So why aren't you mapping?

[40oz]

nxGangrel said:

So 40oz, if you want to collab or something, I would love to. Especially because you're a better mapper than I. And as I said, I'm working on (to my knowledge)new material.

Hey that sounds great! I think we could learn a lot from each other. :)

I'm a bit tied up right now with the end of the school semester and another doom project Im wrapping up, but expect a private message from me within the next couple weeks. :D

[nxGangrel]

40oz said:

Hey that sounds great! I think we could learn a lot from each other. :)

Alright, awesome.

[Playing With Fire]

I used to map from 1997-2001 or so. My maps were alright, but since then I've forgotten even the basics of map design. And there are so many amazing WADs out there (I'm playing Going Down right now) that I don't think I'll ever reach that level of quality!

[Snakes]

Cities: Skyline

[snapshot]

I'm still mapping from time to time, i was working on sddm last few months and 've finished 4 new levels so far in total i have 7 levels,( with an extra "huge" single player level) , hope i will be able to finish this before summer .

[Foxpup]

For some reason, every time I decide to take a quick break from mapping it ends up becoming... not so quick, on the order of several months. Also I find it easier to start maps rather than finish them, so I've currently got a whole bunch of unfinished maps lying around taunting me. Right now I'm trying to focus on the ones that are closest to completion so that I can finish them quickly and release them.

[scaled]

For me it's a combination of 'I theoretically have the time, but constantly get interrupted' combined with a heavy dose of 'why the hell bother? Everything else i've tired has generally been ignored so it's going to be an uphill slog to get past the 'everything is utter crap' phase.'

[Yuki Senmatsu]

I had another, but it was resolved, dusty heat sink.

Every 6 minutes or so, it overheats and PC shuts off.

[Fonze]

I love mapping. But I take breaks every now and again to refresh what little creativity I have ;)

I notice a mapper's block developing as I work with others on a map. Maybe it's the pressure I feel to make the maps good, idk. Usually when I make a map by myself I get so caught up in creating concepts that mapper's block only has a chance of occuring in the basic layout phase.

I love thing placement and anything else that impacts gameplay. I've always been more gameplay-oriented than detailing-oriented, though I do often make little things that are very detailed. I suppose it's because I usually have one or three concepts in mind when I make a map that I implement as I go. I love concepts that are still Doom, yet change the gameplay, sometimes drastically, like MathsDevil's OCD Doom.

If others here have a mapper's block, try thinking up a few concepts and creating a map based around them.

[scifista42]

My total creative inability AND demotivation grows bigger and bigger. Reasons don't change. :(

[129thVisplane]

I'm not mapping because when I try to, I make a room and then instantly delete it because it looks like shit. In other words, I have no self-confidence.

I do sometimes break down and make a map for Hexen -- but I seem to think like an artist, not an architect/mapper, so everything ends up in a gameplay-less mess of landscapes trying to be realistic. I mean, I could stick to that and just release a bunch of landscape maps, but nobody would want to play that shit, so I just stick the maps into a folder and forget about them.

[BaronOfStuff]

Burnout. Can only wade through and redecorate so many bits of WADshit in one burst before it becomes more tiring than fun.

[Job]

Tried making a map the other day. I remember how to do it, but somehow everything feels tedious and it didn't look as good on the screen as it did in my mind. Disappointment.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Largely because lately I've been taking some time to just enjoy actually playing games instead of hacking around in them. Though I have sketched out a few floor plan ideas here and there.

[Dave The Daring]

Because my mother is visiting me for my birthday (which is tomorrow) and so I haven't been near a computer in two days. This is the first opportunity I've had to get online. Oh well, she keeps buying me plenty of booze so I'm not complaining.

[Cacowad]

Is too damn hot here, i just pass almost all of my free time sleeping...

[Moktar]

I manage a news blog that is keeping me off of making maps. Also the fucking university is driving me crazy. Probably on vacations.

[Breezeep]

Laziness strikes again.

[SavageCorona]

I don't have any drive to unless it happens to be a certain monthly speedmapping event.

[Justince]

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Edited August 1, 2017 by Justince

[cs99cjb]

The first few maps of Doom consist of advancing through successive rooms of monsters who attack from in front, shooting them and picking up items. Most of the early PWADs were like that too.

I think most of us are bored of that style of gameplay now, but the trouble is that it's hard to make anything better in the same game engine without resorting to teleporting monster swarms or the kind of cheap tricks one might see on a Ghost Train ride (surprise lifts, monster closets, etc.)

I enjoy making architecture but struggle to reconcile my quasi-realistic style with the kind of gameplay expected nowadays. Where do you put your monster closets if there's no rational reason for a closet to exist in that environment?

On a positive note, the gameplay in Doom 4 looks as though it could be engrossing.

[DeathevokatioN]

FB drama

[Phobus]

Those Steam and GoG sales have added up over the last couple of years, so now I have about 80 games that want playing/finishing. I could throw all sorts of other excuses out too, but ultimately I do still have a lot of free time, I've just been using it for chipping away at my games collection.

I did stop mapping a while ago for a more specific reason, though. I'd gotten to one of those points where I'd been doing it for a long time, built up a large collection of "started" projects, notes for further ideas and still wanted to throw a map into every community project and speed mapping session I could. The ambition ran away with me, so I've now got:

1) The starting room for Bigger Woodchip, compiled into a 4-map set with the other three Woodchips.
2) A re-texture - using CC4 textures - of the BtSX E3 submission I finished years ago. I doubt it'll turn up in the finished project... At least in any recognisable capacity, so I opted to re-purpose it. This is compiled into a 2-map set with a "Warpzone II" which is made up of SP retools of 3 DM maps I've got in already-released projects, the one room I made for Five Rooms of Doom and a heavily-edited take on that test room I made for the "Too Much Brown" texture WAD about 9 years ago. That, much like the original Warpzone, is going to take some dedication to pick back up and do the thing placement and final areas for.
3) A starting area for the first map of the first episode of what, in theory, will be a 5-episode ZDoom megawad for Ultimate Doom (I sincerely doubt this'll ever happen).
4) The resources and "story" for Escalation III, and the vague intention of getting up to a ph_e2000 or maybe even ph_e4000 one day, with III being 250, then 500 and 1000 coming before.
5) Plans to make an E2MWalter-style map for each episode of The Ultimate Doom
6) A crappy attempt at using the Dark Forces textures in the PCCP2 resource WAD to make a 2048 map, which will be scrapped if I decide to pick that submission idea up again in favour of using textures I can work with.
7) The first 7 maps in a 30-map megaWAD where the gimmick is that each map uses a different limitation or challenge, plus a listing of the remaining 23 I'd like to do for it.
8) 16 map "kernels" (some are basically layouts, others are just shapes) for the idea of trying to make my own take on the 32-in-24 challenge - basically, make 32 map layouts or kernels in 24 hours, then spend no more than 24 hours bringing each map up to scratch... Technically I've failed this, as I didn't do all 32 in one day, but on the other hand, I did only rush through the first 16 in about 4 hours before getting bored.

So that's something silly like 120 maps I'm hoping to make. Daunting and, like all collective challenges, when viewed as a whole it's something I don't even want to start on. Especially as there'll be stuff like 1994TU-2, CC5 and the MegaWAD in a Month for August that I'd want to map for too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not vowing to never make a map ever again - I just can't be relied upon to make a map at the moment.

[Jaxxoon R]

cs99cjb said:

Where do you put your monster closets if there's no rational reason for a closet to exist in that environment?

Make it a broom closet, or an outhouse, or a wall they smash through like kool-aid man.

[Dave The Daring]

My mother has gone home so I can map again! I can also wander around the house stark bollock naked if I so wish..

Nude mapping anyone?

[clarry]

Can anyone point me to a video of an experienced mapper just making or showing how to actually make a map in Eureka? I can pretty much figure out how the thing works, but I can't seem to come across a good workflow for mapping. It feels quite clumsy and I can't imagine finishing a reasonably detailed map in it... but it's quite possibly just that I have no experience and I haven't found anyone to learn from.

[Koko Ricky]

I've been involved with other projects lately. I want to get back to mapping eventually and add custom skies/music.

[Fonze]

clarry said:

Can anyone point me to a video of an experienced mapper just making or showing how to actually make a map in Eureka? I can pretty much figure out how the thing works, but I can't seem to come across a good workflow for mapping. It feels quite clumsy and I can't imagine finishing a reasonably detailed map in it... but it's quite possibly just that I have no experience and I haven't found anyone to learn from.

I can't tell you shit about shit about Eureka. But I can point you to this article Xaser made for detailing. It would appear to me that you can work in the order that suits you best. Try mixing up when you do things: finish some rooms as you build them/ make large secions of the map and later go back and add detail like Xaser did in the article, then move on to thing placement. Your only limitation is your own imagination :)

The article:
http://imgur.com/a/S17T4

[scifista42]

@Voltcom9: Remember that the main point of releasing serious try-being-good maps is not to make hopefully many people (anonymous or not) say good words about them, but to make hopefully many people (anonymous or not) feel good entertainment while playing them. ;)

[VGamingJunkie]

You can usually tell if someone's trolling based on how constructive or non-constructive their criticisms are. If someone makes valid points, like the map feels too cramped or too open or too many enemies or not enough ammo or too confusing or something like that. But, if they just say it sucks or just trash on it, you can just ignore those.