[SP] Photonic
I finally got it working and this map has great aesthetics.
Secondly, I agree with Senf, the psuedo-forward fling, didn't need to be introduced. It was easy to use and very self-explanatory.
On the third room, my frame rate dropped 40% of the time while producing a fling and I found out there were no hints.
I also recommend to optimize it in the next update.
The music got very repetitive after awhile and I recommend making alterations of it, like the music introduced in underground aperture.
Here's my playthrough.
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Hey, its the musician here.
p0rtalplayer has kind of worked around a lot to get layered music to work in the first place without scripts. What he was able to pull off is pretty impressive as far as hooking all the i/o up properly. That being said:
Originally, I had composed the music to be dynamically layered rather than to simply add or remove a layer in each puzzle. Therefore, every layer would've been a little quieter. The final laser in the first room and the laser in each subsequent room would play the laser's theme whenever it was powered, and the gritty theme you hear in the last room would've come from the general vicinity of any light bridge. However, getting all of this to sync up properly using i/o in Hammer rather than scripts was basically impossible, so p0rtalplayer had to improvise.
I agree that it got repetitive really fast, too. By the time I finished the first room, I had to mute my speakers in order to preserve my sanity, aside from unmuting it every so often to, for example, go bananas. 
Another great map. thanks for creating, everything worked fine and I enjoyed the puzzles...although the music track was a bit annoying after a while, kind of like an old Nintendo game track....
Just downloaded and I'm going to play through asap. However, the lag was pretty severe throughout this map for me! According to cl_showfps my framerate was fine (excellent, even!) but the game itself felt slow - as I turned myself round with the mouse, I could see the portal gun viewmodel rotating at a delayed rate.
I think I can tell you what causes the lag too: lasers! In the console, I did
- Code: Select all
ent_fire env_portal_laser Kill
(cheats on) and after that the map was immediately lag-free. Of course, the puzzles were insoluble then!
Anyway, maybe there are too many lasers on at one time or something? Just thought I'd pass on the info.
Co-operative: Lightspeed Upstairs Downstairs
I recommend, when the player transitions to the next room, and he/she can't go in it again, kill everything in the previous in the room you can find.
I also recommend adding areaportals.
I also recommend adding areaportals.
Equally, turn off the stuff near the end of the map when the player spawns; turn it on when they get there!
Co-operative: Lightspeed Upstairs Downstairs
It's a shame.. I'd really like to get into this map, but at some point in the last 2-3 updates, my PC decided it couldn't handle more than 3 lasers in a level.. even if they were active, but nowhere on screen. From what I've played I'd give it a 4-5 just for reminding me of chocolate 
I enjoyed the first room quite a bit, the second doesn't count, and I was annoyed by the third. It is clear that a lot of work went into making this, but the end result was less than satisfying. I give it 4/5, despite the following long list of criticisms:
- Custom textures are great, but reversing the portalability sense of the walls was not a good choice
- The custom indicators looked nice, but lacked the x/check marks, so they weren't an improvement
- The first room was rather bright, which it would have been less so if the wall colors weren't reversed. On the big plus side, it is much easier to see where a laser hits a dark wall.
- Lag, as mentioned
- Music, as mentioned
- Lasers in tight quarters. Why do mappers insist on putting lasers right next to walls? I died twice playing this because the f*ing laser pinned me to the wall.
- Using spheres when cubes would do. I hate trying to drop cubes or spheres into receptacles when there is time pressure. Superbuttons are much more forgiving.
- Pack custom content into the .bsp, please. It's annoying to track down all those files when you want to delete a map (not this one, though, it's a keeper)
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Just to note: in one of the more recent updates, Valve seem to have fixed the performance issues with lasers, and the map is now vastly more playable.
Co-operative: Lightspeed Upstairs Downstairs
Holy shit, this map is amazing. Great work on those laser puzzles, p0rtalplayer.