Custom Map Guide by onik2011

Custom Map Guide by onik2011​

Hey I am onik2011,
but you can just call me Onik. I decided to make a guide on how to make a good custom map, because I saw a lot of "Map Submissions" and i am sorry to say that, but some of them aren't realy good or even playable, but others look realy nice, but the map design isn't the best. So I am here to give you some tips and tricks especially on map design. In this little Screenshot-Tutorial i am going to show you, how to make a good map layout, how to place the spawns, how to make good and nice lines-of-sight and a lot more! So I hope you enjoy it and learn something new! (I am not a native speaker, so sorry for my bad English, but I will try my best.)

Making the map layout
The first step
Yeah, the first step is hard, realy hard. First you have to think about, what do you want to make. Do you want to build a landscape, a city or even an space themed map? Do you want to make the map especially for TDM or Infected? After you decided what you want to build, just write it down on a blank piece of sheet. It will help you a lot to sort your mind! Now we are going to focus on a TDM (CTF, Domination, Killconfirmed) map, because they are much easier to build.
And now we can start Minecraft...
The world
I recommend to create a blank new world. If you want to build something in a minecraft landscape, you should use the normal world generator settings. But if you want to make your own custom terrain, you can use the superflat world generator, but i prefer a clean void map. You can generate a void map by typing the following code into the "Superflat Settings": 2;0;1;0 (Only use this, if you have WorldEdit installed!)
In my example i am using a superflat world. This is how it looks, when you join it the first time.
The first block
The first thing i do, is placing a block right below me and set my spawnpoint there, so i get an orientation point.


Map layout - The golden center
Now you just set the golden center of your map. This is just the cnter of your map. It doesn't have to be on the "playerground". I use an 1x1 goldblock tower. (In Hunger Games maps it'S the center with the chest.)


The "main heat point"
The next step is to set the "main heat point" (the main point of your map). This is the best place to controll the game, but also the riskiest, because it's very open and most of the players are "pushing" towards it. It's called the TF2-Princip - Two spawns, that doesn't change, so you get a "front line", where the teams "meet" each other . And this point is the "heat point" for this, because there is a lot of player movement there. It should be in the same distance for every team's spawn.
I set it near my golden middle and used a redstoneblock with a golden block on top to show, that this is the main heat point.


The spawns
Now we set the team's spawns. Remember that they have to be the same distance away from the MHP (main heat point). There are a lot of different layouts. Here are some examples:

You can see that there are two types of spawn layout: direct and inderect. Direct means that the you can walk "straight" to the over spawn. Indirect means that, for example there is a wall between the spawn and you have to go around it. Inderect spawn to spawn ways are much better in my opinion.
This is how it looks now (I decided to make a "curved map"):


Setting other heat points
Now we are going to set some other heat points. You should have the same amount of heat points on each side of the map and they should be around the the golden center or main heat point. In the end they are going to be represented by some unique buildings, etc. . This points should be controllable by a team, but the other team should have a chance to get it to! (No OP spots!) They are also going to be near the "walk routes".
Here is an example (I used a redstoneblock with an ironblock on top of it.)

You see that they are realy symetrical, so it seems a little bit boring, but we are going to talk about asymetrical layout later.

Some lines
After we added the HPs, we are going to connect them with some lines to get a better idea of how we want them to "interact with eachother". (I use redstone torches for this.)


The "walk routes" (1/2)
Now we get to an very important part of map design. Walk routes. These are the paths, routes, etc. that players can walk towards the main action. A good map has a lot of different routes to take and every route has it own advantages and disadvantages. First look at our map.

These lines are the player movements towards the center. We are going to use this to design our routes. I used colored wool for that.

orange and cyan wool - Straight route to the MHP | | yellow and lightblue wool - main routes
If you look now, you will notice that the map doesn't look very symetric anymore. And you will maybe notice that the red side routes on top are going over to the blue side, but on the bottom blue is doing the same!
The "walk routes" (2/2)
The next step is to add some side routes to make the map interesting, these are just some extra routes, you can take, to get to an other point. But they can be used as routes to flank the enemy too! (I used stained glass this time.)


Getting more space
OK, no it's time to give it some space and "rooms". At first we are going to scale it, because we need more space between the paths. I recommend to use MCEdit (More about map-making tools in the end). I am going to scale it only 2 times bigger.

Ahh, much more space to build!

Setting space and room - Forks (1/3)
Now we are going to make some forks in the paths. You should start at the team's spawn and work your way to the center. Only make forks on the path towards the center, do not go back, just ignore them at the moment.
Example (I use brown wool and later with red and blue carpet on top of it):

Do the same on the other side and then it could look like this:

Setting space and room - Default front line and fighting areas (2/3)
Now let's highlight the "fighting areas". This is the space around a HP and you can highlight it with a circle or another geomertic form, you want it to be. You should make them big enough. (I used pink carpet for it.)

After this we set the default frontline to get a better look on how the map is devided. This is probably the line where the teams "meet" each other after the game starts. You will see that the line goes through the MHP and two other HP. These HP are going to be key points on your map! (I used lime green carpet for it.)

Setting space and room - Reversed forks (3/3)
We have already set some of the forks in the paths, but not all yet. So no it's time to do it. You should start at the DFL and work your way towards a team's spawn. Do the same as you did before, but use the other opposite color of the side, you are build now. Here is an example:

And this is the result:

Now we have the general part of the map design done and we can move forward to get a little bit more detailed. We are going to talk about CTF-poles and domination flags later.

Borders - path borders (1/2)
Now we can start with setting our path and later the map borders. Just make some paths by placing carpet or one block high walls on each side of a path. You should fill the area, which you don't want players to go or get in, with for example black wool. So now you see what is going to be the "playground" and what is just "decoration". Start at the team's spawn and work towards the middle. You can already think about replacing your "draw" walls with real building, etc. walls, but you can also do it like we did with the paths. Placing them "a little bit" random. I started of with the blue side:

After it i did the red side:

You may notice that there are a lot of realy big black areas on the red side. These areas on the ground level will remain black in some point , but there are going to be some higher levels too .
We are going to continue with the map borders at the end.
Building layout- Outlines (1/3)
After we are done with our path borders let's make some real walls. We are going to set the outlines of our buildings, but there is a problem. So let me explain it to you:

I hope you understand now, why we are going to mark our buildings with orange carpet. Use your creativity and lay down the outline of the buildings. But already think about, what do you want the buildings to be. Houses for people? Fabrics? Or even parks?
http://i.imgur.com/9tSoVKx.jpg
Building layout - the purpose (2/3)
Because now you should define their purpose by giving them letters or symbolls. I did it with cyan carpet: H = house and F = fabric . And later you should also say what the other "no-player-areas" should be. Here i used light blue carpet: D = dirt(hill), P = park, M = market, T = (water)tanks and tubes, C = cars, X = I don't realy know what to put in there for now.
Final Building Outline:
http://i.imgur.com/0vwG0WB.jpg
Flags
Puhh, now we have to finish our map layout by placing the CTF-Poles and Domination-Flags. You may think it's easy. No, it isn't. You have to think about if very carefully, because their postitions are going to affect the gameplay in CTF and Domination MASSIVLY! If you don't know much about tactical playing, follow the simple rules for placing CTF-Poles:
1. Near the team's spawn
2. But not in the "spawnprotection-range"
3. The way from one pole to the other should be long and cover the whole map (like a sightseeingtour xD ).
But I did something special on this map. I "force" players to play tactical. Take a look at the Picture and you see that the way between the two poles isn't very long. So players will just go this streight line to the over side. And a lot of players will do this. I bet that about the half of the each team will stay at this line. If you are a very good player, you could use this to get epic killfeeds, but that's not the point of CTF (It's sad that some people ignore it and just care about their own kills...) . The goal is to get the other team's flag and bring it to your team's base. But how do you want to do it, when the half of the other team is on this line and you want to get to their flag? I tell you: It won't work. The only way is to "flank" the other team by going the long way around. This will work, because many of the other team's player won't pay attention to their left side. But you sneak around the map, grab their flag and race back to your flag taking the same way you came: Taaaadaaaa! And this is called tactical playing. But don't forget that there are some smart guys on the other team, who will use the same tactic .
Same with the Domination flags. While the other team is realy hard trying to get the B-Flag, you sneak around to their C-Flag and again: Taaaadaaaa!
After a few days there will be battles everywhere on your map
http://i.imgur.com/gDpzpBy.jpg?1

Now we finally finished the map layout! Don't worry the wool colors will return, when we are going to plan our second and third levels . But for now, let's start building!

Building the map

Buildings - Simple start (1/ - )
I am going to continue it in a few weeks...
Some other stuff...
I hope you understood it so far. If not, feel free to ask questions. Just PM me or post your question just here. And a feedback on my guide would be realy appreciated!
Thanks for reading!
-Your Onik

 

I updated the guide with some more tips on getting and setting space! And a lot more is coming too!

Learn about "Setting space"!

 

Thank you VERY much for your support! (I already was about giving up this tutorial, because only three people replied.)
Next part is coming tomorrow

I am a developer too. Making Bukkit Plug-Ins

Enough... xD

Mehh, I am not realy good at rebuilding things. I think this is only for Sturmspitz and his epic rebuilds

 

I am using WorldEdit and VoxelSniper on my own server. (But currently only WorldEdit works on Bukkit-1.7.2)

 

I've just posted a new part! Enjoy

Sry i just wanted to say: "You can use the WorldEdit-Bukkit-Plugin on 1.7.2 too."

 

Yay, thank you too.