Zerofuchs

Ayy got my map done. Simple, short, sweet, and somewhat spicy if you go for UV. Bring your boxing game for map 214. Will almost certainly re-use it in the mapset I'm building now, but it's original debut will be here in RAMP.

As long as everyone gets proper training time on Hideous Destructor first should be okay...

Hm well in an attempt to go back to my in-progress map pack and build a secret map, I went into a bit of a zone and made what seems a potentially entertaining RAMP submission, with another day or two to polish. Short Tyson map, tried to consciously apply the Romero Rules, nothing fancy, but I think it's fun. Bit too minimal an aesthetic perhaps but you're not meant to stick around for long. Hopefully it ports to GZDoom format smoothly, one or two generalised linedef actions... All goes well, will submit by the weekend so there's a decent timeframe 'til deadline for refinement. Also question, does a mid from Bitmidi of Eye of the Tiger count as too close to the copyright sun? I'm considering alternative tracks but it just fits so well...

Therapists are IT support for the mind. Which is to say, they're trying to help, but they are "educated guessing" a lot more often than most people are comfortable thinking about. Same could be said of doctors really. Any career which involves problem diagnosis and root cause analysis is gonna have a fair degree of "well ermm... maybe it's this?" Even with all the best intentions in the world. And then on top of that you get people who go into medical fields solely for the money or out of familial expectations, which does not tend to result in the most motivated or ethical practitioner.

Meh in my normal cycle of -> See task -> Start task -> SQUIRREL -> Approach squirrel -> OOH KITTY -> Wait what about that task...

Update: None to speak of, having a case of mapper's block with regards to RAMP and so, unless I go into a dwarf fortress style trance, may miss it out this year. Work shall thus resume on my regular map pack this week. I have also picked up on the DWMegawad club thread, Biowar and Equinox, and I think I've picked up on a few mapping lessons from playing and reading the discussion on Biowar, that I might not otherwise have paid attention to. I would recommend joining in if you have not already:

Map15: Heat Lovely little series of hellish caverns with a few switches of obscure function, a secret exit, and generally low threat vibe. It makes up in visual coherence and theme what it does somewhat lack in combat. Map31: Juggelo Funhouse Never know where the Juggalos will pop up next, seems suitable considering the time period of the WAD. Still, feels like a breath of fresh air in a sense, fights aren't dangerous but they keep you moving and it's generous on pickups for once. Perhaps deliberately so, you can clown on the cyberdemon at the end quite easily as there's more than enough room to dodge rockets even if you want to grab the BFG first. Map16: The Killing Fields This map has it's ups (mostly in the middle) and downs (beginning an end). The entrance room is a plain grey box, the exit an empty wasteland, but betwixt them lies a dark maze of caverns crawling with foliage (relatively speaking) and begging to be spelunked. As usual, there's a sense of obscurity to the progression, which along with a few other commonalities, seems a hallmark of the set overall. It kinda feels like Chris Harbin is trying to make the fights more threatening, but even the red key fight is likely to leave you with few wounds, and it's generous enough that one never feels short on health or ammo or even armour really.

Elite's already been mentioned, good sound design is a big part of any solid space sim. Arma 3, in a not hugely surprising twist considering it is a simulator, does an excellent job on the sounds of gunfire, ricochets, doppler effects from moving vehicles, sound travelling over distance... and shellshock (never forget earplugs). With a few mods like TFAR, you can get full 3D audio and realistic radios affected by signal.

Map14: Absolution Rich in gloomy corridors, tight encounters, and with a somber, suspenseful song driving and oppressive atmosphere, Absolution stands out as a tense, hitscan heavy, creepy crawl through a dark cathedral. It's easy to let health get knocked away and it's not overly generous on drops...

Map13: UAC Prison An austere aesthetic of stone and metal, but it flows in a fairly fun fashion and it's nice to get a map that's not afraid of a few proper fights. Although that said, it's still the kind of map you can blind run in a single try with but a modicum of caution. Sometimes it's not clear what the switch you've pressed has just changed or you need to go over a linedef that isn't really signposted, and that door you need to shoot to open just seems a bizarre decision to me, but overall it's a castle crawl I wouldn't mind playing through again. Does a good job of reusing areas when you backtrack, which helps keep things fresh.

Looks like it from a first glance. There are some "official" definitions for what constitutes a Roguelike out there, mostly to keep things within reason for 7DRL challenges and categorisation. Adoption varies. As for me I'm not all that rigid about it, but to me the archetypical roguelike is turn based, top down, with a single character, and generally involves diving into a dungeon (or similar kind of locale). But I'm not going to stress or lecture if people start posting games that don't quite click lol, it's all in good fun.

If you haven't given it a try yet, maybe give Dungeonmans a look. Also a very tongue in cheek kind of Roguelike: https://store.steampowered.com/app/288120/Dungeonmans/

Map12: Military Center It's not really much of a looker, the combat is kinda just there, and it's kind of obscure the first playthrough. The basic idea of finding keys at outposts then returning to a hub makes it feel a bit less random than some other maps, but overall that's the most it's really got going for it. Difficulty wise it's replete with health kits and armour and resistance is anemic. Don't bother trying to save cells for the plasma rifle.

Nuff said.