The Castle of Koohoo. One of the best short episodes ever made (skill select, main map, boss map).

I'd reccomend 'dark' texture set for the natural tex's though, always found them to fit better. Black stone with glowing moss and a decent mossy floor tex. 

One's in there as 0text_59. 

that textire set is from heretic-2, iirc sm32 - shut up RPG, also was using the same set 

http://wantonhubris.com/blog/2009/11/08/blueprint-experiment-day-3/ 

last time I downloaded the heretic2 wad, it was in the wrong palette - anyone else finding the same thing? as a former heretic 2 mapper there's a ton of great stuff in there beyond the Andoria set that Vondur used. 

http://www.quaddicted.com/wads/htic2.zip

And yeah, lots of great stuff in there. 

Well, for me, fastest way to make a make is to invent general style. Usually certain style has number of visual elements that repeat themselves through the level, that helps to make some kind of prefabs (meshes in nextgen) and use it all over the map. Also, basic mockup is the key.

1. you invent style
2. make mockup based on the style and gameplay
3. polish mockup till u're satisfied
4. make properly detailed map based on mockup

All in all u have to have one single image of your future level in your head. This image must contain main concept of the level as from gameplay as from visual pov. This will not let you to get drown in the swamp of ideas that will clogg your map and slow down the development. Get rid of everything that spoils the original style and keep this style.

my 0.02 roubles 

to make a make = to make a map

(i'm too old for these forums) 

Koohoo2 in your iceberg?

But yeah, that's a decent formula to map from that I seem to have been coming around to myself.

I'd post screenshots but since alot of what I'm working on now was started months ago there's no real point of reference.

Especially since one of them has changed style completely . . . 

i stopped making custom maps 3 years ago or so, making them at work now which completely satisfies my mapping needs. 

We need real mappers to make a real maps... you are the man of the situation: go map !! 

I purpose you also stopped playing custom maps since that time 

WoW, your job fully satisfies your mapping needs? WoW.

;) 

Hahaha, thank you Fribbles. 

That's interesting. Mapping at work and mapping at home are completely different things for me. One is more structured and disciplined while the other is more freeform and just goofy fun. 

http://wantonhubris.com/blog/2009/11/11/blueprint-experiment-�-day-4/ 

The reason I map at home is because mapping at work doesn't satisfy the mapping cravings.

The committee design thing means its very difficult to make anything I really like. Generally the best stuff I make is in bonus maps that nobody really cares enough about to fuck around with.

And I don't have the cash for a startup. 

I tend to do more documentation and fixing of others maps now. 

Let's say different mappers induce different methodologies... so the thing is to find what is the more suitable...

Personally it depends in which mod I am. As other said, I tend to use a mix in all the different method presented above according to what I want to do, and the progress I'd like to obtain.
Globally, I put my map layout rough idea on the paper (and it is not the general rule), then trying to have a theme (as vondur said), then I start to build the map, pieces by pieces, trying to polish the map in term of lightning and gameply progressively till the end... Sometimes the result is good, sometimes not... then I loop till I am satisfied with the part I am working on.
It is not that fast, but at least it works for me... 

F: Imagine, but yes. I like limitations of the game and design. Probably this goes from the Quake limitations, I loved to fight them, keeping r_speeds below 800-1000, etc. Atm, I'm making a game that uses vertex lighting and overall low poly modeling, hence I'm constantly falling into the tricky situations to make it look good and with appropriate FPS. So I'm quite full of such work after the workday ends and just wanna relax at home rather than invent something again ;)

Pulsar: No, I still play new Quake levels. But I tend to choose only hi-quality ones and miss averages and below. 

the screenshots on that site all link to .zip files. o_O 

As for me, i map in a such way: first i make a concept in my mind, then i select a textureset (sometimes in a opposite way). For me, many of design elements base on textures i use. I always keep the basic layout in my head, because it's easier for me to see 3d layout in my mind, than on 2d paper. Then I make layout with basic detailing and rather raw lighting and also i place triggers, buttons and monsters that are necessary to progress and those that are used with design elements (with funcs). Then i make proper lighting, detailing . Finally i place all monsters and tweak the gameplay plus some polishing.

Sometimes when the map is large it's necessary for me to make a break and then continue with more inspiration and new ideas. 

if i explain how i map my rapidness slows...
if my rapidness slows i wonder how i map...
then I forget explaining and i wrong...
so I don't explain and start all over again...
then my rapidness catches me and ask me where's my good map...
I won't explain because then I wrong again...
so i just map on staying out of the rapid
and the ness gets a better map. 

I have done a little thing to my map yesterday which is actually kind of big for me.

Almost since the very beginning of the map I am working on, there has been a small area that's been causing me grief. I've tried to rework it multiple times but always ended up with something which I considered to be of sub-par quality. Quite often, when I would pick up my map after a long break, I would come back to this area, try fixing it and again gave up on the map for a while after being unable to.

Previously, I would always stubbornly and consistently try to rework a piece of a map I am unsatisfied with until I get it right, irrelevantly of the amount of time it takes me to do this, out of some silly pride (I guess). However in this case, I came to the conclusion that the amount of time I've so far spent and was likely yet to spend on this part of the map was simply unwarranted, because it wasn't even a critical part of the map, but rather something that the map could very well exist without.

So I flat out deleted the entire thing (the troubled area, not the entire map). Not even 20 minutes later, I had come up with with a piece of brush/meshwork to be used in the exact same place where the removed map part used to be, which not only looked noticeably better than what I used to have there, but also offered some very good and unique gameplay options.

Lesson of the day: learn when to let go.


P.S: I am still mapping fucking slow, but at least lately I've been seeing some progress on my map instead of staring at the editor for 15 minutes before closing it. 

Definitely a valuable skill. Learning when to let go and start over on an area is something every LD needs to learn. It's important to recognize situations like when you've wasted too much time tweaking the lighting in an area that the player will be in for maybe 2 seconds and not even notice it. :)