[SP] Solitude
In my first foray into Hammer, I remade one of my Workshop puzzles using the Pre-GLaDOS destroyed/overgrown theme. The puzzle itself involves laser redirection and a reversible funnel, and is small and self-contained, but relatively difficult. (Mevious told me upon playtesting that it took him an hour to solve. Your mileage may vary.) As this is my first attempt at creating a map in Hammer, constructive criticisms are all very welcome. Thanks for playing and have fun! Screenshots in the next post for easier editing.
It took me more than hour to solve this.After half an hour of desperate attempts i gave up,then after a few hours i decided to try again.45 minutes of trial and error-and i finally did it. I am truly amazed,such a nice placement of puzzle elements and portable surfaces.Even though it was hard,i really enjoyed playing it.Thanks for creating,looking to play your other maps tomorrow.
Looks really good! Mevious must have taught you well.
[Released] Power Interference
[Released] Rust and Dust (Spotlight Map!)
[Released] Multiportal
Yes, I would never have made a Destroyed map be my first test in Hammer! Good job!
WOW... Brilliant puzzle Azorae! 
I'm still solving it! So far, I can see that the puzzle is much Mevious' simple-but-twisted style (that I love 
). I have also pending that "Entanglement" puzzle from you (and also Mevious and Gig versions)... And I'm afraid I should check out all your previous work too! 
About the map's hammer looking, well I'd suggest a cojple of tiny things:
2. Taking the chance that it is the destroyed theme, you could change those window glasses in the observation room too and put those that are broken in order to project their cracks on the walls too
3. Your foliage is causing too much shadow on the wall, but I think it's not the proper one. Ofc if you like it like this, just leave it right like that 
... But i looks like it's the prop which is causing it but not the leaves themselves. To correct this open the props' properties and set "Disable shadows" to YES, but set "Disable flashlight" to NO. This way, you will see the foliage's projected shadows (coming from the env_projectedtexture entity into the observation room I mentioned before) on the walls.
4. Some of those plants hanging from the ceiling on the right wall are maybe "too aligned" giving a lack of realism, maybe you could play more with each prop's height
5. Finally the water. I don't think you built cubemaps, or maybe you didn't run a full compile because that water doesn't look perfect! It should look a bit more dark and with better reflection on its surface. If you didn't run a full compile or didn't build cubemaps and have any doubt about it, please pm me and I'll describe how it is done
I'll post a solution video if I manage to solve this!
Thanks for creating! Just the perfect challenge I like!!!
EDIT
SOLVED IT!!! 
Absolutely amazing puzzle man (or woman)!!! LOL, I played it only 5 minutes this morning right before coming to work! and dude, I haven't stared in front of a picture this much in my whole life!!! I solved it by only watching the first screenshot!!! I'll record a solution video within 2 hours as soon as I arrive home. Thanks for creating such an incredible puzzle! THIS is thinking with portals!
useful tools and stuff here on TWP 
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[/spoiler]Thanks a lot everyone! It's great to see that my first Hammer map is getting such good feedback.
josepezdj, thanks a ton for your suggestions! Most of the points you touched on are things that I had no idea even existed in Hammer. I did place cubemaps, but don't know how to build them or run a full compile. If you could explain, that would be fantastic. As far as the plants and observation windows, I'll definitely work on that, as that's something that I wanted but didn't know how to do.
Hehe... Thanks to YOU... really! Amazing puzzle!
About cubemaps, first of all asign one to the water brush's top side, check this to know how Then place a few more around your rooms, apart from that one.
Now run a FULL compile (press F9 and then go to "Expert mode") and in the upper scroll down menu select "Full (slow!..." instead of "default").
Now place a copy of your map (the .bsp file) into portal 2/portal2_dlc2/maps folder, because there is where the game looks for when you build cubemaps.
Open the console and type buildcubemaps in. By default, it will cuild the cubemaps for HDR. Now enter this:
mat_hdr_level 0
Run buildcubemaps again (this will build them for LDR)
Now type back: mat_hdr_level 2 (this will restore the default HDR settings in your game)
That's all!
Take note that your copy of the .bsp WITH cubemaps in is the one into portal2_dlc2/maps folder (it will weigh more than the one located into portal2/maps folder)
(In order to have always portal2_dlc2 folder by default when compiling in hammer it is nnecessary that you change your hammer settings a bit... let me know if you don't know how to do in the case you decide to do! ...it's recommendable)
EDIT
My God! sincerely, the BEST puzzle I've had the chance to play and solve in my life so far! Only because of its abnormal small size and its impressive reuse of portals, spaces and elements! WOW, Thank you a TON for this! I kindly envy you!!!
useful tools and stuff here on TWP [spoiler]
[/spoiler]Running the buildcubemaps command shows me the snapshots, but crashes the game (Portal2.exe has stopped working) part way through. The .bsp file is in Portal2/Portal2_dlc2/maps, so I'm not sure what's causing this. Any suggestions?
My guess is that there's a conflict between files in different locations (because of my fault! I forgot to say, sry 
) Try erasing the bsp into portal2/maps folder, and please post any other issue. Good luck!
useful tools and stuff here on TWP [spoiler]
[/spoiler]