I had this idea and did it in 10 minutes some time ago.
I've already posted it in lvlworld, and I already had a bit of feedback about it. Here it goes:
#1: Thou shalt ALWAYS use common/caulk for new brushes: It saves time by you only needing to texture the sides of the brush you want instead of going back and caulking all the sides of the brushes that are not going to be visible within your map. - PaN61
#2: Thou shalt NOT use brushes where thou shalt be using patches: If you are looking to create smooth curves then patches are the most efficient way to go about this. (Though, you'll still need to encase the patch from the void by caulked structural brushes to stop HOM effects and the likes showing up.) - PaN61
#3: Thou shalt ALWAYS mapmodel thy highly complex decorative brushes: If the "model" is complicated and cannot be easily created via brushes then use models. No second thoughts. - PaN61
#4: Thou shalt NOT make a map composed by mostly of structural brushes: The only brushes which must be kept marked as Structural are those which seal the map from the void and those which are meant to block VIS. Everything else must be made detail.
#5: Thou shalt NOT use the CSG Subtract tool: CSG Subtract could create undesirable results so it's not recommended. Better to just manually brush things out. - PaN61
#6: Thou shalt NOT abuse the CSG Hollow tool: CSG Hollow can have its uses, but in the end manually creating a hollow box with a few smart clips would be a far better options, as well as it being slightly better for optimization purposes. Not to mention that it will look a lot cleaner too. So it can be used, nothing wrong with it, but manually done is a superior option. - PaN61
#7: Thou shalt ALWAYS use the brush clipper and vertex editing tools: Though use the brush clipper tool when you need to use it. - PaN61
#8: Thou shalt NOT abuse of doors and areaportals in thy map: Same can be applicable to Hint Brushing. Used mainly for VIS stage optimization in creating clever portals so that the whole map (or large portion of a map) that you can't see does not get rendered. Like Hint Brushing, incorrect use of this can produce worse results instead of better results. - PaN61
#9: Thou shalt ALWAYS include an .aas file with thy map: Generally speaking yes, unless there are issues with limitations such as maps being overly complex thus resulting in errors when trying to compile an .aas file for the specific map. (- PaN61) Besides, not everyone will play your map online. At this point and with BSPC doing the job for you, there's NO excuse. (- me
) And for complex maps there's already a way to workaround. (- czghost)
#10: If thy map has areas reachable only by trickjumping, thou shalt ALWAYS give a good reason (powerup or holdable) of why that area should be navigated. Weapons 3-8, ammo, armor and health (with the exception of Megahealth) may be easily reachable/escapable, but this ESPECIALLY counts for
game objectives such as flags, obelisks and Domination points, which MUST be easily reachable/escapable by bots and humans alike, PERIOD.