I've already played Acktung 2; should I bother with the first?

Basically the title. I've already played Acktung 2 TLW; does that make the first Acktung less worthwhile?

If you like ack's mapping, why not?

@ronwolf If either:

1) The levels in the second are simply revamps of those in the first; or
2) The levels in the first are of significantly inferior quality

Is either condition true?

I think you should just play it and make up your own mind. Would be a bummer if I said it sucked (hypothetically speaking) while it's exactly your thing. So just play it, then create your own opinion.

Please at least let me know whether or not the Acktung 2 levels are revamps from the first.

I can try and form my opinion but I don't want to be playing essentially older versions of what I've already played.

Thanks.

They're not.

I have not actually played a mapset where the second is a revamp of the first. Every single ack release I know of are seperate, different maps. Now I think of it, what is the earliest ack mapset release ever?

Honestly I don't think there's a clear, well-known answer to that. Might be the Acktung 30-level, but it was instantly recognized as a particularly good mapset (with the same holding true when the 60-level came out). He actually did the same 30- and 60-level thing for Acktung 2. Of course the 30 levels versions are obsolete now; I don't know if he wanted to follow how ID released things (original then nocturnal) or just wanted to give the public half the game as the other half was being worked on.

In between though, he released Archives for Spear of Destiny, two full 21-level sets. He says they contain both older works as well as newer. So there's no way to know what he *really* did first.

Also shortly after 60-level Acktung (1) he released 'The Anticipation' for Spear Resurrection. This was well before Archives; those were about at the midpoint between the first and second Acktung sets. I'm pretty sure that aside from the novelty set 6:25 (it's a quick 15 minutes of fun if you can get your hands on it but all said it's just six very short levels) these cover all the releases he was independently the only author of.

(Author chronology of work follows - skip to the bottom if you want summary):

He did contribute mapping to a ton of community projects though. Perhaps a key support signal for Acktung being his first is that he did not have anything in the original BMSE (released Christmas 2002) and both 30- and 60-level Acktung were released in 2003. Early in 2004, he participated on the Melee contest with a couple levels (find them on Episode 2). Shortly after that his own Spear Resurrection mod The Anticipation came out. Following that he did a lot of work for Majik Monkee/MonkeeWorks sets in 2003 and 2004 (in addition to his own 2004 release The Anticipation). He mapped around half of Operation: Letzterschutz, my favorite Majik Monkee game. Also in (early) 2004 he worked collaboratively with another author on a Spear of Destiny mapset, but for alias reasons I will not publicly state what mapset it was (it has nothing to do with Archives though).

I don't think much came from him in 2005, though he is an author is Gex's Spear Levels set from that year. But he mapped a lot of Orb of Dilaaria from 2006 (man does that need SDL upgrade treatment). Then later that year were the Archives. In 2007 he participated in the 'Map of the Month' contests on DHW. I don't know of anything else he did that year. I think he pretty much went in a hideout in 2008 but he released 30-level Acktung 2 at the beginning of 2009. Then the start of 2010 brought 60-level Acktung 2, his last release to date done by him alone.

That's by no means it though. The Super Haven Mapset right on here from 2010 has 9 levels from him in it. He made an episode for the DHW SDL mapset which was mapped almost entirely in 2010 and released the first week of 2011. Again, a community set contribution. You will find him on Episode 6. He also did some maps for the DHW TC which presumably he did after it was resurrected (not way back when). He could not make it for the Spear of Destiny edition though, which brings us into 2012. Actually first in 2011 he did make a map or two for the 10-year anniversary Spear Resurrection set; it counts even if that set is inferior to the original SR. His latest known contribution to a release is the Level 7 contribution he made for the BMSE 10 year set, merely four weeks old. And since this whole "mapping anthology" of his started with me mentioning BMSE (and how nothing from him was in there), what more appropriate way is there that I end it with a mention of BMSE?

I think that captures everything, in chronological order, but keep in mind I can only tell a set by when it was released so especially with his own sets (not contributions to other mods) the chronology of the releases may or may not match the chronology of when the games were mapped. But a quick summary is in order for anyone confused:

Pre-2003: AFAIK he wasn't known in the community
2003: Released Acktung 30-level midyear and Acktung 60-level around Christmas. Contributed to 'Hallf of Stonehenge' (a Majik Monkee game).
2004: Contributed to the Melee contest (Episode 2). Released his Spear Resurrection set 'The Anticipation'. Coordinated on a Spear of Destiny mapset; I will not give its name here for alias reasons. Remainder of year was contributions to Majik Monkee games (2004 was the year of high tides for those).
2005: Minor contributions to Gex's Spear Levels Set.
2006: Orb of Dilaaria was released, which he largely mapped. Later in the year he released the Archives sets for Spear of Destiny.
2007: Participated on 'Map of the Month' competition(s).
2008: Presumably working on Acktung 2, nothing from him surfaced as far as I recall.
2009: Acktung 2 30-level was released early in the year, presumably rest of year was the other episodes.
2010: Released 60-level Acktung 2 early in year, made 9 levels for the Super Haven Mapset, and Episode 6 for the DHW SDL Wolf3D mapset (released the first week of 2011).
2011: Contributed a few maps to DHW TC and Spear Resurrection 10-year Edition.
2012: Made Level 7 for BMSE 10-year.
2013 and beyond: I hope more from him is to come!

(Somewhere in there: Mapped the experimental 6:25 in a couple hours.)

Yeah, I remember his contribution to Super Haven Mapset. That was when I got the idea of trying to draw inspiration from his mapping style. (Although on Super Haven Mapset, the attempts were pretty terrible, but excusable because it was a first attempt). Ack said he isn't going to do any more 60 level sets because it takes too long.

Yeah I know more 60 levels sets but smaller releases/contributions are always welcome.

WolfForever wrote:Please at least let me know whether or not the Acktung 2 levels are revamps from the first.

I can try and form my opinion but I don't want to be playing essentially older versions of what I've already played.

Thanks.

I don't think so, if so that would be very unethical and unlike ack. Some of his levels may look a bit similar at first sight but then you find out the trickery, the difficulty and the vastly different experiences that the levels conjure up. Though my own personal mapping has little to do with where ack comes from, I enjoy playing his levels immensely, though coming from Schabbs 2000 and Totengraeber his style took a while for me to adjust to. Letzterschutz did the trick for me.

Not every level is precisely like that. But you do have a drastically different style compared to ack, I'll give that for sure.