I exceeded the max texture limit awhile back and I fixed it by increasing the limit. what I'm wondering is if this is common. am I making my map too complicated or do you all increase your texture limit. if so, how much? currently I am sitting at about 4.5mb and I have my texture limit set to 6mb.

try to use as least as possible.
but the quality of your map is more important
-> so sometimes you will exceed the limits...around 4mb is very good..6mb should still be ok.

To cut down the mb a bit you could reduce the size of textures that are only visible in the distance or that are applied not in their full size.

And also remember to count the model-textures in ;)..

yeah it r win if you can use as few textures as possible, also just re-use a lot of textures

you'll find problems are minimal if r_speeds are good with high texture memory.

Combine high r-speeds and high texture memory and you will begin to see problems. Almost everymap Ive made has used lots of textures and Ive never had any problems by maintaining good r_speeds. Thank god for source mapping. Whats adequete now, 25-30mb ?