Quote from PCdoc on August 5, 2012, 2:46 pm

This is perhaps the most fastidious "look" I have ever seen. And yes, I used a Thesaurus for that word. The red, blue and white give a very professional look to the place.

Initially I spent a while completely stuck. I managed to build steps to get to the other side but that was it. [spoiler]It finally dawned on me to build a wall outside of the fenced in area to allow entry into that area. It also finally dawned on me that I did not need bottom cubes to support cubes above and that allowed me to build a single-width catwalk across both pits.[/spoiler]
Once I had the [spoiler]2 catwalks built[/spoiler] then it was a simple exercise to make it to the end with time to spare. I calculated that [spoiler]10 blocking cubes gave the maximum laser blocking delay and that 11 cubes was one too many and the timer would elapse before the laser could open the door[/spoiler].

I must ask - was this something that just clicked in your head and was not too difficult to add to the game ? Or it is an incredibly difficult and time-consuming endeavor ?

I do not know if this would be a direction to go in - as far as making many maps based on this. However it would be interesting to try some more cube maps with added complexity. The amount of new and entertaining features you guys are adding to Portal 2 is very exciting.

Quote from sicklebrick on August 5, 2012, 4:46 pm

Heh, ty for the feedback doc!

I hadn't once considered that the player might try and support higher blocks - and in restrospect it makes a lot of sense (especially if you've not played minecraft). Perhaps pre-building half the bridge would have been a good idea but I think it's just such a different concept that it'd need quite an involved intro - like portal itsself >.<

I hadn't actually calulated the number of blocks, heh.. I think 2-3 gives enough time as well, but I guess if you're placing the blocks from the first room you can get away with doing more

Difficulty wise.. uhm... It's not terribly difficult, but it is pretty fiddly. Everything you'd expect just to 'happen' takes a workaround. For example aiming is handled by a tank-like entity stuck to the player ('cause there's no way to determine where the player's pointing precisely and easily). Finding the block position involves tracing some vectors and figuring out the surface angle. The blocks are made of 2 blocks - one for collision, one for graphics (also allowed me to have transparent blocks that still stopped a laser initially). Hammer and the scripting language themselves are faily easy but it's inherently fiddly on this scale.

Anyhoo, you find the seekrit ?

Quote from BEARD! on August 6, 2012, 4:25 pm

Aesthetics
This level's looks are more for function than form. Immediately you're introduced to the instructive colour scheme, which clearly define the rules of the game. The targetting bullseye should ideally have had some kind of colour - I found it hard to see against some parts of the chamber, particularly when looking through grates. There were certainly no problems visually, but the chamber remained pretty spartan - then again this isn't your typical chamber. Observation rooms light the chamber and that's about it; the cool lights give it the standard clean, controlled feel. Some parts of the levels are darker and shadowed; here the blocks that you summon are far too bright and look out of place.

It'd be nice if the level was made of tiles that weren't the same size. I know you have to show the player a grid for placing their blocks, but it would help break up the monotony even if there was the occasional 64*64 tile. Red zones in particular strike me as somewhere you can spice things up a little.

Gameplay
Rather than thinking [spoiler]where to put portals, you end up thinking where to put portalable surfaces[/spoiler]. An interesting way of looking at things! There were two 'aha' moments for me: [spoiler]"Oh, these blocks are portalable"[/spoiler] and [spoiler]"Oh, I can fling myself like this"[/spoiler]. [spoiler]I discovered that you could block the laser fairly quickly; I was more surprised that the blocks exploded by themselves![/spoiler] After working through the chamber, there was the small matter of completing the course under time pressure to exit.

The single most frustrating thing is the 'controls'. The bullseye target lags behind your camera movements ever so slightly, and its motion is jerky. Even more frustratingly, about half the time it doesn't go where you point! The script doesn't seem to like aiming while pointing down, or on surfaces close to the player. I don't mean to moan - of course you're working to limitations - but it got in the way a few times throughout my playthrough.

Whatever your thoughts, it was fun to experiment with a new concept. I just wonder if the idea would extend easily to other puzzles, or is it more of a one-trick pony?

Difficulty
The map felt like an introductory level. "Here's a new puzzle element, it doesn't work on red stuff, go solve the test" it says, which is the right way of doing it. (That is, let the player work out how it works for themselves.) Dragging out the concept through further training wouldn't be worth it, as the concept is fairly straightforward. I'd say it was medium difficulty - you have to figure out how to use something new, and then how it works with portals. I think the map could have benefitted from a second puzzle, however, because it did feel like an introduction. Some kind of development of the concept would have been great.

Bugs and Mapping Details
[spoiler]Not much to say apart from the bullseye. I noticed that the portal control buttons trigger the other butons, so more than one button sound can be heard. Also I managed to get a block stuck under the floor, but I could right click to destroy it.[/spoiler]

Quote from sicklebrick on August 7, 2012, 6:26 am

Cheers BEARD!, nice to read an in-depth honest review.
In reviewing your review I found your rhetoric to be unnecessary and later rendered moot by your own suggestions that I build more puzzle whilst questioning whether more puzzle would actually work, but I'll let it slide :p

With regards to placing blocks close to yourself and multiple button sounds, the former is simply to stop the player becoming stuck in their own blocks, and the latter.. well the sounds actually come from buttons hidden inside the wall placed deliberately to make it more obvious that buttons are linked. Honestly you're the first to notice that one!
Frustratingly though, the aiming issue is alleviated slightly simply by hitting the mouse buttons. The script only updates every 1/10th of a second, and more precisely whenever the game feels like updating the func_tank entity. So while it might be lagging behind, it's generally safe to click early. More of an art than a science, but if anyone from Valve's reading - a fix or alternative trace() would be nice!

I thought I'd fixed the block-in-floor bug, but I'll take a look at that after judging, cheers for pointing that out

Quote from BEARD! on August 7, 2012, 8:31 am

sicklebrick wrote:

Cheers BEARD!, nice to read an in-depth honest review.
In reviewing your review I found your rhetoric to be unnecessary and later rendered moot by your own suggestions that I build more puzzle whilst questioning whether more puzzle would actually work, but I'll let it slide :p

Good point - thanks for the feedback on the feedback - and just to clairfy I'd love to be shown that more puzzle works!. As for the block in the floor, that was a one-off (I have no idea how it happened) but I only managed to do it once. Definitely not something to lose sleep over.

Quote from Djinndrache on August 8, 2012, 8:40 am

This is my playthrough of this map. In order to not influence the opinion of anyone, I won't say what I think about this map yet. Have fun watching the video and get your own opinion about the map for now

wKOIjiTYvD8
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKOIjiTYvD8)

Quote from sicklebrick on August 8, 2012, 9:24 am

Heh, cheers Djinn, that was really interesting to watch
You picked up the various concepts pretty fast (including your refined route towards the end) which is good to see. You can shave of a bit of time by just placing 2 blocks from the 2nd room before the fling, but it's 6 and half a dozen My only concern is that you didn't stop to build a little house.

Quote from BEARD! on August 8, 2012, 10:29 am

I've just had a thought - can you reach through portals to place and destroy blocks? That could make for an interesting development!

Quote from sicklebrick on August 8, 2012, 10:48 am

Heh, technically yeah. Would be very simialr to HMW's method of tracing over lasers with pretty colors for Sendificate.. but more maths, and only certain brush types work with the trace system :
That's an awesome idea though- I'll prod HMW and see if he minds me cannibalising parts of his script for it, cheers!