I think we need a thread for this.

If you play through Heretic, you will notice a certain number of convention that the Raven team used to make their levels. This helped make it more consistent overall and I think we should have such conventions as well, including most or all of Raven's own.

To whit:

• Key gizmo things are used to mark locked doors (nothing else!)
• All teleporters emit special sparks. Red spark mark a normal teleporter; blue spark mark an exit teleporter.
• Teleporters generally use a special texture representing the symbol of chaos.
• Exit doors and exit switches have distinctive textures that are not used for anything else.
• All wooden doors are free, all metallic doors are locked, all fortified stone doors are activated from a remote tripwire. This is less relevant here, because Baker's Legacy pack adds lots of doors mostly grey or metallic.
• The expansion episodes show a schism between the undead and the beasts.
• Detail is kept at a decent level, but the levels do NOT look very abstract. Many of them do look like their namesakes, or believable areas. E1M4 really looks like a dock to me.
• Secret doors tend to be marked with a different light level, or in the case of the trimmed walls, you see a phoenix sometimes, and that's often a secret or hint door.
• Where possible the switches are always recessed into the wall and are surrounded by that metal texture.
• Something else: we have a large variety of resources. That's great, but don't abuse it. Try to use the resources that make sense in your map and its episode.

Feel free to use this thread to debate these conventions or suggest additional others.

All wooden doors are free, all metallic doors are locked, all fortified stone doors are activated from a remote tripwire. This is less relevant here, because Baker's Legacy pack adds lots of doors mostly grey or metallic.

The expansion episodes show a schism between the undead and the beasts.

Detail is kept at a decent level, but the levels do NOT look very abstract. Many of them do look like their namesakes, or believable areas. E1M4 really looks like a dock to me.

Secret doors tend to be marked with a different light level, or in the case of the trimmed walls, you see a phoenix sometimes, and that's often a secret or hint door.

I wonder how many levels need to be adjusted again to fit the guidelines...Since the choice of sky textures in episodes is up to the author, I don't really see why these are needed.

1st consistency!
2nd the sky isn't up to the mapper, there are restrictions!
(hell skies won't fit in E1 e.g.)

Something else: we have a large variety of resources. That's great, but don't abuse it. Try to use the resources that make sense in your map and its episode.

I've played through a few maps where it seemed the textures, notably the switch textures, were used completely randomly.

Where possible the switches are always recessed into the wall and are surrounded by that metal texture.

Fully agreed!