Portal Mapping Help: Map Crashes and Portal Gun Default
Whenever I create a custom map in the Portal 2 Authoring Tools, Portal 2 will load the first compile, but will crash after loading any other changes. By this I mean that the loading screen on Portal 2 will complete, the 'Portal gun received' sound will play, but the game will just quit before the loading screen transitions to the map, though if I first create a map, it loads fine. Also, whenever I do get a map to load (first try only) the player automatically has the portal gun, and for my map, I would like the player to start w/o it. I would like to know if anyone can tell me a) how to fix the map problem, and b) how to start a map w/o the portal gun equipped.
EDIT: I solved the first problem. I just had a title set to show and Portal 2 didn't like it. Still getting the Portal gun problem, though... and I would like to keep a title showing without the crash happening, so help with that would be nice too.
Does this also occur if you only create a big box, put an info_player_start in it and compile?
Yep. Every time I load up any map, even with just a hollow box and a info_player_start it'll start my player with a fully upgraded portal gun w/potato GLaDOS. I figured out I can have a trigger_weaponstrip, but the player would have to enter it, and cannot start in it, thus I would have to place the info_player_start entity above the trigger_weaponstrip and for what I'm doing the player has to start on the ground, plus the portal gun will be visible for a second, which ruins the effect I'm trying to create, and doing that with every level I need to start without a portal gun will be tiring eventually. I tried starting Portal 2 directly after compiling because I usually just have Portal 2 open, compile, and restart the level to save time, but no matter what, the player will start with a portal gun. I found no settings to change it and the very first time I compiled a map, the portal gun didn't show, but it did every time after, even if I try to recreate that map.
What's the name of your map? It's possible that the prefix of the map name (sp_ ) will make the player autospawn a potatogun. It's in a NUT-file. You could edit that, or change (remove) the prefix. I think either one would help.
It's usually better to start of with an elevator of some sort, so I'd recommend looking into how the standard starting elevator instance controls all this.
Maps in Development:
[spoiler]- Penrose 04 (on hold)[/spoiler]
What's the name of your map? It's possible that the prefix of the map name (sp_ ) will make the player autospawn a potatogun. It's in a NUT-file. You could edit that, or change (remove) the prefix. I think either one would help.
It's usually better to start of with an elevator of some sort, so I'd recommend looking into how the standard starting elevator instance controls all this.
I'll try renaming the map (originally sp_traps) though I've played maps that start with sp_ and have no portal device by default, but I'll see if that is the case anyway. Plus, the elevator is set to start the player with a portal gun, I already looked into having one and I know I can go into the .nut file and tell it not to give the player a portal gun, but that will affect every test chamber in the game, and that I don't want to happen because I am not the only person who plays Portal 2 on my computer and that will just frustrate me having to edit the .nut file every time.
Yes, but if you place a trigger_weaponstrip in the elevator shaft, it works just fine. You won't even see the portalgun.
Quite the contrary. You make a custom nut file that will overwrite the normal one. However, you don't let people manually replace it, you use Pakrat to place it into the bsp file, per map individually. But yeah, I'd try to go for the elevator if I were you...
Hope this helps! 
Maps in Development:
[spoiler]- Penrose 04 (on hold)[/spoiler]