Anyone who writes a lot can probably see where I'm going with this...

Do you ever strike that wall when mapping, the one where you've got plenty of stuff already but just want to keep adding on to stuff here and there and everywhere? To a point where you just can't ever seem to stop building your map - and you spend more time working on it than ever playing it in a practice match or something? Just wondering if this is a rare or common thing among the community here, and what people here do about it if so.

Overly-prolific mapping is a good problem to have! When I think of mapper's block I think of being stuck and unable to add anything to a given area due to lack of inspiration or energy or whatever, not being unable to STOP adding things.

As far as mapper's block goes, I just power through it. The only way to get past a stuck spot is to just force it. You may not be happy with the result, but you'll be done with it. And then later on you'll either decide it was good enough after all or it is worthy of a total rework, and you'll have more energy and inspiration to do it then.

One thing I've learned from other professionals in the game industry is that the biggest difference between an amateur and a professional is that the professional knows when to stop and say "ok, this is good enough" and not sweat the minor imperfections. Deadlines to meet, stuff to do, etc. No time to agonize over little details that aren't significant anyway!

Thanks! I'm trying to be mindful of that, too - as in, I know this one map I'm "editing" is only for my personal use (It's this super old Unreal Deathmatch map I found of a city that's got plenty of awesome passageways/buildings, but can definitely be added onto... plus, the bot pathing was abysmal, so I figured since I like playing off-line plenty I would want to fix that as well, I can post pics when I'm done) so I'm trying NOT to fill it full of random pointless eyecandy that I know a) Won't add anything to the map, b) will DETRACT from the map by slowing it down, as it is a city map and is already pretty dense, c) will only be seen by me, and I don't really want the stuff anyhow.

I'm certainly not suffering from a lack of ideas, either. Which is good and bad, in a sense; good in that I see a portion of the map, and I already know what I would like to see in it, bad in that we all know the limitations of the glorious U1 engine, and if I really allowed myself to add everything I wanted to the darn map I'm afraid it would detract from the smoothness of gameplay/the node counts.

All in all, you're right though - it's always worth it in the end!

Random Edit Post-Script: What is this frustrating desire among the Unreal mappers of yester-year to integrate sketchy textures of a sexual nature into their work? I don't get it... I don't think I want to.