Mapping In General........
 

Hello Hello Hello! a month ago i started to f*ck around with GTKradiant in the hope to find out how it works..........now im doing a pretty good job (if i say so myself) the only thing is.......i dont have any ideas on what to build and what textures to use (i think i dont have enough fantasy) but so i wanted to ask what kinda things people like in their maps............what kinda maps (blow things up, steal objectives, CTF, etc.) so PLEASE let me know just tell all you want about the things you like in a map doesnt matter what it goes about EVERYTHING counts! now ive been exploring maps VERY closly to see the structures and texture use and maybe get any new ideas by that..........and now i see that alot of new mappers (older also) steal ALOT of objectes and walls and stuff out of the maps beach and base (that are included with GTKradiant) now just a little idea: dont do that guys! people like new and original stuff so try to make it by yourself, now dont see this as a negative thought about you mappers its just an idea......... but again! PLEASE LET ME KNOW OF YOUR IDEAS!
THANKS ALOT! REALLY! ill keep you guys in touch about my progress on my map but it wont be that much since i dont have any ideas :p THX! Cya!!!

Well you could look at it from this perspective...

Making new textures is hard work and takes a long time and you can not guarantee your textures will be anywhere near as good as those made by the professional GM team!

For a map in my opinion you need an assortment of:

choke points - but you got to be careful these are not too hard to get through
places for cover
sniping points
enough routes to an objective but not too many so that it's easy for an attacker to slip past you
realism visually and technically - make it look like you could be somewhere real. Yeah sounds obvious but little things like - why is there a corridor going down here? If this was a real Axis installation, what purpose would the building and it's rooms have? I think some people are guilty of just laying a map out in a way they think would look cool and play well, but if it makes no sense from a "is this a realistic layout?" point of view, then people will notice - maybe not consciously but in the back of their mind there'll be a niggling doubt!!

My final point I feel is that you should try and make every part of your map look a little different. If you have corridors, try and ensure that each corridor has a different visual slant to it or different layout. Again, sounds obvious maybe but you often run down corridors in custom maps and think "hey this looks like that last corridor I ran down!" followed by "hmmm this map is a bit bland!"

Oh yeah, and make sure you vis your map well or you'll get bad fps by people playing it and your hard work will have been wasted. If you don't know about vis take a stroll around some forums and search for "vis", "portals", "caulk", "hint", "structural brush", "detai brush" . And do not add another thing to your map until you understand these concepts!! Seriously, you'll appreciate this later. Check out www.nibsworld.com, he has a nice tutorial on vis and hint brushes etc.

As a mapper myself, i dont usualy like to give out ideas because i use them myself:D But i will give you some tips as to finding ideas. The idea and creation of the map comes completely from you. But like BoltyBoy said "keep it realistic". Look around the internet for pictures around the time of WW2. Find some machines, buildings, scenery, and anything else that goes with the general idea of your map. Use those pics and your creativity to make a map. Get some general ideas of design and how stuff works off popular maps and such. this is how i generaly design my maps. hope that helped!!