Do even the pro-mappers you Paint.exe to design their maps and then put the outline they drew in paint to make a map? I am still looking at tutorials to make a map, I now have Gmax, but I am still trying to learn. So to make a complex map, (not just a grassy little box valley with some gently rolling hills) you would still use Paint right?

your talking about using paint for a heightmap right?
if you want to just get the very basics of making a map try that first.
but you really want to be drawing out an idea of your map and then modeling it
from the ground up.
try to learn to get into the way of polygon modeling.
the reason i say to draw out your map,is so that you can then put your drawing into
your scanner and get it on your pc,then open that image in your modeling programe.and add verticies to the lines of your map/level.then connect them verticies with polygons to create the map/level.take a look at this tutorial and you will understand more of what i'm talking about.
http://vimeo.com/11781231

I use it constantly (almost as much as photoshop) when I make any hud related images.

I use a tool called Paint.NET (yes that is the name) to do all of my image-related work. It includes all the features of Paint, plus the features of Photoshop and other image editing programs, all in one awesome kickass tool. I highly reccoment using it. It does transparencies and blending as well as all the effects and adjustments you would expect. The only thing that you can't do in it is the smudge tool or alpha channels, which are the only things I open up Photoshop for. Get this tool instead of using Paint.

I love paint.net
Its an awesome programme. I tried to steal a copy of it from school but it didn't work

Actually paint.net is completely free. Just Google it.

Yeah i know but i didn't have internet then and u can't download stuff at school

Oh, now I get what you meant. Sorry.

Oh, alright, so that's how you make the cool maps. Not just a grassy field. Are there any other tutorials on how to do polygon modeling?

As opposed to like... NURBS?
There's lots of tutorials on TheGhost's site.

LOL

Double LOL