What's the hardest part of making a map for you?

[BrassKnight]

For me, it's the beginning because I don't really know where to start with it sometimes. I don't really plan my layouts on paper, I prefer actually doing it on the editor. The only time I drew my layouts was with my first map, after that I stopped doing it.

 

How about you guys? What is the most difficult part for you?

[DRM-MAN]

Enemy and area progression, for me it's kind of hard to make that natural doomy demon progression, and map wise, it's hard for me to come up with room layouts that fit in with what came previously.

[bobstremglav]

Whole map making

 

Joking, hardest part for me is make map to looks cool, and problems starts if I do map lazily in several months, because I may forget layout of map, bugs I wanted to fix and stuff I wanted to make and etc.

[spineapple tea]

Boxy rooms and bland monster usage. I just cant seem to make a fun yet hard map no matter what I do. For boxy rooms, I tend to make random shapes and try to turn them into a workable room.

[Stupid Bunny]

For me the hardest thing is just to push through the inevitable mapper’s block that comes when I have an area I have to do, and no good idea for what to do with it. Like right now I have two different areas of a map done, and I know I want to connect point A to B somehow. But I don’t like to just make corridors stringing two areas together, I get stuck because every idea I come up with just feels boring or lazy and I just wait forever until the perfect idea comes...which of course it often doesn’t. And of course sometimes corridors stringing areas together are fine, some of my previous maps have turned out really tedious in parts where I connected two areas with some kind of bizarre maze or puzzle, when a couple simple rooms would’ve been much better and taken 10% as much time for me to draw anyway. The logical conclusion and end result of this attitude is that I end up with enormous confusing maps, because I feel like I’ve copped out if my map takes less than 45 minutes to finish. My challenge to myself in upcoming maps is to get over this a bit and focus on making maps that are a little quicker and more free-flowing and not a baffling ordeal to get through.

[Doom-X-Machina]

Making sure my maps conform and pander to the needs of players with zero patience who bag out mappers for making inescapable traps or complex puzzles because they don't have the skill or brains to avoid them.

[Yandere_Doomer]

hardest part for me is actually finishing the map.... i have about 2 or 3 unfinished maps that i am working on....

[Roofi]

Starting it , the rest is more time-consuming than hard.

[Silhouette 03]

Making combat fun and making sure my rooms aren’t large squares

[Sectorslayer]

To me, it seems, is how to go from a blunt room sketch that I threw in for testing progression to a detailed and challenging combat area. As soon as an ugly room is there, it sort of disturbs my vision.  

[purist]

Finding the time.

[Omniarch]

Starting it. For some reason, I never seem to learn that the process of creation itself is not that difficult, and spend endless amounts of time agonizing over the high-concept of the map and its wider context (i.e the rest of the mapset, since I also can't seem to conceptualize stand-alone maps).

[Deadwing]

Detailing for me

[LordEntr0py]

Throwing down the initial geometry of an area. Once it's there, it will start evolving into the final shape, but I have to force myself to get a new area down, or I naturally fall into detailing what I already have.

[Somniac]

Finishing the damn thing!

[leodoom85]

The hardest part of mapping? Well, to me now, it's starting to map.

[Optimus]

Sticking to it. But I understand why, as I am doing a lot of other things, when I am enthousiastic about making a map I'll work a bit and then leave it dormant, to complete it 6 months later or something. I would dream of making a single episode or megawad but as I am not as involved and even a single map needs constant focus for severaly days if not a month, I never did it (besides old lame maps stitched together). It puzzles me how a lot of mappers can do entire megawads where each map is perfection and epic in scale.

[Samuel Slayer]

For me, it's a bit of everything. I could force myself to map something and just do uninspired sectors and stuff and really just make forgettable, sub-par level not even I'd want to play. The challenge for me comes from coming up with an interesting area, with special encounters that just clicks. And a lot of that just isn't an easy process. I might come up with an area I have no idea what to do with and I'd have to sit there figuring it out. Many times I've just deleted a room or entire levels because it just didn't come together well enough.

[Retro Dino]

I'm struggling with quit a few things right now. 

1. Finding a good balance of combat. (Trying not to use to many enemies, or the wrong enemies for areas)

2. Fixing the "door problem". (You open a door to a room, and just stand there to shoot the enemies.)

3. Detailing rooms. (I use the same techniques, I need to learn some new ones.)

4. Making rooms that aren't square. (I've also been trying to make stairs that curve, I just can't do it.)
 

[TenenteZashu]

Resource placement, I always feel like I put either too much or too less

[pcorf]

I was lazy and uninspired when making some of the maps for WOS in the past so these days I put in a lot more thought. Interconnected layouts are a challenge to do as it sometimes requires deleting or reshaping areas. Enemy placement and gameplay balance have always been a challenge and I'm often testing a map 3 or 4 times (while taking down notes) to assure it is balanced. What I do enjoy doing is the architectural design.

[URROVA]

having ideas about what i have to map, instead to make square rooms with computers xD

 

also having trouble with making rounded maps

Edited February 6, 2021 by URROVA

[Maximum Matt]

How many cyberdemons can fit in it

[The BMFG]

12 hours ago, Deathclaw886 said:

hardest part for me is actually finishing the map.... i have about 2 or 3 unfinished maps that i am working on....

just completed making map25 of THFS (;

[The BMFG]

1 hour ago, Retro Dino said:

I'm struggling with quit a few things right now. 

1. Finding a good balance of combat. (Trying not to use to many enemies, or the wrong enemies for areas)

2. Fixing the "door problem". (You open a door to a room, and just stand there to shoot the enemies.)

3. Detailing rooms. (I use the same techniques, I need to learn some new ones.)

4. Making rooms that aren't square. (I've also been trying to make stairs that curve, I just can't do it.)
 

i have a bit of the same problems

 

[_bruce_]

After some maps it's hard to come up with a unique design - texture and aesthetics wise.

 

Other than that it's often making the first move when creating some areas. A vital skill is pulling it out of your ass and then slowly accomodating the new part to melt into the previous ones. Most good mapping is not a question of genius but iteratively & stoically improving things - I have gone over maps which were more than 10 years old and after countless tuning was able to turn them into something I liked.

 

Also not overindulging in your "style" - I think Romero made that mistake in his sigil set. He did something clever(shootable eye trigger established as progress mechanics) and then beat it to death.

[Eric Claus]

My problem is I have trouble committing to one map idea so it just goes nowhere as I feel like it goes nowhere or want to capture something beyond the grasp of my skills.  It would probably help if I sat down and sort of came up with a cohesive idea before I start working on it.

[Kore]

Having people play it

 

[how to delete account]

Starting to actually do anything is hard. I don't know how much hours i've been looking in the editors blank screen, occasionally drawing few lines or square sectors until i give up and play league or something.

But when i get myself going, everything becomes kinda easy, the day flies by in a single moment, and by the end of it i had most of the map done.

[Rei is now real]

the hardest part of making a map for me is having to
A: Name the map

B: Choose the right music

i don't know how many times i've made a map that uses Gotham* as music

 

*Gotham from Dn3D