Sentry Point is my first release. I estimate it to be of about medium length and difficulty.
I have also included a vmf in case any designers would like to give some critic tips.

File Name: Sentry Point.zip
File Size: 4.76 MiB
Click here to download Sentry Point

Nice bridge puzzle - easy-medium challenge. The back and forth with the laser was a bit tedious but not overly so. Everything worked fine...Thanks for creating.

This map was tons of fun! Loved everything about it.
Back and forth to the laser didn't bother me - it was interesting seeing the angles needed to hit the catchers. I liked the way the map was set up - each room had something different and interesting - and of course - the turrets! 5 cakes for you! Keep them coming...........

Short map in Clean, afflicted by several spurious elements. Visually, anomalous geometry and some cut tiles aren't as penalizing as the overbright\flat lightning. Structurally, the latter half suffers from loose turrets placement (to rush) and the skippable gel\barriers.

De gustibus but imho the tilted laser seemed gratuitous: you're hitting things right at your feet, usually those are used for stray laser bells and targets behind cover. More generally, I sugget to be sure that people complete the cube challenges - how about bringing the cubes IN to the end? (having the bridge controls inside). Or recycling those cubes later for the barriers part.

Thanks for the feedback so far all!

Initially I planned on having 1 of the cubes brought over to the second half, but the way the puzzle unfolded required a pre-placed cube to begin with, thus the idea was dropped.

I could not think of a good way to keep the light bridge around while having the player carry cubes around.
Actually I wanted to even scrape the left door/cube in the beginning entirely, but felt it would make the laser part too short.
I think as time goes on that I'll be to refine puzzles much better, as while I was going along, I ended up thinking myself that it wasn't as well optimized as well as I hoped.

I am curious though about how it's possible to skip the paint though. I tried to make sure the player couldn't [spoiler]fling the cube fast enough without gel, or use a cube to block the incoming fire, or use the light bridge to block the turret.[/spoiler]

Here it is:

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I also did a short video:
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I hope thats the intended solution!

On my first run, I did it also without the gel, I just took the cube placed it right, so that I get the light bridge and put the light bridge as high as possible, because then the turret couldn't shoot me.

But anyway, great map!

You sure managed to break the hell out of it xdiesp! I'm actually more surprised at some of the angles you found with the laser along with some of the jumps possible around the light bridge. Certainly have to plan better with those random white tiles indeed.
I actually remembered about the light bridge with turret exploit, one where the light bridge can be portaled onto far side wall to block turret from firing. Ironically I took steps to prevent it, being the lower portal level, then inadvertently brought back.
I was actually hoping to have the player bring the cube in last room along to the light bridge to be able to make the final jump, but it was possible to just portal the bridge barely high enough, but I got too lazy to bother with it.

Though of course sometimes finding unintended solutions and routes do doing stuff makes puzzles more interesting at times. I suppose most of these errors came from not beta testing enough, and making 'assumptions' on what was and wasn't possible. But I do have a much more streamlined plan for my second level.

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:

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(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1L84dHAN2s)

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

Interesting map, of medium difficulty. Thouroughly enjoyable from a players perspective - although the trigger_portal_cleanser in the water is not only frustrating (it forced the player to use faster reaction times and allowed no room for error at one part) but also looked rather glitchy when turrets and cubes dropped in water were fizzled - I would suggest unticking the Physics Object boxe for the fizzler, allowing it to still make the puzzle harder for players, and place a trigger_multiple further down in the water, that has only Physics Objects ticked (not clients) with the output !activator - Kill. That way the emancipation grille effect won't play when they're dropped into water.

A couple of visual issues: Firstly - lots of the same textures. Looks nice, but seems a little repetitive; try varying the textures to give different sized squares (and make interesting patterns, if you wish.) Secondly, there's a button labelled with a box dropper icon which does nothing in the last part of the room - as far as I can tell it's a remnant of an old solution. Finally, and most importantly, your starting elevator is not quite aligned with the rest of the chamber - there's a leak! (see image)

On the whole, though, a thoroughly enjoyable map!

Thanks for the tip with water. I've seen objects fizzled away before when hitting water, and never actually noticed any complaints about it, so figured it was okay.

I have already improved my visual skills with blocking for my second level, at least I think.
The button there is used in case you fizzle the beginning cube on the switch, it will stay locked until the given cube is destroyed.

Aigh for the leak there...Hammer editor didn't even point it out, so it must be part of the no draw. It's really frustrating looking around in the editor trying to spot such leaks, thought I had them covered.
I originally had a door in front of the entry elevator...but it opened into a void texture and I had no idea why, perhaps this was the cause?

I haven't played the map, but I should add that you should always dissolve objects when they enter water, so that they respawn. However, so that there's no annoying fizzle sound or effect, it's done slightly differently. Crate a trigger_multiple where your water is, and add this output to it: 'OnTrigger;!activator;SilentDissolve'. This will kill the entity that activated the trigger, I.e., the cube, turret, et cetera, but fire it's OnFizzled output so that cubes can respawn.

Rubrica wrote: Crate a trigger_multiple where your water is, and add this output to it: 'OnTrigger;!activator;SilentDissolve'.

Yeah, that's probably better than the !activator;kill method - would kill not cause boxdropper instances to autorespawn?

Great map. [spoiler]My daughter grabbed the cube and ran out of the room before I had a chance to say "hey what's that gel for", so we never killed that turret at the end of the ramp. We just put a light bridge over his head.[/spoiler]

Loved this map!

Just slightly above easy difficulty, in an over-plain room. Both puzzles and visuals need love to make this great, but really not bad for a first map. 3/5 from me.

not bad. i liked the concept but the puzzle isn't difficult at all. visually also i found nothing exceptional but on the whole a very fun map overall

4/5