Commentary series on YouTube through after action reports

[Spfnym (OP)]

This might be of some interest to some of you.    It's a video game commentary series of mine of Aurora which I'm recording through after action reports to speed up the experience with occasional bits of live commentary since this game can be quite slow if done entirely live, making the quality of commentary suffer, I feel.    I'm playing as a futuristic India without really restrictions on what I can and can't do but every five years I at least select new civilian administrators for every role and set a goal for myself for that next five year period.   

https://www. youtube. com/playlist?list=PLQ0oxRsemaYAxIvJzKNHcysNa9FhoIhoO


I've tried a live commentary series before this with a storyline but at least I think my commentary and thinking skills were just not good enough for it to be interesting.    Also, it's really easy to write oneself into a corner when the game mechanics don't always allow you to do what you want so that was also a reason why I didn't feel it worked.    Anyway, I'll link it also:
https://www. youtube. com/playlist?list=PLQ0oxRsemaYAfT4_E8NEYMSjl1QMLPflB

[linkxsc]

Ill check it out when i get home.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Pretty nice... 

One comment on the physics that you talked about in the game. I always Role-Play that drive systems in the game revolves around bending space and not by more conventional thrust. That way the game model makes perfect sense. 

Also, allot of the design decision of the game is about imposing your own restrictions for a good RP story, that is why the game in many instances are somewhat relaxed on mechanics. You are suppose to build your own story and limitations of game mechanics and how they work.

[Spfnym (OP)]

I don't really like fighting against the game mechanics like that.  In my opinion, it's better if they support whatever I'm trying to roleplay and having not to pretend something isn't happening in the way it is in the game.  Besides, I like being somewhat informative and critical in my commentary and not just someone who accepts everything indiscriminately.  I believe a critical mindset will lead to progress in society.

There are a couple of restrictions I do have: I will avoid researching shields and cloaking unless I am also prepared to give a scientific explanation on how they work.  However, conventional thrust is something that was unavoidable not to have since if I want to have spaceships at all, I'm pretty much forced to rely on the game mechanics for the thrust model.  That's where I feel like I'm fighting against the game mechanics the most since it's something "unavoidable".  There are a couple of smaller things like not being able to have unmanned ships, the spaceships not having radiators, etc.

Of course I'm adding things that aren't explained in the game mechanics, such as any unintelligent extraterrestrial life.  Right now there is only one place I've found at least somewhat suitable for that but I feel it's going to be very interesting once I find more planets that I feel like putting life on.

[Jorgen_CAB]

What I was trying to say was that the game is designed to be somewhat open ended so people can do what they want with it.

It is up to you if you can instantly transfer missile from one ship to another or if you can house a destroyer and fighters in the same hangar, if people do revolt or declare independence on a planet or not.

I have raised many of my own gripes about several things in the game that I find could be changed, such as linear scanning ranges which make no sense what so ever and many other things.

In order for the game to make sense to you the only thing we can do is write comments in the suggestion thread and RP the part of the game that leave things up to us to fill in the blanks.

The fact is that it is not a finished game and it most probably never will be, it is constantly changing and Steve adds features to it for every version he puts out. Despite these things the game is in my opinion the most engaging and fun 4x game out there.