Update 1.2.2: Read Below!

Solve puzzles to reveal parts of the code required to unlock the door at the end. This is my first Portal 2 map. Puzzles range from easy to medium difficulty and many involve flinging.


Update 1.2.2:

1. Fixed an exploit that could cause one of the puzzles to be solved very easily, bypassing the intended solution.

2. Made minor changes to prevent an area being reached in a manner not intended by the author.


Update 1.2:

1. Made it ACTUALLY impossible to get trapped in sphere silos.

2. Made laser crawl tunnels easier to navigate while holding a cube or sphere (if you'd want to do that)

3. Fixed some autosaves triggering right before falling into death water.

Update 1.1:

1. Fixed some doors opening on touch, which made some puzzles pointless.

2. Fixed some nodraw textures above dispensers

3. Placed portal placement helpers around map

4. Fixed some door open/close triggers

5. Added observation rooms.

6. Made it more difficult (hopefully impossible) to get stuck in certain areas without a way to portal out.

Overall this update improves gameplay by removing the need to place portals in just the right spot, as well as by adding more signage to make goals clearer.

If you've already downloaded this map and played through it, don't bother with the update, but if you've downloaded it and haven't played it, please re-download as this version will provide as more satisfying experience.

Thanks!

File Name: sp_decode_122.zip
File Size: 19.37 MiB
Click here to download Decode

Bizarrely decorated map sporting a rare level-wide puzzle, as in Laser Funnel. Very challenging, more because of the backtracking involved than for its individual tests (quite standard). As soon as you wrap your head around that concept, it also becomes evident how forgiving it can be: items you already won shut down the puzzles required to get them.

Room for improvement: I'd really wish to see how the map would look if those were normal tile-wide decors; you can get stuck by falling in the pit near the first laser (with no portals active), or into the code-ball silos; slithering around the laser when backtracking seemed gimmicky; nodraw textures inside several dispensers; no observation rooms; some music & sound responses from items would ease the tension.

Examples: the cube in the main chamber respawning without pressing the button, or the catapult room getting free of fizzlers. I'd actually suggest against this: with a map this complex, players are satisfied when their trial & error gives results - forgiving them all the time makes that irrelevant. After all, more work is still better than dying.

Thanks so much for your input. I'm new at this and appreciate your advice.

One explanation: you can actually get out of the pit in the main chamber by placing a portal in the floor and another on the ceiling of the small hole in the wall where the catapult is. falling onto the catapult will then launch you back out of the pit.

I appreciate your advice about making the puzzles "deactivate" when solved. I'll leave them functional in place in future maps.

I must have forgot about those nodraw textures. I know I replaced some with black.

Music is a good idea. Didn't even think of that.

Weird look with the tiles popping out of the walls. The auto save in the catapult room saved me diving into the water, so i had to restart map after that. got three spheres and I have no idea how to get the redirection cube that kept getting destroyed. Got stuck behind the laser below the redirection room, so had to noclip out.

Good map 'till the last segment. It was easy to get into dead ends.

For example, at first i thought i only need to place the 3 spheres randomly, so i tossed one sphere to the closest silo from the ground, so i had no way to retrieve it. When i figured out the code (and how to get up there where the turret is), there was still room for trouble if you fail to walk the ledges or drop inside one of the 'cells'.
Having a save where all 3 spheres are in your control is critical.

Also, shooting the portal through that hole while flying from side to side can be very tricky and can take many attempts and hence get tiring.

I played the 1.0 version.

Thanks for the input. Actually, you don't have to shoot a portal through the whole while flying. You can simply land on the platform in the water and then stand there and shoot through the hole. That was the intention. Also, if you drop a sphere in the wrong silo, you can simply go back and press the button for that sphere again and it will dissolve and create a new one.

Also I am working on fixing the fact that you can get into the sphere silos and then can't portal out, and am also working on fixing save points to not save right before dying, and also the thing about getting stuck behind the laser. Will have them fixed in a few hours.

Again, thanks!

Pretty good map, but the doors that reveal the sphere-dropping buttons in the rooms labeled 2 and 3 still open when touched.

Thanks, checking it out now.

All fixed! I believe it's all up to spec now.

walkthrough please

http://img.megatorrents.kz/graphic/images/2011/July/31/6B3C_4E34F3C4.jpg
what i do wrong?

What a glorious and awesome map! It gave me a good one-hour brainwave. I like the concept that you should work out two puzzles to get the balls, and the two puzzles are related in the meantime. The first puzzle(three faithplates) is a bit confusing but it made me think and finally got the solution. And it was really an "Aha" moment when I finally worked out how to get the reflector cube. And to solve the puzzle, you have to go back to puzzles you've solved.
I appreciate your idea to involve decoding in the map. I love it when I finally put a portal to get to the small hole at the ceiling where there was a turret, the DANGER sign was right in front of my eyes, which seemed interesting.
I give you a 5 out of 5!!!

Savo wrote:
http://img.megatorrents.kz/graphic/images/2011/July/31/6B3C_4E34F3C4.jpg
what i do wrong?

@Savo:
You seemed to have the order reversed. The button in the very left is No.1 and in the very right is No.8.

Savo wrote:
http://img.megatorrents.kz/graphic/images/2011/July/31/6B3C_4E34F3C4.jpg
what i do wrong?

As stated above, you have the order reversed. It's just like indicated on the rows of lights in the puzzle rooms Except for actually getting the final door open, you solved the map though. Congrats!

Savo wrote:
what i do wrong?

IIRC the code is 672.

Thank you Valve for quicksave.

It was a challenging puzzle, made harder because of a remote jump to catch a cube - for me timing jumps to catch things get boring after the 5th try...this one took me a lot longer. For me maybe a light bridge to deflect the cube would have been better...
Counting of the ball pads 1-8 or 8-1 was also not guided, fortunately someone already made the mistake in the forum so I didn't have to - thanks.
Clearly, a lot of effort went into the map, much appreciated, but I think most players will get frustrated and seek a walkthrough rather than grind away.
Thanks for creating - oh yeah 5/5....

Very nice, took me quite a while to solve this.

I found something that "might" break something. I haven't tried it but one might break the puzzle by throwing the turret into one of the required ball slots so the slot won't activate when you are about to solve it.

Hello all,

Interesting level. Somehow, I'm stuck--I just can't see what the next step might be. I entered the connecting chamber and opened the three doors. I have retrieved one sphere from the large room with four faith plates. I also opend the "trap door" high in the ceiling. I entered the re-direction chamber and saw there is a shaft leading up, but I cannot portal up there. I have also been in the chamber above the eight glass-enclosed receptacles. So far, I have seen no fizzlers or funnels. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for any hints.

Bruce

Ok, solved faith plates.. I think I missed something though.. progress bar above door shows 2 "dots" left to go.. got sphere, and of course opened panel. From what I have read, I understand the 2 "chambers" are related.
Perhaps I come back later? Have been in both parts of laser room, but can't find a way up? Hmmm maybe up is somewhere else? Hints?

Excellent map btw 5/5 so far

SOLVED!!! That was amazing fun!! 8/5 Spoiler was given for code.. where is it? I'm guessing it's in the lvl somewhere? anyone.. anyone.. beulller?

Really good map here.

Very challenging... reaching awfulness some of the required tasks!for example getting the damn balls into their place in the main room at the end... I never flyed such that amount of time from one side to the other man!!!!.

Very thought chambers and much fun, though I got stuck (with no possibility of moving) in some areas in chamber n?2 (sooooo narrow)for example, after getting the redirecting cube (btw, so awful until I finally got onto the white tile on the wall before reaching the top of the black tower) and return back down through the narrow hole on the ground, if you throw the cube first, you will fall onto it then you're stuck, no possible movements. Anyway, that narrowness is attractive and gives the chamber that special claustrophobic look.

Very well design.I like the center room with the 3 doors and the idea of getting 3 balls. My favourite part is the chamber 1.

Thanks for mapping

I'm still unable to make any progress (see my previous note.) Hints/help appreciated.

Many thanks to szieve (I can't send a PM as I'm still new here.) That one hint did the trick. 5 out of 5 for me.

Ive been testing maps here for 2 days straight and this one is the best so far.

okay, I'm confused. So, I'm in the second room, with all the faith plates over the sludge. I get the companion cube, and ... what? Drop it on the button on the ledge above me? That opens the panel over the far corner, and the little closet space with the button to generate a sphere. But ... then what? I put that sphere in one of the sockets in the previous chamber, take the companion cube back out, go into the little tunnel, block the laser, and see the narrow passage upwards. But I don't see any way to get up there. Did I miss something in the faith-plate room?

Thanks for the help.

EE

Great - GREAT map.

My only issues are with the large middle room with the 4 areas with Faith Plates.
The plates themselves cannot fling you high enough to get you to the top platform to retrieve the sphere. I used the ceiling panel instead and dropped down about 50 times before I made it (finally used a sideways drop). When you do place the cube up there it uncovers a ceiling square which seems to have no purpose as I solved the puzzle without using it. I did not have to and of the faith plates except the first one in the entrance area.
But it was a masterpiece.

Nobody told me to look out for something to remember... And without quicksaves this map would be awful. But i think it's not too bad if you use quicksaves

7npr5l5oVCw
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7npr5l5oVCw)

This was much more of a chore than a puzzle. This probably could be solved in a few minutes, once you knew what to do and had practiced the maneuvers many times (OK, just twice for Djinndrache, but I don't have his skills). But figuring it out, and repeating certain steps over and over until you get them right, is just a grind. On the plus side, as many mistakes as I made, I never got stuck (there's an out everywhere, except perhaps in the cube silos).

Sniping at tiny, distant targets through tiny holes is poor puzzle design, IMAO. I believe super-deadly turrets should be reserved for forcing a player to take a different path. The odd white tiles on the wall by the silos had me searching for a pattern in them, that just wasted a lot of time, but oddly, actually did lead me to the key.

So, all the hard work that went into the "Aha!" moment just sucked the fun out of it for me. I hate resorting to quickloads just to save big chunks of time. 3/5 from me.

P.S. If you're going to have multiple spheres rolling around, provide a slight depression or lip to park them. I stored mine in the pit.