NikiOo

So this train car was meant to be for my wingman map, but then I got a call from Naught Dog saying they want it for the new Uncharted 5. I guess the map is scrapped now... You'll see this in 2028 when the game comes out. I hear they're planning to use it in one of the big action sequences in the last level.

Why would I go to Iceland if I can just go to Basalt?
It's completely immersive, the water is wet (you just can't touch it), there are humans to connect with (and shoot in the head, which you can't do in real iceland), there's moss, sky, rocks, and a waterfall, which look very real. The only thing missing is live animals, but that's compensated by all the live humans walking and shooting around the settlement. I can stay here forever. Or not.
Also, they better have some really good smart glasses in the works if they're advertising all of this AR stuff.
"The future will be made by us." Not by you, by us. You have no say in it. We're turning off the comments and hiding the dislikes.

So this train car was meant to be for my wingman map, but then I got a call from Naught Dog saying they want it for the new Uncharted 5. I guess the map is scrapped now... You'll see this in 2028 when the game comes out. I hear they're planning to use it in one of the big action sequences in the last level.

So this train car was meant to be for my wingman map, but then I got a call from Naught Dog saying they want it for the new Uncharted 5. I guess the map is scrapped now... You'll see this in 2028 when the game comes out. I hear they're planning to use it in one of the big action sequences in the last level.

So this train car was meant to be for my wingman map, but then I got a call from Naught Dog saying they want it for the new Uncharted 5. I guess the map is scrapped now... You'll see this in 2028 when the game comes out. I hear they're planning to use it in one of the big action sequences in the last level.

Really convenient how they named the heavy sniper Operator, so I can just call it AWP and it sounds the same. Thank you Riot! You know your awdience.

Really convenient how they named the heavy sniper Operator, so I can just call it AWP and it sounds the same. Thank you Riot! You know your awdience.

All of you mortals can't even begin to comprehend this shit. I tackle these monolithic projects all the time. While you're sitting there scratching your head, trying to wrap your mind around the car's engine, I'm out there designing pistons and manifolds. It's like a conveyor belt through my head - problems coming in, solutions coming out. Zero resistance, maximum current. I am the founder of object-oriented level design!
And this? This is just one of the pieces for de_lakestreet. I've already made wm_lakestreet2 and wm_lakestreet3. I didn't share them out of pity. Cause I know many of you will straight up quit mapping when you see how productive I am.

All of you mortals can't even begin to comprehend this shit. I tackle these monolithic projects all the time. While you're sitting there scratching your head, trying to wrap your mind around the car's engine, I'm out there designing pistons and manifolds. It's like a conveyor belt through my head - problems coming in, solutions coming out. Zero resistance, maximum current. I am the founder of object-oriented level design!
And this? This is just one of the pieces for de_lakestreet. I've already made wm_lakestreet2 and wm_lakestreet3. I didn't share them out of pity. Cause I know many of you will straight up quit mapping when you see how productive I am.

Here's a screenshot from de_rail, now wm_lakestreet. I decided to turn this into a wingman map so I can actually finish it. I cut what I think was the worst area of the map and now I have something that is much more manageable. I encourage everyone who has a defuse map in the works, which they feel overwhelmed by, to consider taking a part of it and turning it into a wingman. I did this for three reasons. Firstly, the complete layout woulld require very good understanding of residential building interiors and I would have to create too many assets for the great number of unique interiors players would walk through. Secondly, wingman maps are much easier to playtest. And thirdly, I have one more defuse layout that's in the works and I decided that if I am to commit to a big project I should chose the more interesting layout so I chose the other map.
It seems as if the more time I spend workinig on a texture, the more satisfied I am with the result ?. How intriguing.

Here's a screenshot from de_rail, now wm_lakestreet. I decided to turn this into a wingman map so I can actually finish it. I cut what I think was the worst area of the map and now I have something that is much more manageable. I encourage everyone who has a defuse map in the works, which they feel overwhelmed by, to consider taking a part of it and turning it into a wingman. I did this for three reasons. Firstly, the complete layout woulld require very good understanding of residential building interiors and I would have to create too many assets for the great number of unique interiors players would walk through. Secondly, wingman maps are much easier to playtest. And thirdly, I have one more defuse layout that's in the works and I decided that if I am to commit to a big project I should chose the more interesting layout so I chose the other map.
It seems as if the more time I spend workinig on a texture, the more satisfied I am with the result ?. How intriguing.

Here's a screenshot from de_rail, now wm_lakestreet. I decided to turn this into a wingman map so I can actually finish it. I cut what I think was the worst area of the map and now I have something that is much more manageable. I encourage everyone who has a defuse map in the works, which they feel overwhelmed by, to consider taking a part of it and turning it into a wingman. I did this for three reasons. Firstly, the complete layout woulld require very good understanding of residential building interiors and I would have to create too many assets for the great number of unique interiors players would walk through. Secondly, wingman maps are much easier to playtest. And thirdly, I have one more defuse layout that's in the works and I decided that if I am to commit to a big project I should chose the more interesting layout so I chose the other map.
It seems as if the more time I spend workinig on a texture, the more satisfied I am with the result ?. How intriguing.

For me the pandemic was a major puch in the gut. I would have been in a very different place right now had it not been for COVID. Even before the pandemic, mapping had grown to seem like sort of an escapist thing so I had decided to take a break from it and make some major life changes to figure out why I am so inefficient at inter-humous relationships.
So here I am, all out of my comfort zone and walking through this swamp, fighting unseen creatures, stress levels through the roof, when all of a sudden the sky gets dark.
And then the COVID storm hits and trips me over. I manage to crawl my way underneath the roots of a tree, where I feel relatively safe. Problem is, now I can't go forward. The swamp is eating up my legs, mosquitoes laying eggs inside my ears while I sleep, and the eggs are hatching faster because of the moisture from the storm. Also the wind was brushing up swamp water onto my legs, which was catalyzing with my peasant clothes. I felt trapped and my condition was getting worse. I thought to myself, my legs are under-leveled, I cannot resist the entropy. Then I heard a voice from the sky and I looked up.
"You have some fine legs, son! You are on teh path to cerebro-fuego". "Thank you, Mufasa! You are truly as brilliant as they say!" This elevated my spirit and I decided to keep looking for whatever the hell he was hinting at. I would rest to gather up strength during the day and then leave at night to hunt for small swamp creatures. Then one night I hear footsteps, I look outside and I see the legendary meat-man. He was traversing the swamp with such elegance as if he was skating on ice. Enthralled by his magestic movements, I called him out and asked, "legendary meat-man, how come the swamp is not eating up your legs?". To this he replied, "It is because my legs are covered in meat, young padowan. You should try this too."
I thanked him and the next day I did what he'd suggested. (he also taught me martial arts) I covered my legs with meat and voalha! I could now walk through the swamp as if it wasn't there. This is great, I thought. At this rate I can make up the time I lost hiding from the COVID storm. So I kept walking until I reached the swamp cave. And in the swamp cave lay the swampnauceros.
It was sleeping and I was all pumped up, adrenaline drooling out of my mouth, my muscles all tensed up, so I pull out my knife and charge directly at it. Then out of nowhere comes legendary meat-man. He speaks to me, "Yo, amigo, stand back! This is not you amigo, you cannot defeat this beast at your level, even though you know karate! You have to visit mountain level and acquire the money printer from the traveling salesman so you can shoot the beast with money. "But, mr. meat-man! How can I find this traveling salesman?" "Oh, you'll eventually find him, the mountain level is walled-off. He can't run away." "Okay, mister meat-man. Thank you for your precious advice! Bye-bye!"
So here I am trekking through the forest, approaching the village at the root of the mountain-level. In the village I find a guide, named Fuejo. And naturally the first thing I ask him is, "Fuejo, man, why be the mountain so green and mushy?" "Oh, you don't know, amigo? The mountain is covered in swamp!" "This swamp...it's unlike other swamp. It's very thick and hostile, it won't let just anyone through." Stealthily, I looked around the bar to ensure no cats were around, then I spread my coat for Fuejo to see my meat armor. "Oh, I've seen this type of armor. It will protect you, but it is not enough. Here, take this..." He passed me a dirty jar with some white powder in it "What is this?" "It's called diezo-diazo. You snort it up your ass and it will inflate your armor." "Is this safe to use", I asked him. "Well, if you take too much, your armor will explode and cover you with blood, which will attract the swamp sharks."
So here I am crawling through a swamp once again, when suddenly I realize that I would need something to trade for the money printer. After all salesmen tradesmen aren't called tradesmen for nothing. So I dig into my pockets and pull out this half complete wooden house that I'd been chipping away at before I started my odyssey through the swamps. But I had not tool. I looked around and I saw this man who was carrying a wood-chewing tool. I had no choice. There was simply no other way. I stabbed him in the back of the head with my knife, then after the sharks devoured him, i came back to scrounge the remains. Freshly nutrified, I managed to complete the wooden house.
And lo and behold, I found the traveling salesman. "Here, take this house, travelling tradesman. All I want in return is the money printer." "Okay, here you go." "nice, I can defeat the swampnaucerous now. Thank you traveling salesman! In return, I shall build you a big house on top of the hill." "You already paid me with the wooden house model". "Oh, ok".

For me the pandemic was a major puch in the gut. I would have been in a very different place right now had it not been for COVID. Even before the pandemic, mapping had grown to seem like sort of an escapist thing so I had decided to take a break from it and make some major life changes to figure out why I am so inefficient at inter-humous relationships.
So here I am, all out of my comfort zone and walking through this swamp, fighting unseen creatures, stress levels through the roof, when all of a sudden the sky gets dark.
And then the COVID storm hits and trips me over. I manage to crawl my way underneath the roots of a tree, where I feel relatively safe. Problem is, now I can't go forward. The swamp is eating up my legs, mosquitoes laying eggs inside my ears while I sleep, and the eggs are hatching faster because of the moisture from the storm. Also the wind was brushing up swamp water onto my legs, which was catalyzing with my peasant clothes. I felt trapped and my condition was getting worse. I thought to myself, my legs are under-leveled, I cannot resist the entropy. Then I heard a voice from the sky and I looked up.
"You have some fine legs, son! You are on teh path to cerebro-fuego". "Thank you, Mufasa! You are truly as brilliant as they say!" This elevated my spirit and I decided to keep looking for whatever the hell he was hinting at. I would rest to gather up strength during the day and then leave at night to hunt for small swamp creatures. Then one night I hear footsteps, I look outside and I see the legendary meat-man. He was traversing the swamp with such elegance as if he was skating on ice. Enthralled by his magestic movements, I called him out and asked, "legendary meat-man, how come the swamp is not eating up your legs?". To this he replied, "It is because my legs are covered in meat, young padowan. You should try this too."
I thanked him and the next day I did what he'd suggested. (he also taught me martial arts) I covered my legs with meat and voalha! I could now walk through the swamp as if it wasn't there. This is great, I thought. At this rate I can make up the time I lost hiding from the COVID storm. So I kept walking until I reached the swamp cave. And in the swamp cave lay the swampnauceros.
It was sleeping and I was all pumped up, adrenaline drooling out of my mouth, my muscles all tensed up, so I pull out my knife and charge directly at it. Then out of nowhere comes legendary meat-man. He speaks to me, "Yo, amigo, stand back! This is not you amigo, you cannot defeat this beast at your level, even though you know karate! You have to visit mountain level and acquire the money printer from the traveling salesman so you can shoot the beast with money. "But, mr. meat-man! How can I find this traveling salesman?" "Oh, you'll eventually find him, the mountain level is walled-off. He can't run away." "Okay, mister meat-man. Thank you for your precious advice! Bye-bye!"
So here I am trekking through the forest, approaching the village at the root of the mountain-level. In the village I find a guide, named Fuejo. And naturally the first thing I ask him is, "Fuejo, man, why be the mountain so green and mushy?" "Oh, you don't know, amigo? The mountain is covered in swamp!" "This swamp...it's unlike other swamp. It's very thick and hostile, it won't let just anyone through." Stealthily, I looked around the bar to ensure no cats were around, then I spread my coat for Fuejo to see my meat armor. "Oh, I've seen this type of armor. It will protect you, but it is not enough. Here, take this..." He passed me a dirty jar with some white powder in it "What is this?" "It's called diezo-diazo. You snort it up your ass and it will inflate your armor." "Is this safe to use", I asked him. "Well, if you take too much, your armor will explode and cover you with blood, which will attract the swamp sharks."
So here I am crawling through a swamp once again, when suddenly I realize that I would need something to trade for the money printer. After all salesmen tradesmen aren't called tradesmen for nothing. So I dig into my pockets and pull out this half complete wooden house that I'd been chipping away at before I started my odyssey through the swamps. But I had not tool. I looked around and I saw this man who was carrying a wood-chewing tool. I had no choice. There was simply no other way. I stabbed him in the back of the head with my knife, then after the sharks devoured him, i came back to scrounge the remains. Freshly nutrified, I managed to complete the wooden house.
And lo and behold, I found the traveling salesman. "Here, take this house, travelling tradesman. All I want in return is the money printer." "Okay, here you go." "nice, I can defeat the swampnaucerous now. Thank you traveling salesman! In return, I shall build you a big house on top of the hill." "You already paid me with the wooden house model". "Oh, ok".

For me the pandemic was a major puch in the gut. I would have been in a very different place right now had it not been for COVID. Even before the pandemic, mapping had grown to seem like sort of an escapist thing so I had decided to take a break from it and make some major life changes to figure out why I am so inefficient at inter-humous relationships.
So here I am, all out of my comfort zone and walking through this swamp, fighting unseen creatures, stress levels through the roof, when all of a sudden the sky gets dark.
And then the COVID storm hits and trips me over. I manage to crawl my way underneath the roots of a tree, where I feel relatively safe. Problem is, now I can't go forward. The swamp is eating up my legs, mosquitoes laying eggs inside my ears while I sleep, and the eggs are hatching faster because of the moisture from the storm. Also the wind was brushing up swamp water onto my legs, which was catalyzing with my peasant clothes. I felt trapped and my condition was getting worse. I thought to myself, my legs are under-leveled, I cannot resist the entropy. Then I heard a voice from the sky and I looked up.
"You have some fine legs, son! You are on teh path to cerebro-fuego". "Thank you, Mufasa! You are truly as brilliant as they say!" This elevated my spirit and I decided to keep looking for whatever the hell he was hinting at. I would rest to gather up strength during the day and then leave at night to hunt for small swamp creatures. Then one night I hear footsteps, I look outside and I see the legendary meat-man. He was traversing the swamp with such elegance as if he was skating on ice. Enthralled by his magestic movements, I called him out and asked, "legendary meat-man, how come the swamp is not eating up your legs?". To this he replied, "It is because my legs are covered in meat, young padowan. You should try this too."
I thanked him and the next day I did what he'd suggested. (he also taught me martial arts) I covered my legs with meat and voalha! I could now walk through the swamp as if it wasn't there. This is great, I thought. At this rate I can make up the time I lost hiding from the COVID storm. So I kept walking until I reached the swamp cave. And in the swamp cave lay the swampnauceros.
It was sleeping and I was all pumped up, adrenaline drooling out of my mouth, my muscles all tensed up, so I pull out my knife and charge directly at it. Then out of nowhere comes legendary meat-man. He speaks to me, "Yo, amigo, stand back! This is not you amigo, you cannot defeat this beast at your level, even though you know karate! You have to visit mountain level and acquire the money printer from the traveling salesman so you can shoot the beast with money. "But, mr. meat-man! How can I find this traveling salesman?" "Oh, you'll eventually find him, the mountain level is walled-off. He can't run away." "Okay, mister meat-man. Thank you for your precious advice! Bye-bye!"
So here I am trekking through the forest, approaching the village at the root of the mountain-level. In the village I find a guide, named Fuejo. And naturally the first thing I ask him is, "Fuejo, man, why be the mountain so green and mushy?" "Oh, you don't know, amigo? The mountain is covered in swamp!" "This swamp...it's unlike other swamp. It's very thick and hostile, it won't let just anyone through." Stealthily, I looked around the bar to ensure no cats were around, then I spread my coat for Fuejo to see my meat armor. "Oh, I've seen this type of armor. It will protect you, but it is not enough. Here, take this..." He passed me a dirty jar with some white powder in it "What is this?" "It's called diezo-diazo. You snort it up your ass and it will inflate your armor." "Is this safe to use", I asked him. "Well, if you take too much, your armor will explode and cover you with blood, which will attract the swamp sharks."
So here I am crawling through a swamp once again, when suddenly I realize that I would need something to trade for the money printer. After all salesmen tradesmen aren't called tradesmen for nothing. So I dig into my pockets and pull out this half complete wooden house that I'd been chipping away at before I started my odyssey through the swamps. But I had not tool. I looked around and I saw this man who was carrying a wood-chewing tool. I had no choice. There was simply no other way. I stabbed him in the back of the head with my knife, then after the sharks devoured him, i came back to scrounge the remains. Freshly nutrified, I managed to complete the wooden house.
And lo and behold, I found the traveling salesman. "Here, take this house, travelling tradesman. All I want in return is the money printer." "Okay, here you go." "nice, I can defeat the swampnaucerous now. Thank you traveling salesman! In return, I shall build you a big house on top of the hill." "You already paid me with the wooden house model". "Oh, ok".

I remember enjoying my time with Dark Souls 2 more than with DS 3. In retrospective, it looks much uglier but the atmosphere was more welcoming. Perhaps it's because of how much variety there is in the places you visit. And with the slow combat it is certainly a lot more chill.

Between 1990 and 1996 i lived in a house together with my family and it was the period of my life that i remember most fondly. 
We got a Super Nintendo while we lived there and after my mother and step-father broke up and we sold the house life kind of went spiraling downwards. By 2004 My grandmother and grandfather died of cancer, my father had commited suicide and my mother started abusing heavy drugs. 
All i ever really wanted was to find the same stability and family-life i had as a kid. 
My kids mother (we were together between 2004 and 2012) destroyed my hope for women but i got two amazing kids out of that relationship. 
I met a woman through internet after years of terrible dates and extremly low self-esteem. I remember thinking when i first saw her that "she is waaay out of my League". Fast forward and this weekend we moved into a house, on the same street i grew up on. I would never have dreamt of this in a million years and i get all teared up watching my daughters playing Sim City on the SNES mini. 
Sorry for the rant but i never thought a game i played as a kid could make me feel this way today. 

Sucks that John Wick is in this film. Didn't really like him as a character.

It's amazing that computer graphics have come so far that we can finally have glossy rocks.

I remember enjoying my time with Dark Souls 2 more than with DS 3. In retrospective, it looks much uglier but the atmosphere was more welcoming. Perhaps it's because of how much variety there is in the places you visit. And with the slow combat it is certainly a lot more chill.

Yes, gimme more of those meaningful games!
Frostpunk is awesome. It's like a management game that's not made for psychopaths.

Hello everyone! 
Hope you like honey! Because our new wingman map, Hive, has just gone live on the workshop. Set in a fictional research facility, the map pits teams in a fight over a new kind of bees that are said to produce the sweetest honey in the world. This has been a month long collaboration between me, @celery and @jakuza.
We are happy with current quality of the map but there are still few things that we are trying to improve on.
Some of the areas still need some smaller details, alpha sorting issues with glass brushes, lighting in some of the areas could be brighter. We are confident that those issues should be fixed in 2 weeks.
Here are few screenshots from the map and I'm sure celery and jakuza will post some of their work from this project. Hope you guys like it!
 
Workshop link
Overview

 
 
Bombsite


 
T Spawn


 
A Long



 
Atrium

 
Offices



 
 
 

Well, it's actually quite simple.

Ideally, you want to minimize the filler areas and maximize areas of type alpha and omega. You do this by learning how to think in 3 dimensions and how to generate interesting areas, while working within the constraints of nature and human architecture. Here is the formula for what makes a good area:

Goodness of narrative comes down to story-telling, which is a very expansive topic in and of itself so I will focus on goodness of color and goodness of shape. So we'll use a simplified formula for goodness of area, shown below:

Formula (1) is the lego approach to area engineering, where you deal with large presets, since you're not yet experienced enough to work on area microarchitecture. Now I will show you the wizard approach. You won't read about this in LD text-books.
Let H be the set of architectural components used by humans and let N denote the set of architectural components used by nature (God / evolution). Then we'll use Z to denote the available language of architectural expression. Z is the proper set of the union of H and N. Naturally, you cannot use the entire language of expression at your disposal so let's say the language you're going to use is some subset of Z, which we shall call L.

Now in order to learn how to make a good area, you need a way to calculate the goodness quantifier of formula (5). Without that you won't have the much needed feedback-response cycle and you will not improve. So we need to measure koppaI from an already built level. To do this, you take all elements of L and distribute them in a 3-d vector space, based on their position of use in the level. If you want, you can use two separate vector spaces - one for the color subcomponent of every component, and one for its shape. But beware, the natural distribution of the reasonable color spectrum for most components is pretty tight.
Next thing you do, you color code the scattered points based on the spatial locality of the components in the real world. In other words, components that appear together are assigned similar colors. Then you want to reduce the amount of overall entropy in the color distribution. One way to do this, without sacrificing variety is to have clusters of low entropy (which appear as splatters of uniform color) in distinct areas of your map, while the connecting areas should be kept low entropy (without many micro-clusters) so they can compensate for the contrasting transition between the larger areas.

For reference, in the image above, a high entropy area would look something like (c), while the rest are relatively low entropy.
Some easy ways to reduce color entropy in your level are:
using a very limited color palette using painterly textures using photo textures taken from the same real world location Some easy ways to reduce shape entropy in your level are:
using references not mixing architectural styles from different historical periods use large pieces for cover, remove small pieces that only add clutter reducing signs of human life (it is very difficult to prevent signs of human life from skyrocketing your entropy meter) hierarchical procedure (starting from a silhouette blockout and gradually filling in details) Keep in mind, entropy can also be too low. This can happen if you put too much effort into silhouette and visual harmony and don't use any references. You can end up compensating with bad entropy. Bad entropy is when details you add increase visual disharmony very rapidly. Ideally, you want your learning process to lead you to a place where your entropy is similar to the entropy in areas you find visually appealing in real life or virtual environments, and you also want the level of detail to approach the level of detail in those environments.

In formula (6) I show an example optimization model for a realistic style area. You can use this to derive a model for fantastic or stylized areas. You want entropy and detail to move in parallel with one another. The ideal scenario would look something like this:

Keep in mind that adding narrative elements such as signs of human life and natural decay can increase entropy quite alot. For further reading on sings of human life look into How buildings learn by Stewart Brand.
If you get good at adding detail without massively increasing entropy, you will have more confidence to experiment with unique layouts.
Then there is another formula, called the challenge complexity formula. Player enjoyment from playing a map tends to correlate inversely with frustration. Frustration comes from low correlation between expected challenge and actual challenge.

One way to model challenge is as a scalar, representing net difficulty (7).

Another way you can model challenge, shown above, is as a set of micro-games that the player will have to play during the match, determined by the context of each encounter. The phrase "micro-games played in wingman maps on official servers" can be replaced with micro-games anticipated by the user or micro-games user enjoys to play in counter-strike. For this analysis, I assume that enjoyment is maximal on wingman maps on official servers, presuming those maps are examples of prime level design. This is more true for defuse maps than it is for wingman.
Micro-games constitute things like how you peek certain corners, how you play around with cover and position in certain contexts, how you use your utility, and all sorts of other actions you take to become more unpredictable and to put yourself in a favourable situation. The possible situations you may find yourself in are determined by the architecture of the level.
You don't want to introduce too many unique ideas into your level, because it will reflect badly on the micro-games ratio coefficient.
You can just plug those formulas into hammer and watch the magic happen!

Well, it's actually quite simple.

Ideally, you want to minimize the filler areas and maximize areas of type alpha and omega. You do this by learning how to think in 3 dimensions and how to generate interesting areas, while working within the constraints of nature and human architecture. Here is the formula for what makes a good area:

Goodness of narrative comes down to story-telling, which is a very expansive topic in and of itself so I will focus on goodness of color and goodness of shape. So we'll use a simplified formula for goodness of area, shown below:

Formula (1) is the lego approach to area engineering, where you deal with large presets, since you're not yet experienced enough to work on area microarchitecture. Now I will show you the wizard approach. You won't read about this in LD text-books.
Let H be the set of architectural components used by humans and let N denote the set of architectural components used by nature (God / evolution). Then we'll use Z to denote the available language of architectural expression. Z is the proper set of the union of H and N. Naturally, you cannot use the entire language of expression at your disposal so let's say the language you're going to use is some subset of Z, which we shall call L.

Now in order to learn how to make a good area, you need a way to calculate the goodness quantifier of formula (5). Without that you won't have the much needed feedback-response cycle and you will not improve. So we need to measure koppaI from an already built level. To do this, you take all elements of L and distribute them in a 3-d vector space, based on their position of use in the level. If you want, you can use two separate vector spaces - one for the color subcomponent of every component, and one for its shape. But beware, the natural distribution of the reasonable color spectrum for most components is pretty tight.
Next thing you do, you color code the scattered points based on the spatial locality of the components in the real world. In other words, components that appear together are assigned similar colors. Then you want to reduce the amount of overall entropy in the color distribution. One way to do this, without sacrificing variety is to have clusters of low entropy (which appear as splatters of uniform color) in distinct areas of your map, while the connecting areas should be kept low entropy (without many micro-clusters) so they can compensate for the contrasting transition between the larger areas.

For reference, in the image above, a high entropy area would look something like (c), while the rest are relatively low entropy.
Some easy ways to reduce color entropy in your level are:
using a very limited color palette using painterly textures using photo textures taken from the same real world location Some easy ways to reduce shape entropy in your level are:
using references not mixing architectural styles from different historical periods use large pieces for cover, remove small pieces that only add clutter reducing signs of human life (it is very difficult to prevent signs of human life from skyrocketing your entropy meter) hierarchical procedure (starting from a silhouette blockout and gradually filling in details) Keep in mind, entropy can also be too low. This can happen if you put too much effort into silhouette and visual harmony and don't use any references. You can end up compensating with bad entropy. Bad entropy is when details you add increase visual disharmony very rapidly. Ideally, you want your learning process to lead you to a place where your entropy is similar to the entropy in areas you find visually appealing in real life or virtual environments, and you also want the level of detail to approach the level of detail in those environments.

In formula (6) I show an example optimization model for a realistic style area. You can use this to derive a model for fantastic or stylized areas. You want entropy and detail to move in parallel with one another. The ideal scenario would look something like this:

Keep in mind that adding narrative elements such as signs of human life and natural decay can increase entropy quite alot. For further reading on sings of human life look into How buildings learn by Stewart Brand.
If you get good at adding detail without massively increasing entropy, you will have more confidence to experiment with unique layouts.
Then there is another formula, called the challenge complexity formula. Player enjoyment from playing a map tends to correlate inversely with frustration. Frustration comes from low correlation between expected challenge and actual challenge.

One way to model challenge is as a scalar, representing net difficulty (7).

Another way you can model challenge, shown above, is as a set of micro-games that the player will have to play during the match, determined by the context of each encounter. The phrase "micro-games played in wingman maps on official servers" can be replaced with micro-games anticipated by the user or micro-games user enjoys to play in counter-strike. For this analysis, I assume that enjoyment is maximal on wingman maps on official servers, presuming those maps are examples of prime level design. This is more true for defuse maps than it is for wingman.
Micro-games constitute things like how you peek certain corners, how you play around with cover and position in certain contexts, how you use your utility, and all sorts of other actions you take to become more unpredictable and to put yourself in a favourable situation. The possible situations you may find yourself in are determined by the architecture of the level.
You don't want to introduce too many unique ideas into your level, because it will reflect badly on the micro-games ratio coefficient.
You can just plug those formulas into hammer and watch the magic happen!

Why do you think a 3 lane layout is not interesting? Most defuse maps follow a very similar four square pattern. That doesn't prevent them from doing a lot of original things within individual areas.
Also, I think you'll have better luck coming up with interesting ideas if you play around with it in the editor rather than on paper.
Here's something you can do - take a cool real life location that you would like to make in the game (this will motivate you) and think about how you can design a wingman layout around this location. You will find yourself solving interesting architectural problems and even if you end up with a three-lane layout still, it will be an interesting three-lane layout because of the constraints of the theme. You may not even notice that you have a three lane layout just like cache is pretending to not be a four-square layout while it is exactly that.