I’ve found that for single person purposes, a RAID array is unnecessary. I just buy beefy 8TB drives. If it dies, just download any recent torrents again or pull a backup

So, you can work around these things but you’re going to run into problems if you do:

-If you reset the router, you need to restore the original password else they’ll know

-if they notice you using these devices when you wouldn’t have access, they’ll remove them further from your reach. Possibly permanently.

-If detected, a larger conflict is likely to be escalated. This includes a loss of the benefit of the doubt in the future.

I’d suggest that this is not the battle to fight. They’re likely fighting your apparent obsession with tech. Let them have this battle and continue your fun later.

Try the Stormlight Archive, wheel of time, or mistborn books. Maybe the redwall books if you’re younger. Fun and focus can still be had without a computer!

I’d act like it never happened. If they recognize that they got weird, then they deserve some dignity. If they don’t, then I don’t want to get into that hot mess.

Real, albeit shit-tier modder here. You are correct.

Mods depend a lot of the type of mod.

Entity model changes are relatively easy, often as simple as replacing texture and model files. This is highly dependent on the tech used to make the game and how it’s packaged.

Sound files, similarly, are a file replacement job as long as nothing too funky is involved.

After this, we start to get into larger toolchains. We need tools to decode game data so it can be manipulated, tools to gain access to the game as it starts up or as it runs, and tools to use those tools to create modifications and implement them easily.

Graphics upgrade mods often use directx overrides, such as in SweetFX and Reshade. Sometimes they replace or override existing game files directly.

Bug fixes and additional functionality are where things get really interesting. At first, these are done with hacks done in the form of function overrides that can only be created after analyzing the compiled game executable. Later, tools are built that allow easier access and present game functions to other developers for easy modification.

And sometimes the difficult parts are skipped over entirely when developers include modding APIs or SDKs for public use.

Try switching to a different proton? You’ll also need to use Vulkan drivers

For the second one, try turning off steam overlay for this game. For the first, are you running the game with Proton enabled?

Terminal isn’t over complicated, it’s the most basic interaction with operating systems and was the first mainstream UI to ever exist because it’s a natural extension of what interacting with a computer truly is.

Terminal has very basic, particular syntax: Command [required parameters]

It has some useful additions as well, like

| to pass the output of the precious command to another command

> to write to a file

< to read from a file

This basic structure allows additional tools to be installed and run without having to learn a unique GUI with all the quirks of the GUI designer for each application. You just add new commands and move on with your life, maybe referencing the manual page to check which parameters you need.

Windows has a very particular GUI design that everyone knows because of the way Microsoft captured the market in the early days, before laws prevented them from doing so. Windows is esoteric, it has a variety of GUI philosophies all jumbled together. Explorer/control panel exists next to “Metro” apps, now “Windows apps” and they both do separate things without ever integrating the two properly.

Windows is arcane and understanding it fully is thousands of hours of practice, if you actually try new things. Linux is perfectly usable from command line with just a few dozens of hours of practice.

I say all this as a primarily Windows desktop user who uses Linux when it comes to actually getting things done. If we taught Linux to our children in schools and if businesses provided as much Linux training to workers as they do windows training, the discussion we’d be having would be about how windows is too complicated and just needs a UI similar to the ones available with Linux.