Countergoat Initiative [Duels] - finalized!

Team Countergoat Initiative (CGI) is a group of amateur and veteran duellists based somewhere in the Moroccan desert. Over the past two years, the members of this illustrious initiative have created more than 32 duel maps to prepare for the inevitable war with the goats, who secretly plot to kill the president and destroy our way of life. CGI1 is the resulting pack, and the first major instalment in the Countergoat Initiative series. Download today!

>> Download << [FINAL]









CGI1’s maps are boom format, but the duel32 style hub makes Zandronum the target port of choice. Odamex and ZDaemon are also viable choice, but we do not guarantee a bugless experience. Jumping is disallowed and most of the maps are balanced around respawning items. There may or may not (read: not) be goats.

Map01: Donut De-livers (MionicDonut)
Map02: Mixing Bowl (ClonedPickle)
Map03: High Fructose Corn Syruppuku (Jimmy)
Map04: Pier SR50 (Alfonzo)
Map05: Alfonzo Battles Genghis Kahn in Old Neo Tokyo (Tarnsman)
Map06: Whore Island (Alfonzo)
Map07: Thirteen Men All Backflipping Into a Shitstorm to Piss Off Alfonzo (Tarnsman)
Map08: Saskatoon (Rottking)
Map09: Jactory (Jmickle)
Map10: Tarnsman Digs a Hole to Guatemala (Jimmy)
Map11: Alfonzo’s Jungle Excursion: No Gaycaek’s Allowed (Tarnsman)
Map12: Alfonzo Battles the Golden Ninja Clan for Control of Mount Fuji (Tarnsman)
Map13: Goat to the Choppa (Jimmy)
Map14: Blunt Force Vasectomy (ClonedPickle)
Map15: Clusterfuck Processor (Marcaek)
Map16: Off The Rails (AD_79)
Map17: Sandpaper Blowjob (ClonedPickle)
Map18: Wilhelm Academy (Alfonzo)
Map19: Mambo Number 6 (MionicDonut)
Map20: Petersen Baekery (Marcaek)
Map21: Dyslexia Station (Jimmy)
Map22: Pepsi Blue (Marcaek)
Map23: UAC Ultra Quesadilla Explosion (MionicDonut)
Map24: The Toilet Store (MionicDonut)
Map25: Pot City (Megalyth)
Map26: Mr Tib’s Crib (Tib)
Map27: Redeemed Memories (ClonedPickle)
Map28: The Pipewall Doesn’t Stop (Rottking)
Map29: License to Stack (Alfonzo)
Map30: License to Stack 2: Crate Expectations (Alfonzo)
Map31: Angry Towers with Top Hats (Xaser)
Map32: Alfonzo’s Vacation in Peter Burns’ Nightmare Funhouse (Tarnsman)

HUB: Goat Bunker (Tarnsman)
SHOOT: Badass Baratus's Freaky Fucktangle (Baratus)

I am so sorry, and yet, I am so grateful to have the chance to educate you all.

About the goats, that is. I'm sorry about my incredibly poor skills at everything else. And education.

Downloading because Guatemala.

EDIT: Error in ZDoom on bootup to do with the MAPINFO.

That would be the duel32 code at work. It is only Zandromum compatable (currently).
It will be fix :D

ZDoom freaks out about "islobby" and won't launch it. It freaks out about it in duel32 too, but not enough to crash. I DANNO

It's basically only Zandronum-compatible right now. I mean, it's a multiplayer mapset and ZDoom's netcode is, uh... not.


Although MTrop immediately pointed out the error to me halfway through this post (well, probably). It involves a lot of bitchwork though so I'll do it later~

Oh cool! Looks like fun.

I guess this is as good a topic as any to ask what are the fundamental differences between a duel map and a standard FFA map? Is there much seperating the two? I asked myself this question the other day after I'd hand drawn a few deathmatch layouts on paper during a boring college class and ported them to Doom in doombuilder. In practice they came out being smaller than I pictured and retrofitted some ideas into them to make them more duel-oriented. I asked #odamex for some tips but the irc client on my phone cut out before I got to hear any answers. I'd think you guys would have asked this question a lot during making it.

So far, with only speculation guiding me, not much actual dueling, this is what I've come up with.

Size - In general, FFA maps that are bigger are more optimal and usually inhabit a large fight arena spot to accomodate many players, with the smaller areas for player spawns and start weapons. While large duel maps with large exposed areas are applicable, smaller duel maps are optimal, as they shorten the distance (and time) to cover more areas and increase the pressure between the two players.

Powerups - In FFA, powerups are basically tickets for free frags. With soulspheres and megaspheres being much less and Partial Invisibilities and Invulnerabilities being way high. Usually stowed away in hard to reach places, or where the process in getting it involves environmental damage, wasted time, or exposure to crossfire between other players. Where in Duel, powerups placed anywhere in the map are used strategically by the players in a game of keep-away, where holding the powerups is mostly ascertaining the security of knowing your opponent doesn't get to have them, to prevent them getting any advantages.

Weapons - FFA maps usually thrive by giving players early access to good weapons, sometimes right on top of the spawn zones to reduce any lulls or frustration in gameplay, extra powerful weapons like rocket launchers, plasmaguns, and BFGs are trickier or time-consuming to get. In Duels, most weapons are fair game, including rocket launchers, plasma, and BFG, which are most powerful in the sense that they can kill many things at once in few shots and in little time, which won't help your score much in a 1-on-1.

Quantity of DM Starts - FFA maps usually have a lot of DM starts to perpetuate the randomization. Duel maps often have fewer so that the players can employ better strategy. ("If he didn't respawn here, he must have spawned there.")

Hiding Spots - FFA maps with hiding spots only hurt the player where the best strategy is search and destroy at x500% speed. Hiding spots and ground to cover can be advantageous in Duel.

That's pretty much all I've got. How much of this is true and how much is misinformation?

40oz: Those things are mostly correct! One important note for weapons though is that often the SSG is the most powerful weapon in a map, often trumping the RL, Plasma and even BFG. It all depends on the layout and situation the players are in.

One of the most important things is that breaking the rules is often as fun as following them. While all the information you posted can be used in one form or another to make a fun duel map, experimenting and more importantly testing it out are absolutely vital to making a fun duel map. The CGI team have been using monthly tournaments and often nightly duels to test out this duel pack, providing intense playtesting sessions to help make sure each map plays to it's own strengths rather than creating the map in an analytical manner (though often the maps may have been created in that way initially)

These maps are a ton of fun, and range from very classic styles with big and small layouts to some very unique (and still very enjoyable) ideas.

Oh hey, I'd be happy to help further any discussion about multiplayer, be it in this thread or the next. Heaven knows we need some more at Doomworld.

The question of what really separates a duel map from a deathmatch map is one that I and a couple of the others on the team have discussed, and put to one of the more learned and veteran players of deathmatch and duel, like Rottking. His response (or one part of it at least; I'm sure he'll elaborate if he feels like dropping by and adding his two cents) was that it's very difficult to deliberately make a duel map that scores all the points and becomes a success, and that much of the time it's like throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. I think he may be right. Wilhelm Academy (MAP19) is an outright mess of a duel map as far as I'm concerned and is probably the worst of my efforts, but it was also the one I put the most time into. I left it in mostly as a token of development, in a way, acknowledging the speed and prolificacy with which we plan to work on upcoming projects. Nonetheless, here's a couple of observations I've made about what goes into a good duel map. Keep in mind that I am rather rubbish, haha:

• Being conscious of the other player and his movements. This isn't to mean that you should actively see where the other player is at all times, but that the map should allow you to anticipate with some success the pathing of your opponent, based on the way the map is shaped, the spawn points, and the "objectives" that might encourage a player to take a certain route in order to try and gain an advantage. This is a rather general point that depends on a combination of factors, including those listed below, but it seems to be true enough for any successful duel map that relies on the excercising of strategy to be fun or involving.
  
• Control points/centralized area from which the player can spot spawns and aggressively maintain the upper hand. Works well on small maps in particular, I find. See it in action in Judas23_ or SSL2! MAP02: Mixing Bowl and MAP15: Clusterfuck (heh) might qualify, here.
  
• Inversely, maps that are so made that single items/powerups provide the attentive player with a clear advantage over his opponent, and where thoughtful movement around the map in waiting for that item to respawn (and being there to collect it when it arrives) is encouraged. Hotspots. Whoring. The place where bodies collect. See MAP09: Browntown and MAP12: Mount Fuji for strong CGI1 examples.
  
• Weapon and health placement makes a duel map. It carries more weight when you only have one opponent and when that opponent is much more likely to know what kind of weapon you're going to want use in certain situations. In a straight up Deathmatch map, the ability to plough through a blood-crazed pack of space marines is probably going to be the deciding factor when picking a weapon. There are very few mind games to be had and you're unlikely to cater your methods toward a single opponent in quite the same way. If I were playing MAP27: Pot City with 3 other people I might want to grab the plasma gun and run riot when two of the yokels have at each others' throats, but in 1v1 I'm more conscious of where the other player is, and depending on my health and position I might want to sit back and defensively pot-shot with the chaingun while waiting for one of the health packs to respawn so I can resume the offensive.

Just some thoughts! I've been busy churning out more duel maps over the last week or so with mixed results, and I'm mostly relying on intuition and "flinging shit at the wall" before really allowing any of these points to govern my approach, but that may change. We'll see. It's a fun process!

40oz said:

Oh cool! Looks like fun.

I guess this is as good a topic as any to ask what are the fundamental differences between a duel map and a standard FFA map? Is there much seperating the two? I asked myself this question the other day after I'd hand drawn a few deathmatch layouts on paper during a boring college class and ported them to Doom in doombuilder. In practice they came out being smaller than I pictured and retrofitted some ideas into them to make them more duel-oriented.

That'll happen

TheMionicDonut said:

That'll happen

Oh hi Mambo.

Crossposting from Zandronum forums, and not the other way around! ::gasp::

So, we've received a pretty healthy dose of feedback on the maps so far, and will be looking to make some hefty changes in the coming days/weeks. Aside from rebalancing several of the maps themselves, we'll probably look into rearranging their placement in the set (and in the hub) to indicate which ones are meant for more traditional play and which are straight-up gimmick maps - ones like MAP16 and MAP23.

Thanks to those who have given the maps a go. Hopefully you've found a few maps that you enjoy playing, and that it otherwise hasn't been too torturous, heh.

Alfonzo said:

Map18: Sandpaper Blowjob (ClonedPickle)

That sounds... uncomfortable.

Those triangular platforms in the second to last shot sure look interesting, I don't think I've ever seen many user maps make use of triangular shapes.

Avoozl said:

Those triangular platforms in the second to last shot sure look interesting, I don't think I've ever seen many user maps make use of triangular shapes.

Joe-Ilya? :)

I like those neon platforms myself, those look so damn cool.

Yes, hello! The folks over at CGI have been hard at work (lol) in bringing you what could be the last official beta for Countergoat Initiative 1. After a wealth of feedback and other distractions, we have made all the necessary changes to ensure that your duelling experience is reasonable++

Here are a list of changes in the beta004 version (download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9sf719x16heczb0/CGI1-beta004.wad?dl=0):

Feel free to join this public testing server to experience the quality:

:: [BE] Montreal :: CGI Duelpack beta4

In a stunning display of ineptitude, it turns out that I was crammed full of shit when making the previous post! Half the changes listed were not in the beta and there were multiple midi and texture screwups. It's okay, though, we've implemented the necessary changes and made everything suck to a slightly less degree. Download beta006 today!

beta006: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wr79xui59bbj7m0/CGI1-beta006.wad?dl=0

Please note that the random portal and spectate-to-hub features are not properly implemented yet. The public server will go up once again when they are.

good

Ooh, I've never seen that warning about bumping an old thread before.

Um, anyway, I guess this never got finished? And it's 100% my fault? Oh well, let's try to rectify that.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84200934/CGI1-rc1.wad

To my knowledge, all maps are finished, the hub is functional (thanks Term for doing that months ago (also thanks Alex for letting me steal your code in the first place)), and there's exactly the right amount of stupid bullshit for a multiplayer wad. Of course, this is a multiplayer wad, so basically no one on this forum cares. Instead, I'm gonna use this post mostly as an alert to the map authors to go through the wad and make sure everything's kosher before it gets thrown up on /idgames.

great, thanks, bye

Happy face

It looks like a really nice wad, but when I try to start it with PrBoom-plus, I get this error and the program quits:

R_InitTextures: 1 errors

Is there a way to fix this bug?

Probably not, since it's a multiplayer WAD made for Zandronum (and maybe Odamex), Boom compatibility aside.

The maps are Boom format. "Boom compatible" is a mistake.

Currently not Odamex compatible, either.

I forgot to post RC2 and by the time I remembered I already knew there was stuff to change/fix so whatever. Here's RC3 instead!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84200934/CGI1-rc3.wad

This version has Odamex compatibility! Oda compat has been a goal from the start but all along I figured it would have to be a separate wad. Then I stopped being an idiot (arguable) and now the same wad works in Zandro and Odamex! And maybe even ZDaemon but I don't know I'd have to download ZDaemon to check and eh.

Possible issues: Odamex might not cycle through levels properly without a server-set maplist, I dunno. I'll be able to test that in a couple hours. And, uhhhhh, I think that's the only possible issue I know of, so if that's not a problem and nothing else crops up, this should be the final version and I can finally move on with my life! Yaaaaay!

All the maps appear to work in ZDaemon but a few maps have sky issues. map13-15, 17, 18, 20, the sky is gray ASHWALL. I believe this is because ZDaemon doesn't support sky graphics taller than 256 pixels. The horizontal width is not restricted if I recall correctly, err but obviously some skies will not tile correctly horizontally or vertically if no skybox is being used.

There are also a couple maps which revert to the regular Doom 2 skies for the appropriate episode, but I didn't mark those down because nothing appeared immediately wrong, but the mapinfo would indicate otherwise. Not exactly a big deal on either counts... but quite a few map packs released 5+ years ago have had the "gray ASHWALL effect", and either the authors forget to fix it or they plan to wait on some developer to implement "tall skies". It probably isn't going to happen anytime soon, it just isn't a feature on anyone's priority list because a wide variety of sky effects can be accomplished with skybox line actions from ZDoom. ZDaemon is not exactly an "everything + the kitchen sink" kind of port like Zandronum/Skulltag.

Other than those small issues.. these are some professional-looking maps, I can tell a lot of effort went into each one. ;) I bet a lot of people at ZDaemon can appreciate these maps, there are a lot of fans of classic deathmatch and duel over there. These maps are definitely not new-school, in that they follow a lot of "accepted duel map conventions", but none of them feel archaic in any way at all, and there are no jagged walls or obnoxious floor bumps to hinder player movement. Excellent work, guys

That's really good to hear! I think the final step to wrapping this thing up will be fixing the skies and other issues for ZDaemon, because good lord this shit isn't gonna work in Odamex. It'll load and play, sure, but it's buggy in some really bizarre ways that I can't reproduce in any other source port.

Thus: Rest in peace, Odamex support for Countergoat Initiative Duelset #1 (2015-2015). We hardly knew ye.

A stripped down version can be made later, no rush.

Okay. I think this is the one. Honestly I do. Release candidate four might be the one to be actually released.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84200934/CGI1-rc4.wad

This should work 100% in Zandronum. I can't really claim that for ZDaemon, what with the hub map and Jimmylight Projectile Hell and the Corn Syruppuku easter egg, but all the ASHWALL skies should be gone, all the music should work, everything important for playing and enjoying the maps should be there. Just don't go to BUNKER or MAP98 in ZDaemon, it will crash. MAP90 is playable but half of the stands are filled with <!>s instead of cute widdle slimes. Oh well.

I'm gonna go make that text file and prepare for /idgames. Claim error with the wad now or forever hold your silence (or just yell at me for being an idiot forever).

e: fixed some broken animations, thanks for pointing those out, essel!

Aaaand that's it! I'm calling it a wrap. It's done. It's donion rings.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84200934/CGI1.zip

It's uploaded to /idgames and I'll check on that in a bit.

:toot:

Fuck yes lads, nice one. These maps look very attractive judging by the screen shots. I'll have to test the game play at some point but judging by the roster of mappers it's sure to have it covered in the game play department.

It's on /idgames!

And with that I'll let the damn thread die already. I'm sure Alfonzo is eager to make a thread about CGI2 :v