I'm interested in how mapping works and I decided to try to learn how to, but I'm not sure what my first map should be. I was thinking a box map since they seem pretty easy to make but people seem to hate box maps  . Also are there any good resources that I could read/ watch to learn about mapping?

Awesome to hear you're wanting to get into mapping, it can be a lot of fun and can really show your creative side.

I would advise against even thinking of releasing a box map, for testing? Go for it, for a release? Maybe not.

Here are some tips I can give you:

• Plan your maps, things like top down layouts, etc.
• Look up references from other games/real life.
• Don't rush it.
• Think gameplay, how will the player like it?
• Don't be afraid to experiment with different things or try different approaches to a building, road, etc.

Don't feel like what you're doing is shit, especially in the earlier stages of building your map, I know a few around here who they're first maps weren't exactly up to scratch, fast forward and some have released master pieces.

Here are some resources I can point you to:

http://worldofleveldesign.com/

Honestly when I found this website I was like a kid in a sweet shop, they have SO many tutorials, you might get the feel it's orientated towards Valve Hammer/UDK but there are tons of tutorials on there regarding how to plan your levels, layout, design, references, etc.

Flickr pools, like https://www.flickr.com/groups/indecay/pool/page2, etc, Google Images, http://level-design.org/referencedb/, and others.

Having an image to work off of is going to let you have an idea of what you need to do, such as a building, etc. It's sometimes hard to think of how you could, let's say, detail a wall, well why not look at an actual building? Or why not see how other level designers done it?

http://wiki.modsrepository.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

You will learn to bookmark this Wiki and you will learn to worship it like Bwc's purple square. It has tutorials on almost anything, some even taken from 3arc's wiki before they pulled the plug, worldspawn settings, lighting tutorials, building maps, info on CoD file formats, are only the surface of what this can offer to you.

https://confluence.ugx-mods.com/display/UGXMODS/UGX-Mods+Wiki

Shall we not forget UGX has its own wiki, there are a lot of tutorials on here, some specific ones too, the Zones one saved me for sure when I started mapping.

Scripts Section


The scripts section has so much stuff (plus the released items in general), including Perk packs (Harry's ), Gun Game scripts (DUKEY ) and so much more scripts that people have provided for people to use.

There are many more sites, etc. you can check out, if you ever need help with anything you can ask. ^^