LadyCrimson

Despite Ansel, this is one of those games where while I'm playing on the big screen, everything looks fantastic. So I take a picture. But when I look at them later, they seem so pedestrian/dull (or are spoilers etc). 😄 Anyway... I just liked this outfit/hat. Altho I've changed the coat again already. Someone was a little obsessive about teacups? What cha readin', Deek?

Needed a break from gaming so I alternated between snoozing and binging a k-drama rom-com. The rom-com wasn't all that great but the snoozing was marvelous. Getting a little bored of Hogwart's, might try to finish up the main plot vs. all the side stuff and call it a day. Mostly quite a fun game but going to be a once and done for me.

I made a baby! ...not much purpose to it except cuteness. They don't grow into adults, but give same resources, take up a slot in the vivarium, and you can remove/sell them. Trying to breed the "Shiny" versions but they're random spawns, don't have all. Baby hippograff's are not cute. >.> Edit: the 12 or 16 (I forget, again) limit per vivarium is annoying. They should've allowed 24 at least.

'I think I'll move to the next main quest..." "Oh wait, 18 side quests = reward, must get that" "I think I'm ready to move to main ..." "Oh wait, I should just get the next tier of Ancient Magic challenges I just need a few more." "I think I'm ready to move to..." "Oh wait, I've missed a lot of (room of requirement) Collectable chests in those areas, gotta get those" (you can see that info when you hover over some map icons) "I think I'm..." "Oh, this many combat feats gets me this, must run endlessly around triggering combats so I can do that" ...yeah, for me, one of those games.

I might've kept the fog if it didn't affect indoors as well as outside and maybe had a larger radius around the chr. that was very low or fog free or something like that so it would remain more distant. The foggy moor look was nice to have in certain places, but the eyestrain was bad for me everywhere else. 😕 I tried an ini tweak that supposedly would turn the density of the fog super low, but I didn't notice a difference at all visually from vanilla. Using staring at Hogwart's/its lake a measure, it changed not one iota, so I put it back to no fog.

I try each when I get a new one, but so far I've mostly worn the red plaid fedora for ages because reasons ... so thus, there are not enough hats. ...I don't have them all yet I'm sure. ...the jackets/robes are even more numerous.

Great, ran into the Take the Biscuit quest bug which I didn't know about before hand. The spot it's in has this giant (empty if you don't have quest) cage and while exploring I cleared the baddies and unlocked the lock, wondering if it did anything. When I got around to taking/doing the quest, the baddies respawn but the lock on the cage does not. Cannot open and rescue. It was probably hours and hours and oodles of stuff after my original visit of that spot, so not going to reload some ancient save. I think you could solve with a sql editor plus a user-created save editor or something but too much fiddly bother. Those creatures will just remain forever in their cage unless the dev's retroactively fix it.

Oh I know. Most of the costume mods on Nexus for ffxv were reshade ones for some reason, but in that case I knew it was possible without it so I only used stand alone mods so to speak. I'm not sure what the dependence on reshade for things outside of lighting/color is, it's become so dominant lately, but eh, I'd just rather not. Needing tools to create mods is a given, but I'd rather the resulting mod not be dependent on the user having it installed as well. It's funny because I do like moddability and will use a few mods here and there, but it's rare I use very many. I generally like as vanilla as possible. More often I'll just mod myself if it's simple enough, because most ppl don't create ones that fit my likes/desires. Or in some cases I deconstruct a mod and tweak it to suit.

Last of Us, episode 6 - well they finally changed something re: the game that I didn't like overmuch. It's not a big thing and it doesn't detract that the episode was still quality. And it's not that the change didn't work. I simply preferred the story/chr method of the game over the change. I don't know where they filmed the show, but man some of those scenics they shot were gorgeous. By the end of this series I am going to fall in love with Pedro Pascal, if I haven't already. I've known his name/face from articles but the only things of "significance" I think I've seen him in were Equalizer 2 and The Great Wall, which I barely remember.

Oh, also, that requires Reshade, which I don't and don't want to install/use. More than half of the "mods" on Nexus seem to require it. >.> Edit: there's no special reason I don't want to use it outside of just not wanting more programs install clutter and generally having no use for it to begin with etc. - although if it unlocked Ansel I might. Might. Haha.

FFXV has Denuvo/they've never removed it. The unlocker someone made for it was an .exe that I assume injected/altered the game exe with that stuff. When FFXV patched, Ansel lockout would reset, but I'd just run that unlocker script again on the new game .exe and it would work again, lol. But yeah, I'm sure it's different per game and I don't know if newer version of Ansel would even allow for the same method of tweak or not. Never know they could've blocked it somehow.

Other non-Ansel/hex'ing of Hogwarts: --why oh why didn't they put in a disable all HUD toggle so one doesn't have to constantly uncheck 10 (whatever) things, then recheck them again?? --if you want to rescue caged beasts, stand as far to the side of the lock/door as much as you can before unlocking it, or the beast pathing may bug/glitch and it won't exit the cage, meaning you can't then rescue it via capturing it. If it doesn't exit its cage you can try to move far around to see if you can trigger it.

There isn't anything specifically for Hogwart's. There are mentions re: FFXV and Hitman 2 and 3 and some others, where I was thinking one could take that info and spend a lot of time looking for the right offset or calls or whatever terms, in Hogwart's exe (they would be different I'm sure). This one is theoretical removing of restrictions for anything by disabling checks and creating a sort of toggle? This would require an nvidia/github account (I think) to access Ansel SDK tho, which I have never tried to get yet. https://gist.github.com/FransBouma/a322a80ed9f51114371ca32c4db4808e For games like FFXV/hitman etc, they tell you what offset to change in that particular game's .exe. I don't know if you could figure that out "alone" or if it's a code you'd find via the method above. Or if any of this would even work currently/new games. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1325152608

Me: Go outside for a bit, come back inside, walk to fridge and wrap my hand around the handle. *a little time passes* Hubby: Walks into the kitchen, sees I'm in the way/standing there, asks what I'm doing Me: "uhh..what, um...I had a soda in my room and I think I was trying to decide if I wanted to grab another now, so I wouldn't have to come back out in 10 minutes, then I guess my brain shutdown" ...such is my life since the diabetic "coma" stuff. 🙄 Edit: on the bright side, the weather has been really nice. Almost spring-like. Still cool but the sun is warm and pleasant.

Without Ansel in combat, one can disable most (or all) UI elements and then record dozens of very short videos and hope you get lucky, but mostly, you do not. From that tho, there aren't that many combat animation variations anyway. But it'd be nice if you could see another angle other than mostly your chr's backside. Oh well! 😄

If only I knew how to hex edit I could possibly unlock the Ansel camera in Hogwart's by finding the right "offset". Maybe. But since I don't, there's 0 chance, haha. I keep googling and there's pages saying it's potentially so easy but I look at their instructions and yeah...nope. lol Dangit I want an unlocker.

@Keyrockhttps://www.nexusmods.com/hogwartslegacy/mods/398?tab=description ..haven't tried this one either, but there it is. 😄 Since the VA is nothing head-turning for me, I just turned dialogue volume way down (since I use subtitles anyway) and I've gotten almost used to it by now, lol. I mean, honestly, I'd need a mod for almost every throwaway line in the game at this point. Even the main character. And the clothing shopkeeper. And ...

I can now fly best-boi. The pre-order dark version is almost too dark for my liking. Although to be honest, the broom still feels easier to use/land and sight-see with. As Bokishi already pointed out, can't use Ansel with either, tho. Boo. Finally got some cat-beasts. I am going to dedicate one vivarium to them and fill it with only cats. Then I will put out the yarn ball toy and watch them all chase and play. It was so cute with just three, I bet max will be even better! I spent too long watching/running around trying to get pictures (not easy, they're too fast).

Hogwart's - I like how they incorporate many spells into the quest problem solving. It at least keeps me from forgetting some of them even exist. Stealth-killing is still my favorite thing in the game. Again, it's not the best thing to try in some situations and some enemies it won't outright kill but I put stealth-dmg. enchants on half my gear and it's a bit OP (at least on Normal) but I find it more fun that direct combat. I am a little annoyed how many times you go to pick up coins and it's 1 or 3 gold, not even 25. Like why even bother.

Hogwart's - game save says I'm at around 39 hours. Decided 20 gear inventory finally a little too small (the 6 pieces you wear count towards that 20, too, pfft) so I spent a while doing enough Merlin Trials to get it up to 32. I'm not sure I'll do the rest. They're not hard or long, just repetitive and annoying after the first 3 or 5 and you have to do a lot of them. You can do even more than I did, for a couple more increases. >.> Also did some side quests, got the first third or half of map exposed/explored but didn't do everything possible. Not sure I want to do some treasure stuff until I'm closer to end-game cause higher gear stats. I think I'm ready to move on to the next Main Quest and the lower half of the map now. I know we have a flying broom, but I still haven't even flown over it yet. 😛

I could make a joke re: capturing a unicorn but I shall refrain. Haven't found/caught a "cat" yet but this will do. Random NPC activity scenery.

https://www.nexusmods.com/hogwartslegacy/mods/95?tab=description I haven't tried it. The creator is taking requests/thinking about others to remove a few other notables. So many requests. lol. "It seems all roads lead to Hogsmede!"

I'd definitely watch it in one fell swoop. Which was my original plan, to let finish before watching more, but then when I see a "REACTION TO NEW EPISODE" thumbnail in my YT algorithm, I go "oh, a new one's out now?" and run to turn on HBO. I haven't felt very impatient tho, weirdly enough. Maybe because the episode-ends typically aren't mega-cliffhangers? They're almost self-contained in a way, so far, albeit with plot threads/goals weaved throughout.

That was maybe another 10%. IIRC After the Jackie thing I looked up some cutscenes and the like and none of it really inspired me. I still keep meaning to retry it one day (it's still installed, but untouched/unpatched) because there were elements I did like in the game, but I think mostly I just prefer something simpler/relaxing like ... Hogwart's (or in the vein of) FFXV, or Tales of Arise these days.

Jackie dying on me was maybe 30% of the reason I didn't get much farther. I was annoyed, lol. Being as slow as I am with games, and how I like companions of a sort, I liked him as my sometimes-buddy and then ... pfft. Speaking of slow, I've been trying to collect these sidequest items as well as lockpicking tons of rooms, and capturing more beasts, in Hogwart's, for both cuteness and enchantment materials. And farm more creatures for potion ingredients. It all takes forever and really pads out the game time if you bother with it all. I've finished a couple enemy collections so they give 0 XP now. It's just their drops I want to amass. Also, eventually, catching Beasts and selling spares is far more lucrative than gear selling cause you can do it over and over. I went broke a couple times buying all the seeds/upgrade summoning books at the store etc. I must have/find ALL the Requirement summoning/deco before I finish/quit the game.