Are there any rules of thumb for mapping?

[zybork]

It is quite easy to get the basic technical knowledge of how to make maps, however, this is also true for the game itself: It is easy to figure how to spawn, how to upgrade, how to purchase equipment, et cetera, how ever, even if you master that, there are still some rules of thumb in the game, for instance: Don't go alone, team up, buy helmet+armour rather then a big gun, don't block bigger aliens, don't build trappers on the ground, et cetera.

I wonder if the more experienced mappers could name a bunch of such rules of thumb for making maps, because I intend to make one, and I'd like to do that properly.

Thanks in advance,
Zach

[MitSugna]

1) Never EVER release your first map

[ReapDaWrapper]

1) Never EVER release your first map

He never said anything about releasing it.

Heres a tip: Have appropriate bases. Don't leave the Aliens base in the open, because the humans can shoot at it (EDIT: from an insanely long distance) and will most likely win the first 5 minutes.

[MitSugna]

He never said anything about releasing it.

It is better safe than sorry

[ReapDaWrapper]

He never said anything about releasing it.

It is better safe than sorry

Yea..

[UniqPhoeniX]

Read lots of tutorials. Set the option of caulk on brushes by default on, and set clipper to use caulk. Learn about VIS and hinting, make everything you can into detail brushes. Try to use shader lights wherever possible, but if you have to use entity lights, don't make it look like light is coming out of thin air.
Package all used textures, and if you use tex/shaders from other maps, credit the ones who actually made them. Don't create files that overwrite files in other maps (like .shader files that you modified and use in your own map. Don't create an atcs clone... also don't use atcs textures much.
Make sure there are alternative base locations for both teams, and several paths around the map. Don't create an uber camp base location like Niveus window/plant rooms.

[mooseberry]

Entity vs shader lights is more a sense of style than anything. Also take note not to detail any brushes that separate your rooms from the void.

[Demolution]

1. Don't feel overwhelmed. Just take things step by step and you'll get things done.
2. Do some sketches on paper first to get some ideas going. Once you have a theme selected for your map, stick to it and get the general shape of it done in Radiant.
3. Details, details, details.
4. Balance.

[zybork]

Okay, here are a few "rules of thumb" I figures myself (after reading tons of tutorials and some threads in this forum):

- Large maps prefer aliens, small maps prefer humans.
- Corners prefer aliens, long straight paths prefer humans.
- Each room should have at least two entrances/exits.
- Don't make every part of the map look the same.

I am planning for my first map (I tried before, but now I have radiant actually working ;-) ) to have a mining-theme, and I am currently in the state of the sketches on paper. In this stage, general issues of map design should be addressed before it goes to issues of texture-design and stuff.

Having a mine in mind, I wonder how to deal with stuff like vertical mine shafts and pretty long horizontal drifts, which means that rooms mainly will be junctions between tunnels. Are there destructable walls in Tremulous? I guess not.

[mooseberry]

Okay, here are a few "rules of thumb" I figures myself (after reading tons of tutorials and some threads in this forum):

- Large maps prefer aliens, small maps prefer humans.
- Corners prefer aliens, long straight paths prefer humans.
- Each room should have at least two entrances/exits.
- Don't make every part of the map look the same.

I am planning for my first map (I tried before, but now I have radiant actually working ;-) ) to have a mining-theme, and I am currently in the state of the sketches on paper. In this stage, general issues of map design should be addressed before it goes to issues of texture-design and stuff.

Having a mine in mind, I wonder how to deal with stuff like vertical mine shafts and pretty long horizontal drifts, which means that rooms mainly will be junctions between tunnels. Are there destructable walls in Tremulous? I guess not.

You can have "destructible walls" in Tremulous via AMP, but that's just an added layer if you are new to mapping. 

I personally give a big +1 to sketching out ideas for your map before you start. Thinking of gameplay and design ideas and drawing them down is great. Don't hesitate to also sketch out ideas for specific things too, not just the big layout (doors, trims, stairs, anything really) because you can sketch a lot faster than map so it allows you to freely experiment with different ideas and use the best.

As for your mining idea, you might want to think about having three (or so) levels and connecting them in various ways in a few places.

[your face]

Package all used textures, and if you use tex/shaders from other maps, credit the ones who actually made them. Don't create files that overwrite files in other maps (like .shader files that you modified and use in your own map. Don't create an atcs clone... also don't use atcs textures much.

Packaging all used textures is rather pointless if they come from default maps.  If someone is, in fact, retarded enough to delete default maps, it's their problem that they have missing textures while playing yours.  ATCS textures are fine as long as you know how much to use.

Shader or entity lights are mostly just personal preference... I like to use both for different situations.

[God, maker of the world]

Man, not much going on in the forum. Yawn. Digging through old threads.

I know, this is an extreme bump, but the thread contains good and broad knowledge relevant for all mappers, so bumping it might even do some good.

You can have "destructible walls" in Tremulous via AMP, but that's just an added layer if you are new to mapping.

You can create destructible walls without the AdvancedMap(ping?)Pack: If you use the "health" key on a door ("health: (default 0) if set to any non-zero value, the door must take damage (any amount) to activate.") and additionally set the "speed" key to something insanely high (I usually type a 1 with nine 0), you'd have a wall that vanishes when it gets hit.

There are downsides, though:

It only takes one hit to go away. But you could use several layers. I (temporarily) did that in a map, made a door that actually was 16 small cubic doors. That again can reduce FPS, but you should be safe if you put such a contraption into its own VIS area, away from the big arenas and bases etc. (which I couldn't do in my map, so I dropped the idea entirely).

You can set the "wait" key to something insanely high (1000000000) to simulate "forever", or you could have the shootable elements return after some time (which I did with my pixel doors, so if you weren't attacking them fast enough, the first removed elements would return, so all efforts would have been in vain).

You can select several brushes and make them into one door, works just like you would imagine, so a shootable rock formation can be done, too. Imagine shooting a rock wall down stone by stone.

Max amount of door-like entities (as opposed to speakers etc.) on a map is, afaik, 256. My pixel doors first had two layers, 64 doors each. That was a little much, but if you think of "arachnid2", which had no doors or lifts at all, you see how such a complex contraption wasting "all" doors can make sense.

Another tricky thing: Obviously, the shootable elements have to go somewhere. That's not really the hard part. Hard is when you realize that a door moving that fast can actually knock you through a 32gu floor. 64 should be safe, though.

..............

EDIT: "one hit to go away" - That's true. But I think that if you don't set the "health" key to 1 but to something higher, you could make sure that the element doesn't go away by a stray blaster shot but instead needs something bigger. Maybe you can kinda "filter" it for luci or grenade this way.

You could collect like three rock sound samples and give each shootable element a different sound. Example for one shootable element: "sound1to2" "sound/mineshaftofhell/rock1.wav", "sound2to1" "sound/null.wav", "soundPos2" "sound/null.wav", "soundPos1" "sound/null.wav". The null.wav is a default Tremulous sound, it's in the data-1.1.0.pk3