Quote from quatrus on January 13, 2014, 6:43 pm

Excellent mapping, nice visuals and med challenge puzzles...Well done.. Thanks for creating ...

Quote from LuckyRJ on January 13, 2014, 7:52 pm

quatrus wrote:

Excellent mapping, nice visuals and med challenge puzzles...Well done.. Thanks for creating ...

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it

Quote from User on January 13, 2014, 8:41 pm

Enjoyable map, nice detailing 5/5

Quote from LuckyRJ on January 13, 2014, 11:01 pm

TheTobbell wrote:

Enjoyable map, nice detailing 5/5

Thanks appreciate it

Quote from reepblue on January 14, 2014, 5:05 am

While this is still fresh in my head, I'm going to write about this now rather then me forgetting about it and writing on what I remembered.

Lpfreaky sent me this over Steam when I was sleeping. I usually don't play much Portal 2 custom maps anymore, but I decided to give this a shot. I may be harsh in a few areas, but I just got done mapping for Alive and Kicking which apparently has a very strict quality policy.

Here is my play run through the first room being that this is the room I found most issues with:

Room 1
[spoiler]I started off being led by repetitive fizzling sounds to the glass chamber closed by a fizzler. I did not see any way to get the cube out of the box, so I just threw the cube over the the glass. It took a few attempts, but I got it over without falling into the whole. After I successfully got the cube out of the tank, I then started to look for a button to press,(Because boxes are without buttons in most cases) and I successfully found it over the entrance. I portaled up there, pressed all the switches and buttons to see what they did. I noticed that the floor button makes a fling panel and a timer switch disables a fizzler which to me only means that I need to get an object or myself behind the fizzler before the timer runs out. However, I did not understand why I had to do this. I did not know what was behind the wall, nor if I could get out once I was in. Regardless, I used the funnel to fling the box over the wall and hoped that it would magically press a button and a wall would explode or something. But nothing happened, and I was more in question of what was behind the wall in the first place. I looked all around to see if I missed any windows or holes. None all sealed with a metal wall texture After stumbling for 5 minutes, I noticed a slight crack in the glass tank in which you can see what was behind the wall. And what made it worse is you need to jump to see it. I noticed my cube in a near pitch black room, with a odd slanted wall, and a button in front of a deactivated laser emitter. Again, using the funnel, After 4 tries, I managed to fling myself into that dark area, and press the button with my cube and somehow managed in the tight area to aim the reflection cube at the slanted wall. I went back and forth connecting and reconnecting portals and re-angling the laser, twisting portals just to hit the receiver. After another 6 minutes, I managed to solve it like this:

image

But ether way, I solved the puzzle and I felt rewarded, but a little bit frustrated as everything seemed hidden. It's not suppose to be a scavenger hunt when it comes to locating main game elements.[/spoiler]

Overall, I found the room's lighting to be a bit to dark with ugly near pitch black shadows that cast from the projected texture. The [spoiler]holes in the floor[/spoiler] just make the experience more harder then it has to be. It does not add anything to the puzzle I'm afraid, it actually hurts it. Yes, you don't want no large empty areas in your map, but rather then having [spoiler]the funnel in a non-accessible area,[/spoiler] why don't you place it in where the big ugly hole is? With the right angle and settings, you can still have your projected light where it is. Also, don't hide game elements as much as you did. The [spoiler]second button and laser emitter[/spoiler] was a huge hassle to find. Also, windows/holes at eye level. You should not have to jump/crouch to see something vital.

As for the second room, besides it being dark and the ugly shadow that sways back and forth, I really liked the second room's puzzle. There was a window to the button and everything but the first box dropper was in plan site. What I did not like was the annoying thick physboxes on the floor. Make them thinner and make sure that the player can't collide or pick them up.

Sorry for my long review, I kind of got carried away, but I hope my experience helps you in future maps.

Quote from LuckyRJ on January 14, 2014, 12:15 pm

@reepblue

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

Although this is just your opinion i appreciate it, this is the way i chose to make this map, that is the whole purpose of making maps, to be free and make them how we want to make them.

And the idea behind certain elements being out of sight, like the funnel was this, *how do you know the puzzle was made after the chamber got destroyed???* so that is how i made this map with that in mind.

And as for the pick up tiles, interactive brushes in maps make maps more enjoyable in my opinion, and the thickness of 8 is perfect for them, any thinner and they wouldn't make any sense.

But anyway, thanks again for feedback, i appreciate it

Quote from Slimpack on January 14, 2014, 3:56 pm

I liked this map. It's about medium difficulty, and I thought the destroyed theme was executed pretty well. I suppose I do have some critiques though. Angling the laser to solve the first area was kind of annoying. I also don't like the fact that there's a pit that you can fall into in the first area. I guess it helps convey the destroyed vibe, but it's also kind of annoying since it can kill you, and it doesn't seem to serve any other purpose. Also the 'surprise' at the end of the map is kind of annoying too since, figuring out what to do with the cube isn't that hard, so leaving it as a surprise seems kidna of trollish. Still, despite all that I liked the map, and I hope you continue to make them. Here's my play-though, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYT_ibO9T8s

Quote from LuckyRJ on January 15, 2014, 1:44 am

Slimpack wrote:

I liked this map. It's about medium difficulty, and I thought the destroyed theme was executed pretty well. I suppose I do have some critiques though. Angling the laser to solve the first area was kind of annoying. I also don't like the fact that there's a pit that you can fall into in the first area. I guess it helps convey the destroyed vibe, but it's also kind of annoying since it can kill you, and it doesn't seem to serve any other purpose. Also the 'surprise' at the end of the map is kind of annoying too since, figuring out what to do with the cube isn't that hard, so leaving it as a surprise seems kidna of trollish. Still, despite all that I liked the map, and I hope you continue to make them. Here's my play-though, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYT_ibO9T8s

Thanks for the feedback,

But the comment about you thought the surprise at end was my *Easter egg surprise* - was wrong, that is and was not my Easter egg surprise, so the statement about being trollish is not correct and wrong too.

But thanks for the feedback, glad you liked it overall and also thanks for the play-through

[spoiler]The Easter egg is in the first chamber hidden under the floor somewhere, that is all i will say, soo many have missed it, it isn't that hard to find to be honest, and the glados line i used at the exit in chamber 2 was actually linked to this Easter egg in the first chamber.[/spoiler]