Monoportal is a single-player level that revolves around combining more advanced test elements with the Single Portal Device.

Monoportal consists of 8 chambers spread across 3 maps which, if I met my goal, begin quite easy and grow more difficult and complex as you progress.
Part One: sp_monoportal1.bsp: Intro, Lasers, Light bridge
Part Two: sp_monoportal2.bsp: Faith plate, Speed and bounce gels
Part Three: sp_monoportal3.bsp: Turrets, Excursion funnel, Finale

Federal regulations require me to thank you for playing, and to hope that you enjoy your experience!

Screens:
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2033/monoportal1.png
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/511/monoportal2.png
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4845/monoportal3.png
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Randomiser ... 8637443626
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/5592/monoportal5.png
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/55866 ... D792AC187/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/55866 ... 036BB9EE0/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/55866 ... C35FD4FDA/
UPDATES
-------
V4 - Fixed bug induced by the DLC.
V3.95 10/02/11 Thanks for the 1500 downloads! I finally decided to block one slightly unintended solution. I added placement helpers that should give the bounce gel a 100% success rate (if you're doing it right).
V3.9 Some final tweaks for now.
V3.8 - Yet more and brighter lighting in gel and funnel room, as per viewer suggestion. Safeguarded against possibility of a portal dissappearing. 9/14/11
V3.5 - Tweaked some things, mainly regarding exploits in the final chamber.
V3 - significant lighting improvements in chambers 4 and 7.
v2.6 - Fine-tuned previous changes made to sp_monoportal3 including turrets and functionality (fixed a few placement helpers)
v2 - Fixed exploit of being able to bypass faith plate, made minor visual tweaks, fixed various other errors 9/6/11
v1 - Original 9/5/11

File Name: sp_monoportal_v4_0.zip
File Size: 14.22 MiB
Click here to download Monoportal

Like the Blue Portals mod(for Portal 1), this proves you don't need to give the player a pair of portals to make it fun! Overall I can recommend this map, it lasted over an hour and I certainly enjoyed it, so the complaints below are only minor ones.

In the 4th room(sp_monoportal2) the faith plate doesn't seem to give enough speed to make the first jump. However, it was possible by continuously flying using my own portal. This seemed a bit like an unintended solution, because it doesn't use the faith plate at all?
In the 7th room(sp_monoportal_3) you can deal with most turrets using a 'rambo' approach: quickly running past them, or using dead turrets as a shield against their friends.

Agree with dinnesch, nicely paced series of chambers. Rushed my way to last one where it took me a while to figure out.

Not sure if I used the intended solution in the last room by taking the cube through the emancipation grid (shouldn't that destroy the cube?) and then using it to jump up and press the button

Anyway, great fun to play.

Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad you were able to enjoy it even with the problems you encountered.

@dinnesch: About the faith plate, that definitely sounds like an unintended solution. When you say you continuously flew with your own portal, do you mean you performed a normal fling and just shot a portal where you landed? If so, I'll look into it, when I playtested it I wasn't able to gain enough speed that way. If not, I have trouble imagining how you did it without the plate.
With the turrets I was aware that a couple (I could get maybe 2) could be bypassed by trick-throwing another at it, but couldn't think of a way to prevent it without feeling cheap. However I didn't know that most of them could be ran past. Did you hide behind the glass border until the turrets went to sleep? That's the only way I could find to buy enough time. I'll look into getting a fix if it makes it too easy.

@GODFATHER: Oh my. No, that is was not supposed to happen. I must have forgot to enable physics objects on the grid, I'll try to upload a fix for this as soon as I have the time (hopefully later today). The rest of the solution is valid, but there's a logical way to get the cube in.

The big room in part 2 with the faith plate and the orange portal on the angled surface (where there is a big pit in the middle)... I need a little hint please.

Random wrote:
@dinnesch: About the faith plate, that definitely sounds like an unintended solution. When you say you continuously flew with your own portal, do you mean you performed a normal fling and just shot a portal where you landed?

Yeah, but could use it only for the first 'half' of that chamber. It took a couple of tries, what would the intended solution be?

Random wrote:
With the turrets I was aware that a couple (I could get maybe 2) could be bypassed by trick-throwing another at it, but couldn't think of a way to prevent it without feeling cheap. However I didn't know that most of them could be ran past. Did you hide behind the glass border until the turrets went to sleep? That's the only way I could find to buy enough time. I'll look into getting a fix if it makes it too easy.

Yes I hid behind the border before going. I know it's a little cheap of me to exploit a map in such a way, probably I'm just complaining a bit too much

I'll leave a nudge here regarding the fling room to hopefully push you into thinking in the right direction, since that's at least two people confused about it. For now I'm PM'ing you with the full solution too.
The faith plate doesn't give you enough momentum to launch yourself out of the blue portal. But you have a large pit and a tall ceiling. Is there anything you could use to gain more momentum before flinging?

For those who do know the solution, do you think there is anything I can do to make it simpler to understand? I hoped to allow as much portal-placing freedom as I could there, and I don't want to make it too easy because I think it looks cool when you figure it out. But I didn't want many people getting stuck half-way through either.

And I'm still planning on an update today to fix some things, but I've got other coughschoolrelated things to take care of, so I wouldn't expect it until later.

Since I'm designing a test chamber with the single portal gun too, I was very curious about this map. Well I liked the puzzles, some of them made me think a little, then the last chamber was quite challenging.

But I must complain about the look of the map. The use of the textures is quite repetitive, the lights doesn't look good (too dark sometimes) and they don't have source either. Very little use of details.

To sum up, this is a rather fun map, you just need to spend more time on the appearance.

A very nice map, does have a few problems though

In the room with the excursion funnel, the cube, and the button that moved the orange portal, if you jump onto the platform to the left of where you enter while the orange portal is set over the excursion funnel, you are trapped and have to kill yourself

In the final chamber:
In the corner with the laser, I got blue gel in the area around the slightly raised platform. The gel didn't show on the platform, but the cube was still bounced off whenever I tried to place it, had to spawn a water bomb to get rid of it.
I also accidentally got the cube covered in repulsion gel at another point, took me a while to figure out what was going on since the redirection cubes don't have a painted texture
The death field isn't completely covering the excursion funnel. I managed to slip through the edge of it without being completely killed (the screen did turn red for a bit though)

Just uploaded the update.

The faith plate should not be able to be bypassed in room 4.
I tried to add some visual adjustments. Nothing major yet though.
Player can't trap themselves by jumping in the excursion funnel room.
Paint should stay permanently cleansed on necessary surfaces in the final room.

I'm in the first speed gel room and seem to be a bit stuck. I think I know what to do, it's just hard to pull off in the time given. Correct me if I'm wrong: Am I supposed to get the ramp and floor painted and run along it to jump the pit? I got the ramp painted, but can't seem to get enough gel on the floor to build up speed. It's hard to paint where I want in the time I have after pressing the button.

Hmmm. If timing is your problem, there is definitely a better way. It should only take one or two shots to get it set up correctly if you know how. I may alter something tonight to let the player know that it is not a valid solution.

Marise use gravity to you advantage. two portals on the floor will alow the gels to float back and forth between portals giving you lots of time to plan where to place a wall or ceiling portal

I created an account when I finished this map just to come in here and thank you. This map was not too hard, but hard enough to make the player feel smart when the solution(s) presented themselves. I loved the BluePortal maps, but thought they required more skill than thought at times. Monoportal puts thinking above skill, and for that, I THANK YOU!

This was an excellent download. Couldn't find anything I didn't like. Great content.

Thank you all very much for the kind words.
A small update is processing as I type this, its just for the third map this time. I think I properly fixed being able to bypass the first turret, and added some functionality fixes.
-It is easier to not risk being shot at in the first turret segment
-Fixed where some placement helpers didn't work before
-Slight lighting update in the final room

EDIT: Oops, had to fix one more small bug again. I must be off my game today.
I will get into adjusting the lighting by the weekend.

MY GOD THIS MAP(S) IS EPIC!!!

Not too easy and not too hard, but made me think enough it was a good mental challenge! I was a little sad that there wasn't more too it!

It is an epic download, doubt I will find something as good as this!

EDIT: I think it was the second room, were you had to first use the speed gel, that room was a little dark, could use a little more light IMO.

Excellent set of maps. The last chamber solution to the door was quite a challenge, it took many tries to get the cube over to the final button. Just enough guidance marks. Overall well done.
The first intro chamber seemed very bright...
Thanks for creating.

I've often said before that a high frame-rate in a game can make up for average graphics, and I was actually stunned at just how well this map performed for me. (I'm on a laptop, by the way.)

Some of the puzzles were more involving than others (the faith plate one was fantastic), but my greatest words of wisdom right now are: sort out your God damn lighting. So much of the time I couldn't tell which walls were portal-able and which weren't. This was especially bothersome in the Old Aperture level, but I really think all the chambers (perhaps save for the first and last ones) could use a bit more shine.

Good job though. I guess.

As I said earlier the speed gel level was dark, but yes, now that you mentioned it (since it was a long set of puzzles I forgot), in the chamber with the bounce gel, turrets, and the tracker beam thing (it was near the end) I couldn't differentiate between portal surfaces and non-surfaces.

I'm glad it ran well for you, at least.

Thanks for bringing the light to my attention because I had no idea that it was bad enough that it actually limited your vision. Maybe its my contrast, or just because I've been used to looking at it in LDR until I released it (Ironically I was kind of worried about making it look too bright and unrealistic).
Anyway I have been working on the gel room, I added plenty more lights for the areas you need to go to and I hope it will be enough. I haven't uploaded it yet, I want to brighten up (most of) the other rooms first. If its not up tomorrow, it should be by Saturday. Can any of the other players tell me which areas in particular looked too dark for them?

Conversely, I'm toning down the first intro room. I wanted it to look plain, but not blinding.

Parts of the Old Aperture style area were fairly dark. Standing on the center platform was when I noticed it the most. This also seems like a good time to mention that your laser emitters are not flush with the ceiling. That's a minor thing, but if you are polishing up the visuals you may want to fix that at the same time.


I am embarrassed to say I didn't finish the map yet. The first turret room got me stuck and I decided to take a break and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Great stuff. Took me about an hour and a half to finish it.

I had big issues with the final room. I managed to get to the high area with the excursion funnel by activating the excursion funnel, firing a portal up to the white ceiling so the blue funnel came up through the orange portal on the floor, then stepped into the blue funnel, rose up and was able to slowly move across the celing of the chamber to the high part where the funnel was located.. Managed to deal with all the turrets after a bit of thought and finally seeing the hints haha .

After changing the funnel's direction and grabbing the cube I had to try several times before I could step into the orange portal - it was like there was an invisible wall around part of it.

The chamber with the orange portal on the angled surface - I fired a portal high on the wall that is perpendicular to the opening so that when you fly out through it you can see inside the room. After several attempts of flying out through the blue portal I was able to fire a blue portal into the far side of the room, high up near the far corner. Then - faith-plate, orange portal, blue portal and landed straight on the sloping surface that lead up to the chamber exit.

This is a really good set of chambers. I don't enjoy the harder maps cause I must try harder, but this was difficult but balanced enough that it was rewarding , and most importantly, the chambers were interesting enough that I did not give up. They kept me going.

Too cool

GODFATHER wrote:
Not sure if I used the intended solution in the last room by taking the cube through the emancipation grid (shouldn't that destroy the cube?) and then using it to jump up and press the button

In this part you can also reach the button from the light bridge. You have to put it high enough, but not to high, because if you need to be crouched to stand on it you won't be able to jump far enough to reach the button.

Hope it's understandable.

Fun map to play for me!
Thank you

V3 is uploading. I really think the gel and funnel rooms are much brighter now. I can adjust other rooms later, I just want to get this up as soon as I can.
It would have been up earlier, but I discovered a rare bug where the gel got stuck on the last room. It returned to normal when I loaded a save though, and I don't know if I managed to fix it.

Quote:
...blue funnel came up through the orange portal on the floor, then stepped into the blue funnel, rose up and was able to slowly move across the celing of the chamber to the high part where the funnel was located.

Like "re-portaling" this is a game engine glitch, as far as I know there is no way I can prevent it, sorry . I expect players to know whether something like that is a valid solution or not.
The funnel difficulty I think was caused by the suction trying to pull you to the ground, it should be fixed now.
@Skerek: How were you able to stand on the lightbridge from inside the corner with the turrets in the first place?
Glad you had fun, though.

Random wrote:
@Skerek: How were you able to stand on the lightbridge from inside the corner with the turrets in the first place?
Glad you had fun, though.

First i put a portal on the top of the room to have a light bridge protecting me from the 1st turret. Then i jump and fast put a portal on the wall and I go higher as i can by jumping and portaling. When I'm high enough I can stand crouched on the light bridge whichch is protecting me from the 2 turrets. Then I jump, press the button, and go on a rambo kill of the 2 turrets.

Ok, so far, very good map. Only thing when moving between rooms, add light... I couldn't find the next chamber and the only way I could guide myself was shooting fizzed portals and by that, telling how far away the next wall was. Lighting or have a light pathway, to guide.
Just got to the second map pack, and I really don't get the first level. D:
Is there a walk through?
(or at least somehow give a hint to placements...) I dunno.
So to temporarily pass that, I played with gravity to get to the ledge, to find another ledge... that I also don't get placement....

Random wrote:
... Like "re-portaling" this is a game engine glitch, as far as I know there is no way I can prevent it, sorry . I expect players to know whether something like that is a valid solution or not...

Yeah - I know it was a cheat - I have no idea how to do that last bit. I will replay the map soon, though, and will have another go.

Looking forward to V3

Got positively impressed by this one, especially since Blue Portals had seemingly exhausted the argument already. On the contrary, I saw the puzzle style here kept fresh for a solid 7-8 chambers which is certainly a big effort, and a lot of care for variety.

Which is a two-edged sword, as technically the final result isn't that spectacular once the action leaves the Clean styled rooms: plenty of dark places, lack of detail, it's kind of a pity when the former looked so good and fit for the map's theme. That point aside... putting things in perspective after the intelligence and game time put into the project... I'd say, a very won bet.

Next version is processing. Nothing jarring if you've played the latest V3 already, but I went ahead and fixed some exploits from the final chamber.

@wolf bytes If the area you were referring to was the hallway preceding the lightbridge room, I added more light to that room now. I am reluctant to post another hint about the faith plate room because I did earlier in the thread, but I'll PM you a bigger hint and the solution.

Thank you, xdiesp, for the informative comment. I realize by now that I probably hadn't tackled the ruined look nearly as well as I had hoped. Were there any areas that seemed to stand out from the rest - or anything that looked downright horrendous? And is there anything simple (as in anything short of a complete redesign) I could do to make them better? I hope to make this approachable both functionally and visually before I move on to a new, hopefully better map. And I am thinking about everyone's advice here when I do.

Nothing's horrendous here, just a matter of strong points and weak points. The retina-burning white Cleans and the turrets maze looked pretty good, while imho the old Aperture inserts were the weaker link: I'm thinking of the one with both gels and a ramp, or things like the checkered brush triangle on the other side of the moat in the room with the easter egg.

But then again the details at the egg room were awesome, while the last batch of turrets were in a pitch black spot: it's just things to improve here and there. The maps show good will and talent for puzzlemaking, and that wouldn't be as easy to patch in.

Great idea! Loving the puzzles so far. But the lighting is still an issue. The gel room was really bad before, but I upgraded to v3.5 and now it's better. I still needed to turn fullbright on to see something on the other side of the slime before I figured out what to do. Fullbright's no good because you can't see the gel, so I switched to using mat_ambient_light_r,g,b instead. The last few turrets in the next room were also hard to see, and the funnel room was ridiculously dim. Fortunately I can tune the lighting just how I need it now. My computer is in a room with a lot of windows.. I'm guessing you developed this at night in a mineshaft?

Well I finished, and those last two chambers were head-scratchers but fun and well done. Very nice job!

In the final room, I managed to get onto the platform with the tractor beam before I had turned the tractor beam on. I used a light bridge to try to get from there to the tractor beam button. But there seemed to be an invisible piece of glass in the way, which was a bit odd.

I wonder if there's an easier way to get the cube onto the button in the second room in monoportal3, the way I did it seemed complicated and took many tries to avoid getting killed or getting the cube fizzled. I went back to the entrance and grabbed the cube, then placed it next to the orange portal, then went back to the button platform, jumped down onto the low platform next to it and put a portal on it and went through and grabbed the cube and left it on the low platform, then went back up to the button platform and used the tractor beam to bring it up off the low platform.

pfalstad wrote:
My computer is in a room with a lot of windows.. I'm guessing you developed this at night in a mineshaft?

Haha,that might be a valid explanation. I was trying to make things reasonably dark for abandoned chambers, I didn't really think it was anything incapacitating. Anyways, since I'm so bad at judging lighting I thought I'd test an idea that I think honestly works out best for one of both of us: I took a few quick screenshots at various HDR levels and you can tell me if it looks suitable, or if I should go higher.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8528/funnelight0.jpg (original)

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6867 ... ight1.jpg/ (twice as bright)

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4888/funnelight2.jpg (three times as bright)
For the gel room: I originally didn't give it enough space away from the rest of the map, but after reorganizing it I'm going to actually put it in an enrichment sphere like it should be, which should allow for more detail and more external lights.

For the "invisible glass" blocking the button: I originally had the glass extend all the way up to the ceiling there, but decided to cut out that portion since the indicator stips ran through it. I can see how that hole might look tempting, though. I'll either make the opposite wall unportalable or plug up the hole again, in the next version.

On the funnel puzzle: I like the way you think, but I assure you that there is a simpler way. I don't think I'll do anything to prevent it though, since it's more complex. Mind if I PM the intended solution to you, as well as a few other details?

Random wrote:
Anyways, since I'm so bad at judging lighting I thought I'd test an idea that I think honestly works out best for one of both of us: I took a few quick screenshots at various HDR levels and you can tell me if it looks suitable, or if I should go higher.
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8528/funnelight0.jpg (original)
http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6867 ... ight1.jpg/ (twice as bright)
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4888/funnelight2.jpg (three times as bright)

Keep going.. I like it with mat_ambient_light_r/g/b set to .15 at least.

Thoroughly enjoyed the map. Thanks for the hard work.

Play-through for those who may be struggling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcOq1R6eSUk

Thanks for the play-through, it is interesting to see how others play my map. You did use a few unintended solutions. The big ones were the lightbridge room and the turret room. (Though you probably already knew that and were just showing off an exploit?)
You used a shortcut in the funnel room, I'm not sure if I should leave that or not.
I can easily fix the lightbridge part, and I think part of the turret room can't be skipped now, but I wasn't expecting players to get themselves killed 20 times either, heh. Nothing else significant, but the trapped, bouncing turret made me lol a little.

And I promise I'm still working on more lighting updates, it may not be until later in the week though.

Random wrote:
Nothing else significant, but the trapped, bouncing turret made me lol a little.

I tried many times to do the bouncing turret without success. Is that something you fixed in 3.5?

Lighting update for monoportal2 and 3 were released. I've hit a little road block on trying to make that enrichment sphere, I currently can't find a size or shape that fits the map inside it. Further details will be released later, but I thought I should post what I have now.

Edit: > pfalstad wrote:

Is that something you fixed in 3.5?

Now that I think about it, I may have done so unwittingly. I think I raised the wall slightly when editing details. I'll check it out.

INCREDIBLE. I put this in my "Best" folder after playing.
It was full of tricky, wonderful puzzles.
And very long too.
Fun . . . Fun . . . FUN ! ! !

My daughter found another way to get the cube in the final room. Put a portal on the side of the tractor beam platform, facing the cube dispenser. Press the button and jump into the orange portal. She was able to catch the cube before it got launched into the fizzler.

Shortly after she did that, the orange portal disappeared. We had to reload. That never happened to me in all the time I spent in that room...?

That is very strange... I quickly uploaded a fix that should act as a safequard should the portal try to disappear. I don't know what would have caused that. I just hope it didn't happen to anyone else.
I think there's another way to get the cube, too but it requires timing and I'm not that bothered by it.

Nice chambers, even that you didn't have dual portal gun it was fun, and puzzles were nicely elaborated, and not too hard to figure out, except last chamber. That was a bit hard, also for me a bit strange and confusing, I solved it but in very strange ways and I'm really not sure that it was the right ways, for example: when u turned on the funnel, I absolutely didn't understand how to get there, I mean how to get to the funnel, I did it using repulsion gel, I put repulsion gel on top of that elevated floor which have on top of it just concrete nothing more, and then jump on the ground usin repulsion gel again and from air falling to portal, and second portal I put on the wall behind that elevated floor and after 20 times I somehow did it and I don't even how. But nothing bad on it, just that I was a bit confused, also I liked that timing on the end.5/5!

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:

bb8g69guRy8
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb8g69guRy8)

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

I appreciate the video, Djinndrache. They always offer an extra bit of insight. It looks like you downloaded an old version of the map, the current versions should have fixed the lighting problems and (almost all of) the unintended solutions you used in the final chamber. You did point out a slightly different way to complete the funnel room, but I think I will keep it in.

@Dom44 I thought it was interesting because different people would have trouble figuring out different aspects the final map. There is an easier way to gain enough momentum but as far as I'm concerned any way is good enough.
I'm thinking about uploading a fix where you can't run through the first turret's fire soon. So that might be up in a few hours along with a couple of other additions. This may be the final version unless any major bugs are found. EDIT: Done.
Thanks again to everyone who plays and comments!

Excellent map, especially in the puzzle department.

Minor problems I had:
In the speed gel to repulsion gel bounce fling, I had to coat the repulsion gel area several times before it bounced. Perhaps a bit larger squirt of blue, there?
In the final room, the laser is too close to the wall. You can place the cube, but it's a pain.
I never used the faith plate in the final room, because repulsion gel gave me all the fling height I needed.

Overall, this is one of the best puzzle maps I've played. I didn't like the changes in scenery, but that doesn't affect the playability at all; it's just aesthetics. An easy 5/5 from me.

KennKong wrote:
...Perhaps a bit larger squirt of blue, there?

Will do, this shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Quote:
In the final room, the laser is too close to the wall. You can place the cube, but it's a pain.

There is a 100% safe way to place the cube. I'm surprised I haven't seen it in any of the playthrough videos, but it's only a very minor step and I don't know if I need to change it. I think I had reasons for keeping the laser against the wall.

Quote:
I never used the faith plate in the final room,

There were several uses for the plate, but I really just kept it in to help the player out and make it simpler/more natural to carry out the solutions. There are multiple ways to perform the fling and that's one thing I'm willing to keep flexible.

Quote:
An easy 5/5 from me.

Thank you.

Attention: A script change bug induced by yesterday's DLC causes the player to spawn with the PotatOS gun.

The bug should now be fixed, and the newest version, v4 should be playable again. I apologize to anyone who downloaded the map between the DLC and now. Sorry for the inconvenience!