<pf> 

with every SP map that i've completed more than 1 room of, i develop this grand vision of an entire episode built around the map. Chaos was supposed to be part of this big episode with a desert excavation. Rubicon's episode involved a submarine, an imperial city, and an emperor to assasinate. The map that kona finally released as Amari Aliquid was supposed to be a 3-level unit. (at the time i abandoned it, the brushwork for 1.5 levels was done.) Rubicon2 is of course, still planned as an episode. I also have a few other unfinished levels with 1 or 2 rooms that have 4 to 7 level episodes envisioned around them. It's pathological. Maybe i should stick to DM. 

i think with SP maps, you have to be realistic about your limitations. Just build the map, make it as good as you can, and then release the damn thing.
Quality is more important than quantity. 

i think you should all become enterpreneurs: get your cousin to do all the work. just make him the drawings, artwork and storyline. the more "slave" cousins you have the better...

no, i'm serious...

well, ok, it will never happen but y'know there's just not enough hours in the day for all we wanna do. so "contracting work" is the way forward.

shhh, don't mention any trade unions... 

After struggling mightily to produce The Frater Fracas, back in 1998, I gave up on the concept of OUM for quite a while. Good thing I ran that poll, eh?

As for Ontranto... well, I have three and a half maps in various stages of completion in editor. That's quite an improvement, but now, at least I know what's involved this time, and actually have a halfpie clear plan for the whole thing. Back in 1998 all I had was wild fancy.

Ah well. Eleven months to go... 

do you really think my cousins can do as good a job as i can? And if i did the work as poorly as random non-mappers, then the quantity would be no problem. 

just wanted a reply like that!

i know i know. i dont trust people to do my work either...be it with uni assignments or the machining in the workshops!!

the suggestion is to get someone close to you (the you is general) to help out. it's not easy but there are examples of projects and stuff done by friends who perhaps lived close together or where at same school. i wish i knew somebody close who was interested in mapping. they are al interested in the PS2 and GTA2...

i know the net is a good place to meet partners (in work, NOT in your sex life. at least not for me!) but chasing them up can be difficult. it's like me trying to get a job placement in germany and doing all from here in UK. 

everything I've ever done. Even the one SP map I released was supposed to be the first of a three map episode. Then there's the 3-4 map episode that I have half given up on. The DM map sitting in beta on my hard drive. The D-Day map that was finished by someone else. So yeah, pretty much everything I've ever done. 

By request of Metlslime to bump a good thread. 

So have you finished any of those maps yet Metl? Was Ant one of those?

Its tough to really do what underworld fan mentioned (6 years) earlier. Speedmaps are good for that, as I don't feel like I have to release a 'perfect' speedmap. A real, polished release is a different matter though - especially in this day and age when it will be compared with like, februus or ant... 

Ant was one of those "maps with an imaginary episode around it" -- in this case a 4-map metal episode -- one brown metal, one blue metal, one grey metal (ant), and one rust-colored metal with lava.

rubicon2 still in progress, of course... 

Oh wow how many discarded maps do I have ? Less than the number of discarded ideas I have for sure. Just too many ideas (one I had last night while playing Dragon Age and I really really want to work on but probably won't) and too little time to realize them all and play Dragon Age.

Oh how I disappoint myself. :( 

Uncompilable Lazarus Q2 project about a betrayed alien drug lord getting revenge on his brother and former crime family. Had two full maps and around five half-complete ones.

They were warp sized. All lost now. 

Psychotic Tuesday
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Last Nail in the Coffin
Meltdown
Autumn

And a couple I forget. 

Sounds interesting. 

... stopped a project, just refining the "end-product"... Five Rivers Land is the good example: it was supposed to be a giant map reproducing Doom3's Hell level.. and it turned out into 3 episodes...
... maybe I'm not enough old in mapping as I never experimented such behavior ;) 

a liar. 

Unfortunately, I am not a liar... believe me... 

i probably have a couple dozen discarded things. from things that are just not possible to build in quake to styles that don't have enough in them to make a whole map out of.

and then, every once in a while, i work on them. that's essentially what those two maps during qexpo were.

there's one huge map that i stopped working on because it wasn't loadable in FQ. this was before metl increased all the limits and such, so it probably loads fine now. i might go back to it and finish it.

right now, i'm trying to stop my current project from becoming a discared one. :P 

ya i've had a few. one i really wanted to do was a giger/alien'esque level. not like a stupid scifi ship or something, but completely twisted metal structures, all curvey and awesome like. gave up cos i couldn't find the right textures for it (was trying to use elite forces textures and some other stuff), and too many curves everywhere would have become a compiling nightmare. no ones really done any alien shit with quake.

oh, and then there's the episode i started where all the models were gonna be changed into hot bitches. i was kinda young then. got a few models done though, and then lost the map files.

got 4 levels into a giant dam-based Gunman episode too. as well as some sof and rtcw stuff lying around. i wanted brumal quest (the snow level i did) to be more of an episode.

can't remember any other big ideas i had - probably heaps though. 

I can't stand discarding a map. All I learned while mapping is that I never saw mislignments, off grids, cramped ergonomics.
So after all this time I only learned to hold back all enthousiasme and silently hope my combination of parts all work out right.

This dimmed my attitude a whole lot into the direction backwards. Now I can compile with more accurate base, but it also took out a rig in free expression I had first.

Leaves map that worked out well, only at cost of the everly nightmare I never can leave it without the terrible hom in the backyard which is all I can remember.

Specially now, when I'm on a map I started a year ago from scratch. After screwing two years with a crippled version. I don't know what's sane after all this time. I know I like the map, but the sacrifice to create it reaches a kind of slavery. To get the thing done. 

I've half-built the third map of my ideal Quake episode half a dozen times by now probably. The problem is, every time I have a good long bash at it I learn something new about Quake mapping which I then want to go back and add! 

I'm actually pretty good at finishing stuff - it just goes through multiple abandonments and takes many years. SoE - started 1997, abandoned, returned to and released in 2002. My upcoming stuff is almost all old stuff that was long abandoned and has been resurrected. I hate the idea of leaving large amounts of finished brushwork sitting to rot.

If I start an idea I almost always finish it. I've even considered remaking more of my An Old, Old Evil maps (soe2m4/5, and masque, were from that, my first project, started in 1997). 

i'd love to see an 'inverted' Masque map from you, to be honest :) 

well, after I get my current batch of maps out I'm considering starting a new map from scratch for the first time in years. I've got a few ideas, one of which is an "inverted" Masque map combined with a remake of some id stuff. Maybe I'll try two from-scratch maps - it takes me forever to finish maps since I always have so many on the go at once (that is, I'm always doing episodes, not single maps). I like this idea but I also want a chance to use the custom textures.