Tag Archives: XCOM 2

Ranneko Plays Year on Year Improvement – Channel Update 2017-10-13

I have finally completed all of the recording I need to do before Australia. All I have left is a little bit of editing and uploading and I will have videos scheduled for every day until early December.

Last year I remember pulling off something similar, but at that time my release schedule was a little more relaxed, I think I was only doing 3-4 videos a week but it still took a lot of time and effort to build up the buffer enough to cover everything. This has been a similar amount of work despite the fact I am producing about twice as many videos.

I think the biggest difference, besides simple practice, is changes to the video editor I use. Last year exporting a video would take several hours and I would need to manually kick off the next in sequence. It was hard to speed things up, because ultimately I could export maybe 3 videos in an evening with long stretches of downtime (and leaving the app open overnight).

Nowadays, VideoPad has a queue system which means I can edit the next video while the first exports, but even more significantly, the export process itself is significantly faster because the developers have made the program work smarter. Previously every frame of the video would be re-encoded, regardless of the original source. Now, if I haven’t made a change in a large section of video, and the source is the same quality as the export, VideoPad will literally just copy the data. Where previously I could render a few videos a night, now I can render half a dozen or more.

Are there any apps you use regularly that have improved like that? Also if you edit videos yourself, what is your workflow?

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday and Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera
Sunday: Curious Ranpedition
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: The Ransistance: War of the Chosen
Tuesday: Heat Signature Hot Tips / Ranneko’s Tuesday Tips

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays Tuesday Tips – Channel Update 2017-10-06

This week marked the release of the first of Ranneko’s Tuesday Tips, a series I intend to be long running and touching on many different games, though for the first few months they will all be Heat Signature based.

There are a few reasons for making this change:

Tip videos are interesting to make. Unlike a Let’s Play they take more planning, lend themselves to a little more editing to tighten things up and also lead to script writing. All of these are skills I would like to improve.
Tip videos have worked well in the past for me. I have actually had people recognise my username from Sunless Sea and Massive Chalice tip videos in the past and it is a lot easier to get a few minutes of someones time for a tip about a game they might like than it is to convince them to watch a Let’s Play that might take anywhere from one to forty hours
Tip videos have a longer tail. I still regularly see my old tip videos surfaced through YouTube search, they easily make up the majority of my view count. When looking at view count, 8 of my top 10 most viewed videos are tips. Even looking at watch time, 7 of my top 10 videos are tips.
This series explicitly asks for audience assistance. If you have a tip for any game, no matter how obvious it may seem, please let me know and I may make a video about it in the future.

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday: Syfro Saturdays – Ranneko and Syfro Play Thimbleweed Park
Sunday: Curious Ranpedition
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: The Ransistance: War of the Chosen
Tuesday: Heat Signature Hot Tips / Ranneko’s Tuesday Tips
Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays Preparing for Something New – Channel Update 2017-09-29

Ranneko and Syfro Play Thimbleweed Park is coming to an end, in fact at the time this post airs the last episode is already out and with that Syfro Saturdays are taking a break. We just didn’t come up with the next game to play through together in time and there won’t be another recording session until maybe while I am in Australia (if I can manage to organise it, we could potentially record from the same room!), or possibly after.

With that, the schedule finally has room for a new project, one I have had in the works for a while. Look forward to the first of Ranneko’s Tuesday Tips this Tuesday. As a result of that Numenera moves from Tues/Thurs to Thurs/Sat.

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday: Syfro Saturdays – Ranneko and Syfro Play Thimbleweed Park
Sundays: Curious Ranpedition
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: The Ransistance: War of the Chosen
Tuesday and Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays Building The Buffer – Channel Update 2017-09-22

It feels like I am always talking about travel in these updates. I am headed to Australia for about a month starting mid-October. As a result, I have a lot of buffer to build. My aging laptop is not up to recording, though I can potentially edit and render on it if I have the raw footage available.

At the time of writing the buffers for each series are:
1) Thimbleweed Park – Sept 30th
2) Curious Expedition – Oct 29th
3) XCOM 2 – Oct 13th
4) Torment: Tides of Numenera – Oct 7th

I want all my buffers to extend to Nov 20th at a minimum. This means I have roughly 17 hours of recording to do before I leave. Definitely achievable, but I will need to start specifically carving out time to get it done.

This week’s releases were:

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays Edinburgh – Channel Update 2017-09-15

Last update I made after returning from Alghero. This update is being written just before a quick trip to Edinburgh. I worked the weekend in between which meant I had a couple of days where I was home alone. This means I got a lot of recording done, Syfro and I have finally finished Thimbleweed Park and the Ransistance is recorded up to episode 20.

I need to organise to do a few more recording sessions of Torment: Tides of Ranmenera, because that didn’t have the momentum behind it that XCOM 2 has had, but I think I am getting pretty close to the end of the current act. I am not entirely sure how much of the game is left. I know that I am near the original level cap but that game continues to visit interesting and strange territory.

At this point I hope to shuffle the channel schedule in october, it all hinges on me getting my act together regarding tips videos. I have scripts now! I just need to record the voice and find the footage.

This week’s releases were:

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays Alghero – Channel Update 2017-09-08

I spent most of the last week in sunny Alghero in Italy. Unsurprisingly this limited the amount of time I could spend recording videos or monitoring the channel.

I did pick up Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle for the Switch aka MCOM and that game has been a blast. I have finished up the story content and only have the 4 Ultimate challenges left to play. It is a really interesting twist on the XCOM formula, with a much higher emphasis on movement, damage ranges, and distinct characters. Well worth a shot.

On the channel, the Ransistance is in full swing and I am busy tying up various character based side quests in Torment: Tides of Ranmenera, it feels like events are coming to a head there which should allow for a shuffle in the channel schedule.

Firaxis has released a free demo that consists entirely of the photo booth, which means there is now a free tool anyone can use to create soldiers that can be imported into XCOM 2. This means I have revised the recruitment form. I have stripped out the overly long second page, if you want to be added you can either just specify a name and optionally a few other basic details. If you want a fully specified soldier, now you can create it yourself and then send me the file.

This week’s releases were:

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Channel Update 2017-09-01

The Ransistance has returned, ready to kick the Advent and their new allies off the earth or to die trying. At the time of writing this, I have recorded the first 7 episodes and it is remarkable just how many changes have been made. Firaxis have ensured that anyone who starts up War of the Chosen will encounter new content immediately. From a new cutscene that takes place before the previous opener, to more variations on gatecrasher, to many more changes on the strategic layer. I am having a blast playing it and probably would have recorded more were it not for a bout of illness followed by travel.

Firaxis has released a free demo that consists entirely of the photobooth, which means there is now a free tool anyone can use to create soldiers that can be imported into XCOM 2. This means I have revised the recruitment form. I have stripped out the overly long second page, if you want to be added you can either just specify a name and optionally a few other basic details. If you want a fully specified soldier, now you can create it yourself and then send me the file.

This week’s releases were:

Saturday: Syfro Saturdays – Ranneko and Syfro Play Thimbleweed Park
Sundays: Curious Ranpedition
MondayLet’s Dissect A Couple of Games of Star Realms
Tuesday and Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera
Wednesday, Friday: The Ransistance: War of the Chosen

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays Technical Difficulties – Channel Update 2017-06-30

The Ransistance wraps up prematurely this week. I was having a great time, but unfortunately, some interaction between mods and my install has resulted in significant instability. I have recorded a couple more episodes but then I encountered a landed UFO mission that always crashes XCOM 2 when I finish up the mission. I spent way too much time trying to either fix the initial interaction or at least avoid the crash trigger, and I found a way to partially avoid the initial crash, but even loading an old save and playing normally will have the game crash after 15 minutes or so. I could restart the campaign, but with War of the Chosen only a couple of months away, I figure I should way for that to release and start a campaign then. If you have signed up to be a soldier don’t worry I will export all of the characters so they will show up in the next run!

As a result, from next week Ranneko Plays Massive Chalice will run three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully, that will take us roughly to the release of War of the Chosen and then that will run 3 days a week.

The current schedule is:

Saturday: Syfro Saturdays – Ranneko and Syfro Play Thimbleweed Park
Sundays: Ranowned Explorers: International Society
Monday and Friday: The Ransistance
Tuesday and Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera
Wednesday: Ranneko Plays Massive Chalice

After the break, more about the videos that released this week!

Ranneko Plays Runs The Buffer Down – Channel Update 2017-06-16

This post was a little delayed. It turns out getting everything coordinated again after a break is trickier than I would like. I managed to bleed my buffer almost completely dry. My buffer lasted through to Saturday the 17th, and on that day I finally edited and uploaded the video for Sunday. I have managed to sort out a number of recording sessions though and, with some effort, I have recorded and edited episodes that will last through to the 28th.

It is still shorter than I would like of course. I will work on expanding it in the comings weeks.

The current schedule is:

After the break, more about the videos that released this week!

Ranneko Plays Returns – Channel Update 2017-06-09

I am back! Spain was lovely, though while I was away I of course did done precisely zero recording.

I did try to keep an eye on the blog and channel while I was away, though with only a phone it was harder than I had hoped. It looks like The Ransistance has started off fairly strong for my series, gathering a couple of dozen views for the first couple of episodes.

In general, the first couple of episodes of most do a lot better than the rest, it makes sense to start at the beginning and give 1-2 episodes a try I guess. Unfortunately, I have seen no new volunteers to join the ranks. If you haven’t done so already, remember you can sign up here.

The current schedule is:

After the break, more about the videos that released this week!