How to be creative

[Merowingg]

Have you ever considered writing some map making guides explaining how you come up with these ideas?

Oh dear gods aubergine sorry man but I cannot miss this one.. it is simply so.. let me call it nonsence..

A guide how to come up with ideas It is creativity you partly born with, and then during every second of your life by seeing things, touching things, feeling things, learning things, experiencing things, and many other things, that you learn.

Some have better grounds to it, the other worse. A guide how to come up with ideas sorry

It is l dont know, a guide how to.. paint beutiful paintings.. there can be some tips like, hold the brush at its end, or make smooth moves, but now how to come up with ideas

I remember a guy here typing from time to time, guys if you have an idea for a map then tell me.. one can suggest something, but it is you who decide how it will look like as you do not sit in the others person head

TMP both played game a lot, both have seen a lot, and know how to use graphic programs well, and most of all he seems to feel it, if you know what I mean, he earned it with life or genes maybe he is an artistic soul and feels more details?

Anyway aubergine no offence please but what you have written was just terrible for me.. I hope you do not hate me already, to save me a mug of beer for you and a barrel of wine can be brought if necessary

And now TMP.. let me go short this time I like the idea very much, I took some inspiration from it, although I already see 3 things I would change, but those are my feelings only which what is more will remain secret very nice Sir

[Rman Virgil]

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@ Mero: I agree with almost everything you expressed, and expressed well, but one point I disagree with.

There are pragmatic techniques for creatively generating fresh ideas.

I'll only mention one. It has a track-record of success approaching 50 years. It's called Lateral Thinking and it is the brainchild of one Edward de Bono.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_thinking

@ tmp: high quality maps.

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[Merowingg]

Rman don't scare me

And seriously, I didn'r know, sounds really interesting, I will dig out for more. But how many can afford and train such thing..? Who has time who has time

[tmp500]

i don't like your tone mero. writing an essay with 20 smileys pointing the finger at the laughable one ^ after all your talking to a human being. imagine telling him that in person, pointing your finger at him and laughing hysterically for 5 minutes. those people get slapped really quickly in my world. i could sum up your essay in one sentence and the point would come across.

Have you ever considered writing some map making guides explaining how you come up with these ideas?

i do a few sketches on paper. the pencil is still the best tool for me to come up with ideas. you dont have any technical bs between your thoughts and your first rough draft. give yourself some time at this stage and dont hesitate to discard it and start over if it doesn't feel right.
i trace the draft in inkscape which is easier for me to move stuff around then in gimp. made a quick test and it seems the cliff brush makes the least problems when you use greyscale steps of 70 - 0,70,140,210,255

export the results, correct glitches in gimp, blur parts for the ramps and move on to flame. thats pretty much it

[Merowingg]

i don't like your tone mero. writing an essay with 20 smileys pointing the finger at the laughable one ^ after all your talking to a human being. imagine telling him that in person, pointing your finger at him and laughing hysterically for 5 minutes. those people get slapped really quickly in my world. i could sum up your essay in one sentence and the point would come across.

yh..

Ok a shorter one.. you cannot one just advice or tell what to do, to have great ideas.. what is more for one walking a dog and seeing a bus will be great and for other chopping the meat he is preparing to eat..

The information you have provided may be good for you, bit terrible for others.. not rushing and revising something one has done is the best one, but the rest is a cause and effect of millions of things.. we can only assume what is best, I dont know silence, or relaxing, advice slightly. For example I have finished all the things I have begun, with good or terrible effect, even when feeling OMG while it was appearing. Two of my maps have never seen the forums light as I decidend not to spread what was according to me a monster, but who knows, maybe those were the best tactical maps in the universe. I do skatches both on paper and in gimp for ecample. Those are at leas ant at the most few lines. I add a picture of such thing here now. Do you recofnise one of my recent maps there there are two maps drawn. For example if aubergine feel the most of his invention while riding a bike and eating tomatoes, then it is his path.

There is no reason to play "I do not like your tone" play, as I did in the ending, clearly visible one, a few I will call it "I am sorry" lines. I didn't know I already have two enemys with it. What is more how many do the "sorry lines" many just state clearly "you are stupid", "what a noob" or even the other way "perfectly perfect map, thanx ZZzZ" Read again, I clearly expressed what I mean, and what I feel, and in a very kind way, in comparson to some things here, I mean in the community.

Another truth is that, and it is well known, I over use smileys. Here the idea of advising how to be creatif book was simply a nonsence as I stated. Ok as I am far too good, I admit maybe I should place some sentences in other words, and not use some smileys.

aubergine Sir are we enemys already as maybe it is much ado about nothing I hope.. so again I am sorry if I did something wrong

[Rman Virgil]

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@ Mero: This is a worthwhile creativity discussion but I was gonna suggest we take it to your Map Discussions thread so as to not highjack this thread which properly belongs to tmp and his creations.

Tmp's point about tone and good manners is well taken and especially with folks you don't really know, don't know you, and you shouldn't take the kind of liberties you would normally with your friends or buds.

Like we've gotten to know each other over the last 2 years so we can be more "liberal" in our conversations with each other in ways that we shouldn't do with folks we don't have that kind of rapport with because they will rightly take offense with the tone and manner.

Gotta make these distinctions, my friend, especially in this text-based medium were the subtle nuances of vocal inflection and body language are entirely unavailable to us. In RL face to face with strangers those can come into play and there is less chance of giving offense. But as Tmp rightly pointed, even with the benefit of those added cues in RL face to face, there are no assurances that you will not offend by taking certain liberties normally seen as terribly rude. And, if that happens in RL, there are indeed folks that will bitch slap you in a heartbeat, if not worse, so unless you are ready to go all Jet Li ninja in return, it's best to follow basic good manners. Anyway we should continue any further discussion on this subject of manners and creativity techniques in an other thread.

Apologies, tmp.

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[cybersphinx]

This is a worthwhile creativity discussion

... and here you have a whole thread for it.

[aubergine]

Thanks Cyber

[Rman Virgil]

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All right then... good move.

Many ways to come at this.

Any particular place you favor continuing from Mero...?

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[tmp500]

ill continue this thread with the last scribble i did

[aubergine]

@tmp - as I understand it the main aim of the last map was to find a good way to balance the positions of 10 players (hence the oval shape)?

I notice also that you seem to be very good at distributing oil resources between the players in a balanced manner...?

Do you have any of the sketches for your other recent maps? I'd be intrigued to see them, this is an aspect of map making I've never seen before on these forums (I've seen things like height maps, but no pencil drawings). The drawing shows much more clearly the intent of the map IMHO.

[Merowingg]

Hey I do not want to separate topics like that, at places like this TMP shouts at me and aubergine you dind answer me.. yh..

My drawings are far more advanced

And seriously, those are to make me remeber the general idea and it is always like that the first one is my Battle Line map

[duda]

creativity is a prozess of imagination and corespondence to reality (virtual reality in this case) for me

it's not only have an idea

creativity is also the courage to do crazy things

how to be creative?

just do it

[Lord Apocalypse]

@All
I don't think mero meant any discord by his words, though a guide to creativity does sound a bit funny.

For aubergine's part I think the phrase may have been poor worded rather than asking how someone is creative. Everyone is born with creativity. Some though.. you never really see it as it is mechanical or technical rather than artistic. Now, a guide on what inspires such map making ideas, now THAT is worth a guide of a few pages.

What inspires the map maker... Could it be a real world setting? Some setting from a movie? Game? Fantasy book (with maps or with out)? Or perhaps does it just show itself as a blank canvas such as what an painter may envision for his/her latest masterpiece. Perhaps it is purely based on military tactics and strategies. These are what can, do , or could drive a map maker to fulfilling his or her dream of creating the ultimate (or crappiest) maps ever. Some people are born creative, others have to work at it. Just as some people are born who can understand physics, to see the nature of the universe and time.

Just my two cents

[Berg]

Making a guide to be creative is in my view narrow minded you cant say this is the guide lines because there is none.
My two cents worth