Here, I have written a number of mapping tutorials for Quake II. There may be better ways of doing these, but this is the way i found that works. Also, these are just examples, so have fun :)

*NOTE: All tutorials are done using the level editor Quark 6.5 Beta 4.
Basic Understanding of mapping & Quark's layout is required. For basic mapping tutorials, see the RUST website.

1. Speedy Map Archiving
2. Curved Stairs
3. Special Effects
   1. "No-Hook" Wall
   2. Single-Faced walls
   3. Light Ramps
4. Invisible Teleporters
5. Spotlights -- Lighting Your Map in Style
6. Hallow Dome

1. Speedy Map Archiving
   Basically, your setting up a q2 server, then using a copy of q2 to d/l them, then zip up what it d/l'ed. Good thing is once u completed steps 1-3, its very easy to zip up maps. if you are interested in how to do that, here it is:
   1. Make a folder called "q2copy"
   2. Copy over the following files to the q2copy dir
      /quake2.exe
      /ref_soft.dll
      /ref_gl.dll
      /3dfxgl.dll
      /pvrgl.dll
      /baseq2/gamex86.dll
      /baseq2/pak0.pak
      /baseq2/pak1.pak
      /baseq2/pak2.pak
      /baseq2/pics/colormaps.pcx
      /baseq2/video/idlog.cin
   3. Set up a server from QuArK via Quake2>>Run Quake 2
      • Set "net_maxmsglen" to "0". This allows the files to download as fast as possible. Default is 1396
   4. In the console, type "map [map filename]" to load your map. ie: map q2dm1
   5. Start-up the r1q2 from the q2copy folder, set "net_maxmsglen" to "0", and connect to your dedicated server by: "connect localhost"
   6. When in-game, exit. All the files are now in q2copy/tmpquark/
   7. Goto the tmpquark folder in the q2copy dir, and select the following folders if they are there:
      -maps
      -textures
      -env
      -sound
   Right click on one of the folders you selected and click "Send to">>"Compressed (Zipped) Folder". Then rename the .zip it created to the mapname. ie: q2dm1.zip. NOTE: if your computer does not show the .zip extension, don't add it; Windows adds it automaticaly.
2. Curved Stairs
   This makes use of Quark's "Bevel Maker" to make the perfect curved stairs.
   1. Insert the bevel maker into the map
   2. Resize it to 256x256x16 units
   3. Goto it's properties
      1. Check the "Inner" checkbox
      2. Set the "thick" arg to 128
   4. Set the textures on each face
      1. Bottom face is really the step top; set and align the texture to this.
      2. Front face is the step lip; set and align the texture to this.
   5. Move & Rotate the poly to where you want it.
   6. Goto the tree-view
      1. Right click on the bevel maker
      2. Click "Disassociate Duplicator Images"
   Move each "slice" up 16 units from the last until theres no more to move up.
   Your done... now add it the rest of your map.
3. Special Effects
   
   1. "No-Hook" Wall
      This one is pretty easy, all we are doing is placing a sky poly behind a mist wall since most hooks don't hook to sky.
      1. Make a wall 8 units thick
      2. Duplicate this wall and place it behind the orig one.
      3. Select the orig wall and assign it a content flag of "mist"
      4. Select the dup wall and assign it a content flag of "sky"
      5. Place these 2 walls inside a group and rename the group to "No-Hook Wall"
   2. Single-Faced walls
      This one is also pretty easy.
      1. Make a wall and place it in a func_wall.
         1. Check the "Start On" and "Toggle" spawnflags in the func_wall properties.
      2. Depending on what you want...
         1. For non-transparent single face, mark all faces but the face you want with "skip" flag.
         2. For transparent single face, mark all faces but the face you want with "trans33" or "trans66" surface flag
   3. Light Ramps
      Understanding Light Ramps in quake 2:
      -Light ramps are used in q2 for fading lights in and out. They use 2 letters (a-z) and the "speed" property to define how it fades. 
      -The speed property is the time it takes for a complete fade. The message property uses the 2 letters to define where the starting brightness and ending brightness is. "z" is full bright; as "a" is totally dark.
      
4. Invisible Teleporters
   Ever wonder how some mappers removed those ugly teleporter models, sound, and sparks? Well, here is how they probably did it (and how I do it):
   1. First , you need a "trigger_always", "misc_teleporter" and an "info_notnull".
   2. Select the trigger_always
      1. Give it a "killtarget" value of for example: "tele"
   3. Select the misc_teleporter
      1. Set the "targetname" to "tele"
      2. Set the "target" to "dest1"
   4. Select the info_notnull
      1. Set the "targetname" to "dest1"
   5. Move those 3 entities where you need/want them.
   6. Make a custom teleporter out of map polys if you wish. You can add sounds, temp ents, or w/e now too.
   7. Compile and test.
5. Spotlights -- Lighting Your Map in Style
   These are pretty easy to make, and they can make some pretty cool effects. To begin, you will need an info_null and a light entity. I would do all of this in a small test map to perfect it.
   1. Place the info_null where the light is going to be shining; just above the floor
      1. Set the targetname to "spot1"
   2. Place the light where the light source is going to be.
      1. _cone is the beam angle. range is from 10 to 90. Lets use 45 for this example.
      2. light is how bright the light is. 350 is about the brightness of a 60watt bulb. Lets set this to 1000
      3. set the target to "spot1"
   3. If you made a light fixture...
      1. Check the "light" surface flag and give it a value of 250. This is just so the fixture isnt all dark in-game. Making the value 500 or higher will create the "fake-light reflection" trick-- where surrounding the spotlight will be a dimmer light; makes it look more realistic when the beam angle is pretty wide.
6. Hallow Dome