Good day.

I'm just curious to know how you mappers out there get started on a new map. Do you create the terrain first? buildings? Spawns? What do you do?


I usually start by building houses & such. I usually build a few, get frustrated and give up.

What I'm looking for is advice on how to start creating a good level.

I look at maps like Charlie, Avalanche or Caen and think to myself "good god, this must have taken ages, where the hell did he start?"

Any help is appreciated.

start with an idea on paper. Plan it out and start to build your favorite spot of the map.

I started...and hardly ever finished, then quit...meh.

Anyways...if its your first map, don't worry. Just about everything you make in your first 3 months of mapping will be trashed and you will look back and have a good chuckle at what a "n00b" you were. Not to say what you are doing is usless, actually, the you will be learning how to map, shortcuts in hammer, and once you have the basics down then you can start doing neat artistic stuff.

The way you are going about it now is just fine. Getting down the art of house building allows you to prefect small scale building and will get you more comfortable with the hours of texture alignment you will do in mapping. I always would build some houses, get frustrated and start something else. When i finally had a good idea rolling i'd go back to those old houses i made and incorperate them into my current project. In my maps i was working on a while back I had several reincarnations of the same building in each map.

The whole thing is a process you will come to be more comfortable with over time. Just understand that getting frustrated is a part of it and that you are learning and gaining expiernce everytime you sit down and pour all your creative energy into what you are enjoying. Good luck dude.

-Plato

Yeah, the number of maps I've started and given up on is beyond count or memory. Its all a part of the learning process... Each time you screw up, you learning something new about how not to screw up, and gradually you get better.

I have been messing around with mapping for like 2 years, and I still rarely follow through very far with a project.

Actually, when I look at most offical maps, to me they aren't really houses. It's pathways with 'stuff' in the way or pathways through the stuff. And (at least I think this) the textures don't look 'normal'. I mean like real world normal. They are approx. 10,000 times better then any thing I could ever do, but seriously... There are roof tops nearly at ground level and all sort of weird things.

But I digress, I think drawing paths on paper and then deciding how to fill up the space is better then just building cool looking stuff and mapping around it. At least drawing gets me further to being done then not.

Originally posted by Jello_Biafra
I have been messing around with mapping for like 2 years, and I still rarely follow through very far with a project.

Seriously, yeah. ^^dead on^^

start very very simple. plan it all out on paper, then map out the major roads / pathways, and just have simple blocks for the buildings at first. dont worry about textures and stuff. no detail at all. sky it up and run it. afterwards, you can start hollowing out buildings, adding details and rubble etc etc.

I never actually plan my maps on paper before starting to build them.

My map Northbound actually was a experiment for few things for a starter but I liked how it turned out and made a whole full map.

It gives cool 'freedom' to build a map without any blueprints etc. That's what I like about mapping. "Build your own dreams" -style

:)

skdr has got it right on there, I have the same weird thing, when I plan something on paper it never works out, if I just go and open hammer to do some experiences I get myself a map :D really weird though

Start simple. Work sections per sections. Compile as often as possible. For example make the first spawn and compile it, you'll get a first idea of lighting, sky, textures etc... Then add the first road, with generic buildings. Later you'll decide which buildings will be open, depending on the r_speeds... Most important, practice, and compile, over and over. Experience is the best teacher, you'll find your own way.

i try to imagine a good shock point... what places you will use to give cover to the player, etc. Then comes the main streets, which players will use to reach the main area. I think this pahts should be the safe routes.
After this step, make secondary fast but high risk paths, that attackers can use to change the ties of war. :D
Now you have a basic but good layout. Always remember the r_speeds problems, and all sort of engine limitations that can change this layout

learn what vis is and how to work with it, or else you'll get pwned really fast. just keep at it and you'll get better. i always draw out the layout on paper before i start.

starting is the hardest part of making maps, and proberly the most important, start on paper.

a tecnique (sp?) Fuzzdad told some of us was to block the map out using just the basic walls and stuff, and test the gameplay till its perfect, then add the other stuff, i think this way is good.

i never actually plan my maps on paper.. i have tried to.. but i can never really stick to the plan, and for me it seems to remove the fun of mapping - for me the fun is having a idea in your head of a area and then building it. most of the time once im done i relise that area didn't turn out as cool as i imagined, or it wouldn't be fun to play or i dont know what to build next so i scrap it.. the fun is when you feel like you know exactly what to do next and the whole map just creates itself.

but in short answer to your question, for a town map i build the roads first (of a small area) then add footpaths/buildings then add roofs and skybox to complete the brushwork of the area.. then i add stuff like balconys and open up windows and doors on buildings i think it would be cool to enter then after im happy with the map layout or area i go though and add trees/powerlines/detail and then i work on the lighting :)

for outdoor maps i start with the structures and then build the terrain around then, then once thats all done detail it =o)

Yea...I've found the fastest technique is to have an idea...plan out the roads...put in lego-block-type buildings and test your map for playability on the main paths...then open up the buildings you can or those that make sense...put in your side paths...add damage and details and "poof" a map happens...but...get those paths in first and playtest the map with others before you add in the detail...the prettiest map in the world will end up in the recycle bin if it doesn't play well

Another thing...either decide to have a relatively flat map (like Flug or Krafstoff or most of the DoD maps) where you use buildings and rubble to add the vertical component or decide to set your roads with uphills and downhills (like Switch or parts of Jagd & Ava)...trying to change a map with flat roads to hilly roads latter is too hard...so whatever you start out with is likely to be what you end up with.

Also, don't try to make things too complex...HL doesnt like ground or any objects that have too many angles. When I first started, I made a map where the ground was very dynamic and curvy, completely out of triangles, and overloaded my max clipnodes in a matter of hours :rolleyes:

And entities aren't really too neccessary to learn immediately, save that for later. I STILL don't know how to use multis, or make objects destroyable by bazooka(or even how to put down a bazooka on the ground). All I know as far as entities go are breakables, water, illusionaries, buttons, lights, ladders, mg deploy zones, and walls.

yea hes right, u should do most of the brush work 1st, then do the entities.