Author Andy the Subpar Nerd

Subpar Streaming: A Newb

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First Let’s Play: I’ve got a long way to go.

Valheim!

I’ve wanted to do a Youtube channel forever. I’ve had this web address and the Youtube channel The Subpar Nerd for years. I’ve just always been super busy with work, school, family or other commitments. I’ve uploaded random videos to the channel over the years. However, today or yesterday really, I got serious. I already had all the programs I was gonna use from previous efforts at this. I opened OBS and I actually filmed myself. I was awkward.

I quickly realized I don’t know what to say. I’d either blab endlessly about inane bullshit or I’d go quiet. The end result felt a little stilted at the time I was recording, but I pressed on. I made a half hour video and saved it. Afterwards, I initially felt dumb. Why did I want to do this if I was so bad at it? I don’t have the patter or the energy of my favorite youtubers. Why bother?

At work I had time to think about it though. This is a new thing for me. While I’ve done plenty of live theater and choir in my years, I’ve never done what is basically on demand solo improv. A lot of this is just reacting naturally to the game and feeling confident to speak what you’re seeing and thinking aloud. I generally don’t do a running commentary while I play solo but now I will. Practice makes perfect. I just need to do it if I want to get better. Maybe I need to stream, where I can possibly get reactions and interact with an audience.

I will say, actually listening back while I try to edit it, it’s not as bad as I feared. I’m no pro. But self consciousness is a killer. Gotta push past. If you’d like to watch my first video of my first let’s play, it’s below. Feel free to click through and subscribe for more. I think I’m going to also do some non gaming content about the creative learning process and my thoughts and feelings on it. I’d love if you dropped a constructive comment on the video, or even told me that you love it. (You can lie. 🙂 )

Eve Day 14?: Begin Again

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Decided with all that had changed in Eve Online to try out the new tutorial. I remember when I first started playing learning the game could be hard. My first few days I had no idea what I was doing. I lost a ship to a pirate, got podded by an NPC I thought was a player. Lost a jetcan because I didn’t bookmark it and thought someone had stole my ore. It was a crazy time.

I also remember after I got started playing I tried to get my friends to play with me. Only ever convinced one person to try it. She logged in and I tried to walk her through her first couple hours of playing. She had a hell of a lot of trouble. Never really got it and stopped playing after a couple days. This girl is smart as a whip, just started law school. So the game obviously could do more to ease players back then.

So how about now? Well, so far it seems to be better. I honestly think it’s hard to say as I actually know the basics of how to play. But starting out with most of the UI disabled is definitely a good idea. This game is so UI heavy it gets a little crazy sometimes.

The new tutorial walks you through the basics of how to target and shoot. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know the keyboard shortcuts for targeting, orbiting and firing. So that was good to learn. It also teaches how to jump through some jump gates. Guides you to tutorial career agents. That’s when it kind of falls apart.

I decided to try exploration. Now, probing is 100% easier than back in the day. 8 probes without skilling and preset probe spreads? Nice. But the tutorial kind of dumps you with the career agents. I accepted the mission, but couldn’t see what I needed to do. I ended up going into my journal and reading the mission details. That’s fine and dandy for me, a guy who knows that exists. But a newbie is going to just get frustrated. Overall, still got a ways to go to get there.

Eve Day 1

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Day one consisted mostly of just browsing the market. Gotta get back in the swing of things and get that isk rolling in. Accessed my old market spreadsheet. It was marginally useful, but apparently half the items in the game have been renamed. What the hell!

Used EveMarketer to get some idea of buy and sell prices across the universe. It still has the old item names, so cross referencing some items was a pain in the butt. I’ve been searching the patch notes to basically translate. Back in the day I had alts in Jita and other places so I could do live price checks and buys, but I’m not sure if I want to invest in that quite yet.

I’d already had some items in my hangar, so I put them up before work last night. Between the spreadsheet and the items in the hangar, I’d made a tidy little list. Mostly tier II modules and rigs. Flew my trusty shuttle out to Jita, dropped some isk and had my new goods shipped back to my home base.

My shuttle… Just kidding. The Interbus is mothballed as it’s basically useless.

This is my normal Eve life. I like to trade and this will probably become mostly about trading in Eve.

Back in Eve Online

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The Beep Beep. An old Hauler.

Decided to get back into Eve Online, all thanks to Eve Echoes. Eve Echoes, for those that don’t know, is the new mobile “port” of Eve Online. It’s got the universe and a lot of the assets. A lot of core gameplay is there, but it’s just not quite Eve. Scratched the itch but didn’t satisfy. So here I am.

Now the last time I even logged into my accounts was either 2015, or 2017, depending on the account. I no longer had the client downloaded so I went and searched for the client download. And so my annoyance began. Login to my account, there is no link to the download on the account management page. What feels like a hundred ways to spend your money on skill extractors, skillpoints, Omega status. But no link to the client download. I had to make my way to a different section of the website and scroll to the bottom of the page and find a link in the sub-menu. Not very user friendly.

Anywhoo, after I got that figured out, I logged in and took a look around. When I last played with some actual seriousness, skill injectors were not a thing. I believe PLEX had just been split and we still had Aurum. I could be wrong. So I’m excited to learn all the new things the game has to offer.

If you’re still playing and want to reach out with tips, tricks or help, please do. I’m Andrew Aaron in game. Hit me up.

Welcome To The Home Of The Subpar Nerd.

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So like 10 years ago, I wanted to get into Youtubing. I created The Subpar Nerd on Youtube and then….Well pretty much nothing. Played around with some Terraria and Minecraft videos. Didn’t do much.

Now here we are in 2020 and I finally have decided to change that. It’s the perfect time! I’m working 60 hour weeks, enrolled in school full time+ and have a loving fiancee and 2 beautiful dogs.

Aren't they cuties? They have their own Instagram

Aren’t they cuties? They have their own Instagram

Hopefully this time will be different. I mean, I have a website so that’s new right?

As for actual content, I have a varied taste. I play a lot of MMOs, shooters, RPGs, and puzzle games. I’m currently doing Eve Online, Borderlands 3, Fortnite, Animal Crossing, and EarthBound.

I’m Andy the Subpar Nerd. Feel free to follow me at any of my socials. New video every week on Youtube. See you round nerds.