As promised, here is the follow-up to The Cold Shoulder. I've brought back the freezing/thawing water mechanic, and done some new things with it. Also featured: gels and faith plates. Enjoy!

v1.2 - More exploit fixes.
v1.1 - Many bugs and exploits fixed.

File Name: sp_thaw_1-2.zip
File Size: 1.76 MiB
Click here to download Thaw

I love that idea.So fun to play.

Cons :

-Ceiling texture isnt compabitable with Clean testing scheme.
-On second room there is water with fizzlers which i can skip over without whole puzzle.
-I dont know but lighting give me some strangeness.
-Too bad , whole map doesn't have observation rooms.

Except these , there is some goodness in map.

Pros :

-Great idea.
-Hard puzzle.
-Fun to play.
-Advanced.


I'am waiting next of that.

Great concept, I especially liked the puzzle of getting the ball out.

Two observations:

- in the first room the ice looks like water. I spent effort trying to freeze the laser cube at the freeze grid.

- in the red gel room, the liquid should be lethal otherwise there is no need for the gel.

How odd; I put a hurt trigger in that water. I'll check out all this stuff when I work on the next update. Thanks, guys.

Really enjoyed this map - thanks for making another one using these elements. Keep up the good work!

Nice follow up to your other map. I missed the jump in the red gel room and landed in the water and it killed me. The only weird thing was in the room where you get the ball. The small area that you need to thaw to get to the other side looked strange when I was crawling through. Like the texture was moving with me or something. Anyway, nice job.5/5

Very cool. Didn't play your first one, but I'll probably go dig it up now. I'd second the sterile lighting, the weird reflections when crouch walking in shallow water, and the first meltable surface looking like water.

Other things I would consider revising:
- The orange gel dropper looks way better to me than the blue one. The blue "tube" with the black to orange metal texture also seems to have a seam showing when you look up into it. This is also the case in the orange gel room, where the floor ramps up there's some black showing from certain angles.

-The first Aerial Faith Plate didn't get me over the wall on the first try, seems like there's plenty of headroom to make that a non-issue. I also had an issue with this AFP, as well as the the third one, where I would be bounced up into the air about twice as high as a normal jump instead of being launched.

Minor gripes/possibly intentional choices:
- The textures seem a little arbitrary, I think the mixing of tile sizes is a good idea to help break up metal walls, but I think a little more pattern could go a long way for the aesthetics here. Especially in places where you have a few black tiles in a wall of grey, it just seems odd for them to not be in any sort of rows/columns. I also much prefer the ripply glass elongated lights to the big bright squares.

- The blue gel flow patter is a little bigger than the tube it's coming out of of, so it overlaps and looks a little messy.

- The opening and closing door between the final two rooms. It is pretty apparent that you'll be needing to backtrack, and having that door open permanently like the last one seems preferable to having it open and close and show you it's un-stenciled side

- You can get behind the grate that covers the big wall and make new portals, which lets you get on the AFP up high. I used the blue gel to get up there the first time, but found this route later.

-Maybe consider adding some directional red light coming off of the heater fans to make their function even more explicit. I actually melted the initial block of ice by accident and combining that with it appearing to be water rather than ice made things a bit confusing...

-The laser cubes just reappearing if they are killed is a little sloppy. I imagine you're quite aware of that one though, maybe just testing the puzzle more thoroughly before putting in droppers.


That's pretty much every bad thing I have to say about the map... I hope it's helpful, because I really like the mechanic you're developing here. Keep up the good work!

I actually used the gel dropper instances, so no idea why they look different. I noticed that the blue gel clips through the tube, but didn't want to mess with the instance.

I am also not sure why the first ice looks like water, because for me it looks like ice. I'd love to fix it, but right now I have no idea what the problem is. D'oh.

KillerBeeGees, can you please tell me how you got behind that grate?

You have a full tile width between the grate and the wall that allows you to through far enough to place portals.Not a big problem. I would consider moving the sphere holder into the last room and puttinga laser barrier up so people cant use blue gel either.The sphere would open the door and disable the laser.

Great map! Love the concept.

I did, however, find one minor exploit:

The part where you had to get the ball over the wall and down to the other side

I managed to do it just by jumping and giving the ball a light toss over the wall. No crazy throw glitches either.

Only after did I realize that there was a much more streamlined way to accomplish the same thing...

Perhaps you could add a grate to prevent that exploit/indicate that there is a better way?

I didn't hear any sound from the faith plates when I triggered them.. Other than that, I loved the concept. Fun stuff Was is intentional to throw the cube/edgeless cube over the walls?

It is not intentional to be able to throw any cube or sphere over any wall. If there is another place where this is possible (where it affects the puzzle) please let me know. Thanks, guys.

When I saw this listing, I thought I should play "The Cold Shoulder" first, but apparently version 1.3 of that isn't working.

Perhaps it's because I've been playing Nystrke's and Jonatan's maps lately, but the puzzle elements here seemed really easy. That's a good thing, actually, because my brain is fried.

I like the water/ice mechanic. Functionally, it's no different than a lightbridge or laser grill, but it looks interesting.

I noticed that the blue gel goes into the water pit to the left of the exit, which seems inconsistent with the original game. Since that pit has no purpose that I can see, I would get rid of it. The heater by the faith plate is also superfluous, but it's not illogical.

I would give this map a 3 for it's mixed up looks and easy puzzle, but I'll reward your creativity for the new mechanic with a 4.

I am uploading a new version which should fix all the non-visual issues. I may come back to the visuals later.


By the way, KennKong, if you thought this was too easy, you may not like The Cold Shoulder. It was more proof of concept than puzzle. Just a heads-up

Fun level and neat new concept. I did a least portal run of it for fun:
w7EC3KMqMtc

Gel dropper entities are pretty user friendly as far as I know, as are the dropper prop_dynamic's. You may already know all this and just prefer instances, but I don't know a good reason for that yet?

item_dropper.mdl is the model, then you can:

use Skin to change it from 0 (blue/deactivated) to 1 (orange/activated) and back

use SetAnimation with item_dropper_open and item_dropper_close (you may want to use the hold animation setting in Object Properties or SetDefaultAnimation to get smooth animations, depending on the timing of your buttons/gel excretion).



An info_paint_sprayer entity then lets you enable and disable whichever paint type you want, and affect the flow pattern as you see fit.

I don't know how to make them terribly pretty as they go up into the ceiling, to get the light fading on them so they just fade to black, but there are tube models for you to connect to the dropper.

Andyb explained what I was doing with the grate.

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:

VT50FettxdM
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT50FettxdM)

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

Djinn, you were definitely trying some unintended ways, but you did get it eventually. Your video was useful, as always, in pointing out some fixes I need to make.

In version 1.1 it should be impossible to leave that first room without the blue gel. So hopefully no one else will end up in the position you were in.

Enjoyed your map. thanks for creating. Q:not sure if you wanted a thaw to get the ball out of the back room, I couldn't find heat, so crouched a portal to the back wall and then went to the next room and used the faith plate

Is it possible to swim in the water in the Portal 2 campaign? I've never really tried I don't think.

I think the problem with the blue gel dropper being unclear is mostly due to the combination of the rippling water below the block, and the fact that the top and sides of the ice block don't show up. I'm pretty confident that if you just made the dimensions a unit or two smaller in each direction, so the ice block brushes weren't touching the "well" brushes, it would all show up and be much more clear. Hopefully I'm not just telling you things that are already changed.

Also, after all the swimming Djinn did, I was really hoping to see what would happen if he swam across that last pool holding the ice block above his head...

KillerBeeGees wrote:
Also, after all the swimming Djinn did, I was really hoping to see what would happen if he swam across that last pool holding the ice block above his head...

I just had to try it. I instantly die when I freeze water that I'm in

Thanks to you guys I fixed some more issues. It should no longer be possible to shoot past any fizzlers, or to skip/swim through water. Also, I moved the white wall in the ball area so you can't crouch and shoot it through where the ice is.

Not sure if that ice in the blue gel room looks better or not, but I did try KillerBeeGee's idea. If anyone feels like checking it out, let me know if you think it works.

I shall post my comments on this and the initial one here. I enjoyed the puzzles and the new mechanic. I think you should have been a bit more clear on the water not killing you. Also, I feel the heater/freezers should hurt you. Not kill you, but hurt you. Also, would you mind if I decompiled your map to look at how you did a few things?

Feel free to decompile. But for anyone who is interested, here is a general explanation of how I created the ice: I used frosted glass blocks (as func_brushes) and either enabled or disabled them to make the ice 'freeze' or 'thaw.' They are triggered in various ways. I can explain further if anyone wants.


I considered making the fans hurt slightly, but thought it might annoy people. By the way, Soundlogic, which water are you referring to not hurting? The shallow water doesn't, but all the deep water should.


Thanks!

The shallow water. The official maps just train you to expect water=death, so I feel something should show shallow water!=death. I recommend a faith plate that lands you in a shallow pool of water. I understood how you set up the ice, but I was wondering how you did the portal stuff with the fans. Did you just use a brute force detection or something more clever?

Here is what I did: I placed portal detectors on the surfaces by the ice and in front of the fan, and used a logic branch so that the relay that melts the ice is activated only when there are portals in both spots.

Good map, I enjoyed playing it and especially liked how you came back to the first chamber to finish. I would echo some of the previous comments in regards to detailing, the only other thing which I found a little bit confusing was how the last chamber was split into two chambers with a test chamber door between them. I know it's quite possible you intended it that way though I personally prefer it when all the elements of the puzzle are in the one room.

I also had the same issue with the ice in the first chamber being liquid:



But anyway great job

Thanks, Mattyd. But the water shown in your screen shot is supposed to be liquid

I liked this a lot. please make more! couple of points though, i know it was mentioned before but when you crouch in the shallow water and turn, the view goes all wierd. and this is more of a personal thing, but i think the water shouldnt be deadly. yes, the water in the game was, but that was acually goo/acid/poisoned/whatever. this clear water looks perfect for swimming in though.

Marise wrote:
Thanks, Mattyd. But the water shown in your screen shot is supposed to be liquid

All is good then

Sadly, I don't know why the water looks weird when you crouch in it.

Marise wrote:
Not sure if that ice in the blue gel room looks better or not, but I did try KillerBeeGee's idea. If anyone feels like checking it out, let me know if you think it works.

Sorry to say but I didn't notice the ice block in the first room at all I spent about 10 minutes trying to jump the water before I came here and sussed what was going on. If you can't get the ice to look right under the grill, maybe you could add an ice blower (with an off button) behind the gel panel? It would help people get familiar with the mechanics too.

Other than that I really enjoyed the map, fun and interesting puzzles

Nice map, loved the freezing\thawing mechanic!
Shame it was so easy though, would love to see maybe something like freezing\unfreezing different pathways to different areas and stuff

p.s.
The first ice was showing as water still, little confusing!

Since there have been tons of exploit fixes since my last play, there we go for a new version:

dgVca9gDUQ0
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgVca9gDUQ0)

I'm glad how much I remembered about this map. Must have been a really good map

I am just wondering what texture you used for your ice as I would like to create a large, shatterable ice wall in one of my chambers. I don't want to use glass textures as that would make it look like it is just a really big window.

Good map and interesting idea with the freezing mechanics.
I did not play your first map yet, that's why it was a little bit confusing to play this map.
Took me some minutes to understand how it works, but it was not to hard to find out.

Design / lighting of the map was a little bit odd - that's why I do not like this design.
Puzzles were easy - you just see what to do, when you enter the room.


All together I would rate this map 3.7/5.
I would love to see more maps with this mechanic, but please try some harder puzzles.

This was an EXCELLENT map! Clever ways to use the freeze/thaw dynamic with puzzles that require some thought but are not so complex they become frustrating. I really enjoyed playing through this. Great job!

Interesting gameplay concepts, though there were a couple of things I wasn't so keen on. My thoughts:

• Good use of heat and cold to create new gameplay elements that required some thinking to achieve objectives with.
• Ice, heat emitters, water cooling boxes (having played the original Cold Shoulder map beforehand, though I'm not sure to what extent it would apply if I hadn't done so) were all easily recognisable, and you generally knew what each thing did.
• Textured and lit well.
• Unfortunately there were some places where I genuinely had no idea how the part of the puzzle was supposed to work. For example, the heat emitter has no visible heat effect and so it was not at all obvious that the heat travelled through portals, leaving me stuck for quite a while at the blue goo dropper area.
• In the room with faith plates to leapfrog over another pool, the first plate does not aim the player at the centre of the bullseye target, and there are no portal placement helpers to aid the player in placing the portal in the right spot. I crashed into the wall many times when it would appear that I was going to go through the portal. The second faith plate required two jumps on top of it to get back to the other side of the pool, the first jump merely pushing you about a foot into the air.
• Regarding the small water pool that you have to crouch through, the strange bug there is a bug in the Source engine where the water shader will mess up if two or more volumes of expensive water lie at different heights in the player's current PVS. It can be solved by using cheap water, or limiting the player's view (areaportals/hint brushes also help) so that there's no possibility that they can see another volume of water on a different plane at the same time. Obviously the visual bug wasn't game-breaking, just looked a bit odd, but is passable considering it's a required part of the puzzle.
• All water looks exactly the same, yet some will not hurt you if you step into it and some will. It would be useful to be able to differentiate between the two, possibly by using a murkier water material for the harmful water.

I made a video walkthrough for this Portal 2 Custom Map:
j_Rn8jGVtVY

Because I never played this map and I saw it in the spotlight category I thought let's give it a go and record my blind playthrough:
http://youtu.be/o6Bd0n0FbM4

Dah... TWP you got me again. I keep forgetting spotlight isnt synonymous with quality.

I really enjoyed this map and your previous one. The cold shoulder contained a nice new test element and a puzzle that wasn't hard but that was perfect to introduce the new test element. Thaw had the same good idea but a much better puzzle. Not too hard but well done. Graphics were alright, I haven't noticed any bugs (apart from the odd water texture when you crouch).
Will the be a third map?

Would you mind if I implemented this into the FGEMOD? Until I can find the error in the program I'm just adding more test elements, and I found an interesting way to make something like this work in an instance.