File Size: 2.29 MB
Downloads: 8035
Rating: (60 votes)
Description
Just a small singleplayer sphere that needs testing, portal puzzles are a curious thing, its really easy to overlook an obvious gamebreaking solution that the next player spots immediately, so i figure its best to practice a bit on small releases, until I get more comfortable with it. I have to say mapping for Portal 2 is really fun, so let me know what you think!
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Nice map. And I agree, portal 2 mapping is very fun, and so far, much less complicated than portal 1 mapping was.
good map. but you can cheat the first cube by jumping on the button and shoot a portal over the emancipation grill.
Nice find! I think I will leave it in though, seems like a perfectly acceptable way to get the cube to the first laser, nothing wrong with out of the box thinking! 
wow 
Its the first real 1940s map and it`s great too
I like it and hope to see more 5/5
great job
Great map. Looks really good, puzzles are nice as well. Maybe a bit too easy. Thank you!
Sweet map, I really liked this one. Best single player custom map so far in my opinion.
you ROCK!!! keep doing more!!
i made an account just to tell you that and to rate your map 
Well this is the first Portal 2 custom map I've downloaded and I rather liked it.
Visually the map is spares but that's kind of to my tastes, I'm here for puzzles not the view.
As for the puzzles, since you've stated you wanted some testing with this I wrote down notes as I went through the level.
My first thought on getting in was, where do I go. The lack of clear indication of intimidate and final goals is really the biggest downside to the map. And I can't claim I ever got lost. Having the tower you need to reach first right in front of you with a very clear way over to it meant I spend little time wondering where I needed to go. Still I'd rather have an idea where I want to go rather than just going where it is easy to. Once on the tower I did the same thing, went where it was easy to go, and got to the propulsion gel section.
I will note I found it a little odd that either there wasn't an info_placementhelper or it was off centre at the base of the tower. Tried a few times to centre the portal without luck although it made no difference to the difficult of the puzzle. I also think I may have flung myself out of an unintended surface. I used this, on top of the tower, as an exit rather than the angled surface over the spawn.
This area was defiantly the most challenging. First thing I did was go for the floor button and see what it did. Opened a door in the ceiling, figured I was supposed to fling my self up it. Again I didn't like not being able to see what was up there that I was trying to get to, but it was pretty clear what I was supposed to do. Had some DOH moments obtaining the cube. Figured I was supposed to fling it over to where I was but I tried this first, followed by the one on the left before finally trying the on on the right. I don't think that due to any misdirection on the map, well the first one maybe but I should have tried the one on the right second since I'd just flung myself out of it. I did later find this solution, which I think is unintended.
Once I got the gel it was simple to see where I was supposed to spray it to jump up to the second level. I was surprised by the door closing behind me though. I actually when back down to the first level to see what happened to the cube. When I couldn't find the cube I'd figured there was a trigger to destroy it, but since I saw I needed it for the second level to I actually re-did the first level to try and save the cube. I knew in the back of my head it wouldn't work but I think breaking the normal portal rules (destroying a cube without explanation) made me want to test everything to be sure.
When I gave up trying to save the cube from the first level I then tried to get a new cube for the second level. At this part I got a little lost. My first thought was to fling the cube up to me like I had on the lower level, but I couldn't find a platform facing the right way. I then though to re-direct the repulsion gel to bounce the cube up to. That though lasted all of the whole second it took to realise the gel was landing on a non-portalable surface. That's when I realized the repulsion gel had to be for a jump and I probability needed propulsion gel on the run up to it. However, I think I was still stuck on this as a way to get the cube and so I spend a few minutes trying to get the propulsion get up to the second level without access to the cube. Bit of a DOH moment when I realized I had it backwards and could just portal the cube directly to me and use it to get the gel I needed.
Rest of the puzzle when like a breeze. Tried the two buttons on the landing platform from the repulsion gel jump and saw I needed to use the tractor beam to catch the cube and get it to me to hold the button down to cross the gap. The exit sign caused a little confusion as I didn't see an exit under it, but as there was only one catapult in the room with it I figured I trust it to send me to the right place.
All in all a nice fun map. Felt a little scattered with the puzzles not necessarily connecting very well, but re-using the tractor beam at the end helped to make tie that to the beginning, which was a nice touch. I look forward to more of your maps in the future.
Wow!
Very good job, man!
Make it a little longer, fix some bugs, add some light and details and send it to Valve as a DLC 
Temporary the best Portal2 Community-Map!
Keep mapping!
Very nice! seemed quite straight forward to me, but it's not easy to make a good map that isn't.
I look forward to seeing more like this.
Just beautiful. I really like this 1940 style of a map
EDIT: I gave it one more testing and found a big shortcut.
at the very beginning you can jump down and make a portal on the left side and get here pretty quick.
You should just make a fence at the beginning
Fun map, on my first run through just playing the map how I thought it should be played,I got lost a bit, but I eventually got it. I got lost with too many options, it wasn't that the puzzles were too difficult/broken, just didn't see them.
On my second run looking for shortcuts, I found a really big one. Like solve the map in less than 45 seconds with errors big. Here is a link to an unlisted video I uploaded to YouTube on how its done, though its not really hard. A lot like what Jope said, only even more cut out.
Only watch after you have completed the map please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq7zBwXX4Bc
best map so far 5/5!!!! you have to fix this shortcut my preposter did. but all the way very nice map, took me some time at the end with the speed gel, to jump true the emancipation grill.
Outstanding, the part with the bounce jell stumped me for a bit, got that elation feeling when I finally figured it out. That is exactly what the designers planned on, and you pulled it off perfectly. A series of puzzles like this would be great, can't wait for chamber 2.
Pro-level mapping as far as I'm concerned. Finding little cheats is the main part of the fun for a lot of people so I'd keep them all. Looks great, nice medium skill puzzles and never got lost at all.
The only genuine problem, and its insignificant really, is there didn't seem to be any reason for the box to disappear after you fly up through the trapdoor. There were no buttons, or fields, it just dematerialises without a cause. If you put a button over your head as you fly up, that could be the trigger to make the mirror box respawn.
If you wanted to make it a bit more difficult you could just remove the top box spawn button and give us an extra puzzle of trying to get the box upstairs rather than disappearing it.
That all said, as it is, it's a marvelous map.
I just registered myself to tell that your map is the best portal 2 map i have played yet, sincerely.
Keep up the good work!
Very nice job, the puzzles were fun and the visual style was spot-on. A few comments:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18787920/img/sp ... ss0000.jpg
I would suggest removing the hidden launch pad on the top portal surface, as it's unexpected and I don't even think it makes the puzzle any easier.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18787920/img/sp ... ss0001.jpg
I can get up here by crouchjumping. Not a gamebreaker, I don't think, but probably worth removing anyways.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18787920/img/sp ... ss0002.jpg
Your lighting is bizarre here, make sure you move the light_spot (I assume it is) up by the light fixture prop.
I enjoyed this map a lot. Like others I was a bit confused with what to do and when to do it, but it really didn't bother me since the point is to figure it out. However I did end up with an unintended solution to one part on my first playthrough:
After getting the first box, activate the orange goo, but don't use it yet. Instead portal back over to the angled surface above the map entrance. Now extend the excursion funnel from that angled surface and ride it all the way out to the ceiling of the dome. You can then look down and move the portal that was on the angled surface to the vertical surface on the backside of the middle tower. You will fall, but be caught by the excursion funnel again and can now ride it to the roof over the second floor you are trying to get to. On the roof go over to the spot where the blue goo falls on a platform and drop down to it(hold crouch to avoid being launched by it). You are now on the second floor and the box is still on the first floor keeping the orange goo going. From here proceed as you would normally using orange goo to zoom into the blue goo. This is all much easier to do than it is to explain. I doubt that this route is a time saver, just an alternative.
EDIT:
I found out you can also do that roof trick from the beginning and skip the first floor entirely if you get the cube from the second floor the normal way.
The second time I played it I believe I did it all the intended way and the third time I found the super quick short cut that only requires two portals and about 25 seconds(give or take).
Hey there.
Altough there are some shortcuts in this map, it is great.
I love the design of the map. Puzzles are well done and much fun to solve.
Map design and puzzles does match very well... good job!
video of complete map solving
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I dont know if this was the correct way to play it, but it looks like it was solved correct.
At least I did not try to take any shortcut.
Thanks for sharing that map, and I hope to see some co-op maps from you, soon!
Regards
PortalCombat
This was fantastic. Keep up the good work. I can't even criticize, as it was released one measly day after the SDK came out. Amazing what people can do in a matter of hours. Honestly, the balance between fun and challenge was spot on.
Great intro map, can definitely be used to help people re-familiarize themselves with somethings they learned from single player and unto hard puzzles as u continue to grow them. i personally dont like the puzzles where its about some sort of trick like how to throw a box at this particular angle at just the right time to solve. i like the ones where its about steps, do A to get to B, reuse A to also get to C and then use C and B to get to D. etc etc this has some great play of this method of solving
Awesome map. Liked it ver much.
Posted here a wlalkthrough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGfQBNm-qA
Made an account here just to praise the map. I liked it as it was fun and wasn't too difficult. Felt like a first party map
Keep up the good work.
Finally got around to playing this one. Totally amazing, and probably the best (if not only?) 1940's Aperture map I've seen so far. The only nitpicks I have are pretty small, things like not putting a fizzler over the ending elevator. Aside from that though I love it, keep up the good work and I hope you make more maps!
This map is excellent. I think I accidently took a shortcut at the beginning, but that doesn't really matter, I still played through everything in approximately the right order. It was very fun as well.
Nice.
Map is fantastic, it's got viable head scratching complexity and the kind of Valve hand-holding which allows mistakes to be fixed without quickloading. Add in a couple Cave Johnson voiceovers, crumbling terrain animations and it would have looked good in the original game.
Nice map, tons of shortcuts!
If I knew how to capture the video of me performing this I would.
The two portal solution is nice but there is a another shortcut to the 2nd floor.
1) Place portal on wall where tractor beam hits. (Let's call it Blue)
2) Place portal on floor where cube will fall (Orange Portal)
3) Ride the tractor beam through first portal and when you can see wall on second floor, place Blue portal there.
4) You are now on the second floor
5) Push button get cube, redirect laser.
6) Splash orange gel on floor as intended and finish level as designed.
Great map; it was both challenging but completable, and did a good job of presenting the challenge without giving away the solution.
Thanks!
Great map, it is the best Portal 2 map I have seen so far. It is fairly challenging and all the puzzles are satisfying to solve.
The first custom map I've played for Portal 2. Good fun to be had. The only "concern" I had with it is that there are a lot of leaps of faith where it's either difficult or impossible to see your target ahead of time. Think about what kind of visual cues you can add to assist the player in knowing where they want to go next. The key is to show them the goal, but make them figure out how to get there. Great map overall, I had a lot of fun playing it.
Fantastic, the answers to the puzzle are pretty obvious but the visuals and the fact that this map is a series of micropuzzles that are using shared puzzle elements really gives it a nice feeling. One of the best maps I've played.
Dude great map, didn't find anything that hadn't already been pointed out. Nice job.
there are several shortcuts and multiple solutions, some quite broken, but their being there doesn't take away from the puzzle and map as a whole. great puzzles and great ambiance.
anyone who's run through this map has to have a laugh at my expense; i think i am guilty of thinking with portals a little too much.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVglme0wN00[/youtube]
this is literally the solution i came up with, re-enacted. 
for some reason i had it in my mind that i had to leave the orange portal seen at the beginning of the video, since that was the only place i could figure to launch the box. and i never re-thought it even after figuring out the second speed-goo part with the wall right there. and yes, i realize now if was going to do it that way i could have just dropped the box straight into the bottom of the tower that i use a few moments later. actually, since i have fraps dusted off, here is a video of that - [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH2IvNP4h2s[/youtube] it's an interesting diversion.
while i'm making videos; [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpS1tGYVFhk[/youtube]
here's the quickest and easiest "legal" solution to the last part, if you can aim the first shot.
looking forward to more like this; it grabbed me way more than old faithful did, just mentioning that so you won't abandon one style for another. i only have two criticisms about sphere, and someone already shared my sentiments on the first; there's no explanation for the laser cube's disappearance after doing the first goo-fling. and; i never found a use for the portal surface with retracting shields on the reverse-button platform. red herring?
ps. the crow was an excellent touch!
edit: someone please tell me how to fix my youtube tags! like portalcombat did in page 2.
The surface is there to send the tractor beam towards the box dropper in order to catch a new box.
Also the cube doesn't disappear in 2.0, you can portal yourself back down and use the same cube again if you wish.
Awesome map. Well designed and true to the 1940's theme. Decent difficulty and great visuals also.
I love this map.
Portal 2 Custom Map: Sphere of roundness [Light Speed] HD
http://youtu.be/QeHkOwVWOe8
more more more
This is the first custom map I played in Portal 2, very nice visuals and difficulty in the norm.
I loved what you made with the tractor beam
It just misses some some audio (ambient, speakers ?) and it would be perfect
Just wanted to share a youtube I'd made about this map. Try not to mind that I'm such a dumb-o
MCQmSN1l8gU
Maybe this has been mentioned already, but I finished this without the speedy gel and without using the button that reverses the tractor beam thing. I don't know if you intended to have multiple ways to do it but overall I quite enjoyed it and look forward to playing your new map
I started playing custom maps and record me playing them. It's neither a perfect run nor do I have to have solved the map in the way it's meant to solve it. I play the maps "blind", that means I've never been in them before and play them for the very first time. I also give a little feedback for the map in the video description.
Maybe you are interested in the fact, that I played your map: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erYIdG1JHwA
At the end of Portal 2 I wished I could kill GLaDOS all over again, wake her up, and have her through me a whole new set of tests.
Wheatley wrote:
I've just gotta test, just gotta test, just gotta test...
This map really got me back into testing. I felt like it just came right out of the game, at the exact difficulty level it should've been. It was challenging but kept me progressing all the same, making everything satisfying and not frustrating. (There's no satisfaction in completing a simple test)
My main issue was that I felt it need just one more chamber, since the maps ending felt abrupt like it was cut off. I'd like to see what would happen if you linked maps together! Maybe you could make a series of combined maps that would start underground and end up top, where the modern Aperture Science is.
Thanks for making this amazing map!
This is a fantastic map! I love how disparate mini-puzzles fit into one larger theme, not unlike the best puzzles in Portal 2. I loved "old faithful" as well! In both maps, you have found just the right balance of challenge and pacing. Have these participated in the Summer Mapping Initiative? They would have had a real shot, IMHO. You're really talented at this.
5 excellent !
One of the best early custom maps ever, a good variation of the stock "Fall" theme. Well thought and no bugs in v 2.0, I too enjoyed it a lot:
Sphere Of Roundness 2.0
CzQNSnGS3ZQ
Good fun, but I was kicked back to my last save after I got on the elevator. Did
I miss something?
Just a small singleplayer sphere that needs testing, portal puzzles are a curious thing, its really easy to overlook an obvious gamebreaking solution that the next player spots immediately, so i figure its best to practice a bit on small releases, until I get more comfortable with it.
Screenshot: http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/7444 ... round1.jpg
I have to say mapping for Portal 2 is really fun, so let me know what you think!
File Name: sp_sphere_of_roundness.zip
File Size: 2.29?MiB
Sphere of Roundness