ok so this is what i have so far:



the purpose of this thread is to aquire feedback before i go any further. any tips or ideas are appreciated.

I would simplify the terrain, one or two ridges running parallel to the bases would be enough.
this is for two reasons

1.)perpendicular hills just limit movement (think long hallways with no cover) and provide no cover, to cross into another trench to strafe would leave the player in plain sight for all to see (and snipe)

1a.)Parallel hills provide plenty room to strafe left and right without exposing the player to snipers

2.)driving vehicles though that terrain would be a nightmare, with a lot of flipped warthogs, and vehicles would get ambushed as it slows down over each hill. vehicular flag runs would be non-existant

2a.) creating one or two relatively flat (but winding) paths through each base would encourage vehicle use by eliminating the issue mentioned above.
Edited by SilentJacket on Sep 8, 2012 at 06:06 PM

I am bored as piss and want to help.

I agree with SilentJacket's points, and I also want to add that the edges of the map could use some changing, too...
It would be awkward to camp on those hills and see an empty, bottomless skybox over the map edge, so I would model some more terrains or cliffs, too...

so what your saying is i should change this:



to this?:

yes
Edited by SilentJacket on Sep 9, 2012 at 12:15 PM

ok so this is better huh?:



i like it. but do you think i should move on now?

maybe make the middle path wider, but other than that, looks good

ok now how is this for a polycount?:



i have 6211 faces. not bad right?

I dunno, I make maps using halo reach's forge. You can ask me about weapon placement, spawn placement, map flow/design, and aesthetics, but I'm at a loss in terms of the framework.

I believe this map can be accomplished with less than half of your total faces. Everything looks like a heightmap to me. Wasted faces :( Also, types of terrains like yours should be at least a bit more rougher and jagged looking. << Too smooth

i was gonna optimize after i put in the caves and such.

The best way to build structures is not to extrude out of a huge framework of squares on a plane, but to create the structures using vertices that you set, which are aligned, connected, and then extruded and modified. Another method is to create a separate plane and have control over the divisions it has before extruding and modifying it. I see what you did for this map was create a large plane with a crap ton of sections, and then just extrude/move stuff around, which is not a good map-making method. Don't watch those tutorials that people put up, because most of them have really shoddy modeling methods that make either super-high-poly levels (when the map is really simple in design), or make pixelated-looking or flat-cliffed monstrosities.

so this method of map making. could you show me?