This is a (probably) medium difficulty Coop map. It doesn't include any hardcore moves and you don't need extreme precision or timing, but I think it's quite challenging. I hope you like it.
Let me know if you find any problems or have some ideas for improvements or changes.

Instructions:
Copy the .bsp file to your maps folder (usually something like C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal2\portal 2\maps).
In the game, enable the developer console in the settings.
Go to the hub with your buddy.
Open the console, and type "changelevel mp_coop_surprise1".

Video Guide
Only watch, if you already completed the map, are stuck or don't want to play it anyway

xnS5spfZCyM

File Name: mp_coop_surprise1.bsp
File Size: 4.33?MiB
Surprise - Map 1

If anyone knows how to send the players back to the hub when they're done, please tell me. Currently you have to use the game menu to quit the level at the end.

very nice idea with this getting stucked and free your partner.

awesome idea with the cages.

difficulty fits with the description.

Thanks. Could you please use spoiler tags to not to ruin the surprise?

I would like to hear if you found my solution, or found an other one. A friend of mine solved it with his ninja skills in a way I didn't think of.

My solution
If you solved it my way, you were able to direct the funnel so that it transported the gel directly to the second player.

Other solution
My friend let the gel drop from one funnel to the next which required some good timing, but is still a good solution.

Interesting puzzle, but I think we found a bug.

First off getting out of the cage: , we didn't use the blue gel to get the one guy out of the cage. Instead there's a cube hidden behind the excursion funnel. I passed it to him and he jumped on top of it to get out of the cage.

Bug: Have one person stand on the button in front of the door. Have a block on the other button. When the door opens, the other player goes in. However, when the player standing on the button gets off of the button, the exit door doesn't shut, so you can get both players out now. This is getting around somehow getting a block across the emancipation grid (which is what I assume you wanted).

Keep up the mapping!

your panel effects and the moving walls are just awesome
map is also nice is it normal to solve the puzzle by shooting a portal over the emancipation grill?

Chewbacha007 wrote:
First off getting out of the cage: , we didn't use the blue gel to get the one guy out of the cage. Instead there's a cube hidden behind the excursion funnel. I passed it to him and he jumped on top of it to get out of the cage.

Okay, I think that's a good alternative solution.

Chewbacha007 wrote:
Bug: Have one person stand on the button in front of the door. Have a block on the other button. When the door opens, the other player goes in. However, when the player standing on the button gets off of the button, the exit door doesn't shut, so you can get both players out now. This is getting around somehow getting a block across the emancipation grid (which is what I assume you wanted).

Hmm, yes, that shouldn't happen. You should still have to bring one of the cubes to the other side. I'll try to fix this.

Chewbacha007 wrote:
Keep up the mapping!

I'd like to. I have an other map half done, but I won't have tim to finish it until early june. Exams etc..

bartsimpson94 wrote:
your panel effects and the moving walls are just awesome
map is also nice is it normal to solve the puzzle by shooting a portal over the emancipation grill?

Thanks. If you mean jumping on the gel and shooting a portal onto the other side, then no. There is an other way. I probably should have made the fizzler a bit higher, so you can't jump high enough.

very nice map! was lot of fun to play! more pls!

Even without using the gel, you can use the funnel to get you to the top of the map to shoot over the fizzler. I assumed this was the appropriate solution, though in retrospect this does mean I didn't use the gel at all. xD

Thursaz wrote:
Even without using the gel, you can use the funnel to get you to the top of the map to shoot over the fizzler. I assumed this was the appropriate solution, though in retrospect this does mean I didn't use the gel at all. xD

How did you get the second player out?

The first player should (and probably can only) escape using the funnel. Then you can transport the gel to the second player to help him out and to do this you have to use the funnel to shoot a portal over the fizzler. Alternatively you can use a cube to get the second player out.

Yeah, I used the cube. Never touched the repulsion gel. xD It was a nice map overall, though! Slightly confusing, but I was trying this in singleplayer controlling both characters, so that's to be expected. xD

DrummerB wrote:
My solution
If you solved it my way, you were able to direct the funnel so that it transported the gel directly to the second player.

I can't see how

Quote:
Other solution
My friend let the gel drop from one funnel to the next which required some good timing, but is still a good solution.

We did that too. Had to quickly switch two portals to redirect the funnel, kinda simulate having 3 pairs of portals. Took us three tries to get the timing right.

Thanks for the upload, me and my partner agreed that this is the best map out so far.

Very good map, takes effort and understanding to get the 2nd player out... the proper way. But what is the intended way to get the cube across, since jumping wasn't supposed to be?

Doolittle wrote:
Thanks for the upload, me and my partner agreed that this is the best map out so far.

Thanks a lot! I'm glad most of you seem to enjoy my map.

xdiesp wrote:
Very good map, takes effort and understanding to get the 2nd player out... the proper way. But what is the intended way to get the cube across, since jumping wasn't supposed to be?

Unfortunately I don't have time currently to record a play-through video, but I'll try to describe my solution as precise as I can.

Basically my biggest mistake while creating the map was to not make the fizzler high enough. One more unit of fizzler would've been better, but I did't have time to fix this yet.

1. Step on the 2 buttons and be trapped.
2. Use 4 portals to redirect the funnel, so you can free the first player (the one closer to the exit door).
Now comes the difficult part. You're not supposed to use the gel to jump high enough and shoot portals over the fizzler at any time in this puzzle. The gel is supposed to be transported to the 2nd player so he can jump out of the cage. And here is how:
3. The 2nd player (who is still trapped) places his portals, so that the funnel goes over the fizzler to the other side, just below the ceiling. Now where the funnel ends on the other side the 1st player can't put a portal, but he can just next to it near the ceiling. The other portal needs to be placed close to the floor, so the 1st player can walk through the portals into the funnel.
4. The 1st player is now in the funnel, being transported over to the other side above the fizzler. His portals won't be destroyed because the funnel is above the fizzler. When he reached the other side, he jumps out of the fizzler. He then places the portal that he placed close to the floor before next to the funnel machine thing. The 2nd (trapped) player now places a portal vis-?-vis of the 1st player's just placed portal.
5. Now there should be 3 parallel funnel beams in the level. The gel enters the funnel and is transported right above the still trapped player. When the gel is there, replace some portals to remove the funnel and let the gel drop. The 2nd player can now use the gel to jump out of the cage.
6. Go and get the 2 cubes.
7. Place one on the button that is close.
8. You can easily get the second cube over the fizzler, by replacing the 1st player's portal that was used to get the gel. Simply place it close to the floor, so you can enter it. The other portal should still be on the other side. If you removed some of the portals in the meantime, just repeat step 3 & 4.
9. Place the second cube on the other button.
10. Exit.

This sounds a lot more difficult then it is... I'll post a video when I can.

I see... point 7 was what we had skipped, with jumps.

I literally walked in to the room and said to my partner, "Well, this looks straightforward."

Then, surprise. The pacing and style there was excellent. The "cage" mechanic was very cool. Overall, a really fun map.

Yeah totally, it was fun getting trapped and watching the entire chamber change around us. We didn't have to use the blue gel to solve it either, so I'm still not sure if that's intended or not. Either way, really great map and I hope we see more from you Drummer.

Hober wrote:
I literally walked in to the room and said to my partner, "Well, this looks straightforward."
Then, surprise.

Haha, that was the idea
First I thought the indicator lights will be too suspicious. As far as I know you can't put them onto moving objects, so I couldn't connect the door and the buttons very precisely. But now I think it's not too bad, because you have to step on the buttons anyway.

Hober wrote:
The pacing and style there was excellent. The "cage" mechanic was very cool. Overall, a really fun map.

Thanks!

msleeper wrote:
Yeah totally, it was fun getting trapped and watching the entire chamber change around us. We didn't have to use the blue gel to solve it either, so I'm still not sure if that's intended or not.

I'll fix the map sometime, so there is only one solution. But all the solutions I heard so far are good enough I think.

msleeper wrote:
Either way, really great map and I hope we see more from you Drummer.

Hopefully you will, sometime in june.

Why June?

msleeper wrote:
Why June?

Have no time for this currently, exams etc..

I created a short video guide to my map. It shows "my" solution. I hope this clears things up.

Only watch, if you already completed the map, are stuck or don't want to play it anyway

xnS5spfZCyM

Me and Hober totally broke your map
Not only did we not use the blue gel (we grabbed the cube from behind the excursion funnel), but we didn't even get the other 2 cubes. I was on the side with the funnel, Hober was on the side with the gel. We used the excursion funnel as shown to get him out of his cage. Then Hober got the cube gave it to me so I could get out of mine. We then put the cube on my button, and he simply stood on his, and that opened the door. We used the same technique as before to get him out of his cage.

It seems like the buttons will open the exit door if they both are pressed at any time - but they aren't required to stay depressed. You could fix this really easily by requiring the buttons to stay pressed to open the exit door.

msleeper wrote:
Me and Hober totally broke your map
It seems like the buttons will open the exit door if they both are pressed at any time - but they aren't required to stay depressed. You could fix this really easily by requiring the buttons to stay pressed to open the exit door.

Possible reason
This is how it works now. Or at least it should. In the beginning, when you both are trapped and you move away from the button, the door is closed again. I think the problem might be, that there is a trigger in the exit area (I just copied that from an original level) that opens the door constantly once someone goes through.

Anyway, as I said before, I'll work on this and other maps in about 2 weeks.

I really like your solution way better than mine... I used portals to put blue gel into the box trapping the guy near the blue gel and jumped over the rail, then I did crazy portal placements and spent 10 minutes getting it all timed right to move the blue gel through the funnels by switching portals and having a funnel width size glob go through the emancipation grill then quick portal placements to catch some of the goo again as it fell out of one funnel into the new one made by the just placed portal and then finally dropping that go into the 2nd person's square to get him out.

Then I took the blue goo and created a huge line from the wall near the cube drop to teh emancipation grill, grabbed my cube created a portal from the bottom to the top, jumped with my cube over funnel and bounced to the grill and threw my cube over the top of the grill then ran through to catch it before it bounced in the goo or back into the grill and placed it on the button.

At first we liked that map and the revolving concept around it, but it crashed for my partner 4 times in a row (Portal 2 closing) during solving, even after a complete computer restart.

It did not crash at all for any of the other co-op maps, not for the official co-op maps.



If anyone is getting issues for this map I'm putting my report +1 for this issue!

Me and Hober got it as well, Hurricaaane. The problem is that the "max blobs" settings for the paint is way too high. The default amount is really high, especially when you are going to be doing a lot of gel-portal traveling. I would suggest turning this down and/or altering the gel settings so they aren't as big.

However, you don't need the blue gel to solve the map, so you can try and do it that way. I posted me and Hober's solution above if you need some hints.

DrummerB wrote:
If anyone knows how to send the players back to the hub when they're done, please tell me. Currently you have to use the game menu to quit the level at the end.

cant you put entity (forgot name exactly) point_server_command? maybe? -and just trigger command "map coop_lobby" ?

Well after setting graphics down to basic and stopping the crashing...

We used the drop the gel from one funnel to the next timing method. Then we just stacked the boxes, shot a portal over the top of the dissolvey wall and walked a box through.

Looks really lovely tho, shame the gel in these maps seems to crash pcs did the same thing with Colors 3. I'd like to see these in their full glory!

Thanks.

naNuke wrote:
cant you put entity (forgot name exactly) point_server_command? maybe? -and just trigger command "map coop_lobby" ?

I don't know. I'll try, thanks!

Edit: Nvm

Really good map, and I loved the getting trapped part. The graphics look nice and the moving parts are seamlessly done. I did have to turn the detail level down from high to medium to avoid lag due to the vast amount of paint blobs though, but then again my computer is starting to age.

After reading the posts here and watching your video of how to solve the map I'm convinced there are lots of ways to solve it.

Here's how I solved it:
I shot a portal over the emancipation grid by standing next to the tractor beam emitter while jumping, and then transported the gel directly over the cage with the beam. I got the cube across by jumping from the top white portal-able area onto gel I had placed on the floor and threw the cube over the grid.

Oh and I did find one bug (screenshot):
I found the cube hidden behind the emitter and placed it near the cube dispenser. Once I got out of the cages and positioned myselves(I did it solo on splitscreen) at the dispenser, it dropped 3 cubes, so I ended up having a total of 4 cubes during the test. Even as I emancipated cubes, it kept dropping new ones so that I always had 4 cubes. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but since only 2 cubes (or less) are required to solve the test I think this may be a bug.

This map is incredible. You have truly raised the bar for Portal 2 mapping. I loved it.

This map is so cool! Just loved how once you set off the triggers everything came out of the walls and from the ceiling etc, amazing! We were in awe of how slick you made this

Found the secret cube as well....it was secret right?

You going to be making more? Hope so Here is our playthrough (You probably don't want to watch this if you haven't completed this map yet).

bgha-WhUJQ8

coopcrowd wrote:
This map is so cool! Just loved how once you set off the triggers everything came out of the walls and from the ceiling etc, amazing! We were in awe of how slick you made this

Found the secret cube as well....it was secret right?

You going to be making more? Hope so Here is our playthrough (You probably don't want to watch this if you haven't completed this map yet).

Thanks a lot! I just discovered your video yesterday, very cool, thanks! I find it interesting how most of the people seem to use the gel dropping technique to transport the gel to the second player.
Yes, the 3rd cube is supposed to be a secret. I wanted to use the companion cube, but somehow I didn't manage to change the skin and it was late at night so I left it that way.
And yes, I'll be make a few more.

pkScary wrote:
This map is incredible. You have truly raised the bar for Portal 2 mapping. I loved it.

Thanks!

Zaiks wrote:
Oh and I did find one bug (screenshot):
I found the cube hidden behind the emitter and placed it near the cube dispenser. Once I got out of the cages and positioned myselves(I did it solo on splitscreen) at the dispenser, it dropped 3 cubes, so I ended up having a total of 4 cubes during the test. Even as I emancipated cubes, it kept dropping new ones so that I always had 4 cubes. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but since only 2 cubes (or less) are required to solve the test I think this may be a bug.

Strange. I have no idea how that could happen...

I started playing custom maps and record me playing them. It's neither a perfect run nor do I have to have solved the map in the way it's meant to solve it. I play the maps "blind", that means I've never been in them before and play them for the very first time. I also give a little feedback for the map in the video description.

Maybe you are interested in the fact, that I played your map: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKUlqc13s2U

Cool, thanks! Nice ninja box-throwing skills

Thx This was one of the first maps we recorded (now we/I have recorded more than 60). With the custom maps I got pretty nice ninja skills for the cube now, using it whenever I don't see another solution around (in most cases ninjaing won't be intended though).
Maybe I'll try something like a "cube ninjaing" video or anything when I find or make a decent map for it =)
(I even "cheated" sp_lovetrip with cube ninjaing, but its not uploaded yet)

Nice map. It took us a little while of trying to sort it out. Really liked all the asthetic moving panels. Good job.

I like how everyone is discussing ways to get the cube over the emancipation grill. I just bounced up, and lobbed it over. Haha
I really liked this map, it made us think. Thanks

After reading the thread, I suppose we did it all wrong. I mean, we used all the unintended ways that are said to be bugs etc. It took us about 5 minutes to solve it. But still, I have to say, the idea is fine and map is good. Too bad it has so many "wrong" solutions

My brother and I played this map together. We like the "surprise" element at the beginning, and all the room reconfiguring. How nice of you to have all that happen in sequence so that we didn't miss any of the many new elements in the room.

In our first pass through, we used the gel, and had quite a bit of fun getting it to where we thought it needed to be. There was just enough extraneous portal material to make working out a solution not too obvious.

Then we came to this forum, and read about the secret cube. (Shame on us for not exploring the room better the first time, right?)


With the secret cube, we didn't need the gel at all, since the second player just took the cube from the first, and jumped out. Since we had an extra cube to burn, we soaked it in gel and bet on how long it would take to fizzle itself.

We immensely enjoyed the different approaches that could be used to solve this one. For a fairly small room, it had a lot of elements, and was a big hit with us. Just for the originality of the surprise, we give this one a 5/5.

Iviv and LyLy here, and we played Surprise. It's one of our early play through videos so bear with us here.

Km0C-iNz-s8


Definitely a surprise! A really clever map with everything going on, letting the level unfurl around you. Very well designed, not too much going on but still providing a good puzzle. Though, we're not exactly sure if we did it the right way by tossing the cube over the emancipation grid like we did.