Marathon Mapping Time-lapse [Night Terror from Imperium]

This episode covers the development of my Marathon Infinity multiplayer map, Night Terror, the 24th map created for my map pack, Imperium. Night Terror is unique in that it features Lua scripting written by W'rkncacnter to simulate random lightning strikes in-game, and a strike can travel through bodies of water as well. As such, it's a bit of a novelty map, but it would still work decently as a regular map without the weather scripting.
I decided to showcase this map because its development proved to be a difficult process. I initially had a totally different layout in mind, one vaguely similar to a cross between Y.A.F.N.M. and Fortress Lh'owon, with several large, open areas connected together by a bunch of small tunnels and canyons. I got somewhat far drawing this layout, but ultimately became dissatisfied with my progress each time. Eventually, I decided the concept just wasn't going to work at all, so I began brainstorming a new layout, which ended up being used instead.
This layout includes a more centralized layout that uses height as some feature. Both of these changes help to highlight the lightning bolts, and likely helps the flow of the map better serve online play.
I began drawing the map from the hill outward, which isn't my usual approach. As more of the map was outlined, I made sure to draw high priority areas first, so I didn't box myself in later.
Since this map features deadly lightning in the outdoor areas, I tried to balance the indoor and outdoor portions of the map, so the player was forced outside at some point if they wanted to traverse the map. I also added two pools of water at the bottom level of the map - unlucky players running through these pools will get electrocuted if lightning happens to strike the same pool of water.
Night Terror is available in Imperium: [simplici7y.com/items/imperium/]
Download the Marathon Trilogy & play via Aleph One: [alephone.lhowon.org]
Track online games: [metaserver.lhowon.org]
Browse Marathon fan scenarios: [alephone.lhowon.org/scenarios...]
Join the Marathon Discord: [ / discord ]
Bungie's New Marathon Game: [www.marathonthegame.com/]
Featured song: "New Pacific" from the Marathon 1 OST.