OK here's the functionally complete, put together gelmaps
This is a 3 chamber composite of the two WIP maps I submitted earlier (Bridgeclimb and Gelerase) and a third test chamber (working title: anglebounce)

Rather than type up a lengthy description that nobody will read i'll just say "here it is!"

Full Wheately themed puzzles mainly involving repulsion gel.
Diffuculty: hard

PLEASE post me notes on this, any problems, and room for improvement, and maybe some help optimizing the large, open areas (yes I used visclusters.) I need feedback before I do submit v1.0 to the released maps section.

EDIT: I just realized that, in area 2, there is a button on the floor to the left as you exit the observation room. The button simply turns the light off and on. thats ALL it does. Pelase ignore it as I was using it to test the lights out part of the sequence im making to go between areas 2 and 3



File Name: cg_gp.zip
File Size: 6.15?MiB
CG's Untitled Gel Puzzles BETA

img and /img fo images

Since you're looking for notes, I will be a bit pedantic. Spoilers ahead:

Many Many Spoilers
The top part of the "Anglebounce" chamber is a little sloppy. I'm not really sure I climbed up to the button the "right way," if there is one. And there should be a target mark (or something more subtle) on the wall at the height you need to shoot the portal during the final exit maneuver. And possibly a hint about where the exit is.

In the "Gelerase" chamber, it's possible to use the water and the white wall behind the ramp to erase the orange gel sufficiently before pushing the single-dot cube button. This is obviously not a huge deal. And I had a bit of difficulty getting portals to appear on the upper extending panel. It seemed necessary to shoot at the bottom of the panel for it to work. Also, once I activated the four-dot beam catcher, I was unaware what had changed. It seems like it should be obvious, but I managed to miss it.

In the "Bridgeclimb" chamber, I was repeatedly launched behind the slanted panels, against the wall. I had to crouch and plod out slowly each time. And I'm not sure I pulled off the final solution as intended. I climbed up to the top where the light bridges cross, shot a portal off to the side to cut the bridge, bounced off of the floor in the center, and then moved the light bridge back beneath me.

There was quite a bit of slowdown at some points, and I would help you with the optimization, but I've just started using Hammer, so I won't be much help.
But really, I loved all three of them. And I'd like to add that the terminal velocity conversion gel fling was particularly brilliant. Your work is consistently high in quality, CG. If you keep making maps, I will keep playing them.

bjs0 wrote:
Since you're looking for notes, I will be a bit pedantic. Spoilers ahead:

Many Many Spoilers
||The top part of the "Anglebounce" chamber is a little sloppy. I'm not really sure I climbed up to the button the "right way," if there is one. And there should be a target mark (or something more subtle) on the wall at the height you need to shoot the portal during the final exit maneuver. And possibly a hint about where the exit is.

In the "Gelerase" chamber, it's possible to use the water and the white wall behind the ramp to erase the orange gel sufficiently before pushing the single-dot cube button. This is obviously not a huge deal. And I had a bit of difficulty getting portals to appear on the upper extending panel. It seemed necessary to shoot at the bottom of the panel for it to work. Also, once I activated the four-dot beam catcher, I was unaware what had changed. It seems like it should be obvious, but I managed to miss it.

In the "Bridgeclimb" chamber, I was repeatedly launched behind the slanted panels, against the wall. I had to crouch and plod out slowly each time. And I'm not sure I pulled off the final solution as intended. I climbed up to the top where the light bridges cross, shot a portal off to the side to cut the bridge, bounced off of the floor in the center, and then moved the light bridge back beneath me.

There was quite a bit of slowdown at some points, and I would help you with the optimization, but I've just started using Hammer, so I won't be much help.||
But really, I loved all three of them. And I'd like to add that the terminal velocity conversion gel fling was particularly brilliant. Your work is consistently high in quality, CG. If you keep making maps, I will keep playing them.

Thanks for testing: As for the first chamber, the top part a bit sloppy? what does it need for improvement? Climbing to the button im pretty sure the only way would be to paint the paint the floors and bounce up. The second chamber, I could have sworn that the water being shot from the white wall behind the ramp/fizzlers didn't ever hit the orange ramp, but i'll ahve to reinvestigate. Not that its really a problem, you still need both cubes to solve the 3'rd part.

The final exit solution you described was definitely NOT what I had in mind, and I noticed it jsut playtesting it now. That will need some thought. And yes ill add more indication as to the loc of the exit.

You got stuck on the angled panels in area 1... you mean the ones that are being pushed out by the big yellow beam? or the ones on the surface you are supposed to paint to bounce out?

Finally, you mentioned that several points needed more hints as to where the exits are. Yes, I know and im sorry about that (especially for the REAL exit to area2) but when this is done it will have a voiceover with Wheately telling you where to look. I'm planning on doing my own lines for Wheately, I do pretty good impressions and if what I record sounds good enough i'll use it, otherwise i'll just use game_text.

CrazyGuy wrote:
As for the first chamber, the top part a bit sloppy? what does it need for improvement?

I guess I did it the right way. Maybe use more white textures on the floor. I had to use some weird angles, and it threw me off because the process didn't seem entirely elegant.

CrazyGuy wrote:
You got stuck on the angled panels in area 1... you mean the ones that are being pushed out by the big yellow beam? or the ones on the surface you are supposed to paint to bounce out?

Actually, I was referring to the five angled panels on the floor in the third area.

EDIT: It occurred that I might not be correct about the area names. I assumed "Anglebounce" was the first area, and "Bridgeclimb" was the third.

Quick question:

Am I supposed to be able to shoot a portal on the 'x' in this pic. It won't let me and there doesn't seem to be a fizzler preventing it.

You aren't supposed to, jimmyb.

CrazyGuy, is this the intended solution for the final area? Also, I edited my post above, in case you didn't notice.

jimmyb wrote:
Quick question:
Am I supposed to be able to shoot a portal on the 'x' in this pic. It won't let me and there doesn't seem to be a fizzler preventing it.

no. There is an invisible extension of the fizzler across that part. But I guess you are right, I will change the "visible" parameter on that trigger_portal_cleanser to "yes" to avoid confusion. Doin' that right now. Too bad valve didn't include mini versions of the fizzler models (or the ability to scale the existing ones, grrrrrr)

bjs0 wrote:
is this the intended solution for the final area? Also, I edited my post above, in case you didn't notice.

It most certainly is not. Wow. Ok, how the hell did you manage to get the white paint on that spot? I thought there were no horizontal surfaces to make it go sideways

EDIT: Oh of course you used the angled panels. That were there mainly for decoration, partly to confuse the player, mostly because they are a remnant of another puzzle mechanic I was playing with but didn't work out at all.

also:

bjs0 wrote:
I guess I did it the right way. Maybe use more white textures on the floor. I had to use some weird angles, and it threw me off because the process didn't seem entirely elegant.

oh now I understand what you are referring to. You mean the part where you paint the blocks to get up to the switch (not a spoiler, its pretty obvious) OK. Yeah I guess it does need more tile so make it a little easier. The way I always do it is I shoot my blue portal at the placement helper for the blue paint then I shoot the orange one right next to it, then I jump up onto the first tier using the gel where it sprays out to begin with, then right on the corner of the white ledge I fire my orange portal a whole bunch of times, aiming left and right to get the the level 2 and 3 blocks painted. that part of the puzzle is tricky because, unless you have practiced a lot, it forces you to crouch after every jump so you don't bounce too far. As far as elegance is concerned, this test chamber was put together by Wheately, so it's not gonna be Van Gough or anything like that. But, your comment on elegance gave me a good idea for some lines:

Wheately: "Alright now... I couldn't find the rest of this test chamber so I put one together myself, slapped it on top, and even threw in a button for ya. Course, you'll have to solve this first part, which i've never seen before. Should be interesting."

Finally, bsj0, I must say "AAahhhh THOSE ones" to you getting stuck in the angle panels. Yes Im not surprised, and I realize now I should never have left them unblocked. I decided "well if the player INSISTS on portalling behind them, it isn't at all productive so let him." But if you are getting stuck in them just bouncing around, then that IS a problem and I will fix it now with some good old fashioned clipping brushes

EDIT: Ok fuck those panels. They're gone. See above comment.

Oh and finally, I also realize now why you ddin't see the exit signs in area 3. It was because when I copied that area of the map from its separate map file into the main, composite map, all of the brush face ID numbers changed and the info_overlays no longer stuck. more ez fixes. Thanks!

I thought it was a pretty good map. I had one problem with room #2 and #3, there was just too much gel and it lagged me quite a bit. Here are a few pics (my fps is in the corner)

Pic 1


Pic 2

Suggestions: somehow turn the graphics quality on the gel down

Good puzzles but map has some fps problems. Also some of the puzzles are exploitable. I'll post a detailed report later.

Edit: I give up, too many little things to report. And low fps is not making it easy.

You should probably watch this demo:

bjs0_gp4_demo.rar
Note that, even though they might not show up in the demo, the ramps in the second area were coated with gels when I played.

bjs0 wrote:
You should probably watch this demo:

bjs0_gp4_demo.rar

Note that, even though they might not show up in the demo, the ramps in the second area were coated with gels when I played.

Wow. That was enlightening. from the video I saw: you used unintended solutions for the first part of the first area (where you did the regular fling up to the x as opposed to the bridge assisted one.) This was not possible in earlier versions and because of changes I made since then I never noticed it. Got it. Nice job, btw on bouncing out of the first area HINT: You can stand on the red X to get the correct lightbridge angle for the final maneuver out of the first part of 1.

Also noticed: The damn panels got stuck on the wall, again >=( I figured players would know to shoot portals behind them to pop em off but I realize now even that doesn't work. Solved: invisible func_door will pop the rest out as opposed to just the top one.

I'm glad to see you noticed the looktrigger for the catwalk falling off after you break it by landing on it. That was quite a bit of work getting juuust right.

In area 2 I see now that the 2nd ramp can be illegally depainted. I made the tile wall back there extend below the ramp only to make it easier for the player to portal for the speed maneuver. Its cause the portal needs to be slightly lower than the ramp or else player will hit the bottom edges of the oval. Ill fix that by raising the ramp a bit and removing that extra 64 units worth of tile.

As for the paint not appearing on the ramps yeah thats ok I noticed that kind of thing with demos too. Interesting bug: When I load my map and noclip straight up out of the entry lift then fly over to area 2, for some reason some of the paint bombs didn't spawn and no paint on the blue side but some on the orange.

I also noticed you found out that the curved paint pipes in area 2 are not solid. Shame on me, forgot to clip em off. DID know about it =P

And when you ramped over to area 3, you kinda went sideways and missed the ramp. Well, that ramp was really only there as a sort of a "ruler" for me to tell how far it would go, in the final version don't worry there will be catwalk going most of the way across so even if you go out at an angle you still have something to land on.
BUT: Thanks for falling off like that, now I know I need to extend the trigger hurt for the fall-kill to that area and maybe add a trigger to fade out first, as well. Its nice to see that the bit of catwalk you broke off made it down there. And upright!

Also, no wonder you had trouble with the second part of area 1. You are using a joystick or gamepad controler! Trust me its all a LOT easier using a mouse =/

There are a number of problems with this which is why i'm super GLaD I submitted this in the WIP section first.

Vegetable soup wrote:
I thought it was a pretty good map. I had one problem with room #2 and #3, there was just too much gel and it lagged me quite a bit. Here are a few pics (my fps is in the corner)
Suggestions: somehow turn the graphics quality on the gel down

Well I know why you were slowed down on the second part and it wasn't exactly because of the gel, its because the game is still rendering area 1 behind it. THIS is probably because of the hole in the floor where the catwalk comes through. That hole sees out to the outside. Even though I areaportaled it off, its still lagging. Hmm. All I can think of right now to fix this would be to turn off ALL the gell particles in the pipes outside after you go inside.

Wow you were all the way down to 14 fps outside between 1 and 2. OK well there is kind of a lot of stuff out there. Ill figure out a way to optimize it.

I decided to go with a demo rather then try to explaion.
So, enjoy

gp4_test.zip

I don't understand the proper way to solve last puzzle however. Playing with white gel is kind of random and geting boring over time.

yeah theres really only meant to be 1 thing to do with the white gel. Ill watch your demo later got somethin to do now

edit:

Okay, i've watched your demo and I'd like to say thanks! Now i'm aware of 2 more problems. 1: there is a hole in the wall in area 1 you can walk thru. That should never have been there, I HAD a clipping brush across that hole to stop that but somewhere along the way I converted it to a hint brush and forgot to duplicate the original clip.
and 2: I probably should put a target on the white walls for the final exit maneuver in the top of area 1.

As for the solution u used to depaint the orange ramp, yeah bsj0 caught that too. Its fixed.

Back to area 1: You solved it almost exactly as intended, but 2 things. 1: You saved the cube from the fizzler by using lightbridge on the ground. I meant for players to use the wall on the left, and I had put that tile floor there for decoration more than anything. In hindsight, that was stupid and i'm changin it.
2: when you got the cube and proceeded to get it to its button, you dropped it thru the portal-fling system to propel it to the button area I was like "Wow, that's cool" especially when you used the lightbridge to finish it off, but it was kind of the hard way =)
easy way: you could just do the fling maneuver using the same portal positions you used, , just fling YOURSELF holding the box. If you end up a little short those robot arms will catch you. Then just jump on the box to get up the steps

Soo.... maybe I should record a demo with the "correct" solutions, then work on how to steer the player towards them. right now, gotta fix those holes you found

I think, there is no point to use "normal" way. We are tring to find bugs here
That wasn't my first try by the way. Actually, I tried to bridge-up myself with the cube; no fling at all. But that doesn't work always with cube. You have to do it slowly or cube drops from bridge. So I tried to keep demo short. But it is possible.

About that last part, I'll go for another round later.

Edit: Uploaded the last part.
gp4_test2.zip

Edit2:
gp4_test3.zip