i have been seeing a lot of things going on in forums (especially the CoD2 one as that is very popular right now) and i have decided to make this compiling hints thing of things most ppl know but that all the new mappers need to know:

1. when compiling a map for the first time, i have never NOT gotten a error in first compile. so first try compiling with little or no detail. just your basic brush work and set it up for your gametypes you want then compile. mabye even not have the lighting as great as you want. the skybox will give enough light to light the inside of houses up enough for you to see just as a test.

2. when doing a second compile. change the name and everything. keep the old ones though. such as if you have a map called TEST. well then after u have tested that once and compiled and everything then change what you need and make it TEST2 but keep both TEST and TEST2 so if you messed up even more then you can go back to TEST.

3. I usually try to have a new map name every 5 hours of work. such as, lets say you have a map called Proto. well then after 5 hours of work save the map again but as Proto2. so if one fails and screws up (or if you use CSG tools then you really want to do this....CSG = bad.) then you only lost 5 hours of work.

i made this simply because i see so many posts sayin that they lost there maps, or that they lost portions of there maps, or the .bsp wont update (or whatever file extention your game plays)

hope this helps, also, could we make this a sticky?