What's the hardest part of making a map for you?

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Trying to make the map appealing to play without it being a "room-door-room-door-hallway-door-room" style of layout.

[MFG38]

Finishing it.

 

*thinks back to the dozen or so map(set)s I started but never saw to completion*

[thelazyqdude]

Making layout & flow at the start. Hardest part for me. I have a WIP map that has a nice flow guiding the player back to a locked door, but the rest of the map is kinda garbage. :\

[lokbustam257]

Starting the map

[jazzmaster9]

I wouldn't say its the hardest but it is the most tedious and my least favorite, Playtesting when preping for release.

 

Having to play and replay something over and over again to check for every single missed tags, every single combat scenario, every single misspelling, and every single line action gets repetitive. 

Its a necessary evil.

[joepallai]

Finding the right music to add is something I'm not good at; I usually default to the project lead's choice there.   Also adding textures is something I do so infrequently that it gives me a hard time when I actually do use new textures.   Getting comfortable with new textures that aren't just modified Doom textures is also something I'm not great at.   Finally finding time and being satisfied with the results are probably my biggest issues.   

[Endless]

Doors.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Choosing textures, and testing.  I waste far too much time doing the former, and find the latter to be very tedious.

[Silhouette 03]

31 minutes ago, Endless said:

Doors.

Doors were a nightmare for me at first, though now I can do doors in a few seconds. One of my mapping skill improvements I'm most proud of. It's not much but it's a sign I'm improving.

 

Texturing and making combat interesting on the other hand... yeah.....

[ReX]

On 2/6/2021 at 12:47 AM, Yandere_Doomer said:

i have about 2 or 3 unfinished maps that i am working on

I have about 25 maps I'm working on (admittedly, in 3 separate projects). Much of the mapping is actually finished, but there are odds and ends I need to work on and little desire to do what it takes to reach completion.

 

But back on topic, for me, the most disagreeable part of producing a map is the monotony of play-testing. [Not the same as the "hardest", but you get the drift.] Test, tweak gameplay balance, test again, repeat ad nauseum. Bah!

[JediMB]

The hardest part, in my limited experience, is figuring out what I want the map to be about, and how to introduce the player to it. So basically the beginning.

 

For my first two maps, I benefitted from having decided on fairly realistic-looking environments that were well-supported by Doom II's vanilla textures, but for #3... I just stared at the screen for a good while (and scrapped several early concepts) because I couldn't figure out what the starting area should even be.

[thelazyqdude]

1 hour ago, Remilia Scarlet said:

Choosing textures

If you're using Ultimate Doom Builder, there is this little shortcut that blew my mind when I found it out: If you look at a sidedef or have multiple selected in visual mode, you can press CTRL + RMB to open the texture browser and select a texture without having to edit the sidedef.

[Remilia Scarlet]

3 minutes ago, thelazyqdude said:

If you're using Ultimate Doom Builder, there is this little shortcut that blew my mind when I found it out: If you look at a sidedef or have multiple selected in visual mode, you can press CTRL + RMB to open the texture browser and select a texture without having to edit the sidedef.

Ahh, I meant from a aesthetic standpoint. I'm indecisive with textures.  Thanks, though ^_^

[thelazyqdude]

Ohh, I hate that part. 

[Deadwing]

Creating nice and appealing aesthetics

 

EDIT: Damnit, I've already posted >.<

[Buzzerb5x9x]

The designing and texturing 

[Vaeros]

Making my maps fun to play. 

[Soulless]

Where to place the damn keys.

[Snikle]

Getting the size of an area right. Whenever I plan setpieces, or even just main map areas, I always sketch out an area that I think is going to be large enough, only to realize later, after I start filling in the gameplay and details, that the area is smaller than I thought and the player might not have enough space. By this point though, its usually too late to make it larger without screwing up everything I'd already built. 

[Clippy]

Starting it

 

Sometimes I will be bursting with ideas and don't know where to begin. Once I get at least one room made the fun begins and I can connect things to it, and things to other things and somehow it all comes together - I have fun building on to things, it's magical -

[Megalyth]

Calling a map 100% finished is nearly impossible for me. I could fiddle around with tiny, inconsequential details for eternity. 

[roadworx]

generally the layout and enemy placement. i can make it look great but those two i have a lot of trouble with

[Rymante]

I'm gonna have to agree here with everyone who's said 'Starting a new map'

 

Coming up with an idea for a map & actually starting to bring it to life is by far the hardest part for me as well.

[PeterMoro]

Spending a lot of time building an area / mechanic /concept that's "going to be awesome", only to discover that it totally doesn't work or fit into the map.....and then scrapping it and starting over :(

[Doom_Dude]

On 2/6/2021 at 1:47 AM, Yandere_Doomer said:

hardest part for me is actually finishing the map.... i have about 2 or 3 unfinished maps that i am working on....

 

Finishing is a bitch. I have too many to finish in various projects. It comes out to over a hundred or something. haha.

 

I have no problem with starting new maps... I have more ideas and I have to slap myself when I get the urge to start another..

[ReX]

7 minutes ago, Doom_Dude said:

I have to slap myself ....

Let me know when you start looking for volunteers. Heh.

 

But staying on topic, just like @Doom_Dude I'll have an exciting idea, but once I've implemented it I'll get bored and move on to a new map before I've finished the first one.

[Yandere_Doomer]

1 hour ago, Doom_Dude said:

 

Finishing is a bitch. I have too many to finish in various projects. It comes out to over a hundred or something. haha.

 

I have no problem with starting new maps... I have more ideas and I have to slap myself when I get the urge to start another..

I am exactly the same... i always have cool new ideas that i never seem to follow through with....

I really need to finish Totg..

[Phobus]

Even after 25 years of experience, I reckon the hardest part is getting the scope right. A lot of the ideas I’ve had that I take occasional stabs at are simple setups that don’t have an entire map in them. A more recent issue is setting out to make an episode when I’ve really only got one short  map in me. Because it’s just one short map that’s meant to be the start of something bigger, it doesn’t really work out, and I end up deleting everything after a couple of years.

 

If I could perfectly scale my ambition to the time available and the time I’m likely to stay enthusiastic for, I’d finish something no problem. As it often is, I start, then almost immediately lose motivation, as I know it’ll go unfinished by the community project deadline, or I’ll get too busy with Real Life and lose my mojo. Suffice it to say, despite my huge library of releases, there’s lots and lots of stuff that never made it.

[Doom_Dude]

8 hours ago, ReX said:

Let me know when you start looking for volunteers. Heh.

 

Hahahaha!

 

8 hours ago, ReX said:

But staying on topic, just like @Doom_Dude I'll have an exciting idea, but once I've implemented it I'll get bored and move on to a new map before I've finished the first one.

 

Yep, that's how you end up with a megawad. ;)

 

7 hours ago, Yandere_Doomer said:

I am exactly the same... i always have cool new ideas that i never seem to follow through with....

I really need to finish Totg..

 

I had to do some digging for a forum post from 2020, because I calculated how many maps I was working on. I have nine main projects comprising of 116 levels. About 25 of those are done for a megawad I'm trying to finish for this year. That leaves me with only 91 if I can keep from starting anything new. lol So yeah, finish something before you wander off and start making a new thing. :D

[Mystic 256]

enemy and trap placement, deciding on the flow/progression and sub goals of the map, ammo/health/item balance, deciding on which ideas to do in general