Challenging map that i have made for the mapping contest
hope you enjoy

Changelog:
v2.2
-somehow the 2nd box dropper didnt drop what it was supposed to. but ive talked to the box dropper people, and lets just say that problem wont be happening again
v2.1
-exactly the same as v2.0 but i forgot to add the things needed for the contest :S
v2.0
-added more puzzles
-fixed places where you could get stuck
-made various puzzle elements easier to understand
v1.1
-fixed problems where you could get stuck
-got rid of light bridges
-changed the name!
v1.0
-first release

File Name: DoubleTake_Zimplen_2_2.rar
File Size: 3.32 MiB
Click here to download [SP] DoubleTake

This is a pretty good puzzle, and I enjoyed it. However, you might want to post a screenshot to encourage downloaders.

It's possible to trap yourself by throwing the cube up on the ledge. Other than that, nice.

I liked the map overall, though I still don't know how I got through the light bridges, I just did a lot of flinging myself at them and crouch spamming (as the map name suggests) and eventually got it. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about having to respawn the cube to get it backwards through the fizzler, but I guess creativity is a good thing... One last thing, the button was to just there to prevent you from being able to trap yourself in that room, right?

Pretty good, thoughtful and the good kind of recursive that has you reconsider completed puzzles and not just backtrack. Considering its scale and precision, I'd say it's perfect for what it sets itself to do.

edit
I made the jump through lightbridges in one shot, but it might have been luck. Is that supposed to be a crouch jump?

Idolon wrote:
It's possible to trap yourself by throwing the cube up on the ledge. Other than that, nice.

hmmm guess there is always room for improvement, ill try and fix that soon.
thanks for the response

---NEW VERSION---

Changelog:
v1.1
-fixed problems where you could get stuck
-got rid of light bridges
-changed the name!

Yes, i like the changes you have made. I got stuck with the light bridges during the first playtest, and ended up "pushing" under the lower, angled light bridge to deflect myself onto the platform.

Very good. A fantastic use of space.

The logic of some of the elements seems to be off slightly. For instance, the first door up on the platform seems to open and close without any obvious logic, and the emancipation grill flickers on and off automatically.

These are small issues, and they don't significantly impact my enjoyment of the map, but they make it feel incomplete.

Idolon wrote:
It's possible to trap yourself by throwing the cube up on the ledge. Other than that, nice.

All we need is a "fizzle cube" button by the cube vent.

bjs0 wrote:
Very good. A fantastic use of space.

The logic of some of the elements seems to be off slightly. For instance, the first door up on the platform seems to open and close without any obvious logic, and the emancipation grill flickers on and off automatically.

These are small issues, and they don't significantly impact my enjoyment of the map, but they make it feel incomplete.

Idolon wrote:

It's possible to trap yourself by throwing the cube up on the ledge. Other than that, nice.

All we need is a "fizzle cube" button by the cube vent.

with regards to the door and emancipation grill, im not sure if i fully understand what you are saying, however i have tried to resolve any confusion people might have by including indicator lights (some elements trigger more than one reaction)

also i have fixed the problem (hopefully) of getting your cube stuck on the ledge by adding the emancipation grill, if it gets stuck up there any later on in the test you can portal up to the passage that opens. i will keep in mind your "fizzle cube" button idea for the future though, seems so obvious now but i didnt think of it at the time
thanks for the reply

bufutda wrote:
Yes, i like the changes you have made. I got stuck with the light bridges during the first playtest, and ended up "pushing" under the lower, angled light bridge to deflect myself onto the platform.

yeh i think the light bridges were a little out of place in this map so i got rid of them. Also your solution is interesting good job haha didnt occur to me. might use it as a puzzle element in future maps thanks

tricky, but not too difficult: great job!

Thanks a lot,
I think that's the best custom singleplayer map I've played in terms of 'resource management' (by resources I mean the cubes).
Rooms full of "portal-able" surfaces are freaking me out a bit for some reason, but that's my own problem.

Woo, first video post~
This was one of my favorite maps in the contest so far, I'm really pleased with how it makes us "think with portals" to a greater extent than most puzzles nowadays.

QYBrFWpentk

First play-through video: http://www.xfire.com/video/47bc4c/
Really enjoyed this map!

thanks Krem and timefiller.
watching your videos has made me think that i need to make it more obvious what individual elements do. also i think ill add a fizzle cube button at each box dropper
my goal with this map is to make something challenging but not challenging in the way which is "what happens if i do this" but rather "how do i achieve that"
ill make an update in the next few days or so

Really sorry, but I'm not the one with a video (I wish!), it's Krem and timefiller 8)

Odinokov wrote:
Really sorry, but I'm not the one with a video (I wish!), it's Krem and timefiller

woops i changed it, but still thanks for the response anyway

im in the act of changing a few things around and adding a special something for the end

---NEW VERSION---

Changelog:
v2.1
-exactly the same as v2.0 but i forgot to add the things needed for the contest :S
v2.0
-added more puzzles
-fixed places where you could get stuck
-made various puzzle elements easier to understand

Did you edit it? The second cubedropper doesn`t drop a laser cube anymore. That makes it quite impossible.

Yes, I also think this is impossible.
Do we miss something?

ok, i fixed that issue, sorry for the inconvenience.

Really enjoyed the map. Thanks! 5/5 rating for this
It was medium difficult, like Valve's puzzles and the artistic side was pretty good too.
I hope you win!

Thanks for your 2.2 fix. This is much better like that.

Very good map. I really did enjoy playing it.
Not too hard, not too easy.

Thanks

This was hands down my favorite. Played through the May 28th version, and I've yet to find another entry quite as satisfying. Two reasons why it's so good: 1. it's nice and compact, so there are no distractions; and 2. you get something that not even once occurs throughout the entire single player campaign - neither the use of emancipation grids in quite this way, nor the crouch-flinging. (In fact, unlike the original Portal, crouching while jumping in the sequel messes up your jump, so it's refreshing to be encouraged to do so. It's kind of a habit of mine, you just get more momentum that way and you fly just a little more.) The true brilliance lies, however,
in the ingenious design, forcing you to switch the emancipation grid on and off, and reuse the limited resources. It's a nice brain teaser, not frustratingly difficult, and not as easy as most of the Valve sp maps this time around. It was also original and unfamiliar in a way. And that's why it was so satisfying for me. /ramble
I earnestly wish you the best with this map and hope you win the competition.

This is awesome!

I played the initial release, good ol' v1.0, and I have to say, this map has come such a long way since then. I really love it. I did spend a while flinging myself around outside the last test looking for easter eggs, haha...

This was a very well thought out map, forcing us to use all the classic portal tricks. However, I was able to fly through the first three chambers on my brain's "portal auto pilot" which may only be because I've been a portal nut for 4 years now, not necessarily because it was too easy.

I didn't actually have to stop and think until the 4th chamber, and I was delighted to finally have to do something I'd never done before. My only request for that part (where you must fling the cube to cover it in speed gel, then fling it down the corridor) is that you give us a specified area for executing the cube fall loop, because its too much guesswork trying to freehand an acceptable infinite fall for the box. Most of the time if you're just one unit off, the box will catch an edge and ruin the terminal velocity, or fall out of the loop altogether. My only concern if you were to actually do this, is that it will then be too obvious and ruin the "ah-ha" moment. Kind of a catch 22, which sucks, and renders my criticism irrelevant. But I digress!

Overall good length, great use of space and portals, and you didn't throw a million cubes at our faces, so very nice work indeed. It maintains the element of the official "Portal" by giving us only what we need, and not bogging us down with unnecessary crap, or by making us believe that you're in cahoots with the monitor production companies by making us so frustrated that we throw kittens dipped in concrete at our screens. (fyi: yes, I keep both of those materials directly next to me at all times for appropriate occasions).

5/5 Thanks for mapping.

haha very amusing comments thanks for the support and appreciation of my mapping.
the contest did occur at a rather awkward time as i was just about to start exams. now that those things are out of the way i think i might work on some new testing elements etc for a second map (cough time travel*) if i manage to implement them properly, no one likes an untidy testing element.

AUTOSAVES. (Yes, it is possible to die in this chamber.)

That aside, it was a pleasantly short-medium length map, though I found it didn't require much thought; just continually portalling back to the room you were previously in, picking up the cube(s) and moving on.
Question: What was the orange gel (and the space it was in) for?

Very nice map! This perfectly illustrates what I think made Portal 2 the awesome game it is. And it really shows the thought the author put into it. That's because the elements in place work your logic, and not your keyboard coordination. There's nothing worse than knowing a solution, only to be stumped by not being able to key it in fast enough after 20 tries. Going along I was really glad not to have to encounter this 'fast twitch move' kind of challenge and I almost thought near the end that the cube fling was going to be like this, only to have the aha moment when I realized there was a more logical reserved way to get the cube down the hall to the button box. I want to thank the author for a nice true thinking with portals challenge.

Good map, but what's the point of the speed gel at the end? You can just create a portal then drop down the hatch and create another portal to go back and get the cube. The last section was too simple.

Yeah I think you need to fix the last part, you can pretty much just portal your way to the end. I saw the speed gel and I can see what you were going for, but it's very simple to cheat. I enjoyed the first part of the chamber, very nice.

At this point i had to place the reflector cude like 30 times until it finally disabled the force field and let me solve the last part if it. I already thought i m missing something even if i saw no other way to solve it.

http://www.weown.de/files/portal_2/irgs.jpg

last part riddle:
Also, you can get stuck in the very last part after losing your portals and trying to "steal" the cube and be faster then the door closes. You might end up in the very last room with closed doors, no cube and no portals outside.

Daymar wrote:
Good map, but what's the point of the speed gel at the end? You can just create a portal then drop down the hatch and create another portal to go back and get the cube. The last section was too simple.

shawy89 wrote:
Yeah I think you need to fix the last part, you can pretty much just portal your way to the end. I saw the speed gel and I can see what you were going for, but it's very simple to cheat. I enjoyed the first part of the chamber, very nice.

I think the easiest fix would be to add more of the deadly pass-through lasers here:

As-is, I could just put the cube on the button and walk to the first portal past the doorway. The orange signs make the intended solution clear enough but also very satisfying.

Just for fun, I uploaded the demos of the intended solution and the boring solution here. (They won't be around forever.)

I thought that was a little too easy! After reading others' posts, I will have to go back and figure out the intended solution.

Still, the puzzle was decent up to that point. The obvious shortcut kept this from being a 4. Just 3/5 from me.

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:

MRPYaPo7XYY
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPYaPo7XYY)

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

I went back and found the intended solution, which was a much better puzzle. Then I figured out a way to prevent the shortcut. When I came here to post it, I saw that Instantiation had already found it.

I recommend putting a laser grille across the opening in the floor at the end of the hallway, so that you could walk up to it and see the button.

I enjoyed this map. The first room was an excellent puzzle. The second room was fun, too. It required timing, but not so tight as to require "super-ninja" skills.

Bug note: I had trouble with cubes disappearing while trying to place them in the niche to block or redirect the laser. If I raised the cube up too high (easy to do wih the sloping pile of dirt outside the niche), it would bang into the wall and tumble around (as cubes tend do in those circumstances), then just disappear. I have no idea what causes that, but it happened at least once with each cube. I was able to get another cube by pressing the appropriate button, but that forced me to repeat some parts of the puzzle.

I see that others found a shortcut for the last part, but I didn't even try to look for that. It took a couple of minutes before the light bulb went on, but I saw the intended solution and was too busy concentrating on the execution to look for workarounds. I agree with KennKong, a judiciously-placed laser grille would block that shortcut.

Despite the presence of the (easily-remedied) shortcut in the last room, I really enjoyed solving this one. 5/5 from me.

Nice map - clever puzzle. thanks for mapping.