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.

Thumbnails

A while ago I wrote a lengthy article here about my struggles to become a YouTube partner. When I was done with that several-pages-long piece of work, I realised that it was wholely about me whining and held no entertaining content whatsoever, so I deleted it again. Plus I actually did gain partnership shortly after. However, becoming a partner granted me only few of the promised advantages, the most important of them being: individual thumbails.
Seriously, people: this was the main reason for me to become a partner and it was absolutely worth it! Creating interesting, personalised thumbnails for each video has become one of my new favourite things related to my LPing career. It's so satisfying to have a little piece of art smile back at you, advertising for your videos instead of the random convoluted piles of mess YouTube offers non-partners as thumbnails. It looks a lot more professional (though the content of the videos certainly didn't improve) and attracts viewers much more efficiently than any exciting title ever could.
However, as Spiderman's uncle said: with great power comes great responsibility. Theoretically I could create any thumbnail I wanted. Of course, what comes to mind first are half-naked women pushing their various humps into the viewers face. Research has shown that YouTube viewers do indeed instinctively click on these videos more often than on others. And in fact I have done just that... twice now. Once for a Thief 2 episode named 'Hookers' because of a supposed hooker I knocked unconscious and then once more for my Gothic Erotica video, where I featured the in-game picture of a half-naked lady. So you see that - though I had the opportunity - I used this cheap trick only on videos where the thumbnail accurately descripted the content of the video... and not just to generate views and distract from my lack of humour/entertainment/general purpose in life. Don't want to point fingers here, but since you're all familiar with YouTube there's a good chance you know who I'm talking about. Gosh, how I dislike that guy. Goes to show that the path to the dark side is way easier to travel.
Another tricky thing about thumbnails is that you can't just march off into the depths of the Internet, grab any picture you like, drag it back home and then alter it for your purposes in order to create some fancy thumbnail. Generally speaking, EVERY picture is protected by copyright. Using it without the explicit permission of the owner is actually a crime. There are some ways around this problem, however. Of course you could just ask an artsy friend to draw all the thumbnails for you or give you permission to use their work and attribute them in the video for it. If you have an artsy friend, of course. And if they are willing to work for your benefit just like that. OR you could check out the huge database of royalty-free images available at various websites (wikimedia is my personal favourite so far). You still have to check every image you find there for its specific copyright status, but most of them are free to download, alter, distribute etc without having to credit anyone or being worried that the NSA sells your criminal arse to the local authorities. Or, in turn, uploads your private pictures on their website without your consent...

Risen 2 Rises!

Good news everybody!

Nevermind that last blog entry! Turns out the simplest solution was the most effective one: just deleting and re-installing the game fixed the corrupted files. Huzzah!

Risen 2 Is Going Down

Just a heads-up: there is a definite possibility that I have to abandon my Risen 2 LP. 

This is quite a bummer, given that I think I was close to the end and I would have liked to see this project finished properly, but I can't get the game to work anymore. All save files appear to be corrupted, leaving the game frozen during loading screens and forcing me to crash down to desktop or even shut down my PC manually at times.
I will try out a few more approaches and keep you posted on my progress.