DM-Supernova

[Pikko]

Mapping is hard...I have posted enough shovelware crap on this forum.
I give up.
Congratulations, sektor2111. You win.

-Diablo

Hi man!
Dont give up. My suggestion is to get a few ppl as Map Testers. Dont release anything before you and the crew say its ready.
I had a few myself, and they helped me alot.

[browndl]

Mapping is hard...I have posted enough shovelware crap on this forum.
I give up.
Congratulations, sektor2111. You win.

-Diablo

If level design is something you really enjoy I would not let the negativity of others stop you. I would read as many good tutorials as I could. I would play maps that I really enjoy and then study them in the editor to figure out what makes them work. And as another suggested, get people to test the map before release. I do not consider myself a great level designer, but I enjoy it, and I have stuck with it. And today I use UE4 and 5 in my actual job. But in the beginning all I ever heard was the rude and negative thoughts from arrogant people.

[OjitroC]

I can only endorse what previous posters have said - don't be discouraged - just keep on mapping - keep on experimenting with different layouts.

I would add that, in addition to getting people to test your maps, get hold of the available tools : Buggie's MapChecker and sektor's MapGarbage and PathsChecker. These are invaluable in pointing to potential issues in a map. Use them once you get to the stage of item placement and bot pathing. Use them before you release your maps to testers and then use them again when you alter or adjust a map to take account of comments from testers.

You can use Buggie's PathsMaker to path a map and then run the tools and adjust the paths accordingly depending on the issues that may be thrown up.

I can't emphasise enough how important and useful these tools are and how much time and effort they save.

[TankBeef]

Congratulations, sektor2111. You win.

Oh come on, Diablo. I have yet to see a single map not slammed by Sektor. Even the "best" maps. But he means no harm.

[sektor2111]

What I said here was not as purpose: "I'll win".
The important thing which I'm trying to point is to read certain information about mapping and understand basics.
Let's switch gear a bit toward design.
If you look into your player browser for ON-Line servers you can figure out what sort of things are running and how do they are - as aspect.
Also you will see a lot of servers running CTF-Face and DM-Deck16][. Ask yourself a question why those (not perfect maps) are intensively subject for "Single-Map-Servers". You can do something simple but attempting to get closer to such a stage.

This idea: I did nasty things and now I'll quit it's not an answer.

When I did my first "map" I did not have all endowment for doing checks (they did not even existed) so I had to study map and playing it myself X times for hunting what can be issues. By practicing gaming several times, I just could do something functional and I'm not ashamed about my first mapping stage (it was called DM-BombingYard][), yes it was touched/adjusted because I found initial "pre-alpha" version a "laboratory junk" and did not passed well ON-Line testing. I don't even have it anymore but version with brackets is part of my repositories. All these years in my environment it did not do issues and so I'm not interested to check it with current assets. Did I quit because initial version was flawed ? No, what for ? If you are curious, I think you can find it in forum, either way I can show you whatever screenshots.

[Diablo]

Thanks for all the support guys. I just started working on a new map, and its gonna be a loooong time until its ready. Where do I find beta testers.

[Red_Fist]

Thing is, it's not just something you just do and crank out some map.
It's more like something that you want to see in the end after thinking about it for a month or two (or years). It's hard to think of a map you envision, then make it like the way you envisioned it.

But like anything else like playing guitar, or some skill, it is hard to achieve what you envisioned, you learned a lot already, but just make that thing you thought of a long time ago, or one day, or from another map , mess with the stock maps and save them in a different name.

If you are not sure what to do, brush work, placing actors, zones, just ask , then move on to the next part.

Relax,and it's addicting.

[Pikko]

Thanks for all the support guys. I just started working on a new map, and its gonna be a loooong time until its ready. Where do I find beta testers.

Just ask here if someone has some time to spare to help you.

[browndl]

Thanks for all the support guys. I just started working on a new map, and its gonna be a loooong time until its ready. Where do I find beta testers.

Like others said, ask here. Sometimes I make a private group on discord, or feel free to pm me and I will beta for you also. There are always going to be those who are willing.

Something you might consider: (Not trying to say I know something you don't, just offering advice.)

• Relax

• Try and develop a theme. Get references. I use a free piece of software called 'PureRef', it is an infinite canvas to put all my reference info on. The more references you have the more likely you will be consistent in your design.

• If you think you need help, ask. That is one of the reasons this forum is here.

• Don't rush it. This is personally my worst bad habit. I just can't wait to get something out there. Take your time: do good brushwork, really think about item placement, remember lighting makes or breaks it, are your textures aligned, lay down bot paths- do they work?

• Most importantly, have fun. You got this

[sektor2111]

Well said so far, and don't forget to get some Info from good resources - that is interesting...
When a tutorial is explaining something, you need to look who wrote it and try to find some work executed by that boy. If you find something, do a few checks, even in a closed local server. See how things are working. If they don't really work as expected perhaps you can forget that "tutorial" - there are enough fake information at random. First target would be those docs from EPIC saved at Skillz (ut-files.com). There is a rar archive with old EPIC pages any a couple of explanations.

MapRaider or other similar Web-Sites are having whatever rating concerning maps hosted. Look at those with best rating, see what was done and how.

No, first time you won't play map for testing. It would be advisable to do some checks using Builders (different said Editor Plugins) which now days are available - scripts are faster than your eyes. After figuring good results then you can go for a few play-tests. If map looks flawed do not imagine that elsewhere won't go flawed too without certain hacks, and just ask what is about and how to fix it.

The rest of technical details perhaps are more or less harder to understand.
As far as I know, as pointed by member TankBeef, "What happened with Pickups". When that Flak is replaced Engine has only two directions here: If is a marked item or not. UnMarked item is taken as a held item - probably won't respawn getting vanished. Whenever you touch Paths or Items (adds, removals, replacements, etc) reconstructing Paths is a must not optional. This reconstruction can have different results using the same Editor with the same placement of nodes and items, here whoever wants to find details we can discuss them elsewhere, perhaps in a tutorial like section.

[jmartin]

It's a nice start.

Reminds me of the movie "Solaris".

[EvilGrins]

Sektor means well.