you mean verticies? that would be right click on object, convert to editable mech then click verticies button.

you change the number next to tessalate to 0. was that the prob?

Use geometericgeek's beginner tut. That's what helped me become a mapper... though I just mod maps now because I suck at moddeling in gmax.

umm i got a questoion... is it possable to l8er (when the tesselate isnt on the undo) to un-tesselate something?

this is all a noob should need to know for now.

Llamamasters detailed hallway tut. Very good for actually learning how things will and wont work and also goes into some good detail.
http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm%3Fpage=topic&topicID=12975

HaloGuru's "making a map tut" it will give u basic knowledge of all the tools needed to get map ingame.
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=2299

this is a good tut for learning some tools in 3ds max and how to manually optimize a model
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=2723

Here is a good all around modeling tutorial set...

http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/23868/beretta-9000-video-tutorial

just a little bit larger than llamas.
Yeah I know it is a gun, but there is more to modeling than just landscape. You also need to make buildings and stuff like that. Also you would be able to make weapons >_>.
Edited by Enzo03 on Feb 22, 2008 at 10:26 PM

Also this hasn'T been noted, but set the ''Tessalate'' to 0 so it'll only create new faces that you can move up manually by using vertex selection. Another way to smooth things up is to insert vertex inpolies and edges on a lower scale... the mentionned above tutorials are very helpful anyway.

you could always just add more segments to the original box when you create it, before you convert to editable poly/mesh. then you wouldn't have to tessellate. you can use the connect tool in editable poly in select edge mode if gmax has that. you can also use the insert vertex tool in edge mode then create new edges between verts.

you go into edge mode by clicking the little outline of a triangle under the selection tab.

Get to know Max's User Reference, under the Help menu. It explains quite well what the tools are and how to use them
Tesselate has it's uses. Not ideal structures, but it's usefull with terrain.
Try the Noise Modifier to make hills, instead of pulling vertices. It creates some nice hills, with various shapes and sizes
Edge cutting terrain sounds a little silly to me - that'd be alot of edge cutting.
Relying on box subdivision always ends up looking jagged, and attracts yucky box-mapping comments
For those things you don't know, like "Edge", "Convert to Editable Mesh", "Modifier", and "Noise", search for them in Max's User Reference

please, go play with one and leave us alone.....
there are some things you should be aware of when making a map. maps have to be sealed, but do not have to be all one piece of geometry. this may be more advanced than you are ready for but in lamas tut where he makes all those polygons to get the 6 sided bar thing into his hallway he could have saved many tris by just jamming a cylinder in there instead of working it into the mesh. as long as everything is sealed, you can use boxes an just mash them together to make a map if you really want to.
this is kinda hard to understand though, and can cause collision errors so you may want to steer clear of this method until you are sure you understand it