Decided to make a map, Advice wanted!

(fattakin) #1

Hola!

Well I’ve finally taken the plunge after playing ET since it came out and have begun work on a map, mostly for kicks. I’m doing my workplace, a 3 building secure compound on the shores of the Atlantic and am mostly doing it so we can play a LAN party of it in work / weekends but if I managed to do it, I’ll release it!

I’ve worked it out on paper, the layout - Physical changes, MG nests/ covert doors/ route for tank & barriers/ spawns etc. It looks good on paper!
As its based on our Computer company, id like to do a steal Virus from one building and upload from secure terminal in building 2 but would also like to keep it WW2 themed so go with docs / transmit. The level is smallish and has multiple routes so would play fast and fun I hope.

I’ve spent all weekend reading the links on the forum and printing tutorials and have built my box room with working dynamite objective etc. It felt good till I opened goldrush.map - Now I have a real idea of the work that goes into a map! I’ve printed the Gtk Radiant manual & numerous tutorials, will spend this week reading and attempting to understand.

So some quick questions - while im waiting for the floorplans (if they allow me to have them)

  1. Do I make one huge box brush to mark the dimensions of my map and build everything inside?? Make the ‘roof’ a skybox etc??

This is the hardest thing to know after the box tutorials!

  1. Does anyone have the maxs / mins of an existing SD map so I can guess the size im ultimately going to need by building my test map in it?

  2. I take it anything I build below 0 on the Side view will be ‘underground’

I.e. I only have a thin strip of beach then a Grassy Bluff a metre or 2 high that leads onto the road / compound. I build all the compound stuff at regular height (0) and then build ‘below’ the ground the beach / rocks?

  1. I’ve printed easygen / heightmap overviews - anyone got any more tuts for this?

  2. If it came out eventually, would it matter that its N. Ireland and not mainland Europe? Should I stick to WW2 or Virus / Upload.

  3. What’s the best was to co-ordinate a team, 2 workmates will be involved, Sound and additional mapping - EG: how do I get a building he’s done into my map?

  4. What’s the difference between Structural and Detail for brushes

  5. What else do I need to know / do at this early stage. I don’t want to have to make any major fcuk ups so any advice at all is appreciated. I have some for myself - keep reading the forums which ive done all day in work!

(lennyballa) #2

If you want, i can send you my .map file of the atlantic wall :wink: , i already released a map like this

(fattakin) #3

Ive d’loaded that map but havent had a chance to play it yet, yeah man id love a copy of the .map file

fattakin_uk@yahoo.co.uk

(StormShadow) #4

1 - if you have a large outdoor map, yes you should surround the map in a skybox. A large, caulk box with a sky texture on the inside.

2 - my max coords are : 6752 -7696 my mins are: -6784 7744 - but im doing a pretty good sized map

3 - if your ground is at ‘0’ then logically anything below that would be underground. But you can put your ground at any height.

4 - Here is a good easygen tut: http://www.wolfensteinx.com/surface/tutorials/easygen.html
it was written for rtcw but the same rules apply

5 - if your looking for historical accuracy, yeah it would matter… but if you just wanna make a map thats fun to play, i dont think anyone will mind

6 - I’m working on a 2 man map right now. How we do it is we both make individual buildings, bunkers, etc, save them as .map files, then import them into our terrain map using the load prefab function in radiant.

7 - Here is an explanation: http://www.wolfensteinx.com/surface/tutorials/caulk_hulling.html
Its a caulk hull tutorial but it gives a pretty good description of detail vs structural brushes

8 - theres a sticky thread at the top of the forum that has helpful tips for mappers, you might wanna check there

(fattakin) #5
  1. Build the Map / box room as normal the surround it with a Caulk box - will try.

Thanks for you thoughts and links- i’ll get stuck in and come a running back when i need more help!

(Storm) #6

use detail and structrual brushes wisely

calk everything first, then texture

do many small compiles to make sure everything is in order and working.

save offten and make a back-up of your .map file every time it reaches a new level of developement.

always re-think your brush work, make it more and more efficeant.

learn to spell.

watch your fps close, my fps ranaway on me…

go download Ammo Depot a pcgamemods.com (2226)

Oh yeah! also have lots of fun!!!