I'm thinkin' like italian/roman coastal style if possible using just standard textures. I'm hoping it helps fit along with the tug of war 3 point I'm going with.
the .vmf is fine, the .bsp is broken, I can still play the map, but can't edit it due to the corrupted .bsp
I think you have those file extensions backwards. The game (hl2.exe) uses a .bsp file, while Hammer uses a .vmf file. If your .vmf is corrupted but you still have a functioning .bsp, you can save (some of) your map by decompiling the .bsp with something like BSPSource
From my experience, you should come out of this pretty well. Only areaportals tend to break, everything else that I can remember stays intact.
Displacements are reduced to a 1HU thick brush though, and some logic in the map can end up a little broken but that's all
Does playing around with stuff count as working on a map? I made a file, put in assets/effects from other games i.e. half life to see if they would work on the tf2 platform and roughed in a payload path track - the path it might follow - no game logic. I have been thinking of doing another space themed map - maybe standard payload - but other pl game type also ok and I got to thinking that maybe i'll try another multiple payload map where blue pushes two/three carts at the same time.
What qualifies as a hazard? A non-player-controlled way that you could receive damage? (beyond just fall damage, presumably?)
"non-death pit hazard" I think whoever typed this means "non-pit death hazard." The former implies that the map needs a pit hazard, that doesn't trigger_hurt you. The latter (which is what they meant to say) indicates that the map needs a deadly hazard that is not a pit.
Death pit is treated as a term. It still makes sense. The rule presumably refers to sawblades, trains, lasers, crushing platforms and anything else that can hurt/kill you besides pits.
See I interpreted it as "non-death-pit hazard" as in, any non player controlled (therefore environmental) way to harm players. My question was mostly "does it have to be an instant kill"