THE BEST THINGS WE'VE SEEN IN LEVELS:


Teleporter fraggin stations - have one teleporter in a level with 
more than one entry to it so there is a high chance of teleslopping

Precarious Weapon placement - have a big gun (double barrel or BFG) 
in a situation that involves some risk or exposure, then people
don't hang around it, and people can set up ambushes for eager
"BFG snatchers"

Architectural interest - make the whole level look like it exists 
in real life - rocks, metal and bricks can be made to look like
the bricks were built into the rocks and the metal was built
over the bricks.

Lighting - By all means have flashing areas - but put a light in that
may be causing the flickering! 
	 - have dark areas that players can stalk from, but make it also
open to attack from different angles, so players cannot achieve an
inpenetrable fortress.

Hiding places - keep these to a minimum so that matches don't deteriorate
into mutual ambushes - both players sit and wait for the other to fall
into their trap - result? - more boring than watching grass grow.

Variation on the theme - It is sometimes best to make use of varied areas.
An outside area and an undercover one not only looks better but inspires 
the use of tactical weapons instead of the big guns all the time. For
example - a decent player isn't going to hold a BFG or rocket launcher
whilst navigating a twisty corridor is he?

Target - some great levels have been made to work by having some gimmick 
attached to them. For example, Milo made a level called Teleslop and it 
was centered around a BFG atop a high part of the level which had loads of 
teleport entrances all over the place, it also had another entrance right 
int front of it so that you could run in over and over, telefraggin and
being telefragged numerous times. It turned out to be enourmous fun, 
with guts shooting out of the teleport, going through again and telefraggin
someone else! 

Put a couple of monsters in to respawn just to vary the sounds a bit - it 
breaks up the monotony of the dying, shooting and jumping sounds.


THE WORST THINGS WE'VE SEEN IN LEVELS:

Crap textures - God we hate these. In our opinion, computer textures just
don't suit the mood for deathmatch, bloody, bricky, stony ones do. OK, so
sometimes you get a decent level mimicking laser quest, and it does 
quite well, but the majority of levels we have seen using those textures
are totally crap. Badly used, and not suited.

Large rooms - no meaning - These levels are the worst. A large open room
with weapons scattered about meaninglessly - makes me want to puke.
We laugh these levels out of court - they are so talentless. It doesn't 
take much to put four vertices and some player starts and some weapons, and
say - there you go, kill each other! - no fun in that.

Light fantastic - Some levels don't alter the light level - all at 255. This
makes them look gaudy and unrealistic - and then sometimes you get the level 
that has the 255 - 0 transition - totally useless unless separated by a door 
or wall or something. We have found that natural light looks the best - 180
outdoors and 150-160 in the shadows.

Cyber parade - Don't bother - a bunch of cyberdemons just take your hard 
earned frags - they don't make for an exciting hunt, stalk and kill.


BIG HINT:

In the text file, if you're a newbie, don't say it because it turns most people
away. Just play about for a bit with editing, then when you think you are good
enough, THEN release the level.