LETS MAKE SOME MAPS

[Gabber]

I've been waiting for random's guide for months, i've had ideas for maps i wanted to make for a long time but was too lazy to bother actually learning all this hammer bullshit...now with this guide i don't have an excuse anymore...and neither do YOU.

The most motivating part of this process is the fact that since we're part of Castaway we basically have a guaranteed space where we could be sure our maps could be tested with actual players, all we gotta do is actually lock in and put in some effort into making the ideas into reality. Who knows...maybe the next arctic, mojave or boundary could be made by US.

Anyway, i'm sure it's gonna take a while before i personally figure out how to do any of this shieeet properly, even with the guide but i'm making this thread to sorta kick myself in the ass into actually doing this by publicly stating my interest in making a map. I'm vowing to at least have something somewhat workable to show off by the end of 2026, Robin (pbuh) willing.

So if anyone else has the guts...post here stating your grand map-making plans, your ideas and your progress in actually making it in practice.
If i remember correctly, Genuline already said he's making an sd map a while ago.
As far as my map goes, i'm not going to say too much since i dont want you plebs stealing my epic idea, all i'll say is it's going to be tc_hydro inspired.

1384343877.7_20260129200414_1.jpg (236.46 KiB) Viewed 2758 times

[Pasta]

just pay indians $5 to do it

[DelabLeFou]

I've technically made my own map but never bothered to finish it, haven't worked on it in over a year, you can check it out here: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/cp_mootin.18136/

[Wivernik]

It isn't exactly ground-breaking or revolutionary but I've been developing my first Koth map since about late October last year,

Its based on the viaduct formula with the arctic centre point underground passage with the looks of granary/well.

The development of this map has been very sloppy and all over the place since this has really only been a practice run/exercise for my skills and knowledge to develop. I've already learnt tons from my mistakes and shortcomings and so I'm confident that my next map will be better and more refined since now I know the plan and the steps.

I've made quite a lot of progress over the past 2 months with optimization and other functional aspects + details & etc, and at this rate I'll probably be happy enough to finish it in about 3 months, my biggest concern at the moment is polishing and remaking the less baked areas. (i.e blu side)


The map is technically in beta, but as mentioned prior I haven't necessarily been following the rules of the naming convention that much, semi-major changes are still being/will be made to the playable layout.
regarding playtests the map has only received 1 on a different community server a while back in an earlier buggy build.

[random]

I've got ideas for a map as well I want to put into effect. I have always wanted to make a pirate island map but displacements not working very well on Linux was off putting to me. However I think I will just bite the bullet and try to work with them even if it's very hard due to the tool only half working because I just want to make one. I'm hoping to make a tc map of some kind.

One of the best things we have is the ability to help each other and give feedback, it's why I think a forum based tutorial is superior to a video one. Being able to discuss with other people is something I find very helpful for crystallizing my own ideas, both praise and criticism help me think.

In my vision you can make a thread for a map you're working on and post updates or gather some opinion on things like layout and aesthetics, or just generally ask questions. We can have a bigger thread for people who don't want to make their own as well, this subforum is dedicated pretty much primarily to this goal so feel free to use it.

The way I work on projects is somewhat idiosyncratic and I often do short sprints of a ton of work then take long hiatuses which ends up stretching something to a year when it could be a month. It's compounded by my more recent busy schedule which will not get any better, but I will try to have something available by the end of the year to play even if it's not amazing.

Lastly I want to encourage people to be open about maps. There's no reason to keep a map as a "secret project", no one is going to steal your idea and even if they do, so what? They can redo your idea after you release it too. Don't worry about being secretive with your ideas, collaboration is a big boost to everyone.

[Rowdy]

Maybe I'll get back into mapping again, would these maps be play-tested on the Castaway servers? It'd be a good way to get feedback and there can be a forum section dedicated to this.
And maybe only weekends so it's in line with the custom map rules.

[random]

Maybe I'll get back into mapping again, would these maps be play-tested on the Castaway servers? It'd be a good way to get feedback and there can be a forum section dedicated to this.
And maybe only weekends so it's in line with the custom map rules.

I don't want to have to test 20 different versions of every map and turn weekends into playtesting sessions, but I am more than happy to put on player created maps so we can try them out. I'd say it makes sense to try major versions rather than every individual little change

[Rowdy]

Maybe I'll get back into mapping again, would these maps be play-tested on the Castaway servers? It'd be a good way to get feedback and there can be a forum section dedicated to this.
And maybe only weekends so it's in line with the custom map rules.

I don't want to have to test 20 different versions of every map and turn weekends into playtesting sessions, but I am more than happy to put on player created maps so we can try them out. I'd say it makes sense to try major versions rather than every individual little change

Yeah that's fair, appreciate you allowing it!

[Genuline]

about my SD map, here's what it looks like

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 3662968700

not quite sure how to embed images yet sorry, but I was working on it for a while, re-did the whole layout and ended up with this. I made it up as I went & was hoping to throw it on the server for feedback, but random wanted a more presentable art-pass. valid request but more importantly it made me take a step back & think about actually getting the map right instead of just snow-balling it into something half-assed

so I put it on hiatus, worked on some slender fortress projects & now I'm free to work on it again. SD maps are tricky because the only frame of reference I have for how SD should play is doomsday & its been hard to think of something that isn't just "doomsday 2" even TC and RD are more open-ended and consequently easier to think of layouts for. I just need to brainstorm harder, at the very least I know what I want the setting to be, a harvest-inspired farm & the rocket will be replaced by a radio tower or something which you power with a core to win. the entity logic for the platform & capturing-part also scared me with how it looked in doomsday's .vmf

I've made plenty of maps for GMod and alternate TF2 gamemodes, but never any for base TF2 :/

[random]

While this is not anywhere close to as cool as the map Wivernik is working on, here is a link to the map that is created at the end of the Mapping tutorial if you follow it 1:1

[Genuline]

kind of a nothingburger update for my SD map (just to bump the thread) I've got a stronger idea for my layout now but something still just isn't right, I keep cycling between referencing Doomsday & KOTH maps as they centre around a neutral objective. with the Rocket on Doomsday there's a lot of vertical space & limited team-sided space to fight on, there's only really the neutral ground of the platform where the rocket is & the platform + mines above it. its harder to contest when outside of these areas as you're either too far or don't have a good line of sight to pressure the enemy team

so for my map I've been struggling to balance having enough neutral ground & team-oriented ground without giving either team an easy advantage to push / spawn-camp. maps like Harvest get me thinking because you have a bit of space between your spawn & the objective to work with before committing to a certain plan IE flanking, contesting the point etc. I think if I have something like that it'd be good, but I also don't want a lot of empty rooms & space you'll only waste time walking through either; examples of this I think are the areas around spawns in Brazil & the town part of Cursed Cove

overall I just need to think & ponder on this more, when I have something I'm more confident in I'll share it here for feedback before putting the map into production full-time. or if anyone has any good resources for balancing a map in the design stage please let me know

also something else I believe random is working on guides for entity logic on each gamemode AKA the "brain" of your map, so when those come out they should help introduce more people to mapping for different gamemodes & the SD one will be especially helpful to me

[Genuline]

update on my map(s):

the sd map is shelved for now, aside from IRL getting in the way I wasn't able to get a good layout going & back when I was making it I didn't have a good understanding of why maps work & what makes them good. not to mention the entity logic for SD maps is tricky with the platform & cap mechanics

now I'm not much better BUT I've pivoted to making an attack defend map, 1 stage, 3 control points. the aesthetic is inspired by the "TF alpine" style of maps like sawmill, thunder mountain, nightfall etc. and I've been heavily referencing mojave / mountain lab for "what good design looks like" in terms of space, architecture, health & ammo placement etc. the gameplay / layout features a lot of rickety shacks sitting upon mountain tops where the threat of cliffs and falls is ever present. the inspiration for making a map high up in the mountains is Spyro 1, where in said game you go through a lot of levels which take place up high to compliment Spyro's glide ability

(did I mention you should play Spyro 1? because you should play Spyro 1...)

the feeling of moving through rocky mountain tops, shuffling around tight passageways and battling foes with the looming threat of falling into a pit of death is what I want to translate to TF2. not to mention a lot of maps which feature cliffs IE upward, cactus canyon, altitude etc. often focus fighting & objectives around the indoors / inner-edges of cliffs instead of outer-edges; fighting near the edge I think is unique & will help my map stand out. a good example of this is doublecross which I want to use a specific element of after the 2nd point (no spoilers)

I don't know if what I'm making is good & I'll only find out after playtesting it with you guys which I'm really eager to do, for now I need to make a rough beta version which I'm hoping to finish sooner than later

[random]

the feeling of moving through rocky mountain tops, shuffling around tight passageways and battling foes with the looming threat of falling into a pit of death is what I want to translate to TF2. not to mention a lot of maps which feature cliffs IE upward, cactus canyon, altitude etc. often focus fighting & objectives around the indoors / inner-edges of cliffs instead of outer-edges; fighting near the edge I think is unique & will help my map stand out. a good example of this is doublecross which I want to use a specific element of after the 2nd point (no spoilers)

I don't know if what I'm making is good & I'll only find out after playtesting it with you guys which I'm really eager to do, for now I need to make a rough beta version which I'm hoping to finish sooner than later

Looking forward to it. I would suggest not going whole hog on the detail work until it's been playtested, because there might be whole sections you want to change/remove after we test it out. I'd just recommend basic texturing, and any gameplay relevant props (like fences/boxes/trucks/etc). Things like bushes, extra detail on buildings, skybox, out of bounds areas, etc. can probably be saved for later, just so you don't waste time detailing an area that might get removed

[Genuline]

Looking forward to it. I would suggest not going whole hog on the detail work until it's been playtested, because there might be whole sections you want to change/remove after we test it out. I'd just recommend basic texturing, and any gameplay relevant props (like fences/boxes/trucks/etc). Things like bushes, extra detail on buildings, skybox, out of bounds areas, etc. can probably be saved for later, just so you don't waste time detailing an area that might get removed

agreed, I got kind of stuck into detailing things unnecessarily instead of working on the fundamental structure of the map, so I'm just gonna block out things & sketch layout ideas before throwing stuff together. I mentioned this in-game but I remember sending you screenshots of a beta SD map I made & you said it needed an art-pass, to what level I wasn't sure; so I'm guessing just no dev textures will do