Planning a Let's Play Campaign

[MikeBlack]

Hey there folks, I'm a small time youtube Let's Player and I'm planning on doing a Third Age series. I had actually planned to start recording and uploading with this game about a year ago (made a thread, probably buried far far away by now heh heh), since I've sunk countless hours into it over the years. As always a huge thanks to the modders and all contributors, I've definitely logged more hours in Third Age then the rest of the Total War series combined by now, very impressive work!

I'm looking for a bit of advice or suggestions regarding my planned let's play. Previously when I was getting prepared I was using Baron Samedi's submod compilation, and on 2 or 3 test campaigns I got uncompleteable campaigns (crash to desktop, loading earlier saves always resulted in a crash at the same point), which was a bit disappointing, so I put my plans for this game on hold, well I can't hold back any longer, so I decided its time to try again!

Now, I know there are lots of "big" youtubers out there who have done series of Third Age (and some even lurking around these forums if I remember correctly... ), that I'm sure have covered each faction, but I'm a bit curious if some of you from the community (that follow let's plays at all heh heh) feel a specific faction might be in need of some love? I've personally played around with each faction by now, and probably completed the campaign with most of them, although the majority of my experience was back in the 1.5 days if I remember correctly.

Also of note, I'm certainly interested in submods (even after my trouble with the barons), so I'm debating whether or not to try something like MOS maybe, looking for a bit of input in that area as well.

I'll be doing a test game or two before I actually start recording, I'm not in a big rush or anything, but I like to have things planned out as well as I can I'll probably be playing H/H if I can handle it, I usually upload 720p (curse my shoddy Canadian internet connection), and my channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/BlueAnkylo?feature=mhee
if you're interested. I've fairly recently uploaded a "channel update' type video, which although mostly deals with what's been going on in my other series, in the second half I try to explain my tentative Third Age plans.

Strictly speaking I'm not a "terribly" experienced let's player, but I think I have a pretty good idea how to commentate as I go along, trying to keep things interesting and the like, I'm already anticipating the need to cut out the "end turn" portions since I recall they can start to drag on and on... and also the intent to reduce "stack spam" if possible, there will be slightly different priorities for a let's play then a normal game. (I'm also really not the kind of youtuber that's digging for subs and all that, I'm just doing this for fun and all, so if I end up getting 10 views per video it doesn't bother me )

Anyway, sorry for the long post, thanks for reading, and I look forwards to any discussion and tips!

[FC Groningen]

Well, we'd all love to help out on advice and anything, but if you want advice, we'd need to know what faction you take first. Also, some general information on how you play the game would help too.

[Maiar93]

Well, for a good campaign, I suggest Rhûn, Mordor or Silvan Elves.

If you want a bit of interesting/hard stuff, I suggest Isengard/Gondor/Rohan.

If you want a frighteningly difficult LP, try Eriador. If you're a good commentator, you could turn it into an amusing experience.

[paradamed]

I would suggest you to do something different than what has been done before. I would go with a faction like Dunland in MOS cause I dont remember a lets play of Dunland.

[Wolfeson]

Silvans or Rhun would be good factions that haven't seen a lot of action in LPs as far as I know. Or, as paradamed suggested, if you're using MOS, you could do a faction that only appears there. If you're looking for some commentators to use as good examples, the best two I watch are SurrealBeliefs (just finished a MASSIVELY long HE campaign, currently plowing through a short Dwarf one, then moving on to Mordor) and SaxonKing1225 (he just wrapped up a nice Harad campaign, not sure what's up next for him).

[MikeBlack]

I'm definitely interested in trying to do a faction that hasn't been played to death, and I'm leaning a little to the evil side at the moment I have enjoyed playing Rhun a lot in the past, so that might be a good idea, or Mordor just for the fun of the Olag-Hai...

I'm not 100% sure how my skill level will work out, I'm a little rusty at the moment, but I'm playing a bit to get the hang of things before I start recording, I would of course prefer the campaign to be successful on camera, but its probably more important for it to be entertaining, and a cake walk is no fun

I'd forgotten that MOS added new factions, I'll definitely have a look at that, I haven't really played around with submods since my Baron Samedi attempts about a year ago, that's why I'm looking for a bit of advice on that front.

It seems to me I managed to pull of an Eriador campaign in 3.1 fairly well... but I can't remember the difficulty... that's always the trick. What seems more interesting, a VH/VH campaign that may be doomed to fail, or an easier setting that has a better chance? heh heh

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Elven Warrior]

if you do add sub mods you should add alkinars elf ancillary and trait sub mod

[Son of Mars]

MOS Dale, I think Dale is very underused and could use a LP. It'd be epic to see the men of Dale assault Mordor through Rhun and dominate the Eastern side of the map.

[Fedual]

I mean no disrespect to the original TATW when i say this, but in my opinion MoS completes TATW, you should do the "lets play" with MoS, because so many of us use it and because (again my opinion), TATW becomes so much more fun to play.

Try VH VH Eriador, with Eastern Shadows on. After some time when you Finally! united Arnor you will see that gondor is gone and mordor is on its way up to give you a proper asskicking

THAT would be fun to watch


Best Regards, Fedual

[Ethien]

I also suggest going with MOS for it's stability and what it brings to the game overall. The only downside is the immensely longer turn times. Experiencing this in Stainless Steel 6.4, I do pause my recording as I end turns, but some people may not feel comfortable doing that. I do at times feel as though it interrupts my flow but it's just not efficient to make 30-45 minute clips. Especially when you see the average viewing time of a video may be six to ten minutes top.

[MikeBlack]

Thanks for the recommendations on MOS, I definitely like the looks of it from what I've read so far, and if its stable (less campaign ending crashes) that really cheers me up As far as the long end turns go, yeah I'm pretty much expecting to have to cut them out at some point, I was playing Shogun 2 not too long ago just on my own and felt the really long end turns were dragging it down on there own, I'm assuming here with all the extra scripts it can really bog a video down as time goes by, I'll probably deal with that as it comes up, I'd like to keep the flow going as you say Ethien, but if its taking too long then definitely it will need the cuts.

That Eriador challenge seems real scary... I'm not quite sure how well I'd do on that one, since theres no rule about only doing a single recorded campaign I might hold that in reserve for a round two, hopefully after a bit more experience I'd have a better shot at making it through that Definitely a good suggestion though, I'm just not sure how long I'd last at the moment...

I remember reading about the elf ancillary/trait mod before, and particularly if I end up playing one of the elven factions I would definitely try to get that submod in there.

And I could definitely believe that Dale is underplayed, I know even personally I've probably played them least out of the good factions for sure, for some reason I could never really "get into" a campaign with them, always sort of fizzled out for some reason.

Thanks again for more suggestions and ideas, I think I'm off to install MOS now and see how that all works

[kingo26]

You should play with the elves of lorien which is a new faction in Mos

[Riverknight]

Dale like Sons Of Mars said is a very low key faction and has a unique position on the map. Eriador is also fun because you get to become me a King of Arnor

[MikeBlack]

Thanks for the input guys! I decided to go with MOS and playing as Dale on H/H for now If things go well perhaps I'll do another Let's Play campaign with one of the other suggestions later. I've recorded the first couple episodes, so take a look if you're interested, I'm totally open to feedback and suggestions, I'm by no means an expert Third Age player so advice is appreciated! So far we're only a few turns in, trying to quickly take the rebel settlements between Dale and Rhun ASAP, anticipating some bloody conflict with Rhun in the very near future, and hoping to maybe swing an alliance with the Silvan elves with a bit of luck, although we are also allied with the Dwarves... guess we'll have to see how fantastic our diplomat is lol!

Dale Playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...ature=view_all

[Bowmaster]

Now you need to change the name of the threat. It's no longer 'planning' it's 'doing'.

[shikaka]

The reason why I don't bother watching "Let's play" and "total war multiplayer" videos on youtube is that they usually lack information. What I have seen until now was mostly about bragging and telling kinda bad jokes of the AI.

What you should do to make a really original "Let's play": share meaningful information with viewers. Tell them about your long term strategy and your shorter terms aims to reach it. Tell them about the units you purchase, and why you used them (like "Rohan should be a horse faction, but in this mod their cavalry is restricted and average. I will be using general bodyguard with archer militia for most of the time). Tell them about the build order and reasoning. Tell the viewers about (and show them) how to breed a good governor. Tell your battlefield tactics against the AI, positioning, formation, etc.

Share meaningful information, don't do another of the same low quality serieses.


edit: here is what I am talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQxsmyR9dYk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFDrUMShf3c
(the latter from 3:39)
If you watch all parts of this mission, you will see how a good let's play looks like: the guy there shows you alternatives, gives hints about the tactics to use, the routes to take (and why he prefers on over the other). Very informative and explains things to consider if one aims to be good (it seems he put lots of effort into making let's plays)

Yeah, the videos are not Total War, but I didn't see a Total War commentary which was worth the time spent watching until now.

[Bowmaster]

The reason why I don't bother watching "Let's play" and "total war multiplayer" videos on youtube is that they usually lack information. What I have seen until now was mostly about bragging and telling kinda bad jokes of the AI.

What you should do to make a really original "Let's play": share meaningful information with viewers. Tell them about your long term strategy and your shorter terms aims to reach it. Tell them about the units you purchase, and why you used them (like "Rohan should be a horse faction, but in this mod their cavalry is restricted and average. I will be using general bodyguard with archer militia for most of the time). Tell them about the build order and reasoning. Tell the viewers about (and show them) how to breed a good governor. Tell your battlefield tactics against the AI, positioning, formation, etc.

Share meaningful information, don't do another of the same low quality serieses.

A little nice humor is always welcome.

But I agree, if not totally, but partly. I was watching MikeBlack's first Dale video, and I really got bored to it. It was funny to hear his reaction to the many scripts that MOS has, but it got boring in to end. But I can't blame his for MOS having many scripts, but maybe he could have tried to do it a little bit faster.

Then he started shoving things. "Here's one army" "Here's a second army" "This building does this" "And that building does that"... I was waiting for him to finally make his move. I was like thinking "Where is this going to". Then finally, something happens. He moves the army on the north-east to south towards Araw. But it seemed like he had no idea what he was doing. He was like: "Oh, hmm. Let's move... that to over... there." He did tell something interesting, which kept me going and watching it. I watched almost the whole video, except in the very end.

Then the next video. I really didn't bother to watch that, I just skipped to the battle-part (which I usually do) and started watching your deployment. (Btw, thanks for the tip, MikeBlack, I didn't know that you can run when you're using ladders, it can be a pain in the ass when enemy archers light your men to fire while they are slowly walking with their siege equipment) And so the battle begun. I watched some of it. But then I got bored to the bad 240 graphics that my PS3 has to offer (lOOOOOng story why I had to watch it with that) and I quit

[MikeBlack]

Now you need to change the name of the threat. It's no longer 'planning' it's 'doing'.

I would like to do that, but I don't think I can edit my own posts...

The reason why I don't bother watching "Let's play" and "total war multiplayer" videos on youtube is that they usually lack information. What I have seen until now was mostly about bragging and telling kinda bad jokes of the AI.

What you should do to make a really original "Let's play": share meaningful information with viewers. Tell them about your long term strategy and your shorter terms aims to reach it. Tell them about the units you purchase, and why you used them (like "Rohan should be a horse faction, but in this mod their cavalry is restricted and average. I will be using general bodyguard with archer militia for most of the time). Tell them about the build order and reasoning. Tell the viewers about (and show them) how to breed a good governor. Tell your battlefield tactics against the AI, positioning, formation, etc.

Share meaningful information, don't do another of the same low quality serieses.


edit: here is what I am talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQxsmyR9dYk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFDrUMShf3c
(the latter from 3:39)
If you watch all parts of this mission, you will see how a good let's play looks like: the guy there shows you alternatives, gives hints about the tactics to use, the routes to take (and why he prefers on over the other). Very informative and explains things to consider if one aims to be good (it seems he put lots of effort into making let's plays)

Yeah, the videos are not Total War, but I didn't see a Total War commentary which was worth the time spent watching until now.

I totally agree with you on your points, and I will definitely try to make informative videos. That is the style I've tried to do in previous Let's Plays and will be attempting for this one, the only caveat is I'm not even going to try to claim expertise at Total War, for instance most of your suggestions for a Total War let's play I will be doing, but breeding a good governor is something I rarely bother with, other then perhaps not building too many brothel line buildings and trying to move generals around every now and then.

Thanks for the suggestions, definitely gives me something to keep in mind moving forward as I record

A little nice humor is always welcome.

But I agree, if not totally, but partly. I was watching MikeBlack's first Dale video, and I really got bored to it. It was funny to hear his reaction to the many scripts that MOS has, but it got boring in to end. But I can't blame his for MOS having many scripts, but maybe he could have tried to do it a little bit faster.

Then he started shoving things. "Here's one army" "Here's a second army" "This building does this" "And that building does that"... I was waiting for him to finally make his move. I was like thinking "Where is this going to". Then finally, something happens. He moves the army on the north-east to south towards Araw. But it seemed like he had no idea what he was doing. He was like: "Oh, hmm. Let's move... that to over... there." He did tell something interesting, which kept me going and watching it. I watched almost the whole video, except in the very end.

Then the next video. I really didn't bother to watch that, I just skipped to the battle-part (which I usually do) and started watching your deployment. (Btw, thanks for the tip, MikeBlack, I didn't know that you can run when you're using ladders, it can be a pain in the ass when enemy archers light your men to fire while they are slowly walking with their siege equipment) And so the battle begun. I watched some of it. But then I got bored to the bad 240 graphics that my PS3 has to offer (lOOOOOng story why I had to watch it with that) and I quit

As soon as I rewatched that first video I knew I'd sorta messed up the intro there, what happened was I knew as I was recording the video was getting to long and full of script decisions, so I wanted to wrap things up fairly quickly while still giving a bit of a "ok here's my starting forces, let's decide what to do with them next video" sort of thing. I call it the let's play fluster lol And its at that point I have to end the video and take a break to actually plan out whats coming up next

I feel the second video was probably better over all, the pacing should start to step up, so there will be more progress per video, and less basic things to stop and try to explain. Glad I managed at least 1 helpful tip though heh heh

As far as people skipping through the video that's A-OK to me, as I do it myself when watching LP's, in fact I think its one of the great things about youtube, you can watch as much or little as you like, skipping parts that you're not interested in as you please, I'm under no illusion that everyone will watch my videos start to end, and I think that's a good thing as far as entertainment is concerned!


Thanks for the feedback, I really do appreciate it from everyone, its one of the things I find moderately lacking in the youtube comments section, I usually either get "Likes" or "You sucks" (or something like that lol), neither of which really provide much insight on how to actually improve video quality. Heck I'm still interested in improving the actual quality of the video as well, I still tweak settings in my video encoder to try and brighten/sharpen/etc to make it look nicer on youtube.

[dannyalex]

that was one of the few campaigns i enjoy my self,find it nice and ur voice is really good

[MikeBlack]

Just though I should make a small post here to say I successfully completed the Dale campaign Things went quite well overall, managed to take out Rhun fairly quickly and force our way through Mordor all the way to a bit of Harad land. Took 52 episodes, and about 140 tuns, but I like to think it turned out pretty well.

I enjoyed it enough that I'm starting another let's play campaign on the other side of the map with Gundabad to be completely different.

If you're interested and/or bored head over to my YouTube channel and have a look at them

http://www.youtube.com/user/BlueAnkylo?feature=mhee