Something Different

My latest medium-hard difficulty map for Portal 2. As always report bugs/shortcuts in the forums.

I hope you guys enjoy it!

Map Update#1
- Removed the glitch where the player would get stuck in the funnel room
- Some visual and gameplay changes

Map Update#2
- Some visual and gameplay updates

File Name: sp_laserPit.rar
File Size: 2.68 MiB
Click here to download Laser Pit

In the room with the redirection cube, what was the portalable wall above the door for?

Features one lockpicking stunt, using buttons which rotate parts of the lock up to the correct combination. While there are a couple quick escapades in portal territory thrown in for good measure, it's all about safecracking - which might prove unappealing and heavy for many. Lighter areas and clearer signage might help with that.

You can get stuck if you funnel to the button platform without the dispenser being on.

Hellraiza827 wrote:
In the room with the redirection cube, what was the portalable wall above the door for?

I put the funnel output on it, to fly and get the lasercube.

Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of this map. It's mostly because the puzzle essentially doesn't make much use of portals. It was a neat concept, but ultimately this is more akin to something found in a different game like Half-Life or Resident Evil. As xdiesp reviewed, more helpful signs would indeed be a big boon for anyone trying to figure out which room they need to enter first and thus orientate the laser tower to it.

xdiesp wrote:
Hellraiza827 wrote:

In the room with the redirection cube, what was the portalable wall above the door for?

I put the funnel output on it, to fly and get the lasercube.

That's what I thought. What I did was place the funnel on the back wall, use it to crouch onto the ledge through the emancipation grid, and jump the cube over the grid.

This map was different, to say the least; but then, aren't all good maps different in some way? A thoroughly enjoyable and challenging map. It's only fault is a lack of autosaves - often forgetting to save, I found myself repeating maneuveres over and over again. Well done

Triggers in this map are really poorly made.
If you go back after the entry door opens, it will close and you will get stuck.
The exit door repeatedly makes closing sounds even if it is already closed.
If you only partially enter the exit elevator, it will disconnect you while you are still playing.

Also consider using func_detail and area portals.

xdiesp wrote:
You can get stuck if you funnel to the button platform without the dispenser being on.

Can you please explain?

dhavalmistry wrote:
Can you please explain?

On the right, there's a room where you use a funnel to reach an isolated platform with a floor button on it. If the cube dispenser in the room is active (being hit by the lasers outside, I guess), then you can use the cube to disable the fizzler and leave. If it is not (happened to me, probably I didn't hit all the laser targets outside) then you can't place the cube on the button and you will be stuck there.

xdiesp wrote:
On the right, there's a room where you use a funnel to reach an isolated platform with a floor button on it. If the cube dispenser in the room is active (being hit by the lasers outside, I guess), then you can use the cube to disable the fizzler and leave. If it is not (happened to me, probably I didn't hit all the laser targets outside) then you can't place the cube on the button and you will be stuck there.

Yes I can see that. I will get on it right away!

Excellent logic. Awesome map!!

smwlover wrote:
Excellent logic. Awesome map!!

thanks!

Rotated tower ...impossible! -_-

Nice map, but this puzzle is too heavy for me.

BlumCoLe wrote:
Rotated tower ...impossible! -_-

Nice map, but this puzzle is too heavy for me.

Impossible in bad way or good way?

Too heavy for your machine or too heavy (confusing)?

dhavalmistry wrote:
BlumCoLe wrote:

Rotated tower ...impossible! -_-

Nice map, but this puzzle is too heavy for me.

Impossible in bad way or good way?

Too heavy for your machine or too heavy (confusing)?

I think he means in the way that it's a hard map for him, so he cannot solve it. Rather than being heavy on his pc.

Lostprophetpunk wrote:
dhavalmistry wrote:

BlumCoLe wrote:

Rotated tower ...impossible! -_-

Nice map, but this puzzle is too heavy for me.

Impossible in bad way or good way?

Too heavy for your machine or too heavy (confusing)?

I think he means in the way that it's a hard map for him, so he cannot solve it. Rather than being heavy on his pc.

xD

Punk, you're right!
My pc haven't performance problems
I meant: the room with the rotated tower is too heavy for my brain and confuses me.
Right door, left door ...no problem, but the solution for the exit ...desperation!

Nevertheless, I find the idea very well.

BlumCoLe wrote:
Nevertheless, I find the idea very well.

thanks!

This is not bad, and it's certainly unique, but ultimately I didn't enjoy this one as much as some others.

I think part of it that it was too stationary -- the bulk of the puzzle involved standing still hitting buttons. That made it less engaging and fun.

Somehow, though I will admit there was definitely some thinking required, I also didn't enjoy the puzzle aspect of it as much. I felt less like I had come up w/ a clever solution at the end and more like I had just found the right combination of elements. That's a different type of puzzle, one that I enjoyed somewhat less.

I also felt like things were just a bit "off" somehow. The map was bigger than it needed to be -- I had to run around to find the labels to things that I wished were easier to see (though I did appreciate the speed gel ). The alignment and placement of the platforms in the two side rooms felt awkward and out of sync to me. For example in the first (right-side) room, putting the floor button just below the funnel made it annoying to try to move the cube onto it w/out it (or me) getting caught in the funnel. That could have been solved by moving the funnel up.

Similarly, in the second room, though functionally the placement worked, having the back panel be not quite high enough to make it through, and having the front panel just barely clear the fizzlers, made it FEEL like you hadn't lined things up correctly. Obviously you did for what their functions were, but it just felt off a bit to me.

Don't take all this feedback as a sign I thought the map was bad -- I didn't. I just felt there were several noticeable things that, if taken care of, could have made the map more enjoyable.

Finally, on my computer, the map couldn't find any of the cubemaps. Additionally (or possibly due to the previous fact), performance was quite slow on my machine, which doesn't typically have any problems. Could be isolated, but might be worth a check.

mironos wrote:
The map was bigger than it needed to be -- I had to run around to find the labels to things that I wished were easier to see (though I did appreciate the speed gel ).

Yea, I have a tendency to make the rooms larger then needed. To tell you the truth, I make these things as they come to my mind and sometimes because of that I kick myself in the foot.

mironos wrote:
The alignment and placement of the platforms in the two side rooms felt awkward and out of sync to me. For example in the first (right-side) room, putting the floor button just below the funnel made it annoying to try to move the cube onto it w/out it (or me) getting caught in the funnel. That could have been solved by moving the funnel up.

You could crouch and easily access the button without getting caught in the funnel

mironos wrote:
Similarly, in the second room, though functionally the placement worked, having the back panel be not quite high enough to make it through, and having the front panel just barely clear the fizzlers, made it FEEL like you hadn't lined things up correctly.

The intended solution was to grab the cube while you are in the funnel and just incase you happen to drop down and touch the fizzler (reset the portals), you could use the panel on the ground to go back outside. Even if there was a white panel as high as funnel, you cannot go through because you will drop down as soon as you make a portal on it and also you could shoot the portal from outside if it was that high. Defeats the whole purpose of laser combo to open the door.

mironos wrote:
Don't take all this feedback as a sign I thought the map was bad

Absolutely not!. I love how you guys give detail feedback/breakdown of the map. It only helps me with my next map.

mironos wrote:
Finally, on my computer, the map couldn't find any of the cubemaps.

I have no idea what it means . I am very new to map making scene and this is my only third map. Hammer is the first map editor I have dared to learn. I only know that cubemaps help calculate the reflections correctly. It is highly likely that I am wrong about it and I would love to see the difference between cubemap and without cubemap

thanks for the feedback!

I didn't find it too difficult, but it's quite laggy.

I was more or less doing trial and error when rotating and didn't give it to much thought. I thought the description is somehow confusing because there are 5 or 6 "layers" and the buttons just reach from 1-3 where it's still somehow unclear which layer is 1, which is 2 etc.

Idk if i obtained the cube in the indended way too, i had the funnel behind the cube and then snuck up through the forcefield, then tosses the cube over the forcefield and had luck it didn't drop into the acid. I thought this solution was kinda sloppy, no idea what i could've done else.

Gave it 5 pts anyway since i haven't played any map like this before.

GreyHound wrote:
i had the funnel behind the cube and then snuck up through the forcefield, then tosses the cube over the forcefield and had luck it didn't drop into the acid. I thought this solution was kinda sloppy, no idea what i could've done else.

The intended solution is to make the portal above the door and use the funnel to drop down to where the cube is

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:

4LVLwPWqV5k
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LVLwPWqV5k)

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

Djinndrache wrote:
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:

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

Thanks for making the walkthrough.....and good job on solving the puzzle....you solved the puzzle exactly its intended to be solved!....

dhavalmistry wrote:
Thanks for making the walkthrough.....and good job on solving the puzzle....you solved the puzzle exactly its intended to be solved!....

Good to hear that I sometimes find intended ways as I usually seem to tend to find my own ways

The rotating tower is very common in puzzle-solving games and involving it in your map feels excellent. But the map is not just a puzzle of rotating tower, it also requires you to think with portals and think about the sequence in which you do the things. Spectacular one!
To place a reflect cube into the very bottom hole I just slip down the edge of the above floor with a cube and squeeze myself in. I wonder whether it's the intended solution.
Inspired by this map, I'm wondering if there can be a map involving the tower of Hanoi...
And there seems to be something strange with the rating of the map. I'm not sure what will happen when I rate the map 5 points.

smwlover wrote:
The rotating tower is very common in puzzle-solving games and involving it in your map feels excellent. But the map is not just a puzzle of rotating tower, it also requires you to think with portals and think about the sequence in which you do the things. Spectacular one!
To place a reflect cube into the very bottom hole I just slip down the edge of the above floor with a cube and squeeze myself in. I wonder whether it's the intended solution.
Inspired by this map, I'm wondering if there can be a map involving the tower of Hanoi...
And there seems to be something strange with the rating of the map. I'm not sure what will happen when I rate the map 5 points.

Thanks for the feedback. I am not sure what is going on with the rating of the map. The method you used to place the reflector cube is not the intended solution. Check few posts above you and you will find a walkthrough.

I have just completed the puzzle and I found the doors were the confusing part. I always associate the dice as the sequence to do things in. In this puzzle, the icons that are visible are only used for the last exit door, and I kept trying to figure out the pattern to open the side doors when in reality they opened with just the power generators above them. It would be much simpler for players to figure out what controls what if the icons were located beside the doors they open. In this case all the icons on the lower wall would be located around the exit door.

All in all a decent puzzle though and I still enjoyed playing it immensely.

I portalled up through the floor in the last hole. The second portal was in the room I got the reflector cube in. I positioned it on the edge, at an angle pointing towards the generator. When the laser hit the cube, it reflected right to the correct point.



- TechOwl -

I am glad that you enjoyed the puzzle.

Techowl wrote:
It would be much simpler for players to figure out what controls what if the icons were located beside the doors they open. In this case all the icons on the lower wall would be located around the exit door.

I think I kicked myself in the foot with that one. I agree with you and I realized it after I uploaded the puzzle.

Tonight I was in the "thinking" mood. I'm blessed to have downloaded the right puzzle for this mood. It took me a few minutes to understand how the tower worked with openning the side doors, but once I caught on the solution then became very easy. Thanks for the nice puzzle, for it was different. However, I would put the difficulty at moderate.
This is a only a wild thought --numbering the tower blocks would make the room look nicer and give meaning to the numbers on the floor as the player prepares to starts. Of course this might make the starting the puzzle on the easy side.... Again thanks for the fun "pick the lock" puzzle.
Eastward

it definitely doesn't need toxic water to punish the player and make them start over. i don't understand why people feel the need to add toxic water everywhere. it should be used as an obstacle to overcome, not as a random hazard you can fall into while exploring and force you to start over

I love logic puzzles, so this map was definitely for me. Well done, 5/5 from me. It's currently showing a rating of 107/5? I'll have to ask msleeper about that.

I had to buildcubemaps to make this look right. You should remember to do this before you publish a map.

KennKong wrote:
It's currently showing a rating of 107/5?

Really? To me it's just showing 4/5. Does this still occur?