Quote from silic on January 3, 2012, 5:31 pm

Updates:
Current Released maps:
v2.0.3
[spoiler]- Changed lighting in ws_005 as pointed out by a youtube poster
- Made the first jump a little more obvious to complete
- extended the safety net on the harder jump to make it a little more safer for the casual players[/spoiler]
v2.0.2
[spoiler]- ws_005 added a invisible wall to prevent cube from missing button. (impossible to complete map in this case)
- ws_006 updated the sign to make it more obvious (hopefully) that you need all 9 laser catchers activated to open the door. Also made the tick, actually tick when the door opens...
- Posted tutorial on how to do all levels (see original post)
- Redone ws_004.bsp to corrispond to test subjects tastes.
- Removed Forced stillness of player in ws_003.bsp while you waited for text explaining a redo of level to complete its 11 second function.[/spoiler]
v2.0
[spoiler]- Improved spawning of gun to ensure no ability to miss the gun while its being spawned for you
- Improved lighting in interchamber locks as red light was hard to see
- Added feature Incorrect installation of next map in series to every map. this ensures the player knows that they are either at the end of the current map pack, or there is a installation issue.
- Added improvements to fizzlers and doors. (Due to copy and pastes and origonal maps being layed over another, door names etc was forgotten and silly mistakes occoured. this is for my own benifit in mapping)
- 1.02 update. Somehow broke level 003 and stopped boxes spawning.. just noticed. so just updated. Sorry to the 3 people who downloaded that shameful mistake![/spoiler]
v1.3
[spoiler]- Found interesting bug on level 003 of puzzles.. since latest release (i havent changed anything on that level) i found if you run into the button, the "breaking" of the field screws up puzzle, as it makes that field void if you glance the button quickly and not touch it again. Makes puzzle very easy to complete. note to self: Will not worry about this too much and cover up this with spoiler.. nosy people will see what this bug is, and abuse it. true players will not.
- Found a interesting mechanic, or puzzle to include into my design (7 gates style). Should be a laugh to include this one.
- Putting final test touches to ws_005.bsp
- Released ws_006.bsp
- Fixed ANOTHER bug with maps not being loaded correctly. hopefully v2.0 will be settled nicely.[/spoiler]

Work In Progress:
- Begining a new project which will hopefully run off the end of this series of chambers. Going to be including hopefully a story line with voices which should explain whats going on easier than using the HUD texts.

Quote from KennKong on January 3, 2012, 5:51 pm

I see from your comments that you have tried to fix the problems with spawning the gun, but I had to reload each map at the start to get the gun.
As far as the puzzles go, they're not my cup of tea. I don't like stacking laser cubes, because they fall over too easily. I really hate jumping through portals with lasers, especially when the destination is close to death. However, the wrinkles added the second time through the one puzzle are a good idea (see Jonatan's Seven Gates for a superb use of this idea.)

As it stands, I only give this 3/5. Smooth out the transitions, and continue to raise the level of puzzles with later chambers, and this could be higher.

Quote from silic on January 3, 2012, 6:26 pm

KennKong wrote:

I see from your comments that you have tried to fix the problems with spawning the gun, but I had to reload each map at the start to get the gun.

Tried.. ive sucessfully managed to solve that issue (just havent uploaded it, or added it to old levels yet).. i was rather annoyed actually when i tried it out for the millionth time (if thats even a word) to see that i had missed a simple thing like that gun spawn times...

Quote:

the wrinkles added the second time through the one puzzle are a good idea (see Jonatan's Seven Gates for a superb use of this idea.)

you see, i was also going to do this.. like withdrawal symptoms of the last chamber being too easy, and basically redoing every chamber twice?... but with increased thought and planning in difficulty. but looking up at the top left corner of the page, i feel like i am copying a idea already done but at a far worse level...

Cheers for feedback tho, ive noted the danger lazer in my things to improve upon, and im tempted to overhaul both levels to look into stacking cubes, might prove to be interesting, and make the levels harder.. who knows?. might actually look into these prior moving onto the newer levels as id rather sort out the first 4 before producing more.

Quote from andyb on January 3, 2012, 6:57 pm

If your plan is to stack the cubes then recess the wall at that point so there is room to manouvere.As for the portal gun it was all fine for me.Good work on doing the same puzzle over.Took me a bit to figure out

Quote from Stormburn on January 3, 2012, 8:07 pm

andyb wrote:

If your plan is to stack the cubes then recess the wall at that point so there is room to manouvere.As for the portal gun it was all fine for me.Good work on doing the same puzzle over.Took me a bit to figure out

You can get more room by setting it up from the other side of the portal.

Also, I really liked how you took the second level, and then made it harder. I wish more mappers did that.

[spoiler]I GOT THE COMPANION CUBE THROUGH THE DOOR WITHOUT FIZZLING!!! YOU TOOK MY COMPANION CUBE AWAY FROM ME!!! I WANT MY BACK!!! Ok, I'm good now.[/spoiler]
Anyways, great map, I'll be looking for the update.

Quote from cerrita on January 3, 2012, 11:12 pm

A very nice map. Just enough to make me think but not get frustrated. I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fan of cube stacking, especially laser cubes, as they rotate to a default position. Managed to get around that, though, and solve it. Not sure if it was the intended solution, but it worked out. I didn't have any issues or glitches, the gun worked fine, and everything looked smooth and professional. Overall, 5/5. Best map I've played in a while.

Biggest headache: timed light bridge. Grrr... I just don't move that fast. I'm more the paced, methodical test subject; speed is not my forte.

Quote from Djinndrache on January 4, 2012, 5:11 am

I guess I found a new mapper with mad mapping skills and good ideas. That's the way to go!

RO0NqaVKtss
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO0NqaVKtss)

Quote from dinnesch on January 4, 2012, 7:36 am

Entertaining map, I particularly enjoyed the second/third puzzle(the one you play through twice) because it was a clever logical puzzle where the lasers didn't become too frustrating. The fourth map left me with quite a bad aftertaste though:
may spoil puzzle
[spoiler]-The original laser pushes you right into the water when you're on the wrong side. Please move it a bit from the wall
-Shooting the bridge when jumping (on the dry side of the wall) felt a bit like an exploit, so did standing on the cube to crouch through the hole in the wall
-The part of the level where you have to redirect the laser to EXACTLY the right spot when sharing a small panel with 2 cubes and a laser coming from 3 directions frustrated me to no end. Cubes or me falling into the toxic all the time because I was pushed back and forth by the laser.
-The laser goes into the catcher when aligned like this, is this an exploit? If yes, you should know what to do. If no, aligning the son of a bitch is a very annoying thing to do.[/spoiler]

5/5 anyway for the good preceding puzzles.

Quote from silic on January 4, 2012, 12:35 pm

thanks for the praises, and also your video link. in addition to the problem solving of level 4. i think i will just scrap that level and replace it with a fresh one. Its a very buggy map, and as previous testing showed (this is how much i didnt trust this map) i should have not released it.

community-releases/cleanup-level-003-t5315.html

thats the previous public tests on level 4.

Thinking outloud, but kind of wanting a answer really. With the next levels, would you (as the public) want the "try anything twice" approach? or simply harder single levels?

Be interesting to see what people like / want. and ill happily attempt to correspond maps to this.

Ill keep you guys updated as i progress, and i should (hopefully) have either level 4 redone by the weekend at least if not more. i plan to release a patch as such to fix the issues i have personally found in the previous levels.. which annoys me more than it would annoy you, as i believed the maps to be perfect else i would not have "released" them...

Cheers again!