heya

[room]

i'm room, nice to meet you all!
i've lurked on tf2maps for awhile now, so i thought it was about time to make an account.

i'm still a new hammer mapper, but i've read a bunch of your tutorials and have seriously watched crash's tutorial series about 6 times through, so i'm getting a bit better and will try not to spew hundreds of bland, blocky maps on here.

to be honest, i barely play tf2; competitive shooters aren't my thing, but i do love tf2's art style and the intricacies of class balancing in the game. detailing is by far my favorite part of the mapping process, so contests about making small environments will likely be my thing here.

i'm looking forward to being a part of this forum and getting some knowledge from you grizzled mappers, thanks (^:

fun fact: 'heya' is how you pronounce 部屋, japanese for room, lol

 

[ades]

welcome

 

[Davekillerish]

getting some knowledge from you grizzled mappers, thanks (^:

@Grizzly Berry
Jokes aside, welcome to the forums
It is a good idea that you join our steam group, and when you need a map tested, look for a gameday or an imp

 

[room]

@Grizzly Berry
Jokes aside, welcome to the forums
It is a good idea that you join our steam group, and when you need a map tested, look for a gameday or an imp

oh yeah, i completely forgot steam groups were a thing.
i'll look into this, but what is an imp?

 

[ades]

oh yeah, i completely forgot steam groups were a thing.
i'll look into this, but what is an imp?

basically an Imp is a playtest of a few maps

 

[Vel0city]

Hey there room, welcome!

If you haven't already, check out UEAKCrash's tutorials on the YouTubes. They're so good even Valve took notice of them and made a blog post about it! Check those out here.

If you want to make mapping for TF2 a bazillion times easier, download and install the ABS Resource pack. It's awesome and brilliant and super easy to install and work with.

For other stuff join the discussion and question section here to ask anything about everything Hammer/TF2/Source related. If you have any maps you want to show to the world and get tested, upload them here by clicking on the big blue button on the top right that says "Add Download". It gets put in the Map Factory automatically for you. The Valve Developer Wiki is also a great place to search for things related to Hammer and Source, as well as other Valve titles you might want to map for. Finally, there's this place. If after compiling something is broken, or if there's something in the compile log you don't understand, run it trough the website to have it check for errors. 90% of the time it points you to the error, and it saves you from having to post your compile log here (which we're gonna run trough the same website anyway since we're not libraries with every error in our brain). If neither you nor Interlopers can figure it out, post it here anyway. That part about us not having every error programmed into our head isn't entirely true by the way; some of us do have it in their head.

Have fun with Hammer! Just don't forget to mash CTRL+S after every change you've made in Hammer, just to be sure.

Have a great time here, and most importantly, have fun! (that's so important I have to say it twice within 3 sentences!)


To answer your question, an imp is an impromptu test, where a group of TF2maps.net members suddenly feel the need to play custom maps still in development. It's different from a gameday in that it can happen at any time, as long as there's enough interest, which there usually is. An imp is also usually announced in the Steam Group, so look out for those announcements.