Transitioning from one mod to another

Probably my best day while in the midst of the homework for my graduation. Doing an essay. Research stuff, making a program using N-Gram method. Sort of, but it's a real deal nonetheless.

I met one guy that typed in English like doctor-styled writing, has a quirk of messed up writing as if he was typing so fast and have a little time to correct the spelling mistakes. This guy, from Steam, obviously, knows that I use a Perfect Storm mod, and I'm still using version 1.6 as latest versions require downgrade; I'm not taking any chances to do so just because old version (1.07) has more features than what I expected. The thing I like from this mod is that it has voice swaps in Ultimate Jutsu that're matching with what they're about to say, for instance, Boruto's "just as planned" quote in regular UJ replaced with "Yeah!" quote from Team UJ. Not just that, some SFXes are added to make the gameplay more live. This is something that I should take note and appreciate, because things like this... it requires a helleuva lot of work. And it's not one-man army to do that, though. I'm sure of it.

Guy's go by the name Wizard Master. I called it that way because his profile name has an ending written in... Idk, somewhere between Chinese and Japanese. He knows the guy behind the Ultimate AIO Modpack named Kuroha Saenoki on YouTube, saying that he helped Wizard Master on some technical issues in creating his own personalized mod that supports all; essentially, it's similar to Ultimate AIO Modpack I used to try before transitioning to Perfect Storm because of a dirty bug during final Boruto battle (most likely come from the EXE changes the author made; I can't blame him for that).

Remember that I once said that YouTube is a paradise of mods of all kind? Point taken, he'll be doing his own mod showcase when he made several changes of his mod. Still... I'm not in a mood to share something with the people; I'm still in a busy day making changes on the report here and there. And journal paper too.

Wizard Master seemed to have some people working for a mod he developed. Not to mention that he liked cartoon series called Winx Club, which I recalled it somewhere back in the good old school days, where TVs are still using antennas (and still is even today) and you can't watch international channels. The classic. Never forget those that I watch back in the day, like Rugrats, Dora the Explorer... who knows? Hell, I even forget what that cartoon series actually display; last thing I remember, it was Totally Spies that is like... trio girls doing espionage work like in Charlie's Angels.

So, this guy added me just because I told a user that I use Perfect Storm mod, and he said once that he wanted to show me what was added and what was not. Turns out, he forgot about it, and I'm sure I recall that on someone's thread and he participated in. UNS forums are usually silent, civilized, and not so crowded today. Jumped into Steam in 2018, not much of posts growing or added apart from continuously growing Fallout 4, Grand Theft Auto V, or even the hot shit that happened since 2019 - Ace Combat 7. Bought shit using Steam Gift Cards, safer that way than using Visa- or MasterCard-enabled credit or debit cards. And it still is after Steam limited the Gift Card regioning to accept only at specific region and users reported "chargeback" on Visa-enabled cards, but they did not.

He showcased me some works while I'm doing something and playing UNS4 with some mods. I even showcased mine that... oh boy, Wizard Master suddenly got some heebie jeebies after I showed him one tut about changing Finish Cut-In (FCI) images through hex editor.


I used this tut, along with learning how to modify XFBINs through the hex level after, like... this blog post back in 2019. Guy named ssh managed to unpack and decrypt CPK file contents, all in one go. Before that, I scoured all over the Internet just for the heck of it, because... you know, developers seemed to use several same images on Road to Boruto characters (almost everyone like Boruto Uzumaki, Sarada Uchiha, and Mitsuki) and the latest DLC that came out last year that adds playable Kinshiki and Momoshiki (like, all of the FCI images are goddamn same, but uses different voice). And from those I can found, including the knowhow on using QuickBMS, none of them are even sharing or pushing their luck like how ssh did in ZenHAX forums, helping the guy named makc_ar for the sake of his own modding research or whatever he was planning to do. And that tut... I understand the effort he (TheWalkingAmongTheDead) put into and shared the decrypted files, but something that I missed on is that for DLC FCIs, such as the Sound Four and two RtB DLCs as of today. So, go figure, before 28th of February, before ssh contributed into helping makc_ar. That'll be a PITA, I can assure that.

That tut reminded him about how he got a PTSD just by dicking around the hex editor using HxD. He remembered something about AVP (Aliens VS Predator?) DLC Unlocker, and said that hex editing wasn't his kind of thing (not a favorite, if I say the other way). Well, hex is something computer-related; I'm not a technical IT-sorta guy, but there's a college lesson pertaining conversion values in computation, like binary to octal, octal to decimal, decimal to hex, etc. It's not complicated if you know the basics of it, sorta like mathematics, but on a computational level, where us humans need to understand how computer works. And TBH, I get used to this kind of thing after I wanted to apply custom MREC on skins from this tutorial by Dan (Dantofu) (courtesy of superostrich's tutorial webpage). This is something that Notepad++ can't achieve unless there's a working plugin that can do just like HxD in 2021, because Notepad++ only outputs garbage data that's beyond human comprehension when you open a file that is not in a text-readable format, which... if you edit it, intentional or not, you will corrupt it when an app is opening it that is regarded as a dependent file, like DLL or some sort.

The blurb is for real; he worked with someone he can trust, and I can tell that from what he showcased to me, it's more than just color palette editing through hex editor. There's something more to it.

Whatever the case, he offered me a mod of his that probably worth trying out, while what I was trying to figure out what to do with the fresh new FO4 installation and installed Bethesda.net Launcher. Not yet signed up to it, but I saw in the Data directory several BA2 archives that're beginning with "cc" prefix; could be something from the Creation Club (CC) that some people like and some people hate.


Pip-Boy colors, something called Prey, Prototype Gauss Rifle, Chinese Stealth Armor, Black Power Armor skin, Horse Armor (wut?), Hellfire Power Armor (can be used with America Rising mod by Otellino), Handmade Shotgun (Idk, is that gun was like... from Fallout 76? Or is it something like from New Vegas and all?), Modular Military Backpack, and another something called Mid-Century Modern. See, I saw people complained about how troublesome CC is, like issues with quests, installing x and y caused z bugs... but, let's put it this way. While Nexus Mods can be best regarded as the only mod-hosting website for Fallout games that are free of charge ("freeware", as I may call it), I seem to see a bit of a problem for CC content. From what I heard back in the day, CC content is like a kind of "shareware", or... let's put it this way: you buy it, you can use it. No bullshit.

Many people reported issues with Tunnel Snakes mod that originated from CC. I bet that's something that can only be changed from the ESM/ESP/ESL level (which is using xEdit such as FO4Edit for Fallout 4). I won't bother getting into that kind of matter; if there's someone technical who can fix issues and create a merged patch like me, I'm sure there'll be a way out for all the troubles that're related to this Tunnel Snakes drama.

So, you might be asking, why I'm risking to install this Bethesda.net Launcher. Well, nuff said. If you don't get it, it's a minimum prerequisite for using CC and acquiring some tools like Creation Kit (CK) and BA2 Archiver (like 7-Zip and WinRAR can do, but for Fallout 4). I've talked about this previously in this blog post. I want to port in Boruto, Sarada, Mitsuki, Konohamaru, and Himawari (plus one, yay!) into Fallout 4 just like how I did with GTA V. There's this main issue with starting to mod, where Bethesda.net Launcher and having a Bethesda.net account are the minimum prerequisites to acquire modding tools like CK for people to create their own storylines in Fallout 4, just like some mods I know like Project Valkyrie + Outcasts and Remnants by Thuggysmurf and America Rising - A Tale of The Enclave by Otellino.

Well, the doors are still closed because of the works, but when I'm free, I'll go check out what Bethesda.net (or Todd, as you meme makers have to say about this company) has to offer.

Fun fact: I seem to get why Call of Duty-themed mods are in Fallout games, such as PPSh-41. Apparently, it comes to the idea of one of the tutorial articles I found in Mod DB pertaining porting a content from one game to another. Sure, it's still in relation with this one from Nexus, but there's more to it. Developers of each game have their own opinions about porting contents from one game to another, and this applies universally and NOT just Battlefield 2 and Fallout 4 in general. This supposedly notice article in Mod DB (which uploaded/published as a tutorial) provides you insight about which company that permits content porting and which company that does not permit content porting. I hope this can help modders out there, including me.

I have no idea whether CC2 can accept content porting, but from the publisher itself, Bandai Namco, was in a sort of gray area for such thing like this. Yet, I see no problems as of now with new plane contents that came from Ace Combat series, such as this one and this one.

To end this writing, I wish you guys in good health and stay safe. Covid-19 pandemic is not over yet. Always keep your eyes open.

And oh, I might as well gonna transition from using PS mod to using Wizard Master's mod, and see what he has got in store.

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