Newbie Playthrough: Vanilla

[Khalysto]

!!Greetings Programs!!

So I've played two games so far after purchasing Factorio (16hrs into second playthrough now) and I'm super interested in doing a couple of Let's Plays. I haven't started researching alien techs yet so I'm still kinda new to all of the late game content, but I'd love to restart and do a playthrough where folks are providing feedback on build decisions, recommending actions / next steps, etc.

I don't expect many people to watch (especially considering this would be my first Let's Play, ever), but I'd like to give it a shot - but only if there are at least a couple of people who would give it a watch.

Thoughts?

[FishSandwich]

Go ahead, I would watch.

[Factorian]

Yeah i'd be happy to watch, could I offer a few suggestions that might make it more watchable?

Plan your episodes ahead. I don't mean this in a nasty way but a lot of people seem to be just diving in and making it up as they go along, I get that the game requires you to iterate and solve problems as they arise, but a bit of foreplanning on what your goals are, and roughly how you will do them, before you start the episode will really cut down on the umming and erring and pausing during the gameplay. Whilst needed sometimes to play the game having it too excessively means its not very entertaining to watch.

Maybe have a bit of commentary planned too to avoid those situations where its just silence whilst you don't know what to say, it feels a bit awkward to watch otherwise

Try to avoid only explaining things, if you find a point where you are spending more time explaining what you are doing than it takes to do then you are probably trying to explain it too indepth, watching someone stand around and not move whilst they are explaining to you for the fifth time why their inserter is rotated at that angle can get a bit hard to watch.

Have fun! afterall its not a documentary where you cover every single aspect of every little detail of the game, making mistakes and watching how people recover from them can be very educating to those who watch you. Things rarely go well and lets plays are sometimes watched by people who want to learn how to recover from their errors

Hope these help!

-Factorian

[Khalysto]

Good suggestions and that's enough support for me to get started.

In the spirit if your suggestion, perhaps I'll start each episode with a quick summary or declaration of what I want to accomplish in that episode (or collection of episodes if it's a time intensive task). Part of the reason why I want to restart is to quickly move through problems I encountered during my first play throughs now that I have a bit more experience with how the game works so I can call those out as well.

Let me know if there are any other suggestions to make this a bit more watchable. I'm definitely open.

[Turtle]

Let me know if there are any other suggestions to make this a bit more watchable. I'm definitely open.

The above suggestions are great. Here's another one that I think would help. Engage your audience - when you're building a supply chain and there are a several ways to do it and you're unsure which is best, just choose one and ask, "If anyone has a better way of doing this, please post a comment and let me know." Then you can fix it in the next episode and your audience will be more likely to tune in for the next episode.

[Khalysto]

ask, "If anyone has a better way of doing this, please post a comment and let me know." Then you can fix it in the next episode and your audience will be more likely to tune in for the next episode.

Yeah that's part of what I want to accomplish. I think I'll gear the 'theme' of these Let's Play's to "Train the Newbie", where I'll specifically solicit feedback about different build aspects and implement the best or most practical. Keen, this is starting to shape up.

[Xterminator]

Yeah I will give it a watch. I'm always looking for new Let's Plays to watch. I agree, all the suggestions above are great! Also another one, which might just be me nitpicking, so don't feel the need to follow it if you don't want... But try not to spend too much time in the really early game. Like with burner miners and walking around everywhere manually filling stuff.
Obviously if your Let's Play is going to be geared towards the new player, then you should show this stage of the game, but try not to spend like 3 or 4 episodes trying to get electricity, because I think that can get quite boring. :p

Post up a link when your first video is done, I look forward to seeing it.

[Blackence]

There's a German language factorio let's play that I really enjoy watching. He seems to get every aspect of LPing right.

So I'm interested, but not sure if I'm already spending too much time watching LPs. I can't promise I'll watch yours.

[_aD]

... but I'd love to restart and do a playthrough where folks are providing feedback on build decisions, recommending actions / next steps, etc.
Thoughts?

Prepare to be buried by backseat players :-D

[Khalysto]

Hey Folks,

Running into technology challenges getting my Let's Play off the ground. Can anyone recommend settings for FRAPS to keep my recordings under 48 Gigs in size? Yeah... 48 gigs! They're output in AVI format. Right now they're at 60 FPS @ 1080p so I'm going to cut that down to 50 FPS @ 720p and see what happens, but any other suggestions are welcome. For video editing, is Live Movie Maker the editor of choice at the moment for simple videos like this?

[-root]

Fraps is by nature a very fat recording device. You just have to live with it. Reason is, there isn't enough time to both record and encode footage. So fraps only does one, namely record.

You will need to encode your videos after you are done to a file size that you can reasonably upload.

If this is all new to you, you might need to spend some time doing some research sorting out how you are actually going to do the playthrough. Unless you have a quick and effective way that you understand well (and can solve problems when they arise) you might find your enthusiasm being sapped. By all means, have a crack at a playthrough, just understand the technical stuff because it will make the gameplay easier.

[Khalysto]

Fraps is by nature a very fat recording device. You just have to live with it.

If this is all new to you, you might need to spend some time doing some research sorting out how you are actually going to do the playthrough. Unless you have a quick and effective way that you understand well (and can solve problems when they arise) you might find your enthusiasm being sapped.

Yeah I spent the better part of this weekend working out some of the kinks. I think I've got a viable product now so give it a looksie.

====

Episode one of Let's Train the Newbie is live! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPiXJSC ... e=youtu.be. Let me know what you fine people think.

[FishSandwich]

Video looks clean and crisp, you did quite well considering it's your first. I'd suggest that you record at 29.97FPS, because that's the best youtube can display at the moment, so those extra frames you're recording are going to waste. Apart from that pretty good episode! I gave it a like. =)

[-root]

Good job You did really well. I was expecting something that was really really dodgy after some of those question . Keep up the good work, you major goal from here is to finish the series .

[Khalysto]

The next hair raising episode of "Let's Train the Newbie" is encoding as we speak.

Things are going well in the world of NewAlphaGenesisOrigins until our hero discovers just how close his hostile neighbors really are! Will his pollution rile the already constipated biters? Can he research defenses in time to greet them with a lead sandwich? Will he be able to maintain his girlish figure? These questions and more answered in the upcoming episode!

Episode 2 of Let's Train the Newbie is published. Rejoice!! http://youtu.be/7jV-TxAvi20

[Xterminator]

Yeah Fraps just records huge videos. I would drop it down to 30fps if you haven't already. I actually switched to OBS recently from Fraps because it is free and records way smaller files and just has better options.

Haven't seen any of the videos yet, but will check them later today or tomorrow and let ya know what I think.

[HeilTec]

Keep up the good work. I liked and commented both videos, and even subscribed to your channel

[Calico]

Well, interesting enough. I'll try to add some useful tips.

1. Don't worry to much about placement or "looking good", especially with mines. Someday, they will run dry anyway and you will move them. As long as it works, it works.
2. Try placing your energy production on a place with access to water and nearby coal. Energy production is usally the first thing you wanna automate.
3. I hope you turned the biters to "peaceful" mode... if not, consider restarting with the size of your starting area setting on "big" or even "very big". As many players proved, its certainly possible to fight them off even early game, but i don't think you're up to the task right now. Give yourself some space to learn the basics first, no shame in that.
4. Although some research into military is certainly possible to get basic stuff like the first armor and the submachine gun, you should instead focus on getting ressource production automated. Running around having to fill furnaces is time consuming and boring. Highest priority after coal->energy is usally iron production. You will need loads of iron for belts, inserters and research. Copper isn't nearly as important early on, a small but steady supply should be enough.

Hopefully those tips help. OFC everyone has to develop their own style and tactics, so take my (and any other input for that matter) with a grain of salt. The only important thing is that you have fun.