Quote from BEARD! on June 14, 2012, 9:59 am

I seem to have splurged out something of an essay here. Sorry about that, hope you don't feel overwhelmed.

Bugs and Mapping Details
[spoiler]* Since when do tractor beams pass through walls? A grate would have made more sense here. In particular, they pass through the glass near the buttons,but not this piece of glass.
* I'd have tried to break up the big wall with one texture into something more detailed. Mix it up with a different type of metal panel maybe?
* Usually panels aren't as thick as this. A thickness of 8 hammer units is pretty common, I think.
* It was possible for me to stand on the edge of the grates. A big player clip brush might be useful there.
* A pedestal button with a pedestal button overlay underneath. Not particularly helpful! Would have been good to put an icon (triangle, star, square, whatever) and another one next to the rotating panel. Also I'd have liked the button to have fast reset [so I don't have to wait to reset it].
* I liked how you took the glass lights and pushed them back into the walls, a nice little detail.
* There was a some dodgy brushwork near the first exit door.
* I managed to funnel into the ceiling above the first funnel.
* When both vertical buttons are pressed, the Portal lift sound players rather than the 'ding dong' from Portal 2 (which you use later).
* In the two clean rooms, I had two music tracks playing at once.
* The final laser wasn't flush with the wall.

In a number of places, the chambers felt over-large. I think other respondents have mentioned this.[/spoiler]

Visually the map began brilliantly. I loved the detail you put into the destroyed background areas, and the chambers looked just as good. Watching the decayed wall tiles plunge into the slime, only to be replaced shortly after was a great way to begin the map. There wasn't as much destruction in the room with the laser fields, and there was none at all in the final half of the map - this progression felt odd. In particular, the second half of the map was completely clean, and felt out of place. On that note, having tractor beams pass through panels (brushes) felt wrong as well - although I can see that you need it for the funnel puzzles to be possible.

There were some clever ideas here. I enjoyed having to peek into the other chamber and pluck out the light bridge, then work backwards through my steps to reach the next button. [Although that suggests that the chambers are part of the same test, so why would they be styled differently?] Even more clever was the laser puzzle, where players had to use [spoiler]the fizzler and the panels to 'passively' redirect the laser beam[/spoiler].

In contrast, I felt cheated when it came to dealing with the first funnel puzzle; I had to consult KennKong's video to see what to do. I'd have never thought of that solution, especially since [spoiler]the light bridge was out of sight[/spoiler] for most of the test. I'd suggest that you train the player to use that [spoiler]light bridge blocking[/spoiler] mechanic or give some kind of hint. A placement helper to get that [spoiler]light bridge in the right position[/spoiler] wouldn't go amiss either.

Thankfully, the final funnel puzzle was much more straighforward, and it made for a very satisfying end to the chamber. [Although I moved from a clean room into a destroyed elevator - style inconsistency again]. All in all, a good map with solid puzzles, yet there are still improvements that can be made. Thanks for mapping!