AWP Map Ideas

You'll want a solid layout: Start out with an un-detailed, dev textured map. This is called the greybox or development stage. This allows you to make easy changes to the maps layout once you inevitably find flaws, exploits, or frustrating parts of the map. Once you've decided that your layout is solid, move onto detailing.

Here's what you'll want:

A solid theme. What do you want your map to be? A snowy mountainside? A trailer park? The Twin Towers before the plane?
Build up a portfolio of reference images to detail your theme with. Humans work better with reference images rather than working off memory.

Now you should build a "prop library." A prop library is basically a zoo of props that fit into your theme. Go through the world prop viewer and select props you think will fit into the map, then place them all in a separate .vmt that you can easily access for detailing. This can speed up the detailing process exponentially.

Now you should begin brushwork detailing. Start making your level look like your reference images using appropriate textures and brushes. You can almost downright RIP OFF your reference images, its okay.

Once you've decided you like the look of your level without props, start adding in props to spice up the level, along with proper lighting to set a theme, don't forget that while themed lighting is important, it still doesn't beat out gameplay. If your map is too dark due to theme lighting, it wont be fun to play due to lack of readability.

Finally you'll want to do what I call an "overlay pass" in which you add overlays and decals to brushes to spice up the look of the level; breaking repetition in textures and making the world feel a lot more alive.

Afterwords it's mostly polishing. It isn't required but I really suggest you optimize your map by using hints, skips, areaportals, and low hanging 3d skybox brushes. 90% of the people on AWP bitch about their garbage pc's so this will help. A radar is also an extremely useful thing to have that not enough maps seem to utilize due to the mapper being too lazy to learn how to do.

!!!!CLIP YOUR MAP PLEASEEEEE!!!!! NO ONE LIKES JITTERING UP STAIRS OR GETTING SNAGGED ON FUCKASS CORNERS!!!!!! If something is jutting out of the wall, use a clip brush to allow the player to smoothly slide along said wall. If you have stairs on your map, use a clip brush to smooth them out. This helps gameplay more than you'd think.

Here's an example of everything I talked about here, (the map you claimed was trying too hard to be good.)
AWP ARCTICBASE

Just from this screenshot alone, you can tell the map is set in a cold, base like structure in some sort of alps. The lighting is cold and bright, and the mountain in the distance merges well with the industrial, unwelcoming look of the level. Clue in the fact that the doors say "P.L.4.T ARCTIC BASE ALPHA" and you can quickly piece together a nice story as to why this place exists as it does. This conveys this successfully and still has very readable gameplay due to bright lighting and textures.
Props, texture change-ups, and shape variation on the floor, walls, and ceiling help break repetition and bring life to the level. You also cant see it but the level is clipped so well that you can glide across any surface without getting snagged unless it looks like you should get snagged.

Hoped this helps!!!! By the way a map can never "try too hard to be good"!!!