A Lava map creators guide

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xrat

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Have you constantly been confused and confounded when ever you happen to notice that another one of your lovingly crafted lava maps has yet again been denied? Well worry no more since I have written this guide to helping people such as yourself. In this guide we shall travel through three key categories which delve into some of the more technical and also artistic aspects of map making. This will hopefully make you see map making in a new light and guide you on the road to at least having one map accepted.

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Probably the starting point for most maps and many other things is the theme. But unfortunately many original and interesting themes have already been taken, thus you might have to brainstorm a bit before coming up with a suitable theme that has not been done before. There are many handy ways to come up with themes, you could think of some your hobbies and make a map based off of one of them. You could also browse google images and see if anything there piques your interest. You could also use a dictionary to find new and exotic words to base your map on, I surely haven't seen a catafalque themed
map yet.

What not to do!

You should not create a map solely based on a common place such as: Castle, House, Village, Valley, Grassy Plain, Island, Beach... The list goes on and on. Maps such as these are some of the most commonly seen created maps and unless you bring some new and exciting twist to them, they usually don't pan over very well. As an example of just how common these maps are, here is a collage of the many beaches of the lava server.


Disclaimer: this is not all of the beaches to be found on the lava server there are at least 2 more that have been blatantly omitted.
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Design is probably the most important aspects to map making. Good design can make a dull theme seem professional, thoughtful and fresh. But, what makes a lava map well designed? Well unlike zombie which relies on a good balance of hiding and running, lava is based on a delicate balance of space to build on and the terrain around it that hinders and decorates the map.


As you can see, this picture displays both extreme flatness and extreme decoration. This is what you want to avoid when creating a map.

Since we are on the topic of design, a helpful thing to keep in mind is the colors that you are using in your map the use of either warm colors or cool colors could help convey a certain mood that you are trying to capture in your map. Basic color theory can help make a map fun to look at and can be an oasis from the green and brown slog which some "natural maps" end of being. If you don't know anything about color theory, the Worth1000 website contains a nice little tutorial on it, just follow this link.


The other rather artistic thing to think about is, numbers. The number of something can either make it look more mathematical or more artistic. For instance even numbers are more mathematical well odd numbers are more artistic. This also pertains to the placement of objects within in your map. It is more mathematical to put a big structure right in the middle and it's more artistic to have it off to one side. This also applies to symmetrical maps and many over things.
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Our last subject is gameplay which is probably one of the trickier subjects. It is tricky since you basically have to think like a player would. For instance you have to imagine what they would see first and then which way they would go and what they would build. So you need to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Probably the most important aspect to gameplay is, timer design. With our new lava technology you can build a timer basically anywhere. But keep in mind that pretty much any floating adminium structure will bait players into pillaring up to it. The other eye catching timers are ones that are basically the center piece of the entire map, such as...


Timers like this are even more eye catching and are just torturous to players. So probably the most effective, but not the most pretty timer is the one that spans the entirety of the map and only has a few block-able exits.

Size is another issue to contemplate about. the standard size for a lava map is 64x64x64. This is purely due to the rate at which lava flows. You can make a map bigger but it can't be so big that it either A. Lags the server or B. Can't flood completely. So 128x128x128 are usually out of the question.
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And that concludes the Lava Map Creators Guide, Hopefully this has enlightened you to some of the possibilities of map making and maybe even the mistakes you made yourself. If there are any mistakes, misinformation or even things I could add, feel free to contact me about said issue.

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