Quartz' IWD Let's Play (Sir Durandel)
Quartz
Member Posts: 3,853
The first episode ended up being tediously long if you ask me. Then again, I suppose Let's Plays for Infinity Engine games are normally quite long? Anyway, I look forward to feedback as to what I did wrong, what I did right, etc. before continuing. Please let me know what y'all think … and thank you in advance!
http://youtu.be/C1sFXgmLB1c
http://youtu.be/C1sFXgmLB1c 12
Comments
Ok, I've started watching a bit and there is a point in your intro where the background music suddenly gets really loud so that your voice is barely audible anymore. Other than that I really like your approach.
Your voice and manner of speaking are pleasant to listen to, which is a big plus for me. 'Some other Let's Plays' I've peeked into are really lacking in that department.
It's interesting that you skip character creation. On the one hand it's nice because stat rolling etc. are usually boring to watch, on the other hand it might be important for people who are completely new to the game to learn about the ability scores, weapon proficiencies, etc. but I guess that always depends on what you expect from a 'Let's Play'.
I've only watched the first 10 minutes or so, but I will watch the rest eventually and add anything noteworthy to my post.
Update: I've watched the rest of it and there are some minor things that could be improved imho:
- While you are shopping you are talking about how this might be boring for the viewers, there's some moaning, etc. Instead you should try explaining what you buy and why you buy it. For example you could talk about your proficiency allocation and the reasons behind it, you could point out things like that it's important for every party member to have a ranged weapon to be flexible in combat, and so on and so forth.
- Sidequests: Imho you should do all of them and even point out ones that are easy to miss. People like stuff like that I think, at least I do.
- When your party leader dies, you're kind of rambling a bit. You could instead talk about how there are two different kinds of "death", one that is permanent and one that is not, that you can always resurrect people as long as their portrait can be seen on the right, etc.
- In general I think you should always try to provide information that people might find useful when something happens so that your 'Let's play' is a bit educational at the same time. There are always things that people might not know, no matter how experienced they are. For example I learned today that Barrow Wights and who knows how many other Undead can actually be slowed! Years of D&D experience apparently didn't cover that part.
Altogether I would say that you did a great job though. As I said in the beginning there are a ton of other 'Let's Plays' that I can't even watch because of the caster's erratic voice and/or behaviour. The "flaws" I pointed out are also simply my opinion. Depending on your target audience that might widely differ from that of other viewers.
I will take all of your suggestions into mind … Thank you very much!
The Good
-Most notable plus: your voice is not annoying. That is hard to do, so you have a big advantage there.
-Love your description of the three games and how they are all different but awesome. Spot on.
-Pomab is indeed a jerk-mage
-I like the idea of seeing a blackguard lead a party. Interesting mix of alignments as well
The Bad
-At around the 2:12 mark the music gets loud an I can't hear you give the background story
-Durandal's portrait is ideal for a blackguard, but doesn't really seem like the kind of guy who would be a good leader
The Ugly
-yo mama!
-nothing, really. good stuff. Will continue watching a bit later, make sure to continue!
Yeah I seriously effed up the music equalization there. It was sort of a last-minute addition sooooo that's why. >_> I uploaded it then started watching for a bit and I was face-palming. Oh well.
You have a good point about Durandel's portrait … I have an odd attachment to it since he's from a previous run. I'll give that some thought, I don't know if it'd be wise to change it after it's already been established though..? What do y'all think?
Errm, and obviously I'm pretty flattered with the feedback on my voice so far. As someone who practices voice acting, singing, and public speaking/dramatic reading, and is anything but a natural, that means a lot…
I agree with others' assessment of your voice. Looking forward to the next episode.
Thanks jackjack!!
wait...having now read other comments:
First off, I agree with everyone about your voice, very nicely modulated, great tone, consistently interesting which is a plus...I must admit the hour runtime on the video intimidated me but having watched the first 20 minutes, I think your voice can carry off listening to it for that long, so well done.
*Really enjoyed the introduction story of characters, both in text and V/O, something I haven't really seen done before - not that I tend to watch many, but the ones I have tend to fumble through character creation kind of aimlessly which can be a little tedious. Your party seems quite unique which I enjoy
*Background music can be a little intrusive at times, but I now see you already found that out...
Pretty much @MrGoodkat nailed it for me, information is always good, explaining your motivation for any actions/dialogue choices is always welcome, even when doing the mundane shopping/fetch quest stuff. I've heard you do a few examples of this in Pomab's, which was enjoyable for me, and I do enjoy your reactions to what you see on screen, so all i can say for now is keep it up, well done, and hope you keep having fun doing it.
Reason №7: "You'll get a Let's Play from Quartz. Yes, you heard it right, that Quartz"
To say "thank you" is not to say anything. Now I have to resist (it's so hard!) spending one hour of my working time watching this video
Oh, stop it, you. Something something God, something good and evil.
You can see how much I'm learning from it. :DDDD Thanks mate. I'm glad people seem to be appreciating the introduction … Besides the muck-up. xD
@jackjack So, labor omnia vincit actually showed up in my Latin test this morning. Thanks for the review.
Glad Sendal and Plato survived!
Thanks for the video, excellent : )
It's clearly been too long since I've played obviously, if anyone has any wonderful tips for not dying based on what I'm doing wrong they'd be appreciated.
- to kite as much as you can; the AI in IWDEE is so-so, and you should definitely kite a monster/a pack of them with one of your characters - the barbarian seems to be the best due to her speed - while others finish the job with arrows/bolts/darts/stones
- to try to ignore melee fighting till your characters have at least 30 HPs
- to use invisibility and scout; check where the enemies are and spam the Sleep spell - Grease - Web - Stinking Cloud - Fireballs there
- to start using every spell you have at your disposal - even Grease is great
- to use battle enhancing spells more - Chant, Bless, different emotions
- to rest often so that you have all your spells and abilities ready for every other fight
I've been very intentionally avoiding kiting because it's sort of anti-climactic and underwhelming and all that. Same for resting a ton, it's unrealistic and underwhelming.
But if people want me to do these things so that less dying takes place, I will do so. I just want opinions before I proceed.
Think: if you're on an adventure and you know you have two possibilities: to rest in order to have a chance to survive or not to care about your backup spells/abilities and thus to face a sudden death. A cautious figure would choose the first option.
But in the same time, I perfectly understand the opposite view.
So, my advice (is it an advice at all) is to play exactly the way you want to play it. The more sincere your playthrough is, the better it feels like both for you and for us, the viewers.
I saw a few things in tactics and procedure that you could be playing a little safer. One would be to watch your hit points more closely, and make use of your healing potions. A priority of spending should be to get every party member equipped with several healing potions, with more on your frontliners.
Pause and heal if anyone gets to half their hit points, even if the battle is almost over. The cost of a healing potion is less than the cost of dying.
Watch your formation. The squishies will tend to get ahead, so you have to stop sometimes and let the toons get back into appropriate marching order. Think like the commander of an elite military squad that is deep in enemy territory. Don't move ahead quickly. Creep forward slowly, and be very aware of your surroundings.
In dungeons, the thief should be detecting for traps at all times, and remember how slow the process is in the Infinity Engine. Even a thief with 100 detect/disarm traps is still going to walk right into them if she moves too fast.
Anyone who doesn't wear a helmet should pretty much never engage in melee. Take steps to avoid drawing aggro with them if possible, and have them run away if they do get attacked.
Watch out for enemy archers. Hold your squishies back out of range until your frontliners have drawn their fire.
As for "cheese", I say stay alive by any means necessary. What some people call "cheese", I call survival.