I recently came across a mapper called Captain Amerika who has been making base maps for FarCry. What are base maps you ask? Well read on to find out!

To use his description they are:
“to provide beginning map-makers inspiration and pre-started div> to finish into their own final works”.
This means anybody is allowed to take the map and use it as a base for a new map. Of course you have to credit him but that should go without saying!

It seems to me that this is an excellent idea for new mappers. It allows them to jump to the next stage of creating maps. They also allow new mappers to see maps that are not complete and that is unusual.

So far the use of the base maps hasn’t been what Captain Amerika had hoped for. This could be for a number of reasond. First and foremost, nearly all mappers are incredibly creative and maybe they feel that using somebody else’s work is cheating.

Another point is that creating the basic layout is a process which all mappers need to go through eventually anyway.

Maybe he’s using the wrong engine for this type of concept. Perhaps it would be more popular with Source or D3.

Good ideas aren’t always readily accepted, sometimes you have to convince the users and then they wonder they they didn’t think of it themselves” Some are ahead of their time, others have missed the point where they would have been successful. Perhaps in this case the concept needs a little more promotion or a slight change in direction.

Does anybody know of other base maps?

Personally I think these maps are perfect for a comprehensive tutorial series. Something that slowly and carefully takes beginner mappers through different steps, ensuring they fully grasp the concepts involved. Alternatively they good be good for competitions.

I know that relatively few mappers visit PlanetPhillip at the moment but what are your thoughts?