For the most part, I think this is how I do some of my small maps (doing the defaultish maps is a different story). Started out with a square made up of two triangle polygons.
Get the basic of basic layout down, with all of the squares connecting each other correctly.
Moved the polygons around to a more sensible layout design. Some more polygons may be added later. You can split the polgons by pressing Ctrl+L when you have a vertice selected.
Basic shading.
A more detailed shading. Subtle shading is the theme here. They should still be noticeable, though, otherwise the map would look bland.
Sceneries added. They should look like they could be put into a canyon. For most sceneries, they'll be put to the back. Middle sceneries might clutter up the action a bit, given the size of the map.
Spawns added. Don't forget to overlap the polygons before maptesting. I'll skip the waypointing part.
After maptesting, I thought I'd add like 3 or 4 colliders and a flag spawn, turning it into a HTF map as well as a DM/TM map.
Compile, save, and
there you have it.
