Do you like making maps for Official gamemodes or Custom Gamemodes? [POLL]

Do you like making maps for Official gamemodes or Custom Gamemodes?


  • Total voters
    54

BenCo

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 30, 2015
242
135
Also I want to know if you would like to try making maps for Custom gamemodes, if you only made maps for Official gamemodes before.
 

Muddy

Muddy
aa
Sep 5, 2014
2,574
4,592
Custom gamemodes are fun to play, but mapping for custom gamemodes is hard because of how hard-coded each gamemode is. I heard somewhere that TFC's gamemodes were all built entirely from scratch, and I really wish TF2's gamemodes worked the same way.
 

Diva Dan

hello!
aa
Mar 20, 2016
1,024
1,951
I'm sad that I'm the only vote for custom game modes so far :p

I have the most fun doing them because tf2 is a ten year old game and people often become too focused on a meta, and I want them to learn new ways to play the game. All of the maps I've ever submitted to the site are takes on fresh new modes that hadn't been done before. This includes medieval player destruction, melee only class restricted pass time, or playing basketball with your own body.

It doesn't take an incredibly expensive knowledge of logic to know how to do them, either. You can flowchart almost everything you want done for a mode and then research how to do each individual part. Learning how to do the logic is also the most fun part! Whether it be a simple gamemode where you have a combination of medieval and pass time or a bumper kart arena where there is 0 documentation for any of the entities, you will learn a lot about how the game works and how to solve problems in the future. Even if the engine feels like a lot of things are hard coded, you can usually re create almost anything you need. HUD elements can sometimes be limiting but you can accomplish a lot with the robot destruction or play destruction huds. GD_rodense is a good example.

Testing these maps can be hard though. People in a playtest usually don't know what they're in for, and play to test more traditional maps. Sometimes people will be upset by you limiting their class, restricted them to melee, or making them try something they are unfamiliar with. But remember they are there to test, so I put it all behind me. More valuable feedback can still be hard to get when testers don't want to like what they're playing.

If you wanted to start making something custom, a good way to see what's possible and what isn't is to browse the insanely expansive list of player conditions and attributes. Anything a weapon can change, your map can change. You can create tf2 zombies or replicate the saxton hale mode, it's all possible in vanilla!

I definitely still recommend people to map for a new gamemode, though, and not to be afraid to push the limits of the meta of mapmaking! Without it, we wouldn't have watergate, probed, byre, or even pit of death. I really like to see people learn new ways to play a 10 year old game.
 
Mar 23, 2013
1,013
347
I voted custom because I thought OP means modded gamemodes. I started mapping because a few modded gamemodes I was playing on a heavily modded server had maps that didn't look very interesting so wanted to give it some prettier maps.
Kept making maps for modded servers since I felt like they are being played more often judging from the server browser.
 
Last edited:

BenCo

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 30, 2015
242
135
I definitely still recommend people to map for a new gamemode, though, and not to be afraid to push the limits of the meta of mapmaking! Without it, we wouldn't have watergate, probed, byre, or even pit of death. I really like to see people learn new ways to play a 10 year old game.
Indeed, it's always really refreshing to see new gamemodes. And I really like that even after playing for years there are always something new to try out. And on the mapper side it's always good, trying to create new gamemodes. You get better by experimenting, and by doing these gamemodes you'll start to understand the engine more, and what it's capable of.
 
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Erk

erk
aa
Aug 6, 2016
433
1,098
Right now Im trying to focus on the official game modes first and try to get something that works for those gamemodes, but maybe once I've gotten them down I could take a look at some custom game modes.
 
Oct 6, 2008
1,947
445
Standard is ok but the real problem in doing custom is that not all the files contain the information needed in one place - see my multiple payload coding thread as an example -
 

goem

L3: Member
Sep 15, 2016
104
83
I like taking official gamemodes and making them play slightly differently using unique mapping. In koth_distill, you can capture from ground level or from a bridge that goes over the point, which changes things up.
 

Werewolf

Probably not a real Werewolf
aa
Apr 12, 2011
873
309
With the exception of koth_working_class, which is a joke entry, I've never made an official/standard map. And it showed that it was the only 'standard' map I have made as the layout was crap. There were of course other issues, but the layout was one of them.
 

DrSquishy

we've all had better times to die
aa
Feb 10, 2017
1,297
974
Also I want to know if you would like to try making maps for Custom gamemodes, if you only made maps for Official gamemodes before.
Am making an official gamemode-map but would like to try making one for deathrun afterwards