How to reduce the ?squareness? factor? Created 19 years ago2005-03-19 15:37:11 UTC by Ichthyosaur

Hey guys, I was just looking at the steam update news and noticed the pictures of the winning maps of the map competition. One think I noticed was they were all very elaborate; they all had a rather? planed quality to them. One of greatest weaknesses as a mapper is (among other things), a lack of vision, i.e. I often start on a map with little of no idea of what it will look like in the end. This is fine but looking at the map I have been working on? well the people who?ve played it say if fun, (not finish yet though), but I have very few positive comments on its aesthetic qualities. The level is just boring. The buildings are works of art, (at least I think so), but there just places on a flat piece off ground. The level is too square and too flat. Here are a few screen shots, (they just show how flat the level is):

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/john41/pr1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/john41/pr2.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/john41/pr3.jpg

Any ideas as how to increase the ?squareness? of the level would be appreciated.

You mean decrease it?

Displacement?

Different elevation levels connected with ramps, stairs. For future maps, you could also think about a piece of terrain and how your layout would get adapted to it. Think about a river --> bridges A high hill --> ramps etc

Offset your layout... so the buildings aren't so "covered and aligned. Use dummy buildings to obstruct the viewer's perception and decieve them into thinking it's not so square.