Welcome to Achaea video

Sarapis

Note: This is the third version of this video. Most of the comments on the first page are directed at older versions of the video.

Verily

The vocalising changes in volume between sections, a bit troublesomely so, but other than that I think it's great!

Sarapis

Yeah, my first time narrating anything. As you're the second person to mention that to me, I may have to go back and adjust volume levels.

Mammon

It gets very noticeably quieter towards the end, could definitely used some adjusting on that front. Very nice, otherwise.

Naisar

I like a lot of this video.  My strongest recommendation is to scale back the magnitude of the zoom out effect on the portraits of the gods from 0:16-0:30.  Its fast enough that it's a little jarring- start from further out, zoom slowly, and give the watchers time to appreciate the artwork.  

Keres

Excellent video! I agree with ^ @Naisar's advice -- though the watchers can always pause the video. @Verily is right, it gets really quiet at the end, where you made the most poignant statement:

"Act with bold intent, and nothing is beyond your grasp." -Matt Mihaly

Nice work

Sarapis

Can you guys have a look at this version and tell me how much (or not) the volume issues are fixed? I realize the way my voice sounds differs a bit between the three separate voice clips, but I don't know how to fix that. Just hoping the volume issues are better now.

Verily

There's that difference in tone/quality that you've mentioned, but the volume is much more level now than it was before, which helps. I know very little about recording audio, so I don't know how much better it can be made without redoing  the voiceovers!

As it is, I quite like it and wouldn't hesitate to share with friends.

Odit

@Sarapis the new client looks great, hoping to try it out soon. 

Like I said on Youtube, I'm not a regular MUD player, my first online game was Ultima Online in 98, so I never really got to experience MUDs. Only recently did I start dabbling and experiencing what MUDs are, thanks to Massively.

My problem so far with MUDs has been the overload of information, I don't mind reading, heck I love reading but things sometimes go by a little too quickly.

I know what I'm going to say will sound like heresy to most MUD players, but I would love some clickable icons for my keybinds (yup, I learned to create a keybind using the web client), like an "action bar", where I could drag keybinds and such.

Another thing that I liked about Gemstone was the ability to click on text and have a contextual menu with actions that can be performed on basically everything in the world. (I understand that folks might again frown upon this)

I don't want people to think I'm trying to WoWify Achaea, these are just my personal opinions from someone that never really played MUDs.

Anyway the video looks great and I'm having a blast so far in Achaea, the community is extremely nice and mature, which is something of a rarity in Online games.

Anaidiana

if you use soundforge, import all audio and 'normalise' the volume. 

Sarapis

Odit said:

@Sarapis the new client looks great, hoping to try it out soon. 

Like I said on Youtube, I'm not a regular MUD player, my first online game was Ultima Online in 98, so I never really got to experience MUDs. Only recently did I start dabbling and experiencing what MUDs are, thanks to Massively.

My problem so far with MUDs has been the overload of information, I don't mind reading, heck I love reading but things sometimes go by a little too quickly.

I know what I'm going to say will sound like heresy to most MUD players, but I would love some clickable icons for my keybinds (yup, I learned to create a keybind using the web client), like an "action bar", where I could drag keybinds and such.

Another thing that I liked about Gemstone was the ability to click on text and have a contextual menu with actions that can be performed on basically everything in the world. (I understand that folks might again frown upon this)

I don't want people to think I'm trying to WoWify Achaea, these are just my personal opinions from someone that never really played MUDs.

Anyway the video looks great and I'm having a blast so far in Achaea, the community is extremely nice and mature, which is something of a rarity in Online games.

Hotbar will be in version 2.1. A hotbar is no different, at all, from the macros that everyone uses here.

Eld

Aw, man, now I have to relearn how to pronounce Sarapis in my head.

Alyssea

Yeah..I always pronounced it "Suh-rah-piss" not "Sarah-piss."

Eld

[sə 'ræp ɪs]

Kenway

Tempted to comment that they shouldn't tell us Sarapis sent them, as that would get them at best a funny look followed by an explanation of his absence, and at worst a special-snowflake-crushing boot-to-the-face. 

Jurixe

I think most of my concerns are mirrored by those above - the artwork moves a little too fast, and if I were really completely new to MUDs, I'd probably want a slightly slower explanation and more time to process the information. It also sounds a little rushed at times, like you're trying to cram everything into a fixed deadline. If you don't need to adhere to any specific length, it might be a good idea to just slow down a little in general.

Otherwise, though, I like it a lot. I think the pictures and the brief shot/explanation of the client will do a lot to at least give people an idea of what they're getting themselves into, and the potential that they can explore if they stay and give it a shot.

Nim

I tried watching it with the mindset of "this isn't something I've ever played before," and if you hadn't said "I'm the creator of Achaea" (which I actually missed the first time I watched it!), I'd have assumed it was a fan video using official artwork.

I'd also wonder why you spend so much time trying to compare the game to graphical games - maybe because I've played other text games (ranging from other MUDs to text adventures, and even some browser games tend to be very text-based, even if they might augment said text with graphics, they're rarely anything amazing), and I have no personal bias against them. On the same token, if I did have a personal bias against games for their graphical presentation, I don't see how you could possibly convince me otherwise in the length of a short video! (The most jarring point is when you go "isn't it boring?" as if that were how I ought to feel, but if that were my natural reaction, why would I play your game at all?)

I'm also iffy about the whole "the world looks like this" bit. Using an image of a map for the "what we imagine the world to be" feels a bit odd, and the timing for it all is a bit strange too (the image kind of disappears not long after you've explained what it looks like, so it's like, what am I looking at? oh, that, I will look at it in more detail then, since it seems impo-oh it's gone already!)

The only thing I really liked in the video was the gameplay demonstration/explanation, where you actually showed the client. Even that had some minor issues (thousands of commands sounds more like excessive complexity than any actual sense of scale, so you might want to break down what those commands are to give it some context; plus, the timing for the yellow borders showing up could be interwoven with the dialogue a bit more smoothly), but it was useful, informative, and gave me a sample of what the game actually is about.

Actually, that point about interweaving graphical changes with the dialogue is probably something you should look at for the entire video. The only time you do this exceptionally well is during the text scenes (ironically!), but I didn't like the text scenes because the text is kind of all over the place. I didn't have any difficulty reading it - it just felt very silly and inconsistent.

Side note: The differing-sounding voices are a bit odd, but I think that's mostly because it only happens at two section changes (for the seemingly shortest sections of the video!), with the same tone spanning the whole rest of the video. Changing the tone up might actually be a good thing - the biggest problem is that you're doing it inconsistently. Using a slightly different tone (if you can manage it, one that matches what the section is about in some way!) for each section might make the video a bit more interesting.

also yeah, stop being so rushed!

Sylvance

I think the new vid is freaking awesome. I don't remember you telling them its free. Tell them it's free.

Arador

I love it, just take it back to one video when you have a final version so I know which one to link

Jhaeli

Sarapis said:

Yeah, my first time narrating anything. As you're the second person to mention that to me, I may have to go back and adjust volume levels.

As someone who used to do this professionally (audio production and voice over), you did great for it being your first time. Better than most radio announcers do for their first few!

My critique would be this: You're talking too fast. For someone who doesn't know the information you're talking about, you'll need to give them more time to process some of what you're saying and really ensure they've heard and understood it. If this was something I was producing, I'd probably also go back over the script a bit and make sure it's written "for the ear" versus "for the eye" - in other words, making sure it's written in a way that makes it easier for the listener who doesn't have a script in their hand to follow.

If you did want to redo the clips, I would do it in a way that will probably sound slow in your head when you say it, but tends to come out at the perfect pace.

Like @Anaidiana said, there's almost always a way to normalise sound in good production programs too.

(Pretty sure I've got a copy of Adobe Audition lying around if you want help at all with sound processing. Just tossing the offer out!)

ETA: Oh and minor pet peeve. I think it'd be better to put the "(It's Awesome)" underneath rather than scrolling it.

Vicious

Uh Hi, Sarapis sent me?

Vansittart

This is great, I would totally play if I saw this.

One minor comment - the text on the right hand side which is legible "Sweet!", and "Enjoy your health" are a bit, I dunno, bleh.  Subliminally, I might epic high fantasy the visible text up as a tone-setter for new players, but that's realy nit-picking.  Great video.

Sarapis

Jhaeli said:

Sarapis said:

Yeah, my first time narrating anything. As you're the second person to mention that to me, I may have to go back and adjust volume levels.

As someone who used to do this professionally (audio production and voice over), you did great for it being your first time. Better than most radio announcers do for their first few!

My critique would be this: You're talking too fast. For someone who doesn't know the information you're talking about, you'll need to give them more time to process some of what you're saying and really ensure they've heard and understood it. If this was something I was producing, I'd probably also go back over the script a bit and make sure it's written "for the ear" versus "for the eye" - in other words, making sure it's written in a way that makes it easier for the listener who doesn't have a script in their hand to follow.

If you did want to redo the clips, I would do it in a way that will probably sound slow in your head when you say it, but tends to come out at the perfect pace.

Like @Anaidiana said, there's almost always a way to normalise sound in good production programs too.

(Pretty sure I've got a copy of Adobe Audition lying around if you want help at all with sound processing. Just tossing the offer out!)

Ahh, thanks!

Yeah, I'm going to have to just re-record these. Thanks for pointing me to Audition. I actually subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud, so can use that, but didn't even realize it existed! I was looking at Sound Forge on @Anaidiana's recommendation and was put off by the $300+ price tag, as I wouldn't use it very often. Audition will sort me out I'm sure. 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Jhaeli

Sarapis said:

Jhaeli said:

Sarapis said:

Yeah, my first time narrating anything. As you're the second person to mention that to me, I may have to go back and adjust volume levels.

As someone who used to do this professionally (audio production and voice over), you did great for it being your first time. Better than most radio announcers do for their first few!

My critique would be this: You're talking too fast. For someone who doesn't know the information you're talking about, you'll need to give them more time to process some of what you're saying and really ensure they've heard and understood it. If this was something I was producing, I'd probably also go back over the script a bit and make sure it's written "for the ear" versus "for the eye" - in other words, making sure it's written in a way that makes it easier for the listener who doesn't have a script in their hand to follow.

If you did want to redo the clips, I would do it in a way that will probably sound slow in your head when you say it, but tends to come out at the perfect pace.

Like @Anaidiana said, there's almost always a way to normalise sound in good production programs too.

(Pretty sure I've got a copy of Adobe Audition lying around if you want help at all with sound processing. Just tossing the offer out!)

Ahh, thanks!

Yeah, I'm going to have to just re-record these. Thanks for pointing me to Audition. I actually subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud, so can use that, but didn't even realize it existed! I was looking at Sound Forge on @Anaidiana's recommendation and was put off by the $300+ price tag, as I wouldn't use it very often. Audition will sort me out I'm sure. 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Audition is easily one of the best sound programs out there for PC, definitely.

Try the dynamics processing feature. And the graphic eq, I believe. Can get some nice body to the vocals.

Shibumi

This is very cool. I can finally explain my wife and my friends what it is about!

Great job @sarapis

Achimrst

Shibumi said:

This is very cool. I can finally explain my wife and my friends what it is about!

Great job @sarapis

Seriously though. I also have tried explaining this to people (╯° _°）╯︵ ┻━┻ 

Shibumi

Actually she saw the video right now. Wife: It looks fun but what's the story? Me: this game is great because you make the story! Wife: how long have you been playing? 2 years or so? Me: yep. I started when our daughter was born. Wife: well it is a game for nerds. You know that right? Me: clearly and I love it (petting my light saber)... I want friends of mine to play this game so badly. I will try to share a link to the video as soon it is on the website.

Achimrst

Shibumi said:

Actually she saw the video right now. Wife: It looks fun but what's the story? Me: this game is great because you make the story! Wife: how long have you been playing? 2 years or so? Me: yep. I started when our daughter was born. Wife: well it is a game for nerds. You know that right? Me: clearly and I love it (petting my light saber)... I want friends of mine to play this game so badly. I will try to share a link to the video as soon it is on the website.

Your lucky you didn't strike her down with the saber or she shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine!

Sarapis

Ok, here is a new version. I speak slower, the vocal tone and volume should be consistent (and better), and there are some minor changes to the video too. @Jhaeli Thanks for the Audition tip. That's some great software.

(And yeah, would love for youtube to actually switch the shot shown on the front. I chose a different one, but it hasn't updated yet for whatever reason.)

Valden

Finally, the pronunciation of Achaea can be laid to rest.

ETA: Sharing this around the office too.



Yay, I had it right.

Shibumi

The audio is so much better now. This is just a great community. Achaea is the best game ever.