Description:
A small chamber containing two puzzles. One test is based on momentum, the other one is assessing your wits. Think with portals, not with stupidity!

Misc:
If you want to listen to everything GladOS has to say, make sure to fizzle both cubes at least once. There's a secret, too - can you find it?

Theme: Destroyed Aperture
Voice Over: Glados Samples (unused & used)

Recent Fixes:
- A fix has been added to prevent players from finishing the second puzzle using an unintended method.
- More details (cosmetical)
- A fix has been added to prevent players from trapping themselves by throwing the cube on top of the glas box
- Added indicator light for the laser
- Added two signs to hint at what some elements actually do
- Added some env effects so that some puzzle elements can be found quickly
- Fixed an issue with area portals glitching out on lower shader settings
- Added a small surprise at the end of the map

File Name: tws.rar
File Size: 8.67 MiB
Click here to download [SP] Thinking With Stupidity

Hope you guys like it. It's my first map for Portal2 and I'm looking forward to some feedback

Oh man, you used one of the same glados lines i was going to use, and your puzzle has the same element one of mine does. I guess great minds think alike

overall it was very good. the visuals were perfect as far as I could tell, I liked how it was as if glados was changing the puzzle elements up as you explored it initially. the puzzle took a bit of thinking to get it but wasn't too difficult

my only suggestion would be to make more!

BOEN wrote:
Oh man, you used one of the same glados lines i was going to use, and your puzzle has the same element one of mine does. I guess great minds think alike

overall it was very good. the visuals were perfect as far as I could tell, I liked how it was as if glados was changing the puzzle elements up as you explored it initially. the puzzle took a bit of thinking to get it but wasn't too difficult

my only suggestion would be to make more!

Not too difficult? Changing elements? Ok, maybe i've not solved that in the right way.
To get the cube i pressed the button in the same time i jumped out the portal on the wall to reach it.
To stop the laser, i manage to stack the cube diagonally on the button.

Nice Atlas easter-egg, by the way

edited:

@infernet89
That's one way how to solve it, but it's not the intended one I'm afraid ^^ You can obstruct the laser by creating two portals on the floor, one of them below the laser and having the cube whip back and forth - using gravity to deactivate the laser. Think I'm gonna fix this by lowering the button a bit more.

Also, congratulations on finding the easteregg. Most people I gave this to playtest didn't find it.

Glad you guys liked it! I've got a couple ideas on what I want to do next, but haven't had time to throw myself into it yet.

kmoosmann wrote:
@infernet89
That's exactly how to solve it. I think what BOEN meant was thatGlados deactivated the faithplate.

Also, congratulations on finding the easteregg. Most people I gave this to playtest didn't find it.

Glad you guys liked it! I've got a couple ideas on what I want to do next, but haven't had time to throw myself into it yet.

Imho the way to stop the laser must be improved. Finding the correct position is hard as hell, you just need to try and retry until random physics works as you want.

Excellent test! I stopped the laser by making a portal next to the button and another portal next to it, letting the cube go between both. It would then cut the laser for half a second each pass through which let me use the faithplate.

I really enjoyed this. I was surprisingly happy when I got a companion cube by destroying the regular cube

infernet89 wrote:
kmoosmann wrote:

@infernet89
That's exactly how to solve it. I think what BOEN meant was thatGlados deactivated the faithplate.

Also, congratulations on finding the easteregg. Most people I gave this to playtest didn't find it.

Glad you guys liked it! I've got a couple ideas on what I want to do next, but haven't had time to throw myself into it yet.

Imho the way to stop the laser must be improved. Finding the correct position is hard as hell, you just need to try and retry until random physics works as you want.

Yes sorry, I misunderstood. Check my reply to your post - I've edited it. Think this needs fixing. @Jollepoker - yes, that's the intended way.

Jollepoker wrote:
I really enjoyed this. I was surprisingly happy when I got a companion cube by destroying the regular cube

Hehe, yes that's intended to be another "mini-easteregg". Hugs companion cube

Am I supposed to end up at the bottom of the elevator shaft after I completed the chamber? I thought it was some kind of "fire portal in the dark room and see if you can find a hole or a structure to climb"... I used 5 minutes on it and figured out it was a bug or something

gurcrist wrote:
Am I supposed to end up at the bottom of the elevator shaft after I completed the chamber? I thought it was some kind of "fire portal in the dark room and see if you can find a hole or a structure to climb"... I used 5 minutes on it and figured out it was a bug or something

Hmm. Did you rename the map by any chance? The trigger is supposed to restart the map, but it will fail if you renamed the tws.bsp to something else.

man, this map was extremely hard for me, mostly the part where you have to press that button to turn off the light bridges and fling at the same time. took me a good 20 tries to get it right. overall I liked this map

Great map. I would love to see more from you.

I wouldn't change the beam blocking puzzle at all. I had to think for a while, but when it came to me, it was obvious that I had found the "right" solution. There was a great "Ah-ha!" moment.

Same for the beam catcher puzzle. Very nice.

I have some issues with the weighted cube retrieval puzzle, though. I first tried the standard floor-to-wall "fling" maneuver, pushing the button while flying out of the wall. I came very close several times, but I ultimately succeeded with a different method. I created a ceiling-to-floor loop, pushed the button in freefall, and quickly shot an exit portal on the wall, launching me at the cube.

This seems okay, except that the difficult execution and unforgiving timing had me tinkering with my portal setup and retrying for about seven minutes. By the time I pulled it off, the satisfaction of the solution was completely muted by frustration. And I'm still not sure if I did it the right way!

And maybe add some indicator lights?

I really like the bit involving cutting the laser.


It seems there are multiple ways to do it. I personally put a portal on the wall and the floor, and set the cube down on the edge of the raised platform so that it would take a moment to fall off, through the portal, and fling across the laser. While it did that I ran to the faithplate. By the time the cube flew past the laser I was standing ready.

The portion involving the light bridges is a bit too hard though. I would lengthen it by a small bit, at least half a second. As is, people can see what they have to do and just can't.

I did it the same way as "Forehead" did it, i thought it was the intended solution because there was otherwise no need to the white wall right there. But the other method posted here seems much smarter haha
But apparently i solved the first puzzle in a way no one else did. Everyone seem to have used some sort of flying, but i put a portal beneath me and one right beside the light bridges. Then i jumped into them(maybe correct their angle for easier flying) and then whyle i was flying i pressed the button, automatically went through the portals and then just moved to the cube while flying. It was very easy.
I think i triggered some easter eggs, but due to me solving the puzzles in non intended solution i think i missed all of them...

I know that there are a couple of ways to solving each of the two puzzles - and within these ways, there is no "intended" way really.

It's supposed to be like most of the Portal 1 maps, where you can still experiment and solve puzzles differently. For example:

There are, to my knowledge, three ways of solving the Lightbridge-Puzzle. All these work btw.

1.
Difficulty: Medium
Create a portal on the wall next to the button and one Portal on the floor. Jump into the one on the floor, quickly press the button, gain momentum and fling yourself to the cube


2.
Difficulty: High
Go up to the button, create a portal on the floor and a portal on the ceiling (or the wall, both should work fine) next to the light bridges - and while jumping down into the one on the floor, press the button. With some steering, you will land on the platform just fine to get the cube.

3.
Difficulty: Very High
Gain momentum between two portals and while doing so, press the button to deactivate the bridges. While still falling, place one of the portals on the wall to fling yourself.

As for obstructing the laser - there are three methods (that I know of) as well. All of them working.

1.
Difficulty: Medium
Whip the cube back and forth between the two portals, with one portal directly under the laser.

2.
Difficulty: High
While standing on top of the structure with the button, create a portal on the floor and one on the wall left of the entry door. Let the cube fall through the portal on the floor, quickly jump down to the faithplate - and hope that the cube will obstruct the laser.

3.
Difficulty: Very High
This one is pretty cool. Take your cube to the side of the room with the faithplate. Go to the fizzler, back up a few steps and throw the cube through the fizzler so that it will slowly fizzle towards the laser. Quickly run back to the plate and hope that you'll be there just in time when the dissolving cube hits the laser for like a fraction of a second.

@bjs0 (and everyone interested)

Do you think it needs indicator lights? If yes, which elements would need them most? Because I had them in there, but there were so many that it just looked totally overloaded. That's why I just added the points " and *" to show what triggers must be hit in order to unlock the door.

btw, did anyone of you try to fizzle the lasercube yet? Try it and tell me what you think

Great custom map! Directly went onto my series "Doing it quickly"
Oh and are there 2 levels? It kept on repeating this level for me :/

!WARNING! Spoilers !WARNING!
zLACBixYB5o

I played this blind and it took me about 20 minutes. I actually figured out each of the two puzzles within about 2 minutes of thinking about it, but the actual execution was way too tedious. So tedious, in fact, that I abandoned the correct solutions for awhile searching for the "real" solution.

The "correct" solution should work just about every time.

HOW I SOLVED IT
(1) Created a portal on the wall and floor, walk into floor and fall into floor to fling. Press button while flying through the air. I initially tried the "intended solution" of just pushing the button and jumping, but it was too slow. Again, the "correct solution" should work at least 4 our of 5 tries without tedium. Otherwise it's broken.

(2) Created two portals and used box-gravity to interrupt the laser. This was also tedious because you can only place the portal in front of the laser catcher if you shoot it exactly straight-on. I actually thought you intentionally placed a no-portal surface there! So, I would suggest increasing the width or placing portal bumpers in order to reduce tedium for people placing the portal next to the laser catcher.

Skillfully crafted, rich in detail, even the voices are spot on... who are you really???

I was about to note how newcomers might feel intimidated by the Very High solution stated above, but I see there were multiple. And I did it with a touchpard, argh. The first puzzle isn't too hard to figure: you progressively exclude possibilities depending on the required speed of execution. As for the second, most should have seen that scenario (cube waltzing through floor portals) happening during the campaign hopefully.

meh, doublepost :/

Ruien wrote:
HOW I SOLVED IT
(1) Created a portal on the wall and floor, walk into floor and fall into floor to fling. Press button while flying through the air. I initially tried the "intended solution" of just pushing the button and jumping, but it was too slow.

That is not the "intended" solution. You are to press the button while flying - it's the most convenient way to get over there fast enough, but by design it's not the only one. While it sometimes works while pressing the button and then jump, it's not really a good way of doing it - agreed. By the way, I was indeed going for 20 minutes of gameplay with this map - and playtests revealed that I hit that mark.

Ruien wrote:

||(2) Created two portals and used box-gravity to interrupt the laser. This was also tedious because you can only place the portal in front of the laser catcher if you shoot it exactly straight-on. I actually thought you intentionally placed a no-portal surface there! So, I would suggest increasing the width or placing portal bumpers in order to reduce tedium for people placing the portal next to the laser catcher.

||

Weird. I don't have any problem placing the portal on that surface in any kind of way - you don't need to put both portals below the laser of course - if you do that, that might get a bit tight spaced, yes.

@xdiesp
Thank you. Been doing mapdesign on and off for the past 15 years, starting with Doom1. Never really got into Hammer though and I thought Portal2 was a good way to learn.

meh301 wrote:
Great custom map! Directly went onto my series "Doing it quickly"
Oh and are there 2 levels? It kept on repeating this level for me :/

!WARNING! Spoilers !WARNING!
zLACBixYB5o

Very cool, really! And yes, it's supposed to repeat the level. What I meant with the description was "two puzzles in one room".

kmoosmann wrote:
@bjs0 (and everyone interested)

Do you think it needs indicator lights? If yes, which elements would need them most?

It's a small chamber, so they're not absolutely necessary. But it took me a moment to figure out blocking the beam reactivated the faith plate. It might be confusing given that you can't easily keep the beam blocked and look around to see what it does (until you've already solved the puzzle).

Hearing the dialogue you used makes me sad that Valve decided to cut it. I think the "sadistically angry" GLaDOS would have been much more believable and entertaining than the "amusingly angry" GLaDOS.

Yes, I see what you mean. I'll look into that. Thanks for the feedback!

Oh, and this is what I see when I first start the level. The white goes away when I take a few steps forward, though.

tws_glitch.jpg

bjs0 wrote:
Oh, and this is what I see when I first start the level. The white goes away when I take a few steps forward, though.

tws_glitch.jpg

Hmm, I don't have that... maybe it's system dependant? Unfortunately I can't give many hints on how to solve this other than maybe updating drivers etc. Anyone else getting this? I'm actually using an invisible portal there - maybe it's got something to do with that.

My system specs are somewhat low (I'm actually playing on a high-end laptop), but I've never had this problem with any other map.

It might be that most maps have a door on top of the stairs in the elevator room.

bjs0 wrote:
My system specs are somewhat low (I'm actually playing on a high-end laptop), but I've never had this problem with any other map.

See if it goes away when you set the Effects to "high", in video options. They should modify the viewing distance.

xdiesp wrote:
See if it goes away when you set the Effects to "high", in video options. They should modify the viewing distance.

A good idea. On my laptop, "effect detail" and "shader detail" are set to "medium" by default. Setting "effect detail" to "high" didn't work, but setting "shader detail" to "high" fixed the problem (I set "effect detail" back down to "medium"). Thank you.

But really, my concern was that it happened at all. I thought that, if he were the type to worry about perfection, kmoosmann would want to know.

And also, the companion cube doesn't play its music. If anyone cares.

Great map. I dont recall your innovative way of cutting the laser before. I did not experience glitches. I loved the use of GLaDOS voices, where did you get them? Also, i heard about an easter egg, was it the companion cube or something else?

Quote:
btw, did anyone of you try to fizzle the lasercube yet? Try it and tell me what you think

yeah... i really like what happened... when i did it again i was hoping for more, but alas... maybe if i do it 50 times though >.> i actually did it to both cubes at once and there was what seemed like a 20 second delay before GladOS had something to say about the 2nd one.

Excellent map!

You might want to disable the light bridge somehow after you pick up the cube, managed to get trapped behind with some "sick" timing.

Oh, thanks for the hint. I'm gonna add an extra security layer to that. I think I know what the problem is.

Great map! Really had me stumped for a while.

The one thing I would say is that it wasn't 100% clear to me that getting behind the light bridges was what I had to do because I kept thinking, even if I do get behind them how do I get back out?! There was no way of knowing that the bridges would disappear when I got behind them. Maybe putting a switch behind there would make it clearer?

Great stuff, keep it up!

Nice map, but I don't really get the main premise. GLaDOS told me not to "think with stupidity" when I first tried to reach the weighted storage cube, but my solution in the end was not all that different; it was all a matter of timing. As for the laser, I worked the solution out fairly quickly, and the rest of the puzzle pretty much slid together after that.

I have to ask though, why does the map repeat itself at the end? Especially after you had dialogue and epic music building up as you enter the elevator, it seemed quite odd.

I agree with other posters that the fling/button press is just a little too tricky. Just doing the fling without the button press was more miss than hit.

I make it doubly difficult on myself by playing with a controller. It took me half an hour doing exactly the right steps to hit it.

I won't be playing this map ever again. I almost dislike it enough to give it a 2, but just being hard doesn't outweigh the positives. 3/5.

I disagree that the fling + press is too tricky, took me 2 tries. maybe this kind of map just suits me but i loved it, only took about 3 minutes to solve. Will be recommending to a friend who is just getting into custom maps

I played this map ages ago but I couldn't find the thread anymore. Now that I found the thread, here is the video (note that the video is some months old though):

RJ9xyCMpa9U
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ9xyCMpa9U)

Enjoyed the map! Took me a while to get the first cube, though... figuring out that I needed to get more momentum that is. Took me a little while to work out how to disrupt the laser, too, but got there in the end

I noted that there have been some updates to this map since I made the video, therefor I re-played the latest version of this map:

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