Hi! New to Forums - Looking to Learn/Engage with Community

[dc2008242]

Hello World!

Intro:
My (user)name is dc2008242 (a mouthful I know), but you can call me dc for short.
I've been around modding/the nexus for a decent bit, but never really engaged with forums/comments/what have you, most of my nexus time is spent looking for mods and downloading mods with very little beyond that. However, I am looking to dive a little deeper into engagement and conversation, and maybe even learn a little.

Feel free to just read only certain sections of this, I wrote a lot.

 

About Me:
My (Bethesda) Games:

As far as Bethesda games go, my time is primarily spent on SkyrimSE. I first played Skyrim on Oldrim (never modded) and when I got my own copy (I bought SSE) I got into modding my stuff. I also got a lil' bit into Fallout, mainly the lore before, I don't remember all that much but I have previously played through Fallout4 with relatively minimal modding. I do own other games I have yet to really play any more than an hour of such as Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout: New Vegas, I don't know if I'll ever play them, but I hope in the future that I'll at least get a lil' bit into the older Elder Scrolls games.
I put games first in my about me because I thought it most relevant, but now onto more general info.
(Note: Yes, I know New Vegas isn't Bethesda, but it's somewhat relevant)

College and Computers:
I am almost 21 years old, a college student, and very much into computers. When I started college I was in the Civil Engineering program, a major I picked because I wanted to be an engineer and had an interest in public transportation (the idea being I'd eventually become a Transportation Engineer). My classes have gone well enough, which is a great thing to say in engineering. I even got myself a summer internship after my first year with the Ohio Department of Transportation. Despite all of this, I did switch majors after my 3rd semester as I didn't see myself getting a future career I'd enjoy. I switched to Computer Science as the next best idea is "I want to be a programmer!" and my first semester in that went very well (that was just last spring/semester).

You'd think I'd go into computer engineering from the get-go with college, considering that not only did I have an interest in engineering, but also 2 years part-time of I.T. classes through a program where I'd go to a vocational school while going through Highschool. I did very well in that I.T. class in fact (with respect to the computers part, a little less so with networking), our class was part of an organization called "Business Professionals of America" and they have competitions each year for secondary/post-secondary students in Business related fields. Through this I competed all the way up to the National level both years I was in my I.T. program, getting in the top ten both times. The first year I did "PC Servicing and Troubleshooting" and second year I did "Computer Security," the latter of those two required more independent study on my part as it wasn't well-covered by my I.T. class at the time. Where I stand now with computers is that I worked part-time with my university's IT department for at least one semester so far, and now I'm shifting my academic focus to programming, a thing I know less about, but want to know even more about.

Interest in Programming & Potentially Mod Making:
I mentioned that I am now in Computer Science and looking to become a programmer, with game programming being the most interesting sounding to me. My first semester went well with my Computer Science 1 class introducing me to programming and C++. I definitely feel that to become better in the sense I want, I need to work on it outside of class as well, that I need to learn it like a hobby. One of the things that has definitely caught my attention is the idea of making mods (with Skyrim being one of the most likely for me to start with). Mods are such a wonderful thing and one of the great reasons I started to consider PC gaming the best for me. I have yet to take the deep dive and truly start learning, but as you can see right now, I am starting by engaging with community. I've also had a few tabs open the last few days such as the Creation Kit wiki and Beyond Skyrim's Arcane University, I'm practically on the edge of taking the deep dive.

What (Other) Games do I Play? / Favorite Game?:
Well I like a good variety of games and it would be hard to pick a favorite. In general I'd talk about my most played on steam and then what I've been playing lately. My top ten most played in order of most to least is GMod, Heroes&Generals, Arma 3, Terraria, SkyrimSE, Civilization VI, Warframe, Mordhau, Unturned, and Dirty Bomb. Some of those I haven't played in a long time or now have little interest in like Unturned, Dirty Bomb, and maybe even Warframe. What games I have been playing lately (this summer) are strategy (Civ6, EU4, HOI4), Mordhau, a game new to me called Lethal Leauge Blaze (I don't really do fighting games normally), and of course, SkyrimSE. Oh, also, I just started playing (modded) Minecraft again in the past few days (Stoneblock 2 modpack for those wondering).

Other Interests:
As a habit (not really an interest) I tend to make my text explanations drawn-out and rambly (not really sure if this post is or not).
But some other interests include: Dungeons & Dragons, PC Gaming in general (I play a variety of games on steam), Public Transportation (a NUMTOT if you know what that means), and some anime.
I also have some interest in general academic subjects such as Science, History, Engineering, and Math. (despite being a lot of work, my college calculus classes are what actually made me start to become more interested in math). I hate/suck at English/Language Arts/Reading/Writing tho.

I have also gotten involved in a number of clubs on my campus as a way of socializing and exploring those interests, a non-exhaustive list of clubs I have gotten involved with (involved to various degrees, may not currently be involved with) include: Video Game Club, Esports Club, VR Esports (subset club of Esports), an Environmental Activist club, a LGBTQ+ club, a D&D/TTRPG club, an Electronics club, and an Environmental Engineering Project club. In fact, I actually helped start (founding member of) the VR Esports and Environmental Activist clubs on my campus.
Also, in general, I am fascinated with how things work/are made, I also happen to have a friend who likes tinkering and a friend who likes blacksmithing.

What is my Current SkyrimSE Like?:
I've probably spent more time modding than playing so far (def. below level 10). I'm rockin' a lil over 200 mods, mostly lore-friendly/immersive and graphical stuff. I'm a big fan of (mods linked) Campfire/Frostfall, iNeed, and Ordinator. There may be a thing or two that sticks out as unimmersive, for example, I like racemenu's body scale sliders so I made my female Argonian character a lil' bigger than the average person but a much taller (unrealistic) neck and then proceeded to call her Lizzie the Long-Necked Lizard as the amazonian lizard woman is at least a head higher than NPC's and makes me think of the meme of Asuka saying "Pathetic." I enjoy doing a sorta illusion mage assassin/thief and that's what I've been trying for so far along with enhancements from the mods Ordinator, Apocalypse, and Realistic Ai Detection (Better Sneaking).

More recently, I put together a cursed/funny and definitely not lore-friendly modded SkyrimSE of almost 100 mods for a friend to play through (he wasn't allowed to know what the mods were), and let me tell you, I was in pain from laughing so much while our group was watching him streaming playing it. It really showed off some not popular mods and it was really interesting to take a look through and see those.

What are my current PC Specs?:
CPU: Ryzen 5 1600
CPU Cooler: Stock (the Wraith Spire is actually not bad)
GPU: AMD RX 580 (Sapphire Pulse 8GB)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 2400
Mobo: MSI B350M Gaming PRO AM4
Boot Drive: ADATA 128GB M.2 (SATA) SSD
Bulk Drive: WD Black 2TB
PSU: CORSAIR CX-M series CX600M 600W 80+ Bronze
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Lite 3.1 mATX

and a pretty basic 1080p monitor and keyboard/mouse combo
the next upgrade I do will probably my drives, I'm thinking about a bigger boot drive and maybe getting a backup drive


Outro:
Well that's about all I can think to say. Feel free to ask questions about anything I suppose. Ooo, and I'll leave you with a couple fun facts. The origin story of my username is that it was randomly generated for Webkinz in 2008 and it was the first username I ever had so I kept it all these years, the letters and numbers in it are meaningless. Another fun fact is that I once built my own DDR hard dancepad with wood, foil, wires from an ethernet cable, and an arduino (was following a video on youtube tho).

If you read everything then give yourself a pat on the back, because I'm honestly not sure I would if I were you.

[MalachiDelacot]

...um... could you repeat that... I wasn't listening.

 

Seriously: Welcome to Nexus. Hope you enjoy your

time here. Some of us like it so much we've stayed

for years.

[Oblivionaddicted]

Greetings!