Transition Time
I needed to take a short break from my computer. I did this for various reasons. Besides the most obvious one (I spend too much time during the day while online), there were other, more varied reasons. I’ll start with the lighter ones.
I just recently got over a yucky ole cold. A few days ago it was pretty bad, so I didn’t bother getting online :aww: For some reason I was having pretty harsh headaches…I’d say something pretty close to migraines. Light and loud sounds made me wince so getting on the computer wasn’t going to happen until they went away. I still have some remnants of the cold lingering around…but for the most part I feel a whole lot better.
However, to completely contradict what I just said about having bad headaches, I’ve gotten myself readdicted to a game. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (or Advanced 2) is the sequel to the GBA game Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced…which in turn was loosely based off of the mechanics of the PSX game Final Fantasy Tactics. I had never actually played the PSX game, but for some reason I looked forward to the release of FFTA. I even reserved a copy of the game and bought a strategy guide when I finally got my copy. I instantly feel in love with the game, which I found to be sorta odd since I usually didn’t play those kinds of games. I became addicted to it pretty quickly and I had lots of freetime to play it while taking the 45 minute bus ride to and from Governor’s school. Before long I racked up over 200 hours of play. Eventually I sold all of my GBA games, including FFTA…but a few years ago I re bought the game and played through it again (thank goodness GBA games are cheap now, heh). All-in-all I’ve probably played that game in excess of 300 hours. So when I heard that a version of the PSX game was coming out for the PSP, I hopped on the chance to get it. Unfortunately the PSP version of the game (which is basically a port of the PSX version) was a lot harder to get into. The game mechanics are really quite different from the ‘Advance’ series and the game has a somewhat slower pace and a slightly more frustrating interface. I stopped playing it a few hours into the game because I got stuck. Maybe one day I’ll come back to it and try to finish it up. However, around the same time that the PSP version of the game was released, I heard rumors that a DS version of the game was coming out in Japan…and that it was a direct sequel to the GBA game. Once I learned that it was coming stateside, I was never happier that I had bought a DS. My aunt bought the game for me for my 22nd birthday (it was an early present) and so far it has been quite an amazing game. At first I played it off an on because I was busy with a lot of other things. But during my short computer hiatus, I’ve played it almost non-stop. FFTA2 is probably 3 or 4 times longer than it’s GBA sequel, and twice as deep and 4 times as awesome. The game expanded so much in terms of player jobs, different types of units, weapons, armor…just about everything. They also redid some of the more annoying things from FFTA like the Law system (which I kind of loathed to tell you the truth). All in all though, it’s nice to actually get addicted to a game again. Most of this shit that comes out these days isn’t even worth looking at :noes:
I’ve also been thinking about other things…other things that will likely hit closer home for some of you readers out there. I’ve been thinking about the Doom multiplayer community, where I sit within it, and what I think about it these days. Of course this is related more towards Skulltag directly since I don’t dabble with ZDaemon or Odamex, but what I think probably applies to all three of them. I’ve been sorta disappointed with the community as a whole…or maybe more accurately, I’ve been disappointed with myself in said community. Things have changed quite a bit since I first joined up…and at the same time some things haven’t changed at all. It seems to me that no matter how much work is done on the modding and mapping side of things, the players don’t want to take part in it. It seems that all the player base cares about these days is COOP and duel on the same set of maps over and over and over and over and over and over. I can understand COOP to a point since it’s usually replayable by an order of magnitude over almost all other gametypes. But what makes me sad is that people play the same duel/dm maps over and over until their eyes bleed; of course I’m referring to D5M1 and GW20 and whatever else I’m missing. Sure, they are really good maps with really good layouts and item placements, but after a while it gets ridiculous. There are so many other maps out there…I mean, Doom has got to have the largest selection of user-made content available to any game in existence, yet the community would rather play the same 3 or 4 maps over and over until the end of time. So what’s the point of any even making new content if no one will play it? Especially if it’s something you’ve spent lots and lots of time and energy on. If it’s good, it should be played…and there’s lots of good stuff out there to be played besides DWANGO and GW, etc. I also think the server maintainers are partly to blame for this as well – if they recognize that this is a problem, they could help quell the problem by not hosting the same stuff all the time. Vary it up a bit, host stuff that’s hardly ever hosted, get people interested in other things! I will say that there are exceptions to this (like Ghouls vs. Humans…kudos Cutman!)…but I’m tired of going into IDE and seeing everyone play the same thing all of the time :arg: *SIGH* But in the end I guess it doesn’t really matter now. I’ve pretty much decided that I won’t be working on anymore Doom multilayer stuff…well, I won’t be contributing massive amounts of anything anytime soon. If I do something multiplayer related, it will be via 32in24 or because I’m bored and I might contribute a map to a community project. Other than that though, anything Doom related you see coming from me in the future will most likely be COOP/SP related. I have other things going on in the future for me anyways, so I won’t have much time for Doom. I’m trying my best to finish up some Doom things now so I can free up my time. Those things include Claustrophobia 1024 first and foremost, reworking of Obsidian Oblivion (maybe), and then Vaporware (I’m hoping to work on Vaporware when I don’t have to worry about any other Doom things). I was going to work on Sabbat Martyr DeathMatch v1.2 but I doubt that’s going to happen now; no one plays it and I think it would just be a waste of my time.
So yea, it was fun while it lasted but I’m pretty much through with working on Doom multilayer stuff. I’m not going to completely resign myself from Skulltag though…you’ll see me around 
One last thing: before my hiatus, I did quite a bit of updating on the ‘Design’ page. I still have a long ways to go, but I updated most of my most recently completely stuff. Go check it out will ya!