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Ok. Ok. Ok.Stop.Just. Stop.I understand you're trying to experiment with stuff but you need to start small. Make a map that feels like it flows well through all points in the map, even the more obscure locations that you can hide like a large weapon or something, but make the map small.To help design a map that flows well, I recommend drawing a race track or something on paper and building a map's geometry around that. Just draw a circuit, add a couple overlaps maybe and just put rooms in places.Don't make the map just hallways, though.Afterwards, look at how other maps handle textures and work on your texture choices.To be completely blunt in the most painful way possible, the above screenshot you posted looks like ass and that's what prompted this post.Not only does it look bad visually, but it also doesn't look like a very good map based on the fact that it is a large, empty hallway. If you wish to make a long hallway like that, break it up with things, but try to avoid making things too claustrophobic, which is a problem some of my maps suffer.I hope you were insulted by the above statement because that means you actually care.
Lego is right, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop worrying about aesthetics because a mapper is supposed to make a map that's actually FUN to play on. Your FTM2 map wasn't bad because it looked bad. To be honest, the aesthetics were cohesive in a few places. Your FTM2 map was bad because the layout was an aboslute hell to navigate through. It was disjointed, the use of ladders was really bad, and the there was one section where you could camp near the teleporter and farm kills. You have ambition to make a pretty map, but you honestly need to focus more on the way a layout works and take cues from what other mappers are doing. Read a book on game design if you want. Read this article which covers the basics of architecture and see how it relates to making an impressive map. Above all, you need to START SMALL. Shade Guy is who you need to follow, because he grew at his own pace and slowly improved into the master he is today. You're not a master, but you can be if you have PATIENCE and take map design one component at a time. If you're more worried about the background than you are on the playable area, you'll just end up like DTD: a mapper with decent aesthetic skills but absolutely garbage at layouts. I'm glad I never have to work with him again because his last map, AMP16, showed he was only good at making a map look like a mess of textures while providing a layout that played like ass. Don't be another DTD. START SMALL. Make a symmetrical duel map or something. Don't push yourself to make a map pretty, make it playable first. I know I'm sounding like a broken record but you gotta believe me.Take a large step back and look at the material around you.Analyze what works and what doesn't.Steal like an artist.Roll with the punches.I can enjoy that you've got a lot of interest, and I seriously don't want to kill that interest. This community needs more good mappers and even people like Lego and Llama are starting to learn what can lead to a good map. If you feel you have potential, don't try to unleash it all at once or you'll end up frustrated when people don't like your works. Keep remaking the same map if you have to. Don't be like Blaze, who never really looks for anything new and seems to just map for the sake of mapping. Don't be like Rozark and focus so much on aesthetics that you forget the definition of the phrase "weapon layout". Don't be like me and assume that just because you've made a new gimmick, you've made a good map. Learn from those mistakes. Please.