morning has broken
I'll break your fucking face
WAIT ALL WEEK FOR NOTHING BUT MORE SHIT ABOUT DOOM
Real World was a 20 level map set that came out last summer; a few weeks ago Real World 2, the sequel, was released. It's the same thing, small sized levels which are to a greater or lesser extent remixes of Doom and Doom2 original IWAD maps.
This one is at least initially more about Doom episode 1 than anything else. For example mazes in dark strobelit computer cores were abound, and it seemed like every level had a place with an armour vest on top of a computer panel. Compare the one visible in the distnance from your start position in the original E1M2. Being a Doom2 PWAD some licence with the texturing in these E1 parts had to be taken. Later on it improves though as E2M2, E4M7, and MAP09 all feature textures that can be found in the regular Doom2 IWAD...
As for gameplay, well, it's pretty trivial. I managed to play all 10 levels through to the end without dying at all, though I was saving the game at the start of each map so I had the psychological advantage of knowing I wouldn't have to restart the whole thing if I fucked up. Then I managed to do every map from a pistol start. The only ones that were even remotely difficult were the first one, where you have to actually shoot some monsters before you get a shotgun and the last one, which has some large monsters to contend with.
In summary it's a decent set of 10 levels but probably not as good as the original, which of course had 20. I recommend both the original and its sequel but I think the author would do well to get all 30 levels done so far, along with a couple of others, and release a full 32-level set.
how much time can be wasted
Hearing about the plans to upload the summer exam timetable as, of all things, an Excel spreadsheet, and put a link to it on the academic office website, I decided to press my luck and see if I could get them to let me make an HTML version. I did this in the belief that it would get used, but then I discovered they'd published the Excel spreadsheet anyway and indeed you can go into insite and get a personalised timetable. So what it amounted to was that I wasted an entire day writing stupid perl scripts.
However it makes me look like more of a rebel if I say, yeah, I did it deliberately, fuck the man, I'm getting paid for doing nothing, I rule the world, baby, when they said, what are you rebelling against, I said, what do you have, and then it was 4:20 on 4/20 so I smoked a blunt.
In truth I feel really guilty when I have nothing to do.
Anyway here are the two test cards I prepared. I had in mind that they could be pasted into a SiteBuilder page or something, but whatever. Don't link to them because they probably won't stay there forever. Also I hope your browser can decompress gzipped html on the fly (most can, I believe)
In other news I finally managed to get my account renewed; I'd been getting messages from ITS for the past month about it, and I'd told people but nothing had happened. Eventually I plucked up the courage to email the guy in charge of such matters and say "this is the last working day before all my files disappear" which seemed to do more than the trick, as the expiry date is now hilariously far into the future.
However on Wednesday about forty boxes of records and files came back from the scanners. It's pretty much my job to check them, so all this timewasting and doing things that are remotely interesting will have to stop.
It would be nice if I had access to them though
I just can't do it.
I can see how everything goes in, I just can't get it in
BAM!
Pretty much nothing has happened.
The most interesting thing was getting to see the loft in University House, and that was only because of the remarkable contrast. You have this big office and the hall outside that's all carpets, plants and quiet. Then you go in the lift, turn the key (yeah it's a secret floor that needs a key), the door opens and suddenly it's all noise, dust, and enormous pipes that comprise the air conditioning.
And noticing the place in the lift where someone had written "Old Dave is a twat" was funny.
But it all got old fast as I repeated the journey back and forth with trolleys laden full of decomissioned computers being put into storage. It's very depressing knowing they'll just be disposed of.
Seriously I'm sick of University House already and I've only been in it six days. It's cold and boring as all hell.
Since garrulo.wad I've hardly touched Doom, except for some little thing called beyond.wad. It's 12 levels long and I haven't beaten the first one yet. It's well made, but lack of resources and manoeuvreabilily awkwardness put it just the wrong side of annoying. Oh well.
At least I can rely on the forums continuing to entertain. This was a really shitty update. Good night.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
Easter long weekend, 9th-12th April 1993: Eleven years ago, I couldn't get it over fast enough. My dad's long weekend off work and rampant dislike of my use of computers meant ninety-six hours of acute dullness
Easter long weekend, 9th-12th April 2004: Now, it seems unable to get itself over fast enough and send me back to work
At least I haven't fucking broken any milk bottles this time
University House
If you are wondering what the new office in University House (aka the old National Grid building) is like inside, and you have been in the SRC on the second floor of the library, wonder no more. They are scarily similar. Okay there are fewer desks, which are bigger and have computers on them. But the overall effect is that I'm sitting there thinking I should stop staring into space and finish my maths assignment.
Outside in the hall the effect is rather more like a shopping centre such as West Orchards or Cannon Park. This is especially the case with the view from what will become the canteen or Starbucks or whatever on the ground floor, in which on Thursday there was a small reception involving free cakes and the most horrible cup of tea I've ever had.
I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to be doing
garrulismo
I finished garrulo yesterday so I can follow up on the last time I posted about it. I gave up trying to do each map from a pistol start and began again, saving my game and carrying ammunition forward.
It's pretty much a straight rip off of Doom 2, following the standard base/technological to city/industrial to hell theme of the original. In saying that I am fully aware that I might be missing some nuances, but the plot is the only thing in the rather long text file that wasn't translated from Spanish.
The quality is mixed; most of the maps are of a high standard architecturally, with just the right amount of detail to be impressive but not so overdone to be, well, depressing to an inexperienced mapper. However it is let down somewhat by frustrations caused through areas not being accessible a second time, by bizarre choices of photos as wall textures, and by constantly using Wolfenstein SSs.
Some levels of note:
- 4: It's pretty much E2M7 but I love the effect of the strobelit view out of the windows
- 5: Yet another tribute to E2M2 but that's never unwelcome
- 6: The view of the town - the start of the next level - out of the windows as you pass by the exit for the first time is exciting and draws you into the game. In fact many of the maps directly follow on from each other (they're all supposed to, but sometimes it's not obvious)
- 14, 15 and 18 are all set in rising urban locations with great use of different heights. I am a huge fan of maps with high walls and ceilings. The views of the end of map 14 and from the start of map 15 are excellent.
- 31: the first secret level is pretty poor. Not only is it a cramped, dark and awkward traversal of underground tunnels, you have to miss half of it out if you want to reach the second secret level. There are other maps, such as 7 and 28 which are also guilty of having unremovable monsters, traps that don't trigger properly, etc. I think the guy needs more playtesters.
- 21: about halfway through you reach a big teleporter. On the other side the level is mirrored but instead of being a techbase it's now all gothic and gory. Yes it's your standard dimensional gate to hell idea but I like this kind of juxtaposition. Compare Equinox's first and last maps. Also it gets noticably harder at that point. There's no map for the second half, which is very unsettling. The first time I ran out of health in the whole run was shortly after the gate.
- 23: I spent this entire map with a horrible feeling of deja vu. It turns out that it's based on e1m1cnc, one of the earliest existing PWADs, and which I played ages ago but irritatingly I have no idea when. In researching this wedge.wad which upon loading I also realised I'd played a long but unknown time ago. I recall downloading a whole lot of really ancient PWADs but no idea when it was
- 24: This is a great example of use of questionable wall textures. It's a very well constructed hellish temple, running with blood... if only it weren't completely ruined by being plastered with cheesy pictures of Guns'n'Roses
- 26: Apart from being reminscent of Mt. Erebus (E3M6) - due mainly to one of the buildings being rotated away from the axes - this collection of buildings in and around a lake would be fairly unremarkable. Right up until the point when I was completely caught off guard by a bunch of monsters because I was too busy laughing at the giant photograph of Osama Bin Laden and his cronies on the wall
- 30: The final level is the usual rubbish with a monster spawner that must be killed off as quickly as possible. It's made slightly more interesting by the fact that the weapons aren't all right in front of you at the start, the automap has been entirely disabled, and instead of having to fuck around shooting rockets off a moving lift you get to shoot rockets through a hole that opens and closes at regular intervals. Also, instead of the usual "oremoR nhoJ em llik tsum uoy emag eht niw ot" it babbles at you in Spanish which is comical. Nevertheless there are very few Icon of Sin maps that I like and this isn't one of them.
There are touches of genius within these maps construction but at the same time touches of such idiocy you wonder if this guy really knows what he's doing. On balance though I still think it was worth playing, and many of my irritations are ignorable. It's still a 32 level set made by one author, which is laudable. I doubt I'll be arsed to do all the maps from a pistol start though, not for a few months anyway.
"at least you're less likely to be raped"
my response to Sparkette who was complaining that she looks like a man
two long weekends in a row
The population of Senate House (and others) are moving to the old National Grid building over the next fortnight or so. The Academic Office where I work is one of the first to move. The upshot is my boss told me not to come in the first two days of next week because they'll all be packing and gods know what and there won't be anything I can do, apparently. Then of course next weekend is Easter.
I have no idea where I'll be sitting in this new building and I have a nasty feeling it won't be at all near anyone I know. Furthermore I don't have a card to get into the building. It's going to be really embarrassing hanging around until someone lets me in or I catch the attention of the porters. They say they'll be there to let me in in the mornings, but I can see this going humourously wrong.
It's strange really, every time I get granted one sort of access I seem to lose another. I can't get into the building but I do now have my own login code for the student records system, after I got in trouble when they found out I knew certain other people's passwords the other week...
Hell Covered Up Again
I finished my rerun of Hell Revealed. It was definitely easier than the first time around. I believe these are essences of Hell Revealed maps (at least the ones for which people remember it)
- very large area
- grandiose but sparsely detailed architecture, primarily textured in stone or that green marble stuff. I really like this style of architecture and the sense of space you get from it. High ceilings and enormous lines of sight are to be encouraged.
- only a few "points of significance" (keys, important switches that open whole new areas, etc.) scattered around almost at random. Thus backtracking is required but there are sufficiently few that you don't get annoyed.
- And of course, the famously high monster density. As I've said before there are many more maps nowadays that rival Hell Revealed's monstercounts. But I know from my own personal experience that having played Hell Revealed you go back to normal maps and you find yourself thinking "where the hell are all the monsters? This place is empty!"
- One thing I did notice in particular about the monster placement is that you tend to get large groups of the same type of monster. For example, 20 revenants instead of 5 revenants, 5 hellknights, a couple of barons and some chaingunners, in the same area.
