December was a quiet month for DES. There were lots of battles, clan-matches and public games alike. Some we won and some we lost. We had a good showing in the AC Mapping Contest #4, with 3rd (ac_stellar – Halo and Bukz) and 5th (ac_noct – Dreamer). Our congratulations go to the winner, dm_canicule_night by SnD, who we all thought was Sundown using a pseudonym.
Then, the bomb-shell was dropped; Mr.Floppy announced his decision to cease all AC activity for personal reasons. Mr.Floppy joined DES in March 2008 already demonstrating the mapping skills that would lead to him achieving the ultimate AC mapper’s accolade – official map status for ac_keller in the v1.0 release. His contributions to the community in the areas of mapping and other map customisation are widely recognised, especially through his work on the akimbo site, and his views were always eagerly awaited and respected. He’ll be sorely missed on IRC by those of us who appreciated his acerbic wit and improptu cigarette breaks.
Some of Mr.Floppy’s best work can be experienced on the Custom|DES server which has laucnched (officially) today. This server, which has been running for some weeks as test_server, has a maprot consisting entirely of custom maps made by DES members. Needless to say, these maps are of the same quality, or higher, as the official maps from DES members. Most of them are being played on servers around the community already. Some of the maps use custom content; you can download everything required via our mapping page.