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Discendo Vox posted:That's arguably worse, because it has to rely even harder on AI mechanisms that aren't explained. That's just how it is, in these strategy games—also most fighting games. You could almost think of it as a case of "Brains vs Brawn".
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May 17, 2022 23:14
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Fionordequester posted:Part of the problem is that Melth was trying to fight Sturm head-to-head, despite what a juggernaut he is. But, the other two thing is that he didn't know about how Black Cannons choose between equal-value targets (right-to-left, in the case of the eastern Black Cannon). That's definitely clever, though it sounds less fun to me than a head on fight for the final chapter. I would have trouble articulating clearly where the line is in my brain between acceptably strategizing around the AI vs exploiting it to a silly degree, but for my own preferences I think that strategy goes too far in exploiting the AI.
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May 17, 2022 23:53
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Melth posted:That's definitely clever, though it sounds less fun to me than a head on fight for the final chapter. Gotcha. On another note, if I was to liken Sturm to a character in a Multi-Player shooter (like Halo)... Would he be like someone who could clip through walls, or someone who could fly? Just trying to think of an apt metaphor for how ridiculous his movement is.
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May 19, 2022 00:33
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Fionordequester posted:Gotcha. Flight's the better metaphor. His units aren't faster, they just ignore terrain.
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May 19, 2022 01:26
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Fionordequester posted:Gotcha. I'd go with noclip as the better metaphor. And also every minute or two one of his opponents gets auto-hit with a rocket launcher.
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May 19, 2022 23:52
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Melth posted:I'd go with noclip as the better metaphor. 
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May 20, 2022 05:14
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So I've run into a bit of a problem with the video editing software I'd been using (Shotcut). I've spent the last 2 weeks working on my next AWBW video but now exporting the finished video fails, with a useless error message which has stumped everyone on Shotcut's forums. I've had it with Shotcut, which has been buggy and unstable for years, so I'm going to learn to use some other editing software. While I get to work on this again in some new software, I'd love if I could salvage any of these weeks of work. Does anyone happen to know of a way to convert Shotcut's project files (.mlt) into xml files another program (such as Da Vinci Resolve) could use?
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May 21, 2022 00:13
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Melth posted:Does anyone happen to know of a way to convert Shotcut's project files (.mlt) into xml files another program (such as Da Vinci Resolve) could use? I do not, sadly. If it helps, Hitfilm Express is the free alternative that I use, though you'd need to use Handbrake to set it to a Constant Framerate, or your footage will desync. Also, it lags like crazy... Dunno if that's my issue, or the software's. EDIT: That said, I always liked using the "Record Movie" on my Bizhawk first, before then recording the AVI. That way, you've saved the playback (the starting point and inputs) forever—that way you can simply re-record the AVI in cases like this. Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 02:15 on May 21, 2022 |
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May 21, 2022 02:12
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I got it done with Da Vinci Resolve this time. It should be a great video. Took ages though because it turns out Da Vinci Resolve has some terrifying design decisions, like that if you delete part of any clip, the default behavior is to secretly delete parts of every clip on every other track without asking. It took me about 6 hours to troubleshoot and repair the damage after the first time I trimmed one of the music tracks!
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May 23, 2022 16:20
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Melth posted:I got it done with Da Vinci Resolve this time. It should be a great video. Took ages though because it turns out Da Vinci Resolve has some terrifying design decisions, like that if you delete part of any clip, the default behavior is to secretly delete parts of every clip on every other track without asking. Huh... Is there a master list of tracks? Like "audio track 1, audio track 2, audio track 3", and etc?
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May 25, 2022 02:15
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Hard 1: Border Skirmish The hard campaign doesn't start off that great, taking a previously seen map and turning it into Fog of War guess and check. It gets a lot better from here though. Melth fucked around with this message at 01:18 on May 26, 2022 |
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May 25, 2022 21:21
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Hard 2: Orange Dawn The first unique hard campaign mission! Very cool and memorable in my opinion Melth fucked around with this message at 17:52 on May 29, 2022 |
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May 28, 2022 19:38
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That mission is a pretty good example of what you've been talking about. The terrain makes your only options for hitting that laser an artillery that the laser can shoot first(and will reduce to 1hp afterwards so you'll have to cycle several), hauling a rocket all the way down there, or a battleship (which as shown can be built in range and immediately fire on the laser and can provide ranged support from a position where it doesn't block an advance through the maps many choke points). And the biggest reason I feel like this is an intended strategy is that there are ports everywhere.
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May 29, 2022 16:40
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I think this mission has a rather clever little bit of teaching gameplay, too, with the laser that fires every day. This is not how lasers work in normal mode, but I'm assuming from this that in hard mode they fire every day and will appear in maps where they previously didn't. But the player starts off positioned such that putting a unit or two in what they think is a safe place, unaware of the change in how lasers work, will result in the player getting zapped well before they actually run into Flak's forces and the time limit seems generous enough that getting 5 HP knocked off a unit or two at the start of the map is annoying but not crippling. I think that's good design for organically teaching the player how the rules are changing in hard mode.
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May 29, 2022 16:55
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Premiering my second collaboration with AdvanceWarrior now: Advance Wars By Web, Second Co-Commentary with AdvanceWarriorFoolyCharged posted:That mission is a pretty good example of what you've been talking about. The terrain makes your only options for hitting that laser an artillery that the laser can shoot first(and will reduce to 1hp afterwards so you'll have to cycle several), hauling a rocket all the way down there, or a battleship (which as shown can be built in range and immediately fire on the laser and can provide ranged support from a position where it doesn't block an advance through the maps many choke points). I agree, it was a good way to signal to us that we need to use unusual units and play in a way that isn't to Max's strengths Cythereal posted:I think this mission has a rather clever little bit of teaching gameplay, too, with the laser that fires every day. This is not how lasers work in normal mode, but I'm assuming from this that in hard mode they fire every day and will appear in maps where they previously didn't. But the player starts off positioned such that putting a unit or two in what they think is a safe place, unaware of the change in how lasers work, will result in the player getting zapped well before they actually run into Flak's forces and the time limit seems generous enough that getting 5 HP knocked off a unit or two at the start of the map is annoying but not crippling. I think that's good design for organically teaching the player how the rules are changing in hard mode. Yes, it's a good wake-up call about hard campaign (although there was a mission in Normal campaign where lasers fired every turn too)
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May 29, 2022 19:02
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"But you can see their fuel!" It just feels so obvious now and yet I never noticed it. Probably my favorite moment from this one.
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May 29, 2022 22:12
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Hard 3: Andy's Time The new black cannon mission is about twice as hard as the original. But 0x2 is still 0.
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Jun 1, 2022 18:25
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Hard 4: Test of Time The lab mission is a lot tougher this time around. Also there's a battleship in a pond. I'm sure this is Flak's fault.
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Jun 4, 2022 20:26
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Melth posted:Hard 4: Test of Time If it wasn't there the lander would have been lonely.
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Jun 5, 2022 03:31
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Clearly Flak's been hanging out with the Allies from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 too much.
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Jun 5, 2022 03:34
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The other option is that Black Hole uses Cybrex technology and their ships just walk over to the ponds.
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Jun 5, 2022 04:01
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Did Flak have any units left besides that lander?
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Jun 5, 2022 07:07
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Mzbundifund posted:Did Flak have any units left besides that lander? Several- in particular, in the north he has these two nasty artillery side by side in a pair of forests. Which means there is no convenient way to reveal one artillery without just getting shot by the other artillery before you can attack. (The only way to solve the problem would be to get an infantry onto each of the adjacent mountains at the same time, which is time consuming and infeasible). Cythereal posted:Clearly Flak's been hanging out with the Allies from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 too much. Or maybe a Civ 2 AI
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Jun 5, 2022 18:08
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One of several all-new missions for the hard campaign. Not just the map but the scenario are unique to hard mode. Hard 5: POW Rescue Melth fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Jun 9, 2022 |
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Jun 8, 2022 19:50
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Was it intentional that this video has no audio from the game itself?
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Jun 8, 2022 20:44
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I hear the audio, but it is quite low and I am wearing headphones.
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Jun 8, 2022 23:20
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That was fun to watch, though I can see why it'd be less fun to play.
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Jun 9, 2022 00:27
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Cythereal posted:Was it intentional that this video has no audio from the game itself? I've just uploaded a new version with the audio levels changed so the game is easier to hear!
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Jun 9, 2022 04:54
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Advance Wars By Web, The Worst Tank Another tier 2 global league matchup featuring Max vs Eagle Melth fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Jun 12, 2022 |
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Jun 12, 2022 19:06
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I always picture you taking copious notes of all your moves and strategies as you play, to go back over for the commentary if nothing else. Is that not the case, with all of these supposed blunders you were making? You mentioned at one point that your opponent was playing defensively on the north side, do you think you maybe bluffed them a little with the titular worst tank?
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Jun 13, 2022 10:39
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Beartaco posted:I always picture you taking copious notes of all your moves and strategies as you play, to go back over for the commentary if nothing else. Is that not the case, with all of these supposed blunders you were making? It depends on what you mean by 'bluffed'. The opponent never actually saw that tank as far as I can tell, which is a very good thing. I did realize it was important to keep it secret and to let the opponent just guess what I might have lurking, and I do think that worked. As for notes, I keep notes about some things (like units I've seen and where they were last spotted) but how much I plan out my moves really varies. In this case I'd thought it through but not written it down. Regardless, I don't think I've played without mistakes in any of my games so far. Every one of them had at least one avoidable mistake of execution, even besides any possible flaws in my strategies to begin with.
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Jun 14, 2022 19:19
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Really appreciate the effort, editing and humour that goes into the videos. Are you anticipating a tougher challenge as you move up the rankings? From your own declarations feels like you're getting away with a lot of errors.
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Jun 15, 2022 23:17
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Mighty Steed posted:Really appreciate the effort, editing and humour that goes into the videos. Thanks! I've been putting in a lot of time on the editing and whatnot and it's nice to know people notice. I do expect tougher and tougher opponents as I go up the rankings. In fact, I've played a few GL games against tougher opponents since after that Max vs Eagle game. However, I've been getting stronger and stronger myself. At this point I think I would absolutely crush my past-self from my first few videos. It's perhaps also true that I am rather hard on my own mistakes and characterize them as huge blunders when some of them are only minor imperfections. I think that some players would not even perceive my moves as mistakes since a lot of them are superficially good moves. For example, that move on turn 11 where I killed an enemy tank and then built an infantry wall to block all retaliation. That was a pretty clever idea and not everyone would have thought of that formation. I called my infantry vs infantry attack stupid, but it was perfectly reasonable based on what I could see. It was foolish only from the perspective of a person 1) looking ahead into the fog and thinking about the worst case scenario for what could possibly be out there and 2) correctly foreseeing what an opponent could do if they happened to have those worst case scenario units and 3) doing a risk analysis of an immediate small reward vs an improbable catastrophic risk. I think it would be fair to say that my thinking about that maneuver was strategically more sophisticated than a lot of players, so I was probably too harsh in describing my failure to implement it perfectly as 'stupid'.
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Jun 16, 2022 21:57
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Have you ever played https://store.steampowered.com/app/971160/Mbius_Front_83/ ? I was just reminded it existed, and the gameplay loop is basically exactly what you're doing here.
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Jun 24, 2022 23:27
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Youtube has started recommending other announced high ranking AWBW matches to me. I've watched a couple of them and it's been interesting. Recently saw one where the winning player ended up building a Drake battleship which was a wtf moment after following this thread.
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Jun 27, 2022 17:25
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Soylent Pudding posted:Youtube has started recommending other announced high ranking AWBW matches to me. I've watched a couple of them and it's been interesting. Recently saw one where the winning player ended up building a Drake battleship which was a wtf moment after following this thread. That does sound interesting. There are certainly very rare circumstances where that could be the right move I guess. And more common ones where it could be sub-optimal but not fatal.
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Jun 29, 2022 02:25
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Found it in my watch history of you want to see: https://youtu.be/OMX4m3Tuo0c
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Jun 29, 2022 12:40
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Soylent Pudding posted:Found it in my watch history of you want to see: https://youtu.be/OMX4m3Tuo0c Interesting! I actually played a game against another youtuber on that exact map, Lash vs Kindle (we banned Drake as the obvious, boring best pick). We didn't end up making a commentary since it turned out to be a pretty lopsided match, but it's interesting to now see these high level players on it. I would say that in this video, Humblegod had a commanding advantage but then let a win slip through his fingers with two bad moves. Firstly, the rocket on turn 14. There was absolutely no reason that should not have been an MD tank. In fact, even a Neotank was feasible if he'd either joined a single infantry or done a single base skip. By blind luck, the rocket actually did get a shot on the neotank on a road, which is the best imaginable outcome, but even so it STILL did a lot worse than an MD tank would have. An MD tank would have slammed the neotank and forced a retreat from Ricemuncher who would have had no way to fight it (whereas the rocket was easy prey, as rockets usually are). If Humblegod had had a neotank of his own instead of a rocket, that might have even been game over. Secondly, on turn 19 Humblegod could see an enemy copter, but inexplicably chose to put his own copter in range of it. This was fatal. Not only did it throw away a copter for nothing, it avoidably gave Ricemuncher enough power gauge to get Tsunami. That Tsunami evened out Humblegod's massive advantage and in fact forced Humblegod to retreat when he could have been surging ahead. That permanently and abruptly turned the tide in Ricemuncher's favor. I would say that the only reason Humblegod almost squeaked out a win anyway was that Ricemuncher made a giant mistake by building a worthless Battleship. That Battleship turn could instead have been a Neotank + MD tank turn, meaning 1-2 more strong combat units ready to protect the HQ. Besides being horribly expensive and unable to fight on the important front, that battleship had to be sailed right into easy vision range of a mountain in order to attack. It was incredibly lucky for Ricemuncher that the ship wasn't spotted. And even with all that luck, it did basically nothing. Deejus wasn't paying attention when he said it might have paid for itself. It killed 1/2 of a tank and 1.5 infantry. Spending 28000 to deal about 5000 in damage.
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Jul 2, 2022 04:11
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Thanks for the comments! I figured the rockets and battleship were terrible investments but missed the issue with the bcopter.
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Jul 2, 2022 14:49
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Not technically one of my videos, but AdvanceWarrior just posted this one of a special match we played: Advance Warrior Final Front 3v1 Special
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Jul 2, 2022 18:16
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