your bad mapping habits

My worst habit is Warhammer! I havent mapped in a while due to my plastic crack addiction!!

• Getting distracted by new ideas while working on one project, that's why my doom mapping folder is above 4gb worth of data. Of course, it also falls into other life areas. 
• Redrawing line if connection isn't the way I want and need. 
• Wanting to try something new, but yet falling into same mapping patterns. 

Not finishing quickly enough as a result of over detailing. That's something I would really like to crack down on and fix. I guess also making areas that are too huge, as I originally come from SRB2 mapping where a lot of large areas are commonplace.

• making dream theater song-long maps; if its larger its better!! says my mind 
• sometimes i feel im just doing filler mapping instead of meaningful mapping
• putting a new gameplay idea, using it once and never using it again
• making maps but not letting people know about its existence (no marketing skills)

Until recently, my bad habit was trying to continue mapping while having no current ideas for the map in question. If it didn't end with me frustrated, it ended with frustration and tacked on garbage. It used to be demotivating enough to make me want to avoid editing the map altogether so as to not have to undo whatever sabotage was last added.

Nowadays I take self doubt as a sign to immediately exit UDB, and am unafraid to undo any work on a map if I just don't like it, even if it means "more work" or "lost time." It has made mapping much more enjoyable

I don't do it enough lmao

It's cheering to see that others have some problems too. My biggest problem is that I'm too enamoured by tricks and traps and complex constructions but lack the sight for justifying their existence: can't create the surrounding map, can't think of a purpose for the map, can't create fights (basic gameplay), and the list goes on. That, and I may envision just one thing, like some kind of floating midtext 3D thing, and I love working those, but the same story: they're out of place and not part of anything because I can't envision the rest of the map. Lately I've just done dozens and dozens of single room vanilla wads with some gimmick in them but I can't combine them into coherent maps.

21 hours ago, plums said:

as I'm working on things now: testing the map every time I draw like 3 new linedefs.

That's a habit I have too, but I wonder if it doesn't end up being a good habit too. It depends on the day, perhaps, and the lines...

My worst habits are making stairs by hand and only thinking about balancing difficulties when the deadline is looming
(among many other bad habits that I probably don't even know I have).

4 hours ago, Novaseer said:

making rooms, detailing them to high hell then trying to fit little crumbs of gameplay into them because they're way too small to actually be the setpieces i wanted them to be

I circumvent this issue by simply making the area bigger than I want it to, because with all the detail added, it'll technically become small as I want it to. For example, if I want an area that's 1024 units long, I instead create a 1532 unit long sector.

5 hours ago, URROVA said:

• sometimes i feel im just doing filler mapping instead of meaningful mapping

// nothing wrong with a filler level...

Another of mine: Picking the music first and letting it guide the hand to make a map based purely on musical vibes.

11 hours ago, Chookum said:

Another of mine: Picking the music first and letting it guide the hand to make a map based purely on musical vibes.

honestly i'm not too sure if that's a bad habit, that seems like a pretty solid way to make a map

better than me changing the music of a map anywhere from once to 10 times

Better than my total lack of interest in changing the music. The idea of that always makes me desperate. I just don't know midis, I don't listen to them outside of Doom wads, I have no memory for them. The only midi that I can remember is Mucus Flow (or something like that) and some midi in Sunlust but I don't know its name. So I can't even think of using a cool midi I've heard in the past because they don't stick to my mind.

Chiefly this:

1. Have a great idea, one could even say I found some inspiration
2. Open the map editor
3. Get the first two rooms finished
4. Get distracted with some technicality
5. Fiddle with (somewhat related) nonsense for an hour or two
6. Call it a day because I have other stuff to do
7. Go back to #1

If I saved all of the single room-or-two maps I started but never finished then I'm sure I would have enough content to cobble together a megawad, lmao. I seriously need to get in the habit of saving all of these scraps, the amount of work that just went unsaved over the years is starting to somewhat bother me in retrospective.

On 4/1/2024 at 3:14 AM, ObserverOfTime said:

Chiefly this:

1. Have a great idea, one could even say I found some inspiration
2. Open the map editor
3. Get the first two rooms finished
4. Get distracted with some technicality
5. Fiddle with (somewhat related) nonsense for an hour or two
6. Call it a day because I have other stuff to do
7. Go back to #1

If I saved all of the single room-or-two maps I started but never finished then I'm sure I would have enough content to cobble together a megawad, lmao. I seriously need to get in the habit of saving all of these scraps, the amount of work that just went unsaved over the years is starting to somewhat bother me in retrospective.

god yeah

My bad habits are adding switch hunts or slightly obscure progression, and perhaps hiding secrets too well (even with some kind of tell for each one). I'm getting better at signposting it to the point where it only usually stalls the player for a couple moments, but some players prefer things to be a lot clearer.

I've also had a habit of adding unnecessary switches to doors, which I usually end up removing after player feedback.

Honestly this would make a great community project; everyone submit maps based on all your bad habits; give it a catchy name like "Knee Deep In Bad Habits".

My bad habit; smoking weed while mapping.