On the recent trainwreck about autism.

What’s infuriating is not what Trump declares, that’s simply predictable and therefore boring. Whoever still listens to Trump, on any matter, is doing it in bad faith. Stop wasting your time feeling and then displaying your own outrage, or you’re just willingly taking your role on this performative theater. Stop giving your attention to idiots.

That said, it’s the World Health Organization to be embarrassing and out of time.

This is not science, as this falsely confirms there is some evidence, even if not conclusive.

Trump himself already anticipated this stance, and so already infiltrated it and made it a weapon of rhetoric. Which made his statement a misogynistic one, even before it comes to science. He essentially said that, even in the presence of a DOUBT (paracetamol may or may not be linked to autism) then IT WOULD BE PRUDENT TO AVOID IT.

“Pregnant women should tough it out.”

This WHO message would be coherent, not contradicting with Trump statements: “The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence”

“Currently,” while epistemologically correct, implies that paracetamol could be proven cause of autism tomorrow. To be safe you have to be prudent. Therefore this VALIDATES Trump message.

But the reason I’m wasting my own time, to write here, is because this is built again on something I pointed out over and over: the statement from WHO is REVERSIBLE.

You CANNOT claim to write science with REVERSIBLE STATEMENTS. The WHO is COMPLICIT to Trump, complicit to power and manipulation.

The real problem of that statement is that it is ambivalent and it WILL BE read both ways. It will be read by “partisans” as the WHO lambasting Trump because what he claims has no scientific evidence, same as it will be read by the opposite faction as a SUPPORT FOR CAUTION. Therefore confirming the warning: paracetamol (Tylenol) MAY be linked to autism, we just “aren’t quite sure.”

Trump already won in the presence of doubt, causing women to avoid Tylnol just to be on the safer side. MOST women will do it, because you cannot be wrong by being more prudent.

The full statement also continues to embrace and spread ambiguity:

“WHO recommends that all women continue to follow advice of their doctors or health workers, who can help assess individual circumstances and recommend necessary medicines.”

This statement, that at first glance may be 100% reasonable, is the real root of scientific stupidity, especially within a “guideline” message like this.

DOCTORS AND HEALTH WORKERS ARE NOT IMMUNE TO POLITICAL PROPAGANDA. Just because they are doctors doesn’t mean that they oppose Trump non-scientific guidelines.

STOP USING LOGICAL FALLACIES IN YOUR STATEMENTS. The argument from authority fallacy used here VALIDATES TRUMP.

Telling women to trust their doctors when their doctors are ALSO trapped in the same propagandist machine means DEMANDING WOMEN TO BE VICTIMS.

You don’t give a goddamned guideline by telling people to listen to their doctors who just happen to be zealots.

You give the guideline that Tylenol IS NOT linked to autism as there is NO EVIDENCE for a logical suspicion of a link. That its only motivation IS EXPLOITATIVE POLITICAL PROPAGANDA.

But you are all corrupt instead. All the way down, it’s all corruption and being subservient to power. They’ll call it diplomacy.

Let’s continue, I guess. This is another statement:

This one is, thankfully, not a reversible statement, but it still is A LOGICAL FALLACY.

The word “reputable” is enough to be yet another appeal to authority. It’s implied that a reputable study is one that was done through good methodology, but it’s not explicit. Reputation isn’t science. Methodology is.

You can replace “reputable” with “reliable”, and at least you could own that statement. “Acetaminophen is safe.” (given that “safe” is always contextual, and context is what the rest of the statement provides)

Even worse, the way various mainstream media are carefully wording their own statements. This is one example:

The science “isn’t clear” is then not only false, but just another calculated REVERSIBLE statement, done to serve Trump.

The event itself is of no particular interest to me, but I decided to write about the wider context.

We are, obviously, very deep in the rhetorical phase, but it already took over very tangible things. Lots of people are pissed at Bluesky moderation strategy because of the naturally blurred areas of “hate and violent speech.”

This is one I reposted myself, that I agree with. I’m not one of those who expressed joy over this event, nor this is my opinion. But in this case I defend other people legitimacy of expressing those opinions. Because they do not fall within the area of “hate speech,” or even invocations of violence.

As I said, this also had some tangible repercussions because an actual comics line has been canceled:

https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-red-hood-2-3-orders-cancelled-dc-batman
https://www.tcj.com/horror-it-girl-gretchen-felker-martin-on-dc-pulling-red-hood-after-charlie-kirk-comments-i-had-no-regrets/

This is censorship in full swing, in its most classic form. But the debate itself over these themes can be quite annoying to sift through.

The point is, feeling (and expressing) relief at someone’s death is something entirely legitimate. It’s factual, simple. There’s not even a real emotional connotation to it. From a specific point of view, someone’s death can greatly affect others’ lives around it. Usually seen as a negative impact, but, factually, can be seen equally positive. In this case it’s VERY easy to see it having a positive impact, since this particular individual WAS hellbent on spreading hate and preaching violence, ironically.

Again, this is not MY opinion, because my opinion is very simple and I think in the wider context this will only bring more consensus to Trump. In the best case you can see this as another acceleration on the same path we’re stuck in. So, very simply put: Trump profits from this event. That’s all.

The other topic is again what is or isn’t hate speech, because it’s very important that rules make sense and are applied uniformly. The rules are meant to stand above bias and above faction. So you cannot create contexts where what counts as hate speech for you doesn’t count the same if the intentional action is reversed. As I wrote before, this whole clusterfuck depends on the reversibility of “statements.” The most brutal and stupid example, right now, is BOTH PARTIES accusing the other of political violence. So… Can we stop getting stuck on banal reversibility? (this is solved at another, conceptual level, but it’s also kind of plain to everyone that it’s Trump constantly feeding the fire, BOTH parties know this, just happen that one will just pretend not to know. In this case it’s just very simply hypocrisy in the name of good old interest)

I try to be both complete and objective when I write here, so I’m not dodging the issue. Expressing relief for someone’s death can be seen as a form of encouragement. Because other people could see this positive feedback as encouragement to emulate it. But I see this as implicit in the nature of all things, whether more or less evident. You see some nice paintings and that might encourage you to become an illustrator. That is seen as positive encouragement so no one will find any problem with it, but the “negative” encouragement is still implied in most things and not something you can simply erase. It’s just rhetorical. Right now all left-leaning politicians are busy condemning the violent act. But it’s just “noise” because you cannot truly know if what they say is merely convenient, or something they believe. In the end, when it comes to the function and practice, all those messages are both predictable and completely useless. In the sense they really have no use, no consequence. They mean nothing.

On the other end, Trump’s side is very much busy with INTENTIONAL messages. Taking actions, as consequence. Trump will take this nicely offered chance to be more inflammatory than ever. And to rise the tension.

“We’re going to go on offence, not just on defence. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.”

(ironically, this was some time ago already)

Expressing relief for someone’s death, or write “rest in piss” do not equal ACTIVE stances. You aren’t taking part in a crime if you simply express that. In a similar way if a bank is being robbed and you are outside applauding, it’s still not an active function. Same as if a policeman is chocking someone to death and there’s an audience around him, someone might applaud the act, and someone instead might denounce it. All these are things debatable on the MORAL level. And the moral level is the one where you need free speech the most. Because you can only deal with it through reason, and you can only reason with things that are manifest.

Violent speech instead is about active stance. Whereas relief for someone’s death is enclosed as an event in the past. The dude is dead. It’s over. There’s no intersection with action unless you EXPLICITLY add that part. If you say “this dude’s dead, you’re next” this latter addition does indeed cross over to violent speech, because it becomes an active threat. A violent act that is IN THE FUTURE. But even if you can imagine someone who expressed relief for someone’s death also be glad for similar acts taking place in the future, this still doesn’t mean you can PROJECT this onto the person. People aren’t guilty of thoughts.

Rules need to be impersonal, so that they can be applied uniformly. And the way these “networks” operate is a real mess of “interpretation” and rules constantly bent in the heat of the moment, or to serve someone in a position of power. Most of everything Trump and his lackeys publicly post on social networks IS violent speech. It just happens to be a tolerated norm.

^ This one smoothly goes into the following:

Smoothly again into this:

(I wish this was more ironical. Because “sending someone to find Jesus Christ” becomes synonymous of capital execution.)

THIS is glorification of violence. THIS is the call for more deaths in the future. “Anyone celebrating violence” is herself, plainly right there. But obviously these claims are not self-referential, because it’s only meant to go downstream: those with the power, to those who suffer it. What these comments imply is, violence AGAINST WHOM? Because violence, as you see right there, is very clearly okay. As long it is violence against someone you dislike, as we’ll see another example just below.

The part that is the most absurd but also plain predictable and banal, is how much interest the death of an individual can concentrate, despite countless other deaths in even more meaningful contexts. On the left side there’s a very often used example of Democrats being shot, a couple months ago I think. As an attempt to counter the idea that violence comes predominantly from the left.

To me, that particular argument looks ridiculous. What I think, within the context of this one present death, is only in the scope of the more recent Venezuelan “drug boat.” The dude who died, two days ago, was one dude. One individual. Reports said that boat had eleven lives on it. My personal opinion is that those lives were without a doubt more valuable. And they are, very likely? criminals. Whoever is responsible, Trump or down the chain of command, why aren’t they in jail?

Trump (or whoever) BOMBED a boat with eleven people who weren’t an active, present threat to anyone. ELEVEN. But now we need to get stuck, for DAYS if not weeks, on a rhetorical discussion about one single fucker.

One American kills another American, on one side. One American kills eleven Venezuelans, on the other.
One is arrested and invoked death penalty for. The other is the President of the United States.

(ICE also killed a person in Chicago last week, with no investigation taking place)

The conclusion to all this is that there is no reciprocity in this whole deal. There’s only strength. There’s only violence. It’s always been just violence.

The last few months I’ve seen this side of the faction desperately trying to “win” arguments. Pointing out contradictory statements of politicians, logical fallacies and so on. Even Bernie Sanders still believes this is just “a debate.” How is it possible that the great majority has not understood how pointless this type of fight is? You aren’t fighting against a RATIONAL opponent. Continuing to employ a rational strategy, given the context, is only a complete waste of time. And, consequently, make yourself a moron for having not figured this out already.

Trump’s side operates on two concepts ONLY:
1- Strength
2- Identity

That’s all. All they understand is either strength, which is very immediate and straightforward. And identity, which is trickier. Musk has shown as you can hijack identity to further personal goals. That’s all he’s done. He landed in the political landscape and seized a good chunk of it for himself. People are VERY stupid, so this is possible. But doing so requires operating on manipulation and rhetoric. It only works through a Pied Piper type of figure. It’s radically built on dishonesty.

STOP ARGUING WITH THESE PEOPLE. They do not operate through rationality. You cannot persuade them. You can only move them through contextual shifts. They have no agency. They get moved, they don’t move themselves. So you either hijack their ground, as Musk has done, or you just push them through actual circumstances. NOT WORDS. They feed on fallacies, they THRIVE ON THEM. Don’t feed the trolls.

To conclude, I would repeat what Charles Manson himself famously declared during his own trial: “these are your kids, not mine.” This is your shit, not mine. Everything you sowed is bubbling up.

Enjoy?

I see nothing shocking or unexpected. Do you?

This should be obvious to everyone with minimal observation skills, but here we are…

You may be wondering why games that come out these days are shit more often than not. They are plagued by bugs, have crap performance, especially on PC, but in general for the last few years it looks like things are moving backwards, or stalling if you want to be more optimist. But all of this has actually a very SIMPLE motivation. It’s one of those rare cases where it’s possible to generalize without getting lost in the complexity of the world.

A few years ago I followed on twitter the profile of a someone who, at that time, I think was involved on low level code for some emulator. There’s few people that usually engage with that type of very technical work that requires such a wizardry that you can’t simply teach yourself. You need to build competence over a bedrock of native talent. Native talent that is VERY rare. That woman was eventually scouted and then plucked by Nvidia, and very quickly rose through the ranks. Until she made into inner cabal itself in record time. You know, imagine being a teacher, having this pupil of yours who seems very talented. So you encourage her, you provoke her, and guide her study. It would be such a satisfaction and marvel to see this kind of flower bud grow so quickly and become majestic. That’s precisely what happened. She knew just the very basics, but they threw her problems, gave her some nudges into the right directions, and saw her mastering concepts and finding new solutions at record speed. Until she was able to stare her masters at eye level.

It’s not important to be precise, and I only know this story by putting together the scarce pieces of twitter messages, but she wrote how those who engage with low level, drivers code, the “black box” that software engineers within game development NEVER touch, are like a hundred people in the world, total. If you put them of a plane, and were that plane to blow up, you’d get a VERY serious problem, because there would be no one left in the world being able to do that type of work. And no one to teach it. Because, and this was her part, she wrote how the complex aspect of this whole thing is that these people that work at that level have to make very tricky choices. Their time is valuable, they can either work to fix a problem, or spend their time helping someone else who may eventually one day be able to do the same job. They never know if the time spent to “train” new talent is going to be worth it. Because these type of people also burn out quickly, and they don’t suffer the blackmailing of “losing their job.” They are too good to care, they have that type of talent where money involved is not a factor anymore. She even mentioned they had to sign extremely strict NDAs, to protect the closely guarded industry secrets, yet the pool of people working on that stuff is so minuscule that they ALL know each other, they move from Nvidia to AMD, then back to Nvidia, pretending to wear different man-suits. They all know each others “secrets” to the point that the NDAs are just a game of let’s pretend… A joke. It’s the top level execs that force them signing those contracts who don’t know shit about anything, but they all know those secrets among themselves. There are no secrets, and if there were, they would need to be exposed just so that the job could get done.

So how this story ended? She got bored and permanently quit. For her learning was the fun, and eventually the problems grew stale. I think she picked up chemistry after that.

All this to say that these type of talented engineers not only and fundamental, but they are also a SCARCE COMMODITY. PC games optimization hasn’t been shit just in the last few years, it has been declining for a very long time, roughly with the rising commercial importance of consoles. The reason behind this is very simple: the best engineers are allocated where the most money is. PC was a driving force originally, up to the first Doom and Quake. After that consoles took over, and that’s where the best engineers went. PC games technical competence started nosediving simply because resources were allocated elsewhere. Only in the last years we’ve seen things being moved BACK to the PC side. Yet, more recently things suck. They got worse both on the PC and consoles side.

But you can observe the same pattern in different areas, for example American comics. You can open now an issue by Marvel or DC, and on average they have really BAD ART (and worse stories, but the problem of the stories has a different nature). It’s another simple consequence of resource allocation. Comics aren’t “big” anymore, they don’t attract money and they don’t attract talent. If a kid in the 90s picked up an issue drawn by McFarlane or Jim Lee, that kid would dream about becoming a comics artist one day. It was a big deal. But right now the bubble’s burst, comics artists are marginal. Kids still love and pursue art, but they’d rather work for Hollywood, on the big screen, or to make games. The hard, regular work required for a monthly comics issue is more an horror than a dream, these days.

Then why is the technical quality of games nosediving these days? Well, because of AI. Not because of what AI DOES. It’s not because AI is replacing jobs, and you see all the layoffs in the game industry and think it’s because of AI taking over. Nope, that’s all bullshit, but AI is indeed the main reason.

The truth is that, whether you believe AI is the future or just another hype bubble, it’s sucking both money and resources like a bottomless black hole.

The best engineers now work on AI, no matter the “area” they were trained on. They all get repurposed to work on AI at various levels. It’s all software, after all. If pre-Covid the Game Industry was growing exponentially, becoming the apex of the entertainment world that could only grow from that point onward, and so drew all kind of investor money from the most clueless rich people in the world, the AI craze took over signaling “THIS IS IMPORTANT”, and therefore all money was redirected there.

Go figure. People sometimes wander how it’s possible that we “lost the technology” to land on the moon. It’s the fuel of all sort of silly conspiracies. But the truth is of course about the money. The money is the only reason why we got to the moon so fast, only for not being able to anymore. Because it had a symbolic and practical function at that time, and now pretty much none. The money simply isn’t there.

It shouldn’t be surprising at all if now Nvidia’s having all sort of problems. They had a monopolistic role for years, cemented already by a dominating role in the PREVIOUS years. That kind of power and control you’d expect only to progress. So why are things turning into utter shit? Not just the quality of hardware, with the 5xxx series offering close to zero performance upgrades despite costs skyrocketing. But also something so straightforward as driver stability. How can this happen, how can things get worse?

Well, it’s again because those engineers are a scarce commodity. These days Nvidia doesn’t give a shit at what was its core business. All those engineers work on AI now. No matter their specialized training, even the janitor who cleaned the floor now works on AI. And you can’t expect AMD to be your savior, because they ALL move in the same direction.

This is where it all turns into absolute schizophrenia. Because those engineers, and that talent being so fundamental to the modern world, we treat them like shit. Trump’s warfare against education and science surely’s going to help nurturing that necessary talent, right? Only that a statistically significant portion of that rare mathematical wizardry happens to be those slightly autistic, generally neurodivergent, often “trans” that you keep fighting against as outcasts. Alienating that talent pool that is fundamental to sustain the modern world (obviously, trans, autistic or whatever, you don’t necessarily develop some rare useful talent, it just happens to be a relevant side effect). It reminds me of Eden of the East. What would happen if someone rounded up and game a meaningful sense of direction to that mass of outcasts, rather then undermining and fighting them as if they were garbage to get rid of?

These are your kids that you’re slaughtering.

Nintendo spent the last year destroying the lives of technically-proficient people working on emulators. You know, as a basis to learn those things at low level, solve problems and develop that kind of knowledge that is actually priceless. Those kids that are supposed to MAKE YOU MONEY, but that instead you want to destroy. Nintendo, you should lick the sole of their feet, and worship them as GODS, just because they CARE about your shitty games, to try make the best of them, preserve their art rather than the filth of their commercial value. They care and love, and because they care and love you destroy them. Your future talent.

But of course you don’t want good engineers. You want obedient slaves. Nintendo is Evil Incarnate. The more cutesy and colorful their characters, the darker their hearts.

If there’s a lesson to learn from all this is that, no, there’s no incoming revolution. Only the idiots rise to the top, like long dead, bloated bodies.

AI is a wonderful extension to human stupidity. If AI destroys the world it’s not because it became some evil mastermind, but because one stupid man with too much money and power decided to rely on the stupid tool. AI can indeed destroy lives, because it empowers stupid people to delegate their own stupidity to dumb tools.

And then claim no responsibility. A(in’t)I (who) did it.

Pretty much.

I’m more ambiguous than most about what is going specifically right now, because everyone opposing Trump and Musk is way, way, WAY too hasty picking up any tiny victory or proof of being “right.”

Too easy, too fast, pointing at this defeat.

The other meaningful part is summarized and explained here (the embedded video).

People who know more than me about economic theory are aware that a great depression can also be conductive to a great rebound. The volatility of a market is essentially NEVER a proof, of anything. It’s just knee-jerk reaction that you can never trust. Whether it confirms and flatters your beliefs, or pushes back.

Tesla stock going down? Great news. But great news that is utterly worthless if it’s just a short term anomaly. You don’t know what’s past the corner. A cheer for victory BECOMES defeat. Do we really trust that the pressure on Tesla is going to be persistent? Because if it’s not it’s all a pure waste of time and, for us, awful gloating that will be punished, AGAIN.

Once again we give the enemy weapons that will then be used against us.

What if tariffs are removed (or delayed) just a few days later? You think it’s one Trump defeat, but in truth it’s just another SUCCESSFUL TROLLING. What we are is dancing monkeys to HIS TUNE, and for his amusement. The fact that he can stop the tune at any point, to give the world some respite, only reinforces his power and control. It’s not a crack into that power, it’s the basis for more.

All protests and exhibitions of outrage is precisely what Trump expects and laughs at. His funny dancing monkeys. The only way to fight it is being disruptive to expectations. Everything that I’m observing as consequence of tariffs isn’t Trump losing control and losing support, it’s instead watch a perfectly choreographed monkey dance.

(It’s also quite funny observing, after Switch 2 announce, everyone blaming tariffs for the higher costs. Again dancing monkeys to the tune, of big corporations instead. The price announce comes BEFORE tariffs. If anything tariffs WILL PUSH THE PRICE UP. All the tariffs you see, RIGHT NOW, are FEELS and projections. You have YET to see tariffs HAPPEN. Nothing that is happening right now is BECAUSE of tariffs. We are only fretting at announces. Which is why it’s all so stupid, nothing is actually happening, only the blackmailing has started. Big corporations will indeed use the inflation and higher costs as the motivation to cause inflation and higher costs. It’s precisely how they enslave a population. Not through money, but through beliefs. The belief that they have no choice other than to FUCK YOU.)

EDIT: I wonder why I bother writing, it’s so fucking predictable. The world is just a predictable trainwreck.

Well, I’m sorry. Brain rot spread too fast. Your brain and soul have already been murdered by it. It’s too late now.

You shall not be remembered.

One of the first important things you study in language theory is that language is universally arbitrary. This means that the true, correct meaning of a word isn’t “out there.” You don’t find it out. You decide it, instead.

Of course this is only true as far as you also understand that modern languages are very well “synchronically codified”, there are vocabularies after all. But historically language is always in flux, always changing and adapting. Its rule isn’t about being “truthful”, but being useful (cue Wallace’s “The Broom of the System” and its many wordplays). Simply put, language is an agreement among a group of people. There is no fundamental correctness about the meaning or usage of a word, just what seems more useful and appropriate for the time, and reaching enough people agreeing on some common ground.

All this to say that what I’m going to do here is kind of pointless. I can PROVE that the use of “Quality of Life” is wrong, but as long I’m in the minority trying being pedantic about correctness, the other party will win (has already won). Yet, the current trend of the misuse of the word has pragmatic consequences: it’s blurring the meaning so much that the word itself is now misleading and pointless in practice. I’m not arguing about correctness, but that the continued misuse is having consequences that are pragmatically bad, based on instincts that are wrong.

“Quality of Life” is generally used, in game design, to define some system that has been simplified or streamlined, because, intuitively, it improves directly the quality of the experience. But while chasing this bland and widespread use, we’re actually losing the usefulness of the term. Because “QoL” in its true meaning isn’t vague at all, and can be defined very specifically.

“QoL” defines specifically those changes that DO NOT DIRECTLY AFFECT GAMEPLAY. That’s the proper definition. If it touches gameplay then it can’t be “QoL”, it’s instead a fundamental rule change that has to be consciously driven. Because, and here we come to the center of the argument, the usefulness of the concept lies in defining changes that are UNIVERSALLY positive. No one comes in and argues that some “QoL” change was “wrong.” It’s beyond question. You can improve QoL, but you cannot argue any before/after. It’s an useful concept because it defines those subset of changes that are always positive without any need for scrutiny.

So, for example, if a game requires some frequent command, that happens to be several menus deep, and then it gets changed so that there’s a shortcut to it, immediately available, THAT’S QoL! Because no one is going to say that the previous method of going through several menus to get to that option was “better.” And this because to qualify as QoL it has to have no impact on actual gameplay.

Yet, in many games the use of UI is itself “gameplay.” So, say in Monster Hunter, there’s a specific combos that is built out of a sequence of commands, and you decide instead to trigger it, and streamline it, to the press of a single button triggering the whole thing… that’s NOT QoL. Because it directly affects gameplay. It is not QoL, SPECIFICALLY, because someone can argue that this isn’t an objective improvement, but may streamline and simplify the game too much, fundamentally changing the gameplay. Being not-QoL means it defines an area of game design that has to be consciously driven. Chosen. You make choices in game design, choices themselves driven by motivations. Being overall a system so complex that it cannot be simply mathematically solved, making it a form of art.

The usefulness of “Quality of Life” was in separating the ART of game design, and so the conscious, deliberate choices, from what was instead quality of life in the sense that no one would ever argue for WORSE quality of their own life. The INTUITIVE term itself was intended to define that specific line of distinction.

That we lost. Because everything now is Quality of Life, precisely when Life’s quality is becoming utter shit.

Part 1 – Part 2

As written in part 1, my original intent was simply get into Rise. Then in part 2 I looked into mods to tweak the game, but couldn’t find anything worthwhile, but got some interesting mods for World instead.

Now, I dug enough to bring much of the same to Rise as well. So here’s the update with some more specific instructions to deal with it all.

1 https://github.com/praydog/REFramework/releases (I don’t think there’s any point getting “nightlies” for this)
2 https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterrise/mods/848
3 my monster health x2 scaling
4 https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterrise/mods/1061
5 https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterrise/mods/1300
6 https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterrise/mods/3225
extra: https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterrise/mods/1140 (this one hides all monsters from the map, look the comments section on that page as you need to perform a little manual editing)

The first is the usual basis to load mods, just one “dinput8.dll” that you place in the game main directory. The second is another dll file going into “reframework\plugins”, again used to load the rest.

The third is MINE. Since I couldn’t find a proper health scaling, I’ve done it on my own. The health scaling linked in part 2, for World, had a x2.6 increase on all monsters. I’m not sure if that may be even excessive, so for ease of editing and to be a bit conservative, my own is a x2 buff applied uniformly to everything. I have no idea how this applies in multiplayer (it’s possible that all other values are dependent on the ones I’ve edited, so everything grown in proportion… maybe), this was done just to buff health pools in single player for my own use. Just one file “system_difficulty_rate_data.user.2” going inside “natives\STM\enemy\user_data”

In case you want to edit it yourself, you need the editor. Then just load the file. I had no idea what I was doing, so I simply doubled ALL the values within “VitalTableRateList” and I’ve briefly tested this in game and it seems to work. I’m quite sure only a portion of those tables are actively used, but I manually edited all those 512 entries just to be sure… I found a mod that I used as an example, but that one only edited the multiplayer scaling, rather than base values.

Fourth link is to a loader for custom quests, used in the fifth link, that is just a collection of very hard custom quests. Adding quests seems relatively harmless since it’s just more stuff that you can optionally do. It shouldn’t mess with any of the vanilla content, so I just decided to install everything. Tho the quest editing is interesting, as it seems a relatively simple and flexible system to use and do whatever you want. This page being quite useful to have an idea of how things work internally and the type of control you have.

The fifth, that I have not yet tested, removes scout flies effect from the game. The green glow same as the mod in World.

Beside that, there are a couple more additional mods that could be interesting. One is some AI tweaks for increased difficulty (beware that the page mentions some issues). And another is Follow Me mod that overhauls a bit the companions system so that you can sort of simulate multiplayer offline. You can basically bring more AI companions to a hunt and manually tweak both the damage they do AND the actual monster scaling. So this could work even as a direct replacement for my own edit and give you more control on how the scaling works. I’m not sure it’s a perfect solution though. One advantage of single player is to reduce the chaos of a fight. So using additional companions can be fun to mess with, but I prefer keeping the visual noise down. And I don’t know if you can tweak properly the scaling while also keeping the vanilla structure for companions. As I said, I haven’t tested this.

Just in case you want to browse internal files and extract solely what you want, or just need a vanilla backup to compare, you can use this. So for example to extract the one file I edited for monsters health pools, I loaded “re_chunk_000.pak.patch_001.pak” that I suppose is the patch to the main file, and so should have the most up to date data the game uses.