Mapping advice?

[Damascus]

I realize this is very vague, but I'm facing a major dilemma with my mapping at the moment. I've almost fully mapped out the next area for The Great Work, but am just not happy with the way it looks.

The map in question is a cabal that has been built underground, out of stone and brick. It's still being used, so I figured any of the more dilapidated bases like Dungeon would work well, so I decided to use the grunge brick set that Measuring made. Here's the result:



My intent is to make a central hall where the cabal meets in a sunken pit, and the cieling is extremely high, with passageways that wind up around it and cross over it on bridges. My main problem now is with how very... bland it looks. The grunge brick set has limited set pieces to work with, and I feel like I could flesh out the shaping of the level by using something else like Castle instead, but I'm afraid it would totally change the environment.

I don't want it to look too much like a castle, but rather like a dungeon without it looking abandoned or very old. Would switching to one of the other bases be acceptable here? What would you do in this situation?

[Adny]

I would advise against using a lot of different building sets in one area, it generally doesn't look good. I'd suggest to stick to dungeon base (only because that's my favorite ), but using traditional castle base would be ideal for an area that is meant to look like a castle. If you want something to look old or dirty, proper lighting and a few decals & particle systems here and there can drastically change the tone of the environment.

The grunge base set is visually appealing, but it isn't meant for stacking (vertically) like you're doing in this screenshot. Anyways, tips for less bland-ness in large areas:

-Break away from the traditional square rooms; use indentions in the walls (concave or convex), and use round wall shapes. Just steer clear of rectangle/square shaped rooms.
-Flat ceilings are bad, m'kay? You can use combinations of the concave ceiling pieces and flat ones to make the ceiling more visually appealing.
-Use support structures like pillars, and wooden beams near the ceiling. Not only do they logically make sense (especially for large rooms), they look durn gud.
-Pipes! If there is any sort of water based area (or whatever other reason you can think of), use pipes. There are no rules with them; the only downside is that they take a while to properly make.
-Misc.! Use rugs/torches/candles/statues/chandeliers, or whatever else you can think of.

[Damascus]

Yeah, the problem with the grunge brick set is that it has absolutely no curved walls or cielings, and since this is such a big area, having everything be rectangular looks terrible.

It's going to mean literally starting over from scratch, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. I'll have to live with the area looking a lot older than I intended.

Cielings are definitely my weak point, so I've got to try and improve on them.

[Kman]

Meh, all part of mapping. It does suck having to basically start over a map, but if you're unhappy with how it looks and feel as if you could do better than you should. I actually spent a good 20 hours on a map once only to decide a few months later that it looked like crap and that I should remake it.

Oh also,

(08-21-2012 09:05 AM)andyrockin123 Wrote:  I'd suggest to stick to dungeon base (only because that's my favorite )

I do not approve good sir.

[Pitfall]

(08-21-2012 09:29 AM)Damascus Wrote:  Cielings are definitely my weak point, so I've got to try and improve on them.

I would just have the ceiling keep extending into blackness.
Maybe throw a few rocks and rubble onto the ground to make the place seem a little less bland.

But thats just me.

[Adny]

(08-21-2012 09:41 AM)Kman Wrote:  I do not approve good sir.

Why? It's synonymous with the scariest part(s) of the original game, and its so versatile; it can be themed so many different ways and still work. Prison, laboratory, sewer, living area and whatever other scary ideas you can think of. Mansion, castle nor cellar base can do all of those effectively. Also has the most pieces of any set by far, which makes it so much better in my eyes; many more possibilities.

[Damascus]

It actually is looking a lot better now that I'm using dungeon base. Partially because this room is supposed to be over 200 years old.



This is mostly for shape so far; I'm probably going to spice things up later, but I'm at least glad to have more pieces to work with. I can only use cielings for some of the level, as the odd way I'm shaping some of the rooms makes it nearly impossible to line up cielings. Trust, me I spent almost a full hour last night just trying to get this one corner piece to fit before finally screaming and throwing in a flat plane.

Hopefully I can still make this map stand out. I am planning on having the main cieling vanish into darkness with chains hanging down from it, and using only RED candles and torches throughout the map.

[Nemet Robert]

(08-22-2012 07:47 PM)Damascus Wrote:  It actually is looking a lot better now that I'm using dungeon base. Partially because this room is supposed to be over 200 years old.



This is mostly for shape so far; I'm probably going to spice things up later, but I'm at least glad to have more pieces to work with. I can only use cielings for some of the level, as the odd way I'm shaping some of the rooms makes it nearly impossible to line up cielings. Trust, me I spent almost a full hour last night just trying to get this one corner piece to fit before finally screaming and throwing in a flat plane.

Hopefully I can still make this map stand out. I am planning on having the main cieling vanish into darkness with chains hanging down from it, and using only RED candles and torches throughout the map.

The map looks different from the first screenshot. A huge difference is visible now.

Next time you shouldn't mention what stuff are you planning with the map, especially when others get to play the CS. They'll know one of the events that will occur at one point. Which could degrade the rating of the CS.

Just throwing that idea out here.

[Adny]

If you're going to use red lights everywhere, I'd suggest using a very faint red box light. Red is a very strong color, and it would be easier on the player if you eased their eyes into it. As for the ceiling, you can just use black fog (from the fog tool, ctrl+1) with a very low fade distance. Good luck on this.

[Kman]

(08-21-2012 08:10 PM)andyrockin123 Wrote:  

(08-21-2012 09:41 AM)Kman Wrote:  I do not approve good sir.

Why? It's synonymous with the scariest part(s) of the original game, and its so versatile; it can be themed so many different ways and still work. Prison, laboratory, sewer, living area and whatever other scary ideas you can think of. Mansion, castle nor cellar base can do all of those effectively. Also has the most pieces of any set by far, which makes it so much better in my eyes; many more possibilities.

I've just found in general most maps made with it are fairly boring, it is very versatile but I haven't seen many really epic or interesting looking maps made with it, while say castlebase or mansionbase (my favorites) can often be used in very new and interesting ways. That, plus the fact that unless you're a very experienced map maker dungeonbase maps generally are pretty bland (only to really be topped by mansionbase, but personally I think when it's done right mansionbase is the best set). On top of that, you can't get many feelings out of it other than dread and despair, where as say a mansionbase or castlebase map could easily be used to envoke calm, fear, saddness, safety, etc. depending on how they're done.