True Confessions from a mapper

Three Million

L4: Comfortable Member
Jul 2, 2015
197
75
We all have that one part of making or working on a map that we hate, or at the least not enjoy. For me I hate placing light entities everywhere and getting the reflections right. What are the worst parts of making a map for you?
 

fubarFX

The "raw" in "nodraw"
aa
Jun 1, 2009
1,720
1,978
The worst part for me is when a map works and it plays fine. Some would celebrate that but for me that's just when people stop calling you out on your bullshit because you've reached a point where your map is tolerable. No one will tell you you're doing something wrong but deep down, you know it can be much better. That's when I need to take the time to fully process the layout in my brain before I can actually do anything to improve it in any semi coherent way. Those challenges are mine to face and mine alone and they usually results in long downtimes and that is what makes me feel the worst. I recently noticed that I'll even subconsciously avoid people when I'm in that state, I stop talking to my roommates and spend most of my time in agony locked in my room until I can figure things out.

I wish I could just space out and build maps without ever stopping but my creative process is fucked.
 

Diva Dan

hello!
aa
Mar 20, 2016
1,024
1,951
I make lots of detailed setpieces but can never fit them into a map somewhere. I also want to make 2cp maps, but I always only complete 2/3 of it and have no idea how to finish the last third. (Thirds would be point A, point B, and connections between eachother or to spawns). I also hate making something that looks cool and when I flip it it is stupid broken with sights and such
 

AsG_Alligator

qhull precision error
aa
Aug 5, 2016
595
1,191
Making concave collision models.

And on the mapping side: most of the time i make maps that look amazing but play and/or run like shit.
 

EArkham

Necromancer
aa
Aug 14, 2009
1,625
2,773
When I'm inspired, large sections of how the completed map should look pop into my head, so the struggle is trying to recreate my vision in reality. And it never matches perfectly.

Then when playtesting shows that some of those areas just don't work, it's hard to just tear parts of it down even though it has to be done.

Luckily not all my maps pop into my head finalized, so those are always a lot easier to work with.
 

Crowbar

Spiritual preprocessor
aa
Dec 19, 2015
1,455
1,297
Also, when I come up with an idea of something... And have no clue about what its surroundings look like, or just that I can't make what I didn't think of, which even results in empty spaces on paper layout drawings. Sucks, how brain can ignore what's not very important, and you gotta pay with some kind of block after.
 

Berry

resident homo
aa
Dec 27, 2012
1,056
1,898
Finding days where I don't have more important things to do (cough classwork) and actually have the energy to map
 

obodobear

L4: Comfortable Member
Mar 15, 2016
172
32
For me it has to be creating displacements and getting them all to align... If I have those annoying shadowy lines in between them or a slight leak it annoys me so much
 

Crowbar

Spiritual preprocessor
aa
Dec 19, 2015
1,455
1,297
You must be doing something wrong. They are as easy to align as moving vertices is, and getting rid of the shadows is mere compiling on settings any better than fast.
 

Hotel Detective

L4: Comfortable Member
Dec 10, 2014
187
191
For me it has to be creating displacements and getting them all to align... If I have those annoying shadowy lines in between them or a slight leak it annoys me so much
Do you overlap them?
Displacements shouldn't intersect each other.