File Size: 4.80 MB
Downloads: 6121
Rating: (44 votes)
Description
My Entry for the ThinkingWithPortals Summer Mapping Initiative! -INSTALLATION- Place the maps folder under steamapps/common/portal 2/portal2. If it asks to overwrite say yes, you won't lose anything. -TO PLAY- Once installed, in game open the developer console (`) and type "map sp_grox_dis_en", then hit enter. If your just playing, you can delete the mapsrc folder as that is only for the competition and not required to play. -SPECIAL THANKS TO:- -Portal2Player -Omnicoder -Smasher -Fearlezz -Motanum -T3X -JonhBigOz -and everyone else who helped me with my map who I may have forgotten! (sorry bout that)
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Graphics are top notch, rivaled by few: Valve quality, palpable stylistic choices. But multilaser puzzles have their limits and it shows especially if you've got 2 and no other kind.
They are well designed in their own area of expertise, make no mistake, it's just that the ceiling for these jigsaws isn't much high.
I think it is a very very well made map. I enjoyed the laser puzzles very much. Keep up the great work! 
A really great map. The atmosphere was fantastic, and it enhanced the experience quite a bit. The puzzles weren't that challenging, by my standards, but they were well crafted, and I was never left wondering if the creator had made a mistake.
It's easy to cheat your way up to the cubes in the first room, though. All I did was shoot a portal high on the wall adjacent to the ledge and jump at it diagonally.
I would love to see it remade as a challenge map with fewer cubes.
EDIT: The message at the end says "Encouragement Discouragement" instead of "Discouragement Encouragement."
This was a great puzzle all in all, but i did find one alternate solution. Also, this map had the best graphics i have yet seen in a custom map.
Portal solution.jpg
Hey! Grox, it was very good, but it was a bit heavy on my laptop and it lagged a bit on some areas. Also, I felt a bit crowded. Good looks and great use of lasers! Although, it felt a bit repetitive!
I'll gave you 4/5, due to being sometimes laggy and I felt a bit crowded. I still have to look at your brushwork.
It didn't lagged for me, even though i had several programs open at the same time and my computer can barely play portal 1
the puzzles were really fun, the light was also VERY good in those maps.
I would say it's average difficult, but there was one puzzle that made me think quite a bit. I think it was the second to last one(with the receivers that were on moving platforms) because there was one white wall(the one that was sticking out a bit) that had a automated portal placement on it, and so i thought "i have to use this white wall" which in the end didn't turn out to be true and only made everything harder.
I don't know if this was on purpose, but after playing portal2 for so long, one usually thinks "if there is a automated portal placement it must be an important part of the map"
i gave it a 5/5
Kibate wrote:
It didn't lagged for me, even though i had several programs open at the same time and my computer can barely play portal 1the puzzles were really fun, the light was also VERY good in those maps.
I would say it's average difficult, but there was one puzzle that made me think quite a bit. I think it was the second to last one(with the receivers that were on moving platforms) because there was one white wall(the one that was sticking out a bit) that had a automated portal placement on it, and so i thought "i have to use this white wall" which in the end didn't turn out to be true and only made everything harder.
I don't know if this was on purpose, but after playing portal2 for so long, one usually thinks "if there is a automated portal placement it must be an important part of the map"i gave it a 5/5
Actually, you DO use that wall in the intended solution, which is why the auto-placement is there. The intended solution was to make a backwards Z-shape with the laser, the diagonal bit coming out of that wall piston.
bjs0 wrote:
It's easy to cheat your way up to the cubes in the first room, though. All I did was shoot a portal high on the wall adjacent to the ledge and jump at it diagonally.EDIT: The message at the end says "Encouragement Discouragement" instead of "Discouragement Encouragement."
I thought I fixed that by making that wall piece sticking out and facing away from the platform but I guess not. I will go fix that, as well as the wording mixup in the end, thanks for mentioning that.
xdiesp wrote:
But multilaser puzzles have their limits and it shows especially if you've got 2 and no other kind.They are well designed in their own area of expertise, make no mistake, it's just that the ceiling for these jigsaws isn't much high.
I know this, but it's not easy to make very versatile and unique laser puzzles,so I tried my best to make it enjoyable at the very least.
Also in that playthrough video I noticed that some panels were clipping, I will fix that was well.
Has anyone found the secret room?
Kibate wrote:
It didn't lagged for me, even though i had several programs open at the same time and my computer can barely play portal 1
There's a difference between laptop and desktop PC. Also you probably have graphic settings set on low which will obviously boost your fps counter.
And as Motanum said it lagged for me to. Yes i'm on a laptop. It wasn't that big of a deal for me. it would usually go from 60 to 50 fps which is noticeable in portal 2 but it's still playable(i could also change few settings if i was bugging me).
Design:
Designing destroyed aperture chamber is IMO a lot harder than any other theme. rooms were well constructed and you can see you have a lot of experience in making the maps.
The secret room was a great addition to the map! There's really not anything else I can say about it, you nailed it. One thing you don't have to worry about in this kind of maps, is losing the cubes.
There's one thing i found. i'm not sure but maybe you forgot one indicator on the floorScreenshot
Puzzle:
The puzzles were great. i didn't find them too hard neither too easy which is perfect for a huge crowd of players.
the turrets didn't really pose a big threat but i was surprised in the 2nd room as i wasn't paying attention.
Overall:
I think this map will either will the competition or be up there at top with the best maps released. the only thing it's missing is some innovation but in this case that's not a bad thing. overall it has everything to receive a perfect grade!!!
Thank you for sharing and good luck.
Lag was a problem I fought with in this map, see I may have a PC but it still lags because my GPU is crap, so I tried my hardest to get lag down but the last chamber took some work to force lag down (and it's still very laggy if you look from certain points)
The indicator missing is another bug I missed, I will fix that too. Expect V1.1 out sometime today!
Ey Grox, nice map. GREAT graphics... as usual. I'm fan of your work since Portal 1... Not so difficult but really great atmosphere and details. The shadows AWESOME!! A bit too-many lasers for my taste, but good puzzles.
Looking forward for more maps from you!
Thanks for being there creating for the players!
Kind regards.
I have five things to say after completing this map.
1. I only died once. 
2. It was laggy the whole time for me.
3. It had very good lighting and details, but it felt kind of crowded and closed in.
4. The music helped it make more peacfull than it really was. (Which is good.)
5. Gee you like moving destruction train!
Certainly the most visually stunning custom maps I've ever played. Had a very professional polished feel to it like a real section by Valve. That being said I found the puzzles to be a bit lacking and repetitive. Additionally, I'm not a huge fan of too much laser redirection, mostly because I get tired of constantly running into the lasers as I hop around. As others said, the visual nature of this gave me a little lag (2010 MacBook Pro, 2.4 GHz Core2Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 320M, 4GB RAM), but not enough to really be detrimental to my playing, it just made me feel... uneasy.
This was just epic... I -ed sooo hard!
!WARNING! Spoilers !WARNIG!
YouTube Playthrough
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msleeper wrote:
The "bigspoiler" tags hides Youtube videos, normal "spoiler" tags do not.
oh ok thanks!
Played through this one yesterday. The visuals are top-notch - I'm a little jealous, actually. 
Here are my thoughts on gameplay:
-Parts of this are very frustrating. I gave up on the third area after spending 30+ minutes getting nowhere. It's the only time I've given up on a Portal 2 map. :\ Part of the problem is how crowded that space is - the cubes are very difficult to manipulate without running into the laser, a wall, or the other cubes. Another cause is the total lack of hints as to what to do. Yes, you're supposed to align the laser with all 5 relays and press the button ... but which ones lower the raised relays? I kind of figured that part out, but they aren't marked at all, which slowed me down.
-As cool as the broken floor looks, it makes placing the cubes level nearly impossible in some areas.
-The random turrets in each room were really annoying. They don't really add anything at all to the puzzles IMO. It's frustrating to walk into the room for the first time only to be mowed down by turrets you couldn't even see until it was too late. Once you know they're there, they're fairly easy to dispose of, making them a non-obstacle. After that they just add clutter to the already-small space unless you blow them up with the laser, which gets tedious after doing so repeatedly.
Overall: Absolutely brilliant visuals, gameplay feels like it needs some big adjustment.
Will T. wrote:
Played through this one yesterday. The visuals are top-notch - I'm a little jealous, actually.Here are my thoughts on gameplay:
||-Parts of this are very frustrating. I gave up on the third area after spending 30+ minutes getting nowhere. It's the only time I've given up on a Portal 2 map. :\ Part of the problem is how crowded that space is - the cubes are very difficult to manipulate without running into the laser, a wall, or the other cubes. Another cause is the total lack of hints as to what to do. Yes, you're supposed to align the laser with all 5 relays and press the button ... but which ones lower the raised relays? I kind of figured that part out, but they aren't marked at all, which slowed me down.
-As cool as the broken floor looks, it makes placing the cubes level nearly impossible in some areas.
-The random turrets in each room were really annoying. They don't really add anything at all to the puzzles IMO. It's frustrating to walk into the room for the first time only to be mowed down by turrets you couldn't even see until it was too late. Once you know they're there, they're fairly easy to dispose of, making them a non-obstacle. After that they just add clutter to the already-small space unless you blow them up with the laser, which gets tedious after doing so repeatedly.||
Overall: Absolutely brilliant visuals, gameplay feels like it needs some big adjustment.
||If your having problems with the floor then your not doing the puzzle as intended, as the intended solutions do not get close to broken floor segments. still I don't want them to be a hindrence so I will look into making it more "flat-destruction" so placement of cubes does not become a hindrence.
The second room has indicators that pinpoint what does what, you should look at them more closely. I don't know how to make that more obvious, but if you have a suggestion i'm all ears.
They actually are quite large, not huge but not small either, so I don't see where your getting the crowded look. It might be from too many things in the map at once. I will look into cleaving un-needed detail to both remove lag and fix the clutter feel.
As for not knowing what to do, that's part of the puzzle- figuring it out. You know your supposed to trigger the relays, but HOW to trigger them is the puzzle.||
I dunno totally what happened, but I had some sort of prophetic vision tonight all of a sudden that revealed to me how to finish this. Seriously, the solution just sort of showed up in my head. I actually had to boot up the game and try it to make sure it was legit. It worked too, so... 
I don't think I was playing with a clear head earlier; sorry 'bout that. Maybe it was Laser Fatigue - I do believe I'd just played another laser-centric custom map earlier. Don't remember which it was.
This one's a lot more fun when I'm able to think straight.
The level of detail might indeed be what gives the "crowded" feeling. It looks cool, but it ends up distracting from the gameplay and making things seem cluttered with 5 or 6 layers of beams/frames/foliage/pipes/etc. overhead and in the walls. Don't remove too much of it, but finding a balance might be good.
Perhaps putting a func_clip_vphysics in those torn-up spots in the floor would be beneficial? It'd let you keep the broken up floor (it's still a nice touch) while avoiding the cubes tumbling inconveniently.
Although I had a lot more fun coming back to give this a second run, I still stand by my original thoughts on the turrets; they don't seem to do anything except kill you right when you enter the room, and since you can then remove them quickly once you know they're there they don't exactly contribute to the puzzle. Walking in and dying isn't too fun. 
Re-assessment: Amazing visuals, gameplay is fun but only if you aren't already sick of lasers when you start.
-V1.1 RELEASED!-
changelog
-fixed an exploit in the first chamber where you could skip part of the puzzle.
-fixed an exploit in the last chamber where you could skip part of the puzzle.
-fixed a few texture misallignments/indicator lights not appearing properly.
-fixed a particular turret's AI, it should now act as intended near it's fellow turrets.
-fixed ending text being backwards.
-fixed some panel clipping.
-altered last chamber's puzzle to force you to require all materials provided for the puzzle.
-altered geometry and removed extra detail props to help reduce lag and reduce the "crowded" feel,
as well as to make pivot cube placement easier.
-altered turret setup in the second chamber to make them more part of the puzzle than a hindrence.
-removed deadly turret from the first room because it was not really part of the puzzle.
-added some rattman hints to make the second chamber slightly easier.
Video: http://www.xfire.com/video/47c0a8/
Looked amazing o.o
My fav thing was the birds chirping :d
Trying it again after the update, still superlative as ever against any (few) contenders. Can't get over the doubts about having only multilaser puzzles, though.
Hm. Was the elevator supposed to take forever to actually start moving? It never started for me, so I just noclipped my way to the level :/
matchu wrote:
Hm. Was the elevator supposed to take forever to actually start moving? It never started for me, so I just noclipped my way to the level :/
This is a glitch I have yet to fix (as I don't know the problem) that occurs if you play a coop map before my map. It's also not consistent, which doesn't help with the fixing bit.
Good contest map. One of the best one I've played so far. You have a great eye for style, no doubt about it.
The map was a lot of fun to play, and what I love about this map design is that there are going to be several different solutions to each chamber, not just one. This gives the map a lot of replay value. I will go back and solve the chambers again some different way. This is the first map in the contest that I've played that allows for multiple solutions. That is very cool, and sets itself appart from many others.
Overall, very well done!
Here's another video of this map, idk if you mapmakers are as worried about these now that the contest is closed but here ya go anyway:
-edtSxp_aX4
I completed the first chamber with a cube to spare. And the last puzzle was just brute force, one cube per laser catcher thingy...
Overall a well-made map though. Just not really my style.
VERY beautiful map. And the immersion, and sound effects/etc are amazing. The puzzles were fun (to a point), and challenging... I just, personally, don't much care for laser puzzles, or more preciously LOTS of laser puzzles with a million damn things you have to get the laser through. They can easily become annoying, and just barely misplacing a portal, or cube can totally screw up everything. But I solved it easy enough, so I guess all in all it's pretty good. I did find one area that you can bypass though.
"You can bypass in this area..."
When you get to the last rooms puzzle (before the exit door) You have two parts to solve. First to get the cube down, then to solve the final room to get out.
You can totally skip the first part by cleverly placing a portal above the arm-platforms then jumping out and at an angle here's a screen shot of me on those arms:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/rellikpd/screenshot/595815243097380247 (got to think with portals!).
Also some of the door animations seemed a big buggy. (If I remember correctly the one that was most noticeable, was the one that leads you to the final puzzle.
all in all, a good map.
rellikpd wrote:
"You can bypass in this area..."
When you get to the last rooms puzzle (before the exit door) You have two parts to solve. First to get the cube down, then to solve the final room to get out.
This can't work, because I put a clipbrush there to prevent anyone from doing that. I will look into why it still did it.
Expect an update soon, I have since learned alot about optimizing in P2,so I should be able to improve preformance.
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:
craVVGcyOns
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=craVVGcyOns)
Also note the video description for more feedback and my signature for additional project information.
Visually, a very well done map. Excellent attention to detail (better than the game itself, IMHO.)
The puzzles were a little different story. I've played through the map 3 times in a row, and haven't used the same solution in any room twice. That's what happens when you have lots of targets, cubes and walls. You'd be surprised at all the wacky angles that will work. It's not necessarily a bad thing, since you can easily stumble across a "wrong" solution when you're stumped by the "intended" solution.
I agree with other posters about the cramped spaces, and nearly superfluous turrets.
For looks, it gets 5/5, but for gameplay, just 3/5, so overall, I'm rating it 4/5.
BTW, I haven't found the secret room, yet, so I will play it some more!
I liked the turret with the "broken neck" and shooting backwards.
Discouragement Encouragement
hcK8tcXlwVU
Bit late on the party on this one, heh.
The FPS is pretty bad, getting some huge fps drops.
You don't have to use the jumping pad-thingie in the first room.. You can simply put a portal on the roof and the floor to gain momentum, and put another portal on the floor to fly up to the platform.
And most importantly(?), the doors close too slow. You can get stuck in the previous room, or use it as an exploit to bring items from the previous room. On the last puzzle I ended up with 9 cubes.
I just finished playing. I liked the visuals, music, immersion overall but the puzzles were rather monotonous - you know, lasers only (well, some turrets too but not much). I know where the secret room was but was unable to figure out a way to get there.
I'm quite a newbie and playing these maps just now and so far it's my favourite. I've always loved lasers and there are only a few laser-based maps in the original game. However, the third chamber took about just 6 minutes, while the second was 20 at least. Awesome detail and there's a feel to the whole thing. I would like to play more maps like this.
My Entry for the ThinkingWithPortals Summer Mapping Initiative!
-INSTALLATION-
Place the maps folder under steamapps/common/portal 2/portal2. If it asks to overwrite say yes, you won't lose anything.
-TO PLAY-
Once installed, in game open the developer console (`) and type "map sp_grox_dis_en", then hit enter. If your just playing,
you can delete the mapsrc folder as that is only for the competition and not required to play.
-SPECIAL THANKS TO:-
-Portal2Player
-Omnicoder
-Smasher
-Fearlezz
-Motanum
-T3X
-JonhBigOz
-and everyone else who helped me with my map who I may have forgotten! (sorry bout that)
File Name: grox_dis_en.zip
File Size: 4.8 MiB
Click here to download [SP] Discouragement Encouragement