Lets see from Q2gloom:
Infested Forts
Crisis at Ice Station 8 (Sucks hardcore)
Ice Station 8: Special Edition
Helped with Bong
and a few others that didn't get released due to mapping site collecting dust
From Quake 3 Art of War
2 maps long forgotten as the mod died
Tremulous:
gloom3t
gloom_b1
Jupiter Station (Currently working on)
I've also made maps for HAlf life, Unreal tournament 2k4, and Doom2
Now what bothers me about your map:
1) It's a self professed test map.
2) There's no theme other than test. You didn't bother to even choose a definite texture choice which is cohesive. I count brick, egyptian, tech and organic. USed right they can be made to mesh. You just slapped textures on. The exception being human base which shows more effort than the rest of the map combined.
3) The water area is horrendous. The outside/lava area is equally horrendous with env brushes touching the ground and no sense of architecture other than you slapping a box around the thing.
4) There is no sense of flow, you accomplished a huge maze. Congrats. So aliens will never lose since it'll be impossible to find all the eggs. This affects gameplay as in there's no directions that indicate you're getting close to human base or alien base. Similarly other than the ramp rooms there's no multi level fighting.
5) Nothing wrong with simple maps but there is something to be said for eye candy, blank flat hallways with no sense of detail other than they're dark with spotlights bored the fucking shit out of me. I can only imagine how often humans will sit at one end and shoot at aliens at the other as there's ZERO cover.
6) The halls are pitch black except for sourceless spotlights. The ramp rooms are full bright. Human base is full bright. The 'outside' area is full bright. The water area is full bright. At this point I needed to bleach my brain so I never wasted my time to check and see if you made alien base full bright or picth black, either way is horrendous.
Shall I continue with legitimate complaints against a fucking test map? Dude every professional map maker in the gaming industry and 99% of the non professional ones will say the same thing. NEVER RELEASE YOUR TEST MAPS. No matter how proud you are of your 'accomplishment', no matter how fun it is to run around inside this test it will always lack a few things:
First and most importantly, a sense of gameplay. When testing map features you are not taking into account the nuances of a mod/gametype.
Secondly is playability, which I must say yours is, on an empty server every area gave me 150 fps easy. Then again considering it's just rooms connected by hallways, there's nothing complex to really hurt frame rates.
third, is the visuals. Most test maps, rooms etc are slapped on textures (usually bland flat colors). There's no sense of style interest or even effort in it. Why? Because it's a test map, its something general mappers would not release to the public who tend to give a very large damn about how it looks.
Last is over course eye candy. Architecture. Special effects. A sense that you put more effort into this map than hollowing out brushes against each other. Yeah not every mapper will get uber creative and decorate the holy hell out of the walls, floor and ceiling. But no mapper is gonna leave texture seams without covering trim. No mapper is going to leave rooms blank and empty, devoid of anything but thin ramps.
Saying that you are blaming all maps, because them all use those techniques and features.
The thing is mappers use techniques and features to enhance a map. You tested techniques and features and called it a map.
I know it sounds like the same thing but let me try to explain. When mapping most have a good idea of how they want it to look, play and feel. Most mappers do not learn a feature and instantly try to find a place for it in their map. UNLESS it enhances an existing area of their map. For example: Environment maps. If you are mapping a completely subterranean environment do you cram a room with a sky box in there somewhere?
No. The mapper doesn't. Cause that feature doesn't enhance his or her overall map theme. Like your own outside area. There's no ryhme or reason to it and it's not even done well with associated techniques to make it even slightly usible. Really when you designed the outside area of your 'maze' were you considering the overall playability and aestic look of the area compared to the rest of the maze or were you just eager to test a working skybox?
The difference in conclusion is the purpose behind their use. In your case, you were testing out what you learned, regardless if it fit together or not. Other mappers learn a technique to enhance their existing map plan, if it does nothing to enhance the existing plan the technique/feature is NOT used.
