A friend of mine came up with an idea i like very much so i wrote down a few guidelines or directions on what i think could work. I will update it and change it some when i find things to change or get new ideas. If there is some suggestions please comment and ill update the guidelines.
Thanks for your time
Mapping tennis - Guidelines An idea by Mr.Siim Guidelines by DagF
1st phase – Organization (max 1-3 days) A team of 2-10 mappers group together and thing out a theme and what kind of map you are going to make(jump map, frag map, fun map or anything else). If you decide to make a frag map select one or two members to work out the layout. Let the other mappers overview the layout and come with suggestions until everyone is happy with the layout. Then let one of the mappers make the layout with big brushes and let the rest of the team overview it. It’s important that everyone is more or less happy about the theme and layout as this is just for fun.
If you end up fighting each other then put radiant away for a while and figure out the difficulties. I DO NOT want this idea to make fights between fellow mappers. You can use a locked forum to share the map files and make sure you keep a copy of the last one at all times. It will be interesting for other mappers and see the progres as well so if you post screnshots and updated in an publick topic as well i know there would some interested mappers out there. You can use a sharing box like dropbox if necessary.
2th phase - Building () When the layout and theme is done it’s time to start building. It’s important to make a list for turns. Each mapper get 24 hours before he have to hand it in. This will have to be organized so everyone get during a weekend and so on. You decide yourself. The first mapper get the map made out of big rough brushes and he starts making a part he decries. He will only make this with brushwork models, and real textures will be added later. When the 24 hours have passed he has to upload what he has done. It is nice if you upload a screenshot and a short comment on what you have done with it. Make sure you DON’T change any other mappers geometry too much except for making the parts fit. This can be arranged later to make the parts fit better so don’t mind it too much. Just have respect for the mappers you are mapping with.
3th Phase - Style merging When the map is fully build it’s time to merge the styles. All mappers have their own style of mapping so there will be different styles. Try to merge this together as good as possible. You will also merge the parts together making the map more like one part than it was before. When the styles and parts are merged together cover everything in caulk.
4th phase – Texturing When the brushwork is done and cover in caulk then it’s time to texture the map. I think the best to do here is have one or two of the team texturing while the rest of the tem find and make textures and shader for the textures. This is something you should figure out between each other.
5th phase – Adding models During the other phases there is room for some modeling. In this phase you simply just add the models that fit the map. Ether it is models the team have made or models you have found somewhere. Remember it’s important to clip the models with playerclip or weaponclip after what fits. During this stage it’s also important to clip small brushwork to get better flow in the map.
6th phase – Lightning, lightning, lightning I’m not going to tell you how important lightning is, so I will just say that this is something max two of members of the group should work with. Make the lightning fit the theme and the map.
And you most likely never will. No offense but you lack determination and desire. 2 maybe 3 people max in a team could build a map. Anything more than that turns into a bunch of people arguing what theme/style/name the map should be. I'm saying this out of experience. ut4_Vietnam, i made plants, palm trees, few huts and some tris tests, i think Dag and Happy made some models too and that's where it all ended. Halloween map Del suggested we build. Everybody like the idea, i made a model of a house you guys were still posting suggestions on what style the map should be. That's where Del and i dropped it and moved on to other projects. Let's face it guys, we all think different and that's our main strength and in the same time main weakness. We can think of a hundred ideas for a map in 2 hours but we simply can't agree on how one map should look like. Every one of us wants the map to look different and it ends up with everyone just posting suggestions and only a few people actually rolling up their sleeves and getting to work. If you actually decide to do this i will gladly help out with textures and models. Tell me what you need and I'll make it for you, if i can't make it i know where to find it.
Good luck, I hope this attempt to build a map as a group will work out.
This was mearly a summary of my tought of how something like this could work. More like sharing the idea if someone would ever like to try it out with a few friends really. I have been made avear of a few point in my list and will try to do a test tennis map to see what works out.
Stop arguing about style, stop making strict rules everywhere.
One person has the map at any time, he is not allowed to delete/completely change other parts and otherwise can do whatever he wants. It's about fun, stop restricting.
Ok,sorry. I sould have put suggestion to or something in front.
This is just how i imagen it could work out. I was just trying to make a bit of structur in it but still aloving the freedom, but i can see how some of the freedome is merged.
The best way would indeed be with only the delete/change rule but im not sure if this rule would work for every group making a map. But as i've sayed im testing out this way now and will say if it worked for us who joins or not.
Ps. I was not trying to restrict i was just trying to make a few guidelines or a basic template or whatever i should call this to make it more effective.
