It's not the learning I have a problem with, I should show you my other maps. I textured the walls and the ceilings the same because i wanted the textures to be "coherent", I did not want there to be so many different textures everywhere. Mainly anything you stand on is blue, and mostly things you surf on are white. There are some exceptions such as the boxes in the AIM map part, I wanted an alternating theme. I guess my theme failed. If you are worried that I don't know how to texture correctly just IM me on AOL and i'll show you some of my other work. This map took me 3 weeks to build, it is optimized and teams are very fair.

Voted: <span style="color: orange;">Fair

I like some of the complex geometry.
Your texturing however is repetitive. Here's a rule of thumb,
rarely should the floors, walls, or ceilings of any room be textured
the same.

Otherwise, you seem to be learning well, keep up the work.

</span>

I'm considering posting the beta so people can actually open it and see the work i've done in a more blown up porportion. This map certainly is no kill box, I designed it so KDRs are postive! I know how to texture well, I made a map of my school where I made 60 different custom textures and used every last one. There is a scheme to the textures I used, plus with an env_cubemap.. the textures look quite hott. I'll definitely make this map downloadable in a few minutes.

START THE DOWNLOAD! I appreciate anyone who takes this map for a spin, hopefuly the big picture inclines anyone in a more postive direction. And I did optmize this map, i've played it on a atleast 6 other computers, I beta tested this map on my server and other users have no problem running it. See for yourself, thanks!

TRIPOD = GAY, i'm trying to host somewhere else

Every time I see a poll of this nature I cannot help thinking that one must throw out the high and low scores.

firstly because, a map like this could never be considered excellent by anyone unless they are biased in some way.

secondly, on the opposite extreme, it could not be considered terrible for the same reasons. It compiled, and it appears to be error free in spite of its ugliness.

One has to wonder the reasons for the votes though. They must have had interesting experiences to encourage the options.

Rated: Fair

It still needs a lot of chiselling, especially when it comes to
texturing. It's pretty intersting to look at, though it gives me a
nasty sensation of randomness, the kind of feeling you have looking at
someone's first attempts at mapping.

I played a surf map once before, but i didnt really get it, its a big
killbox with slopes so you can fall and die...i dont know whats the
point of that map, but maybe im just not getting it..about this map, i
like the architicture and designs..

Rated: Good

To be more informative on my part:

There is a map sort of like this one and if I can find it again, I will post a link. The only complaint that I had about it was its gargantuan download size. There was absolutely no way to run it online in a server because it was just not realistic. I am not saying this one will follow suit, but it is a consideration when creating this style of map.

I do not usually play these styles of map because I truly hate maps where falling off of things is an ever present situation. However, if done well, it can entice.

As to this map, the texture choices are currently its most obvious shortfall. One can have maps of this nature and never use the same texture more than once. I always found it difficult to understand how people can envision maps so well, but cannot texture them worth a damn.

I will go look for that other map. I may not be able to get a link, but if I can find the name, then you can look for it and possibly find it and then you will have a model of what this kind of map should look like when you complete it.

Surfing may be a different playing style than the map I am referring to, but architecturally, its similar.

BRB

[edit]

Look here

This is what a great platform map should look like. As I said, its only shortfall was its 40 meg, unzipped file size. It was just to unrealistic to place on any server. Even zipped its a fair sized file.

Use it as a model for your results.

It looks like it's swapped together in a few days. Surrealistic, yes,
but even then it could be made more visually stunning. Right now it's
just some combine-metal textured surf brushes and a few more weird objects.

For surf maps, wouldn't it be much better to give it an actual 'surf'
theme? Some sort of transparant wave-textured brushes, with beach and
wood platform parts in between? At least something different than the
standard metal theme...

This map was designed to give people more chances to surf when they fall off the map. It spawns you in a room where there is a trigger hurt, you walk to a button and open up two glass doors. The hurt is there to kill off the people who have already been hurt a few times. SO, if you suck at surfing then you have more opportunity to learn. PLUS, there is an AIM map at the bottom of the level.

Horrible texture choices in my opinion, but there is some pretty
creative architecture in there. Or at least I think there is - thats a
crappy screenshot style you've got going :razz:

I've never played a surf map before, don't even know how it works
really, but I guess by their very nature its hard to do one that is
really good looking. I don't quite know how you hit upon the word
"beautiful" to describe this to be honest - it may well be creatively
designed and quite distinct, but it's no oil painting.

I'd go with non-directional textures that aren't so obnoxious when used
over such large surfaces if I were you. I'd also suggest adding some
trims around the edges - if it's quite distinctly different to the
"bulk" texture you use then it will help bring out the shapes and
define their shape better too.