Long Overdue Update

Greetings friends, vassals, and courtiers,

I haven't done one of these in a long, long, time. For that I can only apologise, I did want these to be a monthly thing but I've been a little distracted with a couple of things I'll discuss later below. I'm gonna try and keep this one short and sweet compared to my usual novel of text I do for these things, but I'll release a full channel stats update in a couple of days when I have some better numbers.

Today's content will be easily digestible in book form with a contents menu and various chapters for you to jump over to. That way if you're interested in a particular subject but none of the other garbage leading up to it, you can skip right over.

Chapter 1 - Health Related Issues

Chapter 2 - Discord Civil War

Chapter 3 - Upcoming Series Plans 

Chapter 1:

Firstly, I'm actually ill. Not just coughing or common cold type ill, but I've been on medication for the past month now. I have another appointment in early September to see if I've improved at all, and I was planning on waiting until then for a more clear update for you guys, but they're having trouble fitting me in around all of the new patients moving to town (university starts soon). 

To put it basically, my breathing is fucked. I'm on two different types of steroids just to be able to breathe half-decently on a day to day basis. Some people even noticed that I was a bit short of breath around the end of July in a lot of videos, which is what prompted me to get it looked at because I don't want it impacting the content at all.

The doctors couldn't actually narrow down what was wrong, they did the usual stethoscope/scan/breathing tube combo but found nothing significant besides my original suspicions of "my breathing is fucked". Suffice to say, videos are a little more strained as a result. I did try and reintroduce the third series again after I started on the medication (Star Wars Mount and Blade) but it did beat me around a fair amount. 

Unfortunately, the revenue and the channel growth have dropped through the floor because I'm not sticking to my expected schedule of 3 videos daily, so youtube have dropped my rankings to compensate for it. It's not going to be long before I'm essentially forced to go back to the three daily videos before it has a significant impact on the channel. 

Chapter 2:

Secondly, and I'm sure the majority of you have noticed, there have been one or two distractions on the Discord front that have proven to be a massive pain in the arse. The sensible ones of you who kept out of the Discord (but don't forget there are patron-only rooms!) won't know, but essentially over the past few weeks we've had incidents with a reoccurring group of people who have been incredibly persistent about avoiding bans to the extent that Discord themselves have stepped in now. 

These guys aren't huge xenophobes or anything like that, they're not outright causing massive problems, but they do like toeing the line about what is and isn't acceptable in the server. It was a problem, but it was a manageable problem. They're a group of people who like to meme hard and challenge authority, but when it is an official Discord server linked directly to here, Twitch, and Youtube, I have to be very wary about what is and isn't permitted, because everything I allow to happen in that Discord reflects me. 

There is another thing, to do with the problems in Discord, that I'm not technically supposed to discuss because of an embargo, but as this is a very gated community it shouldn't be a problem. I was contacted earlier in the month by a pretty big game developer, let's refer to them as PHQ Icelandic. I had a little back and forth with a dev there, but it was quickly stopped because of reasons I can't discuss but will paraphrase as 'community concerns'. 

Now, this could mean the Youtube comments section, but I'm doubtful given that no Youtuber has control over the comments section short of handpicking each and every comment. I'm almost certain from the implications that they were referring to the previous-public all-access Discord room I have linked in every single video. A fair assumption. 

Ergo, I go on a banning spree with all associated troublemaker accounts, they don't like it, and create alt accounts and can bypass every single method of stopping them (phone verification, IP banning, ranked chat rooms) causing a massive headache. The most logical thing I could do, in my eyes, was to unban their original accounts, accounts we recognise and know, rather than scrutinising every account that joined the server. Restrict what they could access, and just not discuss it. 

There is no war in Ba Sing Se. 

Regulars in the server, and moderators, definitely disagreed with this plan, but it did work. The alts stopped, the bans stopped, the trouble wasn't nearly as bad as before (most likely because it was as much hassle for them as it was for us) and they still get a tiny shrivelled slice of the pie.

 My take on it was that imagine if you were relatively new to the channel, relatively new to the content, and you see a public Discord with Mr Streamer himself. You join the server. Which is better - banning, mutes, warns, alt accounts popping up OR the occasional off-colour comment by someone who is told to stop? I think I know which community looks more appealing to me. 

Now as of this week, Discord themselves have stepped in and have seriously cracked down on the people behind the accounts. I have no idea why Discord stepped in, I'm operating under the assumption that it was too many reports against their IPs, or they've been causing problems on another server. Whatever it is, their alts are seemingly banned within no time at all and for once its nothing to do with us. 

Chapter 3: 

The past few months have been a pretty prosperous time for the CK2 modding scene. Not only have the Paradox updates slowed down (thank god!) but a lot of major overhaul mods are finally catching up to the current version of the game. I've got some plans for a new series that I thought I would float out and see what sort of interest each one gathered. Drop me a message on Discord, or here but it is a lot slower for me to get if you have any good plans or ideas for CK2 especially. 

Here are some ideas in order of how likely they are to appear, I'll elaborate on more details below - 

- Peaceful Lord of Tibet
- Satanic Cannibal Kings
- Madworld III
- Game of Thrones: Ifequevron
- Papal Conspiracy
Names pending by the way. 

Peaceful Lord of Tibet is intended to be a pretty big spin on the CK2 system. Ideally, we'll play as the lord of Tibet, or a lord in Tibet, or a lord somewhere in northern India, flip through the various Dharmic religions, something we've never done before, and never push a claim or go to war to benefit the current ruler. This means we're limited to familial claims, marriage claims, realm shattering intrigue, maybe even China (legitimately this time!), with the ultimate goal being become the Samrat Chakravartin. I've already got the achievement for doing it, so we'll be playing with mods, most likely CK2+ and a bunch of other little additions.

Satanic Cannibal Kings sort of came about when I realised 'Hang on a minute, this is the second very holy and very just playthrough we're doing" during the Gods on Earth series. Between that and the Last Karling, we've explored a huge amount of Christianity, but never the opposite. I want to work on a modpack, and my own personal mod, that makes playing an evil character a lot more interesting - right now I'm thinking of adding a dedicated 'Satanic' religion, given that the closest thing is the Messalian heresy, which barely counts. Then adding some of the more morally questionable mods, like Cannibal Kings, to give a bit more flavour. Should be high risk, high reward, with a lot more intrigue than the usual playthrough.

Madworld III is highly confidential.

Game of Thrones Ifequevron is going to be another mod of my own brewing based on some very loose lore from the Game of Thrones Worldbook. The Infequevron are a lost fantasy race of forest walkers, kin to the children of the forest, who carved trees, dug tunnels and were made extinct following a war with Ibben. And that is genuinely all we know about them. Now there are other bits of lore, the whole thing is very spotty, but one that interested me was that Leaf, the last surviving child of the Forest, said that all the other children fled "into the earth". My current idea based on this single line of dialogue is to introduce a Tolkienian Dwarf-life race as the Ifequevron, who are extremely vengeful, I guess somewhat akin to the Children of the Forest depicted in the show, with the White Walkers being their invention.

Papal Conspiracy needs a lot more time in the oven, but there is a very good mod called Papal... something...? (I've actually completely forgotten, and can't find it, chances are its massively out of date) but it essentially allows you to play as the Pope, but unlike in Gods on Earth, the systems worth and are intended for the player to have control over. Things like demands from Coronated Kings, Canonisation and Beatification, and the College of Cardinals. I have no clue what the Endgame for that would be, maybe have a line of Popes all from the same dynasty and focus all the gameplay on bastards getting elected into the college of cardinals whilst simultaneously getting them land in Holy Wars from tactical excommunications?

Rimworld I have some other stuff in the works, but nothing major right now. The Tiberium mod is close to reaching a playable state, which will offer another unique challenge scenario but this time with some benefits if played correctly, unlike the Zombieland mod which is just always horrible zombies trying to eat us. I'd love to be able to build a Rimworld zoo also, that would be very cool.

And I think that just about covers it! I know I said I wasn't going to write too much but I figured here would be the best place to discuss the upcoming series ideas seeing as you guys make it possible in the first place. Big thanks to everyone who has supported me and the channel. I actually get offers for sponsorship (and even MCNs which is a massive no-no) on a very frequent basis, and luckily I don't have to even think about it at this point.

I apologise again for the slightly reduced content load and fully understand if you want to adjust your pledge to reflect that. Hopefully, I should have some health improvements soon!

Tales of your misdeeds are known from Portland to Mallorca,

Sam