Map maker should know the future map’s level even before the work on map has started. Basically, a level 1 map teaches single jumps, can have easy timing tricks, puzzles, hidden danger puzzles, all kinds of air control precision skills (like falling maps), and simple vehicle control. Of course, needless to say that having all that, map still should be easy even for n00bs like me, so if I can’t pass it – it’s definitely not level 1.
Level 2 maps teach double jumps, and maybe dodges and btramp (see below). If extreme distances are used – some help to get proper double jump timing is needed, like special hearing aid, for example, in BT-3-BunnyLessons map is used to teach double-jump-dodge timing…
Level 3 teaches double-jump-dodge jump – very important skill to master for any higher-level maps.
It is hard for me to judge levels above 3, for I cannot personally pass them. That is not funny… Right. So, generally, a Level 4 map assumes firm knowledge of all the basic techniques, and the difficulty is increased by giving less place for error.
It is also generally agreed (by far better players than me) that hammer jumps are ones of the hardest, so only the level 6 maps should rely on them. And i guess the place to learn them should be the level 5 maps. So, please, someone make a hammer learning level 5 map. Other than that, just play other level 5 maps to get an idea of this particular difficulty level. Generally, there are people who can pass level 5 map but cannot pass level 6 maps like BT-6-PlanetRaiders.
And like I mentioned, a hammer, or hammer-manta trick makes automatically a level-6, again, only if those tricks are required to pass it.
BTRamp is a cool trick making it possible to jump very high by dodging against a special sloped surface (like in ut99 or in ut2004), it is used in one of Drummer’s maps, and I think it can be used in level 3 maps and above (and taught in level 2 maps). It’s not a hard technique by itself, it’s just getting the right timing and distance to get the highest jump – can be tricky. There is an exclusive download-only a demo map (quickly made by Drummer in June 2009): DM-BTRamp_Demo for those who want to see how that dodging-against-special-sloped-surface works.
This will be added to the map making tutorial eventually. Just remember, that the difficulty level is determined by the bottleneck – the hardest part of the map, but every map should start simple for any players to be able to play on the server, no matter what map is chosen. Look at BT-6-PlanetRaiders: it starts with single jumps, dodge and double jumps – nice and simple, and anyone can practice while great players pass through.
