Well, one problem with me is that I'm far too impulsive. For this reason, I never get maps finished, even though I have probably spent more time in general mapping and designing maps than some of the people who HAVE managed to release their work. :sneaky2: Oh, well. Anyways, I'm trying to finally finish a map. My head is full of ideas, but I'm trying to keep my ambitions shorter than Hammer's view distance (hooray for bad mapper jokes). I was wondering if you guys think there are any gametypes in particular that it'd be beneficial to start out with. Probably something simple - symmetrical CP or CTF. Payload is becoming ridiculously popular to map for, but I'm going to try and avoid any Attack/Defend style maps like that until I get good at balance. What do you all think?
I would go with cp, myself. ctf is easiest to do, but the community is starting to fade from ctf, and go into cp more. I've heard a lot of people complain about it. I love ctf, myself. I would say you should make it as whatever you like better. Then (since it'll be a symmetrical cp, you said) you can easily make it cp from ctf, or ctf from cp by adding slight changes. That's the good thing about 5 point cp maps and ctf maps.
Yeah. I was thinking of making my map idea CTF (I even have a backstory for it already), and later making a CP version (and it actually would transition with the "story" of the CTF version quite well).
The two you said are good starters, since you only need to build and balance half a map. But if you'd like to get a finished map under your belt there's always arena.
i happen to disagree with the other people...do not necessarily do the easiest type, if your problem is not finishing then doing something easy is not a good idea...you will just lose interest faster now...a challenge is always nice, but thats not what im getting at...think about what maps you play the most, what you enjoy the most in a game and work on that. Ive personally found the greatest incentive to keep working on a map is when you can have a really fun game on it, and alot of people enjoy themselves. You'll accomplish nothing if you don't like your own map because of what gametype it is...