Missing That Special Map Feeling

seems like you have a good start, its just unfinished.
dont get discouraged, just keep forging and these solutions will become second nature to you.

 

Add some original geometry. Don't just put walls down. Add some curves, weird angles etc. to make your map look different than others. Good luck, hope that helped a little.

 

I know how you feel man. The last map I made felt cold and unoriginal to me... It played well, but it lacked some feeling. It was as if I went through the motions creating it. But as two of my forge buddies loved the map, I passed it off to them to publish. It was virtually done, but I just didn't care about it.
When making a map, try to incorporate things that make it unique to you. If you have a particular style you forge in, don't break from it. Originality is one of the key pieces to a map's success.

 

I think part of it has to do with you being the person creating the map. As the creator you know what and where everything is and what they do. It takes away the creativity from your point of view because you know everything about your map. Then when you see other maps that you don't know everything about, it makes them seem better than yours, when that may not be the case.

It's like you make something but you don't think it's any good or you're bored of it because you've spent a lot of time on it.

I'm sure other forgers have the same experiences as you sometimes.

 

I feel the same with some of my maps. I think the problem is I'm not too good at making the map look continuous, they always look like they were built as separate sections. It's like the gameplay can flow perfectly from room to room but the rooms seems to be from different buildings

 

I have the same problem mainly because I am a perfectionist, I want everything to be perfect and its difficult because lets face it were not working with a graphic design program, Were working with preset pieces and geometry so creativity and originality becomes a real sought after thing. I suggest getting a couple guys from the site and having them test, review and maybe even help forge your maps. It's always good to have a second opinion, Try the testers guild they will test, review and give you opinions based on gameplay, aesthetics and the such. My test group is always open too just contact SecretSchnitzel.

 

What you're missing is aesthetics. I can't check out your map right now but judging from its one picture it seems like you've just barely got the first part down to making a great map. Laying down the basic foundation for the outline of the map is step one.

I'm going to guess that you haven't used your entire budget up yet. The first thing I've learned is that you should make the most out of your budget. Even if you feel like it's finished, make a copy of the file and go crazy with it. Go with any idea that pops into your head for aesthetics. Think of a theme. Think of ways to use forge pieces in ways they weren't meant to be used. Flip them upside down. Place them at an odd angle. Before you know it, you'll start imagining the pieces as completely different objects. In combination with various forge objects being used in unique ways, you'll start to see some uniqueness to your map. Don't worry too much about having everything look perfect. This is all meant to be a rough draft. You'll find yourself deleting something you worked on for a good 15 minutes when you back up and see that it's not looking quite right so don't spend too much time on coordinates.

After you've fleshed out some rough ideas and you really like the way the aesthetics are taking shape, you can then go in and make everything align perfectly.

The most important part to making maps is to test them out in various situations. Let the feel of the map sink in. Ask other players how they feel about it and what they think would be a cool addition. When you get to the point where nobody is commenting on the map and simply having fun playing Halo, you've made a solid map.

 

I had the same feeling when I first joined this site. All I can say is... ya know when you start a map and make that one really cool good looking piece with all this detail? Then you think wow, this is gonna be as good as whatever. DO NOT loose the detail you put into that piece. Keep at the same detail rate throughout the entire map. Don't be afraid to "waste" pieces, they may look good and help gameplay, and it isn't like you can't delete the object if necessary.

And do not get impatient. That's what I did with Burn, it being my first map that I successfully broke free of the problem your having. Anyways, don't worry, once you make a good map and get some confidence, everything just flows.

 

My only suggestion would be to try and use more peices when making your objects. Make them a little more unique, and maybe that'll give you a little more motivation to work with them enthusiastically.

EDIT: Raulness pretty much has it all summed up. Keep it unique.

 

I dunno about anyone else, but I find this is the case with me just about 100% of the time. When I start a map I'm really excited about it, and I'm into it. But by the end it never really strikes me as awesome as I thought it was to begin with. And oftentimes I'm just really sick of looking at it. Even though I always feel like I try to polish my work to the best of my knowledge, I never feel like it's as good as it should be.

As for your map, the one picture you have up is pretty much uninteresting. Especially since there aren't more pictures for reference. But I'd definitely start messing with some of the pieces in forge to see if you can't make some unique scenery. Even some simple pillars or something would enhance the look. Usually flat structures don't catch much attention at all.