1.0 Preparation, Symbols and Colours
   1.1 Ladders
   1.2 Stairs or Inclines
   1.3 Start locations
   1.4 Sniper LOS
   1.5 Level/Height colours
   1.6 Showing Cover
   2.0 Map Creation
   2.1 Relative Size
   2.2 Insets
   3.0 The Layout
   3.1 Information box
   3.2 Legend

1.0 Preparation, Symbols and Colours

“Keep it simple stupid (K.I.S.S.)”

Are words to live by while making tactical maps for games such as Counter-strike, Team Fortress Classic, Quake or any other first person shooter. The first step is picking which map you want to create. If this is your first attempt at mapping pick a map with a minimum size and a low number, if any, of overlapping levels, for example CS_Dust or CS_Office.

After picking your map, you should create a rough guide of the map to base your final product on. I normally take screen shots from the ghost/spectator perspective. Take screen shots from a good height above the map. Most maps only need about two or three of these screen shots to get a good overall view of the map. You should print these for easy reference at any time. You could also make a rough sketch on paper. I normally have a combination of these along with the fact that I have played the map. The goal of this is to have a good mental image of what the map should look like.

Now that you have a rough idea of what to map you have to do a little more grunt work before you can really start. This is the part of mapping games that most of us here at Counter-Strike 2D really dread, but it is a really important step in having a successful final product. Take screen shots. Can’t get simpler than that. Travel the map and take a series of screen shots. You don’t need to take screen shots of halls, since that’s what your overview screen shots were for. The goal here is to account for all the material that makes up the meat and content of a map design. You need to take enough screen shots to give you the relative location of all objects, relative object sizes and line of sights between objects and rooms that make up the map. I normally average around 20 screen shots on maps that I am familiar with and have played a lot. For maps that I am unfamiliar with, I normally have to take more, around 50 to 90 screen shots. Sounds like a lot, but you will be thankful you took enough halfway through your map when you find you are missing a room full of crates.

I have been given suggestions to use Worldcraft or Winbsp to take the level apart but I find that makes me lose my perspective on what one would see while playing the game.

90 percent of mapping is this preparation work but if you don’t do this before you start, you will experience a lot of pain later when you actually begin your mapping project. The goal at this stage is to figure out how you want your map to look. To do this, you have to represent the halls and objects of the maps with solid shapes, lines or points. You have to decide what colours to use. Choose colours that look good together intuitively. Combining good symbols with a map legend is the key in showing information to the end user. Keep it simple, logical and clear. To help you out in this process, I am going to go over what I use in Counter-Strike 2D. The principles I present here can be applied in any FPS mapping projects.

1.1 Ladders:

I use an 8pnt red dot to indicate ladders, simply label with what level they go between to make it clear where they go.

1.2 Stairs or Inclines:

I use a series of parallel lines; the lines get shorter in the direction of descent down the stairs or incline.

1.3 Start Locations:

Terrorists, Counter-Terrorists, Hostages can all be represented with single letters to save space on your map. There is no need for a ton of labels if you use simple symbols like these.

1.4 Sniper Los:

Important sight lines that are used by snipers should be marked clearly. Remember not to crowd the map with these. I only display the top 3 sniping locations.

1.5 Level Colours:

I generally try to use light colours to show the halls and rooms of a map. Use different colours to show different height levels. Try to keep the background white and only colour the halls and rooms to make them distinct. You could try using pastel colours. I like to use colour ramps, sometimes with a gray scale, for example: light gray level 1, medium gray level 2, dark gray level 3. Another option here is to use colours with textures or patterns to remind people of the original map. For example I used a light yellow for the sandy ground on DE_Dust.

1.6 Showing Cover:

A very important part of any tactical game and an easily overlooked part of map design are cover. Remember that 9 out of 10 times the only thing stopping a bullet was that crate or vending machine you were desperately hiding behind. When you make a map decide how you want to classify cover and choose a specific colour to represent these classifications. Keep these colours distinct from the rest of the map but try to give them a common shade. It is important to make this a distinct colour from the rest of the map otherwise the end user may confuse the crates with a wall. To give you an idea of what to do, this is what I do at counter-strike 2D.

Minimal cover, use as steps. (Short tables, crates etc.…)

Full cover if crouched. (Anything you have to duck to hide behind.

Full Cover (Things people can’t see a standing target behind).

Don’t forget that cover can be deceiving. For example, in many games you can crouch and look under a car. I don’t worry about this too much but it can be a very important feature on some maps.

2.0 Move on to Map Creation