Quote from dinnesch on August 31, 2011, 10:50 am

Nice bit of variation from what I've played so far. Basically a couple of small maps held together by a hub that eats cubes to unlock the next room/'map'. Not really thinking-intensive (although confusing like I'll explain below), but definitely fun. A couple of problems problems i noticed, or at least what felt like problems:
- No autosaves, being used to maps that do include them I didn't manually save. I was kind of disappointed to respawn in the elevator when I died after having completed a room.
- The hub room is sort of overwhelming when you're not familiar with the concept. I feel it took me too long before I figured I needed to [spoiler]put cubes in the diversity vent thing to unlock the next room.[/spoiler]
- The faith plates in room 2 are unreliable, on my first try I flew over the third one into the toxic.
- Room 5 (which I couln't solve, by the way) has 2 overlapping & flickering brushes.
- The door to room 6 [spoiler]is always unlocked, although the map description states you only need 5 cubes this came rather unexpected[/spoiler]
- [spoiler]It's possible to retrieve 3 cubes from room 6, one of which is the laser cube.[/spoiler]
- [spoiler]I beat the map without solving the laser puzzle in room 6, clueless why I would have needed it.[/spoiler]

Quote from CrazyGuy on August 31, 2011, 12:08 pm

dinnesch wrote:

Nice bit of variation from what I've played so far. Basically a couple of small maps held together by a hub that eats cubes to unlock the next room/'map'. Not really thinking-intensive (although confusing like I'll explain below), but definitely fun. A couple of problems problems i noticed, or at least what felt like problems:
- No autosaves, being used to maps that do include them I didn't manually save. I was kind of disappointed to respawn in the elevator when I died after having completed a room.
- The hub room is sort of overwhelming when you're not familiar with the concept. I feel it took me too long before I figured I needed to [spoiler]put cubes in the diversity vent thing to unlock the next room.[/spoiler]
- The faith plates in room 2 are unreliable, on my first try I flew over the third one into the toxic.
- Room 5 (which I couln't solve, by the way) has 2 overlapping & flickering brushes.
- The door to room 6 [spoiler]is always unlocked, although the map description states you only need 5 cubes this came rather unexpected[/spoiler]
- [spoiler]It's possible to retrieve 3 cubes from room 6, one of which is the laser cube.[/spoiler]
- [spoiler]I beat the map without solving the laser puzzle in room 6, clueless why I would have needed it.[/spoiler]

thanks for testing!
Yes I know this isn't thinking heavy (except for the last test) because people complained the last maps I made were too hard. I always had the idea for this, so I thought i'd make it nice and easy to be more fun.

Okay, problems:
-the autosaves: will be in final version. I didn't forget them, they just didn't make it into this release.
-So you say door 6 doesn't lock with the rest of them, alright I can fix that I forgot to add the extra trigger
- It being possible to retrieve 3 cubes from area 6 is intentional. You may scan all sorts of items in the scanner.
-With regard to the vent to the scanner being unclear, I will add some more signage and text or voice cues to indicate that you take the cubes to the vents. I'm also going to make the whole final part look better, with flame and sounds and all.
-you were confused about not needing the 6th room to finish the map? well theres a few reasons for that. One, I was going to add more to area 6 than is there and make it much harder with more back-and-fourth thinking, and I was going to make it an acheivement to scan the last cube. But thats what I need YOU for. Do you think I should do this or should I REQUIRE you to get all 6?
-room 5 has 2 overlapping and flickering brushes you say? ok that might be because I moved one of the chambers over a bit in one of the working versions. Easy fix.
-You couldn't solve room 5? what was the problem? were you not able to see the next portal surface? or could you not get the cube once getting past the turret?

Quote from dinnesch on August 31, 2011, 1:29 pm

Quote:

- It being possible to retrieve 3 cubes from area 6 is intentional. You may scan all sorts of items in the scanner.

I personally think it's a bit confusing to have 5 rooms that consistently require you to retrieve a single cube, and then the 6th one allows you to take out 3?

Quote:

-you were confused about not needing the 6th room to finish the map? well theres a few reasons for that. One, I was going to add more to area 6 than is there and make it much harder with more back-and-fourth thinking, and I was going to make it an acheivement to scan the last cube. But thats what I need YOU for. Do you think I should do this or should I REQUIRE you to get all 6?

Once again I felt that after 5 linear rooms(by linear i don't mean bad, it's PORTAL) you unlock 1 by 1 in a hub, and then the 6th one suddenly having a huge 'optional' part that isn't an easter egg? I think adding some explanation/finishing the idea could make it work better.
Of course it's your map, but that's my thoughts as a player which I suppose this thread is for

(I realize these 2 complaints sound a bit similar to each other, but they're not the same. The first one is about the 6th room BEING optional, the second one about that 6th room having an optional PART)

Quote:

-You couldn't solve room 5? what was the problem? were you not able to see the next portal surface? or could you not get the cube once getting past the turret?

Even with noclip I couldn't find any portal surface to get behind the turret(although I found one down the pit which would be impossible to reach without noclip). Perhaps it's the overlapped one I mentioned in my previous post?

BTW if you want someone to test before you update here feel free to add me on steam - username is the same.

Quote from benvent on August 31, 2011, 1:54 pm

I enjoyed the map but was unable to solve room 5. In room 6, i was able to get the companion cube without solving the laser puzzle. I did solve the laser puzzle though to see the intended way.[spoiler]I got the laser cube and stood on it to grab the companion cube. Either put the cube farther back or place a button to open a panel or spawn the cube to force the player to get to the platform using the lift.[/spoiler]
What is the intended solution for room 5? [spoiler]I used the extra cubes from room 6 to get over the half glass wall and get the turret. I was only able to go over the half wall on the side farthest from the portable surface. Is this intentional? If it is it is misleading to be able to get over one side and not the other.[/spoiler]Once i was in the area with the turret I could not find a way to get the cube.I could'nt find a portable surface or a switch for the lift.How?
I forgot about the ratmans den so i played through again and found it but i forgot to take a chair back with me to scan. Guess i will have to go in again.
Keep up the good work.

Quote from andyb on August 31, 2011, 2:35 pm

Yea I didnt undersdand six myself.Ni idea what the lazer did.It didnt activate the lift and the other cube was useless except for the stairs.Never did get the lift working if it really is a lift

Quote from shawy89 on August 31, 2011, 2:41 pm

Like others have said, I was unable to solve Room 5. I don't get it. I even noclipped around and still had to idea what to do so I just gave up and grabbed the cube.

Most of the puzzles were very simple requiring little/no thinking whatsoever.

I think you should make Room 6 mandatory. It was great, the best puzzle in the map by far. I took 2 cubes from that room but good to know that the non-companion cube just got fizzled. So it's no issue that you can take multiple cubes.

This map looks truly amazing, utterly beatiful destroyed Aperture.

Oh, I also found Ratman's den with the chairs in it.

Quote from baca25 on August 31, 2011, 7:04 pm

Ok. Just going over the map, ppl might have said this stuff already... I demand autosaves each time a cube goes into that scanner. In room two, when I jumped before I fell into the portal I overshot the third catapult. When I didn't jump it was fine. Might want to put something that keeps us from jumping. Room five is not solvable because you moved the room and it overlapped the portable surface. Room six was not hard to solve with the laser, so you might as well add it, but you need to make the companion cube higher, because you can just stack the other two boxes to get it. I also followed the 5 cubes down the shaft and got stuck down there. Looks were good, but I think you might as well make us do all 6 rooms because none of them were too hard.

Quote from OnePortalizedGal on August 31, 2011, 7:44 pm

I loved the concept of the map - central room with 6 unknown chambers. I loved chambers 1 and 3 the best, - I couldn't beat 5 - so I noclipped to get the cube. There was a portal surface I didn't even see and I thought that you should have allowed us a few seconds to look around before the turret got you. Also, no autosaves. Keep working on it - all-in-all great idea -

Quote from jamesf141 on September 1, 2011, 6:41 am

CrazyGuy wrote:

-you were confused about not needing the 6th room to finish the map? well theres a few reasons for that. One, I was going to add more to area 6 than is there and make it much harder with more back-and-fourth thinking, and I was going to make it an acheivement to scan the last cube. But thats what I need YOU for. Do you think I should do this or should I REQUIRE you to get all 6?
...
-You couldn't solve room 5? what was the problem? were you not able to see the next portal surface? or could you not get the cube once getting past the turret?

I know I'm jumping in on someone else's points here, but I do think getting all six cubes should unlock something new, because getting all six is bloody hard! Although this might be because I couldn't complete room 5, either; I really couldn't see any other portal surfaces than the main two, and the turret killed me too quickly, limiting the number of vantage points I could get a look at the room from. DON'T make all six chambers mandatory yet; the fifth room is the one I felt I needed to skip, not the sixth.

Putting room five to one side for the moment, this is a nice map of easy-medium difficulty that I can honestly say I can't wait for the final release of! The scanner was delightful; that it rejects cubes other than companion cubes was brilliant. I loved most of the challenges; the aerial faith plates over goo were great fun and provided a brilliant twitch-reaction puzzle that didn't end in death with failure every time.

However, there are several parts that are too dark - the lighting in some places needs to be turned up a bit. Or even be present - there were a couple of the entry corridors that were too dark. There is also the issue of the fifth room being very difficult - can you either make it easier, or post a video of the solution? (if you already have posted the video of the solution, I apologise for being a tad lazy this morning and not checking.)

Autosaves would be nice, too. And WHAT does the laser_relay do in the sixth room? I couldn't see a use for it.

Anyway, congratulations on a great map, and I look forward to seeing the finished product.