AutisticTorch welcomes you to... whatever this
Welcome to the home of Customize to Compare — and whatever other bullshit I happen to make along the way. Updates, videos, random thoughts perhaps, and probably an insane amount of autism can be found here.
Latest Updates
Season 2, Episode 6 - Obey Tailgater S
Season 2 Episode 6 is out, and it's one of the better episodes as of late if you ask me.
Dom's back, but different. (not really)
I Want to Try Something
I watched a video on Minecraft Let's Plays today, and it spoke about how seasons and episode numbers can be off-putting to a new viewer, and I understand completely - with Minecraft content, other YouTube content, and television.
So today I'm announcing that I'm dropping the season and episode numbers... at least for now. I'll likely do a few videos, maybe the rest of the season (5 episodes) without it and see how the algorithm treats it.
Because when you see view drops like this... you start to question what the problem is. It makes me think that rather than Extended Frequencies being the reason CtC doesn't get views, that Extended Frequencies gets views because it appears as a standalone thing. Let me know what a good alternative to keep the season and episode numbers in spirit is, in case this actually helps the series. We'll have to see. Next episode is soon, trust me - I've finished it except for the intro, because I need to re-do the voiceover.
Remember, you can open this image in a new tab if you need.
And here is the video I saw, if you would like to give it a look yourself.
American Traffic is Weird as Hell: Part I
As you might guess, I grew up on Grand Theft Auto. The ultimate parody of American culture and society, so as an Australian a lot of it is foreign. That includes the traffic too. I distinctly have no memories of recognising any cars from the franchise apart from maybe the V8 Ghost from Liberty City Stories and the sports cars from Vice City. As I entered my teens, a lot of it was spent on the infamously unreliable GTA Wiki (fuck Fandom by the way - can we get an actually good wiki not on that stupid ad-riddled bullshit?) looking at what on earth these cars that were an iconic part of my formative years ACTUALLY WERE, especially the Deimos SP.
Anyway, introduction aside - American traffic is weird as hell. Here's my thoughts on it as someone who has never been to America but has journeyed hours upon hours in Google Maps and has taken in countless American based media, from the internet, to movies, and of course video games.
Saturn was a weird company
The Saturn Corporation - from my knowledge - seemed to be a car manufacturer for the new generation (as of the eighties and nineties mainly) focused on not trying to gouge every penny out of your wallet. A novel concept, apparently. Naturally, this was part of the reason for their enshittening in the 2000s before the financial crisis was basically the thing that did them in because General Motors decided that a car company that saves the consumer money was not a wise business decision (GM is no stranger to those) and axed it.
But during it's lifespan it produced some very 'America' cars that feel... almost European? Check out the Ion Quad Coupé. It's a coupé with four doors, because the rear ones are tiny suicide doors. Unfortunately I'm not too familiar on the inner workings of automobiles - I'm moreso the culture around them and such - but this was shown on the SC2 in MotorWeek as well and it seems quite easy to get in and out of.
2005–2007 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe
Clamshell doors, Image by CZMarlin
Dustin's family apparently owned one of these at some point - though it was the sedan version - and I asked him about it. He said this:
"The Saturn Ion. It was my grandparent's car, it was unconventional, and even had the dashboard in the middle of the car. You had to look to your right to look at it. All sorts of defects, but I really liked it otherwise. During its final year or so of usage, we had to start it with a screwdriver."
If that ain't Saturn, I don't know what is.
Holy fuck, American trucks ARE MASSIVE OH MY GOD
In Australia, you drive a ute to carry your tools and your grog. In America, you drive a truck to carry your ego and the extra weight the average American truck driver is usually accompanied with. So naturally after both the death of Ford Australia and Holden we actually started seeing Chevrolet products. And by 'Chevrolet products' I mean exclusively the newest generation of Silverado. Sure, they sell more than just that but it's the only Chevrolet thing I see on the street of my somewhat small Australian town. I stood next to one for the first time about a month ago now in an IGA car park and I could've rested my chin on it. For context, I'm a 5'8" or 5'9" (not quite sure, think it changes with shoes on) nearly 20-year old and the bonnet of a car was almost my height. Never did I think I could headbutt a non-commercial car with my chin.
Here is a photograph from the perspective of me in the passenger seat of a new Kia Sportage next to what I think is a GMC Sierra Heavy Duty Crew Cab Dually. Both myself and the social worker who I was accompanying were speechless. He asked me if he was hallucinating or if he was actually seeing it.
Big ass GMC Sierra Heavy Duty Crew Cab Dually thing
Speaking of trucks, some that aren't quite that big...
Ain't That a Kick in the Head?
The Ford Courier was a rebadged Mazda mainstay of the Australian farming community ever since it first arrived in 1978, and stayed in Australia even after it's deportation from America in 1982 - in which it was replaced by the Ford Ranger. Nearly three decades later it would be exiled from Australia and be replaced by the Ranger again, except this was the T6 Ranger; a Ford Australia concoction that sounds like crap because it came with either an inline-four or inline-five engine. I thought they had V6 versions, but that was something that only came with the second generation of T6. The Courier lived on in Brazil until 2013, where it was basically a ute version of the Ford Fiesta of all things? But that basically means the Courier was killed thrice by the Ranger.
From the Australian perspective, the American Ranger feels like a look into a different universe. My favourite in particular is the first generation which was the basis of the Vice City and San Andreas Bobcat. I could picture a country drive in rural Nebraska in that thing with a crate of Bud Light in the back, or something. I really wish we got this thing instead of the Courier, which to me looks like plastic garbage, mainly because the bumper is just that.
The Bobcat from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
First generation Ford Ranger
Dog shit ass 1990 Ford Courier
T6/P375 Australian Ford Ranger; the modern day white tradie's '64 Impala
To me, the Ford Ranger is like that meme of two wolves. One wolf is American, and is a classic piece of Americana; the American arrogance that only non-Americans can see, mixed with practicality straight out of the dealership. The other wolf is the Australian T6 Ranger, a vehicle that will always be prepped for the Australian bush but will only ever see asphalt on the way to the next work site.
All the T6 needs are some paint tins and illegal firearms in the back of it. I'm looking at you, Dad.
Unfortunately, I think I'll have to split this in two or three parts because I've spent the entire afternoon of the 14th writing this and I'm thoroughly braindead now. Next time we'll talk about the Ford Crown Victoria, Pontiac, and the Ford Territory.
The Yacht Video
Okay, so this week I was going to continue the Machinimas and Overambition post by talking about the lore connections between catsmackaroo's Westside Minions trilogy and Customize to Compare before I scrapped it, but it basically boils down to luck - except for eCoJ who would've taken a deal with the government. So instead, I'm going to not bore you to death THAT way and instead discuss a video that never was; the Yacht video.
In the video below I discuss the events of February 11, 2024 where I was hacked by someone who had hijacked the accounts of Sims 4 modders and had also made accounts pretending to be modders - posting versions of the mods or updating them if he had control of the "official" accounts with a Remote Access Trojan from the .package files that Sims 4 mods are. Picture someone AnyDesk-ing into your PC in the middle of the night while you're asleep and telling people through YOUR ACCOUNT that you hate African-Americans (but in a more offensive way) and love adult content involving people who shouldn't be in that sort of thing. If you want more info you can go watch the video but you won't need it for this - that's all the context required.
Well, before that happened I was working on a YouTube comeback video and my idea was a 30 minute to at most probably 50 minute video on myself, Revicarrus, Dustin and for the last couple days Ricky playing GTA Online to help me buy the Yacht. It's one of the biggest standalone transactions in the game other than a dumbass golden plane that's 10 million dollars. I had the Aquarius which was the most expensive one at $8,795,000 - because you don't half-ass a goddamn yacht. You go all in on that shit. Here's the stats, and the ONE video I have of the play sessions... making fun of Dustin. It's a wonder he still hangs out with us. Sorry, Dustin.
Day 1 (10/1/24) Started day: $1,597,712 Ended day: $2,837,138 Total Profit: $1,239,426 Total time played: 5:21:53 (3:42:10 w/ Dustin) (1:39:43 solo) Projected ETA of $8.8 million: about a week Day 2 (11/1/24) Started day: $2,837,138 Ended day: $5,618,256 Total Profit: $2,781,118 Total time played: 5:40:36 (all with Dustin, no solo today) ETA to $8.8M: tomorrow (probably won’t because fuck doing Cayo twice tomorrow) Day 3 (12/1/24) Started day: $5,618,256 Ended day: $7,085,419 Total Profit: $1,467,163 Total time played: 4:38:44 (all with Dustin and Fawks, no solo today either) (we did Cayo twice) ETA: Tomorrow but actually Day 4 (13/1/24) Started day: $7,085,419 Ended day: $8,841,253 Total Profit: $1,755,834 Total time played today: 05:24:36 (all with Dustin, Fawks, Ricky. No solo) Total time played all up: 21:05:49 Money made for yacht: $7,243,541 Money spent on yacht: $8,795,000 Friends who assisted: 3 (Dustin, Fawks, Ricky)
Dustin bought the Turreted Limo on accident. A ribbing ensued.
That's all for today, you'll hear from me this Friday when I discuss American traffic - because as an Australian, that shit is weird. The Pontiac G8? (R.I.P) Acura? GMC?! A Ford Crown Victoria? WTF is that?!
Also happy birthday to Dustin, he's 21 today. Like when you add nine and ten together.
When Shit Goes Wrong
Sometimes things go wrong when you record and edit videos. Anyone who's done YouTube any further than recording on their phone or console's recording feature - like editing (even basic editing) and adding sound effects like how I started, should know that. So it should come as no surprise when I say that Customize to Compare has had it's fair share of fuck-ups.
Most of these have been pretty big - losing whole episodes - while some have been salvageable with a bit of extra effort (I'm looking at you, Dustin), and I'm going to talk about them.
There's been three episodes that never made it to YouTube; two of which were my fault with not properly setting audio settings and the other was because of GTA Online's needless restriction of only one class in a race. So we'll talk about that latter one first.
Season 1, Episode 3 (or S1X3); The GTA Special
Recorded just before we recorded the Primo episode which would actually become S1E3, we recorded the GTA Special - planned to be Revicarrus's debut and then the Primo episode would've been Episode 4. it was basically us stealing cars off of the street and customising them. Both myself and Revicarrus ending up choosing a Sabre Turbo while Dustin went with a Schafter.Season 1, Episode 9 (S1X9); Ruiner ZZ-8
This was going to be Dom's second appearance, and as such I'm quite disappointed that we (sorry, I) fucked this one up. He's great on camera even though he'd say he sounds retarded all the time if you asked him that. Also he was high during the recording too, I feel like it's worth mentioning that.
It's legal in Maryland, don't worry - he's got a prescription or however the fuck that works over in America.
Season 2, Episode 1; Albany V-STR
This one's weird, I know I said there were three and not four but this one doesn't quite count. I've got a scene for it and a script was written because it was apart of a fancy intro to start Season 2 (this isn't overambition because I was fully capable of it in a timely manner) but it was ultimately scrapped for the Karin S95 because not only were we on Enhanced so I wanted to do a vehicle from that version but also despite being from the Diamond Casino Heist update (which had some quite customisable cars like the Sultan Classic) had little customisation. Sure, the Albany Primo had that issue plus a monetary cap and still turned out to be a pretty good episode but not only does that feel like something you can only do once, a big part of selecting cars for the series after we ditched the Prize Ride connection (and apart of the reason for doing so) was that a lot of the cars just have shit tuning options. There's a reason we haven't done a sedan yet after all this time - Rockstar's laziness.
Don't worry, the next one's a sedan.
Season 2, Episode 5 (S2X5), Seminole Frontier
The most recent one, also a microphone issue due to me having streamed Grand Theft Auto III the day before so I still had my stream audio settings - we lost what was meant to be Revicarrus's final episode and had to then rush to get the next one out as soon as possible. There's not much to say about this one other than Revicarrus having a worse looking car than Dustin... for once. I mean, what the fuck is that shit?! Gold?! (yes) At least Dustin's blue and white look... okay, I guess.
Dom's customisation section from S1X9
V-STR intro (no sound)
The Comparing of the GTA Special
The Comparing of S2X5
Worth noting that Dustin's entire customising segment during the Calico GTF episode was entirely faked and was actually recorded after we realised that his footage completely corrupted. Great acting, Dustin.
Machinimas and Overambition
Today I figured I'd tell about my original plans for the Interlude and how my overambition led to it's massive delay. First, we've got to start at around this time last year; just before Episode 10 of Season 1 came out.
Basically, the original plan for the epilogue of that episode was going to have a small scene where Ricky and I held each other at gunpoint, before the LSPD N.O.O.S.E surrounded me and I had to surrender. Now, this was going to lead into a storyline that would go along side the traditional Customize to Compare format - at the end of every episode you'd have an epilogue (think S1E10 and S2E5) where you'd have me doing some odd jobs in order to regain my captial that I lose in the Interlude (which is still mentioned) and Revicarrus's flight in S2E5 was originally going to be him getting locked up in prison for something relatively minor by Ricky - who was actually an undercover cop and had pulled some strings to get Revicarrus imprisoned since he was unable to get me. I had some other ideas floating around when it came to the odd jobs and what would be the finale but before I scrapped it all, I had two scenes.
The first was one of the odd jobs; stealing a TARV (a modded in lore-friendly Bearcat) from the LSPD station in Mission Row or La Mesa - with assistance of eCoJ on a laptop hacking and catsmackaroo as a sort of decoy with a car. The other was the finale, basically fighting Ricky on my yacht (the most expensive thing I lost when I got hacked, which is the reason my character got arrested in the first place) to 'Where's My Money' by Busta Rhymes.
A concept of saying goodbye to cat before the TARV theft
Photo recreation of this SAMP screenshot; connecting the lore
Cut trip scene from Interlude with Ricky
A screenshot of Dustin at Wigwam, about to hear some not good news
Now, with the Interlude - it was meant to have a couple more scenes, taking place after it ends in the final video. It was meant to have me waking up at Revicarrus's the next morning, we chat a little, I reveal that Ricky arrested me to him. Then, we'd end up at a Wigwam in Vespucci Canals and I'd tell Dom and Dustin that news before we drive off to CNT - because the lore was that we went from an internet series (like in reality) to getting picked up by a massive television network! Also, pictured above was a cut section of the trip from the Interlude with Ricky - inspired by Black Ops 1, I actually have a work in progress audio file to accompany it, but I'll give you a volume warning before you click it. It's a tone that gets higher in pitch, along with Dom and I saying "Vengence isn't something we need to bother with." (a line that would repeat later on) and the ringtone that wakes me up. It was cut for two reasons. One; when I trimmed the lore from the series I didn't want to include it because I felt I'd have to commit to a finale with Ricky and then I'd want to give it a story instead of appearing seemingly from nowhere and two; the trip was already long enough. It's somewhat cringe-worthy, but this was before I learnt soundscaping for Extended Frequencies. (go check that out btw)
Also a noteworthy mention, the whole 'getting shot thing' was spawned by a one-off joke by someone. The original plan was just to be arrested and bailed out (which makes a lot more sense in hindsight, but whatever - GTA has respawning at hospitals, I can have this) but I decided "No, me getting shot is more interesting"... and then the overambition started.
Likely sometime next week is when I'll cover that overambition, and also how I was going to connect the lore between catsmackaroo's Westside Minions trilogy and the Customize to Compare saga. Stay tuned.
New Episode: Season 2, Episode 5
Season 2 Episode 5 is out, the final episode featuring Revicarrus! We cover the Dinka Blista Kanjo, and it even has a little machinima section.
Touching Grass
I've got a job, after exactly 250 days of not having one. Funny how things work out sometimes. This will likely affect uploads because it'll create more schedule conflicts with almost everyone except maybe Dom and Dustin. But the future is uncertain. We'll just have to wait and see.