Making a jumper friendly map

Introduction

What makes randomjumps a crappy map and Jupiter a great map?

At what point is bisjumps better then Futre?

Why is it that some maps are considered one of the best while others are never played?

In here I'll try to give you an explanation of what are the key points of a good jump map.

To make my explanation more complete, I'll resort to the use of examples. Real examples of real maps.

Remember map makers: I'm not trying to make your map look hideous, nor am i trying to make you look like an idiot. But if there is a specific flaw in your map, and I can point it out to make my statement… I will. Please don't get angry.

To make a jumper friendly map you have to consider a lot of things, including spawn locations, textures, lemmings, map name, mazes and more. Below I'll discuss each point individually.

Spawns

The location of spawns is perhaps the core of your map. Jumpers fail and spawn all the time. And, if you didn't set up your spawns correctly, jumpers will rage, eventually quit and banish your map from their jumping maps list.

Even though you now have save and load in almost every server, a lot of players don't use it and, making proper spawns is always a must.

Spawns' Location

The place on the jump where you spawn is a major key of your map. Often people spawn in the middle of someone's prejumping area, and end up blocking others. This is not okay!

Let's take a look at an example: the jump 2 of ut4_dsb_b1.

People spawn exactly in front you all the time. This results in jumpers getting pissed and frustrated, all the time! Then, they eventually start leaving and the others being kicked for "blocking" when it's not even their fault. Don't let your map contain such flaw! You'd better make a spawn room (close to your jump), while still considering the following information about spawns.

To make a jumper friendly map: Make sure the player does not spawn in the path of the jump itself, including prejumps.

Spawns' Orientation

Although a spawnkill is annoying, it only happens sometimes. What does, however, happen all the time… Is jumpers spawning.

Spawning with your back turned to the jump or far away from where the jump is located is really frustrating! Map makers, keep in mind, spawning with your face to the opposite side of where the jump is: is no fun!.

Equilibrium is a perfect example of a map with practically perfect spawn locations! There is literally not a single time where you spawn with your back turned to the jump. This makes it possible to jump very fast in a row, without getting frustrated at all.

To make a jumper friendly map: Make sure the player has his face turned to the start of the jump every time he spawns!

Spawn Killing

Spawn killing is also something to have in account when making spawns. It is utterly annoying for someone when it happens. So always make sure you have enough spawns per jump.

One of the best "spawn makers" is most likely Moonie, for thousands of jumpers (not individuals) play his maps and only one of them, most likely less, dies from a spawnkill. Take a look at the spawns he makes to see what I mean!

To make a jumper friendly map: Make sure the amount of spawnkills are limited to practically 0!

The respawn brush

Location Names

Jump related entities

Textures

Lighting

Lemmings

Map names

Map sizes

Map Construction

Ladders

Mazes

Invisible paths

Rotating and Moving stuff

Other Randomness

Conclusion:

So, to sum it up... To make a jumper friendly map:

Make sure the amount of spawnkills are limited to practically 0.
Make sure the player has his face turned to the start of the jump every time he spawns.
Make sure the player does not spawn in the path of the jump itself, including prejumps.
Make sure your respawn brushes are thick enough not to be lagged through.
Make sure to assign proper location names to all jumps.
Make sure to implement jumpstart and jumpstop entities.
Make sure your textures are not random, stretched or ugly. You're better off using 1 texture properly all over your map than using 201 random different ones.
Make sure you light up your map correctly.
Make sure to no-damage all horizontal surfaces.
Make sure your map is named correctly.
Make sure the size of your map is not over 18MB.
Make sure your map is properly optimized.
Make sure you don't create too much ladders.
Make sure you don't create complex mazes.
Make sure you don't create any invisible paths.
Avoid using rotating or moving platforms.
Avoid any other randomness.

Once you get all of this in consideration, all you need to worry about is the jumps itself. Be sure to make them fun, amusing and fluid. Try not to make them too repetitive nor too annoying.

When it comes to the difficulty of each jump, that's up to you, map maker, to decide what crowd(s) would you like to please the most.

There are still a lot of other things that require the map makers' attention. These are just a few that are essential and that needed to be made clear before another map gets out.

You are now qualified to make a playable jump map!

Some exemplar mappers

It is always easier to learn by examples, so I'll leave you here with the names of some of the great jump mappers we have in the community!

Please don't get mad if you felt exposed, intimidated or, if you feel like your name should be somewhere on this page and it isn't. I can't think of everyone, and, as I said, it's only the name of some of the great mappers. Try to learn from them and their work, because they truly are amazing!

Not all the maps of the previously mentioned mapmakers are equally loved, but they are in fact not abandoned.

Jump mapping

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