What can I do to make my map more interesting

[Koei]

After doing nothing for weeks I decided to edit some stuff in my map. I'm only working one capping area at the moment and are running into a creative wall. I have no idea what I should add to make it more interesting to look it. Anyone has got any artistic recommendations concerning brushwork and props? I find it all a bit empty.

*warning* sloppy texturing, haven't rotated or scaled most of the stuff. This part of the map is also temp sealed at the doorways (other area's are in my vmf)*warning*

Feel free to run around here:
http://rapidshare.de/files/39287528/cp_depot_edit5.bsp.html

Screens can be found here:
http://tweakers.net/gallery/159816/fotoalbum/?MapID=8243

 

[YM]

Looks pretty 'interesting' to me, the only thing I would suggest is to sort out the texture scale and alignment on your displacements pronto.

 

[Koei]

Looks pretty 'interesting' to me, the only thing I would suggest is to sort out the texture scale and alignment on your displacements pronto.

alignment is pretty much impossible, I spend so many hours trying to get it right. But one look at hydro and I noticed is just can't be perfect. But what about scale? Bigger? Smaller?

 

[YM]

But what about scale? Bigger? Smaller?

Don't mind, as long as it doesn't look repeated (which it doesn't) or stretched(which it really does)

 

[MacNetron]

Had a run on it. Could see why it is hard to align the rocktextures correctly, lots of angles. Although it looks a bit odd, in the heat of battle it would be no problem to me.

Place playerclips on top of the battlements. I got stuck between the roof/wall and the rock. Happened when I pretended to be a sniper and was walking backwards. Had to kill myself.

It is not too empty to me. There is enough going on, every way you look. Probably because of the two wooden sheds. Nice ones.
"Normal" maps may look less empty because there are walls to decorated. But you have rock... So maybe add 1 or 2 non-accessible "holes", pile up some goodies and place a fence in front of it. Or a barred corridor. Might break up the long rock-walls a bit.

Last remark, you might place a middle post into the concrete window (see first screenie in the gallery).

 

[Koei]

Had a run on it. Could see why it is hard to align the rocktextures correctly, lots of angles. Although it looks a bit odd, in the heat of battle it would be no problem to me.

Place playerclips on top of the battlements. I got stuck between the roof/wall and the rock. Happened when I pretended to be a sniper and was walking backwards. Had to kill myself.

It is not too empty to me. There is enough going on, every way you look. Probably because of the two wooden sheds. Nice ones.
"Normal" maps may look less empty because there are walls to decorated. But you have rock... So maybe add 1 or 2 non-accessible "holes", pile up some goodies and place a fence in front of it. Or a barred corridor. Might break up the long rock-walls a bit.

Last remark, you might place a middle post into the concrete window (see first screenie in the gallery).

Haven't bothered with clips yet, well except where you actually walk through doorways. Not going to place them untill all the detail is done. But what battlements, the roof above the cap or the one near the ramp (more on the right).

Good remarks about the walls. I'll see what I can do about it. There will be a building on the left side (when facing the cap) to fill that empty spot. As for the rest: I'll think of something. Think I'm going to play some good looking maps and look for details that inspire me .

 

[Open Blade]

Some of the concrete stairs look a little large to me but overall I thought it looked nice. Some of the first few looked "similar" to some stock map sections so be careful on that. I've seen some maps that are cut and paste jobs and you can tell easily. Also, I love detail as much as the next guy but if your map is too busy, too cut up, not good game flow, all the detail in the world will not matter.

 

[Gadget]

I had a quick fly through your map and can tell that I like your basic architecture and layout. The most obvious things that need improvement are texture alignment and lighting I would say. The best way to align the textures (especially ground and cliffs) is to select all brushes then hit the texture application so all faces become selected. Now you have this little area where it says "Align" with "World" and "Face" within the texture application tool. Make sure you select "World" which should give you nicely aligned (cliff) textures. Might be that you have to retexture all faces after you've aligned them to world. To do so just select one face and apply the texture to every other face with the right mouse button.

For the lighting: make sure to have an env_tonemap_controller in your map and give it the name "tonemap_global" (or anything else). then add an logic_auto to set the tonemap values. it should have the following outputs:

OnMapSpawn, tonemap_global, SetBloomScale, .3
OnMapSpawn, tonemap_global, SetAutoExposureMax, 1.1
OnMapSpawn, tonemap_global, SetAutoExposureMin, .7
...you can play around with those numbers a little. this will give you better looking HDR lights.

I noticed from the console that you have some props with errors. Just select "Not solid" or "Use bounding box" for their collision model in the properties:

SOLID_VPHYSICS static prop with no vphysics model!
(models/props_mining/rock006.mdl)
(models/props_farm/tools_shovel.mdl)
(models/props_farm/tools_fork.mdl)
(models/props_foliage/spikeplant01.mdl)
(models/props_mining/crane002.mdl)
(models/props_lights/lamp002.mdl)
(models/props_lights/lamp002.mdl)
(models/props_mining/crane002.mdl)
(models/props_farm/tools_shovel.mdl)
(models/props_mining/board001_reference.mdl)
(models/props_mining/board001_reference.mdl)

here are some screenshots with quick suggestions to add more detail and improve the looks and atmosphere of your level:

ZIP 1,06 MB