This Pinned Post Replaces the Last Pinned Post

 

    I swear Eminem wrote a song with the lyrics:

I don't want to say I'm back or nothin'

because that implies I'm back from somethin'

    But alas, I can not find it. So maybe I've been Mandela'd into an alternate dimension or got neuralyzed because I know my imagination can't write worthwhile lyrics. I can hear the line so clear in my head. Which is a shame because those lines are exactly how I feel right now. Now, instead of posting a song I have to write a whole post, ugh.

    Anyway, the primary point of this post is to officially end the hiatus but also to lower expectations, I am still very busy and I absolutely can not continue reviewing Sven maps at the same speed I did when I first started. One map a week, maybe, is what I expect to happen. 

    Sike, this is secretly a post about how I have accomplished my mission and from now on I will bask in victory, deigning to review a map only if the mood strikes me. I may have mentioned this once or twice in my previous posts, but my stated goal of reviewing every map on the map database was really just a ploy to increase map reviews overall. I felt that the underused review system may have put off potential reviewers who didn't want to be the first to have an opinion. If my partner and I reviewed every single map then anybody who wanted to review one themselves would be third, not first. We're breaking the ice.

    Before Dunkelschwamm and I began reviewing maps the database had 72 reviews on it in total. From 2010 (or 1999, the date on the earliest review is 1999 but the page history shows it was uploaded in 2010, pick a date, I think both work for the point I am trying to make.) to our first review in 2021 only 72 reviews exist. Between the start of our hiatus (January 7, 2024) and about three weeks ago (March 29, 2026) there have been about 40 reviews left from people other than us.

    Let's do some math, in eleven years there were 72 reviews, for an average of 6½ reviews a year.

    In two years, after we put in 372 reviews, there were 41 reviews for an average of 20½ reviews a year.

    We've more than tripled the reviews the map database gets each year. The numbers don't lie. Mission accomplished. I'm going to post another picture of George Bush right now, maybe flipped to the other side.

    So yeah, we're back but things won't be exactly the same. We'll keep reviewing maps but at a much slower pace with lots of gaps in between and we'll be way more smug about things. I'm not sure it will be possible to review all the maps on the database at this speed, but the real mission is already accomplished so that's fine. We'll keep lying and saying we'll do it.

    I've been trying to dedicate more time to mapping, I got a couple maps in the works plus some updates to my already released holiday maps. I've actually been burning to do a write-up about my maps, something like describing my workflow, problems encountered, things learned, maybe expose some secrets hidden in the map. The only reason I haven't done that already is because this blog is a glorified mirror, a dedicated spot to host stuff that's hosted on the map database. It's a back up. But it seems to be a back up with fans, assuming I haven't lost any in the hiatus. So if I do less reviews maybe the fans want more content of a different type?

    Here's a juicy preview for you: when I made Laundromat everything was in the middle. Like the whole hotel area was right next to the laundromat and surrounding businesses and players could spawn in the hotel parking lot. I planned to optimize things after the fact. But then the map started crashing when I would stand in certain areas. So I had to select half the map (at the time, the sewer section did not exist yet) and then move it away and break up sightlines with some big hedges inspired by The Shining. It was a huge pain and the SDK window would lag, it did NOT like what I was doing. Also, there was an alley between the donut shop and the diner but I had to axe it to break up sightlines. The laundromat back door was right in the middle and then I learned that doors don't actually block sightlines so I had to move the bathroom forward, compressing the interior of the laundromat and bathroom, and move the door behind that. I probably spent three whole days of work just moving things around to avoid the mess I had made and it made the laundromat interior cramped.

    Was that paragraph interesting? Would it make a good post? Should it be a Youtube video instead? These are rhetorical questions, you can answer them if you want but I probably will do the thing I am thinking of doing in my head right now. Which is to