Hey folks, I finally got around to making the Korean concept. This time, I made a video diving into the history behind the civilization. My first time doing something like this, would really appreciate feedback and whether I should do another one or not.
Direct link to the concept graphic: https://www.charlesniu.com/aoeiv-the-koreans
I just realized with your design… that in AoE3:DE there is still no Korean Civ. LOL!
The closest Korean civ for Aoe3 that there is is in the Wars of Liberty mod (which curiously from the video I see that you also played it).
The funny thing is that I recently found out that the reason why they brought out Koreans in the AoE2 Expansion is because the RTS sales in Korea, of the recent Starcraft, were so good that they decided to include the civ to represent the target audience (just a few weeks before launch).
It’s funny because the creators just said that the Koreans didn’t really go with the theme of “Conquerors” (the name of the expansion), but they still put them in, and to justify it that’s why they made the “historical battles”, and included the event where Japan “attempted to conquer” Korea.
Now that they have more time to plan them more carefully, I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll be like in AoEIV. Interestingly, I think they want to repeat the Aoe2 story, but this time with the Japanese, in the Sultan Ascend expansion. I guess we’ll wait for the Koreans until next year.
ABOUT THE CONCEPT:
As I understand the Koreans in the Middle Ages (Goryeo) come from the fusion of 3 kingdoms under an imperial dynasty, although in theory the kingdom changed to another dynasty, the Joseon, around 1400. Etymologically: the name Korea derives from Goryeo, and is the commercial name that spread in Europe after Marco Polo returned from his travels.
Koreans are famous for creating elite archer troops: The archers of the Silla dynasty, before the Goryeo period, were an elite archer troop, the Flower Knights (unique unit), and their great combat prowess allowed archery to be taken seriously for warfare in later dynasties under other names. I find the name of Tiger Slayer interesting.
As I understand it, the tiger slayer was one of the 3 special Gapsa units of the Joseon dynasty, being the Gapsa version of archers, although there were also 2 unique units for infantry and cavalry: the Yanggyegapsa and the Gipapsa. In your model I see that you considered the flail for the Lancer and the trident for the spearman, I think it’s nice, although I think that in the future with the popularity of more unique units, it’s easy for these too to become unique units with the weapon already included. The men-at-arm will probably be traded for Yanggyegapsa.
The hwacha should not be missing, the Korean version of the Neest of Bees. Your idea of more bullets but less damage is interesting. Personally there is a version of it in the Aoe3: Wars of Liberty Mods, although its firepower is already exaggerated, it looks pretty cool.
Etymologically: The name Korea originates from the reign of the Goryeo dynasty, which controlled most of the Korean peninsula between the 10th and 15th centuries AD. C. It is known by this name because it was during the 13th century when Marco Polo, the Italian merchant, recognized this region through his maritime explorations along the coasts of China, constituting the first direct contact between the European world and the Korean nation. The derivation of GorieĂł, Korea, spread in Europe to refer to that area.
The technologies are interesting, I didn’t know anything about the underground furnace.
It was a good read and an interesting video. Take care of yourself.
Thanks for the feedback man.
Yeah there’s a lot of civs missing in AOE3 unfortunately. I’d certainly love to see Korea represented in game.
Yeah originally I wanted to make “Hwarang/Flower Knights” into Korea’s unique archer unit. But everything I looked up suggested that Hwarang were not a thing (or if anything, considered derogatory) by the AOE4 time period.
I looked for other options - the Gapsa was originally going to be the name for the armored archer unit. I ultimately landed on the Tiger Slayer because “Chahko-gapsa” is hard to pronounce for english speakers and doesn’t carry much popular weight outside of Korea. “Tiger Slayer” captures the imagination a bit better and is functionally an equivalent name. In general, it was clear early on in my research that Korea would be an archery-focused civ, and I thought that an armored archer would really mix things up in AOE4.
Hey man, just saw your video, gotta say, 10/10 would watch agen. Left a comment, like and subscribe (without you having to advertise for it like 99% of tubers out there!).
Gotta say, video is pretty damn great, Other than missing Navy (But you stated countless times before why you aren’t adding navy to your concepts). I really don’t have much to say. Love the research you put up into this video,
and really enjoy the fact that not only are you posting great clips and cutouts, but also sourcing them (Where its from). I have a Admiral Yi movie that I need to watch now.
My few critisism I have to give is not from the Civ concept itself.
But rather from the video editing;
Video quality is overall great, and I know it a buttload of work to put a video like this togheter + ALL the other work being done on the civ concept itself!
But for editing wise, Microphone quality changes throughout the video. (Minor inconvinience). Whats important here is just to make sure the Volume of your voice dosn’t fluctuate to much. While the Voice quality itself can vary depending on recording device and location. Just make sure you check that the volume of your voice stays somewhat the same.
There is tons of other things when it comes to sound-editing that can be improved upon but don’t focus on that so much, or your gonna be stuck with way more work over your head than you already have!
Only improtant thing is just to make sure you watch through your full video once for any fluctuation in volumes and popping sounds (You didn’t have any in this video, but S sounds depending on microphone can sometime cause a high pitch/whistling/popping sound that can be very disruptive, you seem to have a good microphone that avoids this thankfully).
When it comes to cut-out and transitions, some of them tend to come a littlebit to fast, as if you just barely finished the sentance before the next transition happens. Ontop of that, there are periods you speak rather fast, combinding these 2 togheter, and it sounds like you’re in a hurry xD
Anyway, there is a few nice things you can do for your transition, I would look to AgeofNoob on how he does it for his video, as well as the tempo he speaks.
Its very clear and calm, which makes it very easy to pay attention and absorb all the juicy info.
Perhaps he could give you some hints and tips if you reach out to him?
Thats my only critisism of the video.
Note that these are just minor issues, nothing “game-breaking”, If you keep the video the same as you’ve done so far, it’s going to be just fine. I just wanted to give my 2 cents on whatever would help improve the quality.
because I think if you keep this up, you have a pretty fair chanse of growing your Youtube channel quite considerably. If not for the AOE4 community, but for general people interested in history.
Great are we going to see more videos? I would also like to see south east asian representation too like the sultanate of sulu.
Really appreciate the feedback man.
Yeah my voice quality definitely fluctuates quite a bit. I tried re-recording multiple times but I’m just very used to talking and not stammering over everything 
Not an excuse though, this is something I’ll work on. It just gives me increased appreciation for all the content creators already out there!
I do plan on doing general history, and gaming videos on top of just AOE4 so we’ll see what works.
yw, the things you struggle with will eventually smoothen out over time once you get used to how all this video-making is done.
Making a script can be quite helpfull, kinda like a movie script that goes into detail what stuff you’re showing on the video and what lines you using for specific scenes, and notes when transitioning happens.
example:
1:30 - [Video of X scene plays.] - “insert lines related to the video scene here”
1:45 - [Picture of X object] - “insert lines related to Object X here”
1:49 - [Prepare transitioning]
1:50 - [Transitioning]
1:51 - [End of Transitioning]
1:52 - [Picture of Y object] - “insert lines of chapter introduction”
Thats just a rough example of video scripting that could be helpfull to reign in the stammering.
Kinda similar in how you’d prepare a speech for the next election to become el presidente.
Once you had a go at it and start getting used, the stammering will dissapear once everything starts feeling natural.
Much of the stammering usually happens because all this is “new” and “to much things in your mind” as your brain processors is working at 110% capacity to make sure you get everything right.
Thats where scripts come into play to help alleviate as you dont have to use brain processing power to think about what you’r gonna say. If done right, you could almost read off the script while the video plays.
Prime example of someone mastering it is youtuber Simon Whistler, the man with WAY to many youtube channels, who pretty much has people writing scripts for him and he just reads it while the video plays out.
Guy behind Today I found Out channel and many others.
His casual one being Brain Blaze which is pretty damn hilarious as it isn’t as edited and serious as the others, and the guy has a tendency to go into hilarious Tangents.
But it comes to show how comfortable you can become once you get used to presentation.