Do Some Youtubers That Put Out Videos Use Console Cheats

[Damedius]

The reason I ask is because they always get the perfect scenario. Usually something goes wrong. That doesn't mean that you can't over come it, just that nothing rarely if ever goes as perfect as things seem to in their videos.

For instance I just watched a video showing how to dismantle the HRE as Poland. It involves allying all the electors. The problem is usually the Archbishoprics because you can't royal marry to offset the penalty for allying their rival and they will break the alliance before you can dismantle the HRE.

The biggest problem for me tends to be Trier that usually rivals 2 or 3 of the other electors.

I'm not saying it can't be done. Just that I might have to restart 10 times to get the perfect scenario where I'm able to keep the electors as allies long enough to disband the HRE.

 

[Romanix90]

I presume you're reffering to Ludi's video. Honestly idk. And although i know these runs are possible there where some suspicius videos. Like for example where he got "True heir of Timur" and conquered India by 1500. That's simply crazy. My skills at this game are bad, since i'm rookie, but when i watch some youtubers i do wonder are they extremly lucky that all the stars allign or do they use cheats. And also keep in mind that when you do these runs you have to be like 110% aware of everything. I don't have anything against use of cheats in solo game but when you play Iron Man you could make save file public so everyone can inspect it. Of course in this case i'm not accusing Ludi but nevertheless it would be nice to mane save public.

 

[Damedius]

Yeah that's the one I'm talking about. I have restarted about 10 times.

I wouldn't have a problem if he mentioned that dismantling the HRE is heavily RnG dependent. It seems to me like there is no way to keep your Alliance with an elector like Trier if they rival two or more electors which they seem to almost every game.

 

[cuendillar]

If he's not playing live, he could literally make 10+ playthroughs and upload only the one where everything worked out. It's not console cheating, just deceptive if he's not open about doing so.

 

[Restless Native]

I know the video you are talking about it and you're right in that it's unlikely but I was able to achieve it myself after a few restarts.
- Get a diplo adviser. If none then restart.
- Make sure Trier rivals two electors, if it's three then restart.
- Religious brethren estate privilege
- Ally trier first
- Ally anyone else who has rivaled an elector next,
- Ally the rest
- Send gift to trier and improve relations (this should be just about enough to avoid them breaking)
- Royal marriage whoever else wants to break
- Rival Hungary and Austria
- attack Hungary when Austria allies them
- Send all your forces to Austria and siege down Vienna
- Dismantle HRE
- ???
- Profit

 

[Terixis]

Either he cheats or scums a gorillion times until he gets perfect RNG in every single video he's made in the past few months. Either way it makes his videos totally useless as "how-to" videos, which is what they ostensibly are.

Doing a dismantle right at the start as Poland is not something you should need to cheat to do however. Religious brethren estate privilege, gifts, alliances, improving relations, scornfully insulting their rivals, etc should let you ally all of the electors that Austria doesn't ally, and they usually ally a couple. Just swing your big Lithuania stick at Austria and you're done. If Trier is rivaled to two other electors things might get dicey and require a bit of restarting but it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Damedius]

The scornful insult was what I was missing. That combined with the gift makes it more doable.

 

[Restless Native]

If he's not playing live, he could literally make 10+ playthroughs and upload only the one where everything worked out. It's not console cheating, just deceptive if he's not open about doing so.

Yes that’s probably it. It’s not console cheating as you can clearly see achievements are enabled.
Although it’s also edited so he could be copy/paste save scumming. Only he can know. I do like his videos though and he is a good player.
OP is right though in that he does talk like what he’s doing is straight forward and anyone can do it but it’s extremely RNG dependent.

 

[Darth.]

Ludi's guides are extremely sketchy although any doubts can be cleared up if he starts posting save files in the description udner his videos.

From 100 army tradition right at the start of the game (somehow) to two province Uzbek suddenly disappearing when under a 15 year truce and even how inconvenient alliance chains magically disappear when he's ready to go to war on one of those nations.

 

[MK1980]

i watched a few of his videos. i doubt that he simply starts the campaign once and rolls with it - looks suspiciously like he's fishing for a good start (and/or save scumming off camera)

when you try to do the same, chances are that you can't reproduce the steps because the easy pickings neighbors he swallowed up in the first 10 years happen to be allied to some great power in your campaign.

i still found some of his vids entertaining, but not helpful as guides.

 

[st360]

I believe Ludi et Historia has a second channel where he uploads the full, raw footage of his playtroughs. He also ofhandedly talks about not doing some moves because they might be too RNG to replicate, and he talks about RNG messing up his plans. So it doesn't seem likely.

At this point, EU 4 is full of easily forgettable gimmicks players can miss. You can offset archbishoprics royal marriage with a gift, or giving them military access which they will always accept as an ally, or scornful insults. Plus taking religious brethren estate.. And once you get Lithuania you can influence them as a great power. Thats like +150 relations in 3 months. As well as diplo advisor, improve relations, smart rivalships and (if I'm not mistaken) army size.

 

[Lykus Cerebros]

I think there is some degree of restarting involved in his videos. His luck sometimes seems much better than whatever I get when trying out the same tactics. I faintly remember him talking about it though and he recommended in some cases a restart. Don't think he uses cheats and some videos are based on stream runs.

Concerning the Poland video wasn't that done on a different patch? In another thread someone talked about a more limited rival selection this patch to that might cause the Trier issues.

 

[Cookiepie]

Yes that’s probably it. It’s not console cheating as you can clearly see achievements are enabled.
Although it’s also edited so he could be copy/paste save scumming. Only he can know. I do like his videos though and he is a good player.
OP is right though in that he does talk like what he’s doing is straight forward and anyone can do it but it’s extremely RNG dependent.

You can literally enable the achievement button through the console these days. In addition multiple mods and editing software that could do the same.

Regarding Ludi it's almost assured that he's cheating. Too many inconsistencies in his videos (there's a yt video out there explaining one case, but there are many other cases that seemed very odd).

In addition while he's a solid player he's not good enough to do everything he does without cheats, you can see a fairly clear differences between him and some of the 'best' wc/sp players when you compare their gameplay.

 

[lambda x.x]

So in general, I think it's worth emphasizing that exceptional players can make things look like everything was perfect due to their ability to anticipate and adapt to curve balls/RNG that the game throws at them.

However, I assume you are referring to a certain channel that I released a certain video about, and in the interest of making the so called "drama" fair, I won't put forth my opinion here. I'll be monitoring this thread though to correct any misinformation though, since a certain someone seems to type things that are not true.

For one:

I believe Ludi et Historia has a second channel where he uploads the full, raw footage of his playtroughs.

Not for the run I questioned nor some of the "impressive" runs, but that could also be due to the fact that the second channel is fairly new.

edit, one more:

Yes that’s probably it. It’s not console cheating as you can clearly see achievements are enabled.

Sadly, achievement icon is not a strong indicator of lack of console. One official/easy way from 1.31 is the console command debug_achievements in non ironman. There are unofficial ways to enable console usage in ironman as well that aren't hard, but I don't want to get into the details.

 

[Mindel]

I'm not sure which thing astonishes me more:

1) That there are people willing to devote the time and effort to fabricate EU4 videos for youtube.

2) That there are people willing to devote the time and effort to sniff out and expose fabricated EU4 videos on youtube.

 

[Daelh]

Id give him the benefit of the doubt, since I myself can do most the things he can. He probably restarts for the right circomstanses but thats it IMO.

I've never seen anything fishy myself on his videos so if someone has a glaring example im all for it, but for what I've seen, he hasn't done anything I cant do myself.

Ok so I looked up Lambdaxxx video on him and it did indeed look suspisious with his Manchu run.

Dismantling HRE with Poland however is not, since it super easy any one idiot can do it.

 

[Blackmoore]

I enjoy Ludi's videos and find them helpful.

Overall, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that a good EU4 Youtube guide video has to be both informative and entertaining.

I have seen some very entertaining videos that are not particularly helpful. They are intended to be pure entertainment and while you could get some tips or inspiration, that's not really why you watch them. An example of this would be many of the videos of the "Social Streamers." I like their videos a lot, btw. One I saw recently was essentially a rant about why Enrique Trastamara is a trash simulated human being.

On the other end of the spectrum you have the purely informative videos, while these are extremely informative -- and often give you click-by-click guidance -- they are not always very entertaining. There is a guy who has a channel called "Vicktor Vildras" that has really, really solid strategy guides. I also like his videos, but they are not maximum entertainment. He had a really good Byzantium Opener based on the Budget Monk strategy.

Ludi's videos are trying for that sweet spot -- good entertainment value and good information. Other really good EU4 youtubers are: Habibbi (mostly MP), Red Hawk (Openers), BudgetMonk (Grand Streams) and Reman (Mechanics, but I'm not sure he makes videos anymore, at least not on youtube).

Back to Ludi.

He's pretty open about editing and jumping forward in time. I suspect that in the specific example of the Manchu campaign is that he put two different campaigns together in his video. This could have been on purpose to be deceptive, but why?

He wasn't submitting the save-file for some kind of speed run record. I took the video for just showing off what one could do as Manchu. Personally, I think it is more likely that he made a mistake when editing together the many Manchu save files he has.

I could be wrong, but I don't think that even the people who raised some issues with Ludi's videos are saying that what he did is flat out necessarily impossible without console commands, but instead saying that what he did is impossible given where one clip ended and a what later clip showed. Specifically, he ended a war and took some specific provinces, but in a later clip it appeared like he annexed the entire nation.

Let he who hath not save-scummed, click the dislike button....

The guy is legitimately a good player -- much better than I am. He's also more entertaining that a lot of his competition. Just take his videos for what they are: He makes jokes about your lack of girlfriends while playing EU4 in a fake Scottish accent while saying fake German phrases like "Stacken-Wipen." You also get some good tips, strategy ideas and sometimes an explanation of mechanics.

 

[Barbu]

I don't try to replicate Ludi's walkthroughs - I can't really. I just listen to them for the entertainment value and to learn about game mechanics.

 

[gendalv]

Does it matter? It's not like they're going to claim some sort of world record.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Does it matter? It's not like they're going to claim some sort of world record.

it matters if what's being shown doesn't represent 'normal' gameplay. if that's the case it should be made explicit so as not to mislead people