31/05/2025 23:16 - - - I teased my Hell Revealed inspired level some time ago and I even promised a future release multiple times, but I must confess, that I'm canning it for now. The reasoning behind it? It's semi-symmetrical, repetitive and dull. I don't know what I was thinking when I showed screenshots of it, thinking it was any good. Oh well...
Anyways, building maps for Torment Of Screams is going nicely for me so far. For quite some time, I managed to get a former TOS mapper to come back, he is currently redesigning MAP17 & MAP31, can't wait to see how the look once they're finished! I also started work on MAP22: "Charred Remains", take a look:
22/05/2025 22:30 - - - I did some minor changes to this site, one of which being a proper Guestbook, which you should sign! :) Other than that, progress on the clean Scythe UVMax demos is being made slowly, I can only assume that it will be done in about a month. A few days ago, an RC3 demo of Necromantic Thirst was released, which is awesome. I haven't so much as peeked at the levels and screenshots, because I want to experience the levels properly for the first time once the final release happens. I loved the 3HA series and 180MPV, so I'll probably enjoy that megawad even more, I'll see...
18/05/2025 19:02 - - - For the past few days, a lot of things happened since my last update here. To begin with, I managed to break my laptop a few days ago! :P How did it happen, you might ask? Well, when I carried my laptop upstairs, (as I usually do) I tripped on one of the stairs, causing the laptop to fall and the monitor to become cracked. That's now -100€ from my wallet for the replacement, oh well... Luckily the repair technician doesn't live too far from me, so that's good I suppose.
In addition, I finally can attest that Daniel King's two books: "Kalashnikov Sicilian" & "Anti-Sicilians For Black" helped me rejuvenate my love for the Sicilian Defense once again. When I started playing chess over a year ago, I steered torwards more agressive openings, (KID, King's Gambit and whatnot) and so I thought that the Najdorf Sicilian was perfect for me but oh boy was I wrong... Everytime I had a game in the Najdorf, I constantly felt like I was behind development and my counterplay was too slow. Sure, you could chalk that up to the fact that I suck at the game (a mere ~1500 FIDE!), but I genuinely had no clue what to do in the opening, since all of my opening knowledge was learned from YouTube videos, and we all know how effective that is, don't we? To sum it up, after working with the two books for the last few weeks, I went from hating to loving to play the Sicilian. I finally feel confident in my own repertoire... ...if I could say the same thing about my endgame knowledge, heh :D
Recording all of the demos for Scythe is slow going, that's for sure. When I started them, I wanted to make sure that they looked fast and elegant, but with that came frustruation as early as MAP02. In the end, I managed an okay demo out of that, but I might just rerecord them all with a more casual playstyle because let's be honest: that's never gonna happen when I try to record MAP30!
Estonian weather is really odd. It's the middle of May and it's still constantly cold & heavily raining outside. On one hand, I don't mind that kind of weather because it's calming & relaxing to me, but on the other hand I want to see something else than rain, is that too much to ask for? Also, I don't care for Eurovision at all and never will, but seeing Estonia get 3rd place this year is pretty cool not gonna lie. Not sure why most of my acquaintances expected us to get 1st place, that was never going to happen. But hey, still better than Lastvia.
01/05/2025 20:36 - - - So, some changes to this website were promised in early May, where are they? Well I had a plan on starting a .WAD review section, because I'd love to gush about my favourite .WAD's and talk about them extensively. I think I'll start with something short and simple like the original Scythe and work my way up torwards more complex .WAD's like Alien Vendetta, Scythe II and even Necromantic Thirst! :) Doing so, I will accompany playthrough videos for them too. As for my other demo files, they will be eventually reposted again if I find the time tomorrow.
Work on Torment Of Screams is slow but steady, MAP04 is very close to being finished or so I thought. Today I tried to finally create the final room for the level, but the result didn't look the best aesthetically not to mention the constant VPO's and HOM's are very frustruating to work around without sacrificing too much detail. To be honest, I just scrapped the initial room idea and now I'm starting over. It's definitely annoying, but I feel like I'm saving myself from an future headache. My initial goal was to finish off the map by the end of the week, but it just might take me one more at this rate...
Going for walks in general has done wonders in combating mapper's block for me. Lately, I went for a walk with my friends in our local area and we ended up stumbling into somesort of an abandoned ruin, which was fun to explore in my opinion. No idea what was the original purpose of the building, but there were multiple sinks, an empty garage, a shower and even an bed? It's not like it was an regular abandoned building either, it was a size of an hut which was otherwise completely surrounded by forest trees now in disarray, "the cinderblocks covering the floor and moss growing on the walls" kind of abandoned. I actually should take pictures of it next time perhaps, would be pretty interesting in my opinion. Now that my rambling is complete, I should now go record the Scythe demos for the review, haha! :D