actually, I believe that the engine is capable of making very good looking maps (perhaps not up to the most contemporary games due to lack of bump-mapping support and other such things), it is simply that mappers don't pay enough respect to composition of lighting, etc...
The over-use of sun-lit maps mean we're kind of swamped by maps that have no dynamic appearance in terms of lighting. Personally, I've never made a map in the day yet because I just prefer how maps look with natural lighting (i.e. light textures - not entities - in realistic forms such as lamps on tables, lights on walls, etc...).
Back on topic, don't be downhearted M-A-Zing.
In my opinion the way this map should be developed to maximise the probably of success is thus:
- Decide on a type of map
- Gameplay style
- Speed [fast/slow/somewhere in-between]
- Layout [multiple seperate paths, multuple interweaved paths, spawninabox]
- Difficulty [beginner; lots of ramps, no trick jumps, e.g. Airtime
intermediate; some trick jumps, multiple strategic paths and points, e.g. Propaint series
expert; lots of tricky jumps, newbies get slayed by players with experience on the map, complex strategy required in matches, e.g. pbcup_renoir
- Aesthetic style
- Theme
- Could be anything.
- Remember that a scenario is NOT a theme. i.e. D-Day landing maps do not comprise a theme, just a gameplay attribute. The overarching theme would be WW2, which would need to be characterised in the map. For instance, if you were teleported back to the site of the d-day landings (sans huge invasion force and lots of horrible things) what would you see that would instantly communicate 'I'm in world war 2' to you? So, things such as military fortifications (sandbag bunkers, artillery enplacements, dugouts, barbed wire fences, anti-tank metal thingys, etc...), supplies (so crates with army stamps on, boxes of ammunition spilled all over, etc...), battlefield damage maybe (craters, bulletholes, scorched earth, etc...), and so on.
- Sketch the map out and decide on a layout that satisfies the above criteria.
- don't worry if you can't draw. I definately can't. Just look at the sketch i did when making COI, but that turned out alright.
- If it bothers you that much, just make it in Google SketchUp or something.
- This one is KEY. You all should decide on the merits of the design and offer insights into tweaking the map design at this stage. BSP/Quark should just be the stage where paper gets turned into a living, breathing map. Making a random ad-hoc map is doomed to failure, if it even gets finished.
- Figure out what assets are required for the map.
- Models
- items that add to the theme and layout more graphically than practically and are complex in design are best left to models.
- Textures
- experienced mappers and material designers will be able to spot good places where the abilities of alpha-translucent textures can be used to add much to the richness of the scenes. Think of things like the grafitti on COI. These could be used in the above example for things such as bulletholes in walls, scorched ground, bunk wall markings (military logo's or something), etc...).
- High resolution textures have allowed us to increase the quality of our maps visual greatly, so take advantage of it. In my opinion, you should avoid stock dp textures as much as possible, they are very bland.
- Sounds (but be careful, I don't think adding custom sounds is a good idea at all. It bloats downloads horribly and I've never seen it used well (apart from Summer, I guess, as the cliffs have an actual feeling of height).
- Post a list of the required materials and get the best volunteers for the job working on the right tasks.
- No-one is good at everything. I can't work blender or 3dsmax for my life. The solution is to put the best skills and effort exactly where its needed. In this situation, y00tz for example is probably able to handle models and texturing better than some of the newer mappers on the team.
- the division of labour like this is very important. It keeps jobs small and easier to manage, and gives everyone a role to complete. If they can't and drop out, their contribution is easily picked up by a new volunteer fit for the job.
Also, you should appoint a project leader. Whoever is in this role must co-ordinate the development of all the parts and ensure the quality of the contributions is correct. This person should be ultimately responsible for bringing all the components together (not necessarily in a bsp/quark kind of way) at the right times.
Thats just my thoughts on the matter, sorry if it rambled on a bit!
- Dr Rick Dagless M.D
