Confidence?

Fabled Fox

L1: Registered
Feb 28, 2018
1
1
I have been wanting to map for tf2 for a very long time but every time I start it just feels like I'm doing something wrong. It's never the same thing, sometimes it's because of the layout, sometimes it's the visuals, so on, so forth. I know my way around hammer so that's not the issue, I think it's in my head.

This is probably the third or fourth time I have tried to map for tf2 specifically (I have tried and failed to use hammer countless times) and once again I hit a brick wall, I am not confident in my ability to design the maps layout and don't know where to go from here

I was wondering if this is normal for a newer mapper with nothing under his belt, or maybe if anyone has had similar experiences to this and found some way to get over it. I really do want to make content for tf2 but, I keep getting this dread like feeling that I'm doing everything wrong and I shouldn't continue. Not only does this make it hard to focus on the task at hand, but it also make the experience unenjoyable...
 

I dinne ken

Has currently had enough
aa
Apr 16, 2016
324
432
I personally mapped for about 6 months without producing any maps that would ever be playtested. I finally got somewhere with a map called koth_evergreen. It wasn't that good but people could at least name parts of it which they liked.

Because I got some positive feedback on that map it pushed me to release more maps, it felt good knowing people liked at least parts of my work.

Now, I was at that point was just under a year ago. And since then I have made a couple maps, some good some bad. But namely, I have made a map called cp_tomo.

cp_tomo, which from one post showing off its pre-alpha stage got around a fifth of my overall positive ratings.

Anyway, even though I'm rambling on here the main point is that it does take a long time to get better, but you do eventually become better, but stalling at this point doesn't help you. You need to get your foot in the door.
 

FloofCollie

I really suck!
aa
Nov 5, 2016
600
669
Me too. It always feels like "Hmm, this staircase would probably play badly" or "Hmm, this single brush probably ruins the whole thing" and if I don't feel in the zone after a few minutes I just give up and start playing TF2.
I think part of the problem is I think that nobody will play it (or enjoy playing it), which is why I was so delighted when a map I uploaded got fair attention, because it proved that idea wrong.
 

HQDefault

...what
aa
Aug 6, 2014
1,056
535
I can't say I had the problem, as I (somewhat thankfully) had what I call "beginner's blindness", so I had a hard time realizing that what I was making sucked.

But here's my advice anyway:
You probably are doing it wrong... but that's okay.
I did it wrong.
He did it wrong.
That guy did it wrong.

Most everyone who is new to mapping starts off by making absolute crap. And that's okay! We gotta keep going at it- keep improving- keep mapping until the map goes from crap to... not crap. Nobody will scold you for being a new mapper, instead you'll get feedback and tips, and your next map will be all the better.

Hope this helped.