Hi,

Do you mappers design your layout from scratch or do you just start Hammer and see what comes out?

How do you prepair for a map?

Please share your thoughts,

greyhound

first design on paper then start building and make changes as i go

Thanks IR!

Now there's something I almost do not dare to ask, but: nee heb ik en ja kan ik krijgen ;).
Do you have a scanned example of a scratch u used (no top secret things!)
If so, can you pass me a link. PM is also an option if you don't want anyone to see it :D

Anyway, thanks for the reply :)

greyhound

First i sketch it, then i build it, then i re sketch it and then rebuild it, and then after the second rebuild i continue to build and make small changes to the layout and add a few things for fun

i sketch it and then recycle it

My maps are usually product of a 'brainstorming'. I have this image in my head and I start to build it. No paper, we're at the computer world anyway :)

I've never planned a map out on paper due to the fact I know it won't stay like that.

I only made a sketch for one map that i started for RO but i ended up changing like 70% of the layout so i just make my maps as i go from now on

I have never drawn out a map on paper prior to starting on it, I tend to come up with a theme for my map, and start from the center and build outward. I just started my first dod map a couple of days ago, I will post some screens of it later.

Originally posted by skdr
My maps are usually product of a 'brainstorming'. I have this image in my head and I start to build it. No paper, we're at the computer world anyway :)
Make that 2. :rolleyes:
I do the same, but usually the ideas packs up into a mess.

Originally posted by Neutrino
i sketch it and then recycle it
I'm working on my first map so i do that a lot :D.

I also make test map to figure the volume and spacing of buildings.

every game company out there expect you to make a
2d flow sketch plus hotspot markings then work it out in 2d
though changes as you go are always going to happen. being able to work with a solid plan is a must.

i have never started a map without a sketch. i start with a core idea and build from there, planning out routes and "features" of my vision before i start building. i find it makes mapping a lot easier.

I just started my first map, and I didn't plan it at all. I just sat down and started out with a level dirt brush and worked from there. :)

Glider started as a exercise in using WorldCraft to create a static glider prop people could use in their maps. I then built a castle after seeing a picture of one in the paper. I went back tot he glider and created a place for it...added a few homes...then joined my castle brushwork to the glider area and the map was born. No pictures, no sketches...just dis-jointed idea's and test maps stuck together...kinda like Frankenstien...dead parts of other maps brought together to form a herky-jerky living beast. Some of us call these maps spagetti maps because the routes are like someone dropped spagetti on the ground. Other examples of this are Oslo and Seg3. Glider has been putzed with now for three and a half years because I really never had a plan for it

Flugplatz and Factory on the other hand were entirely different animals. Both maps started out as drawings...Flugplatz started out as Para_Raiders until I saw it's potential as a regular map...I took raiders...duplicated and extended the one side over to the other side of the map and put a runway and hanger inbetween...all after drawing it out beforehand and it's almost identical to the drawing I started out with. Factory is also very close to my original drawings although I stuck the bridge in there that I had started for a dod_pegasus map I had started and rejected. As such both maps came together fairly quickly.

Falaise was already a released map called Bocage when Fat Tony gave it to me and it's obvious he had some sort of plan at first because it's very even in terms of routes and pathways. All I had to do was rework the textures and rework a lot of the brushwork to fill in buildings, fix problem area's, add details and other things (I've replaced a good 80% of the brushwork). He had done such a nice job with the overall layout I didn't feel compelled to change much there.

All-in-all the drawing route is more efficient and will probably get you to a finished map more quickly but the other way is probably more fun because you work on small test maps and then get the challenge of figuring out how to join them all together...it might not make for the best of maps...and you might not get any satisfaction from players...but it's a blast to make those kind of maps and the personal satisfaction rates are higher IMO.

Originally posted by FuzzDad

All-in-all the drawing route is more efficient and will probably get you to a finished map more quickly but the other way is probably more fun because you work on small test maps and then get the challenge of figuring out how to join them all together...it might not make for the best of maps...and you might not get any satisfaction from players...but it's a blast to make those kind of maps and the personal satisfaction rates are higher IMO.

Fair point. I must admit that with Switch, my final sketch before started mapping it was very close to the final map produced. That one I sketched the topdown view to scale on a quadrule pad several times until I knew I had nailed it. That includes plans for anticipated hintbrush needs (though you can't really anticipate that all the time). Personally, I found great satisfaction in getting my vision very close to the final map.

Vicenza (which I made before Switch) started off as a sketch during a boring project meeting in grad school. The subsequent sketches weren't as good as the ones for Switch, hence I had more trouble making the map.

Volonne....well I did some intial sketching, but I basically just made it up as I went once i got past the initial area around the Allies spawn.

And as for my next map... :cool:

another map.. yipee!:cool:

The original draft of belfort only included the main/central area and was called creek at the time. I then had a draft with a forest and a large German mansion which was all in a northern direction. When I started building I began to go the other direction, the church was built in a single shot, there were about 4 complete revisions of the Axis village which included a mountain-top with a radar station, a larger river with boats and such, a network of natural tunnels with mountain pathway kind of things and lastly a market with cobblestone streets. None of them really fit quite right and I scrapped them. The Allied side and the middle are the only parts that resemble their drafted out counterparts.

The majority of my maps are drawn, and then drastically changed on the fly. (Guess I get that mentality from playing so much hockey ;))

Wow,

That's alot of information I'd like to see! But yet I have a very rude question for you mappers:

Do you have any examples you want to show of sqetch you made for a map?

Or are these kind of tings considered TOP SECRET?

I'll see :)

thanks anyway,

greyhound

I tell a lie, i did do a drawing for Bierville's last version. If anyone played the very first beta, and the Christmas 03 update, you'll know they look nothing like each other. I drew it out to get it balanced, and I think it is (time wise to each pub) perfectly balanced.

Shame it looks like a badgers arse.