Post Your Mapping Post Mortem

[MemeMind]

A Post Mortem is when you look back and reflect on something you made. So lets do it with your maps!

 

So you can go over what went right, what went wrong, what was different about this Map, what you have learned, and all of development. 

I think sharing this kind of information and ideas with other people will help everyone with becoming a better mapper.

 

So to start I will be dissecting my most recent map. 

Spoiler

 

I made a map for my own speedmapping project Musical Mapping. The gimmick of the project is basing a map on a piece of music. So I took NIN's "Head Like a Hole". First the song and the music video had a tribal and tech conflict kinda vibe, so I went for a jungle and techbase combination. One other thing, the time for mapping was 5 hours. 

 

I think the major problem with the map is that I spent too much time on the outside jungle area, and made it too big. I didnt want to start the player off in a difficult area, but the size of the area did not mesh well with the monsters I chose. Since I spent too much of my time on the outside, the inside techbase area suffered. I should have spent more time with detailing and lighting on the inside. Also the major fight at the end needs to be tweaked. I do actually have 30 minutes I left for tweaking from the beta. 

 

As for what I think I did well, I love the ending. I made the ending a downwards spiral, like the other NIN album. I also found a really good midi remake of "The Downwards Spiral" and I had the music switch to it when you arrive at the end. I also really liked a small secret that I made, I dont make alot of secrets in my maps and so I tried to make a proper secret and I think its good.

 

I have some things to analyze as the first Community Project I lead but thats not about the map itself. 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by MemeMind

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

Neat thread idea!

 

I'm still very much a beginner but this is my take on the second map I published - Visa to the Stars:

 

Just replayed it a minute ago and I honestly, I was expecting it to be a lot worse.

The starting room is an uneven space ship with a little puzzle where you can get your first secret - green armour. Also a shotgun and some health&armour bonuses. I don't like having to pistol a bunch of dudes, so it's good I got in the habit of giving out a useful weapon quickly. Then going through a fireblu portal into a second room mayhem. That room is just chaos. Lots of crates and walls to hide behind but enemies come from everywhere, I like that. No place is safe. There's a peep window to blue key that opens exit. That's cool and all but it's not clear how to get to it at all. Later on, you'll get a red key that is actually completely useless. There is a lift switch with wrongly pegged texture that is marked to use red key but not locked at all. The button is just hidden until the red key is available. Just... why?

One of the crates has an Archie in it but the yellow martian's idle animation is bigger than 64 units, so their hand/foot pokes through the crate. Yikes. Well, at least you have a reason to click the crate to reach another secret, which is absolutely mad. A metric crap-ton of zombie dudes and another Archie teleport in.

The other three rooms are not great. The pit of nukage is just bad. Enemies always get stuck next to a stairway, then there's a ledge fight that's just tedious, and a herd of pinkies that pose no threat what so ever.

After that things get better, imo. An oval shaped room that will very obviously open up with monsters does indeed open with monsters and if you try to leg it the shortest way, you'll get locked in for 30 seconds.

Back in the blue key room, picking the key up will open a door with a rev or archie, depending on skill. Small room where the only cover from the archie's flame is a computer monitor is evil, and mean, and I like it.

 

I definitely notice some mapping habits I still have, both good and bad. Making a small, "efficient" rooms that look kinda cool and figuring out what monsters to put in later, that's a real struggle. The kinds of secrets where you press a random box, or "it's locked but when I got back later it was open and I have no idea why" are something I want to avoid too. That doesn't feel rewarding, it feels coincidental. The secret where you have to shoot a switch, that's a cool one. Cause the player has to come up with what to do, then does it and gets reward for doing it. That's a good secret. Also, the combat in this map is both really fun and also really awful, in separate places. And figuring out the reasons for the good ones being good and the bad ones being bad is very useful.