Alright, im a total newbie at thsi map building, and i really want to get into it but finding it hard, is there a really easy tut to help me build a simple map??? not just a room, i wish it was like OFP that was a brilliant map creater

OFP..... I'm still creating missions and addons for the game.

However, back to the topic. The tuts under sof2mapping will help with your ideas, I recommend that you go through the tut for Room101 and then at least Room102. Download both vidios and then you should be able to map away.

Welcome to the scene

Cheers

MrWilson,
There is no "easy way" to gain enough knowledge to build maps that both contain good looking and functional terrain features and contain enough realistic structures and player features to make the effort seem worth while. The best thing you can do is click on the left hand side of the main screen you are viewing where you see a bold face "Tuturials", and download the SOF2Mapping tuts. This is probably the best starting point.
And be willing to browse through the forum postings, for relevant questions, and links to various sites that contain tutorials etc..
The bottom line is there is a large amount of material that must be understood from the Radiant
Editor design standpoint as well as many features that are not covered in any detail or at all on how to create some particular type of entity or action.
I would suggest that you plan on just learning bit by bit over a few month period until you get an over all idea of what can be done, and what to avoid.
Plan on having lots of maps go sour, because of some improper action taken while in the Radiant Editor, that makes the map useless (it no longer will open in the editor for instance because something you did messed it up), or you spend many days on a given path such as adding various features only to realize later that you wasted your time in the sense that the results was not what you expected. None of these things should be taken as a negative answer to your question, but meant to convey the idea that most of us that have stuck to this activity have accepted the idea that it would not be easy. After quite a few months of simple design, I am only starting to really feel comfortable with using the many features in the editor, as well as having a good idea as to where things are contained within the file structure and how to interprete what they contain. There are many things you will have to learn piecemeal. Such as terrain design, shaders, scripting, understanding
the navigational system, etc.. To help learn about these mentioned things, start reading the Radiant User manuals located under the main directory of either the Single or MP SDK directory called "docs".
And early in your effort, decide if you want to concentrate on making MP missions or Single Player Missions. Depending on what you choose,
will in a way, focus you on methodologies that differ somewhat once beyond the basic editor techniques. I decided early on to focus on Single Player maps, because it was a way to concentrate on map design and all that goes with it without the additional things such as setting up a SOF2 MP
Server environment. In short, design something, then test it out with a minimum amount of overhead
adminstrative steps that must be considered when creating MP maps. But if your goal is to design MP maps, then you should concentrate on how to design maps for MP mode. I think most of the moderators here would agree with this statement.

Just some thoughts that may help in some way for you to focus on what things should be considered in the starting stage of development design.
Think of it this way.......when you read answers provided by this forum's moderators, remember that at least some of them had started a few years ago, in SOF1 or some similiar Quake Engine based game. They have built up a knowledge base, that reflects a long time learning effort, both
in how to use the Radiant tools and how to create fully functional maps. It did not happen over night.
After some four months at this stuff, I am just starting to get an idea as to how to create various aspects of mapping for Single Player mode. I believe I have barely scratched the surface as how to design a good map (I think), with some form of intellegient action taking place within it. Of course I may be a slow learner. Perhaps you will fair better. Lastly, do ask questions after at least attempting to parse sections of the forum topics,
to see if answers are already supplied. The moderators must get weary at times in having to provide the same answers over and over again.
Plan on many months of learning a bit hear and there and you may not get disapointed or to discouraged. No pain, no gain. The rule applies here.

grb (George)

Whoops,
As I was typing, Foxhound submitted some sound starting advice to you. Perhaps the following site
should also be on your list for starters. It is a very well put together user manual on how to use the Radiant Editor to create a lot of things such as terrain. You can find it at:
http://qeradiant.com/manual/Terrain_Manual/table_of_contents.html

Lastly, Narc is putting together some tuts such as how to create terrain, along with required shader files, bitmap files, and what is called an alphamap file which tells the editor how to texture terrain.
So in the not to distant future you can expect to have some excellent additional means of how to create a piece of outside terrain where you can place buildings etc., and move freely about within buildings and outside the buildings. I am sure this
is what you want to do. So do be patient as more
tuts become available.

chow,
grb

MrWilson,
Whoops the site I recommened was incorrect,
the proper URL is:
http://qeradiant.com/manual/Terrain_Manual/pages/table_of_contents.html

grb