[PTI] Mind Conversion
Difficulty: Medium.
Conversion Gel used extensively. The other three Mobility Gels are also used to some extent. It's a rewarding map, in my opinion, so you should enjoy playing. As is known, creating maps with the Conversion Gel is a big challenge, which is why it is so neglected; massive shortcuts can be formed with one ill object placement. So let me know if you happen to discover one (though I believe I've anticipated all possible ones).
Medium? I don't think so - a lot of hard painting required. Normally when this much of a map is painted white there are a massive number of exploits - I didn't find any, in fact it all needed to be painted to reach the exit! An outstanding to you and any playtesters. Thanks for creating....
I'm happy you didn't run into any exploits (the playtesting to find them and eliminate ones found probably took longer than it did to design the map and gameplay). I'll upload an intended solution video tonight so you can compare with what you did (
I don't usually comment on maps I can't complete, but I thought that my experience of your map might be useful to you and others. I just could not find a way to get the conversion gel into the funnel. These types of maps I find to be very tedious. You have to place your portals just right, hope the angle is perfect, and do it over and over again to cover the area needed to, say, be able to portal the laser into the catcher. In addition, you have antlines which go to nowhere. You also have elements which are not activated until multiple buttons are pressed, none of which can be seen from either vantage point. A puzzle is not made from a mystery. A puzzle is made from a problem that needs to be solved. That psychological difference, that *need*, is missing from your map. I did not rate your map, but I don't think many people will like it.
Sorry you had so much frustration with it. For what it's worth, I can give you the rational behind some of the design decisions.
(Spoiler alert for others)
1. Getting the Conversion Gel into the funnel: The goal was to let this be done in as little steps as possible. At the top of the track platform, after you shoot the gel out of the portable surface, the surface by the lights becomes portable -- I'm guessing you used that surface to shoot out onto the upper level area with the Cleansing Gel. Shooting Conversion Gel out of that very same-positioned portal (after turning off the Cleansing Gel) will place it next to the lights on the floor of the upper level. Placing a portal right there on the floor, abutting the lights will get it into the funnel. You're right, though -- facing the glass will cause the gel to shoot away from the funnel. But that was deliberate in order to spur an "aha" moment and cause you to face the other direction.
2. The only elements requiring multiple buttons are the Conversion Gel (which you're basically aware of seconds after walking out of the entrance), and the funnel, which reverses when the button which deactivates the big fizzer is not pressed. It was with purpose that when you first activate the funnel that it is moving forward, that way when the cube is necessarily removed a step later, you will notice that the funnel is now reversed.
3. The Mobility Gel's button was positioned away from the dropper in order to get you initially comfortable with moving the cube from the first area to the second area. At the point you first reach that button, you will stand on it and see nothing. Then going back to get the cube to stick on it, you will see the gel on the ground and then put two and two together. So basically, had I put the button near the dropper, you would not have had to get comfortable with the idea of using the Conversion Gel to transport the Repulsion Gel, and you would not have had to be involved with moving the cube around till several steps later. And I wanted nice progression.
Anyway, I'm not trying to make excuses. I just wanted to state the purpose of some of what you brought up. In medium-hard maps like these, especially ones with Conversion Gel, there will be some people who realize the actual simplicity of them and don't overdo it. Then there are others (like you AND me) who overthink the hell out of them and end up making them tougher on ourselves. But the problem and need, as you put it, were intended to be tangible, so hopefully others feel them.
But thanks for playing and hopefully you'll give it another shot sometime.
I'm glad you took my criticism in the spirit it was meant; after posting I thought I might have come off a little harsh. I'm sure you had good reasons for your design choices; I did not mean to suggest the problems I had were from incomptence. But try to see your map as I did, playing for the first time. Buttons that have effects I can't see, even if eventually I will, just raise my frustration level, they don't make me curious.
I have replayed your map with your notes by my side and it was certainly easier the second time through. I don't know why I didn't try getting the conversion gel into the room with the cleansing gel dispensers; I guess I thought it wouldn't go that far. But even when I did in my second playthrough, I had a terrible time reversing the funnel in time before it all disappeared. I guess I'll wait until you post your solution video to find out what I'm overlooking.
I have replayed your map with your notes by my side and it was certainly easier the second time through. I don't know why I didn't try getting the conversion gel into the room with the cleansing gel dispensers; I guess I thought it wouldn't go that far. But even when I did in my second playthrough, I had a terrible time reversing the funnel in time before it all disappeared. I guess I'll wait until you post your solution video to find out what I'm overlooking.
Yeah, that really can be a big frustration -- activating something but not knowing where that something is. I've aborted maps that did obscene examples of that. The Mobility Gel button and the laser receiver in the first room were really something I had to think a lot about. But I felt good with my final decision. I'll certainly keep your thoughts in mind, though, in the creation of future maps.
The initial design of the level gave you the ability to shoot the Gel into the funnel from the top of the track platform. But I axed that idea after deciding that it made the puzzle too straightforward and less of a puzzle. So the placement of glass and lights in that area were meant to sort of get you to move on.
Regarding reversing the funnel in time. That was something I had really wanted to do. I liked the idea of having that adrenaline rush from that urgency element right before you end the level by cruising along in the funnel to the exit.
But as you will see in the solution video below (it's 12 minutes long, so feel free to skip ahead to the parts you're interested in, like 6:50), there is a fairly simple sequence of Conversion Gel spraying. The very beginning of the level requires more Gel than anywhere else, and it was intended that way to get you appropriated with the Gel and how it sprays at that angle. So by the time you were able to leave that room, you would likely have coated enough of it to not have to go back and do more work there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yBlrKMIuIo
Thanks for trying it again and taking the time to follow up.
Yeah, I can see how you might see it that way. But now see it from my perspective: after spending an hour spraying conversion gel everywhere I think it might be useful and getting the speed gel done and getting the repulsion gel done, I'm too exhausted to want an "adrenaline rush" and so I just give up. What can I say? I'm old and feeble.
I played your other two maps today: Mind Shaft and Mind Race. I thought that they also had the same problem that I think this map has, namely, unmarked elements. In Mind Shaft, there is a floor button near the end that, if you step on it to find out what it does, as far as you can tell, it just releases cleansing gel. But at this stage of the map, I have no need for cleansing gel. So I spend hours looking for some way to get up the final shaft. Little did I know, that floor button also deactivates a fizzler (unmarked element 1, and unseeable), turns on repulsion gel (unmarked element 2, and unseeable), and turns on a funnel (unmarked element 3, and unseeable).
In Mind Race, there is a pedestal button on a wall (why is it on a wall?) that obviously turns on a fizzler and flips some panels. But it also turns off a funnel (unmarked element) which you will never notice except by accident. In addition, there is a small opening in the glass that surrounds the funnel that allows gel and cubes to fall through. But, of course, you won't even know this opening exists until long after it is useful.
You obviously give a lot of thought to your maps, but I just think that you sometimes ask too much from your players. Try to see your map from a player's first time. What motivates you may not motivate them.
Good conversion paint maps are hard to come by, thanks for this. I'll admit I tried to portal it near the exit for a while to try to skip ahead but couldn't do it. The part that took me the longest to figure out was getting to the laser activator. I kept trying to shoot myself onto the platform instead of using the bounce paint. Doh!