This guide will mainly focus on the creation of maps that play well in certain gametypes. With that said, there won't be much about artistic maps or making maps look good, but there will be a bit of that at the end.

Section 1 will cover connections, arguably the most important part to making a balanced map. That will not focus on a particular gametype, but things that apply to almost every (if not every) balanced map in the game.

Gameplay mechanics are usually essential to know in mapmaking, so you can understand exactly how your map will play and how it will not. They are also essential in making sure your map can't be escaped or broken. Some glitches will also be covered in this section, they are important to know as well, since they may trick you into thinking there's something wrong with your map.

Section 3 will be about murdermatch and team murdermatch. They are the most straightforward and standard gametypes in Murderminers, as well as the easiest to make a balanced map for.

Murder the flag will be covered alone in section 4. It is the game's best option for an objective-based gametype. I will be going over how to balance maps for MTF and MTF sub-gametypes which are made from using some of the optional settings.

More about optional settings will be in section 5. These include, turbo fire, yolo mode, no sprint and more. If you'd like to create a map that uses optional setting for optimal gameplay, some things will really help you here.

I will occasionally be updating this guide with extra tips and tricks. I will also eventually be adding screenshots for visual examples of what I'm talking about. Everything in this guide is based off my experience as a mapmaker, which is from over a year of playing this game (on Xbox), and building more maps than I can count (or than I want to count).

Being arguably the most important part of building a balanced map, connections are first in this guide to making a good map. To start, connections affect many key components in map. these include power positions, sightlines, spawning and mobility. All of those are major components to gameplay which are sometimes overlooked.

I believe that sightlines are the most important part of maps. I map can be at least, decent if it only has good sightlines and not much else. Sightlines are also the main factor in the amount of action each player adds to the map, thus how many players can comfortably play a map before the session gets too crowded and a larger map is needed to contain all the players in the game.

A general aspect about sightlines is, they affect weapon viability. Long sightline are better for long-range weapons like pistols and snipers, while shorter ones are best for weapons like the machine gun and the sword. With that said, if you're making a map where all weapons are to be viable, be sure to have a variety of different sightlines, so they can. A good way to test sightlines in areas in just to stand there and look. You can ask yourself questions like: "can players effectively snipe from here", "If a player comes from that doorway, would a shotgun be good for killing him/her" or "Can a murdership fly here safely"?

Mobility is also something to consider when planning your sightlines. After playing the game for a while, you can have good idea of how fast somebody can travel through an area and how effectively somebody can strafe with a given amount of space. You can even run around and see for yourself if you don't. Mobility also affects how sightlines are used. As a rough example, let's say there was a 1v1 map with a single wall in the middle and the play are is generally just a rectangle with that wall in the middle (lol) the wall is only 1 block thick, so you can't see the whole map t one, giving player safe spawns 100% of the time, in theory. That is not the case, because a payer can move side-to-side at the end of the wall which lets him/her see the whole map in less than a second, and that allows the player to kill the opponent almost as soon as he/she spawns. If the wall was 20-50 blocks thick, it would take a lot longer to survey the whole map, which makes spawn trapping way less effective.

A the name suggests, power positions are places In the map where players are generally more effective at doing what they do. In most gametypes, what they are doing is normally killing. A power position normally is a place with a lot of cover and somewhere where you can see a lot of enemy players. Power positions are also normally weapon-specific. If most enemies can be seen from long range while you're at a power position, somebody with a shotgun would not be very effective from there.

There will be more about these in the gametype-specific sections.

As you should know, the gameplay mechanics are very essential parts to understanding many map components, and how they will be used. Spawning is one of these essential mechanics. The spawning system in this game is very simple to understand. generally, without team spawn zones on, You will spawn as far away from enemies as possible at the map's designated spawn points. With team spawn zones on, you will still spawn at the designated spawn points, but as close to your teammates as possible. If you would like to know how to place and edit spawn points, see The Largest Dog's guide about it here: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=305277857 (I almost forgot to note, large spawn zone (3x3 to 8x8) are better than small ones (1x1).)

Wall jumping I another major and essential mechanic in the game. Depending on the quality of balance you plan for your map to have, wall jumps will make or break your map. The main thing to do when considering the structure of certain areas is, check if an area can be wall jumped to and decide if that's good or not. For more info on wall jumps, see this guide by MaterPwn3141: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=334272926

A very underused mechanic in balanced maps is block breaking, and understandably so. A map that has a significant amount of breakable structure that still remains balanced no matter what is very difficult to do. There is quite a lot to consider with doing so. To start, block strengths are very important. This determines how long the breakable structure lasts and how reliable it is to hide behind or how hard it is to go through. To be honest, making maps where breakable blocks are a significant part of the gameplay isn't something that I'm good at yet. I have had some success with things such as, cover that can become a passage or a power position that becomes less powerful as it's destroyed, but I'm still trying to prefect the art of using destroyable structures to their fullest potential. With that said, that's all I have to say on the matter.

As straightforward gamemodes, murdermatch and team murdermatch maps are very straightforward maps to build. With that said, there are still a few things to keep in mind when making one, besides the general things when making a map.

Let's start with murdermatch. As a free-for-all gamemode, the biggest problems with beginners' murdermatch maps are spawning and movement routes. I recommend that you star off making small map (2-6 players), if you are a beginner, because they are easy to make.

For spawning in murdermatch maps (and other map types) you generally want 2 spawn points for each player for optimal spawning. More specifically for murdermatch maps, each spawn zone should 2 or more routes to travel, fairly close to the spawn point and you should minimize the amount of spawn points you can see from each zone. That is optimal, but not always possible, so what I do is, place an amount of spawn zones equal to the amount of players meant to play the map at a time, and make sure no other spawn zones can be seen from each individual spawn zone. For example, if I'm making a map for 6 players, I'll place 6 spawn zones. I'll then stand at each spawn zone and make sure I can't see any of the other spawn zones from there. After that, I'll try to add 6 more spawn zones, regardless if I can see other spawn zones from those places or not.

As for movement routes, they are only a problem because players may unintentionally trap other players by making their possible routes limited. It's somewhat complicated to explain, but it's basically spawn trapping that no kind of spawn zone placement can prevent. Being a free-for-all gamemode, murdermatch maps have to be a little more opened up. In a majority of most murdermatch maps, players should have at least 3 ways in and out of any situation. By no means, are these rule, and if they were, there would be exceptions.

Team murdermatch is a teamwork-based mode, so you'll want to be able to encourage teamwork with your map design. To do this, simply make decent flank route, make some areas harder to travel through. You'll normally want the map to be symmetrical, if you're a beginner mapmaker. This is to make sure that no team has an unfair advantage, but if you're more experienced, you can do the same with an asymmetrical map. There aren't many differences between a good murdermatch map and a good team murdermatch map.

Murder the flag is a tactical, team-based gamemode. With that said, a murder the flag map needs to support that description. A good MTF map is slightly harder to make than a team murdermatch (TMM) map, and normally, a good MTF map is good for TMM too. There are actually many maps that support MM, TMM and MTF. Now, let's go over they key components of an MTF map.

The first and most important part of making an MTF map is, flag spawns. You cannot play murder the flag if there are no flags to murder. Where you place them in the map is arguably the most important thing. Beginners, if your map is symmetrical, place the flags at far sides of the map at the same spot on each side. For asymmetrical maps, try to make sure both flags are just as easy or hard to get to and bring to your base.

The next part is about MTF spawns. By default, team spawn zones are on, and it's recommended that you leave it that way in most cases. You'll want to but alpha and omega team spawn zones on their respective sides of the map, This way, you shouldn't have players spawning at he opposite team's flag.

Finally, some things to note and take advantage of. My favorite thing to take advantage of in MTF is the fact that you cannot dash while holding a flag. That is useful for restricting routes for flag holders. This is also useful for encouraging teamwork, because you can enter vehicles and throw the flag. Vehicles require teammates for a flag holder to use as something other than cover, and throwing a flag to teammate is the fastest way to move a flag in most cases. Many things like locked/unlocked blocks and the flag at home to sore option are good things to keep note of when balancing your map. You can allow player, by default, to build or destroy traveling routes. The other team may need some scouts to see what routes are open. You can make the flag somewhat easy to get to, and with flag at home to score set to on, much of the battle will be to protect your flag holder, and the other would be hunting down the enemy's.

More coming soon.