Special thanks to bsj0 and Dilbao for testing the previous version and sending comments and replays.
Now all I need is a TITLE: I'm open to sugestions!

I think i've fixed all the gameplay cheats and a few bugs, so I challenge you to find cheat solutions to these chambers.

-many performance fixes including converting hidden surfaces to nodraw, turning off all the gel particles in previous areas after you go through the door to the next, many occluder brushes, and a bit of a change to area2 after you complete the final part.
-changed area 3 so there are a lot less ways to cheat... added sprinklers =)

Keep in mind I STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED THE TRANSITION SEQUENCE BETWEEN 2 AND 3! Just imagine that after you hit that button by the door, Wheately says some stuff to you, then the test chamber directly above you starts moving across, then it moves down into position where you see the door and those yellow panels and the landing with the numbers (that landing with the numbers will be replaced with a catwalk... around where 4 is)

Like I said, all the gameplay elements are there, everything SHOULD work (although you may need to rebuild cubemaps) so see if you can find unintended solutions. I'm going to post a demo with he "correct" solutions soon

link to thread for beta 1:
post42625.html#p42625

File Name: CG-GPbeta2.zip
File Size: 5.75 MiB
Click here to download CG's Gel Puzzles BETA 2! now in .zip format

Can't extract the ace file with 7zip. Why do you use such an exotic compression format? Personally I'm not willing to install another program just to unpack a single file. Would be nice if you could upload in 7z or zip or rar format.

sorry I forgot to set wiace to make it a zip. And ACE isn't exactly an exotic file format. When I downloaded files fromt he contest I was getting .ace, .rar, .zip and .7z and frankly I consider 7zip "exotic" because winace can extract everything BUT 7zip. I'll convert it to zip, damn. I always do uplaod in zip because it is easy to extract, and the one time I forget I get chewed out =/

I got another demo for you. By the way, second part of the first area was the most lagging part.

CG-GPbeta2_test1.zip

Okay. Well dilbao, you're good i'll give you that. So you found the cheat way to get extra boxes to area 3. Don't worry thats an easy solve, just need a fizzler after the entry door to area 3, another oversight on my part. But, if that was the ONLY cheat you could find, then it looks like im in pretty good shape.

However, you said there was slowdown in area 1 upper. Well, now i'm afraid to build the whole moving-testchamber transition sequence after area 2. If I do that it will all be visible in area 1 upper and i'm scared it will ring the game down to a crawl.

Maybe there are one or two more small glitches left, however map looks good about puzzles right now. But fps problems still need a fix.

Oh by the way, another demo for you.
CG-GPbeta2_test2.zip

Awesome! This is a huge improvement. But there are still some issues. You might be tired of watching demos, so I took some screenshots:

This is what the second area looked like when I arrived. I'm fairly certain that there should be more gel on those ramps.

This "inexplicably absent" gel thing has occasionally happened to me on other maps, though, and is sporadic. I could play the same map twice, and it might happen only on second run. I'm not sure if this is an issue you can resolve. EDIT: In fact, I went back through a second time, and the gels were working fine.

Here is my solution for the final puzzle. It seems like an exploit to me.

And this one is just for kicks. I thought it was interesting, but it's not really a bug.

Everything else seems to be in wonderful order. In the previous version of the map, I experienced a bit of slow down in the second chamber, but it ran quite smoothly on this one. Hopefully that means it's fixed for the folks who were having big problems before.

I thought the sprinkler system in the final area was an interesting idea. I noticed that if you leave a portal on the wall releasing gel onto the ground, you can bounce, even with the sprinklers going. That might make for a decent puzzle idea.

Were you planning to add more checkpoints for the final version?

bjs0 wrote:
This is what the second area looked like when I arrived. I'm fairly certain that there should be more gel on those ramps.

This "inexplicably absent" gel thing has occasionally happened to me on other maps, though, and is sporadic. I could play the same map twice, and it might happen only on second run. I'm not sure if this is an issue you can resolve. EDIT: In fact, I went back through a second time, and the gels were working fine.

This happened to me once for no reason.

bjs0 wrote:
This is what the second area looked like when I arrived. I'm fairly certain that there should be more gel on those ramps.

yes I'm aware of this bug. It happened to me many times during testing. I noticed that every time I loaded the map and then noclipped straight up out of the elevator area and over to area 2, the paint would be gone. But it would be there if I went through the map normally, like, walked up to the first area, turned noclip on, then flew through all of the area 1 triggers before going to area 2, 9 times out of 10 the paint would be there.

I have traced the reason for all of this. It is because i'm using prop_paint_bombs to prepaint the area. Sometimes when the map spawns, they all do not, or some of them may be getting fizzled. Not sure what it is, all I know is that I can get better results if I use paint_spheres to prepaint the area and have them trigger when you open up the backdoor entrance to the broken observation room.

Problem solved. I'm glad to know it wasn't just happening to me, but was also hap[penign when people went through the map without cheating. When you make a map, you noclip a LOT and strange things can happen.

bjs0 wrote:
Here is my solution for the final puzzle. It seems like an exploit to me.

yes, the way you are doing it it is an exploit. Thanks! I didn't realize this could be done but thats another easy fix, ill just put placement helpers and have em force placement right in the center of the bridge.

Did you figure out the correct solution?

You paint the lower lightbridges from BELOW with the blue, that makes both sides bouncy, then you portal up to the very top, fall through the fizzlers right onto the painted bridges, the first one will bounce you into the second one which bounces you more or less straight up, then you use the portals to make the lightbridges cross and catch you at the top. You have to fire a portal at the first bridge right after falling through the fizzler, then the second one after bouncing back up.

bjs0 wrote:
And this one is just for kicks. I thought it was interesting, but it's not really a bug.

yeah, not a big problem. Think ill leave it.

Quote:
Everything else seems to be in wonderful order. In the previous version of the map, I experienced a bit of slow down in the second chamber, but it ran quite smoothly on this one. Hopefully that means it's fixed for the folks who were having big problems before.

that turned out to be an easy fix. Let me guess, the slowdown was when you turned around to fact the gel pipes in area 2 (back towards where you got in) and the game was still drawing all of area 1, upper and lower, whenever you could see the hole in the floor where the catwalk comes up. I fixed this by having a big occluder brush all across the entry side of area 2, that turns on when the observation room door closes behind you. I also added a bunch of occluders around area1 to improve performance when you are up on the top area

bjs0 wrote:
I thought the sprinkler system in the final area was an interesting idea. I noticed that if you leave a portal on the wall releasing gel onto the ground, you can bounce, even with the sprinklers going. That might make for a decent puzzle idea.

it should be Okay as long as it can't be used to bounce all the way up to the exit door.

Oh and if by "checkpoints" you mean autosave spots, yes of course. I will add many. For me they tend to be one of the last things I add, like the exit and entry lifts =/

I will load a pre-final version of this, but if I do I won't start a new downolad I'll just update this existing one

CrazyGuy wrote:
Did you figure out the correct solution?

You paint the lower lightbridges from BELOW with the blue, that makes both sides bouncy, then you portal up to the very top, fall through the fizzlers right onto the painted bridges, the first one will bounce you into the second one which bounces you more or less straight up, then you use the portals to make the lightbridges cross and catch you at the top. You have to fire a portal at the first bridge right after falling through the fizzler, then the second one after bouncing back up.

I definitely didn't do that. That's makes much more sense as a solution. Your way sounds cool but I don't think it makes a good sense on some way.

Also why did you remove those checker like platforms for the first part? Without them, it could be a no way to solve or a very tricky puzzle for some players and that is not a good way to start a map.

CrazyGuy wrote:
Did you figure out the correct solution?

I found a ton of incorrect solutions, but no, I guess I never did. I wasn't even aware that gel bled through light bridges. It doesn't seem to make sense, even by the physics of the Portal universe. But does that make it a bad puzzle? I don't know.

Dilbao wrote:
I definitely didn't do that. That's makes much more sense as a solution. Your way sounds cool but I don't think it makes a good sense on some way.

bsj0 wrote:
I wasn't even aware that gel bled through light bridges. It doesn't seem to make sense, even by the physics of the Portal universe. But does that make it a bad puzzle? I don't know.

that solution you showed to me seems too easy, and too standard issue. I want players to do different things to solve the puzzle, and the theme of this map is painting angled lightbridges to bounce to the final exit. Your solution works, I guess, but to me it still seems too pedestrian. I don't want the player to be able to walk up a lightbridge at all to get to the exit. However, it ISNT obvious that the paint bleeds through the bridges, and it does seem kind of "wrong" so I might try and find a way to let the player paint them from above (without forcing them to use white paint on the ceiling) but like I said my whole reason for mapping is to find innovative new ways to use the puzzle elements.

Dilbao wrote:
Also why did you remove those checker like platforms for the first part? Without them, it could be a no way to solve or a very tricky puzzle for some players and that is not a good way to start a map.

I removed them and changed them to flipping panels because I saw how you did the first part, with a regular fling. You are meant to use the lightbridge to climb to the top then drop down. It isn't really all that tricky if you are playing with mouse+keyboard. The whole idea of the first puzzle is to use lightbridges at three different roll angles. Those panels were never there in early versions, the only reason I put them there at all was to make the 3'rd part where you get the box to the button possible.
Remember the difficulty of this map is meant to be HARD without being too tricky. Like, the exit maneuver for area 1 upper isn't tricky at all, just time it so your exit portal hits the BOTTOM panel. You also don't need to fire your exit portal right after firing it onto the ground at the x. You portal both the X's, which are exactly lined up with each other, and AIM DOWN AS YOU ARE FALLING THROUGH! Then you get into an infinite fall and PLENTY of time to get your aim set up. And if your timing is a little off I did use a placement helper.

CrazyGuy wrote:
Dilbao wrote:

Also why did you remove those checker like platforms for the first part? Without them, it could be a no way to solve or a very tricky puzzle for some players and that is not a good way to start a map.

I removed them and changed them to flipping panels because I saw how you did the first part, with a regular fling. You are meant to use the lightbridge to climb to the top then drop down. It isn't really all that tricky if you are playing with mouse+keyboard. The whole idea of the first puzzle is to use lightbridges at three different roll angles. Those panels were never there in early versions, the only reason I put them there at all was to make the 3'rd part where you get the box to the button possible.

I thought my light bridge solution was the cheat way. My casual solution was something like this:

Dilbao wrote:
CrazyGuy wrote:

Dilbao wrote:

I thought my light bridge solution was the cheat way. My casual solution was something like this:
CG-GPbeta2_test.zip

the solution you showed me in that file IS a cheat way. I put those big glass robot arm panels there so you COULDN'T use the lightbridge in that way to get to the button (at first they were just here but they later became part of the exit... I love how things can turn out like that)
The CORRECT solution is a lightbridge assisted fling through that angled panel.

Well I have fixed your cheat solution for area 1. All I needed to do was the same thing as in area 3: info placement helpers with forced placement so there is no way to get the lightbridge to stick out of the side of the portal like that. In the future I will do that with ALL the lightbridges on my maps.

thanks for finding it I never realized how much that method can be used to cheat.