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kaen casts ZK

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9 years ago
Yep. I decided I'd give it a shot. I'll try to do it regularly, and I'm already working to improve the quality, and my skill as a commentator (obviously, not on par with CArankAdminShadowfury333 quite yet). Feedback, positive or otherwise, is always appreciated.

Thanks everyone
kaencastszk
+18 / -0
I'll stream of consciousness this a bit:

Wow, good voice and mic. You made sure to ensure it was well set up before starting.

The map and UI settings could be better set up. You don't have to follow my settings for placement of elements, but Core Selector and Economy Panel are useless when spectating (I suggest binding "/resbar" to a key combination to hide the default engine resource bar, I use ctrl+\). Hitting F10 a couple times to hide the menu bar is probably not a bad idea if you want to reduce space usage, but it's aesthetically fine to have. However, you are using Facpanel and Deluxe player list, which are very useful for spectating. Just make sure Facpanel doesn't hide anything in a way that requires scrolling, and Deluxe player list is the easiest way to show everyone's economy at once.

I suppose at some point I should get around to making a more dedicated spectator player list to replace Deluxe.

I'd also recommend setting map extension to show the texture and have curvature on and fog off. Fog is usually okay, but some maps (like Frozen Planet's urine yellow) have terrible edge fog colours. Don't worry about distinguishing the map from the extension, it defaults to being about half as bright, and that is configurable.

/mapmarks will hide map marks for the whole game.

You've got the excitement part down pretty well.

More UI stuff, but when I started I was asked to enlarge my minimap for the viewer's sake. It's not a bad idea in general.

Overall, you have a much better style of attention than I do for this game. A big problem I've always had is making sure I don't get too bogged down with every fight and exciting moment. In a game like StarCraft or Achron that's manageable, but casting Zero-K is like casting a fighting game. There's always something going on, so it pays to keep out of play-by-play except at truly key times.

The only other low-hanging fruit criticism is don't say "uh" or "um". I suppose if you are really trying to go for a very familiar tone it can work okay, but I would recommend getting out of that habit. When your thoughts end and you'd use "uh" or "um", just stop, breathe, and don't use "and" or "or" or "however" or anything else thinking something will be there after the word leaves your mouth, just stop, breathe. Then when the next thought comes, that's when you can use "and", "or", "however", etc. to keep it part of the same sentence, or nothing at all to start a new one.

Actually, in addition to the above, don't be afraid to pause and breathe for 2 seconds. That will help a lot to keep the commentary engaging.

Oh yeah, lower the game master volume a bit. If you use OBS that can be easily done by lowering the speaker input volume, as that is separate from microphone input. Maybe also increase the music volume a touch, though it's not bad as is.

Don't be afraid of descriptions, at least for version info and replay link.
+1 / -0
Ok, now we have two great casters :)


Now we just need some more 0K fans, anyone willing to donate several thousand bucks to ads? :-D
+1 / -0
Very well USrankkaen, remember that we need team battle casters :D Are you up to the task :D? Pro tip in team games: aways search for big elo players and what they do, and search for what they are rushing :)

Watched a cast you made, I realy like your reaction time . This is what happens when you play a lot of games :). Keep casting, dont give up cause you are doing great.
+1 / -0
Pretty nice commentary I got to admit. I say that you are sufficiently in ZK to cast games :P (that was a joke).
I have couple tips however:

1. This thread might have been better http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/5186 to announce your new channel. This thread has a good chance to disapear into the fog of time.

2. Your videos are not set into "game" YouTube category but into "people and blogs". This needs to be fixed so that your channel will be more visible.

3. UI is very small and viewers can barely see what is on it :| especially the minimap.

4. Don't release videos in huge batches like that :| releasing 10 videos at once is not good because it kinda defeats the point of anticipation of new content. You need to make watching your videos compulsive for viewers so be consistent with your video releases and do it on the same days with same amounts of content or just release 1 video a day. Releasing content regularly is very important!

Good luck and have fun!

Ps. I might not be a YouTuber but trust me I have spent so much time watching Let's plays and what not that it is not even funny.
+0 / -0
9 years ago
I promise I would reclaim sooner if I had more than 20 fps! It was good casting and easy to watch, but like sf said take a breather. It is already such a fast pace game new developments are sure to keep up with you. Looking forward to new matches.
+0 / -0
9 years ago
I like that you do NOT use the "tooltip at mouse pointer" and so there is no annoying window flickering around the pointer.

It is well done but (as too many spring casts) begins with at least half minute of boredom like this:
Nothing is moving, not graphically impressive or even off-putting...
Especially for new viewers it is no good start into video.
I suggest to say "Hi this is kaen" and then immediately start the replay.

Introduce the players and other "pre-game talk" while the game is already playing.
The first seconds of zK are faster than other RTS but there is still plenty of time until it gets really interessting. It is imo not nessecary to commentate on every little buildup step in real time: Show the base while introducing the player and after that say "He has chosen shieldbots and started with 3 solars."
Would imo make the start of video "flow" much better.
+1 / -0
Skasi
9 years ago
I like the pace of the casts and don't mind the "pick a start position" procedure, though if it takes too long it can always be skipped with the "Skip pregame chatter" button.

PLrankOrfelius has a point in that the minimap is very small, but after watching the two oldest videos I didn't feel like anything important was missed.

The second oldest cast of the really exciting game between Arteries and NorthChileanG kind of ends abruptly, right in the middle of the game being analyzed.
+0 / -0
Wow, thanks everyone for the kind words and the gold mine of improvements (especially CArankAdminShadowfury333!). I'll be working on implementing these for my next "batch".

Definitely a lot of room for improvement in my style, and the UI setup I'm using. I'll need to make lots of casts to practice up :)

My apologies for the missing healthbars/status effects. I figured out why they weren't displaying almost immediately after I uploaded them, so that will be fixed from now on.

ROrankForever Lightman already has you covered
+1 / -0

9 years ago
Only have seen one, where I lost to USrankkaen in teams. Very good situation awareness and good cast overall. Keep going!
+0 / -0

9 years ago
How would you guys feel about me bumping this thread when I post new casts? Helpful notifications, or spam?

In the spirit of forgiveness-over-permission: a few new casts are up.
+0 / -0


9 years ago
There's also a Zero-K Reddit.

As for bumping this thread with new casts, I guess you can, since editing will bump. However, typically NLrank[XIV]Floris and I have just put the news in the associated replay. Not sure if that's preferred or not, but it does mean that people browsing replays will know if the replay they are thinking of watching has commentary.
+1 / -0

9 years ago
Solid casts.

Your voice is fine, solid really, but doesn't really hit the notes required to make it engaging to a larger audience. Your pacing is good, and you are able to clearly convey what you are saying. Sometimes you get a bit off-balance trying to fit in what to say, but I suspect that will be corrected with experience. When you rarely make mistakes you quickly correct them.

You do not waste time with your explanations, so you are able to keep covering current events. You fill time pretty well, in general.


This has already been said, but please fix graphical effects. No distinctions for stun or slow is especially annoying.
+1 / -0
Your casts are GREAT kaen! I love your high-energy and while you sometimes don't catch certain key events or battles (minimap awareness helps, perhaps make it larger), your analysis is really solid.

Lol the ZK reddit is all you Shadowfury. We really need a system for cross-posting, so news goes as many places as possible.

It's actually really not a bad idea at all to do discussions and communications over reddit, as this gets you outside attention that a closed forum doesn't.
+0 / -0
Okay, just caught the latest ones (of me) and while the UI arrangement has been improved, you really don't need the Economy panel or Core Selector, as those are per-player.

Also, I'm going to second USrankRyMarq's comment about "hitting the notes". Like I said, pauses are your friend, and just making sure to pause alone will help with the "hitting the notes"/monotonicity problem.

Another thing, please avoid icon view as a rule. It looks pretty bland and doesn't show unit orientations, so it's hard to tell how units are actually going to fire. Zooming out to show the map is okay, but to show combat it isn't.
+0 / -0

9 years ago
I think icon view has a valid place, particularly for FP VOD's since that seems to be how he plays, it's a different kind of experience and will not appeal so much to new people as to experienced players who like the overview. 'Dot Wars' was one of the most popular early series of spring gameplay videos, often sped up with a fixed camera and it lets you quickly see the push and pull strategic descisionmaking in the overview of the game.

But yeah, I mean, I agree that obviously for an enthralling tense cinematic experience, and to appreciate the micro, you want to be able to see the units.
+2 / -0
Skasi
I like the icon distance USrankkaen uses. CArankAdminShadowfury333's is much too high for my own taste. :[

I'm also fine with battles being occasionally viewed from a distance. For non-players it shows what the engine is capable of and for players it provides more information on-screen (minimaps are too small for that).
+2 / -0
Seriously Skasi, it looks ugly. I've been trying to remain zoomed in, but icons just look lazy (and I don't know what they all are off-hand, I've gotten used to small units). Also, I use Icon Height (for reference), so that I don't end up with half of the units in icon mode, and also don't end up with that weird transition state where the unit is half-rendered but the icon isn't on top.

quote:
But yeah, I mean, I agree that obviously for an enthralling tense cinematic experience, and to appreciate the micro, you want to be able to see the units.

Thank you.
+0 / -0
Oops, I'll pay more attention to the zoom level for replays, but FPVODs are going to have lots of icons because that's just how I play :P

Keep it coming guys, it really helps when you call out the things that need improving. It's too easy to become desensitized to irksome things like that when casting.

Related note: how do you guys feel about FPVODs? I enjoy making them (my two favorite things at once!), but because of the split attention neither the commentary nor gameplay is running at 100%
+1 / -0


9 years ago
IMO: How2VOD while keeping commentary: more emotions.

"OH SH1T GLAIVES"
+0 / -0
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