Quote from smwlover on June 25, 2011, 1:08 am

It is a map full of new ideas. Acid right after the entrance door is special and not seen in others' maps. The logic of the switches are complicated but the use of indicate lights make the puzzle not at all confusing and let us understand clearly what to do. As for difficulty, it's not a very hard map, but it requires some logical thinking. But there it a little bug: I managed to solve the puzzle without using the funnel in the inner chamber.
5/5 overall. Thanks for mapping!

Quote from dhavalmistry on June 25, 2011, 9:48 am

smwlover wrote:

It is a map full of new ideas. Acid right after the entrance door is special and not seen in others' maps. The logic of the switches are complicated but the use of indicate lights make the puzzle not at all confusing and let us understand clearly what to do. As for difficulty, it's not a very hard map, but it requires some logical thinking. But there it a little bug: I managed to solve the puzzle without using the funnel in the inner chamber.
5/5 overall. Thanks for mapping!

Thanks for the comments. Can you please tell me how you managed to solve the puzzle without using the funnel in the inner room?

Quote from xdiesp on June 25, 2011, 10:50 am

Dull looking Clean style map, especially lacking in the 3rd dimension: those floor and water on the same level look genuinely weird - some height disparity would help give it a better feeling of solidness. Solid is instead the puzzle network, comprising of a (not so easy) three-parts lock which come together well.

dhavalmistry wrote:

Can you please tell me how you managed to solve the puzzle without using the funnel in the inner room?

That's not a bug, more like a shortcut: put the cube on the right button and climb, or just throw it to the funnel. Takes more time to do than the proper, ready available way. You can also snipe the laser's wall from the right door, but since you still need all 3 locks at the same time, all you can accomplish is to alter the intended order of the same solution - not breaking it (gotta respect that).

Quote from Nahor on June 25, 2011, 2:09 pm

dhavalmistry wrote:

Can you please tell me how you managed to solve the puzzle without using the funnel in the inner room?

I didn't use it either.
Here is what I did:
[spoiler]- Stand on the pressure plate on the right
- Put a portal on the platform below the cube dropper
- Put the other portal on the wall above the entrance
- Push the right button to drop a cube which is thrown in the first funnel which push the button to open the left door
- Back on the pressure plate
- Put a portal on one of the side wall (so that it's eliminated when leaving the pressure plate)
- Put a portal below the left cube dropper.
- Push the button on the left to drop the other cube.
- Go back on the pressure plate.
- Put a portal on the right wall
- Put the cube on the pressure plate aimed at the laser receptacle.
- Put a portal on the wall above the entrance
- Put the other portal on the wall above the exit[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Note that the first time I did the map, the laser was aiming right between two of the receptacles and so didn't trigger any. Maybe use a cube pressure plate to guide the cube in position. And/or put the receptacle nearer to the funnel. That last one has also the advantage that only one receptacle is needed if near enough. For a while I kept trying to figure out how I could activate the 3 receptacles at the same time.[/spoiler]

I'm not too fond of the size of the map either, mostly its width. Too much walking involved especially when one messed up and has to redo part of the puzzle.

The dotted lines could use some simplification, between the size of the map and all the twist and turn, they are "hard" to follow. Not hard enough to make it a puzzle in itself but hard enough to be a pain.

Maybe it's one purpose, but the door frames don't fit with the walls (texture, dimensions, ...)

There is something wrong with the left receptacle sign. I can see the laser and the dotted lines through it. Once, the texture was just pure black (with the laser and dotted line also visible through it).

Quote from Lpfreaky90 on June 25, 2011, 2:38 pm

I really liked the map Good job!

The slime almost got me, few things:
* on the wall at the side of where the elevator is there is one square that is more black then the others
* you can jump onto the buttons and jump into the first funnel, nothing game breaking, but just feels a bit odd.
* I didn't use the second funnel either

But most important: Keep mapping !

Quote from Endrey on June 25, 2011, 6:26 pm

very nice map - took me some time but verx very good - esp the ending

Quote from dhavalmistry on June 25, 2011, 8:17 pm

Endrey wrote:

very nice map - took me some time but verx very good - esp the ending

Thanks!

Quote from rellikpd on June 25, 2011, 8:33 pm

Not a bad map considering its only your second attempt at mapping. It was fun, and inventive, but I have some notes.

[spoiler]Could use a bit more polish, more of a [WIP] or beta map feel than a fully realized release, but still not bad for being so new to map making. The ex.funnels seemed to be animating REALLY weirdly? Anyone else (or you) see this? i could make a video/or do screenshots if i have to, but i'm thinking i'm one the only one affected here.
I agree xdiesp's criticism that the acid right up to the floor without any real "detail" looks a bit weird. Kind of reminded me of the old "advanced chambers" from portal one, where alot of what they did to make it more "challenging" was just removed some of the floor and added acid.

And lastly, the final "puzzle" element, where you have to activate one of the three laser receivers with the re-director that is floating against the ceiling: it's way to easy to have that put in facing the right direction, but still have the laser not hit ANY of the receivers. This is annoying because if it was facing completely the wrong way, i wouldn't mind redoing the puzzle. but i had to do it 3 times just to get in the right spot/hitting the receiver.[/spoiler]
in closing, not a bad map. fun and challenging. Keep practicing, and spend more time in valve maps (and some of our contest winning maps) to learn some tips/tricks on making better "looking" maps

Quote from dhavalmistry on June 25, 2011, 9:27 pm

rellikpd wrote:

Not a bad map considering its only your second attempt at mapping. It was fun, and inventive, but I have some notes.

[spoiler]Could use a bit more polish, more of a [WIP] or beta map feel than a fully realized release, but still not bad for being so new to map making. The ex.funnels seemed to be animating REALLY weirdly? Anyone else (or you) see this? i could make a video/or do screenshots if i have to, but i'm thinking i'm one the only one affected here.
I agree xdiesp's criticism that the acid right up to the floor without any real "detail" looks a bit weird. Kind of reminded me of the old "advanced chambers" from portal one, where alot of what they did to make it more "challenging" was just removed some of the floor and added acid.

And lastly, the final "puzzle" element, where you have to activate one of the three laser receivers with the re-director that is floating against the ceiling: it's way to easy to have that put in facing the right direction, but still have the laser not hit ANY of the receivers. This is annoying because if it was facing completely the wrong way, i wouldn't mind redoing the puzzle. but i had to do it 3 times just to get in the right spot/hitting the receiver.[/spoiler]
in closing, not a bad map. fun and challenging. Keep practicing, and spend more time in valve maps (and some of our contest winning maps) to learn some tips/tricks on making better "looking" maps

Hey thanks for the feedback. I have to agree with you on the funnel's animation. I am not sure what is causing it and I also cant see a way to fix it as I am not doing anything to its animation.

And I also agree with you on the 3 laser catcher. I originally only wanted one catcher but in my testing, I found it to be very difficult to get the laser to redirect into the catcher. I figured adding more then one catchers and only needing to be powered one could make the process a bit easier. I was looking for some ideas on how to force the cube to reorient itself in a specific direction (kinda like when you pick up the cube), but no one on the forum could figured out how to do it. I also tried using phsy_keep_upright trigger but with no success.

Adding 3 laser catcher was a decision I had to make because I really wanted the cube to do something other then push the button on the ceiling.

You said "spend more time in valve maps". I havent found a way to explore valve maps as they are all in bsp format. I would be very thankful of you or anyone could tell me how to open bsp files.