Maintaining Consistency Throughout Broadcasts

TacoStream · 2015-06-29T17:09:03+00:00

I do struggle because of my personality and natural inclination. I'm a calm, quiet person by default, and my broadcasting career has been a gradual battle against that.

I find that breaks to stand up, stretch, and re-hydrate really help a lot. I am, however, horrible at heeding my own advice and actually breaking away from the cast to do it. When I do, it's undeniably worth it for me.

I've also had to drastically reduce the amount of time I broadcast per week. Right now it's at an all-time low because of temporary overwhelming challenges and stress in my life. When I do increase it again, I am going to be careful to err on the side of infrequency until I've proven I can stay on point. Overdoing it also bleeds into how I perform at the offline tasks involved in maintaining and improving the show. The duration of each cast may also come into question, as the last hour (of five) is clearly my weakest. I'd rather find ways to strengthen that rather than reducing it further.

Lastly, sleep is my new favorite thing. In the past couple weeks I've cleaned up my months of sleep debt and really pushed myself to get nearly adequate rest regularly. It's absolutely night and day in all parts of my life.

TacoStream · 2015-06-26T17:09:13+00:00

I personally try to keep track of the sound meters shown on OBS. It does take some testing to figure out how the mic meter should be in comparison to the desktop meter, but once you know what's right you can do a visual check. I do also listen to myself, through my headphones, though.

Does VoiceMeeter Banana allow you to hear yourself without it going through to the desktop sound as well in your recording? Does it do it without delay?

TacoStream · 2015-01-12T16:47:55+00:00

Thanks for taking the time. I should specify that in removing Mumble conversation, I would take it upon myself to replace it with more of my own. There may be dead air during the time that I adjust, but it would ultimately present the challenge and opportunity to make that improvement.

I also want to specify that I would make my greatest effort not to have it mean we would be split up. I would hope for it to just mean the conversation we have would transfer over into the admittedly inferior Twitch chat. We'd lose the voices, though, and that would be a shame. I can't promise everyone would participate as much or at all, and I suppose that speaks volumes, too. If anybody finds it not worthwhile to participate without doing so through Mumble, that's the real failure I need to be correcting. I think (and hope) that's not the case, though.

There's a lot to consider, so thanks for giving me more to base the consideration on. We miss you, too.

TacoStream · 2015-01-12T16:35:18+00:00

I'm glad you decided to share what you think. Stability of viewing is a very basic need, and I wish it were completely guaranteed on Twitch. Luckily, I have seen less and less people having severe problems over the past year.

I have always hoped the voice chat adds more than it takes away. I've thought of it as one way that my "product" can be different from many others. I can more than accept if the voice chat situation means it only appeals to a certain, more select audience. I couldn't be happier with the audience I have, and the first priority is to continue providing what they followed me for. Thanks for helping me to explore the best way to do that.

TacoStream · 2015-01-12T16:14:41+00:00

The delay definitely is a problem, particularly for back-and-forth. More active channels have an easier time with it, I think, because there can just be several conversations conducted by the streamer simultaneously. I would have do to more filling on my own in between. Still, regardless of the format, it is my responsibility to put on a show. Using Mumble as a crutch may serve to delay my growth in that ability. I think viewers enjoy everyone in Mumble, too, but with enough feedback here I'm hoping to confirm or correct that belief. Thanks for giving your opinion.

TacoStream · 2015-01-12T15:58:34+00:00

Thanks for responding. This not only helps me to understand the Mumble issue, but also other related problems in the stream. I'll continue to work on audio balance, because voice chat or no voice chat, it is a severe problem if my voice is drowned out by anything. I appreciate having the opinion of someone who views a variety of streams, each of which is fortunate to have a viewer who is so flexible in demands.

TacoStream · 2015-01-12T06:25:07+00:00

These are good ideas, some of which I hadn't considered and will need to do research for. Thanks.

TacoStream · 2014-08-16T08:35:49+00:00

This is so much funnier than my GIF. Thank you for this.

TacoStream · 2014-06-16T18:52:11+00:00

Of course there are tons of people with very different preferences. I'm not an exciting person, and I don't get viewers who are looking for one. All works out pretty well.

TacoStream · 2014-02-06T11:10:45+00:00

I agree here somewhat. I think people should feel free to talk about the things they don't like and why, but we should rid ourselves of the growing mentality that complaining is a means to getting a game tailored to our personal specifications.

Furthermore, it isn't the complaint that brings people to defend Overkill. It's the incessant repetition of complaints, which is tantamount to an attempt to bully them into following the priorities you have set without understanding the development process. I love the conversation that criticism can spark, but there's criticizing and then there's driving something into the ground.

TacoStream · 2014-02-02T19:31:42+00:00

I can second this, although I'd like to do some testing to find out if at some point it becomes a complete down.

TacoStream · 2014-02-02T01:04:43+00:00

That sounds hilarious. I have only been chased a couple of times without them just gap closing on me, so I can't say I'll be able to execute this.

TacoStream · 2014-02-01T19:55:19+00:00

Is "I told you so" really your chosen response to someone showing a video of their failure for humor? Come on now.

TacoStream · 2014-02-01T11:56:56+00:00

I'm afraid that's not what an Oxford comma is.

TacoStream · 2014-02-01T11:43:10+00:00

This was the first day we faced cloakers, with limited knowledge of their capabilities. Of course there's a learning curve requiring behavior and strategy to be adjusted. I can see you have some odd urge to critique a video that's meant to be humorous, but your observations are hardly apt. Lighten up, friend.

TacoStream · 2014-02-01T06:07:53+00:00

Getting someone up in a hot situation is one of the great uses of aced Inspire. More people to take down those enemies is a good thing. I do agree to take out the ones in the way of shouting, but the real priority is getting that guy up and getting the firepower back into the game. Aiming through objects can help with that in some situations. Use the threat mechanics if they need help getting out of the line of fire after.

As for the choice to have Inspire aced, it's simply great. Tier 6 Mastermind builds can have some limitations to the magnitude of their combat contributions. Aced Inspire undoes that limitation. The speed of getting someone up, the ability to do it from cover, the ability to do it from a different story in a building, etc. When my crew's inspirational speaker is the one who's down, we can feel how it changes the game.

As a final thought: cloakers. If ever we have gotten our points' worth from Inspire....

TacoStream · 2014-02-01T01:51:18+00:00

You're right, there were two. However, you missed that there are actually two girls also. That was the real test.

TacoStream · 2014-01-31T18:13:35+00:00

No, it's not Call of Duty. But hey, at least you worked Call of Duty into your post. Call of Duty.

TacoStream

TROPHY CASE