Siege Tutorial History - Based upon Dominion of the Dark Fortress by ME
based on map siege1vlit8 and or siege1vlit10

The Following is a short history of how I came to make my siege1 map for siege. I will attempt to explain how I got to make my map and hopefully this will help someone out there in their future map mapping endeavors. On a side note, this map was the first User made siege map after the Original siege map by Cosmos and Terata. Now on with the show.
(The source files for my map are on this site somewhere)

The most important part of making a good map is the idea....duh. But no matter how good an idea you have you must, in the end, be able to realize the idea into a physical map. This can be hard if you are not really good with picturing things in your mind in 3d. The first thing I did, after deciding I wanted to make a really cool siege map, was just lie down on my bed and think of what it would be like in simple terms. Eventually I decided on an expanded form of the original siege map. It was simple design. Castle with stuff around it. And stuff in it. Moat..etc :) gotta love it.

With my idea sorta set I spent countless time designing the maps dimensions and structure within my mind. (It’s easier that way since you don't waste paper and don't need to turn on your pc). After creating a simple map structure to build upon I set to work on BSP (the map editor of choice! its powerful but easy once you learn it). At each major step of construction I drew out on a piece of paper exactly what I wanted to make. In fact, I think I may have designed the whole siege map before I even opened my editor. The only things I did after where changes.

Now, with the following MAP pictures (scanned from my actually papers used), I will try to describe my process of design with bsp.

The Following pictures a TIF format the size of a standard piece of paper (8 1/2 by 11) I guess. I scanned them from my papers.
To follow my text just print out each paper by loading up the TIF file into PAINT SHOP PRO or whatever program you have and print it. The pages should be legible. If you view them on your screen it will be too large. Print them!

• pic1sg1 - My first draft of whole map. Zoomed out
  In this map I have just drawn the major layout of what I 'think" the final map will be like. A castle type thing with a big center tower. A moat around it and a drawbridge. Corner towers with one breakable. Other things... Notice not all of these got into the final map. Also notice that this first picture is not really detailed. Its just a rough idea to help me decide on what obstacles I need and where to place them. For a game like siege you need to have a logical layout so each obstacle (door/moat..etc) makes sense and so you can visualize all possible attacks/defenses.
  notes:Find a good pencil to write with and some paper. A good eraser also required. Try not to scribble. Think first, then let your brain scribble :)
• pic2sg1 - Inner court draft
  In this next picture I have decided to design out how my "inner court" will look. Again, the actually structures are not specific. A box, a cylinder. But what I do make specific is the position of one to the other and any pathways (secret or not), ie the one from the tower to barracks. I also drew in the underground part of barracks like the armory and stuff. Just to get a feel of what goes where. You can see I have an arrow from church indicating its secret areas. Also basic designs for the entranceways to inner court. (like that back entrance that isn’t in final map as indicated)
  notes:My technical drawing skills, all be them a bit out of practice, come in handy. Learn how to draw from different perspectives. Drawing a box from different angles; TOP and right is a good practice exercise
• pic3sg1 - Church Draft
  This map is my concentrating on 1 room of my inner court. The Church! Be afraid!.
  As you can see I never bothered with details like wall thickness or texture. I'll I draw is placement of items and walls. In some cases ill draw a wall with thickness just to see perspective and relation to something else. ie. that cross. I think I also wrote some numbers down here to get an idea of the possible height of the full structure. Eventually I need to know sizes since the end map must be constructed in a map editor.
  notes:I Think that church is very scary. I had more ideas for it like a healing chamber but it never got into it. Don't feel bad.
• pic4sg1 - Minor inner church layout
  Here i was just laying out how I wanted the Church inside area. Notice the pew areas and that funny rotating thing was supposed to be a Rotating platter with glass cases that held the key. Randomly placed in one of them...etc. Unfortunately this was impossible to do with the siege code. So eventually I compromised and just placed 1 key in the center of the table. I called this area an inner church because I wanted an outer church also. And in any case, good labeling will help you in your ideas. If your not specific enough or too vague your brain won't work properly. Find an idea and work with it. If it changes so be it.
  notes: No matter what you draw, usually it will end up changing when you actually design it in the editor. Or at least it does for me since this was my first real map ever done.
• pic5sg1 - A zoomed out view that i used to place map areas. (ie cemetery)
  I made this design to layout the outer perimeter of the map and also see where my cemetery could go/connect to. I also added in a back well to my idea. You can see the basic layout I got for my cemetery. I just randomly stuck in tomb stones on the picture. I also sketched the paths in and out of it (dotted lines). I also have a simple cemetery plot outline with numbers. Notice again I wasn't specific about sizes. If you look closely you can see I also intended to have a 2nd cemetery on the right side of the map but never got to it. I also considered VIS blockers to cut the map in 2 (front back). Notice the water I added (but only on one side..hmm) that changed. It seems that I also didn't even design the attackers barracks yet.
  notes: Actually, when I went to make the cemetery (in the editor)I spent a long time trying to figure out how to CUT OUT the plots. Basically so I wouldn't use up to many polygons and such. Or mess up my map. I only realized this when I got into BSP and not when drawing on paper. paper is easier but doesn't crash :)
• pic6sg1 - Expanding my outer area ideas
  In this picture I'm just figuring out exactly how to connect my cemetery to the outside water and or well. Notice I had 2 well exits. (not anymore). Again, see, I just draw simple shapes to represent the map objects on paper. I let my brain figure out the rest. You can imagine more details then you can draw (or at least quicker). More detail in a map is better I suppose but I’m lazy and I use the drawings to help me with the placement of obstacles and objects that define the maps play.
  notes: Notice on the bottom of the map has my side view of the cemetery so I can judge depth into the ground. Also if you look carefully you can see also on the bottom of the page left, my drawing of how the water will be placed in the map as well as the double layered world walls. ie outside wall, inside water*black. This *black cut down vis times.
• pic7sg1 - My early idea of a jail.
  This very early jail picture was a bit off from the final but only in the placement of the cells from 1 row to 2 in final. I changed the rowing I think because I added an escape to the jails (from the back row). You can see boxes for "D"eath and "W"ear"T"iger as well as some scribbled numbers for calculations. Here I also laid out in perspective how I wanted to construct the actual cells. I'm not sure if this was the end result. But it helps since I can keep track of messy brushes.
  notes: Even death chamber changed. I decided that since i would get telefrags from a small death chamber I need to make it larger. So I stretched it out. Of course since the code is a bit ODD I got telefrags anyway.
• pic8sg1- A start room
  An early drawing of my start room. I just wanted 3 areas to enter from like in the picture. Shaped like an arena. Eventually I stole an arena I had from an older map I played with. At the bottom of the picture you can see my simple small room layout to show how the roof will be. That also changed to cut down on brushes.
  notes: Usually, unless your a bsp god, you will over estimate how complex the map can be. Just to let you know, This siege map was dead in the water before I was even 1/2 finished it. I some how resurrected it with praise from the gods. I had to go through and simplify brushes and stuff. Be smart Don't design to much on paper since ,in the end, it has to work!
• pic9sg1 - Escape Tunnel
  This was just a sample sketch I used to figure out the widths I need to use in my escape tunnel. Of course after making it I realized my sizes were ALL wrong. So i made it bigger.
  notes: Make sure you know ALL the sizes and properties of players in the game. It helps. I.e. how high you can jump. how wide/tall a player is etc.... It saves you lots of time in the end. If you have to rebuild a small map area it will piss you off and cause bad things to happen.