CE: Begginer- A Guide to making Maps

[GHL]

Could i ask this to be moved to tutorials?

Level Designing:

A good map needs a theme, a consistant look to the whole level.
Before starting your map, you should spend a good amount of time planning out EVERY part of your map on paper, infact make a map (lol, yes map as in tresure map type map) on paper then draw a few concept shots of it from different angles, Also a map needs to have a colour pallet, a map with random colours and themes everywhere will just look out of place, so a good example of a colour theme is the covenant levels, Damnation and Chill-Out; those levels are mainly made up of purples and pinks, those are the covenant colours, whereas bloodgulch is browns and yellows to give the feel of a dusty sandy dry area.
I would like you to imagine a large BRIGHT green box in the middle of Bloodgulch, that would look TOTALLY out of place am i right? well thats what i am getting at.

Next i move onto the level itself, as mentioned (co-incidently) in the e3 2004 videos, a good level needs history, a story; so while drawing out your map and thinking up what it would look like, try to imagine what had happened in that maps past, make a short 30 line story to describe its past, the level should have parts of it that reflect that past, like if a war had took place on that map, it should have bomb crators or something along those lines.

Now onto the levels actual geometry, i have seen (not just for halo) so many maps where someone has made a quick hightmap with TONS of hills and dips placed everywhere, this is wrong, you should think of how the map will play, dont just make it up! imagine playing the map in your head - BE there and you will notice the problems, a map should have set routes aswell, a easily spotted way through the level, like Bloodgulch has that "road" that snakes through the middle of it.

Lighting, Lighting is just as important in a level as the walls and floor themselves,
make sure your players can see thier way around the level or they will loose interest in it because its so frustrating to get around. also, try to make all the lightsources visible, show the player where the light is coming from - even if you just model a light bulb onto the cieling!

Onto the most overlooked part (in my opinion) and what lets most maps down,
Effects, while they look nice they can totally spoil a level,
Take Casualty Gorge for example there is a beutiful water effect for the lake in the middle,
but for those without 'good' graphics cards, its not even there! which can unbalance gameplay by ALOT.
if you cannot see the water that means you can sniper from under it, and those who do see the water dont know where it is coming from, so what i mean is, when making all these lovely effects for your level, test it in the -useff mode which sets your graphics to the lowest possible for halo, so you see the worst your level can possibly look, and try to get around it.

While on the subject of unbalanced games,
There is one thing that can break a level forever, weapons.
Something that many people do with thier levels is add a superpower weapon right there in the middle, while this can be fun for a few games, after your map is played a good 10 - 15 times by people other than you, the superweapon will become a big annoyance more than a fun element.
So if you absolutly NEED a big weapon in your level, make it dangerous to get - not dangerous with big drops ect, but dangerous like a long ladder to get to it, so while they are trying to get to it, the player is open to be attacked.

Finally I want to talk about vehicles, in particular i want to tell you about Banshee's, In the opinion of many people the banshee is overpowered. you can just fly around and squash up to 20 people before your even hit so if you want banshee(s) in your level then you must create a counter-banshee weapon, like chainguns in an area where banshees are hard to fly in, so you have enough time to get on the chaingun without being squashed, but enough space for the banshee to shoot at you.

I hope you understand and use this information that i have written for you, and if you disagree with anything feel free to PM me and i will see if i can change anything.

- GHL


[edit] Before anyone says anything, i didnt say i can do every one of these things for my maps ect, i am saying what all the great maps for any game have, and what i think people should think about when making maps. [/edit]

[mtxboxfreak]

Good tut GHL

[GAM]

i puted it in tut submissions
for u

[GHL]

excuse me?
erm i dont understand

[Kiersten]

- GHL

Sometimes its great to reflect the maps image with your feelings and passion.. Im planning on making a christmas map even if it doesnt seem special to me for a reason... I get no freakin presents I WANT!
Except for a console per year maybe.... Not happening next year obviously

BTW reflect maps upon stunts as well, as u all notice this hasnt been thought over by many developers in which there is an innocent touch through it if you think about angles and strategies for just one small area of the map... Try not to push the stunt factor too hard because not everyone would understand or get it as well as you would.. It takes a brain full of creativity to acually create snowboards for Halo! And well my freind, it is possible to what i looked over so far..

Now for the reflection of what you disliked in earlier Halo maps, use this hatred to your advantage by creating those parts you dislike in the parts of the map expected to be treachorus, but in other cases u also could improve the parts uve disliked into something that forms it well blendfull to the map..

As GHL has said earlier, making random hills and such is very wreckless and personally I think it would wreck you interest in Halo mapping in which Ive done this to myself in the past. Although there is an upper hand to this.. Make your wreckless terrain, then think like what GHL said earlier, use that technique to modify areas of the terrain in which will state historical marks or you can edit the terrain after making the terrain wrecklessly so that it will give you an upper hand in detail... Cant guarantee hapiness from that strategy of map making, but it proves some morals of mine... "Dont judge a book by its insides unless its cover tells it to!"

Oh and BTW about the water effects in Casualty Gorge, I know a way around it, but do not know what and where to get.. If you noticed, bad graphics in normal HaloPC makes the water plain and blue with partial transparancy... Someone needs to investigate this process..

[Physician]

some good insight there. Maps should take some time to create. Maps that are thrown together in a day usually suck. Also, its a good think HEK is so freakin hard to use otherwise we would be burdened with a slew of newbie maps that have a high suck factor.

[axem]

ohhhhhhhhhhhh i thought the halo sp>mp conversions where going to be last months logs. now these months logs are going to be........... elites,grunts,and (some shut me up plz) eveything that has to do with mc.(shoot me so i will shut up and work on my dedicated map to................)

[thestealthcow101]

Also, its a good think HEK is so freakin hard to use otherwise we would be burdened with a slew of newbie maps that have a high suck factor.

hhahahha!! thats funny...a high suck factor...well, it seems even though it is hard to use, people are getting around this and creating maps with high suck factors anyways oh well, i cant do better, thats why i dont try. Oh yeah, and i dont have a 3,000 dollar program.

this is a very useful tutorial. gives a map maker some ideas on what to do and how they should create their terrain. i drew up a map, thought it was good, read your topic, destroyed a couplea hills, and yay!!

then, i took off enough water so that even if you crouch, you arent under water. now the waters perfect for evil sucky gfx carders to think they can neil down and not be found, but it will happen! BWA HAHA!

then...i put xtra lighting in my Underground section, changed the colors of my bases to look like part of the map, and drew some broken ship and plane parts to symbolize the history-an airforce team attacked and defeated, and a piece of debris from the POA. lol.

[royale T]

Lol I noticed the edited piece, I totally agree dont overpower a map. Its not fun to have banshees in every map. Timberland is totally ment for ground combat a banshee would ruin it. Also nukes are fun, but they are only suitable for library to blow up a room.

DONT OVERPOWER

[GHL]

i puted it in tut submissions
for u

ok i found out in the end what happened.
dont EVER do that for anyones tutorials or anything. because if it did get submitted you would be the author of the thread, and i could make no changes if people wanted to see it differently.