Can i ask you guys something? Ive never attempted anything in the source SDK. how hard is it to make maps with no knoledge of any of this stuff yet, i mean i intend to read up on TF2maps's tutorials and guides but is this still a very steep slope to climb? is prior knowledge of coding realistically needed?
Oh and Hi :
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To be honest a lot of people seem to forget there's no set size or detail level for maps. It all depends on what you're planning to create. For instance maps like Goldrush and Badwater probably take a month or two of continuous work to get everything completely finalised. Maps like Well are slightly easier since there's no displacements to fiddle about with, so no real constant tweaking with those. Plus when you finish one half, you've sort of done the real work. As it's a symmetrical design. Since it's a CTF or CP map, unlike Attack and Defend.
Smaller maps like Arena maps would probably be easier to start off with, even though I find them not as fun to play compared to game modes like Payload.
So basically, if you're going for realistic mapping goals as a start off point. You would probably have a decent chance of starting it and following it all the way to finishing it. The people that try to pick up Hammer and the first thing they try to do is make a Valve standard map, or recreate their College or University in full detail are usually the ones that give up. 0MPH to 200MPH in three seconds isn't usually possible
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I've been mapping some average simple stuff for a fairly long time, nothing on this site though. Although it's not required, having extra knowledge of things like texture creation, modelling etc never hurts.
Go for it, might as well give it a shot. Nothing you can lose except for maybe a bit of constructive spare time.