Building a Castle

I've started working on a castle* level recently, and I was wondering if anyone here has any advice they can give on making it a good castle. Just general questions, like, should I include a courtyard? What sort of stuff could I include as anti-roleplay devices**? Stuff like that. And a link to some tutorial on how to set up those banners like you see in most CTF maps would also be appreciated.


I do have a couple Doom Builder screenshots of what I have done so far, although it's not much. (Screens were taken with a widescreen laptop running at 1280 X 768 resolution, i.e. they're big.)

Main Room
(Yes, I do plan on filling up that large space.)

"Throne" room
(Would that floor decoration count as a sprite rip?)


Any advice would be highly appreciated.


(*Note: this isn't an average "gloomy" setting.)

(**I'm thinking on tagging random areas as exit sectors, to help discourage opening it in coop.)

Some how, some way, they will roleplay in it if they really want to.

What gametype is this for anyway?

Match and Tag, mostly. Although I am planning some good hiding spots, so it could also be a Hide-and-Seek.

(Sadly, I probably will never know myself whether it's good for those modes. My home connection sucks, and I can't host games at college. I'll have to rely on feedback, if I do release it.)


As for anti-roleplay, maybe I can fit in a SOC that uses A_LinedefExecute to unleash turrets if someone goes into their idle animation.

Every castle needs torches, dude! ~

Use FOFs instead of raised floors, it'll look less awkward. Add Eggman flags.

SpaceKGreen said:

Match and Tag, mostly. Although I am planning some good hiding spots, so it could also be a Hide-and-Seek.

(Sadly, I probably will never know myself whether it's good for those modes. My home connection sucks, and I can't host games at college. I'll have to rely on feedback, if I do release it.)


As for anti-roleplay, maybe I can fit in a SOC that uses A_LinedefExecute to unleash turrets if someone goes into their idle animation.

Click to expand...

What about campingz?

EDIT: I iz nub I said flag-carriers...

Hey, just because a map includes complicated decoration doesn't necessarily make it a role playing map, people. Thunder Citadel has a dining room, bedrooms, and a dungeon. It's CLEARLY a match map.

Chaos said:

Every castle needs torches, dude! ~

Use FOFs instead of raised floors, it'll look less awkward. Add Eggman flags.

Click to expand...

I never said I wouldn't have torches :P. Speaking of which, are these good? (Screen also shows part of a dining room I practically just made.)


As for the flags, I would appreciate a quick link to a tutorial that'll show me how to set one up, or at least point me in the right direction.


Two more questions:

1. Is this a bit much?
2. What would the reaction be if I remixed the Castle Eggman theme with a major key for this map?

SpaceKGreen said:

1. Is this a bit much?
2. What would the reaction be if I remixed the Castle Eggman theme with a major key for this map?

Click to expand...

1. That's actually a good idea. Heh, a little watermark inside a map for identification. It makes sense!

2. Well, castle themed maps turn out okay in any game mode, if done right. If you infuse the elements from a castle theme (or, Castle Eggman (buttons buttons buttons)), or any other theme, it doesn't matter so long as you do it right. The reaction? I dunno. If you put a lot of [annoying] buttons in the map as your hook (just like CEZ! :D), I think everyone would go insane, and not use your map. x_X

Anyway, I think the decorations are spot on, but I'd like to see more structure in this map. Good job so far; continue doing what you're doing.

Ash said:

2. Well, castle themed maps turn out okay in any game mode, if done right. If you infuse the elements from a castle theme (or, Castle Eggman (buttons buttons buttons)), or any other theme, it doesn't matter so long as you do it right. The reaction? I dunno. If you put a lot of [annoying] buttons in the map as your hook (just like CEZ! :D), I think everyone would go insane, and not use your map. x_X

Click to expand...

...I meant the music. XD But that works, too.

SpaceKGreen said:

Ash said:

2. Well, castle themed maps turn out okay in any game mode, if done right. If you infuse the elements from a castle theme (or, Castle Eggman (buttons buttons buttons)), or any other theme, it doesn't matter so long as you do it right. The reaction? I dunno. If you put a lot of [annoying] buttons in the map as your hook (just like CEZ! :D), I think everyone would go insane, and not use your map. x_X

Click to expand...

...I meant the music. XD But that works, too.

Click to expand...

It'd be fine. Rocky Pass had a really bad music choice, but it's on the OLDC leaderboard in the 1P division!

Can't see the flame. :V

Chaos said:

Can't see the flame. :V

Click to expand...

There was a flame, but the shot was in Doom Builder and I had Things turned off so you could see the structure of the torch stand. Anyways, here's a bunch of new pics, taken in game from the vantage of a flying Tails.

Main Room
As you can see, I added a couple more things, Gargoyles, a little water thing, etc. And I figured out flags. I'm planning on filling up the area with decorative stuff. And skylights. Because skylights are cool.

First Dining Room
Table, chairs, beginnings of ring placement, and moar flagz. AND TORCHES :P.
(Note to self: Replace Eggman design on flag with something a little more Space.)

Fountain Hall 1
I really like the fountain I made here. (Recently had to fix the room because everything was off by JUST a little bit.)

First Bedroom
For some reason the window HOM'd at me when I tried to make it show normal sky. So that's why the view is flat. I'm planning on adding more details here later.

First Upper Hall
It's rather bare since I've only just started on this area.


...Should this be moved to the regular Editing forum since this probably now qualifies as a "work in progress"? If so, I have one last offtopic question to add...

Does anybody know of some good, big and/or convoluted maps? Since I can't really netgame, I like to sightsee offline/mess with bots in SRB2JTE. (I already have bigfriggenmap.wad and Botanic Serenity.)

try SA city. It is very big:

Sorry about the bump, but I have a question slightly related to this map...


As a clarification on the "No Music WADs" rule, what about adding a couple of music files to go with a custom map? My attempt at remixing the Castle Eggman tune worked a little bit, but it still didn't turn out that well. So I looked through my music folder and found a couple that would fit.

Yes, you can add cutsom music for your level.

Ah, thank you. I wanted to make sure, since I didn't remember seeing anything like that in the rules.


Wow, this map's taking a lot longer to make than I thought :P. Worth every bit, though.