GreslinGames News: February 2022

So far, 2022 has been.. eventful.  But then, it has been a long while now since life hasn't been eventful, so we just kind of roll with it.  Here's what has happened at GreslinGames since the last newsletter.

Growth Continues.  Mission Expands.

The GreslinGames Discord continues to grow: we cracked the 9,000-user mark this month, and we're coming up on 10,000 users fast.  It's been a little breathtaking.

When I left Nexus last summer, we were a small server with a dedicated but limited core group of people, centered around a couple of popular Fallout 4 mods.  In August, I thought that 500 users felt like a lot.  The explosive growth that has happened since then forced me to start really thinking about what I wanted this community to do and what I hoped to accomplish with it.

With the help of a great core team, we have worked hard to build GreslinGames into a relaxed and friendly server for a wide general interest audience.  We have channels now for art, music, books, making things, lore debate, and even gardening - we have a little of everything, going on a little of everywhere.  And I think we're managing it without spreading ourselves too thin, which I'm happy about.

Mostly, though, we're working to encourage people to make their own things, especially their own game mods.  GreslinGames now has a group of helpful and very knowledgeable folks, working to take some of the mystery out of screwing up a Bethesda game and helping to get new modders (and everyday gamers) on the road to getting the gameplay experiences they want.  I couldn't be prouder of the bunch of them.

Coming up on the 10,000 user mark - and seriously, WHAT? - I'm excited to see what the rest of 2022 has in store for GreslinGames.  So thanks for your support!

Channel and Moderator News

In February we brought on a new moderator, theroyalrabite. He's been a part of the GreslinGames family for a long while now, and when it came time to expand our moderation team just a bit, rabite's tact, friendliness and enthusiasm made him the natural choice.

We added two new channels.  #ai-stability-seeker belongs to Terragone, GreslinGames moderator and the creator and maintainer of the PANPC/Sim Settlements guide and official patches. #xv-ss2-modding is run by XV-Versus, our friend who runs deep in the Sim Settlements world and is ready to encourage others to join him there.

GreslinGames Support Forum Discontinued

I've discontinued the GreslinGames support forums.  I launched a basic forum in early 2021 as a temporary support platform and to gauge general audience interest in that format. Since then I've concluded that it has outlived its usefulness, and in fact has created more confusion than clarity (as things change and documentation gets outdated). Since much of this material is now maintained on updated Google Docs, it was time to let the forums go.

The articles and patches hosted on the forums are now either in the PANPC/PACE manuals, or linked on the Discord.  Terragone's SS/PANPC guides and patches, for example, can now be found in the pinned comments in the #sim-settlements channel.

I plan to continue with Discord-Google Docs-Patreon for the time being, at least until better options present themselves.

PANPC and PACE Update

PANPC and PACE have always been locked into a chess match of sorts: PANPC gets better, PACE has to be improved to stay competitive, then I need to improve PANPC to keep PACE from being a cheat mod. 

February saw a mass general optimization of PANPC, resulting in significant performance improvements, as well as faster and more accurate AI decisions.  So PANPC (now at version 2.0.5) is more dangerous than ever before, and I am now in the process of bringing these optimizations over to PACE and overhauling the companion combat AI.

PANPC also has had two significant new feature updates: long range combat (player sniping support) and Arena Mode.  I'm pretty proud of both of them.

Now hopefully I can take a minor break from heavy PANPC work, to get back to the companion side of things with PACE.  Because right now the Wasteland has the advantage and you're going to need better backup.

Videos: PANPC War Games

A few weeks ago I put up a poll, asking GG members what they would like to see in future YouTube videos.  The answer was pretty clear: Papyrus tutorials, and War Game videos.  

Well, the tutorials are going to take some time.  War games, on the other hand, I can get going pretty quickly.

PANPC and PACE development has always happened with combat testing: I stack opposing AI variants against each other and see how they perform in direct team combat.  When a clear advantage appears, I start looking for ways to counter it, and then to counter the counter, and on and on.  War gaming has always been the engine of PANPC dev.

So now I'm recording these war games and putting them up on YouTube.  Go check them out on the GreslinGames YouTube channel (don't forget to subscribe!).  And let me know if you'd like to see particular match ups or locations.  We can make it happen.

Are You A Mod Author?  Let Me Know!

If you are a mod author and currently a GreslinGames Discord member, please let me know so that I can give you the Mod Author role. This grants you access to a private chat for MA's only, where we talk about coding, platforms, promotion, community issues, user support challenges, and the like.  

There is no requirement for the Mod Author role, except that you have completed a mod of some kind and have made it public somewhere. If you have your work out in front of users, you're in and I want to recognize and support your efforts.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE!

I really don't feel like I say this enough, but thank you. Seriously.

I feel incredibly fortunate for the privilege of running herd on this merry bunch, and that so many people enjoy and get value from what this community provides. Your support makes a huge difference. It allows me to put more time and resources into all of this, encourages me to think further into the future for GreslinGames, and generally it just makes things better.

So thank you. I hope to continue to earn your trust and support in the months (and years?) ahead.

All my best,

Greslin