy the SkyrimSE.exe
8. Navigate to Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim Special Edition
9. Paste the SkyrimSE.exe, overwriting when prompted.

Today's reddit post author was kind enough to include the new IDs:

and the number you need to replace is the third one so like this:

download_depot 489830 489833 583541185188584076

Edit: to be clear. This is to go back to the previous patch (august 2018). If you still have the previous skse you need the version before this.

Sources: Original Community Post - Spawned Reddit - Today's Reddit

The Rep Walls are Falling

Exalted with Magni and the necklace--thanks to the Dark Moon Faire, the Human racial, and yesterday's Emissary quest.

I did buy the battle pet Azeriti since it looks unique. Decided to wait on the Azerite Puddle. It might have a fun interaction but it's still just a blob. *lol* None of the other available items were of interest since the Hunter already has good shoulders.

That leaves three more. Many turtles will have to make it to the water for the Tortollan... *sigh*

Leveling Triggers

Decided some of my pre-patch boredom is going to be consumed by leveling a Void Elf Warlock. Currently have two 110 boosts and two 100 boosts, but I opted for the pain.

Every spec in Warlock is currently performing well. I'm fine with Affliction and Destruction but Demonology remains awkward. So might as well learn from the ground up plus get a pretty Void Elf along with heritage armor.

I mix in some questing but it gets boring fast. The only ones I do consistently are dailys and pet battles so running dungeons are a mainstay. In between queues I stay busy with work, researching, Netflix, etc

The people you meet in random dungeons certainly run the gamut. The most enjoyable are the old hands like me, that have seen them all, done them all, tear shit up. The other end of the spectrum has the new people, either to the instance, their role, or MMOs in general. I admit I get impatient. Usually I can calm myself with thoughts like "It's just this one instance, then you can spin the wheel and get a whole new set of people." Doesn't always work.

Sometimes I get lippy. Or I pull extras. Good tanks handle it with no problem. And my lip either amuses people or they ignore me. But sometimes it all goes wrong. Like the Vortex Pinnacle group I was just in.

I got bored so I pulled once. I asked a pointed question. Before each boss we sat there for 25-30sec doing nothing. Nobody moved, said anything, did anything. I swear the tank would wait until my 5 shards reset to 3 and all my Demonic Core and Demonic Calling procs expired. So I started watching Silence of the Lambs to keep myself awake.

Not sure what ended up offended who but the fuckers waited until the final boss. They were doing another 30sec pause, so I said, "la la la" then did the /sleep emote. Then I was booted from the group. Which denied me both the quest and completion experience. *sigh*

Normally I'm tanking so it doesn't matter. But late night queues for DPS take anywhere from 20-45 minutes. Unfortunately I don't have meters up for leveling, so I didn't have the group list. The priest healer was awful and silent. Don't recall the other DPS. But the monk said something and the tank set a few targets.

Sadly the default interface only allows you to ignore characters that are on your server. You have to right click them if they're from another server. Was able to tag the monk and got the tank to respond to a whisper:

Hoping that having them on ignore will keep them out of future group but I don't know if that functionality still exists. Those types of mechanics are kept quiet and out of patch notes. Still typing all this helped un-trigger me and now I'm ready for another pug!

No Longer In There, Here!

Been playing around in the SSE Creation Kit off and on for the last week. Relearning the render window alone has been amusing/frustrating. Hit my first real wall (bug?) last night.

Decided to recreate a looting mod I wrote for Oldrim. Not too difficult but gets me back into the innards. Had to create a hidden cell, copy magic effects and a spell. The first magic effect required a script and the CK absolutely refused to create one.

The extension specified was the default 'activemagiceffect' which absolutely has to exist. Then I remembered that SKSE places a 'activemagiceffect.pex' that maybe the CK was rejecting. After a quick google search I realized it wasn't the .pex at all. The CK needs the source! It doesn't want to decompile the .pex! Of course.

The Data folder has a Scripts.zip that, when initially prompted, I hadn't unpacked. So I opened it up and noticed the folder structure was wrong. Went to over to Data\Scripts and manually created a Source folder to drop everything in to.

Still didn't work.

What?!

Opened up ActiveMagicEffect.psc and everything was fine. Closed down the CK to ensure it hadn't cached an incorrect lack of source files. Still nothing. Had to google the full "The extends script does not exist, please pick one that does." to find this, which didn't really help but got the mental cogs turning. Then found this, which finally made things click.

That "incorrect folder structure" I had immediately noticed in the official Scripts.zip is now what the CK expects!! Yes, the compiled scripts are in Data\Scripts. And for almost a decade the source for those scripts has been in Data\Scripts\Source. But now, for whatever goddamn reason, SSE CK requires source files to be in Data\Source\Scripts. *sigh*

Welcome back to moddding with Bethesda, indeed.

The Saddle

It's been a very long time since I've done any modding in the Bethesda realms. It took so long for the Fallout 4 Creation Kit to be released I'd never even downloaded it. Yet the recent Creation Club drama got me thinking about it. Been bored in Warcraft waiting on a new content patch so I decided it's time to poke around again.

With fresh installs I naturally got an error immediately. Since I tried to use all the DLCs in Skyrim, the CK wouldn't cooperate. It's always seemed strange that by default the official tool used to create both Skyrim and Fallout doesn't support multiple masters.

Figured relearning the ins-and-outs of modding again will give me something to write about. So my first entry is about how to make the CK work the way it should. Which boils down to adding one entry to the [General] section of CreationKit.ini:

bAllowMultipleMasterLoads=1

Barely worth posting but I did have to look it up. What will be next?

One More in the Stables

Really liking this secret mount I picked up last night, Riddler's Mind Worm. Reminds me of the Spawn of G'nathus Battle Pet.

Of course I really didn't get this myself. Apparently there's a team of nerds looking for this type stuff. Sometime yesterday evening it was solved. The instructions for finding each note were exceptionally well done. The only difficulty in finishing was the usual griefing:

Really get tired of these kids. What was refreshing about this hunt was the instances. There were a number of times you had your own space and above kids couldn't get in the way. Was really missing the F10 Hide All PCs functionality from Revelation Online.

Did discover a few tricks about getting around these assholes. There were a couple of people from low pop servers running an auto-invite group. You'd apply, eventually get an invite, then get shifted to their CRZ, Just drop the group fast so other could get in.

The other solution was ... invisibility potions! Can't believe I haven't thought of that before. Invis will make PCs and most NPCs disappear. Once you click on whatever you need, you pop back into the crowd and /lol.

RO Randomly Banned Me

Not sure.

Nice.

More From the Sea

Trying the Revelation thing. It's pretty grindy and capped and repetitive.

Swordmage to start. Maybe a Vanguard and Hunter-thing.

Big Trouble Indeed

Was tweeting some when I came across this from James Hong:

Can't wait to read the making of #BigTroubleinLittleChina https://t.co/4LRA9HLxMX @KimCatrall #30years #classic #lopan #memories

— James Hong (@TheJamesHong) May 11, 2016

Definitely want to get my hands on it. Really hope the remake isn't insulting.

Warcraft Mounts

Boredom makes the trivial appealing. Based on the list by sickbox in comments.

Level 60

Instances
 Deathcharger's Reins - Stratholme - Lord Aurius Rivendare

Raids
 Blue Qiraji Resonating Crystal - Temple of Ahn'Qiraj - Trash
 Green Qiraji Resonating Crystal - Temple of Ahn'Qiraj - Trash
 Yellow Qiraji Resonating Crystal - Temple of Ahn'Qiraj - Trash
 Red Qiraji Resonating Crystal - Temple of Ahn'Qiraj - Trash

Level 70

Instances
 Reins of the Raven Lord - Sethekk Halls (Heroic) - Anzu
 Swift White Hawkstrider - Magisters' Terrace (Heroic) - Kael'thas Sunstrider

Raids
 Fiery Warhorse's Reins - Karazhan - Attumen the Huntsman
 Ashes of Al'ar - The Eye (Tempest Keep) - Kael'thas Sunstrider

Level 80

Instances
 Reins of the Blue Proto-Drake - Utgarde Pinnacle (Heroic) - Skadi the Ruthless
 Reins of the Bronze Drake - The Culling of Stratholme (Heroic) - Infinite Corruptor

World Rare
 Time-Lost Proto Drake - Deepholm - Aeonaxx
 Sea Turtle - Pools - Fishing

Raids
 Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth - Vault of Archavon - All 4 Bosses
 Reins of the Azure Drake - The Eye of Eternity - Malygos
 Reins of the Blue Drake - The Eye of Eternity - Malygos
 Reins of the Black Drake - The Obsidian Sanctum - Sartharion (3 Drakes - 10)
 Reins of the Twilight Drake - The Obsidian Sanctum - Sartharion (3 Drakes - 25)
 Reins of the Onyxian Drake - Onyxia's Lair - Onyxia
 Mimiron's Head - Ulduar - Yogg-Saron (No Watchers - 25)
 Invincible's Reins - Icecrown Citadel - The Lich King (Heroic - 25)

Level 85

Instances
 Reins of the Drake of the North Wind - The Vortex Pinnacle - Altairus
 Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake - The Stonecore - Slabhide
 Swift Zulian Panther - Zul'Gurub - High Priestess Kilnara
 Armored Razzashi Raptor - Zul'Gurub - Bloodlord Mandokir
 Amani Battle Bear - Zul'Aman - Timed Reward

World Rare
 Phosphorescent Stone Drake - Deepholm - Aeonaxx
 Subdued Seahorse - Vashj'ir - Poseidus

Raids
 Reins of the Drake of the South Wind - Throne of the Four Winds - Al'Akir
 Flametalon of Alysrazor - Firelands - Alysrazor
 Smoldering Egg of Millagazor - Firelands - Ragnaros
 Experiment 12-B - Dragon Soul - Ultraxion
 Reins of the Blazing Drake - Dragon Soul - Deathwing
 Life-Binder's Handmaiden - Dragon Soul - Deathwing (Heroic - 10/25)

Level 90

Instances - None

World Rare
 Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent - Timeless Isle - Huolon
 Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent - Vale of Eternal Blossoms - Alani

World Boss
 Reins of the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent - Kun-Lai Summit - Sha of Anger
 Son of Galleon's Saddle - Valley of the Four Winds - Galleon
 Reins of the Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent - Isle of Thunder - Nalak
 Reins of the Cobalt Primordial Direhorn - Isle of Giants - Oondasta

Raids
 Reins of the Astral Cloud Serpent - Mogu'shan Vaults - Elegon
 Spawn of Horridon - Throne of Thunder - Horridon
 Clutch of Ji-Kun - Throne of Thunder - Ji-Kun
 Kor'kron Juggernaut - Siege of Orgrimmar - Garrosh Hellscream (Mythic)

Draenor Guide

Who's Horde?

Last night Final Fantasy was promoting the 3.3 patch...

Haven't played FFXIV in over a year but I still sniff at what they're up to. Nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this little interaction this morning...

Absolutely hilarious. So great to see such big IPs so packaged, so contained, having moments like this.

Night Before Old Gods

Thanks to a reddit post pointed out by Kripp I got things ready for tomorrow's Hearthstone release. Boiled down to:

• Did you pre-purchase the 50-pack bundle of Whispers of the Old Gods? Yes.
• Have you got your (golden) Old Murk-Eye yet? I do now.
• Are you done with your GvG set? Not really but oh well.
• Have to unlocked Naxx? Yes.
• Do you have an open quest slot? Yes. 

The nerfs that came down were pretty annoying. I was getting comfortable with and enjoying combo druid—*sigh*. Other than druid class cards that got hammered the nerfs all seemed in-line. Knife Juggler is fine doing two damage. Three mana for the Ironbeak Owl is still effective. Losing one attack on Leper Gnome was painful but it's still doing work. 

The only nerf that really annoyed me was to Arcane Golem. Losing a high damage Neutral with charge was fucking lame. Wish I understood more about what Blizzard dislikes in the current meta. 

Oh well. So far the only nerfed cards I dusted were a golden Master of Disguise and an extra copy of Master of Disguise. Will probably kill the Golems. Not something I have to do right away. Currently sitting at 2390 Dust and 4525 Gold.

Currently watching apDrop stream. Thinking I might take his advice. While everyone is dicking around with new decks and concepts you can climb with aggro decks. Not sure it will be that easy since most the play testing shouldn't be done ranked. But I might be able to throw a Tempo Mage or Aggro Shaman together…

Firebat Tweeted With Me!!

I generally dislike social media because of the commercial abuse. Sometimes I'm okay with the exploitation for little moments like this:

Firebat talked to me!! *teen giggle*

So maybe we didn't really talk. But it was interaction with one of my favorite Hearthstone players. Despite being an exceptional player, he's very accessible and he has an excellent sense of humor. Sorta felt bad I didn't know about his early loss in the BlueStacks Invitational thing. He's really been pushing to get Blizzard points wherever they're available.

Lately I've been using a Kolento mid-range Druid on the ladder. Initially tried it out since I had all the cards in his list and really liked it. Since then I've kept an eye out for Druid insights. Firebat's observations were really concise and all made sense to me.

Unfortunately I can't make all the tech swaps since I don't have the cards. Not going to do any more crafting until Old Gods comes out. Being able to understand the points was helpful regardless.

Blade and Soul: Boyish Nubility

Softhands is ready to adventure!

50 Packs Means What

It's been a while since statistics so it's nice to find someone doing this for me…

---

Out of 50 packs, about how many of the 130 cards should the average person get? And how much dust would 50 packs get?

TLDR: 93% of commons, 62% of rares, 21% of epics, 14% of legendaries and 1100 dust, equaling a total value of 18245 dust

Almost forgot to answer the original question from the title: 89 unique cards out of the 132.

I assumed that TGT has the exact same rarity distribution as GvG, plus 9 extra commons (1 for each class), which makes it: 49 commons, 37 rares, 26 epics and 20 legendaries. I also assumed that you don't care about golden cards, so you only keep golden cards if you don't have enough non-golden copies of the same card. Sadly, I don't have the time to properly analyze the data, so I just averaged it all together. (I could sort the runs and show some values for the top and bottom 10%, maybe in a separate post later.) So the average result is:

• Commons: out of 49, you have both copies of 43 and a single copy of 5, that equals 93% (I'm sure that single card missing is the best common of the set)
• Rares: out of 37, you have both copies of 17 and a single copy of 12, that means no copies of 8, equaling 62%
• Epics: out of 26, you have both copies of 2, and a single copy of 7, no copies of 17, equaling 21%
• Legendaries: 3 unique legendaries (duplicates have been auto-disenchanted), it was 2.8 on average, so it's 14%
• Dust: from duplicates, you ended up with 1100 dust
• Total value: 18245 dust, which equals 365 per pack. This is the crafting cost of all the cards summed up plus the dust from disenchanting. (This slightly differs from the sum of the previous values, because of the rounding errors.)

I hope the information was useful for you. I'll maybe do a proper analysis with confidence intervals and all the fancy statistics, if I have enought time for that, sometime later in a separate post.
Good luck actually opening your 50 packs! Cheers!

Hearthstone Brawl: The Masked Ball

Spent a couple of hours on this Brawl to get my dailies done and assemble a decent deck. Starting out I needed to get two Rogue wins. Initially I built a deck with a number of minions to exploit the free summons. Cards like Defias Ringleader, Haunted Creeper, and Violet Teacher. My first game scared a Priest away when coined out the Defias:

During the second game I realized I was doing it wrong. Many of the summons (Spectral Spider or Violet Apprentice) did not cost the required two mana to trigger a free card. While a little disheartened I thought my Hogger would finally shine since it summons Gnolls which "cost" two mana. Alas it appears that only "played" cards would trigger Brawl since when my Gnolls were killed they did not summon Wisps or Target Dummies.

There is a way to exploit the Brawl effect. Turns out it is like a hidden Death Rattle which means Baron Rivendare is suddenly relevant. An enterprising Hunter caught me by surprise with this. Turn six he had a Piloted Shredder on the board. He then played the Baron followed by Feign Death. Suddenly I was facing a full board:

Thankfully I was able to remove the Baron immediately and had enough board developed to stabilize. But imagine the havoc Sneed's Old Shredder could wreak! Something to consider.

While I needed to get some Druid wins in I ended up sticking with the Druid to play. The Druid's ability to ramp into large minions is especially potent with the Brawl effect. Sadly I don't have the cool trees (Ancient of Lore or Ancient of War) but there is plenty of other heft to get by with (plenty, other, heft, et cetera)

Did learn a couple of things.

The turn one Emperor Thaurissan sure seemed powerful. Yet keeping and using the two Innervates along with the coin ended up draining any hope of tempo. Naturally the Priest drew into SW: Death by turn three and nothing that I had drawn into the cost reduction helped me. The biggest lesson came with Poison Seeds. You pretty much guarantee a loss for yourself by playing it since each dying minion summons a new one to go along with a bunch of free treants.

What I ended up doing was "taunting into ramp": Decklist. Start with small taunt minions to stall early aggression. Then follow up with some more taunt in the mid-range, like Belcher and Druid of the Claw. End the curve with high-mana, high-value cards as finishers. Spells were either buffs or removal along with Nourish for the ability to choose between draw or ramp.

There's a bit more tuning to do. The deck is light on draw so each card needs to be high value or more draw should be added. There are too many spells—which don't synergize with the Brawl power. Need to go either removal or buffs. Really wish I had more giants. *sigh*

Nozdormu continues to win me games. With the focus on getting taunts out he's actually surviving and messing with people.

This ramp druid had me beat until I managed to get the roping going. He tried to use Savage Roar on me but the animations must have slowed him down. Was giggling to myself for a while after winning that game. Definitely love that about the Brawl games… being able to use cards that don't fit into "normal" constructed play.

The free pack was okay:

Destroyed all of the commons but I did need the Perdition's Blade. While I enjoy Rogue the decks I've played with never encouraged me to make it.

Had to be Done

Guild leader of a social guild provided some instructions on how to get into the Russian side of Skyforge. Sometimes I reward effort with effort...

Initial World Hall of Fame Games

Just noticed a press release and subsequent hype for "2015 World Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees." Apparently "The Strong® welcomed six games into the inaugural class of its World Video Game Hall of Fame™"

• DOOM
• Pac-Man
• Pong
• Super Mario Bros.
• Tetris
• World of Warcraft

I completely agree with the recognition of all of these games except the final one. *lol* Despite my love of WoW it should not be the MMO representative. Ultima Online and EverQuest are far more deserving.

On a side note… who the hell is "The Strong®" and why are they qualified to hand out world titles?