Forum | Thinking With Portals

#31 · March 28, 2012, 5:12 pm

@Djinndrache
Thank you so much for this blindrun! Seeing this gave some really new perspective on things and me and StGinger had a long talk about how the second last puzzle being very distracting with the cubedropper-button and corresponding panel which are not suppose to be used until later. Also you did'nt have the 1.2 or older version of the map so some of those solutions - mostly thinking about the open observation room - would not work now. We will make it more clear where to go in that puzzle so that it wont be so confusing, along with some other minor issues we noticed.
Lesson learned: watch more playtesters before release!

Other then that your solutions where mostly the intended ones, despite two of them who were really clever and creative! Nothing wrong with that.

@Jimmy
Thanks for playing!
It suppose to look like you're passing thru a broken testchamber, but yeah should probably put some debris over that button so you don't go looking for a cube :thumbup: Will check that glass out, can't really do anything about that lag of yours, flaw in the design I guess.

My workshop

#32 · April 1, 2012, 3:59 pm

Quote from BEARD! on April 1, 2012, 3:59 pm
Just attempted the map. My partner and I would describe this as hard - we didn't solve all the puzzles, particularly in the second map. We were quite clumsy in our execution, which maybe made us progress slower. After some 2.5 hours into the map we called it a day, feeling as tired as we did after we finished Impetuosity. It's good that the map comes in two parts. If anyone was to attempt it I'd recommend that you do so in two sittings.

With regards to the mapping, it's clear that you've put a vast amount of time and effort into making this. You did a superb job of using the destroyed/overgrown style; and the map looks flawless.

Below I've written my/our thoughts on all of the content (and there was a lot of it). It does contain spoilers so show this box at your peril. Beware, the writeup became a bit of an essay!

Thoughts on the map. Contains spoilers. Intended for the map authors.
[spoiler]In the first spawn room we couldn't place a portal on the floor panel near the blue spawn vent. A bug: there was an invisible brush in front of the test chamber sign that we could walk on.

The first puzzle was fun, although it took us a while to execute a solution. When getting the standard cube over the fizzlers, sometimes the wall faith plate knocked us into the lower fizzlers, even though the top one was disabled. We had a couple of 'useability' problems too. On a number of occasions we unintentionally fell onto floor faith plate by just walking off the platform above it. Also, when I used the faith plates I managed to fly past the standard cube in the holder, and the game picked the cube up automatically. I didn't realise, fell down onto the faith plate and flew into the fizzler, destroying the cube.

The second chamber's solution was more obvious to us, once we realised we had to create an 'infinite' loop. I felt that the timing was a bit tight though. I have to admire how you used linked portal doors to make the spawn room feed into the second chamber.

In the bts area we struggled to knock over the surprise super turret. The conversion gel confused us - we kept trying to redirect it. Walking along the pipes to get to there seemed weird too.

As for the third chamber: it took us ages to notice the platform with the pedestal button. My partner struggled to jump through the gap created by the moving panel but achieved it eventually. Further, the turrets confused us - were we supposed to cover them in bounce gel or otherwise disable them? In the end, we just dodged them - but only after being reassembled quite a few times! Despite this, several things about the map were done brilliantly - the re-use of 'Surprise!', the descending button, and crashing through the lab window were all fantastic moments.

After revisiting the bts area to get to the fourth chamber (a nice touch) we couldn't quite solve this chamber. We got the general idea - similar to chamber two, but with fizzlers involved. We couldn't quite perfect the timing of it though. In the end, noclip came to the rescue.

Now for the second map. At first I thought I'd found a horrendous laser puzzle, but there was an X to mark the spot, meaning we solved it pretty quickly. An airlock came next - I thought that the door stuck in the wall was a nice touch.

The next part of the puzzle demolished both of our framerates. While the game ran acceptably on low settings, that part of the map needs looking at. We managed to solve it, but I can't remember how. I would say that we weren't 100% sure of what we were doing most of the time though.

The bts area and the dual fizzler/light bridge ride was fine performance wise and a fun puzzle. We were tired by this point though, and our execution was absolutely terrible. Consequently we took a long time to proceed. We really did have to cooperate to traverse the path (it felt like it'd be nigh on impossible if we weren't in constant voice communication). In particular, the part where we had to move the funnel to the left and move ourselves at the same time was tricky to execute. When it came to the vertical funnel ride I tried to block the turrets with the light bridge but used the wrong portal! Maybe it'd be worth doing what Valve did in the single player finale - make it so that the player can't place the wrong portal?

Flinging up into the 'laser deathfield' chamber was a nice touch. We managed to get a portal onto the light bridge and promptly gave up - we didn't have a clue what to do here. When my partner respawned (he was orange) I noticed that he spawned out of one tube and the particle effects came from the other - were your info_coop_spawns mixed up?

We noclipped to the final chamber. We could get one robot to the far side but failed to get us both there, feeling exhausted after such a long play session. We noclipped to victory and ended it there. I noticed that if we both stood on a button and then one of us stood off, the funnel disabled. The buttons should have been tied to an OR-gate. [Perhaps logic_branch_listener would have helped?]

One last note now that I think of it - I liked the use of Science Collaboration Points throughout the map.[/spoiler]

Thanks for mapping!

Just attempted the map. My partner and I would describe this as hard - we didn't solve all the puzzles, particularly in the second map. We were quite clumsy in our execution, which maybe made us progress slower. After some 2.5 hours into the map we called it a day, feeling as tired as we did after we finished Impetuosity. It's good that the map comes in two parts. If anyone was to attempt it I'd recommend that you do so in two sittings.

With regards to the mapping, it's clear that you've put a vast amount of time and effort into making this. You did a superb job of using the destroyed/overgrown style; and the map looks flawless.

Below I've written my/our thoughts on all of the content (and there was a lot of it). It does contain spoilers so show this box at your peril. Beware, the writeup became a bit of an essay!

Thoughts on the map. Contains spoilers. Intended for the map authors.

Spoiler

In the first spawn room we couldn't place a portal on the floor panel near the blue spawn vent. A bug: there was an invisible brush in front of the test chamber sign that we could walk on.

The first puzzle was fun, although it took us a while to execute a solution. When getting the standard cube over the fizzlers, sometimes the wall faith plate knocked us into the lower fizzlers, even though the top one was disabled. We had a couple of 'useability' problems too. On a number of occasions we unintentionally fell onto floor faith plate by just walking off the platform above it. Also, when I used the faith plates I managed to fly past the standard cube in the holder, and the game picked the cube up automatically. I didn't realise, fell down onto the faith plate and flew into the fizzler, destroying the cube.

The second chamber's solution was more obvious to us, once we realised we had to create an 'infinite' loop. I felt that the timing was a bit tight though. I have to admire how you used linked portal doors to make the spawn room feed into the second chamber.

In the bts area we struggled to knock over the surprise super turret. The conversion gel confused us - we kept trying to redirect it. Walking along the pipes to get to there seemed weird too.

As for the third chamber: it took us ages to notice the platform with the pedestal button. My partner struggled to jump through the gap created by the moving panel but achieved it eventually. Further, the turrets confused us - were we supposed to cover them in bounce gel or otherwise disable them? In the end, we just dodged them - but only after being reassembled quite a few times! Despite this, several things about the map were done brilliantly - the re-use of 'Surprise!', the descending button, and crashing through the lab window were all fantastic moments.

After revisiting the bts area to get to the fourth chamber (a nice touch) we couldn't quite solve this chamber. We got the general idea - similar to chamber two, but with fizzlers involved. We couldn't quite perfect the timing of it though. In the end, noclip came to the rescue.

Now for the second map. At first I thought I'd found a horrendous laser puzzle, but there was an X to mark the spot, meaning we solved it pretty quickly. An airlock came next - I thought that the door stuck in the wall was a nice touch.

The next part of the puzzle demolished both of our framerates. While the game ran acceptably on low settings, that part of the map needs looking at. We managed to solve it, but I can't remember how. I would say that we weren't 100% sure of what we were doing most of the time though.

The bts area and the dual fizzler/light bridge ride was fine performance wise and a fun puzzle. We were tired by this point though, and our execution was absolutely terrible. Consequently we took a long time to proceed. We really did have to cooperate to traverse the path (it felt like it'd be nigh on impossible if we weren't in constant voice communication). In particular, the part where we had to move the funnel to the left and move ourselves at the same time was tricky to execute. When it came to the vertical funnel ride I tried to block the turrets with the light bridge but used the wrong portal! Maybe it'd be worth doing what Valve did in the single player finale - make it so that the player can't place the wrong portal?

Flinging up into the 'laser deathfield' chamber was a nice touch. We managed to get a portal onto the light bridge and promptly gave up - we didn't have a clue what to do here. When my partner respawned (he was orange) I noticed that he spawned out of one tube and the particle effects came from the other - were your info_coop_spawns mixed up?

We noclipped to the final chamber. We could get one robot to the far side but failed to get us both there, feeling exhausted after such a long play session. We noclipped to victory and ended it there. I noticed that if we both stood on a button and then one of us stood off, the funnel disabled. The buttons should have been tied to an OR-gate. [Perhaps logic_branch_listener would have helped?]

One last note now that I think of it - I liked the use of Science Collaboration Points throughout the map.

Thanks for mapping!

Single Player: The Search For Science
Co-operative: Lightspeed Upstairs Downstairs

#33 · April 1, 2012, 5:56 pm

Congratulations on spotlight

Get Portal Stories: Mel now!

#34 · April 1, 2012, 6:27 pm

Spotlighted. For the amazing cooperative experience players get with this mappack.

#35 · April 1, 2012, 8:35 pm

Once again thank you everyone here on TWP! :cake: Reaching this with your first map truly is mindblowing and extremely inspiring! Count on getting more good maps from us in the future, we still have a lot to improve! Version 1.4 will be out soon with some good improvements regarding the playability of some chambers

My workshop

#36 · April 2, 2012, 8:44 am

We only had time to play through part 1 last night, but as far as user created content goes this map was incredible...

Spoiler

Particularly enjoyed the part where GLADoS asks you to hit the button again and a turret murders you (laughed out loud

) as well as the flinging skills and exact timing required to beat some of the puzzles. As someone said before, the part on the walkways felt a little weird, but I actually liked the way you had to think outside the box a little bit.

IMO this was more fun than some of Valve's co-op courses. Can't wait to play through part 2!

#37 · April 3, 2012, 6:29 am

The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary. :thumbdown:

PortalStories.com
"Oh, in case you got covered in that repulsion gel, here's some advice the lab boys gave me: DO NOT get covered in the repulsion gel."

#38 · April 3, 2012, 6:54 am

iWork925 wrote:

The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary. :thumbdown:

Would you mind to define what you mean by scary? I'm eager to play this map even before it got spotlighted (still waiting for the proper companion to play it). I think it could be really amazing...

useful tools and stuff here on TWP :thumbup:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

#39 · April 3, 2012, 6:58 am

iWork925 wrote:

The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary. :thumbdown:

Why? It's a great map... Is someone jealous? xD

#40 · April 3, 2012, 8:43 am

Quote from iWork925 on April 3, 2012, 8:43 am
josepezdj wrote:

iWork925 wrote:

The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary.

Would you mind to define what you mean by scary? I'm eager to play this map even before it got spotlighted (still waiting for the proper companion to play it). I think it could be really amazing...

The only thing scary about the map is the fact that it got spotlight. See below:

chickenmobile wrote:

I just played this map previously [spoiler]with iWork925[/spoiler] and have to point out that although it was great building (and visuals) the puzzles to execute were extremely difficult and nearly always took particular (perhaps meticulous) timing and executions to finish. The second last puzzle we decided to skip because it was getting to nearly midnight and because we were getting incredibly frustrated.

I think the main problem with this mappack of 2 was that the puzzles were not completely straightforward on what you had to do, and we spent more time trying to figure out the point of a puzzle before actually trying to do it.
e.g. the Puzzle with the speed gel and the bounce gel. It took around 20 minutes to figure out that you had to smash through an observation room which was the exit. (also the turrets annoyed me so much we decided to noclip and kill the one inside the cage you can't get inside).

Other chambers when we did finally figure it out, it usually took a million goes and in the end we no-clipped when close enough xD.

mappingnote
[spoiler]Also the room with the fan was incredibly laggy. Try using a different water texture, or use a bottomless pit. The reflections of the water (plus the projected texture) made my computer lag (and my computer isn't crappy).[/spoiler]

Long answer made short: Do not play this if you are inpatient. It takes a couple of hours to finish completely. [spoiler]We noclipped to victory a lot[/spoiler].
If you look at lpfreaky and zivi7's playthrough, it takes them over half an hour to re-play the map even though they know how to finish it.

In conclusion: 10 reasons for sucking:

too long
too tedious
too laggy
too confusing
too many flings
too many turrets
too much precision required
not enough explanation
not enough variety
not enough time on timers

josepezdj wrote:

iWork925 wrote:

The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary. :thumbdown:

Would you mind to define what you mean by scary? I'm eager to play this map even before it got spotlighted (still waiting for the proper companion to play it). I think it could be really amazing...

The only thing scary about the map is the fact that it got spotlight. See below:

chickenmobile wrote:

I just played this map previously

Spoiler

with iWork925

and have to point out that although it was great building (and visuals) the puzzles to execute were extremely difficult and nearly always took particular (perhaps meticulous) timing and executions to finish. The second last puzzle we decided to skip because it was getting to nearly midnight and because we were getting incredibly frustrated.

I think the main problem with this mappack of 2 was that the puzzles were not completely straightforward on what you had to do, and we spent more time trying to figure out the point of a puzzle before actually trying to do it.
e.g. the Puzzle with the speed gel and the bounce gel. It took around 20 minutes to figure out that you had to smash through an observation room which was the exit. (also the turrets annoyed me so much we decided to noclip and kill the one inside the cage you can't get inside).

Other chambers when we did finally figure it out, it usually took a million goes and in the end we no-clipped when close enough xD.

mappingnote

Spoiler

Also the room with the fan was incredibly laggy. Try using a different water texture, or use a bottomless pit. The reflections of the water (plus the projected texture) made my computer lag (and my computer isn't crappy).

Long answer made short: Do not play this if you are inpatient. It takes a couple of hours to finish completely.

Spoiler

We noclipped to victory a lot

.
If you look at lpfreaky and zivi7's playthrough, it takes them over half an hour to re-play the map even though they know how to finish it.

In conclusion: 10 reasons for sucking:

too long
too tedious
too laggy
too confusing
too many flings
too many turrets
too much precision required
not enough explanation
not enough variety
not enough time on timers

PortalStories.com
"Oh, in case you got covered in that repulsion gel, here's some advice the lab boys gave me: DO NOT get covered in the repulsion gel."

[Coop] 10 reasons for reasoning