Quote from FelixGriffin on July 27, 2012, 10:18 am

josepezdj wrote:

anyone is absolutely free to grab anything (s)he wants (or is able to get) from my work when it's released. Indeed, do not hesitate to contact me by pm for whatever query related to my instances and such, ok?

Thank you! I love the visual style of these maps, and I would love to use some of those materials and brushwork-models in my own levels (with attribution of course).

Quote from Kaleido on July 28, 2012, 9:59 pm

josepezdj wrote:

Thank you man, to be frank it's a relief becasue I'm going nuts with the competition! I'm sleeping like 4 hours a day! (seriously!) because I have to work all the mornings long...

Damn... you're going to destroy everyone. I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

That is, if you can hit the deadline and not be a perfectionist about it

Quote from FourthReaper on July 29, 2012, 11:53 am

I assume you're going with your own theme, jose? Because that can indeed give you a major advantage. Puzzle-wise, of course, I have no idea how good you are.

Kaleido wrote:

I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

What do you consider "blocking out"? Because you only have a week left and while I may not have the best map, I have at least finished detailing the greater part of two maps. "Blocking out" the third.

But then do you mean coming up with a puzzle? Or placing the structural brushes? Or just not detailing yet? 'Cause I'm starting to worry about you.

Quote from josepezdj on July 30, 2012, 6:57 am

FelixGriffin wrote:

Thank you! I love the visual style of these maps, and I would love to use some of those materials and brushwork-models in my own levels (with attribution of course).

Thank YOU Felix, I'm glad to hear you're liking something I built! Indeed I'm so happy that you even want to use that stuff .

Kaleido wrote:

Damn... you're going to destroy everyone. I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

Hahaha... thanks for your trust in me Kal! However, I trust in MAAAAANY mappers here and I don't think I'll win anyway. I'm taking this very seriously due to the fact that it'll be my very first release ever! And I'm so nervious, that's why I can't stop my brain from continue thinking after I went to bed

Kaleido wrote:

That is, if you can hit the deadline and not be a perfectionist about it

You have sussed me out already! hahaha... Yeah, I'm trying hard but I can't get my habits away easily! Let's see what I can finish into the deadline... however, what I finish would forcedly has to be well done, even if it's only a couple of chambers.

FourthReaper wrote:

I assume you're going with your own theme, jose? Because that can indeed give you a major advantage. Puzzle-wise, of course, I have no idea how good you are.

Hehe... thanks for your support on my visuals. I also like much your "penrose" series theme, it's very smooth, friendly and detailed, specially like the lighting! Good job, mate! If I must be sincere, I will ofc go with my own theme taking the chance that the custom content is allowed... but not anything related to what you've already seen though I'm taking the chance that I have to map the whole thing from scratch to try a new approach that can be later included into the mod. As I've mmentioned some times, there will be a "Enceladus" themed chambers (warm lights, brownish and sandy textures and such...), and a completely different styled chambers type which will suppose the BTS parts of the mod... the Aperture Labs part, those hidden areas behind my observation rooms. And THAT would be my card for the contest. And to be frank I never started any visual approach until now. I spent a couple of days testing textures and mixing different ones altogether until I found a visul style I like... Let's hope so do you!

Regarding puzzles... well, let's hope you think I'm good at it too!

FourthReaper wrote:

Kaleido wrote:

I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

What do you consider "blocking out"? Because you only have a week left and while I may not have the best map, I have at least finished detailing the greater part of two maps. "Blocking out" the third.

But then do you mean coming up with a puzzle? Or placing the structural brushes? Or just not detailing yet? 'Cause I'm starting to worry about you.

I believe he is referring to lay out the whole structure of the map without detailing, only making the brushes that will contain the playing areas and puzzles... I'm not sure how everyone does to this regards... but for me, it's very important to decide the visuals first, the textures, lighthing sources, other "ornamental thingies", how will I place/combine them, etc., and to begin from there on... Then go designing each chamber with its structure, corners, floors and ceilings, the buttons in place, fizzlers, portalable panels (watching out the possible angles from which to shoot a portal is possible) and such... To make a puzzle is not that hard once you have it la

Man, you seem to have muuuuuch free time!, blocking out the thrid map??... Maybe you are a faster mapper than me, or Kaleido I'd better get cracking on this week!!!

Quote from FourthReaper on July 30, 2012, 8:12 am

josepezdj wrote:
[spoiler]

FourthReaper wrote:

I assume you're going with your own theme, jose? Because that can indeed give you a major advantage. Puzzle-wise, of course, I have no idea how good you are.

I will ofc go with my own theme taking the chance that the custom content is allowed... but not anything related to what you've already seen though I'm taking the chance that I have to map the whole thing from scratch to try a new approach that can be later included into the mod. As I've mmentioned some times, there will be a "Enceladus" themed chambers (warm lights, brownish and sandy textures and such...), and a completely different styled chambers type which will suppose the BTS parts of the mod... the Aperture Labs part, those hidden areas behind my observation rooms. And THAT would be my card for the contest. And to be frank I never started any visual approach until now. I spent a couple of days testing textures and mixing different ones altogether until I found a visul style I like... Let's hope so do you![/spoiler]and later added:
[spoiler]I'm not sure how everyone does to this regards... but for me, it's very important to decide the visuals first, the textures, lighthing sources, other "ornamental thingies", how will I place/combine them, etc., and to begin from there on... Then go designing each chamber with its structure, corners, floors and ceilings, the buttons in place, fizzlers, portalable panels (watching out the possible angles from which to shoot a portal is possible) and such... To make a puzzle is not that hard once you have it la(yed out?)[/spoiler]
Wow, you're taking aesthetics pretty seriously then, cool.

josepezdj wrote:
[spoiler]

FourthReaper wrote:

Kaleido wrote:

I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

What do you consider "blocking out"? Because you only have a week left and while I may not have the best map, I have at least finished detailing the greater part of two maps chambers. "Blocking out" the third.

Man, you seem to have muuuuuch free time!, blocking out the thrid map??... Maybe you are a faster mapper than me, or Kaleido I'd better get cracking on this week!!![/spoiler]
Sorry, I mean chamber. And well, I'm not really fast, they're probably just smaller rooms than those of some others. I've seen quite a few chambers of others in the Contest WIP thread, so I was already worried about being too slow, actually.

Besides, you have to work a lot IIRC. I have a holliday, barely have to do anything.

Quote from josepezdj on July 30, 2012, 9:16 am

FourthReaper wrote:

Besides, you have to work a lot IIRC. I have a holliday, barely have to do anything.

YRCI! (you remember correctly indeed... lol) Even though I enjoy reduced working hours (only mornings) during this period, it is too few hours! Lucky you!

FourthReaper wrote:

Wow, you're taking aesthetics pretty seriously then, cool.

Yeah I guess! (I think u 2)

(Btw, where is that WIP maps section of the contest? you mean in the workshop?)

Quote from FourthReaper on July 30, 2012, 9:26 am

josepezdj wrote:

FourthReaper wrote:

Wow, you're taking aesthetics pretty seriously then, cool.

Yeah I guess! (I think u 2)

(Btw, where is that WIP maps section of the contest? you mean in the workshop?)

I do like spending time on making a map look better (pretty much all I have left to do on my last chamber, but it might well take me all week ) so I guess you could say that. But I always know to appreciate other people's efforts as well.

And here is the WIP Contest Showcase Thread. It's not as widely used as it should be if you ask me, though.

Quote from SergeantFTC on September 3, 2012, 9:18 pm

So, the contest has been over for almost a month and we haven't heard anything. Obviously I understand that you are busy, but would be nice to hear that you haven't given up on it.

Quote from josepezdj on September 5, 2012, 7:04 am

SergeantFTC wrote:

So, the contest has been over for almost a month and we haven't heard anything. Obviously I understand that you are busy, but would be nice to hear that you haven't given up on it.

Yeah, correct! the contest is over for one month now, but I need to tell you that I haven't stopped mapping during that time my dear friend Indeed I had 2 weeks of summer holiday but I still mapped a lot instead of being at the beach getting tanned, lol... I had a pending thing with my contest map... now it's reworked and improved.

You can find it here I really hope you're interesting in playing it.

It's also in the mod's moddb page. The reason is written there but anyway, I'll copy here:

"My intention was to take the chance the contest afforded me to arrange something new, but at the same time, something I could use later on in the mod. As I planned to create an opposite atmosphere to the warm and sandy looking chambers I've been showing here in the mod's website, I thought the contest was the perfect opportunity to start doing so, and the result is this map."

So I'll include this bits into the main story of the mod. And due to the reactions about the difficulty (I insist in the fact that this newer version is much more easy to perform though), this map will be left for the end of the first chapter of The Enceladus Initiative. The name of this chapter is obviously The Second Exodus.

If you still you need me to say that I'm not giving up on this, you got it:

I won't ever give up on this, dude

Thanks for your support!