E X P A N D I N G // ep11 early access
Added 2022-07-22 06:58:40 +0000 UTCFirst of all, wow... The increase in pledges has been unreal, especially in the last weeks! I don't even know what to say! Except thank you for the "productivity modules" :)
We're suddenly out of the coffee tips jar territory now, this is a substantial amount of money, and I'll find a suitable way to invest it. Things that are in the cards are, saving up for a better hardware setup (est $3k), a dedicated home office setup with a real gaming chair (can you believe I'm beating this challenge even without a really good gaming chair?), and "buying more time" to spend on video making (aka reduced day job hours)... The question is, better gear first, or more time first (which possibly means more growth first) and upgrade gear along the way...
Then again, while I can mostly record and edit videos with acceptable efficiency on my setup in 1080p 30fps, there are still plenty of hiccups and time-losses along the way, caused by my current hardware limitations. I'm not sure there is much demand for 1440p+, but 60fps video would generally be well-recieved it seems. What do you think? Man, I can't believe that I'm seriously thinking about this stuff now!
Ok, about this episode now,
While it is the complete final edit of the material shown, the episode is not really "finished" as a whole concept thing. I've uploaded what I have, but I'll probably expand the episode to include the full E X P A N D I N G to secure all resources. In total the completed episode will be 30-40 minutes, I guess.
There kind of is a "double" intro, as I'm thinking to "supercut" this whole series into a movie trilogy: Lord of the Biters. The first part (the Fellowship of the Iron) would consist of the first 10 episodes (until we secure the iron). The second part (The Two Expansions) (hinted in the intro) will contain from ep11 (hence the longer intro) and all of the steps towards expanding to the final base size and build. The last part (the Return of the Engineer) will contain an unexpected base style switch and hopefully the grand finale of achieving World Peace!
I think in total we're looking at approx a 200 hour game, divided over 30 total episodes. The first movie / 10 episodes are just the first 16 hours or so, where every small decision was life and death. The last 20ish episodes will, on average, cover greater and greater timespans as we'll cut out small decision making (which mattered a lot up until this point, but no longer! the full ep11 will span 8 hours of game time!), and focus mostly on bigger and bigger projects!
I now dare reveal that I have played and recorded quite a bit ahead already, and I'm incredibly excited to edit it down and share with you the story of my greatest playthrough to date!
All the best guys!!
Enjoy,
Michael
Comments
video deleted as full version is out
Michael Hendriks
2022-07-29 09:22:21 +0000 UTCNot sure if the 4000 series will be a good choice, AMD actually might come out on top right now. I'd certainly not go with something that has a TBP of 350-450W That's absolutely insane and energy costs are on the rise...
Blacktronics
2022-07-24 11:11:18 +0000 UTCYeah, especially with the blueprint-stamping, you can just close your eyes and pretend "it's not ME who's causing all of that, I'm just standing here!"
Michael Hendriks
2022-07-24 09:53:59 +0000 UTCThanks for the suggestion. It probably is a good businesslike-decision, but I'm not looking to taunt people every week that the next episode can be watched early but for a price. Not saying I never do "sell-out-stuff", but in general I have the "end screen" link and a link in the description, which should be easy enough to find for both the people actively interested in supporting me as a creator, as well as for the truly hooked ones just wanting to know if there's a new episode uploaded somewhere already.
Michael Hendriks
2022-07-24 09:52:13 +0000 UTCMichael, if you want to be even more successful, you should in the description of your youtube channel: "If there are no more episodes out when you are watching this, you can always support me with 3$ a month to get the next episode early". I at least subscribed specifically because I was hooked by the video and wanted to see the next one now. Also, if there is a way to do this, you might consider letting people pay a one time fee for a single episode, because it's annoying to know you have to remember to turn the subscription off, if you just wanted to pay to see the next episode early.
Stefan Lund
2022-07-24 04:50:49 +0000 UTCJust subscribed because this series is addicting lol
Daniel C
2022-07-24 02:28:22 +0000 UTCThere's something so coldly, satisfyingly mechanical about the robot-supported laser turret expansion... like you're just building out infrastructure and the biter destruction is just a side-effect.
StoneSifter
2022-07-23 00:48:49 +0000 UTCI am glad to hear that more people are joining! I really enjoy watching your factories grow and its great that more people are finding your channel!
SparkX120
2022-07-22 22:55:14 +0000 UTCWell with the comparison, I'm sold on 30 fps. 60 fps is way smoother, but the 30 fps adds some grittiness that meshes real well with the hell on earth map that you're playing. I guess if you make a more casual/relaxed map/mod, 60 fps would be preferable, but for the current series, I vote 30 fps (or, well, I will, when/if the poll goes up)
willcheat
2022-07-22 19:48:47 +0000 UTCI commented on the 60fps vid, but perhaps better if I reply here instead. So here's a copy/paste: There's no denying this looks much much smoother. But this is not of utmost importance to me. As long as the video is 1080p, I'm ok with it. 60fps is a bonus. But you're the creator here, and it's up to you how you wish to present your content, and especially so when it comes to what best fits your style compared to the resources and time at hand.
Lateral T
2022-07-22 17:45:29 +0000 UTCFactorio is not a game about fluidity of movement. 60 fps is certainly nice, and I'm someone who shelled out for a 1440p 144hz monitor 5 years ago, but I don't think it would significantly enhance the view experience in comparison to the increased time required to produce it. If you have a setup where where you can easily do it then feel free too, but if PC specs are limited higher frames rates and resolutions can multiply the time to render and even make editing slower due to timeline performance.
Aris Somatis
2022-07-22 15:32:02 +0000 UTCI uploaded 2 short clips to compare 30fps vs 60fps (once I'm more organised I'll do some proper polling): 30fps https://youtu.be/xjZ1Jub7vvM 60fps https://youtu.be/ICkaBOfogXg
Michael Hendriks
2022-07-22 13:48:45 +0000 UTCI am so happy to see your patreon support increase so much from when I joined the club :^) you deserve it for sure, I said to myself when I first found your content that I wouldn't mind paying for it because of its value, it is terrific to see a community that thinks the same. cheers to many more hours of factorio and dollars in your pocket sir!!
cright
2022-07-22 13:40:20 +0000 UTCCongratulations on getting enough subs to make a real difference Michael :)! You deserve it! I'm all up for bumping up your rig, but I'm not sure if I'm thrilled at the idea of 60fps videos. 30 fps might add to the graininess (?) of your videos, which I particularly like. Then again, might be talking outta my butt and 60 fps could be absolutely awesome, but I feel like a comparision video would be necessary (and that's just more job for you, so feel free to ignore my opinion there)
willcheat
2022-07-22 12:16:22 +0000 UTCfor the chair I can recommend the brand 'interstuhl', they don't glow in the night but I can sit in them all day with full comfort.
Philipp Wolters
2022-07-22 10:47:42 +0000 UTCFor buying a new PC I would wait for the new 4000 Series of Nvidia to come out (allegedly in a few months). Would suck if you bought a 3000 Series Flagship for a lot of money that gets dwarved by the successor (as a 2080ti user I know how real the pain is ;) ). If you are not on team green, then nevermind ;)
Sebastian Flügel
2022-07-22 10:36:50 +0000 UTCSuper pleased for your successes so far! Personally I believe in investing in long-term assets. Taking a day away from fulltime work now will help you speed up this project, but getting better gear that makes you feel productive and happier is going to have improvements for months and years to come, and impact on all projects going forward.
Kaleb C2
2022-07-22 09:54:25 +0000 UTCThey are networked, and they allow you to use various RAID configurations, from less capacity but higher speed to some reduced capacity but you have a redundancy drive, so if one harddrive dies the data is not lost.
Blacktronics
2022-07-22 09:46:16 +0000 UTCOh, yea, and the NAS can, theoretically, be used to make editing easier, since the footage retrieval would be done on a different PC, dedicated to file transfers. But that’s like, costs way more to get working right.
DisplayGFX
2022-07-22 09:28:24 +0000 UTCWell, since you have the storage, the only advantage is stability. In case your computer crashes, you will still have access to the files. The NAS systems are designed to not really crash or mess up files, unlike a pc which is designed to go fast, vroom. Can’t think of anything else at the moment, but I’m sure there are other reasons for a NAS. But hey, I’m sure it can be a nice down the line thing.
DisplayGFX
2022-07-22 09:26:15 +0000 UTCEvery real youtuber needs a gaming chair, or else they're not real youtubers! - Sun Tzu ...probably But seriously, a good working environment always better the production, so to speak, so I can understand your desire for upping your surroundings. That being said, I wholeheartedly believe you should go for a quality office chair instead of a gaming chair, if comfort and better work environment is the goal. 60fps uploads would be nice indeed, but not a must (at least not for me). Episodes being ~25 to 30min on the average would be #1 on my wishlist, if I were to write one. Either way, it's nice to hear your thoughts on the future, and I'm very happy for your current 'success' when it comes to supporters. I'll come back to watch this video later on; just wanted to comment on your post for now. Have a nice weekend, everyone :)
Lateral T
2022-07-22 09:23:42 +0000 UTCI already bought 2 4TB external harddrives to juggle files around between recording and editing. Are there advantages in using a NAS instead? (I didn't know what a NAS is, so I quickly googled it, but I can't immediately see extra benefits?)
Michael Hendriks
2022-07-22 09:20:23 +0000 UTCPersonally, I’d think about getting a NAS to store your footage. Could be handy to have the raw footage. Either way, excited to watch your new video!
DisplayGFX
2022-07-22 09:13:21 +0000 UTC
