Good Map Practices & How To Make A Map

First Things First

The first good map practice to use is already outlined in the Wiki, choosing a good map.

Once You've Found That Perfect Map...

The second practice, is what I like to call "Map Scouting." Sure the map looks good in picture, and you've ran around for a minutes or two, but do you know about all of the nicks and crannies in the map? A good map practice is to look for exploitable areas, and keep them in your memory for when you go to block areas off.

Now That You've Seen Everything

Third is to plan the map out in your head. Formulate how you want to configure everything before you start. If you have a plan of action, everything becomes easier, and you fall victim to fewer oversights.

Getting To The Nitty-Gritty Of It

Once you've envisioned how it is you want the map to look, the first step in the process of making it so is to create your spawn area. Included in this spawn area (it should be a fairly sizable area) will be:

• At least 4 player spawns (including more will increase how many players can play at a time, if it's an expansive map, add more player spawns in)
• 3 to 4 barricades with 1-2 zombie spawns for each barricade (I prefer 3 barricades with 2 zombie spawns for each)
• 1 to 2 special spawns (for Who's Who and Hellhound spawning- DO NOT put these behind barricades!)
• 2 wall buys (CoD has these for 500 to purchase, but depending on the weapon pack you are using, you may not find equally shitty guns, so increasing the price to 1000 points is okay- I do this for all of my maps)
• 1 Random box spawn
• Quick Revive
• (OPTIONAL) 1 Easter egg location (I put one Easter egg in every purchasable area)
• The doorway to the next area

Including these things will help your map feel more CoD-like and boost player immersion. The more immersed the player is, the more they'll like the map (or your config- depending on how knowledgeable they are about nZombies).

After You're Comfortable With The Starting Area

The next thing I like to do, and this helps prevent me from meandering off and not working on the config, is place all of the barricade locations where you plan on having zombies spawn. Depending on what the map has provided, and how many I have placed so far, I will try to aim for 3 to 4 new barricade locations every new area you purchase. Note that you may find your initial plan for the map to no longer be as great as you thought, and that's okay. As you place barricades down all over the map, you may see that some areas are be too clustered, and other areas might be too open. Consider making these into something different. Be open about it and you may find yourself hitting 2 birds with 1 stone.

Once You've Barricaded The Map

The next thing I like to work on is area-outlining. Structure is arguably the most important thing when making a config, and while you might have a good outline in your mind, it is better to solidify those thoughts before you lose them. So, I suggest placing fences down (hold down q while your physics gun is equipped), and literally fencing off the different areas. While you're at it, assign each purchasable area a number, start at 1 and going up. Note that these fences, should you choose for them to be so, can become the doors to the next area. The door blocker tool works on most props, including those fences.

Now That You've Segregated The Map

Once you have fenced off the different areas of the map, go ahead and place zombie spawns and special spawns. **Keep this in mind: **you MUST use the flag system in order to prevent zombies from spawning in areas that haven't been opened yet. Using the numbers you assigned to each area, give each zombies spawn the flag

-WIP-