I'm using light entities to do all my lighting. I have my light entities right up against their brush sources. If i moved them away, would that solve the problem? 

if you have light entities close to a brush feature ( e.g. a light fixture ) don't place the entity flush with the surface of the brush; move it away. Distance depends on the effect you want for your lighting, but I'd say 8 uits should do nicely.
Never place a point entity so that its origin point is flush with a brush ( ooh, poetry ) 

one entity (e.g. the info_player_start) that's clearly separated from the solid architecture, maybe by 32 units (I don't recall the exact value). You'll know you're clear when the warning disappears for all hulls.

Think of hulls 1 and 2 as "pumped up" (expanded) variants of hull 0 (the visible brushwork). Therefore you might need to move the entity yet a little bit even if it's visibly clear off the brushwork. 

it would work to add an info_null to your level which is the correct distance away from all brushes, if you don't want to move your real entities around. 

Many maps generated from the Speedmaps actually have pretty decent play and layouts. At the very least, they tend to be of a better quality than any one would expect given the time limit. What kind of methods do you use to speed up the process, or, how do you organize your productivity differently than when you are mapping without the time restraint? 

It seems that you were right about the placement of the player start entity. I just moved it as you said, and all was well.

Thanks for the help Aguire and Metlslime 

I just use a shortened version of my own mapping habits. Make a cool area, think about what it will lead to, continue down that route. I start with little or no idea what I'll be doing for the round.

My latest speedmap, I knew I wanted a graveyard, so I started with some tombstones, and made it a dark room so I wouldn't have to fuck with the walls much. I knew then I had to go inside maybe a temple, so I built a little entryway, then added functionality for monsters in that room. I add all the entities as I go, making it easy to quickly finish up the map if need be. Also helps think about progression and balence of the map because I know what I've done it what that player has seen.

Anyway, after the entryway, I built the little main hall with blinky lights (my new fave speedmappery toy) and decided to add a gold key bit. My first thoughts were to make a large area with 2 floors and a squarish bit in the middle containing the gold key and monsters... Reliezed I was late on time, and started on just making it a little room with a key and a few baddies.

Decided it was way too easy and far too bland to be worth while, so I thought back to my e4 playthrough for an idea. Remembered the bit with the moving wall that was so interesting, and yet completely simple to implant.

Neat thing about making it was that the candle light models can't move with the moving wall, so I placed them where they'd be in the 'open' position, and presto, 'elder torches that light instantly!' I thought it was a pretty cool unplanned idea, but no one seemed to notice :(

After that, threw in the end, and called it quits. Complied, played thru, Added more shells, health, and rockets than I had at first, and hid an armor in the graveyard, and called it good.

The problems with my method are obvious, easy to get off track, easy to spend way too long on a start area, breeds rather short maps. Some of the advandges are that it lets me dynamic with the map and fuck around with neat ideas withoutworry because I can always end maps quickly.

A better plan may be to quickly build a layout in 5-10 mins, detail it in 50-75 mins, add ents as you detail, and get in a few quick playthroughs. It's very recommended to leave a few mins to test frequently and some spare time for last min fixes. 

I did notice it -- the map kind of took me back to the old days of the game Dungeon Master where each room was an original way to screw with the player. I wondered when I played your map how much thought had to go into that trick. 

I've been asked a mapping question and rather than point the askee here I thought I'd ask myself, so apologies in advance if I use any mapping terminology incorrectly.

Using worldcraft shareware version.

Got a .map from someone.

It's all very dark i.e. no lights.

lots of light entities in the .map

Someone else opened it in quark. Lots of light just as it should be.

QUESTIONS

Is this a known issue?
Would the registered version fix it?

The guy in question doesn't want to have to learn a new editor just for this so please don't say "use a different editor".
Better still can someone mail me the registered worldcraft so he can try it and then you can post something here saying "No I won't send you the registered version. That would be dishonest. The very idea!"

Thanks. 

Lights just aren't bright enough I'd bet. There's no limitations for lights or anything like that in shareware Worldcraft.

If I were at home ATM, I'd post the registered version anyway. It's not dishonest to get the registered version of an editor you can't buy anymore. 

http://freshteam.telefragged.com/incoming/misc/Worldcraft.zip 

Cheers, Scampers. Cheers, Starbers.

Now the blind shall eat, the hungry shall walk and the Lame shall see again. :-) 

Um... I just try to map really, really fast.

Seriously, I do all the architecture first, then the lighting, then the gameplay. Sometimes I set up the brush entities (doors, buttons, etc) as I make them, but sometimes I do that when I get ready to do the gameplay. Frequently I'll do the basic lighting, and then after I check to make sure that's mostly okay, I'll tweak the lighting as I tweak the gameplay. I also play through the maps a few times to make sure the gameplay is mostly balanced and completable.

Also, if there are any bugs, I will take the necessary time to fix them, even it takes 30 minutes extra. Bugs are bad, mmkay? 

most of the people doing good speedmaps have probably done pretty much mapping in the past and that should help... another good thing might be to decide on a plan and stick with it no matter what. 

because it's "just a speedmap" i do a lot less second-guessing than when i normally map. In a real map, i often delete entire rooms when i decide they aren't good enough. In speedmapping, pretty much every brush is worth keeping.

As for the process, i speedmap the same way i make real maps -- every room is built, lit, and stuffed with entities before i move on to the next room. (Though at work, i've moved towards blocking out the entire level's layout before detailing anything.) 

because it's "just a speedmap" i do a lot less second-guessing than when i normally map. In a real map, i often delete entire rooms when i decide they aren't good enough. In speedmapping, pretty much every brush is worth keeping.

Ditto. 

trigger_multiple doesn't work inside trigger_push. Is it only my bug or not?

BTW Kell, did you get my e-mail?
and what's up with your site? 

got your mail; skybox is made and tested; working on some rock textures atm.
SOK was transferred to another server a few weeks ago when the net cafe where it was hosted closed down; consequently, it's down more often than it's up - sorry :( 

R P G -- I find I have to do the entities along with the archetecture or else my scaling gets out of wack. This happened big time on a recent map I did for a Tikidomain contest that I wound up not submitting as a result of my mistake (it caused problems in the -vising). Chalk it up to experience, I guess. 

I don't normally have trouble with proportion. This is partly because I have almost all hallways 128 or 256 units wide and 128 or 192 units high. However, this becomes a problem because then everything becomes standardized and the map feels more rigid and less dynamic. 

I'm coming along in learning to proportion my maps better.

One way to break from making things look standardized (and after all standardization is realistic if you are doing human environs) is to weigh things down to account for gravity. Have the columns bend slightly in a downward slope, and the ceilings shift around a center of gravity.
I learned this from an architect who designed my old college's art building. He said that he always kept in mind the pivot point of his structures and the natural incline of gravity and weight to that point when he worked out his design to ensure maximum 'dramaturgy'.
It is a bit trickier to do in a virtual setting (veering from 15, 30, 45, and 90 degree brush design causes alignment problems) but that is all the more reason to fight for that extra last inch of realism. 

Is it possible to create monster clip in original quake? If it's possible than how? 

I mean only monsters couldn't pass thru it, not player or weapons 

The only thing you can do is use a trigger_monsterjump that throws monsters away from any doorways you don't want them to enter, but that looks silly though... 

QC code. If you're not too hot with including a progs.dat with your map, then it's not a feasible alternative.