I am thinking of commissioning someone to make a medium sized map for a battle royale we are planning to make but I haven’t out sourced before so I don’t know how much and how I should be paying. By the hours, or a flat amount. Any suggestions?
Flat fee. How much depends on the complexity of the map design so you will need to build an outline as to the expected amount of work and put it out for bids. There are a few companies that can do this for you so ask a few for quotes. Depending on the complexity some of the environment developers could put something together for you.
Either case be sure to get a signed work for hire contract. Unless conveyed by contract copyright stays with the original creator.
thanks know of any companies I should go with or should i look for a freelancer.
Pricing type will actually depend on who you contract. Some charge per hour, others a flat rate. I personally charge per hour for my work, but depending on the project I can charge a flat rate. Though that’s usually for clients who would really know what they want. If you don’t, and want constant revisions or for the person you’re commissioning to come up with ideas for the design then expect to pay hourly for the most part. Either way my suggestion would be for you to make sure you have all of your information at hand so that you can answer any and all questions the individual you contract out may have, and can work more efficiently as opposed to just winging it as you go along.
Also to touched a bit upon the point FrankieV made, you definitely want to make sure you have a contract. Especially one that ensures all content made for you by the freelancer is the exclusive property of the company you represent. NDAs are also necessary, and should be signed before any in depth exchange beyond the initial meeting.
Good luck. =)
Well a custom map would by it’s very nature be considered freelanced so you can start here with a general post asking for quotes.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/got-skills-looking-for-talent
Another option would be to look through the marketplace for the type of environment you are looking for and contact the asset developer directly and ask if they would be willing to do up a custom map for you for a fee. I figured this would be an option as most if not all environment assets comes with ready to use demo maps that your even free to use in your own projects-
Personally I’m a fan of PolyPixal
As well as Ironbelly
.
PolyPixal offers the service your looking for and Ironbelly has just started offering environment services. By the looks of it offer real time chat so at least go over and say hello. 
Either case custom is not going to be cheap but be ready to answer some questions as to your design requirements.