To begin with we just want to thank everyone here on TWP for your support, you're an amazingly helpful lot!

This is something me and StGinger here on the forum has worked on for quite some time. It's consisting of two maps, with five chambers each that will keep you busy for about 2-3 hours, depending on your ability to work together. Our goal with the difficulty was to make it about as hard as the original valve maps, so everyone should be able to enjoy.

Since this is our first release we're really looking forward for your feedback. We had never mapped ever before this, but don't be alarmed, we have put an humungus amount of time and effort into this.

Quotes from solvers of science:
"well done 5/5 for sure" -Willn09
"OH MY GOD! THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!" -lpfreaky90
"This map was outstanding! It took my partner and I about 2.5 hours to go through it." -Tremer
"it was like playing a couple hours of DLC quality maps!" -Sicklebrick
"this map is beautiful. Absolutely love the the aesthetics." -theprogram00

Thank you and have fun!

Warning! Contains Playthrough! For stuck or done participants only!
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New in version 1.1:
-Fixed a problem that could occur with a logic_branch_listener

New in version 1.2:
-Fixed an open observation room witch could be used to exploit a puzzle.

New in version 1.3:
-Made the last chamber of part two harder.
-Fixed some exploits due to unnecessary white texture and source bug.
-You can no longer bring cubes around part two.
-Fixed a world portal that interfered with a fizzler rendering it useless.
-Prevented ninja/hard solutions in several puzzles that may have prevented participants from comming up with the intended one.
-Improved framerate in second chamber of part two.
-Fixed a possible exploit with the laser in chamber one, part one.
-Removed a GLaDOS line which didn't fit in.

New in version 1.4:
-Made the 4th puzzle in part 2 easier to understand.
-Fixed a glass which were portable.
-Small esthetic touches.
-Added a second or half a second here and there on timers, making some of the puzzles in part one easier to execute.
-Put in some helpful spotlights to make stuff (even) more noticeable.
-Stepping off one button when both are pressed in last puzzle doesn't turn off the funnel anymore.

Big thanks to everyone commenting!

File Name: 10reasons v1.4.rar
File Size: 41.85 MiB
Click here to download [Coop] 10 reasons for reasoning

OH MY GOD! THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!
It took zivi7 and me an hour and a half to solve part 1...
Now it's time to continue testing...

+ about first part: really nice looks
+ interesting puzzles
+ nice coop flinging
- timing is sometimes rather tight.; the final fling took us about half an hour
- the white paint one felt really strange; we had to walk on the side of the walkway to continue

But I feel this is going to be a 5/5.
...continue testing...

EDIT:
In the first puzzle of the second part we didn't have to activate everything at the same time; My portals were so that with the cubes all relays were activated; by replacing my portal and aiming at the laser catcher we solved it
We think we got the solution for the second part; however windows update thought it was a good moment to restart my computer q.q.
We think it needs some tight timing again; we're totally gonna do it tomorrow! (I hope!)
Once we've finished it I'll give you a rating

EDIT 2:
(waaaayyy to late)
So we spent another couple of hours util the connection failed again We solved the second and third part. (We died soo much in part 3 that glados ran out of bad jokes). We were now at the fourth puzzle; the flinging one. We got the cube; then we lost our connection; we will continue tomorrow.


Two things:
we can take the cube from the first test to the second; and we think we can also take it to the third and the fourth; which would us let cheat the fourth puzzle a bit.
We slightly cheated in the second puzzle; you can stand on the edge of the second platform; making it much easier and less timed

And finally: WOW! THIS IS AMAZING!!! I think these map deserve a spotlight. They're long, hard, fun, you die often but it doesn't get too frustrating. Hands down; one of the best coop maps (if not THE best) I've played.



~Lp

Everything LP already said.

The looks with all the details are very, very nice! Great use of the destruction theme with all the details and the rubble. For example, at one point (it should be the second area in the first map) there's a huge wall piece lying on the ground that moves when the player jumps on it. It's obvious you spent a lot of work on such details. Also: Nice use of Glados-lines - "press that button again" got me of course.

The puzzles themselves are challenging but not in a way that it got me - as a rather medium player - frustrated. The time frames for the timed jump/catch moments in map 1 were a bit narrow indeed. However, because those puzzles didn't involve a lot of walking, it didn't get frustrating to repeat the steps over and over again. Still, I think you and your partner should definitely be in a good mood for this one. Especially for the funnel/lightbridge/turrets-puzzle in map 2: chances are that each of you will kill the other several times - hopefully both of you can laugh about that and don't get mad.

There were two negative aspects though. LP already mentioned the white gel part. We used a portal to get up onto the railing of the catwalk to walk towards the white gel stain. Was that the correct way? If so, I think that might be a bit tough for medium players because such a move was never necessary in the original campaign. Same for the first funnel room in map 2. We jumped onto the railing of the descending stairs to get to the next stairs. Was that correct? That could be another trick new players don't know about.

But those are only minor aspects, overall this is indeed one of the best maps I've played so far. I'm looking forward to play the rest - can't wait to see what kind of an ending you guys prepared!

@lpfreaky90 and zivi7
First of all thanks for commenting! It's a great feeling knowing that someone has appreciated what you've done.

Furthermore yes, the white paint room is fairly strange, but we decided to keep it that way. It's not like you have much alternatives so we think its not too hard to figure out, atleast you did. Same thing in the second chamber of part two as @zivi7 mentioned, since you don't have any white surface to get into, or funnel from, we supposed most players would figure out that they needed to do some smart jump to get past.

lpfreaky90 wrote:
In the first puzzle of the second part we didn't have to activate everything at the same time; My portals were so that with the cubes all relays were activated; by replacing my portal and aiming at the laser catcher we solved it

I can't seem to recreate this, and I can't seem to find any problem in my logic branch system, did you solve it the correct way later?

Also about your two things, there's a fizzler between chamber two and three, and I you're actually implying the intended solution, but I bet yours where way cooler

And OK I agree that some of the chambers are not so easy to execute, but atleast everyone with some experience of portals should be able to figure things out. Then it's just a matter of teamwork

Thank you

Quote:
I can't seem to recreate this, and I can't seem to find any problem in my logic branch system, did you solve it the correct way later?

Iirc what we did was: One places one portal to the left of the exit and one to the right. Then use the cubes to guide the laser through these portals to active all of those laser receivers on the ground. Then the second player placed one portal on the higher wall opposite to the final receiver and replaced the other player's portal to the right of the exit - the door opened.

zivi7 wrote:
Iirc what we did was: One places one portal to the left of the exit and one to the right. Then use the cubes to guide the laser through these portals to active all of those laser receivers on the ground. Then the second player placed one portal on the higher wall opposite to the final receiver and replaced the other player's portal to the right of the exit - the door opened.

Okay I managed to do this too, must be something with the logic_branches not having time to turn off, will add a delay on those

Still haven't managed to play it, but thought to check a bit, to get a first impression. All i can say is... wow. Very impressive design and the difficulty at least in the first map seems average, not frustrating, but not too easy either. I have a very good feeling this will be one of my favourite coop maps. Lpfreaky's comment makes me even more sure about this.

Me and my coop mate only done the first part so far took us about 2 hours and a bit. Loved everything about the first part, the design of the chambers and the puzzles themselves are spot on nothing to hard but hard enough. Can't wait to play the second part because I know it's going to be amazing, well done 5/5 for sure.

zivi7 and I solved science!!!

We got a video of our second playthrough; it's about 41 minutes and I'll be uploading it to youtube anywhere soon

PART 1:
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PART 2:
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PART 3:
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PART 4:
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French portalfag here, we played these great maps just one hour ago with my friend, that was brilliantly made but quite easy, actually these maps are as obvious as the valve's original coop missions...

But the main part of my comment here is about a problem we found

in the 3rd enigma of the second map (The 1/2/3/4 columns with fizzlers with the faithplate at the beginning, and red lasers at the top) because we succeed without using any cube or button... Here is the video we made to show you how easy it was.

At 2:20 in the video, you'll see a quick swap of the portal on the left of the screen, it's just because i failed at this jump and we had to do it again so i cut this part before encoding.

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Link to the video : http://youtu.be/3JFyL3mZWnQ

I think we missed something, anyway we shouldn't succeed that fast.

The global conception of the maps is great, especially at the very beginning when Glados "rebuild" the first map to get the respawn area closer to the second enigma... Good ideas and cleverly scenarized !

It was a lot of fun to play this! The great looks are consistent till the very end. There's only one tiny negative aspect in the very last puzzle: It was a bit too easy at this point. We made it through that turret-infested funnel-zone with a lot of dying to find this as the ending level. Maybe it would have fitted better at the beginning of map 2, right before the current first funnel-map?

But that's only a very very small negative aspect of this great mappack. As LP said it took us around 40 minutes to play again, but it was so much fun even the second time that it felt like 20 minutes max. Great job!

Hey! I can't stop smiling when I read your posts, it's so great to see that you seem to like the map that much. I have to thank ipfreaky90 for your awsome first comment and also your playthrough video, hilarious!

Kokomadena: Thank you for recording that huge error, it will be fixed shortly!

And at last, we love the feedback from all of you so thank you for giving it to us!

StGinger wrote:
Hey! I can't stop smiling when I read your posts, it's so great to see that you seem to like the map that much. I have to thank Lpfreaky90 for your awsome first comment and also your playthrough video, hilarious!

Kokomadena: Thank you for recording that huge error, it will be fixed shortly!

And at last, we love the feedback from all of you so thank you for giving it to us!

Yea, really enjoyed the map

The movies are a bit strange size but I blame fraps
Can't wait to play more

One thing I forgot to mention though is that yesterday we encountered two problems:
1) Windows update thought it was a good idea to restart my laptop while playing these maps
2) Random disconnect.

Nothing you can do about it but maybe it would be an idea to cut the map in smaller pieces. These two maps felt like an entire section in the standard coop campaigns of the official portal 2. Almost all coop maps in portal 2 are two puzzles; that way a map can be done pretty fast and if a map needs to be restarted not too much progress is lost.

Zivi and I lost connection in the funnel room; not much of a problem, just solve the relay puzzle and get to the funnel room and solve that one. And at the big fling map. That was a problem it involved solving the laser; funnel; turret and fling map! that's a lot of progress! So we tried to no-clip that part but we noticed the map uses world portals to connect parts. That's rather hard to get all the way back there. We also skipped points so we would respawn in the funnel room if we died in the fling room. By breaking up the maps into smaller pieces this will be easier.

A final point is that the last puzzle is very simple. The final fling room from map 1 felt very good to be solved. This one was like ?!?! THAT was the puzzle?

So I would change the order of the maps a bit; bundle a small and a large puzzle and break it up in parts of two/three puzzles and just connect them like you did with the maps in your list.

As zivi said in the video though; it seemed that the custom transition somehow killed the ping-tool.

Just a few suggestions

Big thanks to you guys for your fast feedback, you know who you are! Thanks to you we could apply quick changes to prevent future participants from exploiting!

@zivi7 and lpfreaky90
That's actually an conversation we had right before release, about moving the last chamber to after the first puzzle in part two. But that would resolve in the problem of going from a small, low ceiling area into that big void, and since the .bsp is already very full we couldn't just throw in a BTS-area that would make it more logical. But looking at the overall difficulty witch we tried to increase throughout the pack it would've been the right thing to do.

Remember that when we started out making this we had no experience what so ever of this kind of work, and also we intended that we should participate in a competition later on. And in the rules of the previous one it clearly said only one .bsp file allowed. So that's pretty much the main reason it all turned out into these really large maps. We weren't thinking of doing more then one map out of this, so see part two as a bonus

We see your point and we agree it would be less aggravating not having to redo all the puzzles if you loose connection and that's something we'll really think about in the future, since one of our primary goals was to make a map where you wouldn't loose it all and begin at zero just because you made an mistake, that's just frustrating and tiring.

Finally we just wanna say that were really happy that you seem to like the overall concept of the map and that we're really overwhelmed that you seem to have enjoyed playing it. It motivates us to come with more maps in the future

This map was outstanding! It took my partner and I about 2.5 hours to go through it. This basically could have been an entire DLC.

However, I'm pretty sure a lot of our solutions were unintended. I can't recall everything because the map was so long. It's going to take me a while to go back through the video and find them.

I do remember we thought we had solved a couple of the laser puzzles unintended. We're bad at laser puzzles. We were just messing around with the blocks and I think accidentally pointed it at the end receptacles which happened to open the doors. They did not require a hard solution to keep the laser pointed at it to keep the doors open.

Speaking of unintended solutions: We thought that our way to get the cube to its place in the laser-grid/fling-puzzle on map 2 was a bit forced - we simply tossed it over the walls to have it land in the final section. I guess there is a more elegant way to get it there?

Brillant!! 6 out of 5

I just played this map previously with iWork925 and have to point out that although it was great building (and visuals) the puzzles to execute were extremely difficult and nearly always took particular (perhaps meticulous) timing and executions to finish. The second last puzzle we decided to skip because it was getting to nearly midnight and because we were getting incredibly frustrated.

I think the main problem with this mappack of 2 was that the puzzles were not completely straightforward on what you had to do, and we spent more time trying to figure out the point of a puzzle before actually trying to do it.
e.g. the Puzzle with the speed gel and the bounce gel. It took around 20 minutes to figure out that you had to smash through an observation room which was the exit. (also the turrets annoyed me so much we decided to noclip and kill the one inside the cage you can't get inside).

Other chambers when we did finally figure it out, it usually took a million goes and in the end we no-clipped when close enough xD.

mappingnote
Also the room with the fan was incredibly laggy. Try using a different water texture, or use a bottomless pit. The reflections of the water (plus the projected texture) made my computer lag (and my computer isn't crappy).

Long answer made short: Do not play this if you are inpatient. It takes a couple of hours to finish completely. We noclipped to victory a lot.
If you look at lpfreaky and zivi7's playthrough, it takes them over half an hour to re-play the map even though they know how to finish it.

Difficulty level: Insane

chickenmobile wrote:
The puzzles to execute were extremely difficult and nearly always took particular (perhaps meticulous) timing and executions to finish. The second last puzzle we decided to skip because it was getting to nearly midnight and because we were getting incredibly frustrated.

A couple of the puzzles do have a very short timer. I think of the blue/orange gel room; the final one from test 1 and those are just the hardest ones. Just an extra second in both puzzles and a bigger area where you can get blue gel with less junk on the floor would make the blue gel one a lot easier.

chickenmobile wrote:
Also the room with the fan was incredibly laggy. Try using a different water texture, or use a bottomless pit. The reflections of the water (plus the projected texture) made my computer lag (and my computer isn't crappy).

chickenmobile wrote:
Long answer made short: Do not play this if you are inpatient. It takes a couple of hours to finish completely.
If you look at lpfreaky and zivi7's playthrough, it takes them over half an hour to re-play the map even though they know how to finish it.

Yes but we did need to think about it again, we didn't knew all the details. A new playthrough would most likely cost about 20 minutes I guess. But I think this map is well worth a play if you got time for it

But when you need to land on railings or fling through observation rooms, its getting a little excessive.

iWork925 wrote:
But when you need to land on railings or fling through observation rooms, its getting a little excessive.

The riling was a bit strange and the first time it felt a bit cheat-y.

I had no problems with the observation room because after I saw the panel turn it was pretty obvious to us we had to fling there. That was the only thing that could be done with it in that short time frame. I think that part can also be improved by being able to remove the turrets

This was really fun, a good challenge, but still needs a few tweaks:

Near the beginning of the first map, GLaDOS mentions (I think this was the quote):
"You have no idea how tiring it is to praise someone for placing an Edgeless Safety Cube into a receptacle designed to exactly fit an Edgeless Safety Cube."
However, the map doesn't have an edgeless safety cube, just a regular edged cube. This is nitpicking but it bothers me a little

Neither me nor my friend could figure out two parts in total, but we did find [what we think are] unintended solutions. Here's a YouTube video on them:
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Overall, this is a well made map. Thank you.

Thanks so much for this - it was like playing a couple hours of DLC quality maps!

Even though fling\timing puzzles are my least favourite, and it did get a bit tedious sometimes when you could see a solution but not quite execute it immediately - it was fun enough and detailed enough that we'd have a wee mess around (playing with the chairs, climbing on scenery, killing eachother etc) for some light relief.

There's been a bit of discussion recently about the lack of maps which can provide stunning visuals and a decent well thought out puzzle at the same time; this map really checks all boxes, and though I usually couldn't give half a crap about how a map looks, this one felt really immersive, engaging and just packed with history.

I give it a solid 5/5! (Well, maybe almost five 'cause my timing is shitty, but It's worth rounding up =) ).


Anyhoo, here are a few bugs I encountered. I missed one or two more, but the vid was already encoding by the time I remembered. My bad.
There's a bunch of jump cuts, and It's not particularly consistent with regards to where the smuggled cubes are, but you get the picture.

Thanks again for this. Seriously can't wait for your next maps!


FV776JPYcY8

First of, this map is beautiful. Absolutely love the the aesthetics. The whole look and feel of the map was brilliant.

The first part was exceptionally good. I loved all the puzzles and thought they required a good amount of work, but they were statisfying to solve. Loved the "surprises" - Made me laugh quite a bit. Can't remember all of the puzzle in detail as it was a few days ago, but i remember them as fun. We had problems with the ping tool, towards the end of the map too.

The second part had some issues. The giant room with the fan was really laggy, which caused many accidental deaths, and frustration. Found a bug in the same chamber where you could portal to one of the side rooms with a bed in it - but it had invisible walls in it. Quite liked the co-op work with the turrets and lightbridges - thought that was a good puzzle. The last puzzle was also nice. Simple solution but not immediantly obvious. Laser Cube puzzle was good too.

However here's the main gripe. The second last puzzle with the faithplate was horrible. Although the actual puzzle itself was very clever, and well thoughtout as it reused the different mechanics, its was insanely frustrating. Lots of quick portal swaps is never good in my books. A lack of direction left us confused, and we managed to get to the cube button, before it was activated. A couple of times we had to noclip around so we could see everything in the puzzle. It took us ages to find that lightbridge hidden away. Even when we knew the solution, making a single mistake set you back so much work and effort, that once we finally completed the puzzle, we didn't feel any accomplishment. For the last part of that puzzle, was the solution really to time our flings into midair, and have someone quickly pickup the lightbridge and then place it at the exit - making a mistake there was just frustating.

A shame because it spoilt an otherwise excellent map.

9/10 overall.

Would definately play another map.

Oh man this easily deserves the spotlight. Absolutely brilliant from twisting original puzzles to great looks this map is essential for everyone that loves Portal. This has Valve quality and could be easily sold as DLC. My only gripes are related to tight timing in several occasions and railing climbing which we perceived almost as cheating. Otherwise this is fresh, intriguing and gives a lot of joy. There are still relatively few AAA coop maps and that is why this is even more appreciated. Congratulations, many, many thanks and pleeeeeeaaase make more of same quality

Once again I just wanna say we're really grateful to everyone taking their time reviewing the map!

Version 1.3 is now live and we've tried to address improvements based on the comments we've gotten, all new exploits you guys showed us shall now be fixed. I removed the env_projectedtexture from the second chamber of part two, since it was causing a awful lot of fps-lag. Bit sad to not have the shadow of the spinning blades no more, but the chamber is much less laggy now and that's really important. It still looks good tho, bigger.^^

Also a good improvement is that the last chamber has a new little twist to it. It's actually the solution I intended from the beginning when creating it but an easier solution came in the way. It's still not hard, but atleast it now needs a tad more thinking to solve

Furthermore we had a long talk about the situation that you seem to think that the puzzles are harder then they actually are, due to more obvious solutions which require fast reactions, when there are a solution which actually don't. I'm mostly talking about gel-chamber in part one and second last chamber in part two. From the beginning we approved these solutions so that people who like fast portal swapping could feel awesome. But giving it a second thought, if you see a solution you know works, you'll go for it until you succeed. So we put up obstacles to show that there's a more well thought-out solution to it Sorry for any frustration this may have caused.

chickenmobile wrote:
Do not play this if you are inpatient.

That is very true indeed! Although it applies to most Portal-maps. As to the rest of your comment, we do think the puzzles are straightforward enough and got comments that tells likewise. But if there's more of you sharing the opinion that the puzzles were simply too hard to execute and/or figure out, please let us know and we'll make them more compliable

Lastly - have someone found the Easter egg? If so please tell!
Hint: It's a hidden room up high!

Thanks

Awesome mappack is awesome. Not much more to add, just that I recommend playing it

Here is the blindrun of svenofix and me:

Map 1:
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(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx74z8XuNjA)

Map 2:
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(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY10KUybPRI)

First of all: GREAT MAPS

I have a few bugs/issues to report: The second room of the second part still lags a lot. For me as well as for my coop partner. On the fourth map of the second part we were able to place a portal on a broken glass wall on the top. Don't know if this should be the way it is (although we couldn't go through it)

On the map with the turrets/funnels/bridges in part 2, what was the door for where you could place a cube in front of? There was no cube and we couldn't return there

Other than that, very detailed work, some new ideads, took us probably 3 hours to solve... 5/5!!

@Djinndrache
Thank you so much for this blindrun! Seeing this gave some really new perspective on things and me and StGinger had a long talk about how the second last puzzle being very distracting with the cubedropper-button and corresponding panel which are not suppose to be used until later. Also you did'nt have the 1.2 or older version of the map so some of those solutions - mostly thinking about the open observation room - would not work now. We will make it more clear where to go in that puzzle so that it wont be so confusing, along with some other minor issues we noticed.
Lesson learned: watch more playtesters before release!

Other then that your solutions where mostly the intended ones, despite two of them who were really clever and creative! Nothing wrong with that.

@Jimmy
Thanks for playing!
It suppose to look like you're passing thru a broken testchamber, but yeah should probably put some debris over that button so you don't go looking for a cube Will check that glass out, can't really do anything about that lag of yours, flaw in the design I guess.

Just attempted the map. My partner and I would describe this as hard - we didn't solve all the puzzles, particularly in the second map. We were quite clumsy in our execution, which maybe made us progress slower. After some 2.5 hours into the map we called it a day, feeling as tired as we did after we finished Impetuosity. It's good that the map comes in two parts. If anyone was to attempt it I'd recommend that you do so in two sittings.

With regards to the mapping, it's clear that you've put a vast amount of time and effort into making this. You did a superb job of using the destroyed/overgrown style; and the map looks flawless.

Below I've written my/our thoughts on all of the content (and there was a lot of it). It does contain spoilers so show this box at your peril. Beware, the writeup became a bit of an essay!

Thoughts on the map. Contains spoilers. Intended for the map authors.
In the first spawn room we couldn't place a portal on the floor panel near the blue spawn vent. A bug: there was an invisible brush in front of the test chamber sign that we could walk on.

The first puzzle was fun, although it took us a while to execute a solution. When getting the standard cube over the fizzlers, sometimes the wall faith plate knocked us into the lower fizzlers, even though the top one was disabled. We had a couple of 'useability' problems too. On a number of occasions we unintentionally fell onto floor faith plate by just walking off the platform above it. Also, when I used the faith plates I managed to fly past the standard cube in the holder, and the game picked the cube up automatically. I didn't realise, fell down onto the faith plate and flew into the fizzler, destroying the cube.

The second chamber's solution was more obvious to us, once we realised we had to create an 'infinite' loop. I felt that the timing was a bit tight though. I have to admire how you used linked portal doors to make the spawn room feed into the second chamber.

In the bts area we struggled to knock over the surprise super turret. The conversion gel confused us - we kept trying to redirect it. Walking along the pipes to get to there seemed weird too.

As for the third chamber: it took us ages to notice the platform with the pedestal button. My partner struggled to jump through the gap created by the moving panel but achieved it eventually. Further, the turrets confused us - were we supposed to cover them in bounce gel or otherwise disable them? In the end, we just dodged them - but only after being reassembled quite a few times! Despite this, several things about the map were done brilliantly - the re-use of 'Surprise!', the descending button, and crashing through the lab window were all fantastic moments.

After revisiting the bts area to get to the fourth chamber (a nice touch) we couldn't quite solve this chamber. We got the general idea - similar to chamber two, but with fizzlers involved. We couldn't quite perfect the timing of it though. In the end, noclip came to the rescue.

Now for the second map. At first I thought I'd found a horrendous laser puzzle, but there was an X to mark the spot, meaning we solved it pretty quickly. An airlock came next - I thought that the door stuck in the wall was a nice touch.

The next part of the puzzle demolished both of our framerates. While the game ran acceptably on low settings, that part of the map needs looking at. We managed to solve it, but I can't remember how. I would say that we weren't 100% sure of what we were doing most of the time though.

The bts area and the dual fizzler/light bridge ride was fine performance wise and a fun puzzle. We were tired by this point though, and our execution was absolutely terrible. Consequently we took a long time to proceed. We really did have to cooperate to traverse the path (it felt like it'd be nigh on impossible if we weren't in constant voice communication). In particular, the part where we had to move the funnel to the left and move ourselves at the same time was tricky to execute. When it came to the vertical funnel ride I tried to block the turrets with the light bridge but used the wrong portal! Maybe it'd be worth doing what Valve did in the single player finale - make it so that the player can't place the wrong portal?

Flinging up into the 'laser deathfield' chamber was a nice touch. We managed to get a portal onto the light bridge and promptly gave up - we didn't have a clue what to do here. When my partner respawned (he was orange) I noticed that he spawned out of one tube and the particle effects came from the other - were your info_coop_spawns mixed up?

We noclipped to the final chamber. We could get one robot to the far side but failed to get us both there, feeling exhausted after such a long play session. We noclipped to victory and ended it there. I noticed that if we both stood on a button and then one of us stood off, the funnel disabled. The buttons should have been tied to an OR-gate. [Perhaps logic_branch_listener would have helped?]

One last note now that I think of it - I liked the use of Science Collaboration Points throughout the map.

Thanks for mapping!

Congratulations on spotlight

Spotlighted. For the amazing cooperative experience players get with this mappack.

Once again thank you everyone here on TWP! Reaching this with your first map truly is mindblowing and extremely inspiring! Count on getting more good maps from us in the future, we still have a lot to improve! Version 1.4 will be out soon with some good improvements regarding the playability of some chambers

We only had time to play through part 1 last night, but as far as user created content goes this map was incredible...

Particularly enjoyed the part where GLADoS asks you to hit the button again and a turret murders you (laughed out loud ) as well as the flinging skills and exact timing required to beat some of the puzzles. As someone said before, the part on the walkways felt a little weird, but I actually liked the way you had to think outside the box a little bit.

IMO this was more fun than some of Valve's co-op courses. Can't wait to play through part 2!

The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary.

iWork925 wrote:
The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary.

Would you mind to define what you mean by scary? I'm eager to play this map even before it got spotlighted (still waiting for the proper companion to play it). I think it could be really amazing...

iWork925 wrote:
The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary.

Why? It's a great map... Is someone jealous? xD

josepezdj wrote:
iWork925 wrote:

The fact this got spotlighted is truly scary.

Would you mind to define what you mean by scary? I'm eager to play this map even before it got spotlighted (still waiting for the proper companion to play it). I think it could be really amazing...

The only thing scary about the map is the fact that it got spotlight. See below:

chickenmobile wrote:
I just played this map previously with iWork925 and have to point out that although it was great building (and visuals) the puzzles to execute were extremely difficult and nearly always took particular (perhaps meticulous) timing and executions to finish. The second last puzzle we decided to skip because it was getting to nearly midnight and because we were getting incredibly frustrated.

I think the main problem with this mappack of 2 was that the puzzles were not completely straightforward on what you had to do, and we spent more time trying to figure out the point of a puzzle before actually trying to do it.
e.g. the Puzzle with the speed gel and the bounce gel. It took around 20 minutes to figure out that you had to smash through an observation room which was the exit. (also the turrets annoyed me so much we decided to noclip and kill the one inside the cage you can't get inside).

Other chambers when we did finally figure it out, it usually took a million goes and in the end we no-clipped when close enough xD.

mappingnote
Also the room with the fan was incredibly laggy. Try using a different water texture, or use a bottomless pit. The reflections of the water (plus the projected texture) made my computer lag (and my computer isn't crappy).

Long answer made short: Do not play this if you are inpatient. It takes a couple of hours to finish completely. We noclipped to victory a lot.
If you look at lpfreaky and zivi7's playthrough, it takes them over half an hour to re-play the map even though they know how to finish it.

In conclusion: 10 reasons for sucking:

too long
too tedious
too laggy
too confusing
too many flings
too many turrets
too much precision required
not enough explanation
not enough variety
not enough time on timers

I see. In fact, I did read chicken's comments about the map.

I understood that you were referring to the fact it got spotlighted but I was interested in the reasons. Maybe then because the type of difficulty used (timing/execution) and playing around with the environment as part of the puzzle solution, right?

Just currious becasue I want to know what ppl like or dislike regarding difficulty, to include/discard some puzzles I've drawn and I'm about to map...

josepezdj wrote:
I want to know what ppl like or dislike regarding difficulty

Do NOT include:

• perfectly timed presice flings (like this map)
• a crap ton of turrets (like this map)
• laser relay tests OF ANY KIND (like this map)
• a complete lack of instruction or explanation as too objective (like this map)

DO include:

• Anything not listed above.

For example... 12 angry tests. Straight to the point. Easy to complete. Loved it.
Even more challenging tests I like. But this map is just over the top.

iWork925 wrote:
Do NOT include:

• perfectly timed presice flings (like this map)
• a crap ton of turrets (like this map)
• laser relay tests OF ANY KIND (like this map)
• a complete lack of instruction or explanation as too objective (like this map)

Hehehe... GREAT! already done! none of that has been included, I'm on the right path.

I see why you don't like this map; and I can't change any of that.
I personally thought that this map was wonderful. It's hard, there are some things I would have done differently but these maps are challenging but not gimmicy. The mechanics used in this map are similar to the ones used in the normal portal 2, I agree the timings were very short from time to time, but since v1.4 most of this has been fixed!

Well timed flings are probably my favourite challenge in Portal chambers...

I agree, there's something about being shot by a load of turrets (especially if I've failed a jump and ended up in front of them with no way to defend myself) that pisses me off, and the map could have done with hinting at the objective a little more in places. But other than that I think the map 'wasn't to your taste', saying 'it sucks' is a little harsh when the developer obviously put in a lot of time and effort...

It's hard to take everyone's opinion in consideration when making a map so there is very hard to know what to include and exclude, especially when it's your first one. We made a map based of what we love about portal, and frankly, our opinion is not everyone's, it's a matter of taste.

There has been improvements since launch so some of the things that were a bit too frustrating has been dealt with. Also we think that portal is somewhat about exploring, so making everything crystal clear from the beginning takes away some of the charm.

Lastly just because there has been a lot of time spent doesn't mean that it can't suck. It's up to the mayority of the playtesters to decide whether it's good or bad. We're listening to all feedback we get, as long as its constructive, but we're doing changes based on what we think is best for the collective.

This was the best god damn map I've played so far here on thinkingwithportal. I only play co-op though.

It had a great feel to it, the level design was fantastic and you did a great job detailing the map. I love the old rundown aperture theme, I think its one of the less used because it really takes a lot to detail those maps opposed to the underground/clean theme.

Some gripes I don't like, are hidden portal spots, where you wouldn't normally look. Like the one I forget which part sorry, but the cube drops into a pit and their is a portal spot in the pit, took us awhile to find it, maybe give an indication that it is there, then it won't help actually solving the puzzle.

We had to jump over the railing at one part, where the white Gel is leaking and hitting a wall? that was kind of wierd and felt more like we were glitching the map then solving a puzzle.

The voicing was great, the puzzles were difficult and took awhile to solve, but not extremely difficult. I would maybe give a little more lee-way on the timed flings, some of those require some pretty precise timing. i don't think leaving the door open for a couple seconds longer would hurt anything. Overall, good map. I can't wait to see what else you can come up with, especially with the new editor coming out soon.

Also one thing that is really great, when you die on these maps, starting over isn't a chore. Its quick to reset and try the puzzle again. This is something a lot of map makers don't take note of.

If you're gonna tone down the difficulty in future then can I recommend making a tweaked version for those of us who enjoy punishing ourselves?

This is how a Portal 2 map should be done.

This map, while hard at times, (my partner and I often spent up to an hour on a single puzzle. While some required clever thinking, others required us to "think stupid") was a blast to go through.

I look forward to any more maps you guys release.

Just so you know: I didn't hate your mappack, I only disliked a few things.

First map:
GJOnvty3xk0

Only real problems were that the first room's apparent solution seemed very awkward, and that the last room was solved with the other person doing essentially nothing.

I wrote a long nice reply but youtube decided it was time for my browser to freeze, so I'll just write a new one I guess!

@Chickenmobile

I think your comment where very good at explaining what you thought was bad about the map! That kind of feedback, together with playthrough's, did an awesome job highlighting where we needed to do some changes. And there has been changes! We're sorry 'bout your frustration tho

@Salamandra

This is superb entertainment! Outstanding! I really admire P-body's enjoyment of dying

Your solution with the laser in the first chamber is awkward indeed, you can look right at the very beginning of our playthrough to see the intended one. I'm not sure if there's any way to easily prevent that solution tho Lastly I personally think your friend did a brilliant job hitting the wall button in the last chamber! We might do a more advanced version of this later which include slightly more action, for those of you who enjoy punishing yourselves

Redunzl and I spent a long evening working on this one, our second attempt at this monster. Quite a bit of it we liked, but .. . The last part of the funnel and turret gauntlet really frustrated us, especially with the long resets. The four rooms with flings was too ninja for us. We just can't turn and shoot like you need to do, playing with controllers. We'll play this map again, for sure, trying to get those puzzles done without noclipping.

The environment was fantastic throughout, and greatly contributed to the puzzles themselves. Even though those two parts were too hard for us, this is a definite 5/5.

Why don't you just play with a mouse and board? o.O

mZLY wrote:
Why don't you just play with a mouse and board? o.O

Because some people prefer controllers!
MOST people use mouse+keyboard; some use the razor hydra and some use an xbox controller, some might even use joysticks! Nothing wrong with that; just a personal preference. If you use a controller often you will be limited in your reflexes though. That's a price you pay

lpfreaky90 wrote:
mZLY wrote:

Why don't you just play with a mouse and board? o.O

Because some people prefer controllers!
MOST people use mouse+keyboard; some use the razor hydra and some use an xbox controller, some might even use joysticks! Nothing wrong with that; just a personal preference. If you use a controller often you will be limited in your reflexes though. That's a price you pay

That's what I mean.

I was an XBOX gamer until last August so the controller always seemed more natural to me. It took me maybe 1 or 2 months to get used to using a mouse and board and now the thought of using a controller disgusts me. I will never touch one again unless it's for a racing game or something where a mouse just wouldn't work. xD

IMO it's 100% worth putting up with the short time where you'll be uncomfortable because it will benefit you SO MUCH in the long run.

our play through of this video. if you don't like the music then just mute it. from now on no music will be played and instead we will have commentary.

a complex map with awesome ideas. enjoyed it a lot thanks. not played blind due to portal2 crashing before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmtAvs36UcA
NmtAvs36UcA

Second map:
sckOeMFealU

Really no complaints, other than that it took us way longer than it should have (which is our fault).

mZLY wrote:
Why don't you just play with a mouse and board? o.O

When my brother and I play coop maps splitscreen, the only option is to use a controller for the second player. The first player can play with a keyboard and mouse, but not the second. So to be fair to each other, we both play with controllers.

KennKong wrote:
mZLY wrote:

Why don't you just play with a mouse and board? o.O

When my brother and I play coop maps splitscreen, the only option is to use a controller for the second player. The first player can play with a keyboard and mouse, but not the second. So to be fair to each other, we both play with controllers.

Ah, okay. That's fair enough.

How do you play splitscreen BTW? I'd love to try that out with my mate. I'm keeping my mouse though!

Ss_map mapname

lpfreaky90 wrote:
Ss_map mapname

Cool, thanks. I'll have to try that out.

mZLY wrote:
lpfreaky90 wrote:

Ss_map mapname

Cool, thanks. I'll have to try that out.

you could also use the map launcher in my signature. thats what i use OFC. i think my videos are the only ones which are splitscreen.

follow this aswell - http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... ?t=1847904

I had fun with my friend while playing this custom mappack, very nice job !

One thing there should've been done better. At map 2. On the bts scene, water bottom caused a HORRIBLE lag, to be honest, we skipped that part, it was unplayable. So next time you should take a look for better optimization. I give you 4/5.

Hey, Insomnautik and I just played this map, and I thought the puzzles were really well thought out. The second-to-last chamber took us awhile but it felt good to figure it out, except it seems a little weird that I can shoot a portal at the glass to get the cube through. Also, the last chamber seems a bit easier than the others in part 2, so you might consider changing the order, since taking a step down in difficulty feels odd. Then again, I guess you don't want to load up on frustration. Overall, it was an excellent map and I had a lot of fun. 5/5

soundsofentropy wrote:
Hey, Insomnautik and I just played this map, and I thought the puzzles were really well thought out. The second-to-last chamber took us awhile but it felt good to figure it out, except it seems a little weird that I can shoot a portal at the glass to get the cube through. Also, the last chamber seems a bit easier than the others in part 2, so you might consider changing the order, since taking a step down in difficulty feels odd. Then again, I guess you don't want to load up on frustration. Overall, it was an excellent map and I had a lot of fun. 5/5

If he would change the order it'd probably mess up the idea/story of mappack. And maps difficulty usually depends on player, some people find it hard, some easy, like you did on last test.

i think that the solution for the 3rd puzzle is cruel and not fun nowhere in the game have we been trained to hop on rails other than that it was going pretty well

krazyyerttle wrote:
i think that the solution for the 3rd puzzle is cruel and not fun nowhere in the game have we been trained to hop on rails other than that it was going pretty well

No railjumping in next map, promise!

Me and my coop friend passed till end and its AWESOME!

But i have found 1 or 2 bugs :S If you want i can show you the bugs to make this map perfect !

REdd wrote:
Me and my coop friend passed till end and its AWESOME!

But i have found 1 or 2 bugs :S If you want i can show you the bugs to make this map perfect !

Glad you liked it!^^
Yeah of course I wanna hear about any faults! Please explain in a PM or send me your steamID if it's something that you need to show

Jepp wrote:
REdd wrote:

Me and my coop friend passed till end and its AWESOME!

But i have found 1 or 2 bugs :S If you want i can show you the bugs to make this map perfect !

Glad you liked it!^^
Yeah of course I wanna hear about any faults! Please explain in a PM or send me your steamID if it's something that you need to show

My steamID is redevil1995

REdd wrote:
My steamID is redevil1995

gets out the hacking equipment...

My buddy and I played this level a few weeks back, I thought it was about time I gave some feedback.

I just want to say you guys did an amazing job.. This was one of the first custom maps I played, and none of them have the polish of this. You must have done a huge amount of playtesting and refinements to get it to play so well.

We had no real issues while playing other than the puzzles being hard. But we persevered and solved it all without cheating. A good few hours of challenging, enjoyable gameplay!

But we loved the puzzles and it gave a great sense of satisfaction.

In particular, the part where both players travel in the beam and one has to perform a leap of faith while the other catches him is just amazing. After executing such a string of complex manoeuvres to complete that section we were so elated - we felt like ninjas!

I can honestly say, solving that puzzle together is the most enjoyable moment we had experienced in any Portal level, including the original games. It even beats the banging together in mid-air moment from the official co-op levels. Loved it!

If I were to make any suggestions it would be to make that sequence the ending. The last room felt an anticlimax after this amazing achievement. But it was still good!

Anyway, well done, and I hope you guys will make another level together soon...

This map was so difficult, I wanted to kill babies and fist kittens.

5/5

I am a speed runner and I love to exploit maps, and I can honestly say, that I did not exploit one puzzle in this map pack. My partner and I had the best time playing your maps. A great example of perseverance and attention to detail. Thanks for mapping.

I'm pleased to hear that, I know there's a couple of ways to solve some of the puzzles but as far as I've noticed the tests are pretty solid:) I'm releasing a new pack really soon and it'd be great to have your evaluation on that one also, please try to break it!:D

Thanks for posting!

Hey, you spelled your wrong. It's you're. I hate to be a stickler, but I had to correct you.

Finally played this one to the end. Great map. Potentially a little more difficult than advertised in part 2, but good fun. We were certainly glad to figure some of these things out.