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Map Maker Checklist

In this list, we will break down several aspects of checking your maps and will include
subsections to some categories as well if they require further information or specifications. This
list will not be in a definitive order, however, we highly advise that you take each category into
consideration prior to publishing a map so not only your players and customers will have a good
experience, but so you have a positive reflection of your abilities as a mapmaker in return!

Important Notes:

● This Checklist is for all types of map makers from new to advanced map makers

● This is not a guide on how to make a custom map or assist you in creating one in any
way. This is just a quality control checklist that you can use either during or after making
a map that you have made.

● Additionally we recommend when testing maps in-game to have a few friends/partners

run around the map as well. You will find many more things to fix/balance this way.

Table of Contents

#1 Playability 2

#2 Performance 3

#3 In-Game Testing Steps 4

#4 Visual Imperfections/Bugs 5

#5 Dependencies 5

#6 Other Misc Tips 6

Credits 6
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#1 Playability
● Map Layout - Ensure your map/monument has a well thought out layout in terms of player
progression. IE: Don’t make them spawn nearby high tier monuments or both oil rigs be super
close to each other
● Loot Balance - Make sure that your custom monuments are well balanced if custom made,
especially regarding the loot that players can get from them. If the loot is not balanced to what a
‘normal’ monument would be, then considering nerfing/buffing the included loot at that monument

● Monument density - be mindful of placing monuments on a map. Do no overcrowd one area

with multiple monuments as that can be a huge impact on player progression as well as
negatively impact their performance due to high asset count

● Custom Monuments Exits/Entrances - Be mindful when making monuments to include multiple

ways in/out of a monument as only having 1 way will yield negative results most of the time due
to player traffic/pvp

● Spotlight Locations - Make sure you label all of your custom monuments by using the
MonumentMarker prefab, additionally make sure you use an adequate amount of splat to add
detail to the ‘G’ map from within their in-game map for added visibility.

● Player Camp Spots - These will never be 100% avoidable, but avoiding an over usage of foliage
that a player can hide within can help a lot. Such as don’t use tall grass very often or bushes
nearby recyclers, etc.

● Roads/Paths - Check to make sure roads/paths have all needed topologies and splat applied.
Additionally make sure they are easily traversable and aren’t too steep

● Player Spawns - In addition to Map Layout section above, ensure that players spawn in a
reasonable location on the map that is large enough so it won’t be overcrowded, but not overly
sparse so they’ll never see other players.

● Topology - This is a huge one and should not be neglected. When applying topology to your map
or monument be sure to test in-game thoroughly as a player and make sure all aspects seem
balanced. Refer to the Facepunch Wiki Topology guide for further assistance.
○ Don’t rely on the procedural generation of topologies, make sure to check each one and
compare to a procedural map if needed from here (Procedural Map Topo Layers)
○ Don’t use Cliffside topology for all of your node spawns. Cliffside topology should only be
applied up against rock formations and cliffs since it spawns smaller rocks that players
get stuck on quite often. Use spread out decor/clutter in more sparse locations for node
spawns
○ Building topology should be applied anywhere that there are holes/tunnels/caves so it
hides the grass and other ground decor from spawning mid-air
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#2 Performance
● Prefab Count - Check all areas of your map, especially areas where you spent most of your time
making to ensure they have good performance. Reducing the prefab count is a safe way of
ensuring that.
○ Here is an example of a situation of using excessive high poly count prefabs which could
be reduced by nearly half and still have the desired look :)

● Remove Duplicates - Simple step, but don’t forget to do it please

● High Poly Count - Avoid overly using prefabs that have a large amount of polygons, especially if
they render far. This would include individual Excavator parts, or other complex prefabs as they
greatly impact performance when overly placed.

● Effects - Ensure your monuments have a very minimal amount of visual effects such as
smoke/fire/sparks/etc. Any effect you add such as these have properties that casts light onto your
prefabs which greatly decreases player performance due to them rendering all of the
shadows/lights off of your prefabs

● Use Efficient Puzzles/IO Circuits - When making a custom monument, especially with a custom
puzzles, use the simplest circuits possible for minimal overhead, or if you can avoid it then do not
use custom circuits/io at all as IO is relatively intense on server FPS if player count is higher than
80-100

● 0,0,0 - For those of you that don’t know, a number of entities on a server are teleported to the
coordinates of 0,0,0, in short it’s basically like a temporary location where they are stored before
being destroyed by the server automatically. Make sure that your map does not include this area
within a playable zone and it’s buried under the terrain via a mountain/hill. If not, then players will
see/hear this location and will impact their FPS
○ Here’s an example of that location being in a visible place on the map
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#3 In-Game Testing Steps

● Spawn Points - Test your spawn points well to ensure they work and are balanced (F1 Suicide to
repetively spawn)

● Road Network - Run (don’t ride/drive) as a player on your entire road network. You will be
surprised by how many things you may notice need fixing by doing this. Make sure junkpiles
spawn well and look around for other potential visual bugs

● Custom Monuments - Same thing, run to each of your custom monuments, all around, and test
their puzzles, loot, and look all around them as you will see things that you did not see within
Rustedit

● Make sense - This is a very broad term on purpose, but make sure that your maps/monuments
make sense regarding how you lay them out and finish them.
○ Don’t have Roads lead to nothing
○ If you have pipes/structures touching the ground add some gravel or other splats so
they’re not on top of green grass
○ Don’t put a bradley on a wooden dock
○ Don’t put a security door on a primitive dock/structure
○ Examples of places that could be improved or make sense

● Visit each Grid - This may sound tedious, however visiting each grid in-game and thoroughly
looking at all the contents then checking it off on a notebook will be very helpful as you know you
will not skip over any sections nearly as easy

● Ride The Trains - Make sure all train entrances are perfectly aligned in-game and also ride the
entire train system to ensure it works smoothly
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#4 Visual Imperfections/Bugs
● Flickering/Clipping - Test in-game to make sure you do not have any flickering prefabs

● Floating prefabs - Ensure there are no floating rocks or prefabs by doing multiple in-game
testing sessions
○ Make sure to snap all roadsign spawners/powerlines to the ground via the scene
hierarchy and select all (if you didn’t place any in custom locations)

● Tunnels/Caves/Holes - Check all openings within the terrain to ensure no ground decor/grass is
spawning mid-air and apply all needed topologies to resolve

● Spelling - A simple step, but please make sure you spell words correctly. Such as monument
markers, text prefab, map file name, etc

● Standard Monuments - When adding standard monuments check all around these as a lot of
the time the alpha/terrain will not apply perfectly

● Interactable Hinged Doors - Be sure to set the X scale of hinged doors of all types to 0.01. We
used to advise 0.0 however it allows NPC’s to shoot through doors if it’s 0.0

#5 Dependencies
● Reduce - The least amount of map dependencies the better, especially for ease of install/setup
for customer experience

● Prefab Files - Be sure to either include all prefab files that contain your custom map included
with the .zip, or at least select everything and break them all apart so it’s not needed

● Map Plugins - If you decide to have a plugin made for your map that is custom ENSURE that you
have the means to keep it up to date just as if you map were to break somehow.

● Passwords - If you password your map via Rustedit make sure you include it within the .zip of
the customer download

● Rustedit Dll - if your map requires the rustedit dll extension please mention it somewhere within
your product description or short description and include the link to it.
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#6 Other Misc Tips

● Add invisible colliders around IO entities to prevent player’s interacting with them (Example)
● Do not use the standard player construction prefabs (foundation/floor/) If you intend on having
NPC’s on them, if so please use an invisible collider. (Example)

Credits

Thanks to the Lone.Design map making team for contributing feedback and future suggestions
to this Map Maker assisted quality checklist!