by armacham01 » 05 Oct 2019, 11:27
That's great, we can use more casters to bring the hype.
Most casters either cast themselves playing live, or they cast games from the replay vault (which are of course, not live, but they might be recent games).
There are some games that get casted live by observers, such as certain tournaments, but mostly that only works for 1v1 tournaments. The problem is, if observers are allowed (so you can join the game while it is live and watch) then dead players become "observers," which means they get to see everything and the temptation of "dead" players to cheat (by telling their teammates on voice chat what is happening) would be too great. (And even if they don't, the suspicion that they MIGHT be doing that would ruin things.)
That is why tournament games usually get casted after-the-fact. (Again, not necessarily long after the fact. It could be 5 minutes after the game ends.)
If it is specifically important to you to cast live games, the questions would be whether you want to cast seriously competitive games, in which case, you probably have to cast 1v1s, because of what I said earlier. And these would be custom 1v1 games, not ladder matches (because ladder matches don't have observers). If you ask around on aeolus, you can probably find a high-level player willing to let you spectate a custom 1v1. There are often high-level custom 1v1 games going. If you see a game in the lobby like "1v1 1900+" feel free to join the game and ask the players if they will let you live cast it.
Or if you want to cast something like a fun team game, like 500-rated Astro Craters, maybe people would let you be an observer even though it would mean that dead players can see everything. I don't think most 500-rated players are concerned that the dead players might get on voice chat and tell their teammates what is happening.
I think one reason casters prefer games from the vault, to live games, is that they can be more sure the game is high quality before they commit to casting it. Also, there is no worry about internet connection issues between the players if you are casting a game from a replay.
And you don't have all of the same information when you are observing a live game (it's not going to show the scoreboard showing how much mass income each player has)
So if you want to get started, I would suggest broadcasting yourself watching a replay and commenting on it (like gyle does).
Do you have an idea of what kind of games you want to cast? High-level ladder matches? Team games?
If you don't already know how, you should learn how to use the replay vault so you can search for certain types of games (games involving certain players, certain maps, high-rated players, etc). And you can also ask people to send you games to cast.
RTS are competitive and there are definitely skill differences in players. Some people are more polite about this than others. If you do start casting games, and you're not "pro-level," some people might make fun of you for having misconceptions about the game. Gyle is pretty knowledgeable, but there are people who make fun of him when he says something they disagree with--so you can expect that people will poke fun at you. That is just an "occupational hazard" of casting (or: of playing). You should probably just ignore the haters. I'm sure you can create great content by casting fun games, even if you're not a top-level player, and that can help to bring more people to the game.
You should use the Supreme Score Board mod. Otherwise, I don't think you need any particular mods in order to cast games.
And of course you should familiarize yourself with the options you have while you are watching a replay (split screen, switching to the view of one of the players, showing total mass, reclaim, power numbers by clicking on the scoreboard, and using SPACE BAR to change perspective sometimes).