oblivioncubed 3Speak Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Listen and watch the latest videos from oblivioncubed. Hosted by 3Speak.tv. The free speech video platform on the HIVE blockchain.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/oaqdxrup
Today I'm looking at Over War - The Night Comes Down by Blackoath Entertainment (https://blackoathgames.com/)
Sorry for the camera bounce folks, my stand was too close to my table and chaos ensued.
Over War is a hex-crawl and battle simulator, wherein you play the role of a Commander leading a Unit (or several units) of rebels fighting for your homeland.
In a lot of ways, I found that it really reminded me of a tabletop version of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (or Ogre Battle 64, which was a remake of the SNES version).
It's a really fun game that I very much enjoyed playing, and will definitely be diving into further off-camera.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/lzmquwei
Hey folks!
Another Dwarf Fortress video today. It's been a few days, but I managed to sit down and make some safe space within the Cavern layer.
We also do a bit of base cleanup in this episode and set up a butcher for processing meat.
Once we have our butcher set up, we look at creating a zone for animal training - so that we can take trapped Draltha from the cavern layer, train them, and butcher them. An easy way to provide some meat for the fortress.
As always, thanks for watching and Happy Gaming!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/oadceeyf
Woohoo! Today, we finally make it to the first Cavern Layer!
This is a noteworthy accomplishment as it provides us new opportunities, and new dangers.
First, and most crutially - the cavern layer is great for Fungiwood Trees, which can provide us logs for lumber even in maps where we might not have trees aboveground. For some embarkments, this is the first real chance a person has to start producing anything carpentry-related. It's also fairly good for farms (as the soil is better deeper), and if we have water in this level we can usually set up a Fisher's Workshop to start getting cavefish. It never hurts to have another source of food!
On the flip side though, this does open us to danger in the form of invaders from the deep. Creatures live in the deep spots of the earth, and frog-folk, snakefolk, and other groups aren't even the worst of the potential denizens of this area. Megabeasts of various types and Demons can be found in the deep spots of the earth. If you're particularly unlucky I think it's possible to also encounter Angels and get absolutely wrecked by them too... but so far the worst I've fought is Demons. That said, it's not super common, and we definitely have time to prepare for those potential hazards.
In this episode, we also set up some basic farm infrastructure - with an above-ground and slightly below-ground farm each. This allows us to grow surface crops like berry bushes, as well as underground food like mushrooms. These can all be used as food, drink, or as part of a manufacturing process for making clothes if we have a loom and a clothier. I pick a bunch of Hemp to make our first bolts of cloth with, because... I mean, I had the option so why not? Hemp is a great material.
And finally, we get our first Fortress visitor - a Monster Hunter here to seek glory and death in the caverns. We're fine with that, and so we grant him the ability to stay.
That's it for today. As always, thanks for watching and Happy Gaming!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/ozilncte
Hello my fellow gamers!
Today we're back to complete the process we started a couple of days ago: it's time to ramp up our metal production and get to crafting ourselves some weapons and armor!
There are a few steps to getting metal production up and going, but it's actually pretty simple as far as a production process goes.
First, we need to get some charcoal, which means we need a simple furnace which we can use to turn logs into charcoal. We don't need much of that, because often, once you start down metal production you'll be running across enough coal-coke producing materials that you won't really use anything else.
Next, we need a Smelter, and then we need a Metalsmith's workshop.
Now, I like to make two smelters usually, as it ensures I can keep production up for both smelting the actual ores, and for creating coke for the smelter's fuel. We're not deep enough yet to use Magma Smelters which don't require fuel, so this is our best option.
Once that is set up, because our squads are 10-Dwarf squads, I like to create some default Work Orders gearing them up. 10 of any weapon type, then 10 shields/bucklers, then 10 breastplates... you get the idea. Through until they're fully geared except for flasks and backpacks. (Which are super useful, and you should consider making them - but aren't strictly mandatory for your success).
With this episode behind us, I would call this the end of the Brand New Beginner's section. If you've watched these 6 and followed along, you'll be doing well enough that you could survive for several years without worry I think!
Next time, we'll dig a little deeper by... digging a little deeper, and finding the first Cavern layer.
Until then, Happy Gaming!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/kruunpvf
Well, well, well. It's finally come to this. Our first invasion and we've been caught completely unprepared.
Things we need to successfully fend off an invasion:
- Soldiers
- Weapons
- Armor
- Traps
- Hospital
- Doctor
Things we don't have:
- Soldiers
- Weapons
- Armor
- Traps
- Hospital
- Doctor
So, that's obviously a problem that we have to solve in a big way!
Getting ourselves some soldiers is relatively easy, we just need to assign a new Administrator/Noble as our Militia Commander, which unlocks our ability to creat our first Squad!
Getting armor and weapons... that one is a bit trickier and will take some additional workshop creation. It's not time we have right now, so I cross my fingers and hope that in our default supplies we've been sent a sword or two. Maybe a shield if we're lucky. Maybe, if we're really lucky, some kind of low-tier armor.
It does turn out that we are slightly lucky. We have some T1 armor and weapons lying around in boxes from our Embarkment, so a couple of dwarves are able to suit up and with them charging in and the rest of the squad right behind to rain some punches, bites, and kicks on the zombies... we're able to push back this first, blessedly small, invasion.
That could have gone a lot worse for us. Thankfully, this seemed to be more of an expeditionary force meant to test our capabilities. Five undead aren't much of a threat without their necromancer there to constantly bring them back.
With the assault behind us, we ensure that a Chief Medical Dwarf has been assigned, and our Hosipital zoned and furnished, so that if we end up getting into future scraps that cause us wounds we can actually do something about them.
Dwarves are surprisingly resilient, and can take quite the beating. You can have dwarves without legs just motoring around on crutches just fine, as an example. Things only get really problematic when they loose their ability to grasp, since then they can't change clothes, eat, or drink. Thankfully, we haven't had to deal with that so far!
And that's going to be it for today. We covered a lot of ground fairly rapidly today. Next time we'll start trying to properly outfit our militia.
As always, until next time my friends: Happy Gaming!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/qwrzopaw
Hey folks! Happy Monday.
Today we're looking at another quick and easy way to keep our dwarves from getting depressed and angry - and that's by creating an undedicated Temple!
Like Inns/Taverns, to build a temple we first need to zone for a regular Meeting Place, and then update that to become a Temple. When we do this, it gives us the option to make this a temple for a specific diety, or to leave it undedicated so that it's available for anyone to worship any of the dwarven gods. I generally go with this undedicated route, particularly early on in my Fortress playthroughs.
Temples can be created quick and dirty by simply hollowing out a space, zoning it, and adding an Alter in the area... but if you want to get a bit of an extra boost to happiness, you could choose to make the walls out of fancy material, add a custom floor, and decorate with statues, pedestals to show off relics, and other neat stuff. That way, when the dwarves come into the Temple, they also spend time in a well designed space and that adds to their enjoyment. They'll recall being near well made items and well crafted areas, which provides them a mood boost.
For today, we don't go too far into making our space fancy, but we do smooth the floor, and add some specially built walls. Eventually we will upgrade this, but for now it does the trick. The little bit of decoration we do accomplish is to add Engravings to the floor and a few specific walls.
As soon as we've got our new space set up though... we also get a notification of our first Invasion!
Remember how I said in Episode 1 that we were going to keep going with our Fortress despite the notification that we were close to a Necromancer who might invade early? Well, they definitely invaded early! We don't even have a militia yet! No commander, no barracks, and you can bet your buns we have no weapons. So, this could be a very interesting event... but it's also an event that we'll get to next time!
Until then, as always, thanks for watching my friends and Happy Gaming!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/vczusflx
Hello gamers!
I'm back with another actual play/tutorial episode for you. Yesterday, we completed our goal of getting our Beds and Booze situation sorted out. It's always important to have a half-decent place for our dwarves to rest their heads, and a social spot for them to drink.
Today, we're going to look at improving the efficiency of our time as players, by setting up some Work Orders.
Work Orders are a series of build tasks that you can assign to be completed as single-time actions, daily events, weekly events, or even more rare than that. These will help automate a lot of tasks for you, such as ensuring you always have 30+ Barrels of Booze (on the wall).
To set up Work Orders, we need to start by adding a new dwarf to our nobility/administration team, and that is the Manager. For a Manager to do their job, they require at least a basic office. At this stage, that means they need a box with a table and a chair in it. As we get deeper into the game, your administators/nobility are going to make larger and larger demands... but for now, a simple room with a table fits the current requirements. With that built, they're able to sign off on new work orders, and your fortress is going to end up managing a lot of day-to-day production by itself.
Some things I highly recommend you create Work Orders for (in no particular order) are:
- Barrels
- Bins
- Brewing Drinks (from Fruit AND from Plants - so two work orders for that one)
- Beds
- Doors
- Blocks (stone at the stonecrafter, and wood at the woodcrafter)
- Chests or Coffers
By building these as Work Orders, it'll ensure that you always have some on hand for when you need them. You can set conditions up within your Work Order to ensure that you're not oversupplying too. By setting conditions such as "If Number of Empty Bins is Less Than 10" you can ensure that as soon as you've only got 9 empty bins left, your dwarves will jump into action to add to the supply.
I honestly cannot overstate how important Work Orders are for your Fortress. If you plan to survive for any length of time at all, you're going to need to get a Manager and start setting up this automation within the first year.
The next thing we tackle in this episode is our very first Trade!
Like with Work Orders, we need a new Administrator/Noble to actually be able to make trades, and so we have to assign our second chosen administrator: the Broker.
Brokers are the folks who make deals with travelling merchant caravans and sell your items at your Trade Depot.
With these two tasks out of the way, it's time to take stock of our goods, and hunker in for a long cold winter, which will hopefully pass fairly uneventfully.
As always, thanks for watching and Happy Gaming!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/jidbkqto
Good day folks!
We're back with another beginner-friendly gameplay and tutorial video for you. Yesterday, we Embarked with our small clan of dwarves and did some initial setup:
- Creating a Pen/Pasture for our grazing animals
- Dug out a General Storage area to stack the stuff we brought and the stuff we will be creating
- Dug out a space below our Storage area to house some workshops that will make use of the close proximity to our raw goods
- Set up a Meeting Area so our Dwarves could socialize somewhere out of the wind and the rain
- Set up some gathering zones to collect fruit as we reach Summer
In today's episode, we're going to deal with two more problems that I like to get handled really early in my Fortress plays:
- We need beds, so our dwarves aren't getting unhappy by sleeping on the ground
- We need to start crafting some booze
- We need a farm plot underground to plant some brewable mushrooms
- We need to set up a few crutial workshops
- And, finally, we need to make some mugs, and transform our Meeting Area into a dedicated Citizens-Only Tavern
Now, I realize I said "we need to deal with two problems" and then listed five things, but in actuality Bedrooms and Booze are the top-level problems we're solving, and to do that, we need a bit of additional infrastructure. So, while it looks silly all typed out in a list, it is correctly only dealing with two problems.
By handling these issues, we'll keep our dwarves relatively content, which will make our ability to thrive a little easier. Moody dwarves can cause problems, so solving those needs early is necessary for our future growth.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/juijmhbl
Hey folks!
I had mentioned a while back in a prior blog that I'd been thinking of creating a Dwarf Fortress tutorial for my fellow Hive users.
A lot of folks I've talked to about DF have commented something along the lines of: "Isn't that the notoriously complex videogame that's been in development for like 20 years?!" and yes, it is. But, while it has a lot of nuance and depth, I don't think it's actually all that complicated. As such, I wanted to show off how I typically aproach a fortress in my gameplay.
If you enjoy colony simulations and building things, this is a really fantastic game. It's a lot more accessible than I think folks realize, and while you can get into some absolutely crazy depth... you don't need go to wild to have a good time. Building cool forts, fighting off monsters and giant animals, and making a thriving civilization is achievable for anyone!
In today's episode, I'm going to talk about:
- Some important notes for where to create your first civilization
- Some tasks you'll want to set up early to mange food, drink, and livestock
- My strategy for workshops and storage areas
I hope you'll take some time and consider watching this series of Hive-User focused tutorials, and maybe snag the game and join me in seeing how far we can push our Dwarven civilization before we dig too greedily and too deeply!
Until next time folks, happy gaming!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/tignxcfd
Bandits rock my world
And by rock my world I mean that they fuck me up so badly I nearly scrap 30m of footage. But fear not friends, because instead of hiding my shame away and deleting the worst run of my Skyrim life... I learned some very basic editing just to splice all my many failures into this video for your enjoyment.
Because I'm kind like that, and I know you want to see me get wrecked like a noob.
So sit back, relax, and join me as I die a bunch and then we ramble a bit about random shit.
We do end up clearing the fort - which is actually super lackluster and is pretty much empty. I speculate that perhaps this is a quest area, but as I don't remember well enough... that will remain a mystery for now.
Afterwards, we kill some more bandits in some nice Dwarven armor, and we run into some Thalamor agents just standing around being aloof little shits.
So of course, we kill them.
Fuck the Thalamor, fuck the state. Anarchy in the Skyrim!
After that fun we head to town to sell some of our ill-gotten gains, where we end the episode.
So, as I say in the video... until next time my friends. Happy gaming!
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/ycmrjswf
Playing Vampire Survivors
I thought I'd showcase a game I bought a week or so back thanks to @pusen playing it a bit on his stream. It's Vampire Survivors, which is a $3 game on Steam that is 100% worth the money. It's honestly just so so much fun.
I've been playing a ton of this and thought I'd make a small video showcasing a recent run I did with one of the characters. This character provides a Curse debuff every 10 levels, which makes him one of the more challenging characters to use, and I've - until this run - never beaten a level with him.
The game itself is a kind of casual action game with rougelite elements. It has unlockable characters and items, and a handful of very fun and challenging levels. It's currently in an Early Access stage, and more work is being done it looks like... but honestly, for the hours of entertainment I've gained so far... I'm already super pleased with it.
We ended the run with the following stats:
Which, if I do say so myself, is a pretty stellar run. Our DPS with this build was amazing, and I definitely am going to be playing around with this character more in the future.
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/dxnmbedh
Another night, another fetch quest.
In today's episode we decide to turn in the previous quest for Harkan, giving him his blood-filled chalice.
We find out as part of this that they expected us to get followed and attacked, and aren't upset at all that we fucked the faces of the idiots they sent after us. Take that, stupid uppity vampire faction.
We're immediately told upon turning in the quest to go out and find a Moth Priest, which will help read the Elder Scroll Serana has/had on her, as it is part of some plot to supress the sun? I think??
Which, I mean, as a human that sounds like a terrible idea (I've seen Highlander 2, thank you very much) but, as a vampire... heck yeah, fuck the sun! Lets extinguish that stupid ball of burning.
So, we're given that quest and Serana offers to come with us... but she doesn't trust Lydia. Well, fair, I don't either... so goodbye Lydia, we abandon her and tell her to fuck off home (which I think is maybe my player house but who knows!) and then we head off to recall how Serana fights by getting into a couple of minor spats.
Eventually, we end at Fort Hraggstad, which I had mistakenly thought was part of the Saints & Seducer's content in Anniversary Edition. It's not.
But that's okay, because it still had people to kill - which we do. After clearing the open area, we decide to call it a wrap for this episode, and next time we'll dive into the guts of the place to explore for some sweet loot and take out any survivors.
Until then, happy gaming!
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/ydaeyecy
Voidtrain; First impressions
We're taking a quick poke at Voidtrain today! It's a neat little game I picked up from the Epic Games store, and is currently in an Early Access state.
Voidtrain is a survival crafting game taking place (so far as I've seen) entirely upon a... uh... 'dimension hopping train'? I guess? I can't think of a better way to describe it. It seems like at least some of the game - if not all of it - is set in these little... pocket worlds? I believe they're described as the space between worlds, or perhaps the space between two points on the same world. I'm unclear on some aspects of the storyline / world here.
It's a fun little game though from my tiny amount of play. We build new workbenches with scraps we reclaim from the broken landscape of the void, and thus unlock further advances we can make. It looks like later we can expand the size of our train too, which is pretty cool.
This first bit of play is a lot of testing mechanics. Floating through the void is a unique experience, and our tether to the rail platform is something that takes a little getting used to. Collecting goods makes for a lot of stopping and starting the trolley, which I think has the potential to become pretty repetative... but we'll see. I plan to play this one more - if only to help answer some lingering questions I'm left with about the actual game.
Atmospherically, the game is amazing. There's some great sound work, and the broken chunks of worlds poking into the void - or comprising it - are super interesting.
I don't have a ton more to say here on this one, at least, not right now. It's a fun little game from the first ~30 min or so, and I plan to give it more time to see if we can a) expand our train further, & b) go through another portal. I think as far as long-term play, a lot hinges on if there are more unique voids or extra worlds for me to travel through. I assume there will be, because it feels like there's got to be more to the game than the single area we were in to begin with.. but we'll see!
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/ygrmlsgr
Drink til we're full
In today's episode I learn that I'm hot garbage at the vampire playstyle!
Seriously, it's really bad. I'm embarassed for myself. I get the hang of it by the end of the episode (sort of), but my confidence going into this bloodbath is perhaps a little... inflated.
But, as promised, we do slaughter the shit out of the vamps in the Redwater Skooma Den. The minor vampires of the den immediately attack as soon as I change into my Vampire Lord shape, and in so doing I learn the first of many lessons about this ability.
I can't open doors. Or loot. Or really interact with the environment at all. It's a little hamfisted, but we finally figure it out.
A little later, with a few more bodies behind us, we learn another important thing - traps suck when you've got a companion. Lydia just can't stop stepping on goddamn traps, so we get smacked around a bit, totally needlessly.
Finally, we reach the special little blood pool that we're supposed to fill the chalice at, and lo and behold... two of our new family members think they're hot stuff and try to leave me dead in the pool.
They try their best. And, in the end, I steal from their corpses. It'll be interesting explaining their betrayal when we turn this quest in I'm sure. Uppity bastards.
Next time, we'll start the episode by finding some chump to feast on, and then we'll see where fate takes us after that.
Until then, happy gaming.
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/alwfmswd
What a twisted web we weave
So, we take Serana home in today's episode, and we meet her... uh... family.
It's a... strange meeting. We're greated by a vampire feast, with everyone just om-nom-noming on random people lying on tables. Her father seems more concerned about the Elder Scroll than he does with Serana, which is... I mean... I guess fitting for a near immortal fuckbag but man, does he act like a shit about it.
Serana meanwhile has apparently been trapped for years? Decades? Millenia? And gets a passing nod before she fucks off into... well, I'm not entirely sure where she fucks off to - because we get presented with a deal.
Get expelled from the hall forever, or... join them. Become an Elder Vampire in one fell swoop, with all the baggage that carries.
The decision is hard. We're here to kill vampires and chew bubblegum in a world that has no bubblegum... but on the OTHER hand... Big Bad Vamp Powers.
In the end, we kiss our morals goodbye and say fuck it, allowing the fell embrace to turn us into a Vampire Lord.
In for a penny, in for a pound eh? Dawnguard gonna have some shit to say bout this but, I guess we'll just kill them and feast on their weak flesh.
Blood is the path forward, and we shall follow that path.
Our first stop on this new and exciting journey brings us right back into a wonderfully poetic circle, and we're told to head to the Redwater Skooma Den. See, I told ya we'd come back there to clean that place out, and here we are! On a quest specifically to do so!
So, since we're there anyhow, we finally take the option of doing the right drugs in the Den.
Hilariously, this ends up causing us to black out and wake up in a cage.
... A cage guarded by a vampire. Who won't let me out. Despite me being a badass motherfuckin Vampire Lord.
In the next episode, he and his friends are going to learn the hard way to respect our new social status.
So, join me again next time as we truly embark on the path of blood. Until then, happy gaming my friends!
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/twluykjv
And I would walk five hundred miles...
Hooooo boy. So, in today's episode we take the long-ass treck back to Serana's ancient home. It's a journey worthy of song, and, per usual we walk there because horses are bullshit and so is fast travel.
Yeah, I went there. Fight me.
As part of this walk, we find a new - more applicable - shrine! So we drop the old wayshrine buff we'd been lugging around since the start of the game and pick it up. We were rocking The Warrior, but switch to The Lord for some improved resistance to both magic and physical damage.
We also find a shrine of Mehrunes Dagon that we grab the fast-travel option for, as it's relevant to a quest later if I recall correctly.
We make a pit-stop at Myrwatch to drop off everything in our inventory that we've been lugging from place to place, which finally - FINALLY - solves the weight issues (at least for now)!
We also make a pit stop at the Shrine of Meridia, and she gives us a quest to fetch her Gem and a promise to get another quest after. I seem to remember this being a vampire purge, but it's been many years so I could be wrong. We'll go back for that later, eventually.
Finally, we make it to the boat that takes us to Serana's home just as we end the session. Next episode, we'll be completing the actual quest of taking her home, which I'm sure will be all kinds of weird given my decision to join the Dawnguard.
Until then, as always - happy gaming and thanks for watching!
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/lltwqkwn
What lurks at the heart of Dimhollow Crypt?
In today's episode we continue the trek through Dimhollow Crypt, our trusty crossbow in hand.
The crypt itself is a super neat location, which is hard to take in while cutting down vampires and skeletons, but it is a very cool little location... sadly, overran with vampires, death hounds, and skeletons.
But, we know how to deal with that, don't we?
We do catch a few breaks as well, with a giant spider getting fairly damaged by a vampire master, and we find a great vantage point for using our crossbow to deal with a group of vampires so they don't even touch us.
All in all, it's a fairly good dungeon dive, with some really cool gargoyle statues that we stop and appreciate as we get deep into the cavern below the crypt.
At the heart of the crypt we are greeted by a button.
We don't know what the button does but we feel an urge to press the button... so we do!
And promptly get a knife through the hand. Motherfucker. Then mystical blue fire shoots out of the ground and we quickly realize that this is a puzzle. An ominious puzzle, as we keep moving braziers into place and causing the entire cavern to quake. It's deeply unsettling, but... who stops just because a puzzle might cave in the entire cavern? Not us, that's for sure.
Once we do complete that, we discover the secret of the crypt... a strange woman - vampire, but... not an asshole like the rest of these clowns so we don't stab her in the face immediately.
Plus, she's walking around with a fucking Elder Scroll so... I mean, probably best not to get on her bad side right? So, for now... we decide to let her come with us. Or rather, we decide to take her back to her ancestral home because she's a mystery that is worth possibly getting our face bitten off.
After this, we make our way out of the crypt... only to be ambushed by the same gargoyles we'd been appreciating moments before! Sneaky bastards!
We clear out one last section of Drauger and get a new Word of Power just seconds before my wife returns home with the children, and I call the video to an end for this episode.
Next time, we will continue on with Serena, to see if we can't find out what her role in the vampire uprising might be. Perhaps she can help us, or, perhaps we'll need to put her down. We'll see!
Until next time, happy gaming.
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/urxdcbmv
Today we learn... Crossbows kick some serious ass!
We set out, stalwart vampire hunters, seeking glory in our first quest to delve into the secrets of Dimhollow Crypt.
On the way, we get distracted by some bandits (per usual) and learn that ~~my aim sucked today~~ Lydia's aim is the fuckin worst. What a terrible companion she is. cough yep.
We also run into one 'Eisa Blackthorn' who basically tells us to leave her the shit alone and kill all her old buddies - which we'll go back for in a future episode. Maybe. If I remember.
Sooner or later we'll probably accidentally find that place again, right? I mean, it only makes sense.
We also spend a lot of time trying to go the wrong way up a mountain - because this is Skryim and if you don't assert dominance over these goddamn mountains what's even the point of playing? Ya feel me? I should have remembered my horse with no name for that, and tried to climb it with them... but so far, I keep ignoring it in favor of walking so today's not the day we ride a horse up a near vertical surface.
Finally, after much running about, jumping back and forth, and generally making a mockery of all the skill I'd previously had in this game.... we reach Dimhollow Crypt.
As predicted, the dumbass Vigilant of Stendar who was supposed to meet us here went inside and got himself killed, which really... is no loss. I mean, we called that last episode as soon as he said he was going to go. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes like having your face bitten off.
We also learn the best thing about this episode - Crossbows pack an absolutely insane punch! Holy shit they're great. We're definitely going to be rocking this little weapon a LOT more in future. We end the episode just barely inside the Crypt after breaking a frankly embarrassing number of lockpicks trying to get into a master chest (which we do... eventually).
Also, we're fighting encumberance this entire episode. Going to have to make some choices and drop some garbage next episode before we go too much further because weight is at a premium right now.
Until next time, keep an eye out for vamps and keep your crossbow loaded.
Happy gaming friends.
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/bprghnny
Join the crusade! Become a Dawnguard now!
In today's episode, we finally reach the Dawnguard encampment... for a second time. I did a bit of off-camera play between ep 3 and ep 4, just mostly to see if I could unlock a fast-travel point for the Dawnguard but as it turned out, when I went to see them they wanted to kill me.
Since I wanted to be a member, I did the only reasonable thing and ran the heck away.
I figured there were probably only two things that could possibly be making them angry with me. The first and most likely, was that I'd contracted vampirism earlier. I had cured it that same episode, but I hadn't actually rested in a bed since doing so. Second, I may have been spotted stealing something. I can't be sure. So, both of those have very easy solutions.
First, I punched a guard in Riften in his smug face for that sweet sweet 40gp bounty so I could pay it off. Second, I slept for a solid 8 hours in the inn, to make sure that my status wasn't inaccurately showing me as turning into an abomination.
These two things done, I set back out to take another stab at joining the Dawnguard, so I can properly get on with the business of hunting some damned vampires.
Naturally, nothing ever goes quite to plan... so first, we get to be attacked by a dragon. And then some bandits. A wild horse (which I think I've somehow claimed as it keeps showing up), smashes the shit out both of the bandits who try their luck and I proclaim the horse with no name to be today's MVP. He deserves it.
Finally, we reach the not-fast-travel-able spot for the Dawnguard, to see if we can join their ranks. For a castle that's supposedly being repaired, it sure looks like it's doing great - if a little unpopulated.
A missionary from the Stendar folks is speaking to our future captain, admitting that they seem to be the ones who unleased this goddamn menace - or at least, the ones who prompted them to get so bold - and in the same moment that we're recruited... we're given a mission. These folks are sure a trusting lot, but hey, when you're in dire need of bodies to throw into a conflict you take what you can get without asking too many questions I guess.
And thus, our day is done. We've slain another dragon, joined the Dawnguard, and have a quest pointing us towards our first real anti-vampire action. It's been a good day.
Things we still have on our plate that we intend to get to include at some point heading down to that super nice supper we've been invited to which is totally not a trap. We might not get to that in the next episode, but it's very high on our list for the immediate future.
As always, thanks for watching and happy gaming friends.
Oh, and, as per usual... sound might again be a bit janky. I recorded some gameplay of Voidtrain between episodes and my Skyrim settings were way too loud in Voidtrain, so I changed them and forgot to change them back. I've learned how to set profiles in OBS so I can make this easier in subsequent videos.
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/buvsaevx
Vampires. So many vampires.
If it wasn't already abundantly clear that killing some vamps was necessary, today's episode would have definitely cemented our decision to join the Dawnguard. The hungry bastards are everywhere. In just this single episode we run across four (I think? I can't recall if we see more or not), and that's just too damned many.
We also find today a rockin' little speak-easy skooma den! It's... honestly pretty lacklustre for being so far out in the middle of nowhere, so after being disappointed we make a mental note to come back here later and break into all the locked rooms and fuck some people up. It's the right thing to do. Y'know. Morally.
We also run into a Sprigan and some Saber Cats, and find the bodies of a few prior victims down among their little... Sprigan nest?? I guess? I don't know what else to call it. In the end, the prior victims have little on them of any value but we do collect some more Taproot, and two nice saber cat pelts, which I think will end up decorating my house once I get to the point that I want to add a bit of decorative flair.
Capping off the episode, we're formally invited to a lovely dinner (TRAP. It's gotta be a trap), and are asked to help the Jarl of Falkreath with something. We're not going to head to the Jarl anytime soon, so we'll tackle that when we happen to be in the area for something else, but the dinner invitation (TRAP) sounds like fun, so maybe in the next couple of episodes our character will take a jaunt down to that and have a little fun.
All of that will have to wait though, because our purpose right now is to join the Dawnguard and smash some vampire faces in. They've been too much of a pain in the ass to ignore, and thus they deserve to be hunted down.
A quick stop in Riften to sell some junk, and then we'll be back on the road to complete our quest for the Dawnguard in the next episode.
Thanks for watching, and happy gaming my friends.
I tinker (again) with audio and such in this, and I think we're close to the right audio levels finally. The filesize OBS is spitting out is still pretty perposterous though so additional tinkering will happen between now and the next upload to see if I can't get just a little more buffer room between my desired 30 or so minutes of gameplay, and the file upload limit.
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/khaqgabf
In today's episode, we learn that gates are the real enemy here.
Seriously though, if it's not Lydia standing in my way like an oblivious tank, it's a puzzle that I have to muddle my way through. Or it's a horde of enemies.
Doors really are the fucking worst.
This episode continues directly from where I left off in Ep 1, and even having completed this entire dungeon... I don't really remember this quest from my first time playing. I'm sure I did it, we get a bit of loot that I'm quite sure is quest-related, but I'm avoiding going to wiki's and spoiling anything for myself so I have no idea where it fits in the story / quest progression path.
The boss in this area is Sigdis Gauldurson, which, after a slog of a shootout ends up dropping the Gauldur Amulet Fragment for us. I think this is a piece of some greater item (I mean, it's literally got 'fragment' in the name) but I can't remember what it combines with or who I take it to. Maybe it's got something to do with the Mage's College, but as I have joined literally no guilds yet... I can't say with any certainty.
For now, I'll just keep it stashed somewhere for later. Maybe if I can equip it, I'll toss it on (if it's better than whatever it would replace).
Once out of the dungeon, I notice that we're at a decent wrapping up point, and call it a night.
There were some changes to the way I made this video. First, I'm still playing with sound levels (and I recorded this at like 11pm while my kids were sleeping) so I might be a tiny bit quiet. I'm still finding the sweet spot on that. Second, I reduced the output fps for the video, as I suspected that it would shrink the file-size bloat... and it did. I don't personally notice a ton of difference, but if it's noticable to you please leave a comment and I'll figure some other option out for keeping video size reasonable enough to upload to 3Speak.
Join me again next time as I ~~continue to be cursed by fucking doors~~ get up to some more trouble! Until next time, happy gaming my friends.
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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/fcngvrlv
On November 10th, 2021... I returned to Skyrim.
I remember when this game was announced asking my boss for the release day off as vacation. I was honest about my reasoning - I was going to nerd the fuck out, and play Skyrim and eat Doritos.
He laughed, and agreed to the vacation immediately.
Hard to believe that was ten years ago already! As with both Morrowind and Oblivion, I played a ton of Skyrim. Hundreds of hours were spent adventuring in this world, and once I had completed more-or-less everything over the course of a couple years and multiple playthroughs... I hung it up and moved to different games. So, it's been... gosh, a few years for sure, since the last time I played.
But then they went and announced the 'Saints & Seducers' armors in this Anniversary Edition. It's like they were targetting me, specificially. Morrowind was my introduction to the series (as I'm sure it was for many of us) and I loved these two sets of armor. So, $20 bucks less in my wallet, I found myself downloading and installing Skyrim SE Anniversary Edition. It was time to once again return to Tamriel.
As I was getting my footing, it dawned on me that this is really a return that I should be recording - so, as soon as the idea occured to me, I downloaded OBS and started recording my next gaming session.
Which I then deleted. Turns out it's kind of useful to, y'know, check to see if the sound balance is even close. It was awful, and though I was talking it was a barely noticable whisper in the background.
So, I did some tests, fixed that... and here we are. Ep 1 of my return to Skyrim.
Today we return the horn of Jeurgen Windcaller, muck about in Windhelm a bit, tidy our inventory, and then - as is innevitable - get distracted by a tempting cave.
Unfortunately, I was recording this session on a hd that, as it turns out, was extremely close to full... so my session cuts off abruptly. We'll pick up in the same spot next session though, and with a bit of luck I'll figure out more about OBS so that I can record more than 30min of content before smashing the filesize upload wall for 3Speak.
(If you have any experience with this, let me know!)
Until next time, happy gaming my friends.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/rbgtdeiq
In the massive list of games I downloaded from Humble was this little title - and late last night I decided to give it a shot.
Through The Darkest of Times Here we have a sim/strategy indie title that puts you as a Resistance Fighter in up-and-coming Nazi Germany at the beginning of the war.
It's a slow burn to start. It's a pretty simple game, wherein you pair your little freedom-fighters with missions on a map grid, and after that it basically tells you if you've succeeded or not through a little bit of text.
It's certainly not an action packed game, but it does have a charm to it, and I think it's likely going to be a fun game to slowly play through.
I suspect that it's a game that will get challenging, but repetitive. I'm likely not going to put a ton of time into this one for that reason - but it's certainly not a bad game and I will likely leave it installed to play around with as I get time. Its vaguely similar to games like Papers Please and We Are The Police in some ways, which were both a lot of fun to play.
If you enjoy resource management strategy/simulation games, I think this is one you'll probably enjoy. It's a 3/5 for me, purely because I think it I'll need to provide it more focus and thought than I can give it right now... but once my life slows down a bit I may revise that. It'll never be a 5/5 for me I don't think, but it may be a solid 4 once I have space to dedicate to it. We'll see!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/hxmovipj
I recently picked up this game through... HumbleBundle? Maybe? I honestly can't remember what month it was from, or how long it's been sitting in the sickeningly large list of unclaimed keys that I finally made an effor to actually claim. What I do know, is that I finally claimed it and downloaded it three days ago.
Today was my first shot playing it. The gods blessed me with a toddler who went to sleep at 9pm finally instead of fighting me until 11, so I felt like celebrating this rare and clearly divinely inspired situation with a bit of gaming. I have to say, it's a really neat game!
Mechanically, this plays as a hybrid of a strategy rpg with vaguely moba-feeling elements, and a text-based choose your own adventure. The story so far is, I'm not going to lie, pretty predictable and full of tropes... but hey, I'm here to be a dwarf and smash shit with a hammer - not play through the Next Best Story Ever... so I'm okay with it.
The main map screen that you get to reminds me a lot of the Pathfinder: Kingmaker game, as you're essentially a token on a board hitting pre-defined spots and finding out what happens in each. It's enjoyable, and the text is fully narrated. The narration itself is pretty good, and they do make an effort to splash in a bit of humor which I have so far enjoyed in my ~30 minutes of playing.
So far, there's not been too much by way of combat. I suspect that's likely a product of where I am in the game. It's clear that we're currently in the arc of the story where our naieve hero is being thrust into a grand adventure and is soon to build an epic team of friends. So far, we haven't met any of them though, but I get the sense that a companion awaits me at the end of the current mission.
All in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend my free time this evening. The story is interesting enough, despite it's predictability, that I'll probably try to fit in some more time for this when I've got a bit more time on my hands... I want to at least get far enough to see how a few more companions work and confirm if the story is leading where I suspect.
If you're a fan of this kind of game, and you're interested in trying it out - snag it on sale would be my recommendation.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=oblivioncubed/xncmcmcq
One of my friends has been suggesting I try Hades since it first came out and I managed to snag a copy for a paltry 8 dollars, so I figured I may as well give it a shot. I have to say, this is a super fun game! Well worth all the praise it's been given as far as I am concerned. Art style is gorgeous, the game play is smooth as silk, and it's got witty banter between the player character and the various NPCs.
I don't currently have a space to play these where I can record any audio, so unfortunately it's just purely the game sounds that are being captured... but I figure that's probably better than having my toddler or his baby sister making noise in the background, haha. I didn't make it terribly far with this first trial of the game, but I was able to get a feel of how to actually play the game and suss out how some of the various upgrades and powers work. It's got a rogue-like quality to the randomized rooms that I definitely enjoy, and I'm hoping that with a bit more time behind a controller here, I'll be able to past the first boss. For a first try in the middle of the night, I'm calling just making it to the boss a victory. She's got some neat moves but I think next time I face her, now that I have an idea of her skill-set, I'll be able to pull off a win without too much trouble.
If you, like me, haven't tried this yet and you enjoy actiony rogue-like fun... definitely consider grabbing this game. I'm sure it's going to provide me a lot of entertainment, and despite having watched several twitch streams of it... it plays so much more nicely than it looks on-stream or on video. This is one that to really experience, ya have to grab and play.
All the best folks!