Ech. I was so-so on this map. Let me tell you why:
Got to say: love the first room lulling the player into a false sense of security with a simple handholding exercise and then catapults you into the real puzzle. VaLVE would've packed and shipped that first puzzle (prettying it up in Hammer, natch). I also have to admire the architecture of the second room, I like the feeling of puzzling on and around the widget shape in the middle.
Now on to the tough love. I enjoy a good hard logic map as much as the next guy (likely even more than the next guy, but I digress), but the number one thing I love about this type of map is that they've been completely thought out, and this one clearly looked like you put a lot of thought into it, but closer examination reveals a few rusty parts in this logic train. By that of course I mean there are redundancies everywhere.
[spoiler]First off, all the lasers except the one on the ceiling are useless, since the buttons could do all their jobs if circuited properly, and everything behind the glass is useless as a result. Since there is one panel in the widget that isn't covered up by the fizzlers, that makes the two cube buttons redundant and by extension a third cube pointless. There's also a ball button I never had to use, and since the moving plaforms block the ceiling laser, I can just put one ball on its button until the platform's in position and Excursion Funnel up a cube to the exit-unlocking button. Also, the player can get inside the widget, so not only is another box that would've sat on the EF polarity button useless, but you can get trapped at the bottom if the ball is not one a particular button. Final count: I beat this level with one box and two balls, and that was only because the end doorway required a second one.[/spoiler]
Closing thoughts (and I cannot stress this enough): When you're thinking over the puzzle, think about how other people would solve it.
Ech. I was so-so on this map. Let me tell you why:
Got to say: love the first room lulling the player into a false sense of security with a simple handholding exercise and then catapults you into the real puzzle. VaLVE would've packed and shipped that first puzzle (prettying it up in Hammer, natch). I also have to admire the architecture of the second room, I like the feeling of puzzling on and around the widget shape in the middle.
Now on to the tough love. I enjoy a good hard logic map as much as the next guy (likely even more than the next guy, but I digress), but the number one thing I love about this type of map is that they've been completely thought out, and this one clearly looked like you put a lot of thought into it, but closer examination reveals a few rusty parts in this logic train. By that of course I mean there are redundancies everywhere.
Spoiler
First off, all the lasers except the one on the ceiling are useless, since the buttons could do all their jobs if circuited properly, and everything behind the glass is useless as a result. Since there is one panel in the widget that isn't covered up by the fizzlers, that makes the two cube buttons redundant and by extension a third cube pointless. There's also a ball button I never had to use, and since the moving plaforms block the ceiling laser, I can just put one ball on its button until the platform's in position and Excursion Funnel up a cube to the exit-unlocking button. Also, the player can get inside the widget, so not only is another box that would've sat on the EF polarity button useless, but you can get trapped at the bottom if the ball is not one a particular button. Final count: I beat this level with one box and two balls, and that was only because the end doorway required a second one.
Closing thoughts (and I cannot stress this enough): When you're thinking over the puzzle, think about how other people would solve it.
