Map themes...

Cre8oR

<div class="IPBDescription">Humm</div>themes in your maps?

the maps ive seen here allmost all looks the same in some way, i know its supposed to be indoor, hitech "labyrinths" to catch the feeling, and the maps ive seen so far seems to have fantastic architecture, atmosphere and all that, but arent you afraid that in the end they are going to look to much the same?!?

very few of the maps (again, those maps ive seen pics from), seem to have som individual theme, which they can connect with the hitech bases...

or is it just me who gotta play teh game before judging :]

-Cre

HanzGruber

each map has a sort of ounce of the mapper in it. You can pretty much tell who did what map by the way they look. Me thinks that looking at screenshots and playing the game are two very different experiences

realityisdead

<!--QuoteBegin--Cre[8]oR+June 22 2002,07:32--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Cre[8]oR @ June 22 2002,07:32)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->or is it just me who gotta play teh game before judging :]<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yep. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Fam

<!--QuoteBegin--HanzGruber+June 22 2002,13:47--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (HanzGruber @ June 22 2002,13:47)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->Me thinks that looking at screenshots and playing the game are two very different experiences<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Indeed they are. All of the maps, despite using common textures, all look so different from one another. You can tell what map you are in all the time, just by looking at a specific piece of corridoor, looking at a room, etc, because they are all so different.

Well dont to the mappers for making such a diverse experience, yet keeping it core to NS gameplay.

Cremator

i map randomly.  i do whatever i feel like.  thus the maps have no theme, they are completely random.

CyonPro

I tend to enjoy lots of order and symmetry in my maps. Making my entire map look like a single, cohesive structure (rather than a connected series of individual rooms) is also important to me.

Cre8oR

i like doing some kinda more specific theme, and reeeeally wanna do a NS map, just cant make the final layout before i have tried the game <!--emo&:(--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('><!--endemo--> *sigh* hate waiting....

Plaguebearer

I always try to have the theme concrete in mind before I start laying down brushes - mainly by constructing rooms on graph paper in top-down and side elevations, in isometric details on sketchpaper, proof-of-concept minimaps to try things, etc.

I really wish I had my scanner working, so I could set up a site and show my process of making a map, start to finish.

freelancer

that would be an interesting thing to see plaguebearer, really. Sometimes I do it similarly, by sketching and planning first...

btw I think that the maps DO have a certain feel to them and they have different themes which do not come across that well without trying the maps and listening to the ambience.

Elowind

i usualy have an ide3a for one room when i start, then kinda expand on the theme from that, but in my most recent map (which i dont like anymore cuz i made the halls way too narrow, two marines would have trouble wlaking side by side) i made an over head view with a pattern i liked so the command would feel less complicated

Willow

I usually make a story, then make some "trial" rooms, scetch some rooms/doors/details on a sunday afternoon, then create some using QuArK, then some with Wc, i then begin putting it all inline. I never draw a plan to work by, coz i´m a real chaotic mind, all my idea´s come and go. Most of the time i´m just sitting behind my computer listening to music and making some wierd rooms, the main themes i make are a totally infested space ship or colonial base.

I get my shapes for the ships parts (doors, layout, etc) from other maps (sorry guys, i just havent got the fantasy to properly make em) from movie´s (Aliens <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> ) and from comic´s (those Warhammer 40.000 spacemarine comics).

Whats a mapper philosophy is that each mapper has it´s own style and that you can analyse a mappers mind by looking at his work.
Some 3rd year psychologists form the university of Rotterdam (the Netherlands) did research on this.
I participated.
There conculsion on my mind was pro-Alien, Chaotic and fantasy. lol.