Confused, frustrated and clueless, kinda

I seem to have lost my ambition to map. Therefore I feel pretty obnoxious. Pretty sad I feel when thinking of my map 'infestigation' never to complete. Pretty unwanted it is to loose a hobby.
Fact is: I have got enough time to concentrate on mapping really effective. I just see no more 'fun' in it.

Strange:

I just realised that mapping is a nice thing to do but I stop doing things as soon as I have done them for a while. I never did stilt-walking or juggling again. Because I can do these things now. Unfortunately not perfectly - but good enough for me.

The nutshell: I have no ambition whatsoever to develop my skills. Isn't that really abnormal?

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Never try to be perfect - just try it and make the best out of it

I stopped mapping for about a year because of lack of ambition, although about a month ago I started again.

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Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

Heh, don't worry about losing your ambition for mapping, I've lost mine at least a dozen times only to regain it... I haven't mapped in at least 3-4 months but I assume I'll get back to it again, someday.

I haven't mapped for months, only the last 1 or 2 months I picked it up
again. I've got little time for it now but I do it now and then and I'm
set on finishing something now.

So, yeah... :smile:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

I've never lost my ambition mainly because I never actually had such a
thing. My maps progress extremely slowly.

I make in 2 months what an
ambitious mapper would make in 2 hours work.

Yeah, that's
what's actually missing: the passion. It was great for a while. After
all, how many out there can say that they can make their own world after their
own twisted imagination? Now after nearly 5 years, mapping is now
routine, just something I do everyday...a reflex if you will. Sad,
really. And I have less inspiration now than I used to have 5 years
ago, when I discovered Quark and half-life mapping.

Still working on dm_drift though; should have it finished by Christmas...2007.

its called burnout. happens all the time. sucks, but you get used to having those. its like a period, i guess, but im not a girl, so i dont really know. it can be a bitch tho.

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www.nysteo.com

If animals weren't meant to be eaten, then they wouldn't be so delicious and easy to catch!

Face it: if crime didn't pay, there would be very few criminals.

youre not the only one, I stopped mapping a while back. & this was the case for me even when I was mapping.

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My Pit

One thing that I have discovered is that you can force yourself to be creative.

By forcing myself to sit down and work on projects despite the fact
that i didnt really want to, I have learnt to be more effectively
creative.

I just sit down and consentrate on the "problem" and the solution usually pops up in my head after a short while.

But of course sometimes that doesnt help either, I just get plain stuck
and dont know how to make the corridor look good. In those cases i
often look at similar maps and "copy" their solutions trying to do
something similar and then change it so something personal.

Talking to friends and people at sites like Snarkpit often helps with solving issues and getting more ideas.

ishbog mentioned burnout, and it happened to me in the early days.

I used to work like 4-5 hours a day on a map for a week, got out of
inspiration, made the finishing touches and clamed the map "done"
simply because I got so sick and tired of it.

Nowadays I usually only sit around 30 minutes a day at maximum, and I
stop after that, even if I have lots of ideas left to be done. This
makes the mappingflow much more smooth. I guess that the progress gets
more slow this way, but at the same time, I have more time to really
think about the maps layout and visual stuff.

In the end, does it really matter if it takes you two months to complete it, or five?

Hmm, I agree things chance. Back then, finding new ways to trick a
player, or finding out how some complex entities worked and all was
great. After 4 years or such, the technical aspect is just... the
technical aspect. It isn't great anymore to find a new way to fake a
player, that's just part of it. Routine, indeed.

But I've now also started to find out new things in term of gameplay.
Now, it's a challenge to keep the player playing, to make my map
interesting and fun rather than boasting the most innovative technical
stuff.

That also makes me a little sad about current games. Technology is
everything, but a fun game and a good story are hard to find these
days, especially the latter. Command & Conquer and Tiberian Sun
still have one of the best stories (and the way it is told) of all RTS.
I recently bought Codename: Panzers and while it really looks a great
deal better than CnC and TS, the way the story is told is... well, not
immersive at all. All you see is a diary and some in-game cut-scenes
that look fake because of bad animations and crappy voice-acting.

Far Cry as another example, looked really nice, but the gameplay was pretty much repetetive.

All in all, even though I've started to look different at some aspects
of mapping, I think there's still a lot of challenge in it.

EDIT: As for workflow, it took me some time to find a method that fits
me well. I always read about those people that advised you to draw out
a layout and test it before detailing and it never worked for me. Now
that I'm a few years further, I do exactly that - and it works much
better than what I tried before. Now, I have a solid base to work on,
to detail and to work out. Back then, I detailed an area and then ran
out of idea's for other area's. And I never knew how to combine the
parts I had made to something with a nice gameflow...

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

EDIT: As for workflow, it took me some time to find a method that fits
me well. I always read about those people that advised you to draw out
a layout and test it before detailing and it never worked for me. Now
that I'm a few years further, I do exactly that - and it works much
better than what I tried before. Now, I have a solid base to work on,
to detail and to work out. Back then, I detailed an area and then ran
out of idea's for other area's. And I never knew how to combine the
parts I had made to something with a nice gameflow...

I must say that I agree with you.

However I manage to keep the drawings in my head somehow.

Doing drawings is great, it doesnt matter if you cant draw, since no one needs to understand what you draw except yourself.

I have NEVER finished a halflife or HL2 map.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Heh... I lost my ambition to map when HL2 came out, and I haven't
gotten it back yet :sad: Now I just hang around for teh snarkpr0n.

whenever i finish a map i say to myself: this was the last one i'll ever make. But after a few months you think up new ideas, see other great maps, and then the mapping drive is back.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

ive experienced the same thing

but in other areas of my life

probly because ive never mapped

for example, as soon as i got "acceptable" at the drums i began to slow down

and now i havent even played them in earnest for months

it pisses me off but for some reason i wont go back to them

It looks like most of the people here are just here to use the forums to chat :-P

I've kind of lost the ambition to map. I started up again for a day 2
weeks ago and I started this really cool map. But like, 2 days of some
intense mapping. like 20% of it done. Now that I have the full Idea
develpoed. It just doesnt seem like I want to continue.

BUT. I have faith in myself and probably wil start again in october

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Thank you guys for your understanding.

I was worried about I would not finish the map by the release date. I think I'm going to change that and start again some minor work.

Yesterday I unpacked my stilts and went to the basketball court. And somehow I spent my whole day out there having like the best day of this year.
You guys are totally right. I just have to accept the fact that I cannot be ambitious all the time. Therefore I will keep up the work - only I will do it more slowly than I thought I would do it the whole time through.... kinda

Thanks

... till later.

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Never try to be perfect - just try it and make the best out of it