One minute it’s summer and you’re planning on blogging again every month, then suddenly it’s February and you haven’t written anything! Well here’s hoping this year things will be different!
I guess it’s been a mix of being busy, the time going fast and just being lazy, but I have a few things to announce so I thought might as well put it all in one blog post for you all.
Firstly let’s talk about OpenTTD. Those who watch my OpenTTD videos will know that the main series has now entered a hiatus. It will come back one day, but I was suffering from major burnout trying to make exciting content each week with little to no return in viewership. This is mostly my own fault, I’ve never really pushed my content out beyond sharing on Reddit and my own social media, so that’s something I will work on when it returns. But in the meantime I’m very happy with what I’ve replaced it with. Every other week will be an overview video, showing off the network in its entirety by chaining together journeys. I actually started this a couple of years ago, but lost motivation to keep it going. Now though I have a much better idea of what I’m doing, so I’m pleased to say it’s here to stay! I’ll talk about what goes up in the alternate weeks in a bit, but I have more exciting OpenTTD news. The latest map is now available to download!
Check out the latest M4J Network Overview here!
That’s right, you asked for it and now you have it! The map as of episode 119 (and a little bit more off-camera) is now available from the downloads page. It’s in the same place as the previous ‘latest’ download, and also includes the episode 80 save file for those who still want it. I have also updated the NewGRF folder to make the save work, but if it doesn’t for any reason please do let me know and I’ll get that fixed. I felt the time was right to release the map again for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it allows those who are helping me with the database project to be able to view the latest map, but it’s also for those who have been viewing and supporting the channel over the last couple of months. I’ve seen really encouraging numbers in my monthly analytics, and I owe that all to you all who have been watching, liking and subscribing. So here’s my gift to you!
So now that’s all out in the open, let’s talk about the rest of the channel. You may have noticed already but I have a new upload schedule. I have been running this schedule for a while now, just to test the waters, but it seems to be going well so thought I’d officially share it. Monday - Friday is now the bulk of my uploads, with the weekends mostly left clear unless I miss a day or there’s a special occasion. The weekends for me now are family time. In the last few months I’ve moved away from home and started a full-time job so I need some time to spend with my loved ones away from the computer. As it turns out, this has been way harder to stay on top of than I thought, but ending weekend uploads has been a huge help. So without the weekends, here’s how the schedule looks:
| Day | Time (UTC) | Series | Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 18:00 | M4J-Hatfield Racing | F1 2021 |
| Tuesday | 18:00 | Stagz To Riches | Football Manager 2022 |
| Wednesday | 18:00 | North Reef City/RAILROADS Online! | Cities Skylines/RAILROADS Online! |
| Thursday | 18:00 | M4J Plays Transport Fever 2 | Transport Fever 2 |
| Friday | 18:00 | M4J Network Overview/North Reef City | OpenTTD/Cities Skylines |
As you can see, North Reef City alternates with both RAILROADS Online! and the M4J Network Overview series. This is to allow time to produce each episode of the overview series, as well as to limit the amount of streaming I do. Oh that’s right, RAILROADS Online! is being streamed, meaning streaming is back! Eventually I would like to do more streaming on my own channel again, but right now I’m happy with this schedule and hopefully you all are too. Once Stagz To Riches gets underway, streaming will be once or twice a week depending on which week it is, as I’ll be starting off Football Manager on stream too.
I think that’s all for the major updates for now. If I realise I left anything out I’ll add it over time, so keep checking back for more. As for blog posts, I’ll try to go back to once a month, but there will only be a post if there’s something important to announce. Anything minor will be kept to social media and YouTube community posts. One last thing to mention is you might see some website maintenance going on in the near future. I’ve decided to update some things here and there just to make everything nicer and better. Do keep an eye out for those changes too.
For now though thanks for reading, have a good week, and until next time I’ll see you soon!