Gloom

Whenever I'm at home there's a good chance that I'm playing Gloom. No other game I've found offers such a great blend of fast paced action, strategy, and teamwork. Additionally, Gloom performs well on modern machines since it's a mod of an older game (Quake 2).

Game mechanics

PLAYERS

Gloom pits a team of human space marines vs. team of aliens. Typically each team has 4 to 20 players. There are sixteen (eight per team) playable classes, with a wide variety of abilities.

THE ALIENS

The Gloom aliens, also referred to as spiders/arachnids, prefer to use stealth and melee attacks to subdue their enemies. Hatchlings, the most common alien class, resemble small hairy spiders that can use their web to lurk in dark corners and drop down on unwary humans...

THE HUMANS

Space marines use a wide variety of armaments to hunt down and eradicate the alien threat. Grenades, rockets, 'Mechs, and pulse lasers are among the more devastating weapons. Grunts are the basic human unit, and their standard armament consists of an autogun and a pistol.

OBJECTIVE

Your primary objective is to destroy the enemy's ability to respawn when they die. Humans respawn at teleporters, while alien team members must hatch from eggs. Each team's base is typically protected by several defensive structures. All of these structures - including the respawn points - can be rebuilt or relocated by the team's builder class.

An effective assault requires teamwork and/or planning, otherwise the opposition can repair the damage before you finish them off.

BASES

Base construction and relocation is an important strategic part of the game. Location, location, location... If your base is in a poor position, such as at the bottom of a pit or mountain, the enemy will have no trouble wreaking havoc in your base from afar. If you build too far away from the enemy then your team may never have enough momentum to win. If you build in a room with only one way out then your team may become trapped. If you build in a room with too many entrances then your defenses can be quickly overwhelmed by attacks from multiple directions...

In other words, learning to build a good base takes a lot of experience.

A builder must also pay careful attention to how the game's going. You must rebuild destroyed defenses quickly, or the enemy will overrun you. You must also provide support to your team's offense; you need a forward supply base, otherwise your team will lose too much time running back home for supplies and health.

ThePyro's maps

All of my Gloom maps can be downloaded from the Gloom Map Depository.

  • LV426 (lv426b.bsp) - My first public Gloom map. Absolutely horrible. Run away.

  • Gloomy Mines (mines-1.bsp) - This was my second map and is arguably the most successful of any of them. It still gets a lot of play time on the Onecall server. No back story or special objectives... just play Gloom.

  • LV426b (lv426b.bsp) - This map is so different from the original LV426 that I really shouldn't have given it the same name... but oh well :)

    It's BIG. I recommend at least 16 players. The map consists of three indoor "bases", connected by two outdoor paths and an underground sewer. This map's gimmick is that you need a 3+ frag class to initially unlock the sewer entrance to the enemy's base.

  • Hazmatb (hazmatb.bsp) - From the readme, "The #7 HazMat facility, completed last year, represents the latest breakthroughs in toxic waste disposal and reclaiming. Full of state of the art technology, this hazardous materials processing plant leads the industry in both efficiency and employee comfort/safety. Unfortunately you've been assigned to the #6 HazMat facility, which is a dirty old run down plant infested with aliens."

  • Stargate (stargate.bsp) - My first and only attempt at an objective based map. Rather than destroying the enemy's spawn points, teams compete from control of three separate rooms. The gameplay is similar to Unreal Tournament's Dominate mode.

    Alas, like all objective based Gloom maps, it's really only fun if all the players read the objectives... (and we all know that never happens)

  • Toxic Waste Dump (toxic1.bsp) - It's a toxic waste dump. And there's aliens. What more can I say?

  • Babylon Station (babylon.bsp) - The Gloom community has put on a few "speed mapping" competitions - great fun, especially the part where you release your horrible maps on an unsuspecting public :) The goal is to create a map in under 3 hours, given a certain theme.

    The Babylon Station was my entry to the first speed mapping competition. The theme was "multi-level space station", I think... Despite at least two mapping program crashes, I still managed to come in at just under 3 hours. It's fairly playable.

  • Ore Processing Plant (ore1.bsp) - Probably the most time consuming of any of the maps I've done. Personally I think this map plays extremely well, with lots of good places for builders to expand. Ore1 is also the home of the [in]famous frag dispensing RxN Cola machine.

Where to find me

If I'm playing Gloom (which I do frequently), you'll probably find me playing on the Onecall server (onecall.ip.planetgloom.com) under the name [MCB]ThePyro. Look for a Drone or Biotech...