DevUp 2016 + Random Thoughts

The DevUp 2016 conference is wrapping up right now, but I'm already home. I typically hit a wall in terms of my energy level shortly after lunch on Saturday every year. I've typically gone to at least one or two sessions after lunch on Saturday, but this year, I was really wiped.

Overall, it was a great conference this year, and one of the best they've ever put on, even if Trump's buddy, Putin, allegedly knocking down DNS for most of Friday was annoying.

It also wasn't aided by the fact that I spent the night before completely losing track of time and playing four fucking hours of Civilization VI, which is excellent, by the way.

Oh, and you can watch all four hours HERE.

This weekend has really given me a lot to think about, much of which I plan to elaborate on over the next several days.

It's stuff ranging from me actually starting to embrace a JavaScript framework (Angular 2) to focusing on one set of mod tools (Creation Kit) to getting over impostor syndrome in the dev world to coming up with some pretty simple ways to extract more logic out of my code-behinds and into classes to removing some automation to help me more easily maintain a budget. Lotsa good stuff.

Oh, and I'm nuts about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Wasteland 2 right now. And I'm so insanely stoked for Wasteland 3, I can barely handle it.

I've not been on here much of late. I just spread myself way too thin way too often. I'm going to remind myself that I don't need to post dissertations on here, that it's OK to just post whatever's on my mind at the moment. I keep falling back into this belief that everything I post on here needs to be Nobel-worthy, and the fact is, that's just not the case. Yeah, I've got some long-form stuff I wanna put on here, but not yet. And it's not stuff that I need to sit down and right all in one go.

I'm also easing back into streaming. And I have more modding stuff I wanna do. That does get kinda tough, since I do dev professionally, nine hours a day, and often, the last thing I wanna do is spend time learning yet another dev skillset, even if I really do wanna learn it. And I exercise frequently. And I have a family. And I have a wife with whom I love spending time. I wanna get back to writing fiction at some point.

I really need to just sit down for a few minutes and just triage. Like I said, I tend to spread myself too thin by trying to do all of it, which is highly illogical.

Whatever.

I'm gonna go continue my Mass Effect stream, and maybe even conclude it. Watch here.

I love you. Talk to ya tomorrow.

-Blaine

Why PC Players Are Getting the Skyrim Enhanced Edition For Free

I'm a fan of the Elder Scrolls: Off the Record show, and they touched on something that I realize I'd been waiting to hear about.

Some people don't understand why the PC version of the Skyrim port for modern consoles is free to existing PC owners of Skyrim + all its DLC.

A few weeks ago, at E3, Bethesda announced that a port of Skyrim was coming to the two modern consoles, with some tweaked visuals, and it will have a similar ability to Fallout 4 (on consoles) to import mods. Before that got announced, I'd heard it was coming, and I was curious about the PC version.

One of the things I kinda figured was that the PC version was going to be free to existing Skyrim owners, since there's no way a lot of us would pay for an enhanced version, when we've already been playing heavily-modded, 'enhanced' versions for years. We wouldn't pirate. We'd just ignore it.

Then, as I thought through it more, I realized there was also a pipeline issue in terms of the mods for the console port.

The port is going to have an updated engine, and my understanding is that the new client is 64-bit, whereas the old one is 32-bit. This impacts memory addressing.

The mods for the existing version of Skyrim, as I understand it, can be ported to the updated, 64-bit client, but I'd bet that they'll need to be recompiled, and tested, in the updated SDK before they can function in the updated engine.

Additionally, not all of these are going to just 'work.' At least a few are going to need some tweaks.

Thus, Bethesda is going to need a fair number of PC Skyrim players, especially the big-time Skyrim modders, to have this, so that they can have the latest engine and SDK, and make their awesome mods available to console players.

So, there ya have it.

Existing owners of PC Skyrim and all its DLC get Skyrim Remastered for free because:

1) we already have access to mods that make the game look and run better than the existing vanilla version

2) Bethesda needs us to have the latest engine and SDK so that we can push mods that are compatible with the port that's hitting PS4 and XB1

Making it free to existing PC owners is a concession that we have no incentive to buy something we already have (or an approximation thereof), and they see making it free as an investment in their console audience, who will be dependent on the PC modders, as is the case with Fallout 4 right now.

I've also heard some other questions out there that I think I can answer.

Why can't I make mods on my console?
Your console is not a PC. If you've never used an SDK before, trust me when I say that you absolutely need a mouse and keyboard to use it. Also, I question whether the modern consoles have the hardware specs to handle proper development. I would guess they don't. And storage space, too. Anyway, I understand the impulse, but trust me, even if the Creation Kit were made available on console, it would be a sub-optimal experience.

Why isn't this free for console owners that already own Skyrim and all its DLC on the previous generation?
First, there's the question of proving ownership. If you own it digitally, that's easy. For disc-based, though, no.
Second, and I'll be blunt, but console owners voted against backwards-compatibility this generation, and they voted heavily for re-buying games they already own. On console, Bethesda is following the same trend as many other publishers.
Yeah, I know Microsoft has been working to correct this, while Sony has been going the opposite direction, but the lack of backwards compatibility on consoles that, conversely, is inherent to PC is a larger issue that we're not getting into here. I wasn't thrilled to see Bethesda (Zenimax) contribute to this problem, but they, like every other publisher, are in the game to make money, so I can't fault them.

If you have any other questions about this, or wanna discuss any of this, leave a comment below! I'm always interested in having discussions, getting alternate perspectives, and talking shop!

Now, I'm gonna confess something, but don't tell anyone ...

... I've never finished Skyrim. I'm actually kinda stoked for the 'remaster,' because I plan to actually finally play through it. And probably do some modding.

Oh, yeah, in case you didn't know, the Skyrim port is hitting PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 28th this year. Between this and Dishonored 2, I'm going to have one hell of a Bethesda holiday.

Alright, enough of this. Back to gaming!

Don't forget! Comment, follow, share, whatever! I love doing this, and wanna do it more! And check out my YouTube channel!

Thanks, and enjoy the Lard's Day!

-Blaine

Me the Modder

So, anyone that knows me pretty well knows that way into the mod scene for PC games. I love to download and install them, as well as do some minor tweaking on my own. I love everything about mods. From visual enhancements to bug fixes to restoring cut content to new quests and areas that extend the life of the game. I love it all.

Something that's been in my brain for years now is that I should be one of the people that makes these mods, specifically, the mods that tell new stories. I'm a published author, and I'm a developer (C#), so I've got some of the basic skills. I've made a few false starts in learning various toolsets, but I'm at a point now where I really wanna start to get serious about it.

I've been looking at a few different toolsets, and I think what I'm going to do is learn the basics of a few, and then pick one, and focus solely on learning it inside and out, while I slowly build out my mod.

At the moment, I'm considering:
 - Creation Kit (Fallout 4)
 - Divinity Engine
 - Dragon Age Toolset
 - NWN Toolset 
 - Ark Dev Kit

I think, for my first time out, I'm looking to build a fairly linear story that'll last the player several hours and feature some combat, some dialogue, and at least one branching decision. Eventually, I have a few larger stories in mind that I want to tell, including a full-blown Fallout campaign.

The new Creation Kit just kinda jumped out at me, since a) I love the game, and b) based on the prolific nature of mods for Bethesda games, the Creation Kit must be at least somewhat easy to work with.

The Divinity Engine is attractive since a) I love that game, too, b) I love the way it looks, and c) the 3/4 view might be really fun for combat, and d) turn-based battles tend to be my favorite.

NWN and Dragon Age ... there's a very mature, albeit somewhat dead community there. And I'm a BioWare fanboy at heart. It really sucks that they stopped being supportive of mod scenes. Also, the Dragon Age toolset is the one with which I'm the most familiar. And I've heard the NWN toolset is super-easy.

The Ark Dev Kit is the Unreal Engine editor, and if you've not seen UE4 and Blueprints and whatnot, holy shit, it is awesome to work with. I just bought Ark, don't know a lot about it, but I'm getting on a private server with some friends soon, so we'll see what's what.

I'll be starting with either the Creation Kit or the Divinity Engine first. We'll see.

Anyone that has experience with any of these that wants to share some feedback, I'd love to see some comments or DMs from you.

I also wanna get back to streaming a bit more again on my YouTube channel. Maybe Tuesday and Thursday nights, starting next week? I dunno. Tonight, I wanna get my game dev stuff up and running and start playing around.

Anyway, I need to get creative again. I love telling stories, and while it would be cool to work in prose again, this looks like a great new way for me to reach people.

Any thoughts from any current modders are appreciated, especially those that do it while working full-time, and being a spouse, and a parent.

I plan to keep posting in here to talk about my progress.

-Blaine

currently digging: the new RHCP record, the new Garbage record, Witcher 3: Blood & Wine, Dishonored, Game of Thrones