The Tavern

Hello everyone! I'm recording a Minotaur Berserker game to illustrate some basic tactics and strategy for newer players. As I record I am also streaming at http://twitch.tv/n1000 (feel free to join in and ask any questions/criticize my play!)

I've just uploaded the first video, in which we explore the early dungeon, Lair, and two portal vaults. I strongly emphasize safe play and deal with some early game threats (some self-inflicted ones, I might add...) Unfortunately the first video only has left-channel audio but that will be fixed in future uploads.

Part 1 (Early D and Lair)
Part 2 (Orc and finishing the Dungeon)
Part 3 (Spider and Shoals)
Part 4 (Vaults 1-4)
Part 5 (Elven Halls and the Crypt)
Part 6-1 (The Depths)
Part 6-2 (The Depths)
Part 7 (Vaults 5 and Zot!)


I would very much appreciate feedback/comments and I hope this helps someone get started!

My "credentials"

My first observation is that there is a constant buzz that makes the whole video unbearable. Funny thing is, the buzz seems to stop whenever you are talking, but reappears between words. "Annoying" is not a strong enough word here.

I've been working on the white noise, Magipi. When I was streaming my viewers didn't seem to mind too much but now that I'm listening to it myself, yeah, it's pretty bad. The fact that it goes away when I speak is somewhat strange. Hopefully I can improve the issue for my next video.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention

Sounds like mic feedback. Try turning off your mics when you aren't ready to talk.

I suspect it's actually static interference. I've got an old mic and onboard sound...I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a new microphone but I don't want to wait to record part 2 so maybe my viewers will have to deal with the white noise for one or two more videos. Sorry!

I'm also planning on doing some more advanced/in depth commentary of some past games. I figure there'd be some interest in watching those with a bit of explanation of the logic behind speedrunning. I would probably start with my recent 28k turn 3-rune SpEn run and then maybe ask some other crawlers if they wouldn't mind me commentating some of their awesome games. What do you guys think of that idea?

I would love to see commentary on speedruns, I feel they are very different from usual games. Just please no Sp/DD, these races are broken for speedruns IMHO.

I'd love to follow your vids, but please, solve the sound problem before recording another video.

Would be interested in speed runs as well.

Sandman25, moocowmoocow: I will definitely do some of these then, but I'm going to wait until I get my new microphone. However, I can't guarantee we'll be entirely avoiding Sp/DD. Sometimes it's good to see these "broken" characters in action!

Magipi: thanks! I'm glad to hear it. I have changed my setup slightly which will alleviate, though it will not completely eliminate, the background noise. I will be recording part 2 today and hopefully the sound issues wont distract too much, but I do sympathize if you find them too much to bear. In any case, it will be fixed this week.

FWIW, the background noise didn't bother me. I thought your own voice could stand to be louder though.

The whole incident with the cursed sling was hilarious, but instructive though! Definitely a good instruction sequence.

I must confess I didn't got through the whole video. Eventually you may want to edit it - to a newbie an hour+ long tutorial video may be a bit too much to go through.

But anyway, I think these are great! Maybe playing something like HuGl or HuWz is better for instruction purposes though

Thanks for the comment, DracheReborn. The video is a bit too long and I think that editing it down is a good idea. I've decided to go with Magipi's suggestion and wait until this week when I have a better microphone to record anymore segments.

The rationale behind picking MiBe is threefold: It's a classic and very popular combo, I wanted a very straightforward character to highlight the basic strategy/tactics, and I'm on a winning streak so I wanted something easy! Anyway, rest assured that there will be more tutorial videos with much more refined production as I learn all this stuff. Something like Wz/Su is a great idea for a future game. There are all sorts of new summons in 0.14 which would be great to test out/show off!

Anyway sorry about this being a bit of a false start but I really appreciate the feedback and enthusiastic response I've gotten.

edit: i take that back i dont want to go through the hassle of calling google

i'm shocked, it wasn't another rickroll

people still do that?

Don't know about people, but...
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=11240

Part 2 is up everyone. Thanks for waiting! I've fixed my audio problems too.

The character is very strong so I'm kind of blitzing through things. I do try to take some time to highlight new threats and I take them seriously, even if at this point I'm strong enough to get away with some fairly haphazard play.

Here's an instructive highlight if you don't want to watch the whole, lengthy video: Kirke

Thank you for fixing the sound problem.

I've watched part 1, and right now I'm watching part 2. The whole run is very entertaining (notably the adventure with that sling), and your commentary is very good. I have some problems reading the ascii map (I'm a tiles player) so I often have to re-watch some events, but I'm improving

All in all, a big thanks and grats for the series.

What is your plan for the ending? 3 runes and win, or try some extended material too?

Hilarious Erolcha fight

Glad you're enjoying the videos, Magipi. Regarding extended: I'm not sure what I'm going to do. On one hand I want to basically play a standard, straightforward game but at the same time this character is definitely looking to be strong enough. I'll make the decision later on.

I'm glad you're able to enjoy it despite my playing on console. It's definitely worth sticking it out! if you ever want to watch a replay from a game you're pretty much stuck with console (maybe one day we'll have a tiles ttyrec player...one can dream).

I watched both yesterday and your videos are excellent for anyone who has learned the basics, but cannot get far. Although they are a bit longish, they were easy to watch while playing the game. You mentioned and showed the important strategies such as using the stairs, backing up, not taking on too many foes especially when dangerous, checking monster descriptions, etc. Just as I was saving my character last night before hitting the bed, I noticed you were recording the third part. Looking forward to checking it out!
And on a side note, I was hoping my ghost had immediately cast Mephitic Cloud at you in first part; Nothing personal.

I've just posted two more videos. Fortunately both Vaults, and the optional areas (Elf and Crypt) proved to be more interesting than the relatively empty Spider's Nest. We run into some uniques and have to overcome the branch-specific monsters in each area.

banei: Thanks for the comments...and a special thanks to your ghost not blasting me back to D:1

Well...That's that!

I'm so grateful for all the people who've watched my videos and especially to those who watched my stream and asked questions or gave advice while I was recording. I began making these videos with the hope of helping newer players learn how to improve their play by seeing someone experienced tackling the dungeon. I did not expect at all to learn as much as I did, myself. I have always been a proponent of experimentation and learning by taking oneself out of one's comfort zone. In recent games I've practiced this by trying to speed up my play (in terms of turncount) and by thinking more about exploration. It amazes me that by focusing on basic, conservative play, I've learned just as much as in any of my adventurous games.

I've enjoyed myself, and I hope my viewers have enjoyed watching. Even though this series is complete, I would still love to hear your comments. I hope these videos help someone to get further--or even get their first win!

haven't watched the last two yet, but thanks for making the videos. live commentary can be really nice, and yours was.

Just finished watching. Great run, thanks!
I hope you'll do it again (maybe with a caster?).

Yeah, I agree, thanks for doing these. I learned a few tricks like searching for "ego && armour", arrow up in the search menu and probably a few others. I also just emulated your approach to Zot in my latest game, i.e. dive through Zot 1-4 then clear out 5 and run forest run.

Think this should be stickied within DCA, lots of very good information here. Especially with it being a winning run it covers a lot of the things newer players will need to know through the course of a game.