He puts in about ten times the effort of youtubers with hundreds and thousands more subscribers. He is keeping this game alive. Convinced me to go back to it.

You are one of the most important people in the history of KZfaq, Spirit.

that brexit joke lol. well done.

I've been watching your videos for a while now. I am a grad student and I am so impressed of the way you design so well oriented experiments on the game. I know a lot of researchers that are not as rigorous as you. I really love your videos for that reason. This is pure method, pure science, pure evidence. You are just great.

"Hey guys! Spirit of the law here" - so assuring that the one watching is going to get all the information looking for. 'Love what you do, do what you love"

I really appreciate these videos. Man you are awesome. You don't know how much I love this game, and to see people doing this is something amazing. Thank you :)

Dear Lord... something I have been wondering about for more than a decade! Thanks, Spirit!

sees new Spirit Video *leaves everything behind* _Senpai_

I didn't know Brexit physically moved the UK farther away from Europe. That must have taken a lot of tugboats.

A video from spirit always brightens up the day. :D

I thought this was about the music

Be wary of any Turk player with the same score as you, while you are mid Feudal and the Turk is still in Dark. This is usually a good indication that you should attack early on, since chances are, that he is doing a fast imp.

Another great video, Spirit. You are a treasure. Thank you for keeping the AoE2 community alive!

4 years later and loving these vids

this was genuinely informative. Thank you so much

I just can't tell how amazing your vids are. I don't play AOE2 that much any more but any time after watching one or two of your vids I wanna play a couple matches right away. Then I left it alone for a while until the next time I watch your new vids. That being said, your vids are like the only thing draw me back to playing AOE2. Keep the awesomeness going!

Man I love your videos so much, it's like an addiction of mine, I can't stand having to wait a week or two just to get another one, I WANT MORE SPIRIT OF THE LAW!!!

Yay, I got featured at 0:54 and 11:10, it was an awesome match!! SalvadorAllende was insane, it was a very close, but we lost at the end... I have seen the record a few times to learn more :p I hope one day I can find you again in the lobby xD. You and your videos are great!

after 18 years I finally know how score is calculated and the difference between the low ping and turtle icons. nice. thanks bro.

I was wondering about those icons in the beginning of the video and you delivered. Well done spirit.

Just got this game during the steam summer sale and am loving it, always saw it sitting on a desk at my grandma's but never played it lol. Love your videos they're so informative and are 10/10 for a noob like me wondering what is what. This question about what in game score actually is one i've wondered many times so thanks for answering, you've got yourself another sub!

thanks for covering that, I was always confused about what influenced it

I was expecting this from long time ago! Thank you, spiritofthelaw

Back from my holidays and spirit has 3 new videos...awesome :D keep going

I just wanna say that i think you have one of the best intros in youtube.

well structured overview, it is noticeable you put a lot of effort into this analysis

Excellent video as always Spirit. But I've noticed a lack of Chinese review on this channel. MAKE IT HAPPEN!

just in time for lunch :D love your videos!

Great video, Spirit! Really clarifying ;) I will repeat what other people have suggested: maybe investigate the Battle Event in the post-game timeline? Keep up the good work!

You know, I was thinking, aoe2 is quite literally a better game because of your videos. I want to know something? I type it in and no matter what the question, you have a video on the topic. It adds so much more depth to the game. It actually makes me wonder if this is a blind spot for a lot of developers and that it should be something they should be more proactive about.

Doing god's work there, Spirit

Clicked on this vid thinking it would be about the music score. :D New vid idea Spirit!

One thing I wonder about: On the tab for the technology score in the achievements menu, you see a percentage of research. No matter how many technologies I develop, I never seem to come close to 100%. Do you know how it's calculated? Is it a percentage of all possible technologies, including ones your civ doesn't have access to?

This was really interesting, thanks. Can you also answer how the game decides who the Most Valuable Player is? It doesn't seem to be the person with the highest score or the one with the most kills.

man all the love in the comments is amazing. the best part is he deserves every little bit of it

New Spirit of the Law vid: today was a good day.

DUDE the part where you can peek at the 50 point score drop to Feudal age and comparing it to how you're advancing can tell you what frickin playstyle your opponent is likely going for: Can we take a frickin second and respect how god damn smart that is? That's like an old-ass mechanic listening to you start your car and saying 'haw yah that there's the number four there, he's not exhausting the unburnt fuel properly.' That is top of the pops skill. When you and your opponent are both so good you can read each other off of innocuous cues like that. On a COMPLETELY different level than new players. People can get THIS good at the game. It blows my mind.

im pretty sure it's explained in the booklet that came with the original aoe&aoe:rise of rome&aoe2:kings&aoe2:conquerors anthology. it gives you points for resources gained, spent, map explored, unit kills, buildings, wonders, and - from units killed

I dont even play AOE2, I've only played 1 and 3, I just like watching your tutorials even tho I have no connection whatsoever

Perfect videos that I can fall asleep too 😴 while still learning aoe 👍

I at first thought this was about the score as in soundtrack.

Thank you, Spirit of the Law. I always wanted to know what these numbers mean.

I love you. I love your voice, your knowledge, your style. Really, you are amazing.

Thanks. I have always wanted to know when my opponent is gonna feudal so that I could act accordingly. Now I know I could check it from his score.

Hey Spirit Of The Law, Do you know how the technology "Spies" affects the Score? The game says that Spies costs 200 Gold per enemy Villager (and I believe it still costs 200 Gold if there are none of them on the map). Because the cost of Spies fluctuates during a game, I was curious about whether the amount that it adds to your score is always the same, if it changes based on the amount of Gold it costs at the time of research, or if the value it adds to your score changes based on the number of enemy villagers on the map. And in Regicide, does Treason add to your Technology score? Also, does the Chinese technology cost reduction bonus affects the price of Spies or Treason? Do Chinese technologies contribute less to the Technology score? [subtly asking for Chinese civ overview] Thank you for working hard on your videos and for reacting to you followers!

Great video spirit, keep up the good work.

When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be about the in-game background music.

the score is very important in Feudal age, when you see your enemy's score rising fast, you know a rush is just about to happen!

Hey spirit of the law!!!first at all I just want to say thank you because being a new player you have helped me a lot, even if I still lose in online matches :( and also I would like to ask what do/did you study??? (I just think you are super smart and Im curious :D ) You might not read this but any way thanks.

I never really understood why there even is a score count. It is only really utilized as the final goal in one gametype, and that type isn't used very much. In pretty much any other gametype, it's pretty useless. It might tell you who is the most dangerous on the map or whatever, but does so poorly that you can't ever really tell who has the advantage solely based on that.

BTW: The killcounter doesn't differ between enemy and allied units so basically you can push your score with teamkilling using units who are able to teamkill e.g. Onager or Bombard Cannon

Hey Spirit, I’m assuming you watch the comment feed like most KZfaqrs do. I really enjoy your channel, even though I’ve never played AoE2. I hope you find another game to talk about if you run out of things to say regarding AoE2.

The game is made for fighting. Buildings are there to give you something to destroy, so it doesn't surprise me the score is calculated that way.

Another excellent video

WHOOOO. New Spirit of the law vid :)

what if someone makes a magyar huzar for 90 resources then researches mercenaries so its costs only 80 and then i kill it i killed a unit that costs 80 resources for him but de facto he did pay 90 do i get 16 or 18 points??

This guy is awesome!

like for the background music

The brexit joke had me fall of my chair from laughing, good job xD

Great video! I love it!

Paying attention to the score is particularly useful in Nomad early on I found.

How do discounts fit into this? For example, will goth infantry yield less points when produced and killed, due to the goth infantry discount?

1:03 SALVADOR ALLENDE JAJAJAJAAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA XDDD.

just discovered an i love it ^^ your Channel is really nice and you aswell :) I love AoE so much...i played it since my Childhood :D mostly the aoe2 ^^

I play TGs all the time and I often find myself looking at the scores to see how well my team is doing, but it is never a good way of doing that. So many times I have gotten teams where our score is usually (slightly) lower than the other team but in the end we always manage to come out on top

Server says "NZ/AU" British players: *join game*

finally i know the difference between the yellow/red ball and the turtle :D thx

Brought the old intro back. I approve.

Thanks for the video. Now I can go to sleep with no problem.

Thanks for mentioning the AUS/NZ and EU lobby names. Seems to be a lot of people out there that do not understand this concept. Basically every lobby I've created with AUS/NZ in the name there is always some foreign people joining. So annoying..

Great vid! Always though that trading scores would stack. Hey, how about a vid explaining the score on Steam?

DUDE! Awesome stats man

What about the end game stats, it seems that there is no way to get 100% researched. Is this because of unique techs?

The background music is a bit too loud on this one. Its kind of distracting. Thanks for unravelling the score myth, I have been wondering about its intricacies since I started playing.

anyone else think spirit should do a top 10 best civ User Interfaces? Just the other day I took the time to look at the civ uis (i always knew they had unique ones, but I never took the time to actually notice them all, some are really good)

We need some SotL gameplay!!!

Hey spirit, For your next vid, recreate the lag shown in this video on aoe2 DE. We can appreciate how much better net code is now

Hey look! An awesome youtuber!! :D

that elephant: you think you're cool?

I feel like scouting score should not be based on how much you scout but what you scout. Perhaps a scouting score based on the percentage of value of enemy buildings seen, plus a percentage of the gold, stone, and animals seen. (wood wouldn't be counted as there's so much of it on most maps that scouting wood lines isn't really done past the edges of your base). That way if you don't see an enemy barracks, you will drop scouting score, and if you confirm that there are no enemy barracks, you will still have scouting score.

Love when see my in game score is twice as much the opponent :)

A turtle for a player whose computer can't keep up with AoE2... I'm glad they added it, but... are they running it on an actual toaster?

The funny thing is that a lot of my 1v1 ranked games have military score very low. I think the main reason is that the decisive battle is often in castle or early imperial age, especially if nobody is stonewalled. And a lot of people resign the moment they have an army in their base and nothing to counter it.

love this video!

god I love your videos

I am playing this game for 16 years now and never saw the hint in the achievements how the score is calculated o_O

I've always wondered about that

ohhhh i never knew what that turtle meant thank you for that

After doom, aoe 2 is the other game where I am seeing so much research and analysis 👍

Hey, Spirit... You've done videos on different units before. Maybe when you run out of needed civ overviews you could give some of them a spotlight or something.

2:35- confused boi.

Weird about that tribute finding. The wording at 2:49 is "has or has paid in tribute", and I find it hard to read the second part as anything but a bonus for generosity. To describe how you've just found it works at 4:35, it should have said "has received in tribute"! An oversight or poor wording? lol re: Brexit... I'd vote for quieter music throughout. Even if it's nice, it's harder to pay attention to what you're saying...

"Salvador Allende" jajajaja Chilenos en todas partes

you forgot to mention the drushing. you know if someone is drushing by score somewhat easily, even if you did not find their gold and checked for missing 10 or found their barracks.

Hey Spirit, Some friendly feedback in the spirit of democracy: I don't like having background music in your videos. Use that information as you will.

Hey, thanks, i like your content

That Brexit banter was so good 11

Chineeeese?

Do you only cover age of empires 2? for I'd actually like to know more about the first age of empires.

You sounded so sad in your opening line!