If you want a more convenient way of organising and compiling your maps then you can use an application like Q3Build. After setting up the program with basic information like the location of Radiant and Quake you can Access the following menu.
The main window lists all the maps available (you can refresh the list to update it for new maps), and below are the various compiling options. Leave the BSP and VIS options set to normal but you can change the settings for LIGHT and VLIGHT if you want to simplify the lighting of the map and speed up the compilation process (this isn't advisable when building a final map though). You can also choose to add basic bot support and allow Q3Build to run Quake for you after the compilation has finished. When you are ready click the build (hammer) icon to compile the map selected in the top window.
If you have included bot support then you can try it out by adding bots through the normal Quake menu once you are in /devmap mode.
When you a happy with a map you can provide more detailed bot support and introductory level screenshots using another program like arenamaster. Finally you can pack up all your files into a single .pk3 file using winzip that you can then post online and will run on other peoples computers, without all the hassle of typing /sv_pure 0 and /devmap mymap every time you want to run it. This final stage can be a bit annoying though, especially if you decide to make any changes so wait until your map is totally finished before you try it.
There are other advanced mapping topics that are not covered in this tutorial, such as: telporters, fog, moving brushes, mirrors and custom textures. You can find information about how to acheive these effects online through sites such as www.planetquake.com and
www.quake3arena.com. You just have to look for it.
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