Seeming as I've mapping in 5 turtlemap events for q1 and q3, and only finished 2, let me give you some tips on acually finishing on time.

1. spend your first day planning out the map and building the major gameplay. You should come up with a plan that is completely doable in your week. Be realistic here, thinking you'll create czg07 or something of that scale will only lead to failure. Best thing to do is to manage your time wisely, thinking 'today I'll make the full layout, tomorrow the gameplay, the next day the details...' etc etc. If you can build a good base to your map the first day or so, you'll be golden as the rest of the week is tweak time and making it look and play great.

2. 'Perfection' won't help you make a great map here, just draw away your time to less important things. People are going to see the whole of your map, not each and every little bit. If just 1 area looks cool and the rest sucks, then the map as a whole sucks. If each area of the map is decent, at least you're ahead of the game and your gameplay will be the determining factor.

3. Have fun with the map! Don't think of it as your next big release or something that will define you as a mapper, but just try and make something nice looking, or that's a lot of fun, or has nice features, or whatever. Trying new things is something that will make your map stand out, plus make it more fun for you to make. Don't start worrying if people will like it, it's just a quick map, have fun with it yourself.

4. Beta testing is a luxery, so, going back to tip 1 here, planning is important if you want the map to play good. You'll most likely not have time to get others to play it and tell you if something is off. SP mappers should concentrate on making their maps be slightly challenging, but defeatable, in normal skill... You may not have time to balence in other skill settings.

That's about all for now, Saturday is only hours away for most of us, so here we go!!! :D 

In the meantime, I'm playing Carnage, Arcane, and Netherworld maps for their inspirational value. I'm planning on doing a runic map if you haven't guessed ;) 

Thx a lot for the tips scampie! 

yyya colored lights! 

You've got mail 

Sent me a pic of his first day of work!

http://speedq1.spawnpoint.org/tm3/shots/q1tm3_lev_1.jpg

As for my own map... got a little bit together, no screenshots yet, pacing myself here :D Not going to be anything huge, I have to work all week, but it'll be fun I promise. 

... 

crappy weekend for me.. barely got a thing done on my turtlemap, and didn't even scratch the speedmap site... :( sorry guys, i'll do it first thing tomorrow when I get home from work. Spent the weekend drinking (turned 21 Friday) and playing Disgaea... meh... I'll have to pick up the pace this week.

How's everyone else doing? 

I'm doing good, will be done with architecture by tonight hopefully. Had to stop for a few hours though to watch Packers, beat Silent Hill3, play Autumn Haunting, but otherwise I'm mapping smoothly. Anyone besides Lev got any pics yet? 

great game yesterday, and unlike the Carolina vs. Dallas matchup, it wasn't a lopsided victory. I esp. liked how Bob Marley caught the winning interception. ;)

Seriously though, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I'll put some serious time in my map tonight so I can get a few screenshots up. 

: : : 

Sent me some pics too!

http://speedq1.spawnpoint.org/tm3/shots/q1tm3_headthump_1.jpg
http://speedq1.spawnpoint.org/tm3/shots/q1tm3_headthump_2.jpg

Glad to see people are making some progress!

I've spent the evening on the Speedmap site, and I'm gonna finish html'ing it up right after this post. You should see it live mid-tomorrow along with the expanded maps RPG and Pulsar did! 

Interesting style.

And the only HUD modification I've ever seen that doesn't look totally fucking ghastly. Maybe one little coder out there does have the slightest modicum of taste?? 

I agree with you on the HUD design. Most likely that is the work of Black from the DP team. At this time I'm using using Q3map2 for its quick debugging.
And thanks for hosting the pics Scampie. It'll be a day or two before I can seal up some rooms for some more footage. 

Well this is four days worth of brushlaying!

Don't know if it will be ready for release saturday, I'll try!

http://www.hrimfaxi.dk/turt.htm 

...meybe tomorrow. Yesterday was a washout due to me getting sucked into watching Steve Waugh's last innings for Oz.

Good tips scampie... I've already reduced the complexity. 

i'd set the scale of that lava to something big, say 4x4 or 5x5. it won't look tiled and from the distance it looks fine. you can even do 2x2 or 3x3 and most people won't even notice. like the map :)

same for everyone else, of course :P i'm trying to make a map, but i've only got a hundred or so brushes... so i'm not sure if i'll be finished in time. gl to everyone else though! 

necros, I assume the title of that post should actually read Hrimfaxi, 

I've finished the original plan i had for my map, so now i think i've got time to actually constuct a decent ending. 

How shall we name our files if/when we finish the maps?
Like last year (but with a 3 instead of the 2) Something like this: "q1tm3_mappers_name" 

 

That's looking pretty cool! 

sorry distrans/hrimfaxi

i must have seen the post below it and connected the name to it. i suck 

I just want to say (belatedly) that your idbase shot looks cool. 

guess I'll be out of the event this time around again... haven't had much time this week, and I'm still at only 1 room done. I may get up Saturday morning and work all day on it, but I seriously doubt I'll be contributing myself. :(

Hope you others are still marching forward though! There's been some fantastic shots this week!