Hehe, I was looking at that screenshot thinking, "What is with those arrow textures?" then I loaded up the map and saw.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to go ahead and pick this apart completely so you'll hopefully be able to improve upon it.
First of all, when designing a map you really need to have a theme in mind: desert, jungle, urban, castle, etc., or even very specific, like a particular hotel, school, or real life paintball field. This will make the map more immersive and make it feel like an actual place, rather than just another paintball map. The themes you have going on here clash, I think. You have like 4 different styles of bricks going on. The flag area has more of a castle-esque theme going on with the stone and wood while the surrounding walls look more urban. They don't really fit together. Take one idea and push it all the way. Maybe even make some custom textures. Using other paintball maps for reference isn't that good because most of them also lack a solid theme. Look at some other games/mods that have realistically themed maps. Urban terror has some really nice ones. Even Counter-Strike has some well-themed maps. Something like cs_italy has a whole atmosphere about it. It's not just a level -- it's a
place. I'd really like to see paintball maps pushed further in that aspect rather than the usual: wood... brick... colored metal... flag. Ub_rooftop is a step in the right direction -- might want to take a look at that if you haven't -- but I'd like to see it pushed even futher in future maps.
Let's see. Ladders to the flag. I don't really like that. It's too easy to shoot someone climbing up a ladder, so you're almost guaranteed to have someone just waiting in the base, and inevitably that will always be the last person alive meaning you're forced to kill him and end the round or get killed trying to climb up after the flag. I also don't like the black splotches -- I know you were trying to cut down on r_speeds, but those nasty spots have to go. Another thing -- skilled players can double jump off the bunker and grab the flag, but inexperienced players won't be able to pull that off, making them even more susceptible to being completely owned. I think what you should do is get rid of the ladder completely and make a really cool platform elevator -- cut some notches into the wall and have some kind of fancy metal-framed supports connecting it.
Next, the water. You're still using an editor that has precision issues, aren't you?
Crouch underwater to see what I mean. The best way to do water is just as one solid rectangular brush that goes all the way through the ground/walls rather than trying to make it meet up flush with them. Applying the window flag might keep the lighting underwater from going as whacky (it's noticeable when players walk over it) as I think it stops the vis blocking.
One of the short crate textures in the middle area isn't scaled. I like how you put them sideways -- took a minute to figure out what was different about them. Also, on the back side of the arrow steps, you're using a crate texture. I'd use something else.
Bricks. As I mentioned earlier, I would try to go for a consistent theme -- I'd personally redo all the brick stuff and try to turn this into an old fashoned fortress vs fortress type map, but on the subject of bricks:
1) Avoid using a single brick texture for walls, floor, and ceiling. Use the brick for walls and a couple different cement textures for the floor and ceiling. Use cement for ramps, too.
2) Try to think of your structures in the way real brick walls would be built (ie: real brick walls aren't usually 6ft thick. Something like 8-16 units would be more realistic).
3) Don't switch brick textures mid-wall without some sort of transition.
4) Do something to break up the monotony of huge, solid brick walls.
A couple more notes:
- The tunnel ramp had some funky splotched lighting. Maybe adding another light in there somewhere would help mask that.
- The angled ceiling/entrance thing to the brick tunnel area doesn't match up flush with the ceiling.
