Tooting my Own Horn: I Made Clockwork Empires Videos

Discussion in 'Clockwork Empires General' started by Alephred, Oct 27, 2014.

  1. Miganto

    Miganto Member

    I do love their 'posters' for each patch, I never have any intention of talking about them in the patch notes discussion but always end up doing so, and we both gladly use them as our thumbnails - props to the guys that put the effort in to create them :)
     
  2. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    Trying (and failing) to capture a Fishman Transformation on video:



    Sooo close.
     
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  3. Miganto

    Miganto Member

    I am having all sorts of oddities in my playthrough - icons bugging to the side of the screen, audio of mining comes out to the opposite side of where the mining is taking place relative to the camera, modules being placed in the middle of nowhere but being unable to remove them, military ai is either very good or very bad for one person - he never attacks enemies even if they're next to him yet has the 'doomed' trait.

    Mostly viewable in my 2nd and 3rd video (2nd just released).


    Yet no fun was lost! :)
     
  4. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    Hey, for those of you making videos: is there anything you guys would find particularly useful in game? I'm thinking from the perspective of making Let's Plays that actively tell or narrate stories, versus "Here's all the things that are new in the game
    this month."
     
  5. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    (might I suggest giving this question its own thread? I think more people might see it outside of this thread)

    Oo, I have Thoughts!

    I should mention that the majority of comments I get are about the nature of gameplay, e.g. "Will you mine faster if you build more than one Mineshaft?", "Your soldiers will do a better job if you disable Foraging Jobs", and "Why do you keep killing Cultists?" Maybe it's because the game itself wasn't stable enough to play something longer-term, until quite recently. I do look forward to doing more narrative-focused stuff going forward.

    Bullet Point list of suggestions I feel would make Let's Plays more appealing:

    • Zoom-to narratively cool events, e.g.:
      • alert: Lab Assistant Phyllida Ironhewer is researching a Fishy Idol in the Laboratory (click to watch)
      • alert: Mayor Oceanus Crimbleworth is issuing a proclamation at the town square (click to watch)
    • a soft chime / subtle golden firework effect when a new workshop is completed
    Things that hint at the Passage of Time and Narrative Continuity:
    • some kind of calendar
    • a weekly (?) newsletter with names of deaths, new arrivals, maybe that population graph, human interest ("chronic food shortage!" "3 bandit raids this month!" "Chemist's constructed!" "15 fishmen killed last week!" "5 colonists slain!" "cannibalism rampant!")
    • some kind of periodic summary, is what I'm getting at
    .. and probably just for me:
    • a graph of population over time, perhaps a cumulative line graph that's broken into colonists, military, aristocrats, etc.
    Random:
    • getting that minimap implemented will be immensely helpful

    Skippable Wall of Text Follows:

    It's easy to relate to the human element. And people want to see colonists doing cool things. The zoom-to functionality already exists in the form of clickable alerts (e.g. death by starvation, gabion destruction, etc.) - I would love to see the same thing applied to colonists who are about to do (potentially) narratively cool things. Ideally, before the event actually occurs, because folks want to watch the run-up to the event, in addition to the event itself.

    When people talk to each other about games, they generally don't say stuff like "I made really efficient use of my second farm plot, I can produce beer and bread with rapid stockpile turnover." They DO say stuff like "Man, my colonists sure love to drink and sleep, lazy peons." I don't really know how that can be encouraged in the UI, but there it is.

    Being able to reference familiar names is a big help for storytelling - nametags are a great step. Prior to the latest patch, nearly everything was "look at this nameless guy doing this thing", no real sense of continuity. The rare times a particular colonist did notable things were memorable and cool.

    The Passage of Time as Narrative

    The whole point of Let's Plays, I believe, is continuity. People want to them in order. Continuity is important; you don't just want to know the bakery got built, it's rewarding to see your peons gather the materials and physically assemble it, too. In a larger sense, the human brain is wired to take a bunch of random events that happened sequentially, and try to wring some kind of story or larger message out of it (Boatmurdered is an excellent example. I also tried my hand at a journal shortly after CE launched into Early Access, here). What I'm getting at is that Let's Plays benefit from Narrative, and Narrative benefits from things that leverage Continuity.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2015
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  6. Miganto

    Miganto Member

    My 3rd and 4th are up soon - I had to stop on the 4th video because there were too many bugs - one of which I believe was caused by me giving my military an order to kill a bandit as he died - I then couldn't remove the marker and they stood still for the rest of the time I played, including 'will starve to death soon'. I tried disbanding the unit (which just made them sad :() but they ignored future fish people raids.

    There were other bugs, as mentioned above, but overall it did feel a lot smoother. It crashed on save as well, so I beleive it was beyond corrupt :p


    For me - Alephred has covered a lot of good points, I would personally like to see stats. I think this type of game is perfect for graphs or tables that can show arrivals, deaths (reasons why), food types eaten. All things that could be used to see where you are succeeding or falling short - that could easily be transferred across in a let's play.

    It could be that you have to have an investigator/auditor job role and the more effective (or more of them there are compared to how many colonists you have) the more data you can collect.

    I think 'first times' of events would be good to see happening, in olden times this was a mini cut scene but I appreciate that's a lot of work, so even just an option to cut to it as it's going to happen. First farm produce, first home built, first church sermen etc - firsts show a progress in our story.

    I would also like to see a friends tree. As there are no families here but lots of friends, it would be good to see how they link and if we can use that to our advantage - ie put friends with similar talents in the same team means they work more efficiently yet the counter is that if they are inclined towards the dark arts, they will spread it faster in their team.

    The 'random character events' you mentioned in the recent blog should add a nice amount of flavour to the characters, make them more 'real' :)

    I did ask those that watch my videos to give comments if they have anything they'd like to see to 'improve the story'
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2015
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  7. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    A Revision 35D attempt to successfully record Mysterious Artifact Research and (hopefully) a Fishman Transformation. Second attempt overall:

     
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  8. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    Revision 36 is live! So I've begun a new series:



    As always, subsequent episodes will be posted here.

    Episode 2 is here. Episode 3 is here. Episode 4 is up.

    A two-fer, this session went long, so I broke it into
    Episodes 5 and 6, both uploaded.

    Episode 7 is up. I successfully researched a Fishy Idol!
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2015
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  9. Maffia

    Maffia Member

    Am still really enjoying your lets play type series thing, but I am finding the recent episodes a bit long (that 70 minute one at the end of R35 was a killer, could you split it in post?) I found the 20-25 minutes of the earlier episodes ideal.

    Also you need to add your pic to the YouTube account :p

    Other than that, keep up the good work!

    (also hope the devs are watching as there seems to be the odd bug found here and there, not sure if you notice it while engrossed in playing)
     
  10. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    Thanks for the compliments. :) I agree, the last installment of r35 went on way too long; I figure it's best to just leave it the way it is, now that's it's published, and try to keep future episodes shorter. I put in a bunch of annotations so people could skip around. Ironically, that particular video saw a flurry of activity because the Devs mentioned it on their Twitter feed. I generally aim for 15 minutes' length, but they inevitably run longer. At least my r36 ones have only been 40, 30, and 20 minutes.

    My YouTube account uses the same picture as my forum avatar here (the green bird pen-holder I have on my desk) - is it not visible?
     
  11. Maffia

    Maffia Member

    Sorry if not clear, meant for the suggestion to split to apply to future videos that run a bit long not ones already uploaded. I generally end up watching your vids in bed on the tablet before getting to sleep, fell asleep half way through the really long one as didn't notice how long it was until after I started watching :p

    Just checked on the YouTube interwebsite and pic shows up fine, just the app I use on my Surface doesn't show it (but shows profile pics for all other subscriptions I have :S)

    EDIT: Incidentally, I'm curious how well CE runs on a MS Surface (I have a Surface Pro 3 with Intel HD5000) has anyone tried?
     
  12. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    I've often had the thought that a mobile version of CE would be incredible. Generally when I'm watching Clockwork Empires videos on my Nexus 7.

    CAM00043.jpg
     
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  13. Maffia

    Maffia Member

    Watched episode 3 last night, length felt really good and left me wanting more as opposed to feeling "I enjoyed it, but glad its over and I can sleep" as I do for some of the longer ones.

    I don't know if it's just me, but I would rather binge watch 6x20 minute 'lets plays that' 2x1 hour ones.
     
  14. Rahbek23

    Rahbek23 Member

    Definitely and can also easily be used in a a daily scheme, as in "I can watch one before doing the dishes". My favourite whip and carrot type of strategy when it's stuff that's overdue such as clean out a drawer or whatever I had otherwise just kept postponing.
     
  15. Unforked

    Unforked Member

    Alephred, I hereby request a video which is almost entirely cult-focused (when the stable build is up). It can be part of your regular monthly update videos, or separate "special" episodes. This means actively trying to cultivate (HA!) cults by holding off on building chapels, avoiding laudanum production until necessary, allowing for the building of shrines, and stripping the land for artifacts to study.

    Anyway, if you have time, I'd enjoy that.
     
  16. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    I'd been thinking along the same lines, actually - I want to see all the new cult and bandit stuff too (and generally speaking, I've been letting Cults have their way for the last few updates, since they became less murder-happy). And look, r37 is live!
     
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  17. Miganto

    Miganto Member

    Unforked - I just released my patch notes (thoughts) video and have said that it could be interesting to do that and am planning on giving it a go to see if I can keep a very happy colony purely through cults, however I do wonder how much work will actually get done with all the worshipping going on!! :)
     
  18. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    Is your voice just very quiet on the most recent video or is it just me?
     
  19. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    I've begun my Revision 37 playthrough (really, r37a). As always, subsequent episodes will be linked to this post:



    I've now uploaded episode 2. And 3. And 4.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2015
  20. Miganto

    Miganto Member

    It was a bit quiet, it seems when I record my desktop rather than a game, it lowers the volume - will try to sort it for the next patch notes video.

    I have uploaded the first of my R36/37 Let's Play and have quite a few issues already.

    - I was put on to 37A without chosing an experimental build
    - The up and down arrows failed to work in the lower item queue, but were fine in the upper
    - Items carried by (standard weapons or looted commodities) is viewable in the fog of war, it was fun to see a sword floating around and lumps of ore wobbling away :)
    - 2 people had their skill upgraded but it did not show on their char panel

    Personal preference - the nameplates aren't the easiest to see if the background is light, it would be nice to have a slightly different shade or a lightly shaded background behind them

    I like the new zonal select. Fog of war, nameplates and skills are really really great features that've added immersion to the game without a real reason, I even loved the new sounds :)

    Nich, if you are watching our videos you'll see the issues highlighted, i've made it obvious when it happens and think I have covered them all.

    Best of all, even with those niggles I zoned out a couple of times because I was enjoying investigating what was happening with people and forgot to speak to the audience! I want to find out how my people evolve now that they have actual names and actual skills, floaty swords won't stop me!