I agree that it's not a bad first mapping attempt. I bet your next map would be vastly better.

And regarding the pre-planning phase of the design, I find it useful to
sketch out some ideas and architecture on paper before I even load up
Hammer. This way, I know where the project is going, and I have
some idea for the scope of the entire map. Not everyone maps this
way, but I am a planner by heart.

In fact, when I came up with the idea for my first map, I was actually
at work. I drew stuff all over my prescription pad (including the
back side) and took them home before I pieced together all the ideas
and constructed the map that very night. A lot of writers do this
too, but they call it the "brainstorming" process.

I believe doing some planning before embarking can save time and
frustration later on. When I don't have any idea when I begin, I
usually end up with a disjointed map (or end up wasting time and
re-making a whole section of the map over and over).

By the way, I'm no veteran mapper by any means. I've just started
mapping two months ago, but I've tested a lot of great maps and I have
some idea of what components make a map great. Hope that helps.

Ok, I've decided that my new improved version of this map is too big to do properly. So I'm going to go back to my original crappy version and add lighting and some other small improvements and call it final. Then I'll take the underground that I've been working on and make a new map out of it, possibly adding back the other sections if it needs them. Right now the map is kinda big. This seems like my best chance of actually releasing something cool. Besides, I think prison_grav is a stupid name anyway :biggrin:

A huge improvement, but still lots more to go. :wink:
I tend to shy away
from making long strips of texture lights, as they only look good in
certain settings. Also, if say you only place one texture light every
128 units (or whatever number you want), some nice shadows will be
created between them. Currently your texture lights are making the
hallway far too bright, which isn't doing those textures any favours.
There's no real vertical detail on the wall, you
might consider breaking it up with pillars or alcoves.

Thanks Bio, Check out the new SC2 for some of what I've learned so far about architecture

Ok guys, fresh from some tutorial reading I have a new screenshot 2. I've recreated the map from start and the layout is much more complex (2nd story area and basement added). The hallway pictured is my experiment with what I learned in Reno's architecture tutorial. Obvious comments are that the right wall hasn't been done yet, and I think the lighting is too bright, especially when the other side is emitting too.

So fire away and let me know what you think! I like the way this is shaping up, but at this rate this map is going to take a lot longer than I originally planned to work on it.

The headcrabs down there will jump around if you load the map
in hl2, but in DM they just kinda sit there. You can shoot them if you
want.

Just so you know, the monster AI doesn't get loaded for multiplayer so
this isn't a problem you can fix. Good result so far for 5 hours work,
hope you keep it up.

Try to read some of ReNo's tutoials about architecture in the HL1 tutorials section, they realy help.

and try to make some walls with different texture and add some objects, it'll start looking better and better,
the layout looks nice though

Wow, this is so much better than my first map its unbeleivable, my first map was a room, with a crappy light, a headcrab and a headcrab scientist (hl1), you spwaned with the crowbar, noticed that you were blinded by the fullbrightness, then smacked the things with a crowbar. Lol

Im only slightly better now, i really need to work on my archetecture as its not very good.

Nice attempt, texture could use a bit of doing up, as someone has said already, and for lights you can use prop_static they work fine with a nice model.

Nice one

Adrian

Thats how most of my maps go. I've got heaps of pieces of map that I've just been playing with, and occaisionally I take a particularly good piece and start adding to it. Thats how I made paralaxion and blizzard.

I usually never plan out the whole thing and set the design in stone. I design some parts, move them around, connect them to other parts and whatever. Sometimes it's probably best to work from a simple and undetailed layout, showing which areas go where, then design how the room will look as you make it in Hammer.

Hell, sometimes you don't even need to plan. If you've been messing around and made a great looking room, you can just build from there and the map creates itself :biggrin: