I want to make one because I seem to be fascinated with the beauty of simplicity that a lot of RA3 maps demonstrate, but since they are not good enough to stand out on their own, they pretty much have to be "bundled" up in a RA3 map.

Unfortunately RA3 has little server activity nowadays, although there is still a small playerbase remaining. Question is, is it worth it, or is it not even if you want to do it?

I was thinking of also releasing all the arenas as "single arenas" along with the actual map, but you never know.
Edited 59 seconds after the original posting.

Personally, I would not make a RA3 map today due to the small number of dedicated RA3 players unless you have direct links with a group of those players. I totally love the RA3 style of gameplay - its fast, frantic and you can jump in for a quick game and be gone 5 minutes later, or you can stay for ages, but the lack of bots and players is a shame.

If you have some ideas for arenas, look at merging the ideas or expanding on them into a small DM or Tourney release is my suggestion.

My other idea was that I could just bundle them up in one .zip and just orient them towards Small CA, which can be played in CPM, OSP, or anything that supports the mod.

@EmeraldTiger (and anyone with the same question) Just like Tig I also totally love the RA format but never play it because of the lack of bots.
The RA maps are really good for instagib SlugRock style of gameplay. So I suggest place some weapons/items in somewhat clever places so the bots will roam. Fire up a simple mod and just have fun fraggin'.

hope this is an appropriate place to mention that there is an openarena server that is usually just rockets. other voted on choices are: railgun & rockets, insta (railgun only); and a grapple hook. bots can be voted in with different skill levels (1-5). there are many unique maps. there are bots if no humans around, or a mix. all choices voted on. as Tig states: " its fast, frantic and you can jump in for a quick game and be gone 5 minutes later, or you can stay for ages", which is why i seem to go there alot lately. the server is: "/n/city uk". it's one of many "rat mod" servers european based. there is lag compensation, so, those with high pings (> 100, me :-) ) have a chance. some good players with pings over 150-200. it's quick and fun.

Probably more fruitful would be to convert RA3 maps for standard Q3. That way you can play with normal bots, CPMA bots, or other bots around (e.g spiterbot).

I don't have any real understanding of coding but could it be possible to create a mod that defines the different arena's of a RA map as seperate levels? There must be something a mapper must do to a RA map to specify the different arena's in the maps .bsp. With this specification you could script an .arena file to select the part of the RA map you want to play.
There are mods that add items to a map by scripting like the Corkscrew mod or excessive+ and there are others. So without changing the .bsp you could select different arena's of an RA map, add items and I think it is already possible to build an .aas file for a RA map. You need to code that the bots spawn in the right arena where the player is and after they are fragged they need to respawn in the same arena and not an other part of the RA map (iirc that is part of the problem if add bots to a RA map).
I'd be happy to be part of the testing of such a mod and to do item layouts of the existing RA maps (item_botroam works because I used that in my sr3maps) .
Ahhh I just love having mod ideas...

I can't believe this thread is almost 10 years old. :)

Anyways I know it is now possible to use entity override files in mods like CPMA to change the items and spawns without recompiling the map. Presumably one could take a RA3 map, remove all spawns except those in the arena you want to restrict the player to, then add items in the arena that still has spawn points. The players will only spawn in the one arena, with items. Only issue is that you'd probably have to swap out override files for different arenas in the same map file, so if (for example) you wanted to play Theatre of Pain from ra3map1 with items, but then later wanted to play Thunderstruck from the same map file, you'd need to delete the Theatre of Pain entity override and replace it with the Thunderstruck one, unless there are mods that can let you choose between different overrides for the same map file. Someone with more knowledge on overrides can likely give a better response.
Edited 16 seconds after the original posting.

That sounds intriguing. Could it be enough to copy/paste ra3map1.bsp and rename it to ra3map1a.bsp / ra3map1b.bsp etc.
And then use the entity override. So you can play Theater of Pain with ra3map1a
And Thunderstruck with ra3map1b
Such entity override might be also a nice addition to the level up mod.

@EmeraldTiger Super interesting. I love RA3 maps (specially this one, ws.q3df.org/map/ra3map9/) and would love to play them in CPMA/OSP/etc. Can you tell me how to do this? Also, notice original files do not have .aas files, so this would also need to be done (but seems to be possible from bsp files only).
@Tig Would a reconverted RA3 map fulfill the criteria for uploading to LvL?

@raspatan : Sure. I would expect correct crediting to the original author, but otherwise I see no issue. There are plenty of remakes already on ..::LvL.

Just to repost my comment above using the new tag system :)

@EmeraldTiger Super interesting. I love RA3 maps (specially this one, ws.q3df.org/map/ra3map9/) and would love to play them in CPMA/OSP/etc. Can you tell me how to do this? Also, notice original files do not have .aas files, so this would also need to be done (but seems to be possible from bsp files only).
Edited 8 seconds after the original posting.

Third attempt!
@EmeraldTiger see above :)

@raspatan: Hello there! Apologies for the late reply as I've been busy with my job the past few days.

So while you could use mods like the Diablo editor to make overrides, it takes a long time to remove all the spawn points (I don't think the mod has a way to just delete them all at once), so I decided to approach this the old-fashioned way and also just use straight up .bsp's rather than overrides. You'll need q3map2.exe as well as a map editor for this; I'll be using GTKRadiant for this tutorial.

1. Using WinRAR, PakScape, or another compressed file tool, extract the .bsp you want from the .pk3 file.

1. Create a batch (.bat) file with the following command (adjust for your setup as needed):

Put this batch file in the same directory as your .bsp file. Run the batch file, which will decompile the extracted .bsp to create the .map file, which will have the name "mapname_converted.map".

1. Save another copy of the decompiled map file, call it "mapname_nospawns.map". Load GTKRadiant. In your nospawns map file (NOT the original), delete ALL spawn points from the map, in every arena (including the waiting/lobby area). To do this, load up the entity info window (bound to the 'L' key by default), scroll to the entry for "info_player_deathmatch", click it, then click the "Select" button under the entity definition textbox. This will automatically select every single instance of "info_player_deathmatch" in the map. Click "OK", then hit the backspace key to delete all deathmatch spawn points. There may or may not also be "info_player_start" entities in the map too; if there are, repeat the previous step for that entity as well. Save the map.

1. Create yet another copy of your map, but using the "mapname_nospawns.map" file you created in step 3 as a base. Save it with the same name as the arena you are interested in, for example "threestory.map". In this map file, add items and spawn points to the arena you want (the one you named the map after). You can re-add the spawn points from the original by taking them from the original decompiled .map file (this is why a separate nospawns .map file was created in step 3, instead of just saving over the original), if you desire. You may also want to change the map name in the "message" setting of the worldspawn entity to match the arena. Save the map.

1. Create a copy of the original uncompiled .bsp file, and give it the EXACT same name as the .map file you created in step 4; for example if your map is "threestory.map", give the copied .bsp file the name "threestory.bsp". Perform an -onlyents compile of the .map file; because your .map file and .bsp file have the same name, the entity changes will be reflected to the .bsp file. Do NOT perform a full recompile; this will damage the integrity of the .bsp by including all of the geometry and texture alignment errors that come with map decompilation. An -onlyents compile preserves the underlying .bsp while adjusting the entities as needed.

1. Compile the .aas (bot) file.

1. Package your new .bsp and .aas file like you would any other map.

As an example to demonstrate, here's a download link to an itemized version of Three Story, one of the arenas in ra3map9 (which you mentioned you liked) by g1zm0:
drive.google.com/f...MH7OCIHkTz/view
The .pk3 file also includes texture and shader files from the original ra3map9.pk3 so that it'll display correctly. The item placement is taken directly from the Quake Live version of Three Story (it looks a little misaligned in places because the QL version was given a complete visual overhaul, but everything is roughly where it is in that game). You'll notice if you noclip outside of the map you can see the other arenas; however, since the spawn points only exist in the Three Story arena, players will only spawn there, and thus the rest of the map is ignored (you'll notice a few missing texture errors too, but again no one will be seeing them in normal gameplay). Any Rocket Arena 3 arena can be converted into a standalone, item-filled map in this way.

I'll admit I'm not great with tutorials so if there are any difficulties let me know. I hope you find it helpful!
Edited 4.81 hours after the original posting.

@EmeraldTiger Wow, thanks for the effort in the detailed explanation, with the example included! Will give it a try with more maps!
Just one question. If you can reverse engineer the ".map" file from the ".bsp" (which I didn't know you could), why one would not just use GtkRadiant to remove from the map the undesired extra arenas? You could this way separate each arena into individual maps for standard Q3. I guess the answer is related to the geometry and texture alignment errors you mention but don't quite understand why.
Edited 57 seconds after the original posting.

@raspatan: It is indeed because of those problems, yes. When a .bsp file is compiled from a .map, a lot of information is lost in the process, such as texture alignment, lighting, etc. because it is "baked" into the .bsp (for optimization reasons), and there's no way to get it back exactly the way it was; all decompilers can do is create an approximation based on the information the .bsp provides. Attempting to delete the other arenas in the map would be modifying the original map geometry, necessitating a full-on recompile with VIS/RAD, and thus resulting in a .bsp with all of the problems of the decompiled .map. The entities, however, are a completely separate component from the geometry of the map itself, which is why an -onlyents compile works.

@EmeraldTiger Super, thanks! Looking forward to importing some RA3 maps to standard Q3!! :)