November News

Some news regarding my channel:

1. I'm currently on vacation far from home. I was smart enough this time around to prepare some episodes and take them with me so as to upload them from my new location. However, I wasn't smart enough to take the correct episodes with me, so Gothic -72- will be skipped in favour of uploading the next one in line. No worries, that video will get online as soon as possible and nothing significant happened in those 15 minutes other than me trading items.

2. Therefore, there will only be an upload every other day or so... and no thumbnails for now. You may still contact me via comments, PM, Gmail, Twitter etc. In fact, please do so. I have a lot of spare time on my hands right now =P.

3. YouTube is changing its policy once more. The change comes with a heavy emphasis on copyright and apparently my partner programme (TGN) is quite anxious about it. Over the last few months I kept receiving copyright complaints regarding my Saboteur LP. I deleted the first few episodes in question and tried to summarise their content in the next videos' descriptions, but the complaints keep coming and I fear I would have to delete the majority of this LP eventually, anyway. Since I always thought that the Saboteur LP was my lamest one I am not sad to announce that I will now delete the entire bloody thing to avoid any future hustle with YT and EA.

Hope you people are alright.

Help?

I've got a little problem on my hands that I cannot solve on my own. Maybe one of you knows a solution?

As mentioned before, I got auto-connected with Google+ some months ago. G+ was kind enough to create a brand-new page for me that is essentially just mirroring everything I do on YouTube. Owner of this page is my old G+ account that I created with my real name back in the day when Google+ came out and some friends thought we should give it a chance. Since then, I haven't used G+ for anything. The account is just lying around like dead meat and same goes for the auto-created CptGreenbear-page.
Of course I could just ignore this waste of webspace, if it wasn't for the fact that this forced marriage significantly messed up my YouTube website appearance. My inbox was hidden in favour of half a dozen G+ features that I don't need or want.

Using Google (oh the irony!) to search for a solution shows me that I'm not the only one with this problem. 
The simple answer: disconnect the page via YouTube settings.
The tricky answer: this option only works within 14 days of the forced connection. Afterwards, it is permanent. This, of course, is nowhere mentioned on any Google support pages. Oh, and did you ever try to contact the Google support? They state on their feedback side that while they cannot answer any requests personally, they will make sure to mind the feedback in future updates. Yeah. Right...

I then thought I might be able to just delete the page itself. You know, since I'm the owner of the page and all. But no, G+ tells me (and this must have caused quite some laughter at their evil headquarter) to either delete my YouTube account or disconnect it first. The latter being a link that leads me nowhere.

So this is where I am now. I really want to get rid of this connection without sacrificing my YouTube account. I own the YouTube website, the Google+ CptGreenbear page and the old G+ account that funtions as owner to said page. The latter two may get deleted for all I care. Any ideas? Let me know on YouTube or via cptgreenbear@gmail.com!

No Conclusions

At the end of my Risen 2 LP, I told you about a special video I planned with my personal conclusion and review of the entire game. What I was planning was something like the 'Movie Sins' videos, with me listing all the things I liked and disliked about Risen 2 - Dark Waters and supporting my points with video material running in the background. While my spoken text was quickly done, it was quite difficult to collect video material for all the features mentioned. To be a bit more precise, I have been working on this for several weeks already and feel I'm not even half-way through. Now, with my work and the according lack of spare time, I really started dreading this project of mine, especially in regards to the fact that Risen 2 has been a rather unpopular LP of mine and I wasn't very happy with the game myself, either. Now who would like to hear me point out every single bug, glitch and logical error of a game you have already watched me play for over one-and-a-half years? You, sir? I don't think so. And where is the point in working on a video I do not enjoy making and you guys won't enjoy watching when I already have little time to do the videos I/you actually care about?
So why am I writing this and not just forget about my promised video? The main conflict for me here is this: on the one hand, I would like to show you as much of the game as possible (good and bad) and help you make up your mind about it. On the other hand, a video so full of negativity will only pull you down, would always be subjective and still fail to actually summarise the game in its entirety. And who didn't get a chance to make up their minds about this game after my overly lengthy LP, anyway?
So I decided this: I will abstain from adding individual reviews at the end of each LP and instead just state whether I liked the game or not and name the main positive and negative points. Should be sufficient to clear things up, right?

Availability

With me being really busy lately I'm even more forgetful about the messages I have to reply to on YouTube. And it has been pretty bad before, I can tell you! So sorry to all those still waiting for my answer. The thing is that YouTube has one of the worst messaging systems I've encountered so far and it got even worse lately with my new (involuntary) linking to Google+. I do not get any visible updates for new messages or comments at all anymore on the YouTube standard page, but have to click through three subcategories before seeing whether someone messaged me. Also, there's no option to mark messages as 'unread', so I have to reply at once... or never! It's ridiculous, really.
So please: if you want to ask me anything or want to discuss a game or just feel in the mood to chat, refer to this mail address instead: cptgreenbear@gmail.com
Or, if you want to stalk me, check out my (rarely used) Twitter account: https://twitter.com/CptGreenbear

Working Bear

'Look at that lazy bear! Aspiring to be a proper LPer, but taking break after break from YouTube, not uploading anything ever! I WANT MA MONEY BACK!'

I probably just quoted about 90% of my viewers and you're right. Here's my apology to you. As you might know, I have been unemployed for quite some time, so I was able to upload every day despite my really crappy Internet speed. This has changed now. I finally found employment and am now working in an awesome book store, selling literature and sometimes actually talking English with tourists! This is amazing for me and quite exciting, but also incredibly exhausting after my long time of doing nothing at all. Plus even if I was in the mood to work on my YouTube apperarance after a long shift of dealing with customers, I wouldn't be able to... because an upload usually takes several hours, which I simply do not have. So here are the three options I have right now:

Option 1: I start an upload when going to work, which means my PC will run the entire day with no one around, wasting energy and possibly dying in the heat for nothing.

Option 2: I start an upload right when I come home, giving you the usual daily videos but in the late evening (around 10pm GMT or later), leading to me being unable to blow off some steam in online games because my ping is going through the bloody roof.

Option 3: Alternating uploads either in the morning or the evening right before and after work, which is really confusing and messy, so there will be days when I just forget about it.

Best one is probably number 3, however, there won't be any more uploads for a few more days. Reason being that I haven't edited any new episodes yet because of the same lack of time and energy.

Sorry about all the inconvenience. Veriax is still doing great LPs, so you might want to watch him while waiting for me to grow up and get used to work life.

Chivalry Noob Guide for Archers

Some years ago I was dreaming about an online FPS that involved medieval combat, including melee weapons as well as ranged ones, soldiers trying to get into a castle and others trying to defend it by all means necessary. Kind of like in Mount & Blade but with real players working together.

Now I found something very similar to this idea in ‘Chivalry – Medieval Warfare’. The game features a small amount of maps and game modes, as well as four different basic classes with a variety of weapons that can be unlocked by killing enemies. The tutorial is great and introduces all the classes, but still I decided to mainly focus on the only ranged class available and while there are both bows and crossbows in this game and I’m very well aware of the major difference between these two, all ranged combatants are always referred to as ‘archers’. I will now attempt to give you a brief summary of my experiences as a crossbowman in ‘Chivalry’.

 

Yep, I’m a crossbowman, alright. They are the weakest unit in the entire game in regards to their defence. They can be one-hit-killed even without head-shots, so it is essential to stay unnoticed, move around a lot and be aware of one’s surroundings. Bow users are just as vulnerable to attacks, but their great advantage is that they can move around while notching a new arrow (aka ‘reloading’), whereas the crossbowmen must stand absolutely still for the one or two seconds it takes to reload their crossbow. They also lose sight of their surroundings during this time, since they have to look down, so during the reloading process they are an easy target for any class. Best way to act for a crossbowman is to aim, crouch, fire at a target, then run for cover and reload. If an enemy is coming for you and is already closer than 15 metres, reloading becomes pointless and one should try to block all hits with the sidearm (short sword or dagger) and retreat, hoping for some team member to stop by and help out. Just turning and running away works only if an enemy knight or archer pursues you, since both the vanguard and the man-at-arms class have a jump attack that lets them kill an escaping target easily.

The great advantage of crossbowmen over bow users is their increased damage and range. Their bolts fly further before dropping/arching and they can therefore stay further behind the battle line, avoiding melee combat and bow men alike.

There is one more small detail making a crossbowman’s life unpleasant and I’m not yet sure whether it’s a bug or an intended feature. If a crossbowman gets hit by a ranged weapon (arrow, bolt or throwing weapons), there’s a certain chance of losing the already notched bolt in their own weapon, causing the character to automatically reload (which, as stated before, makes them completely vulnerable). It doesn’t happen all the time, but veteran fighters will use this to their advantage when approaching a ranged combatant, throwing their knives or axes at them, thereby stunning them into utter uselessness just to finish them off in close combat.

Speaking of melee, the ranged fighters are (obviously) quite useless in close combat. Their short swords or daggers have a much smaller range than any other weapon in the game, so exact timing and a whole lot of luck are required to take down any enemy. Best way of fighting in close combat is to support other ‘proper’ melee fighters by flanking enemies and casually stabbing at them.

You have probably noticed by now that the way of the archer is not the most honourable one and indeed basically any other class user hates archers. Few rounds go by without anyone complaining about ranged fighters and their noob way of fighting. Interestingly enough, some users claim all archers are over-powered and should be downgraded during the next patch of the game while others are sure that archers are way too weak for the game and should be removed because they don’t pose a threat but rather a nuisance. As an archer, one is constantly the target of insults, team kills and general hatred, while trying to cope with the classes actual problems (especially on laggy servers aiming is downright impossible while blindly slashing at enemies still works).

 

A good feature to help out troubled archers is the enabled kick vote option. One can initiate a vote to exclude any given player from the current game and all players will see a small pop-up indicating the player’s team kills in percentage as well as their idle time. This helps a lot to decide whether the user in question was misbehaving and is a burden to its team or whether the initiator of the kick vote was just frustrated or even confused him with someone else.

 

The bad thing about this type of kick vote is that people just glance at the percentage of team damage said player has committed so far and then decide about their fate. Let me use an example that happened to me not too long ago: I entered an ongoing game, ran forward close to the battle line and shot a few bolts at some enemy archers without hitting anything. Then I noticed multiple enemy melees pushing through our lines to the right, so I aimed at them, waiting for my own comrades to either step away or perish so that I had free line of sight. When this was the case, one of our own knights stepped in front of me, facing towards me and not the enemy, crouching down so as to be exactly in my way when aiming. This happened quite fast, so my one and only shot at the advancing troops hit him instead. Knights don’t die from a single shot to the chest and though I was sorry for the team damage, I decided not to apologise for it, since it was clearly his fault for trying to block me. However, once the enemies were down, he initiated a kick vote against me and then immediately started slashing at me with his sword. Since my team damage was stated at 100% at this point, I was kicked so quickly I couldn’t even explain my situation.

 

This was not an isolated incident. Melee troops often attack archers from their own team, claiming poor excuses like ‘They were standing in my way!’ or ‘He shot at me once!’. However, in a game where team damage is not only always enabled but an essential part of fighting and approaching opponents more tactical, the ill logic of their behaviour becomes obvious.

 

A unique gadget crossbowmen possess to benefit the team is their shield. It’s too heavy to carry around much, but one can place it anywhere and then hide behind it to reload and recover from wounds. Especially in the game mode ‘Protect the King’, this item becomes invaluable, shielding the king from enemy archers. Sadly, the crossbowman’s shield is also one of the most buggy items in the game, often crashing into nothingness when touched, so one mustn’t come too close when hiding behind it.

 

All in all, I’m sure there are lots of features that could be improved about the archer class in ‘Chivalry’, though the greatest downside of the game is still the other users’ inability to work together and appreciate class diversity.

Break

I'm rather fed up with certain things regarding YouTube, LPing and other matters, so I will take some time off.