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[SP] Robot Extraction

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A secret organization known only as Division, have stolen Atlas and P-Body. We do not know what they want with them yet, but we want them back. Navigate through a series of challenging puzzles and rescue the both.

I am truly sorry to anyone who downloaded this map and spawned in a box. I had a massive help from Josepezdj, who discovered what the problem was, hope it does not make you want to not give it a second. Look forward to all the ninjas and map breakers breaking the map :)

Robot Extraction Pt 1

B2:

Fixed a major exploit, where you could bypass room 2 and finish the map in just over a minute (Thanks sicklebrick)
Remodeled the floor button room marked with the 2 dot
Added a few extras at the apperature door at the control room, added a trigger brush at said door, so you can re enter room 2 if need be.
Swapped the 3 and 4 sign round to match the signs at exit door.

B3:

Added an extra Deathfield in room 2
When you re enter room 1, the lasers will turn on, and the wall panels will de activate, this stops an unintended solution found by Shakky, thanks for that.

B4:

All improvements thanks to Shakky.

Made a lot of portable surfaces non portable, and added more deatfields in room 2.
The cubedropper at entrance now operates by a prop button which needs to be turned on, no more auto respawing of said cube.
Added more brush work to the alcove where you need to place the cube from room 1.
The faithplate will be disabled to prevent re entry to room 2.

B5:

Added another brush next to cube button in alcove in room 1.
Rearranged the deathfields in cube room, in room 2.

B6:

Moved cube button further back in room 2
Increased the size of a trigger brush when you funnel out of room 2.

B7:
Removed bounce gel and added a piston lift in room 2.

Robot Extraction Pt 2

B2:

Thanks very much to Felixgriffen, who kindly let me use his custom particle, electric_charge_sphere. Big shout to Shakky,Sicklebrick and Quatras for their time in making the videos of all the exploits in my map and RogerL for his screenshots.
If i was to list all the changes i made to part 2, it would be bigger than war and peace, lol. Hopefully this update has eliminated most of them. Lookig forward to round 2 of videos from Shakky and Sicklebrick.

B3:

In room 1, i changed a portable surface to a rotating panel. It is not portable when you first enter the room, but will be later on.
Room 2, i changed 2 portable panels to rotating panels, they will become portable when you place the 2 cubes on the floor buttons. These 2 changes were thanks to Shakky.

B4:

All improvements thanks to Shakky.

Added 2 custom materials to .bsp, they were showing up as white in the map.
Panels which open in room 1 when prop button is pressed, now close when you walk off them.
More grates added in room 2 and the room before the sphere dropper.

B5:

Changed a platform in room 2 to a grate texture, and made a rising platform to rise out of the water when the 2 cubes are placed on the cube buttons, this is to prevent unintended bouncing solution.
Redesigned puzzle before sphere room.

B6:

Added another Deathfield in room 1
Added more grate textures in room 2, also added a barrier next to exit door in room 2
Room before sphere room now has another cube dropper, and the cubedropper in the ceiling, auto respawns.

B7:

Deleted a brush in room 2 and also removed a part of the platform where the 2 cube buttons are in room 2.
Added a grate in front of one of the portable surfaces in the room before the sphere room and added another portal cleanser to the second scanner.

Click here to download Robot Extraction

I'm glad you reposted these. I had only been able to play Part II once before you took them down, and I wanted to play it again before commenting on it.

The puzzles were generally very good: eccentric and difficult; difficult not only to figure out, but, in some cases, difficult to accomplish. But I'm sure I didn't even come close to doing this the intended way; for example, I never used the speed gel, and, in fact, couldn't even figure out how I might use it.

On the down side, there were a lot of places you could get either yourself or a cube stuck and have to revert to an earlier save. And it was often very easy to lose a cube in the goo and have to travel a long way to get a new one. I also think the door just before the sphere was mislabeled. Put a cube onto button labeled 3-dot lit up 1-dot label on door and vice versa.

Like I said, good puzzles, but sometimes frustrating to solve. Perhaps a bit more work, and the puzzles and the design might shine through more.

Glad you fixed the start.
Part 1 comments: In room 1 dot, after finishing the room, can get trapped outside if you don't make the turn into the control room but portal to get up instead of using the funnel, then have to revert to a save - can't get back in to 1 dot area?
If one does not execute room one in the correct sequence (go to control room and bring along cube and funnel) not going across to 2 dot cube catcher (jump down and funnel back to start area) screws up the whole sequence again and can't get a redo (need to use an old save..).
3 dot cube catcher lights up 4 on door and vice versa..
I didn't get the stair jumps fast enough (kind of surprised me when the cube started them) and then it seemed that the sequence of deactivation of the laser grid (3 dot button area) got out of sequence (I did run the cube back and forth several times to watch the bridges raise and lower) when I executed it, I jumped up to the button 3 dot area and got zapped just as the highest bridge dropped? Not sure what happened.
Excellent looking map, but need to think about players who haven't spent as much time on the sequence as the creator - we get lost easily and need some guidance so we don't get have to rely on saves too much... On to map II....

Part II: Again a beautiful looking map - but essentially the same comments as for part I. there is a sequence that must be followed and it takes a while and several restarts to figure it out. In the first chamber, if one jumps off the left mover into a portal with another on one of the X pedestal surfaces then portals the high pillar to fling over to the door area - activation of the X button flips all the lower surfaces. It is probably impossible to activate the button near the opposite wall mover - that is not the sequence. If one goes for the midwall button first then stuff starts to work. Trial and error....
The next room has me baffled, I can't figure out how to get over to the two dot area. the fans don't lift me, only the cubes and I can't see a gel or fling which gives enough height.. I can only surmise that I did something out of the proper sequence again...?? Very clever use of the rotating plate - took a while to stumble on that one...
I don't have a video capture program so I cannot show you...sorry.
I failed - the robots are not extracted yet....

quatrus wrote:
The next room has me baffled, I can't figure out how to get over to the two dot area. the fans don't lift me, only the cubes and I can't see a gel or fling which gives enough height...

Here is how I solved that part:

Spoiler
I used the panel behind the fizzler across from the buttons: first coat the floor between panel and fizzler with blue get (which might take a couple of tries, you need to splatter it against the fizzler frame), then turn on fans, portal the panel behind you, run and jump across. Again, it was a close jump and took several tries.
Grab cubes and put on buttons -- the timimg isn't too tight.

I am working on making a few changes to Pt 1 just now. I now have a trigger brush at the door at the control room, so once through and the door locks, you can open it again. I fixed the the light indicators to match up properly as well at the exit door.
Pt 2, i will need to change the part with the fans

Spoiler
you do not use the gel to get the cubes on the buttons

RogerL, can you tell me how you got to the apperature door that had the sphere dropper, in Pt 2, thanks.
Quatras, can you add me to Steam please -=GBH=-Haggis, i would like to show you the changes i make to pt 1 before i update it.

RogerL wrote:
quatrus wrote:
The next room has me baffled, I can't figure out how to get over to the two dot area. the fans don't lift me, only the cubes and I can't see a gel or fling which gives enough height...

Here is how I solved that part:

Spoiler
I used the panel behind the fizzler across from the buttons: first coat the floor between panel and fizzler with blue get (which might take a couple of tries, you need to splatter it against the fizzler frame), then turn on fans, portal the panel behind you, run and jump across. Again, it was a close jump and took several tries.
Grab cubes and put on buttons -- the timimg isn't too tight.

RogerL: I tried exactly that as a solution, but probably bungled it - gave it several tries and kept hitting too low. Getting over to the door was not a problem - easy gel bounce from the upper platform - it just wasn't open.

Haggis wrote:
RogerL, can you tell me how you got to the apperature door that had the sphere dropper, in Pt 2, thanks.

I used the funnel. More specifically, I hit the button for the rotating panels, put a funneled portal in the closest one, went down and used the faithplate to launch me into the funnel.

Spoiler
When I got to the portable panel under the exit for that room, I pushed up, and put the funnel on that panel. Then I turned around and put the funnel on the panel in the previous room. Then I just kept popping the portal higher until I could crouch and get pushed onto the walkway for the door.
And then out.

I know i am asking a lot, but could you take screenshots of where you got stuck and have to revert to a previous save, cheers. Will get that looked at and sorted out. Quatras, you do not need a video capture program, just record a demo, upload the demo and send me the link to it.

I got stuck here trying to get the cube:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=139876523

I got stuck here just exploring:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=139876550

I didn't really understand this sign over some of the doors:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=139876510

This button didn't seem to do anything:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=139876568

Since most of the cube droppers don't have buttons on them, anytime you get a cube to a location that you can't retrieve, you are stuck unless you can find a way to fizzle it. This happened a number of times to me on my first playthrough; I tried to be more careful on subsequent trips.

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