Quote from Korl on October 12, 2011, 4:32 pm

very nice map. Took me about 1 1/2 hrs to solve. I found one unintended solution: [spoiler]I was able to bring the cube up the lift in the first chamber. Put the cube on the pad, called the lift, ran for the cube and as the platform lowered I dropped the cube, jumped on it and jumped on the lift, then grabbed the cube.[/spoiler] It wasn't that difficult to execute either. Oh, and I didn't use the red gel at all. Couldn't figure what it was for.

Quote from neco on October 12, 2011, 5:18 pm

@Djinndrache
Hi there ninja!
Djinndrache, you are truly the master of the unintended way! You almost did nothing as you were supposed to - unbelievable. Thank you very much for making this video . Kudos!

@Korl

Quote:

very nice map. Took me about 1 1/2 hrs to solve. I found one unintended solution: [snip]

Well what can I say, it's of course not the intended way and as I have also learned from Djinndrache's video and your post the usage of the red gel to reach the button can also be bypassed due to a few bugs I've overlooked. Will have to change quite a lot of things, yet. Thanks for having taken the time to comment.

Quote from Djinndrache on October 13, 2011, 2:52 am

neco wrote:

@Djinndrache
Hi there ninja!
Djinndrache, you are truly the master of the unintended way! You almost did nothing as you were supposed to - unbelievable. Thank you very much for making this video . Kudos!

I did not even plan to find unintended ways.. It just happens.. over and over again. Guess that's not supposed to be bad though Glad you like it

edit: Infact your message is so awesome, I had to put it to my signature!

Quote from josepezdj on October 13, 2011, 3:34 am

Brilliant map from a beginner who has much to offer to the Portal game community.

I am very pleased of having collaborated with Neco testing this impressive mappack through its development, because I really had much fun with every puzzle of every new version... This is hardly credible a beginner's work! I found it so detailed, polished, clever, and so funny! ...and I wish I'd have many of Neco's skills to develop one day such a great mappack like this.

After reading all the comments on this discussion thread, it's courious how difficult are feelings coming from people all over the world to expect... I don't understand how some guys think this is so difficult to even give up!. For me it's an awesome mappack from the beginning to the end... Correction: I only hate the words: ...TO BE CONTINUED... at the end of the fun!

Map 1 is my favourite one. [spoiler]Neco made here a very funny use of the lasers (that sometimes are so annoying): with the lifting panels, the angled brushes, or later on at the upper smaller room puzzle. Also the cube launching was a so creative element! But mostly, this map has an excellent chamber construction: the v-shaped pit behind the glass, the upper ledge where you get your first cube, and the positioning of the prop_laser_relays. And the lighting is so good with the skybox and textures projected shadowing, altogether with the music, give the chambers a really nice touch full of a relaxation feeling.[/spoiler]

Another of my favourite parts was the [spoiler]reflector cubes puzzle. Not only because it is a sooo creative maze, but also because it is so fun, it's kinda a classic labyrinth puzzle game... and you can figure out different solutions and play placing the cubes...[/spoiler] Apart from that part, there are many creative and interesting things here built up around the custom laser barriers: [spoiler]like the funnel to travel the cubes in map 2, or the map 3 completely.[/spoiler]

Neco, thanks for mapping!!

Playthrough:
Part I:

[spoiler]KscddQurJDw[/spoiler]
Part II:

[spoiler]K21Wmc1Hw1g[/spoiler]
Part III:

[spoiler]hC4QhLOfGsI[/spoiler]

Quote from Saturn on October 13, 2011, 6:19 am

This map in a sentence: someone really needs to add a flip function while holding cubes.

It's unbelievably cumbersome otherwise.

Quote from NuclearDuckie on October 13, 2011, 7:01 am

Yes, it's one of the annoying things that come about due to Valve incorporating a physics engine into their game without accounting for all the possibilities it allows for. Sure, it's possible to turn laser cubes to face upwards, but why make it easy when none of the campaign levels require it?

I'm reminded wistfully of the developer commentary to the original Portal, particularly the line: "We knew that once the game was out in the wild, custom map creators would stress the system in ways we hadn't even considered, so we made it as flexible as possible."

(Neco, I intend to send you a message just as soon as I play this newest version. Glad to see it's getting such good reception!)

Quote from neco on October 14, 2011, 3:39 am

Finally found the time to fix some issues mentioned in this thread (and spotted while watching the videos).
Will answer all posts later on. Can't keep my eyes open for now...sorry for the delay!

Quote from neco on October 14, 2011, 6:14 pm

@Djinndrache

Quote:

I did not even plan to find unintended ways.. It just happens.. over and over again. Guess that's not supposed to be bad though Glad you like it

Yes I do, in a masochistic way, though

Quote:

edit: Infact your message is so awesome, I had to put it to my signature!

Quid pro quo! You owe me another playthrough video of the latest version

@Saturn

Quote:

This map in a sentence: someone really needs to add a flip function while holding cubes.
It's unbelievably cumbersome otherwise.

Why shouldn't 'up' be an equally valid direction?! There are different methods of tilting a cube upwards. Almost everywhere when tilting a cube is required you can find an edge/ledge to flip the cube or use a second one to do so. I can't find it cumbersome at all - That's childplay.

@NuclearDuckie

Quote:

Yes, it's one of the annoying things that come about due to Valve incorporating a physics engine into their game without accounting for all the possibilities it allows for. Sure, it's possible to turn laser cubes to face upwards, but why make it easy when none of the campaign levels require it?
I'm reminded wistfully of the developer commentary to the original Portal, particularly the line: "We knew that once the game was out in the wild, custom map creators would stress the system in ways we hadn't even considered, so we made it as flexible as possible."

I really can't understand what should be annoying about this. If they'd used it in the campaign levels it would be okay, else not?!
And as far as your quote is concerned I'm not sure if he or she didn't mean that with a positive anticipation, looking forward for new, creative ideas. I am sure that the developers of the campaign levels would have used many ideas from custom maps if they'd had them themselves.

@josepezdj
Hi there Jose, it was a pleasure for me, too. Thank you for your kind words! I think that having a fair amount of experience with 3d apps in general, and being familiar with 3d viewports, texturing, basic concepts of lighting etc, make it much easier to learn Hammer and mapping. There is a lot I have to learn as far as game puzzle development is concerned, though. I think I made too many mistakes working with different versions at the same time and most definitely have to change my workflow. I sometimes simply forgot to glue the right parts together, or omitted whole elements in versions I sent you and NuclearDuckie or even uploaded as beta or 'final' versions. Forgetting the fizzlers with version 3 was again an epic fail
Thank you also for your videos and the visual help they provided to spot many issues. Sorry for the late reply but I am sure you might have guessed why I haven't had much time this week...

Quote from pedmacedo on October 14, 2011, 8:30 pm

Cool map, I found a bug though, if you make a tower of three laser cubes, making the top one redirect a laser, you can remove the cubes under it making it fly.
Btw, what happens when you rename the map? I like to name my maps "customX_"+mapName, but this time I didn't :