Planning and Rough Cutting your game level: it's a good idea to have a plan


Adding a million monsters will not suffice for a well designed map. When you're ready to embark on your first serious map endeavour you should try to start with a plan. I never did this until I was working on the DMD project. Having a plan really enhanced the design and layout of my maps. Sketching out a rough outline of the areas you would like to have in your map really helps in the Build process and cuts down on the time it takes to rough cut. The map won't turn out exactly as you had planned but it will help with the design of it.

Once you have sketched out the basic outline of the areas you will have in the map, start building. Start anywhere you like. If there's a major portion that is most important, start there and rough cut the map outward from that area; use your own judgement.

At this point, don't worry about adding textures,  just rough cut the areas keeping in mind ceiling heights and the heights of the objects you will have in each area such as boxes, crates, tanks, switches, view monitors, windows, whatever. Even in an alien world, they most likely would have view monitors, switches, tables, etc., at a consistent height. However, in the roughing out of the map you will likely only be concerned with the height of the ceiling, doors and windows.

 Plan and rough cuts: scale

Everyone does this in the beginning: make their maps way over scale, ceilings too high, door's way huge...
Did you know that the default ceiling height ( the height of that first, initial sector ), is high enough for Duke and most of the monsters like the Lizmen, Pig Cops and Troopers? Sixteen units from the floor ( or 16 clicks of the page up key ). Some of the bigger baddies need a higher ceiling than that but in most cases, 16-18 units up is plenty of head room. I know, I know, "but Duke can't even jump when the ceiling is that low".

Duke must be able to jump really high or maybe he's just really tall. In any case, if you don't believe me, the next time you're running around in a map of yours, press the F7 key to get a third person perspective. You'll see that Duke is really dwarfed with higher ceiling heights. The top of a door shouldn't be three Duke lengths in height. ( Sometimes you will want a really big door... say to a hanger or ware house. )

Check out a few of the original maps. The ceilings are usually higher than 16 clicks from the floor but the height of most doors I looked at were only 16 units. In any case, just watch that you don't design your maps with really high ceilings and doors because Duke is dwarfed by the effect. That's the main point, here.
Sixteen units is kind of low for ceilings but it's a good height for doors. It can't hurt to investigate some of the original maps for heights. 18 units for ceilings works really well and sometimes 20. Of course not all designs will call for such a low ceiling.

If you look at a lot of user maps, though, you will find that one common thread between them is that they dwarf the player; all the ceiling heights are really high. That's all I am saying to watch out for: watch the heights you choose. I know that jumping to the textures section might be a little advanced for the beginner but I think you should read this section, anyway: textures. In the textures section (page one), I talk about the "Default Cube". Read this stuff because it's very important and relates directly to scale! The textures are a particular size (wall textures, especially) relative to the default height.

I have been guilty of dwarfing Duke in my map designs, too.
You might have noticed this in some of my tutorials but I started compiling these tutorials in June 1998, back in my dwarfin' days. The tutorials are still valid as far as content and method; just not, in some instances, ceiling heights.

I think the problem is in only looking at your maps in first person ( that's how I play DN3D ) but in first person it's kind of misleading. That's why I suggest you run through the various areas in your map ( in game mode ) using that F7 key idea. I could never play DN3D in that mode but it is a good method for evaluating scale.
 
Choose your heights and stick with them throughout the related areas of your map. What I do is keep all switches, view monitors, tables, desks and counter tops six clicks from the floor. This height works for me and appears to be a realistic height in the game. Whatever height you find to be "realistic", stick with it throughout the map. Consistency adds to the realism of your map and helps the player to become immersed in it instead of aware of it. screen captures from one of my maps


There will be some instances when you want to place a switch way up high over other objects.
We're not talking about those instances. These are just general rules, not laws.
Use your own good judgement but remember to be consistent.