Advanced guide to map making By: xUNSCxHeadShot Ok people, this is everything I know about making decent maps in the game of Halo 3. This guide will have many examples to help you understand and many tips for making great maps. Also, this will help you get ideas for other maps. Most of the examples wil be featured maps to help you understand better. Map Techniques Ok there are a couple things you need to have in a map to make it flow, make it fun, and make it look good. Some main things are: Interlocking Effective Spawn Placement And quite possibly Gametypes A advanced map may use techniques such as Geo-Merging Switches Glitching out of levels The money glitch Floating objects Instant respawning objects And many other things that can be found on Forging 101 All theses topics have links to the threads. Keep in mind that to make a advanced map you don't have to use all of these. Also, believe it or not geo-glitching is not a must have for a map, it is in fact optional. Actually I am not saying you need interlocking but most basic maps maps have them. Another reason why Im not adding interlocking to the advanced list is because there are almsot no maps in the featured catagory or in the competeive catagory. Map Design This is quite possibly the most important thing a map could have. This basically determines the flow, funness, and layout of your map or maps. One of the biggest and most important objects about maps is the thing you put in your mmap to make it cool, fun, amzing, or whatever. This is also known as wow factor. This so called "wow factor" is probably the most main thing you need to worry about in the map. Some examples are the alien ship in Epicenter The tunnel in Reflex The annoying yet outstanding walls of Distortion The amazing geo-glitching of Renegade Or the amazing conveyor-belt of Pallet Parade Of course not all great maps have these. Most mini-game maps in fact do not. for instance, Duck Hunt Snow Mice or Ghost Busters Most of these maps pretty much rely on the gametype (other then ghost busters) but are extremly fun. These maps are mainly re-creations of arcade games or other older games. Most great maps usuly have a main piece. But believe it or not duck hunt and snow mice both do. Its the gametype. Gametypes As you know you can create the neatest map with all kindas of forging techniques but it still could possibly be boring or dumb or stupid so you get mad but, depending on what map it is you can still have a great game type. Picture a game of slayer on duck hunt. Yea pretty stupid right? well thats what gametypes do. You can mak all kinds of cool gametypes using the ones that bungie has given us. For an example, I thing craziest and fun gametype right now is the teamwerks Noob arena gametype. This brings me to my next point on gametypes for maps. That would be custom power ups. In many game types people use the custom powerups option to effect. This can give the player super human abilites (50% grav.) or super tutrtle abilites (10% speed). These do not have to be used though a map can be great with out it. Gametypes are used for supporting a map. Symmetry Another big part of a map is wheather yuo want to have a aysemmetrical map or a symmetrical map. Usuly symetrical maps are the easiest to think of and design on foundry designer. Aysemmetrical maps are almost always pretty hard to think of and design. This is my opionion. I think that the easiest way to make a aysemmetrical map is to make it on antoher map besides foundry. Symmetrical maps usuly consist of: Two to Four bases A middle object 1-2 floors An example is Project X Aysemmetrical maps usuly constist of: Mutiple bases Many center objects or hallways Multiple floors A example is Flux Aysemmetrical maps are usuly pretty good objective maps to but so are symmetrical. The only diffrence about objective is that aysemmetric are usuly one flag or bomb and symetrical is usuly multiple flag or bomb. Planning The most important step to designing a map is planning. Before making your map you should always find a way to prepare for it map mentally. A great way to prepare for a map on foundry is the Foundry designer. You can't just rush into a map and start making a masterpiece. It doesn't work like that. You gotta put a lot of thought into your maps first. But before you put all this thought into it, you gotta have an idea. Some times its hard to get ideas for maps that arent on foundry but if your having problems then I suggest just taking your time and browse some ideas. If the ideas dont work then move on to the next. Ideas and Originality It's ok to get ideas from other maps but doing so will probably make your map lack originality. Remakes from movies and such also lack originality. to get a really good idea you have to be thinking about it constantly. Observe structure around you and in your environment. try to learn how other forgers forge and try to use their ways to add on to yours. Think of things that haven't been done yet. Even though it seems like every things been done already, don't worry there will always be somthing that hasn't been done. Your job is to figure out what it is and how to do it. Maps that are similar to other maps usually dont get as noticed as original and unique maps with unique structure and such. Making your map Once you start building the map it's important to stay focused and keep in mind where your going with the map. when building the map take all the time you get and don't throw something off. if something is crooked, fix it, don't just leave it like there. because whether you know it or not, people WILL notice it and crooked things make people think less of the map. Also if your going to stack a fence wall on top of a double box thats not going to work. People will get annoyed they have to jump on top of the fence wal and then walk to the other side so I suggest interlocking them. Testing Always, Always, ALWAYS playtest your map and kind the kinks before releasing it. it's usually spawns and weapon placement that are messed up. and some of those things have ruined really good maps. don't just pass up on this stuff either. we all know its boring but its a very important part of the map. Play around with your spawns and weapon placement a little and keep on testing til it's perfect. Testing should tell you: How your spawns are working How powerfull your weapons work How much equipment should be on the map If the vechicles don't rule over the whole map (if you have them) And how nicely your map is made If you don't test your map and you post it the map might have flaws which would also make people not want to download yor later maps because they think that it's going to be the same way. Thanks everybody I hope this guide helped some people out for there next map idea or ideas. Thanks. By: xUNSCxHeadShot (i'll spell check it later)
the guide was ok. i found it kinda basic. but nice pictures and all. some of this stuff can be very obvious to more experienced forgers. but i guess the guide is good for beginner forgers. oh and you might wanna fix up some typos you had there. especially this one
Hahahahaha thanks but yea this is a little for expert forgers because many forgers dont really put any "wow factor" into there maps.
actually i would have to disagree. why would you call someone an expert forger if they don't have a wow factor on their map? their map probably wouldnt be very good if they're was a wow factor and if their map wasnt good then they probably aren't "expert" forgers. sorry but what you said really didnt make sense. but like i said before, it looks like a great guide for forgers who have the skill, but can't utilize their forging skill to make a good map. im really glad you made this too because i've been seeing maps lacking the orginallity and the "wow" factor like you say. i was actually thinking about making a guide similar to this but you obviously beat me to it. it looks like you put some time into this too, so nice job.