Making an outside area?

So I want to kind of move away from making the boxed in space station and techbase maps I've been making and kind of move towards making maps that have more outside areas where the player can actually move around.

It's kind of as if my mind is stuck in like... 'Techbase' mapping mode and I have a weird urge to just shove computers and stuff all over the place.

The problem is I'm very used to detailing Techbase levels, and I've hardly ever detailed an outside level, so I'm not sure exactly what I should put, or even what texture I should use.

The following is an outside looking sector that I made in about an hour.

This is all I could come up with.



Yeah it sucks.
Any advice?

It doesn't look too many steps away from not sucking, tbh. I really like the hangman structure you've built.

Maybe try using the sky, uh, fringing effect (idk what it's called) to bring the ash walls down, so the structures you have look more imposing in relief.

Also you can play around with making non-boxy, asymmetrical nukage holes, so that it looks like the poison is eroding the ground.

I reconstructed my ideas as a training exercise. Here's what I mean:



You can make jagged sectors like this by using "curve linedef" or "split linedef" tools in DB and then manipulating vertices into what you want.

The poison drip looks a bit odd: where is the liquid coming from? Maybe you can play around with architectural structures that address that logically.



I now realize that this might not "solve" the problem of spontaneous nukage drip, but I like it anyway. :)

On a more general level, I'd suggesting studying a bunch of outside areas that impressed you and trying to understand, on a conceptual level, what makes them good.

Nice to see you branching into new scenes! I tend to like lots of open outdoor areas, myself. The flat dirt/rock wall looks kind of odd to me, like you're in a quarry that was dug out with laser precision. Nothing wrong with that look, but if you haven't already, you may want to try experimenting with making the player-bounding walls more naturally curvy, and use different sectors to create ledges and caves of varied height, more like this:







Edit: More things to consider--strategic abuse of tree and stalagmite decorations:





ROCKRED used outside of hellish contexts, too. Scenes with lots of different materials (dirt, grass, metal, brick, rock, liquid) can be fun to make look coherent:

Too many rocks with varied heights look fake too, like someone wanted to have variation so badly. Don't overdo it. And avoid making them too much like pillars or just too similar to each other, that's unrealistic too. Here is a good example of what not to do in my opinion: http://bloodstain.ic.cz/screenshots/ep2/20a.png (very cookie cutter like)

Memfis said:

Here is a good example of what not to do in my opinion: http://bloodstain.ic.cz/screenshots/ep2/20a.png (very cookie cutter like)

I like that scene and the pillars, they look natural enough for a Doom-like environment to me. Also remember that the player will see the place from the groung level. It will seem bigger and more immersive.

I used to make few maps for SRB2 with many outside areas,so basically what you really want is to make sure your map will be interesting and fun to play with a Clear objective (or maybe Objectives ?),for instance where player spawns in a Forest and must find weapons ...etc to survive (Reach the exit),another idea is a Palace with some outer areas where player must find keys to unlock doors leading to switches,or other keys ... DOOM Already has some great textures that will help you to create almost any kind of maps you want .Of course forests,Palaces has outter areas :3
EDIT : did i mention that you can mix themes ?,Labs in deep forests ..etc