Trying out mapping

[Washbasin]

I'm plying my hand at mapping and seeing if anything comes of it. This'll be my first actual map.

So far, many things are broken, everything is too dark, and my walls aren't lookin very fancy.

I've gotten most everything done for cargo, mining, bar, and kitchen.

Here's the full map (ignore the northern satellite):


Here is how it looks ingame:




As you can see there's some obvious things there that need fixing, but it's been fun so far.

Later down the line I do want to experiment with different, better environments outside the station. So like, a station on mars, on ice moon, or a station staged between two z levels.

Unfortunately I'm not a codeman so I don't know how those would work out yet.

Thanks to Zamujasa for throwing me the links to get started

[DioChasek]

It’s a fine start, couple things to keep in mind are maintenance tunnels and your piping system should provide part of the overall skeleton of your stations shape. I would make sure you have a plan for how you are planning to place them before you get too much further along lest you have to scrap a whole bunch of your work and start over. That was what killed my map attempt I started. Didn’t have the heart to redesign after that.

[Washbasin]

It’s a fine start, couple things to keep in mind are maintenance tunnels and your piping system should provide part of the overall skeleton of your stations shape. I would make sure you have a plan for how you are planning to place them before you get too much further along lest you have to scrap a whole bunch of your work and start over. That was what killed my map attempt I started. Didn’t have the heart to redesign after that.

Makes sense, I'll put some more focus into maint, though I was planning on doing major piping and wiring last.

[DioChasek]

It’s a fine start, couple things to keep in mind are maintenance tunnels and your piping system should provide part of the overall skeleton of your stations shape. I would make sure you have a plan for how you are planning to place them before you get too much further along lest you have to scrap a whole bunch of your work and start over. That was what killed my map attempt I started. Didn’t have the heart to redesign after that.

Makes sense, I'll put some more focus into maint, though I was planning on doing major piping and wiring last.

You are off to a good start, you definitely can keep building the way you are just be sure you leave space for tunnel networks is the bigger takeaway since once that is established piping and wiring gets a lot more simple.

Almost makes me wanna try it again.

[Kotlol]

I wouldn't know how to start mapping XD
If I would.. I would make a skeleton 1st.

[Washbasin]

I wouldn't know how to start mapping XD
If I would.. I would make a skeleton 1st.

I think that getting started might be the hardest part. Now that I've gotten going I always have somewhere to build off of. It feels almost like building lego.

[Kotlol]

I wouldn't know how to start mapping XD
If I would.. I would make a skeleton 1st.

I think that getting started might be the hardest part. Now that I've gotten going I always have somewhere to build off of. It feels almost like building lego.

Thanks and I think you are doing a lovely job at it. If you want a suggestion.. We know the game is on a "square based system" as in each 1x1 is a size of it.

I recommend 1st going to put up maximum perimetres and have an idea wich area wil be NxN.
I do like your wide 3x or 5x hallways.

[Washbasin]

First Update:

Things are chugging along at a steady pace, though I have less time to work during the week, so it's been a bit slower.

Major Changes:

I've set out the basic structure of the station, as per suggestions. - There are now main hallways! Though I expect much of what I currently have to be changed or moved, most everything will be build off of the main hallways, thus influencing the end product.

Completely remodeled catering - Old catering was lame, this one is mostly better? As with everything though, it is also liable to be completely altered.

New rooms - Detective's office, Janitor's Office, Sec Checkpoint, Disposals, and Chapel have been built. 


Minor changes:

Thematic Focus - I want my map to have personality, like all good maps have. To do this, I'm going to try and give my station a dark alley kind of vibe; the kind of feel when you're walking down to cog1 disposals, but aren't quite there yet. I also plan to add many secret tunnels where possible, because I like them and in this world I am God.

Disposals - Disposals is looking weird, like a mix between routing depot and regular disposals. We'll see if that sticks.

Door Access - So I gave the mapping guidelines page a read again. Apparently I'm meant to be using access spawns objects over all my doors, where I've previously been inputting access to everything manually. All my doors now need fixing.

Fixing Stuff - When I'm looking at my map in-game, I've been testing the functions of everything I've added and writing down things that aren't working in a TXT file. Now I can remember what is broken, and go down a checklist fixing everything before testing again. (Usually they're two minute fixes too.)

That's all I want to say on changes, here's the map.


Bam. I have some indicators for where departments may go in the future, though very little is detailed. Expect drastic changes to this rough sketch of a map.

Ingame
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As you can see lighting has been properly set up in most rooms. I've just stopped lighting the hallways completely because they keep changing.

Maybe I should make a new thread per update?