Counterattack - Released!

[Mechadon]

Counterattack is a 7-map mini episode for Doom II that I started on in the beginning of September 2016. The maps are Boom compatible and focus on singleplayer (with COOP support). Gameplay consists of my standard, medium-paced difficulty with an emphasis on exploration and semi-nonlinear flow. The map sizes range from medium to large, with the largest taking around 30-45 minutes to complete.

This started out as a single map for the Vinesauce mapping contest (I'm a fan of Joel's streams), with the stipulation that I would restrict myself to using only stock Doom II textures (apart from new sky textures). But after finishing the map, I had the urge to do another one. And thus this project was born!

Joel played my map on stream! If your interested in watching it, click here.

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback and left kind words! I hope you enjoy the maps


Releases:
- Counterattack [8mb] (Mirror 1) (Mirror 2) (Final Changelog)
- Counterattack Statusbar GFX [13kb] (Mirror)
- Sky textures released HERE.

Old Betas and Other Stuff
- Counterattack Beta 3 [8mb] (Mirror) (changelog) (ALSO OLD)
- Counterattack Beta 2 [8mb] (Mirror) (changelog) (OLD OLD)
- Counterattack Beta 1 [5mb] (OLD)
- Leftover sky textures
- More leftover sky textures


Screenshots:
MAP01: Aggilus



MAP02: Phlogiston



MAP03: Aegritudo



MAP04: Maeror



MAP05: Dolor



SECRET: Desiderium



SECRET: ??????

[Zanieon]

Mechadon does not know how to play mapper.

BRUH...

Surely this thing will be in my playlist of wads to play when i resume my Doom life since my course for now is keeping me away from it.

[zrrion the insect]

These screens look fantastic! I'll try and run through them soon.

[Mechadon]

Thanks guys . I'm eager to hear any thoughts you have!

[zrrion the insect]

I haven't gotten too far, so I don't have too much feedback for you, but I seem to get stuck in the map wandering around only to discover that the way to progress was right next to the last switch I flipped or whatever, and I just failed to notice the path opening up. I'm not sure how that could be improved upon because I'm pretty sure that's user error. I like the maps so far though. Explosive barrels are used quite well, which is a treat, and the maps look incredible.

[Mechadon]

Yea I'm not surprised to hear you are getting a bit lost here and there. It's partially just the nature of the maps, and partially my own fault for not being able to make the navigation cues stand out better. So long as your not running into anything really frustrating, then I'll consider that ok. If you do run into a situation where you get completely lost, and if you can manage to remember details or take some screenshots, please let me know!

I'm happy to hear you like the maps so far regardless though, thank you!

[00_Zombie_00]

Excellent distribution of enemies. It's really fun to exterminate waves of zombieman using chaingun. I got lost sometimes, but the exploration is nice.

---

[Rachael]

Well I gotta be honest. Visually, I really love this map set. From a gameplay perspective though, it's a nightmare for me. Perhaps it's really just me, though, and it's not something I expect you to change because I think I might be in the minority with this. The issue for me, mostly, isn't the difficulty of the monsters (at least, so far), but more the way the layouts are so hugely confusing and they keep changing as you progress through the levels - you think you know where you are? Nuh uh those walls moved away some time ago.

In a way that definitely adds to the appeal to the level, but combined with the sprawling layouts - well needless to say, I was retracing my own steps almost constantly.

[Mechadon]

Hey Eruanna, thank you for playing and leaving your thoughts! Honestly I'm not surprised to hear that you had a hard time navigating around the maps. I'm gonna say its partially because of their non-linear nature, and partially because I don't always succeed in guiding the player to where they need to go in crucial points of the map. I try to design them with replayability in mind too, so routes through them aren't usually set in stone. You might have had enough on your first playthrough to know you aren't a fan of the maps. But if you wanna give it another go sometime, maybe they'll be more fun on the second playthrough?

Either way, I appreciate your feedback! If you do play through them again, and happen to spot anything that you think could be improved, please let me know

@00_Zombie_00: Awesome! I will definitely watch through your video as soon as I can.

[Mechadon]

Ok guys, here's beta 3, likely the last beta before I finalize this!

Counterattack Beta 3 [8mb] (Mirror)
Big ole changelog

One of the big updates this time is the addition of COOP-friendly teleporters as well as a bit more attention to COOP on the whole. I ran a quick solo-net test to make sure things weren't broken, but other than that I haven't done any balance testing. So if anyone can manage to do COOP runs of these maps before I do the final release, that would be extremely helpful.

There are a bunch more small and big changes as you can tell from the changelog, so I won't go over them. I will say that dew was a huge help with some of the changes in this beta. So thank you dew for helping me out!

From this point the plan is to let beta 3 stew for about a week or so. After that, I'll make any necessary changes from feedback I get, and then I'm pushing this thing out the door.

[leodoom85]

Downloading this mapset. I'll let you know for some feedback and I will upload a video of only one of the maps because it looks really cool...

[Mechadon]

Thank you for helping out leodoom85! I'll be looking forward to any feedback you have as well as your video

[leodoom85]

Thank you for helping out leodoom85! I'll be looking forward to any feedback you have as well as your video

I recorded map 03 for the video (because I can't kill 1000 monsters for a larger video but... ). I can say that, at least for that map, has so much detail to it. Nasty traps, ammo enough to kill them all, last part was difficult with the boss+archvile combo. Awesome map.
The only thing that worried me for the map was that, how should I put it, the detail of the map "camouflaged" some important switches and I was lost for a few minutes (you will see that in the video). Other than that, an awesome, detailed and meticulous mapset and I hadn't played the rest of the maps yet. Great job.

[Mechadon]

Hey leodoom85, thank you for playing and thanks for the feedback! I will be looking forward to your video

[leodoom85]

Hey leodoom85, thank you for playing and thanks for the feedback! I will be looking forward to your video

Thanks, man and I just finished the edited video after 6 hours because it's in 720p...phew...