Quote from Sword of Apollo on May 10, 2011, 3:03 pm

Mek wrote:

Now I am stuck...Any clues, please?

A few hints. Use as many as you think you need:

Hint 1: [spoiler]As you can see, in order to reach that ledge, you NEED an accessible portal. So, no, using that ledge is not the solution to this particular puzzle. You have to find a different way to fling yourself up. Given the height that you need, your options are rather limited, and hopefully, this should drive you to a particular alternative.[/spoiler]

Hint 2: [spoiler]Remember that having that portal in the pit floor gives you access to that button from anywhere you can place an accesible portal.[/spoiler]

Hint 3: [spoiler]That failed (sparking) automated staircase is there for a reason. If you could get through the map witout using it (always portaling in and out of the inner building) there would be no need for it to be there.[/spoiler]

Hint 4: [spoiler]Remember what you did in the "fizzler hall"...?[/spoiler]

Quote from Mek on May 10, 2011, 4:30 pm

I managed it! Here is how: [spoiler]I had the blue portal placed on the bottom of the pit. I took the ball off the button and placed it under the sparkling stairs to climb up using it into the main chamber (and I took the ball with me there). I created an orange portal in the main chamber, returned the ball onto the button to turn off the lasers and then used a technique named "portal standing" to create an orange portal on the top of the ledge above the fizzler. Then I dropped to the ledge I wanted to go to before and created an orange portal down below which gained me enough momentum to fling myself up in the pit. Was this the intended solution? Because portal standing is considered as cheating among many mappers...[/spoiler]

Well, now I am stuck again... man, this is hard. How the hell do I get to the button I just opened a way to? All the options of flinging fling me way too far or too near. Yes, I did think about it myself. For a long time. But I don't want to noclip over.

Quote from Sword of Apollo on May 10, 2011, 5:14 pm

Mek wrote:

I managed it! Here is how...

No, this is not the intended solution. I would never make [spoiler]"portal standing"[/spoiler] an intended solution to a puzzle unless I were making a map that was supposed to be the ultimate challenge for elite portal players. (Then I would weave it in with a complex web of other actions needed to solve the puzzle.) But a futher hint to the intended solution is that [spoiler]your portal standing solution actually uses more portals than the intended solution.[/spoiler]

I actually consider the intended solution for getting to the first "button in a glass box" (hand switch-type button, that is) harder than that for getting to the second. Getting to the first is more complex.

The "too short, or too far" phenomenon on the last puzzle you mentioned was exactly the basic concept that I built this map around. This is the concept that makes the centerpiece of this chamber unique. Hint: [spoiler]Yet the solution is "staring you in the face," so to speak, when you are flinging yourself across the chamber.[/spoiler]

Quote from quatrus on May 11, 2011, 4:20 pm

Exceedingly hard as one progresses. The fling to the door from the main chamber, sorry just couldn't make it - when I flew to the door it always closed just as I landed in front of it - frustrating (noclipped). The final slide chamber, WOW, I think I know what is needed, but I just couldn't place the first portal no matter how many times I fell through (noclipped). Really well done map and very challenging, but too hard for me near the end....Still thanks for creating and 5/5.

Quote from Mek on May 12, 2011, 6:44 am

Nah, just realised [spoiler]I can put a portal above that ledge with the button [/spoiler]
[spoiler]I went to the second part of the map then only to realise I don't know how to solve the part when you land on the platform which lowers down into the goo after 3 seconds -> noclipped. After stepping into the elevator I was like "w0t? that was all? can't believe..." so I explored the map from the outside by using noclipping. I discovered the secrets spanning across multiple maps and then found the way how I was supposed to find them. But I really didn't get the idea. What should we do in the secret rooms and why? Nothing I tried was working... and the rooms were so strange...[/spoiler]

Quote from Sword of Apollo on May 12, 2011, 4:40 pm

Mek wrote:

Nah, just realised I can put a portal above that ledge with the button

This is something that, looking back on it, I think to myself: Oh my god, how could I have let that through!

The crazy thing is that I actually did put a portal up there a while back, but I was standing on the projecting platform, and my brain never made the connection as to why being able to put a portal there would be a problem. Then, yesterday, I was thinking about the time I had done that, and it dawned on me that the player would likely be able to do that from the ground. So I actually caught that before I saw your last post, but wasn't able to upload a fix until today.

So, a portal at the top of the box is not the intended solution, I'm afraid. Apologies to everyone who did that and thought that it was.

[EDIT: Here's a light hint to the intended solution to this puzzle: [spoiler]When you fling from the high angled concrete surface the easiest and most natural way to make yourself go too far, take careful note of where and how you land. Is there something more you can do?[/spoiler]]

This should pretty much give it away: The intended solution is [spoiler]a double fling[/spoiler] starting [spoiler]at the high angled wall.[/spoiler] You want to [spoiler]fire 2 portals in the air.[/spoiler]

As far as the secrets go, Mek, did you see the domed rotunda next to the first room? (It has a book and 4 pedestals in it.)

Quote from Mek on May 13, 2011, 6:16 am

Sword of Apollo wrote:

As far as the secrets go, Mek, did you see the domed rotunda next to the first room? (It has a book and 4 plynths in it.)

Of course I did. [spoiler]I took the blue book and put it on the pedestal and it looked like it has activated something. Apart from that, I didn't get the other secrets. Was I supposed to bring some another books to this room[/spoiler]?

Quote from LLQuinten on May 13, 2011, 5:32 pm

Brilliant. Simply Brilliant.
Very hard puzzles with simple solutions. That's what portal is all about. Now at the part where I fall dooooowwwn. Gotta get some sleep. Will continue tomorrow.

Quote from Sword of Apollo on May 14, 2011, 5:58 pm

LLQuinten wrote:

Brilliant. Simply Brilliant.
[...]

Thanks. I put some seriously long hours into this map. I'm glad you like the way it turned out.