Turrets, Gels, Flinging, Lazers, Pnumatic vents, Panels and Mirrors! What else could you want?

Oh and a Friendly box

Map contains a mix of New chambers, Behind the scenes and ruined envoiroments.


[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6VdFndMt6g]~If somehow, you can't bend your mind around this map. I have developed a combustable video to throw at your house and show you the light. Figuritivly, and literally!~[/url]

Fixes: No shortcut past vent tubes
Skybox fixed
Double cube bug fixed
Magnet effect is gone
Portals should be easier to replace
Elevators added
Credits added

This is my real first map, and i hope to improve and make much better maps in due time!

File Name: Hole in the sky.zip
File Size: 7.69 MiB
Click here to download Hole in the Sky

msleeper wrote:
Please upload all maps in a ZIP, RAR, or some other common compressed format. Thanks.

You can simply edit your current upload, you don't need to make a new upload to do this.

Whoops, I missed that. I'll fix it now

Niiice! I just finished this- I'll be honest, I thought it was a simple, one chamber map at first. I try not to spoil myself with videos or anything without playing. xD

Expectations were proven horribly wrong, which is great. The puzzles and mechanics used in this map are really quite interesting, though there are a couple of bugs.


Thermal Redirection cubes will stick to the wall like magnets. So does a panel in the previous chamber to the '00' test chamber sign. xD

Having to avoid the turrets can be a bit annoying without any real way to knock them down, but the visuals were great and the puzzles were interesting, so all in all, great job.~

Excellent map, a few graphic issues need to be fixed with the doors. But the over all map was stunning and brilliant. This was a great map

Really good map. I thought the magnets were my computer glitching up :/ Nice work with the cinematic feel (falling of rocks and such). Overall, really good first map!

Very, very nice. Getting the first chamber was tricky but great. But it seems there are bugs, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the room with the lasers, only to check your youtube vid and realize. At first I thought the cube dropper didn't respond at all, but on second try (reloaded and replayed map) it seems to open its lid when I activate the laser, but two cubes are stuck next to eachother in its exit so none of them drops to the floor.

I also encountered some bug in the first room where I accidentally lifted the cube from the button while standing near the opened floor panels, they closed and the cube got stuck.

edit:
Not sure how to recreate any of the bugs, but opening\closing the cube thing several times made the cubes drop eventually.

Great work on the visual stuff / animations in this map... I also like how you "educate" the player to understand how the laser beam redirection glass "panels" work by makng the first one be really easy and obvious to get. Slight annoyances with the jump in the first chamber, the large tube in the roof is kindof in the way for creating a new portal right away while jumping.

Can't wait to see more stuff like this coming!

good map, i like the new element of the mirror

problems: if u fizzle your reflectobox in the last room a new one didnt drop, got jammed against a second box in the tube, so there were 2 just sitting in there stuck. tried fizzling it again, just kept happening.

also the sky box on the last room in portable! i couldnt resist shooting up there

otherwise a really good map, good to get a challenge for a change

Became uninterested after the first puzzle. I would like to see those magnets, but not worth the hassle again tbh.

I'd like to know what these magnets are that everyone seems to be talking about xD The only thing i can think off is the Pnuamic vent not triggering off when it is supposed to and pulling stuff towards the walls. If i may ask, how do you guys get out of the BTS situation? I get a feeling you place a portal in the bottom room and jump into it

That is an oversight xD I guess i'm not making the vent obvious enough for the place to use ><

As for the skybox, i did put a no-portal brush up there but i guess i failed somehow, and the cube dropper glitch is something i really don't know what is causing :/ I've played the map about 30 times in total while making it and never recreated it ><

Apart from that, thanks for the nice reviews guys :thumbs:

Er, BTS situation? ...Vent? I'm confused.

Regarding the cube dropper glitch- It's happened to me as well- It's easy to fix. Make a portal next to the cube dropper, then jump from there and grab the cube.

Easy for the player to fix, I mean.

It's a nice map, was fun to play. I liked the elements in the overgrown area with the mirrors. It has a very difficult look initially, but just requires puzzling or trial and error.

Shortcut: In the first room, if you keep pressing the cube dispenser button, you can get the cube to fall over onto a portal-able surface and skip the mad dash to get it. As each cube drops it will bounce off the previous cubes as they dissolve.

I'm a little confused by the transition from the first room into the second. I flung myself up into the crawl space, and looked across the way. There is a square open hole with an X through it. I just crouched, but a portal on it, and then dropped a portal on the wall. I guess I just felt like it was intended to be more complicated because there is one of the sucking tubes off to the left with an X on a wall, and there are two doors inside the small connecting area between the two larger rooms -- the smaller of which I didn't use. Is this just the implication of more things going on and that we've broken into a new area?

I also had trouble with the dual cube dropper. After about 10 tries re-dropping, I reloaded the map.

Thanks!

The visuals in the map are interesting, but the first challenge of getting past the turrets was just frustrating

I thiiink i've fixed the dual drop cubes, Turns out i had a normal box spawner up there left over from before i used the instance DURP, however i have no idea whats causes the first box to bug out and become non-solid. but that seems to be very rare so i shouldn't worry about it.

Anyway i updated the map a tad. I've made it so you HAVE to use the vaccuum tube to escape the BTS area, as intended (At least i hope i have and i haven't missed any obvious shortcut again) and the skybox is now non portablable xD

The second puzzle with the lasers was really fun, i made it harder for myself than it should have been though XP
I got the magnet bug too, but i thought that was on purpose, it was fun playing with it hehe

The first puzzle was annoyling hard though. I don't know if there was an easier method, but the only way i got it was way too hard.

But i am glad i was able to solve it without the video
after seeing the video
okay, i see my mistake now...

^ Haha, how did you solve it

You can ignore the cube in the first room (and the whole "puzzle", I'm assuming) by simply doing this:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/supervilla ... 0824953303

The shortcut aside, I really like the visual style of the map. Lots of moving parts and falling panels. Something about the skybox is odd though, like the stars are too close.

I can't say I like the mirrors at all. The laser room is very spammy. I kept nudging my portals back and forth until the laser finally hit the relay or mirror. The biggest problem was that I had no idea that the mirrors were mirrors.

This map looks and sounds great, and I love that it takes you from a clean looking chamber, to some behind the scenes, to a destroyed chamber. Excellent visuals!

^ It's hard to exposition the mirrors as actual mirrors because reflective surfaces don't work in Portal (They crash the game in testing) and i wanted to add a nice twist to my first map, I tried to add a simple section just before hand that trains the player what the mirror walls do, with arrow signs. Can't spoonfeed everything i guess

auzerx wrote:
It's a nice map, was fun to play. I liked the elements in the overgrown area with the mirrors. It has a very difficult look initially, but just requires puzzling or trial and error.

Shortcut: In the first room, if you keep pressing the cube dispenser button, you can get the cube to fall over onto a portal-able surface and skip the mad dash to get it. As each cube drops it will bounce off the previous cubes as they dissolve.

I'm a little confused by the transition from the first room into the second. I flung myself up into the crawl space, and looked across the way. There is a square open hole with an X through it. I just crouched, but a portal on it, and then dropped a portal on the wall. I guess I just felt like it was intended to be more complicated because there is one of the sucking tubes off to the left with an X on a wall, and there are two doors inside the small connecting area between the two larger rooms -- the smaller of which I didn't use. Is this just the implication of more things going on and that we've broken into a new area?

I also had trouble with the dual cube dropper. After about 10 tries re-dropping, I reloaded the map.

Thanks!

That was an oversight, now fixed! The second door is just decoration, which is why i made the real door stand out, and yes it's meant to look like you broken into an abandoned part of the chambers I've changed some things around in the map now, Added Exit and Entry elevators and fixed the shortcut the above guy mentioned.

Also WOOT, a 1000 downloads, thats amazing!

Not a bad map, the puzzles were hard, and not frustrating, but the first chamber was slightly frustrating, because it was easy to misplace the portals when rushing like Usain Bolt. The environment were cool, but they were way to different from each other, resulting in a very un-portal like map. The mirrors and vent were nice elements.

The issue are the small bugs, like the bouncing cubes and you can be stuck in some places. I was stuck on 1 occasion and had to restart the map. After you jump upwards, and portal yourself to the other side of the hallway, the opening in the roof closes again, so you cannot turn back. I accidentally fell onto the part that actually closes, when I was checking it out. The small ledge was to high to jump, and you couldn't portal back into the hallway. So you are stuck and need to restart or reload the map. It is easily fixable by moving the ceiling (or floor) a bit up, or make a portal able surface there.

After watching the solution video, I realized that I skipped the "vent" portion. You can portal where the gel falls instead

^Yep that is fixed in the latest version I'm uploaded a new video nao

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6VdFndMt6gUpdated walkthrough!

I am not gonna say "first Chamber was kinda tricky but I got through it OK" as all other Posters have said. I simply could NOT get the jump back to the beginning gelled ramp. I tried for 2 hours and rage-quit. I had the timing fine, shot the hole and grabbed the cube and ran forward and sailed cleanly through the portal . . . only to leave the cube on the platform and me in the drink. EVERY TIME.

I tried moving the holes up and down, I tried looking up or down as I sailed . . . I tried jump then crouch, crouch then jump. I got so frustrated that I tried shooting the damn Turrets from the air with my Portal gun !!! I cannot figure out how to extend the return jump flight to get me all the way to the platform with Cube in hand. And I refuse to noclip.

Did you place gel all along platform where the cube is? If you can make it to the cube at speed and continue going at that speed it's literally impossible to not make it back because of the angle unless you get slowed down (Most people grab the cube too late and slow right down)

RJK 616 wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6VdFndMt6g

Updated walkthrough!

Thanks for this...once you updated it so I couldn't "cheat", I couldn't beat the BTS area. I was unfamiliar with how the suck-vents worked -- I like the mechanism now. I also performed Ragequit Protocol 1 like the guy in a previous post after I'd died 20 times trying to jump into the tube ending, or trying get it to suck me up into the ceiling and down the tube. Ah well.

Very nice map. I found the part with the turrets and orange gel frustrating, but that could just be me. I liked the original flavor of this map. Ending with the night sky exposed was great.

I'm making a new map now, With Anti-matter Edgeless Safety cubes! Hopefully it'll turn out good :3

As mentioned before, the mirrors are a bit tricky to figure out at first. I spent a good 15 minutes wandering around in the laser room playing with portals trying to figure out how the HELL I was going to make one laser hit all those targets before I noticed the light-bridge. I still wasn't sure how to activate the light bridge until I read about the mirrors. I've never used the map-creator so I'm not sure how tricky the portals are to make, but it seems like the reflective part of the mirrors are MUCH smaller than they appear, which was the source of my confusion.

^It's because they're not really mirrors, theres another catcher and emitter behind them which stills needs a certain sweetspot to hit, i could make the mirrors smaller but i'm kinda done with this map now and waiting another 30 minutes to compile a new version to fix a small flaw like that is'nt really worth it xD

anyways, this is progress on the brand new testing element in my new map, Antimatter spheres and Stasis Fields.

The spheres explode when they touch the floor, walls, etc (You can carry them safely) and the statis fields hold them in place and activate other things.

Sorta like a harder version of the cube and button!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l9BMuDk ... ideo_title

This map is pretty close to a good map, but it's pretty confusing the way it is now and not in the good puzzley sort of way. I also had the same trouble a couple others had with getting back onto the ramp with cube in hand. It took me about 5 tries to get it, but I honestly don't know what I was doing wrong when I failed, or right when succeeded.

I had played the first chamber in a previous version of this map and had used the shortcut that Supervillain posted a picture of, but only because I couldn't figure out how to get the cube before. So it was actually nice to be forced to do it the right way and after a little time it wasan't too hard to figure out. I think the way the portalable surfaces under the cube dispenser become unavailable after getting in the ceiling is a bit odd, but it works. It would be more aesthetically pleasing if those surfaces spun around to reveal non-portalable surfaces on their backsides, or something like that.


Chamber 2 was confusing partly because I didn't know what order to do things in. I see in your video that the light bridge should be activated first, but because I didn't understand the mirrors I focused on getting across the room first and actually ended up solving the puzzle without the bridge. Once I had the exit door open I thought, "wasn't there another place to shoot a laser over there?", and reloaded to check it out.

How I got across the room with no bridge:
I noticed that above the door where you enter chamber 2 is all portalable surface, but its covered in vegetation. I placed a portal as high as possible on that wall and peeked from it to shoot a portal over the glass at the surface in the opposite corner of the room. From there I could activate the cube dropper. My method was pretty much as intended from there, but I was using the portals to cross the room. Should be an easy fix since there's no other need for portalable surfaces up high in the entrance corner of the room. I probably would have found the light bridge if it weren't for the unidentifiable mirrors.

Mirror criticism and a suggestion:

The mirror thing was good in idea form, but they don't look like mirrors and, because only a small area of the mirror surfaces "reflect" anything, I consider them a flawed map element. I think it would make a lot more sense if there were some lens-cubes permanently stuck in the walls and positioned so they'll redirect the laser to the right place. I'd suggest either make it look like the cubes somehow got stuck in the walls as parts of the Aperture facility moved around over the years, or just make the cubes be sandwiched into position by two of those wall panels on pivoting arms(like the ones that open in the first chamber when the button is pressed by the cube).

The antimatter spheres look really cool for your next map. I'm interested to see what you do with them.

Too much dying for my taste. I endured the dying repeatedly on the first part only to die repeately on the second part. Would have liked to see the next sections, but I'm out....

Like other posters, I got frustrated by the jump back to the ramp, but I chalk that up to my general lack of skill and the fact that I play with a controller instead of a mouse. Still, I think it's worth noting in the description that there's a difficult jump.

Also like other posters, I never actually figured out how the mirrors worked. I never activated the lightbridge, and just stumbled onto the mirror effect while aiming the laser at a target.

I liked the variety of puzzles, but not the fact that some of them were either not clear how they worked (e.g. pneumo) or didn't work well even if it was clear what you should do (mirrors). Just a 3/5 from me.

Not sure what is wrong with this map. I load it and i'm in the elevator at the start, and nothing else happens.

I'm playing custom maps and record my first time of playing them. So the run is not perfect and may not use only intended ways, but maybe it can let you see how other people may understand the map or you could just enjoy someone playing this map for entertainment.
Anyways, here is the recording:

YrLUP-wRxVQ
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLUP-wRxVQ)

Also note the video description for more feedback and my signature for additional project information.

Thanks for the playthrough, really helps me see things i could have improved on.

Like Xello, I am stuck in the elevator when I load the map. Played a lot of custom map and this is the first time I have a problem. Anyone has played it recently? Anyone any idea what's the problem?

PS: the walkthrough clearly show that the elevator should be moving

Xello wrote:
Not sure what is wrong with this map. I load it and i'm in the elevator at the start, and nothing else happens.

One easy solution is to noclip out of the elevator, then get back to normal.

Also for me it worked when I exit and restarted the game later.

Xello wrote:
Not sure what is wrong with this map. I load it and i'm in the elevator at the start, and nothing else happens.

This happens when the last map you played doesn't end properly, e.g., it leaves you stuck in an elevator. Solution is to return to the console and quit, then restart the game to get a clean reset.

This map was OK. The first room was brutal for me, but I finally made it after about 50 tries.

Having to jump over lasers on a light bridge was a pain, but the laser puzzle itself was not difficult. I had seen this concept before in other maps so I had no trouble figuring out what you were doing.

4/5 from me because of the "ninja" skill required to get through the first room.