D_W posted:

I've been thinking about doing an LP of the Orcs Must Die games.

Here's my first video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8SK1_VLWE0

I'm not so sure about my commentary though and would like some suggestions. Perhaps its just because there isn't much going on in the first level. Also I was planning on explaining the basic mechanics of the games in the opening of the thread though perhaps I should do that in a video?

EDIT: Oh all the commentary was done post. I kind of just talked about things as they came up and did multiple takes.

Choco1980 posted:

Oh No, There Goes Tokyo! Go, Go, Godzilla!

Choco1980 posted:

Oh No, There Goes Tokyo! Go, Go, Godzilla!

Choco1980 posted:

Oh No, There Goes Tokyo! Go, Go, Godzilla!



What Is This?

1954 marked the debut of the film Gojira in Japan. Retitled the following year as Godzilla for Western audiences, the film took the world by storm. While hardly the first film about giant monsters, its distinctly Japanese flavor (and perhaps its metaphorical anti-nuculear weapons stance) basically single-handedly kickstarted a whole subgenre known as Daikaiju films, or often shortened to Kaiju (particularly for western audiences, as in Japanese the word simply refers to strange monsters, not necessarily giant ones, as the Dai prefex indicates) which involves gigantic monsters (obviously by this point) thrashing cities and often wrestling other giant monsters and/or robots. In other words, the most awesome of God's gifts to man.

This month, a new Godzilla film, made by an American company comes out, marking it as the 30th Godzilla film (32 if you count the American edits of the original film and the 1984 reboot,) and there have been nearly as many games featuring Godzilla. This does not count the many, many films and game that feature the giant monsters that followed in Godzilla's mighty footsteps.


Wait, a lot of games? Are you making some kind of Megathread?

It can be...with YOUR help! As I said, there are literally dozens of games out there worth Let's Playing, and I would love nothing more than for this thread to flourish as a place to show off as many of them as we can. And if not, I'm still going to do my LP(s?) not to mention will be looking for guest commentators, and have this be a place to chat it up for all things Kaiju related.


Sounds Great, I want in! What games can I LP?

Well, when it comes to the various Tokusatsu sub-genres, there's a lot of overlap between things, especially between the Daikaiju and the various styles of Sentai, or the giant robot fighting genre that is so popular. So I think what should and shouldn't be allowed should be on a case-by-case basis. For example, Nobody could argue that Ultraman doesn't belong in this thread, and Gundam does not, but then something like Power Rangers is a bit of a gray area. One point of difficulty though, is that the information to Western audiences regarding the games in the Kaiju genre appear to be all unreliable. There are several different sites out there claiming to be experts at Godzilla, for example, yet each seem to have information the others do not, so take that into consideration if you choose to use these sites as your go-to starting point. Also, do not assume that the games have to be Japanese in origin, so US-made games like Rampage or War of the Monsters are fully welcome.


SPOILER POLICY

Honestly, very few of these games have a plot worth caring about past "step on buildings, blow up military, beat up other embiggened monster", so I'm for the most part not going to enforce any spoiler policy in this thread. If someone plays a game that has a plot they really want kept secret, well okay. Also, as I expect plenty of talk about the movies and tv episodes of Kaiju media, I think it should go without saying that the new film should be, at best, discussed with spoilers in use.


And on that note, Let's get this show on the road, as I begin the thread with Godzilla, Monster of Monsters! for the NES.

Let's Play Godzilla Monster of Monsters!

Getsuya posted:

Quality-wise the video seemed good. I don't think you need to worry about your commentary quality either, I felt it got the job done. Since you reference a forthcoming Opening Post in the video I imagine any of my questions about what on Earth you're playing will be answered there.

Big concern though: you need to turn the audio up for the cutscene. The balance is fine for when you're talking during gameplay, but since you go silent to let the cutscene play you'll want the viewer to be able to hear what's being said more easily. As it is, it's quiet enough that I had to turn up the volume to hear it, then had to turn it down again when you started talking. It's a little thing but I think it definitely needs to be addressed.

Other than that I think it looks just fine, and I look forward to the thread.

quote:

Overview:
The Orcs Must Die! series are 3rd person tower defense games by Robot Entertainment. There are three games in the series. The first one is completely single player while the second was mainly designed with co-op in mind and all stages/modes can be played alone or co-op. Third is a free-to-play competitive multiplayer game currently in semi-public alpha.

So these games are tower defense games, right? So that means you make paths and mazes for enemies then watch it unfold, right? Well yes, these games are TDs, but building paths and watching your towers defeat enemies while you do nothing but sit there with a grin on your face aren't these games. The OMD series is very active and the stages are often tense and hectic. There is some path building (particularly in the second game), but for the most part the series focuses on creating “killboxes” at choke points and blocking off paths to channel the enemies into these killboxes. You do this by placing traps and guardians instead of towers. Traps generally come in three flavors; floor, wall, and ceiling. There are also guardians and these are basically the most tower-like thing in the game. We’ll be making a lot of use of the archer guardians since they’re pretty drat powerful in both games. Finally we have weapons to directly attack enemies when our traps aren't enough. The more powerful weapons tend to use MP. There are some miscellaneous items like the boom barrels and the second game adds another class of items called trinkets but we’ll cover those when we get to them.

On completion of each level the player is given a rating of 1 to 5. Instead of stars like most games the rating is in skulls! These skulls can be used to upgrade your traps and other equipment. The upgrade systems vary from game to game so we’ll go into more detail for the specific games.

The LP:
This thread will be a 5 skull playthrough of the first and second game. Including the main campaigns, DLC, and other modes (except Nightmare mode and maybe OMD2’s endless mode.) The first game has much less content than the second and to be honest the second one is superior in almost every way. We’ll still play through it though as it does a better job introducing the concepts and has some really fun stages. Since the 3rd is both still in development and a competitive multiplayer game we won’t be covering it. (maybe I'll do a stream or video and mention it in the thread but it won't be an official part of the LP.)

These games are about experimentation and there’s a ton of different ways to get 5 Skulls on each stage. So occasionally I’ll be doing alternative takes. For the first video of each stage we’ll be doing them with the equipment that is at hand as any player would first encounter them. Then maybe I’ll go back and use different loadouts. Maybe even taking challenges from the thread. (Like "beat Finale using only brimstone" etc.)

Since I have all the DLC items we’ll be using them from the start. I promise that they’re not too overpowered and they don’t make the games much easier. This only really applies to the first game which has a much more limited item pool than the second.

As of right now the commentary will be just be me. If people like it and want to jump in to do co-op for the second game or something I’d be fine with that.

When it comes to spoilers. These games are not heavy on the narrative. There’s not much story to spoil, but generally let’s keep the spoilers to a minimum. When it comes to traps, other equipment, and stage names feel free to talk about that stuff. While the first game hides future traps, OMD2 shows everything in the spellbook from the get go even if the equipment is locked.

BlinkLed posted:

KHII FM+

mastajake posted:

This looks like something I'd be interested in. It might be better with a co-commentator so you aren't rambling so much, but the video looked good to me, and the sound levels seemed fine.

ReturnOfFable posted:

Bring someone else in.

chitoryu12 posted:

I'm wanting to make an LP for the 1860s Old America mod for Mount & Blade: Warband. I've seen a few M&B LPs so far, but none for this kind of mod. I'm starting off easy, a simple screenshot LP with text in-between. No in-universe perspective or gimmick characters or challenge runs (I don't know the game nearly well enough to futz about like that). Just a plain, simple LP that tries to not only talk about the game itself, but also explain the setting, factions, technology, etc. in both an in-game and real world context. I pull no punches in talking about the issues the mod has; playing it is mainly because it provides a much more unique version of Warband that only a few mods really provide, as opposed to realism changes or a medieval Europe setting.

The only real issue is that the mod tends to suffer from "out of video memory" crashes quite a lot, and the only way to get around that for now is by lowering the quality a bit. However, I've looked over every image I've taken (especially the images with text in them), and while they don't look as pretty as they could, it's all legible and not at all confusing.

Here's a small sample of what the LP would look like at the beginning, after character creation and the intro.

http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=18298

Lets play Heroes of Might and Magic: Strategy at its questest posted:

What is this?
In 1986 Jon van Caneghem and New World Computing released a game called Might and Magic book one: Quest for the inner sanctum. This was a RPG that has been expertly (and entertainingly) played by Thuryl. You can find the Let's Play in the Let's Play archive. As most probably know, Might and Magic was a great success, successful enough to spawn multiple sequels (9 currently).

He made some more games after Might and Magic that I'm not interested in, but in 1990 he released King's Bounty. A strategy game where the objective was to recover 25 map pieces used to find the Scepter of Order before the time limit passed. A complete departure from the Might and Magic this was actually a strategy game. At the start of the game you picked your player character (carefully avoiding the word Hero) from Knight, Paladin, Barbarian and Sorceress. Throughout your journey you would recruit creatures to fight for you while your hero player character bolstered them with magic. (This game was also expertly played by Thuryl whose taste appears impeccable.)
The game was well received, which apparently gave Jon an idea. What if we took that concept and combined it with my long running Might and Magic series?

And thus in 1995 Heroes of Might and Magic: a strategic quest was born. Featuring mechanics based on King's bounty and set in the world of Might and Magic. It was successful enough to spawn multiple sequels as well. The most loved of these is Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which despite being released 1999 still has a very active community. In fact here is currently an ongoing LP of Heroes3 started by Spermy Smurf, though it is Legoman who is playing through the campaigns.

Why this game?
Every time a discussion starts I always see everyone praising Heroes 3 and while definitely deserving of said praise, in my own opinion the earlier games had a certain charm that none of the later games match. The charm stems from a combination of graphics and a healthy sense of humor. (and maybe some nostalgia sprinkled on top)

I chose this game because, while I have more experience with 2/3, I have very fond memories of this game.
It's the game that introduced me to Heroes of Might and Magic purely by chance (hurrah for boring BBQs) and one of the few games I have played that prompted me to seek out the game. I never found it, but instead bought Heroes2. (and later Heroes3) I poured many hours in both, mostly on single maps.

In addition to the above it's a lot shorter making it a better pick for first LP tries. Only 8 maps/levels.

I did finally buy the first heroes when Ubisoft released the Heroes of Might and Magic: Complete edition in 2008. So that is the version we will be seeing.

How?
The game technically has 4 campaigns, one for each of the four following "races".
Knight with fabulous hair:
Starting stats: 1 attack, 2 defense, 1 spellpower, 1 knowledge.
Special: The knight adds +1 to the moral of the army.
Barbarian (this guy is called Antoine. There is no reason for me to point out his French sounding name):
Starting stats: 2 attack, 1 defense, 1 spellpower, 1 knowledge.
Special: A barbarian suffers no movement penalties for moving on rough terrains.
Sorceress :
Starting stats: 0 attack, 0 defense, 2 spellpower, 3 knowledge.
Special: A sorceress can move at double speed on water and starts with a spellbook.
Warlock :
Starting stats: 0 attack, 0 defense, 3 spellpower, 2 knowledge.
Special: A Warlock has a larger visibility radius in the adventure window and starts with a spellbook.

But really, the only difference in the campaigns is in starting position, difficulty caused by patented Heroes of Might and Magic balance and the final levels where you take out the other factions. So for now the plan is to just play through the campaign once using the knight.


Why the knight? Well, canonically knight was the victor of the war and we will try to make this happen. Though I always imagined the war would look something like this:


The game itself contains very little story, but during my research I found that the manual contains letters written by the victor, Lord Morglin Ironfist. I will be using these letters in combination with what little ingame story there is to go through this LP and hopefully liven things up from just being a set of steps.
Unfortunately not all of his letters match up to what happens so the first update a long stretch of text followed by the first week of screens.

I will admit I am not the best Heroes player, however I should be able to finish it as last time I played it (shortly after buying the complete edition) I came to level 5 before the computer crashed and the save was lost. Still, if you have any gameplay tips feel free to give them.


update 1

SuccinctAndPunchy posted:

Meanwhile, I think it's good and think a co-commentator is completely unnecessary and possibly detrimental for the kind of strategy-focused video he's trying to present. Unless you can bring someone else in whose also done this challenge to bounce strategies off of it's probably not going to help. Not everything needs a co-commentator.

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Min-level runs are usually slow, methodical and take up quite some time.
He's going to run out of things to say and KH2 isnt exactly a very short game.

Darth TNT posted:

Also Pierzak, you were absolutely right. There are some amusing sounds in this game as well. And because of you I felt obligated to get them. They are in the next update. I hope you feel bad.

Any and all comments are greatly appreciated.

Darth TNT's Test Post posted:

He looks thrilled at his new power. We leave the treasure chest and move to kill some peasants.

Darth TNT's Test Post posted:

Darth TNT posted:

Also Pierzak, you were absolutely right. There are some amusing sounds in this game as well. And because of you I felt obligated to get them. They are in the next update. I hope you feel bad.

JamieTheD posted:

Also, I started the whole "Silly unit noises" thing, so credit where credit's due, and we look forward to MORE BLEIGH!

JamieTheD posted:

EDIT: Whups. Enemy fase? to? Those are things you can correct with a final reading, though, so it's all good.

JamieTheD posted:

Do NOT fix this GIF's framerate. Ever. Seriously, this made me cackle evilly, so it's a plus point. Also, I started the whole "Silly unit noises" thing, so credit where credit's due, and we look forward to MORE BLEIGH!

Pierzak posted:

I told him about the dragon flush in HOMM1, though.

(And I second the "don't fix the tavern gif" sentiment - not to mention that gif isn't broken, that's how it looks in-game)

Pierzak posted:

As for the update itself, I found the pseudo-narrative intro kinda meh, but it's OK since we can clearly see where the LP-inserted content ends and the game begins (scenario intro). You also missed some references to King's Bounty, but that's something to post in the thread

Graphics look OK, except the knight-narrator portrait, it looks weirdly rescaled. Either keep it standard size or rescale it using a better filter to avoid the "uneven pixels" issue. And speaking of filters, are you using the bestiary entries from the strategy guide?

Kloro posted:

Titel as well. I'd recommend running the updates through a spellchecker, it's easy to miss things like that when you've written it yourself.
Otherwise I really like it. Looking forward to the LP.

Darth TNT posted:

I'm sorry, but I butchered part of the titel on purpose because I have a bad sense of humor. Which part of the titel is wrong?

Darth TNT posted:

beru04 posted:

So I've got a first run-through for a Football Manager 2014 Challenge Mode LP, which was something I expressed interest in doing in the FM14 LP thread. Skipping the first post, to jump forward to the first two updates:

http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=18455

http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=18457

Mostly I'm just looking for opinions on post length. I figure the first update is a bit too short, but it will be coupled with the first post, so that is more directed at the second update.

quote:

Why are you surrounding the video with a border? Why not just eschew the border entirely and have the game fill the video window? If you're worried about someone stealing your video footage, it's pretty easy to just edit out the border so that slightly reduces your video quality for no real benefit.

quote:

Is it necessary to do this live? I have nothing against doing this live, but it'd make for a snappier video to record the video, edit all of the chaff out and then comment on it in post. You also pause slightly every so often and it seems like you're pausing because you're focusing on the game. EDIT2: Basically, why not do the entire LP in the post-commentary style you have going for the last section of the video?

quote:

That's kind of a long video. Why not split it to one world per video?

quote:

Maybe you could pause it a little longer on the star screen so we could see what star you're getting?

quote:

transitions and fades really help with cuts. Some of the edits you made seem kinda jarring.

ChaosArgate posted:

Why are you surrounding the video with a border? Why not just eschew the border entirely and have the game fill the video window? If you're worried about someone stealing your video footage, it's pretty easy to just edit out the border so that slightly reduces your video quality for no real benefit.

TheOneAndOnlyT posted:

So, any thoughts? I'm particularly wondering if my rules explanation was comprehensible, and if this game seems like it would work as a thread. Let me know.

Pierzak posted:

I'd add a call for "independent" war correspondents/news agencies/whatever, the game does a great job in keeping the theme but those would help and be a nice option for thread participation.

Pierzak posted:

Also, saying that all actions are performed by playing cards is like saying that all spells are cast by drinking mana potions. If you're using the OPs, all the card does is give you the means to do the actual actions (like coups/realignment/influence).

Pierzak posted:

BTW, what are you using to represent the board? Vassal?

TheOneAndOnlyT posted:

After seeing a couple of other goons pull off board game LPs, I thought I might give this thing a shot. How does it look?

The Cold War: The Game. Let's Play Twilight Struggle!



What's all this, then?
Twilight Struggle is a two-player board game designed by Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews, and published by GMT Games in 2005. As the box proudly proclaims, the game chronicles the fascinating conflict between the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republics between 1945 and 1989 that would later become known as the Cold War. Each player takes on the role of one of these global superpowers as they seek to spread their influence throughout the world and counter their opponent's, through both friendly diplomacy with other countries and... less savory means.

Oh god, is this one of those games with a million different counters and thirty little things to worry about and--
Nope! Twilight Struggle is one of those board games that looks really complicated at first, but turns out to be relatively simple. There is a grand total of one type of counter that the players place on the board, and six different "status" tracks to pay attention to (two of which are simply the current turn and round). I'd say it's possible to learn all of the rules of the game in less than a half-hour.

Fine. So why would I want to play this?
Twilight Struggle has held the #1 all-time rank on BoardGameGeek for several years now, and with good reason. Not only is it an extremely well-balanced and approachable game, but it is probably the supreme example of a board game that successfully weds its gameplay design with its theme. Quite simply, playing Twilight Struggle feels like the Cold War. The game mechanics are designed to fill both the US and USSR with a constant paranoia that the world is one move away from falling to the opponent's ideology, and a need to respond to every single move their opponent makes, even if it turns out to be a bluff. Add to that the specter of global nuclear war, which both superpowers must constantly threaten but never actually allow, and you end up with a game that is intense and exhilirating to play.

Wait, you said two-player? So we're just going to watch two random goons duke it out with no input?
Not quite. While there will indeed be two goons playing the US President and the USSR's General Secretary, I will be taking a page from other excellent board game LPs, and will be allowing other goons to join in as members of Congress and the Politburo, to advise their leaders on the best course of action and hopefully spice up the thread. Twilight Struggle's gameplay is based heavily around a hand of cards that each side holds, so there will be some secrecy required for each team, but the scope of possible actions is limited enough that I'm hoping it will be possible to do some general strategizing in-thread.

Okay, I'm in. How do I play this game? And how do I sign up?
Glad you asked! I'll be doing my best to summarize the rules below, but I urge all participants (and will require the two leaders) to read the official game rules on GMT's website. Sign-up details will be in the second post! (when it exists)

Link to rules explanation (this will be in-thread when the thread is live)

-----

So, any thoughts? I'm particularly wondering if my rules explanation was comprehensible, and if this game seems like it would work as a thread. Let me know.

TheOneAndOnlyT posted:

GMT was kind enough to post an image of the board (which I used in the rules explanation) and all of the possible counters on their website, so I think it should actually be possible to keep track of the board using Photoshop or even MSPaint. The amount of changes each action causes on the board is small enough that something like VASSAL shouldn't be necessary.

TheOneAndOnlyT posted:

Out of curiosity, is there anyone who hasn't played TS that can let me know if the rule summary makes sense to them? That's one of the things I'm most worried about, since I'd love to use the thread to introduce this game to newbies.