Status:
The Hex: solved by KennKong after 11 days
The Dancefloor: solved by HeadShot after 4 days
The Big Top: solved by Jacu & flatmate after 12 days

Full solution video is: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVtg-eqOSg]here[/url]

Since Triplex is my third map I decided to go with a theme of "three". You'll find three main rooms, each containing a very challenging puzzle. While each part of the map should be genuinely tricky, you do have some flexibility as to the order in which you choose to tackle them. Rest assured that no super-ninja moves are required and the map should be completely solvable on any equipment. Rather than lightning reflexes, you will need careful thought and an appreciation for geometry. Compared to my previous map [url=http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=1530]Encode[/url], Triplex has far fewer moving parts and should be more constrained and less prone to unintended solutions. Overall I suspect that it is also more difficult but only time will tell!
I hope you enjoy it.
[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10137755/triplex0004.jpg[/img]
[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10137755/triplex0008.jpg[/img]
[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10137755/triplex0007.jpg[/img]
[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10137755/triplex0009.jpg[/img]
v1.1: bug fix for hex room
v1.2: minor tweaks
v1.3: fixes for unintended solutions
v1.4: fixed timing problem in Hex (this is mistakenly labeled v1.3 in-game)
v1.5: another timing fix for Hex plus some cosmetic stuff
v1.6: fix for laser feed into big top

File Name: triplex_v1_6.rar
File Size: 8.14 MiB
Click here to download Triplex

Don't take my words too harshly, as I'm not a fan of 'precision' puzzles in general, but I think this needs some work.

1) In the Hex room, the cube closest to the main hallway appears to be misaligned, breaking the puzzle, as it does not direct the laser to the receptacle above it. The intended solution to this room is fairly obvious, but I tried for a good 20 minutes to get my two portals at the exact 60 degree angle required and simply could not get it good enough. The box RIGHT NEXT TO the target on the floor bumping my portals does not help matters. Perhaps a triggered info_placement_helper?
2) On the Dance Floor, I can see what needs to be done but it's just plain ugly to me; holding the cube in the air briefly, then rapidly portalling 4 unique, off-grid, unmarked spots on the floor in quick succession. I can't get it done, and it's not very fun trying.
3) On a more technical note, you should probably put a playerclip on each of the cube-dispenser tubes, otherwise the player can walk into them and partway up the curve, which is a place that should really be kept out of view from a design perspective, IMHO

Again, this may be the soccer player criticizing the basketball court, but at the very least I think (1) is a legitimate bug; correct me if I'm wrong. I look forward to seeing our resident Ninja's completing this map nonetheless

Aesthetically, the map is pretty nice! I think it would be better if you did some texture rotation to give the hexagonal rooms a hexagonal floor and/or ceiling pattern, but that's just me.

Thanks a lot for pointing out the major bug in your point 1). I'm fixing it now.
As for point 2), it's great to hear your thought process. Remember that I've said that it is solvable on any equipment (including console controller). If you can't even get close using a mouse and keyboard, then it's not the answer.
Edit: v1.1 fixes the cube direction problem. Thanks again.

Dance floor wasn't that hard -- it took me about 5 mins. of practice to memorize where the portals go; then a few tries to get the execution done and I'm no ninja. I was wondering about the misaligned cube in the Hex room; I thought maybe it was a devilish bit of misdirection or something because the indicator strip for that catcher doesn't hook up with the rest of them. Still working to complete, though....

Roger, that doesn't sound like the intended solution for dancefloor. I'll have to look into it tomorrow. Could you give me some more details please?

My solution for Dancefloor was this: Redirect the laser from Hex to hanging cube in DF. Go into DF, place a portal on the floor under hanging cube to get laser. Place cube within reach as you stand near laser with your back to the wall-mounted catcher. Place portals on floor under each catcher in quick succession, then grab cube and hold it into laser to wall catcher. I assume I finished the room, because I heard a buzzer go off and the main room reconfigured itself slightly. Though I was surprised the fizzler didn't turn off, since that's what the indicator strips would seem to indicate. But maybe I'm wrong.

Edit: Well, I may have reconfigured the main room and just not remembered.
Edit2: I just downloaded ver. 1.1 and the cube is still misaligned in Hex.

.

Thanks Roger. Couple things: the Big Top room reconfigures itself when you walk into it- nothing to do with the buzzer. I wouldn't design that kind of hidden remote activity. The buzzer in both Hex and Dancefloor indicates that the fizzler has opened. The indicator strips are accurate in both rooms, so you haven't solved Dancefloor yet.
Edit: I couldn't confirm your comment on v1.1. It works for me, directing the laser onto the cube-in-box just to the right of the laser sends it onto the sensor on the ceiling whereas before it was directed horizontally. Can anyone else confirm that?

Xtreger wrote:
Damn... released during exam time. I'll try this on 3rd (or more precisely, 3rd ONWARD)

Ah sorry! I probaby would have waited for you actually, especially since I have 24 hours of traveling to do from tomorrow...
anyway I hope and expect that the map will be alive and kicking through the weekend.

Can't get either puzzle.

As for HEX, The cube next to the platform hits the receiver for me, however, from the back (close to the window) you can actually grab the cube in the box. I don't think that is intended...

I agree with above about the hex puzzle. Far to precise to get the exact angle for the portal to hit every cube. Spent about 3 hours (on separate occasions). Gave up.

not fun.. Solutions are fairly apparent, but execution is nearly impossible

Szieve wrote:
Solutions are fairly apparent, but execution is nearly impossible

Believe me Szieve, no one is even close to seeing the solutions yet and when they do, they are quite easy to execute.

Some questions:

1. In "The Hex", are you supposed to be able to grab one of the cubes?? I'm assuming this is a glitch.

2. Does the solution require very prices targeting? In "The Hex", the obvious solution to have a floor and roof portal to be aligned exactly 60 degrees to have it hit all receptors, in practice it is very difficult, and I am assuming this is not the solution because of this. The only other thing I can think of is having some kind of spinning cube, which also would be very tiresome to set up. Likewise in "The Dancefloor", one obvious solution is to rapidly shoot portal at precise locations to fire up the receptors. I'm hoping for a more elegant solution however.

3. When exactly does the three cubes animate up and down in "The Big Top"? It seems to happen more than once.

4. What exactly turn on the tractor beams in "The Big Top"? I am assuming the receptor in the middle of the room change direction of the tractor beam (as per the sign) but nowhere have I found anything to turn any of the tractor beams on.

5. As long as all receptors in "The Hex" and "The Dancefloor" respectivly has been lighted, the fizzler is removed, correct? This is at least what the indicator lights seems to indicate. I'm asking because I managed to hear the buzzer sound, but the fizzler was not removed.

Ok, good questions!
1) it's intended.
2) can't say too much really. The intended setups may need to be precise, but you have to also find a strategy for visual alignment. In this way the execution is simple with minimal trial and error.
3) They animate when you walk into the room and they reset if you're out of the room for a while.
4) The tractor beams all switch on when the center sensor is activated. They don't change direction. I've corrected the sign in v1.2. Sorry about that!
5) The indicators are correct. The fizzler will remain open as long as the timers are running. If you heard the buzzer then the fizzler opened briefly. I'm working on an update to the dancefloor timers which should make the rapid-portal sequence solution impossible but will leave the fizzler open a little longer in the intended solution.

You must consider change the hidden cube. This kind of hidden information is not fun and does not belong to portal in my opinion. If you have other hidden elements please let me know. I do not want to waste hours only to find out there was a hidden portal surface, cube or platform.

Ok I'll think about that. I was hoping it would be clearer because of the disconnected indicator lights but I guess not. There's nothing else like that in the map.

Can you clarify the rules of where a cube spawns when it dies? Judging from your first screenshot it seems sometime cubes can spawn in the "Big Top"?

This thing is a nightmare for me. Can't get Hex figured out, but I know that Dance Floor has to be done first, since Hex needs at least one cube in there to be solved. I did notice that at the entrance to the dance floor, the portal cleanser brush extends a good bit onto the stairs, but doesn't extend completely across the width of the stairs. Is this intentional or a minor over site?

I thought you were going to lengthen the timer in the Dance floor so the fizzler stays off longer ?

Before with the original version I could just barely get the fizzler to go off for about 1/2 second.
But now the timers in v1.2 are all "shorter" and it has become impossible.

Of course - defeating the fizzler for 1/2 sec did not get me anywhere either.

I think he made it shorter to prevent the solution we so far used for the dancing floor room. Something more sophisticated is needed I believe. If so, it's a good change.

nice map so far!
sadly im very busy at the moment... ill try to finish tomorrow

jonatan wrote:
Can you clarify the rules of where a cube spawns when it dies? Judging from your first screenshot it seems sometime cubes can spawn in the "Big Top"?

Sure, cube-spawning and autosaving is arranged to make sure you don't make backwards progress if the player or a cube is killed. If you worked hard to get a cube into Big Top, then it will respawn in that room and not in its original room. There's one minor exception to that rule, but you can trust me it's just to make your life easier, not key to the puzzle.

PCdoc wrote:
I thought you were going to lengthen the timer in the Dance floor so the fizzler stays off longer ?

I lengthened the wall sensor timer and shortened the other four timers. As Jonatan said, this is to prevent super ninja floor portaling and also generally keeps the fizzler opened a little longer but this might not be apparent to you just yet.

@marKiu, glad you're enjoying it and possibly making progress?

@Wanderer2021: I'll look into that fizzler issue. I don't think it affects anything though..

@Everyone: I'm sorry to say that I have to go on 24 hours of boats and busses just to get a stamp in my passport. I should be able to respond to messages but no updates until Saturday.

Damn my slow brain and almost complete lack of experience with Hammer. I've been working on a map inspired by your unorthodox solution to "Devil's Tower".

The first section is like the Hex, only with more manageable 90 degree rotations. I use an info_placement_helper in the ceiling to align the portal over the target, but the player is responsible for aligning the one in the floor. Considering that I can't quite get your setup working, you might consider doing this, too. Mine is working fine, and you can get it on the first or second try.

The second section works like the Dance Floor, only with a much faster rotation and higher yoyo. It uses a different method to get the rotation going. In the third section, I use some quick flings from the second section to get a fast flat spin like what you had going in Devil's Tower. These sections are not coming together well at all.

I found a solution to The Hex room, but its ugly and its sure not to be the intended solution: Place one cube near the emitter pointing towards the entrance. Take the second cube and stand near the entrance fizzler so that you have a line of sight to all of the boxed cubes. Swing your cube through the laser to hit all of the boxed cubes and then throw the cube at the end of the swing out of the now deactivated fizzler. Timing is everything. Too fast and the catcher doesn't register a hit. Too slow and the fizzler won't deactivate. Practice the timing before you throw, but expect to go through a lot of cubes trying to get this to work. Now go out there and finish this room and make a save before grayarea changes the map!

Fun! I'll just confirm this is unrelated to the intended solution. I won't be able to change anything until tomorrow, so no more breaking the map!

Pretty sure I have the intended solution for Hex. Checking with grey, I want to solve this whole damn thing before any part of the solution is posted.

In my opinion this map is impossible...timings of the receptors are too brief..in the Dancefloor Room, 1/2 seconds to sequentially shoot 4 portal on the floor and take the cube in your hands to direct the ray in the receptor on the wall , it's simply IMPOSSIBLE! In the Hex Room I think that 3 cubes are needed to solve it...with just 2 it's not possible.

It's not my place to reveal HeadShot's very clever method for The Hex, but I can say that it's not related to the intention and I'll fix it tomorrow. All three rooms are still open for business.
@Numinas, I did say that I was specifically making that approach to Dancefloor impossible so it shouldn't come as a surprise. Also, the map description would be contradicted by that.

grayarea wrote:
It's not my place to reveal HeadShot's very clever method for The Hex, but I can say that it's not related to the intention and I'll fix it tomorrow.

Ah who cares if its not the intended Moving on...

I got to try it today. Here's a possible idea for the Hex. I tried it a lot but the game kept crashing showing some memory-related error (don't know if it's an issue with the map) :

There's a marker on the floor with arrows indicated. Make a portal there, and the other directly above it with a relatively skewed orientation (60 deg), using arrows as a guide. Drop a cube through the bottom portal such that it is initially facing a fixed cube. Clearly it will change orientation with every fall. In an ideal case, the orientations will change by 60 deg and towards a different fixed cube through each fall. So the receptors will be activated in rapid succession.

During my tries I got the placement right, but even a minor error in orientation will not give the correct result. I guess there's be an easier way to get the orientation exactly right.

EDIT : Sorry, that suggestion's redundant as it has already been pointed out. Didn't read properly before..

You're meant to be studying! Has anyone else had any game crashing problems?
I guess you tried restarting your machine? Let me know if it keeps happening and please tell me the exact error message. Thanks.

Xtreger wrote:
I got to try it today. Here's a possible idea for the Hex. I tried it a lot but the game kept crashing showing some memory-related error (don't know if it's an issue with the map) :

||There's a marker on the floor with arrows indicated. Make a portal there, and the other directly above it with a relatively skewed orientation (60 deg), using arrows as a guide. Drop a cube through the bottom portal such that it is initially facing a fixed cube. Clearly it will change orientation with every fall. In an ideal case, the orientations will change by 60 deg and towards a different fixed cube through each fall. So the receptors will be activated in rapid succession.

During my tries I got the placement right, but even a minor error in orientation will not give the correct result. I guess there's be an easier way to get the orientation exactly right.||

EDIT : Sorry, that suggestion's redundant as it has already been pointed out. Didn't read properly before..

I tried this solution too, but the cube was unable to reach all receptors...may the map need a fix

Heh, so I managed the above solution to Hex ( Hint:2nd cube can be placed elsewhere to help timing ), but then I spent about an hour trying to fire portals at the ceiling in the dancefloor till I read that that'd been changed...

This map might need a long rainy night...

i tried xtregers solution but i was unable to make it work... theres to much precision required. when i try a solution with 2 bouncing cubes the map ALWAYS crashes. so i think it is beacause of the map.

my solution is quite simple and i think its not the intended solution. i started with the dancefloor. in v1.2 i was still able to use the rapid portal technique and get 1 portal outside. in the hex room i was able to use 1 bouncing cube to activate 4 cubes. i redirected the end of the laser to the 5th cube. i had a very small gap to shoot a portal outside. now i have two cubes in the main room and the laser redirected to activate the laserrectangle.
ill try to make progress this evening.

I spent a long time trying to get the cube in the hex room to both yo-yo between 2 portals and also spin at a fast rate. So far it seem that it requires an almost in-human, perfect throw.

However, someone said the spin is how GreyArea solved Devil's Tower so I am assuming he may be re-using that here. Then again he does say "no Ninja skills needed" . . . so I guess it won't be that tough . . .

hey wait a minute - he also said that about Kerplunk, which made me feel . . . like this :

dMum9B2WuH4

marKiu wrote:
i tried xtregers solution but i was unable to make it work... theres to much precision required. when i try a solution with 2 bouncing cubes the map ALWAYS crashes. so i think it is beacause of the map.

my solution is quite simple and i think its not the intended solution. i started with the dancefloor. in v1.2 i was still able to use the rapid portal technique and get 1 portal outside. in the hex room i was able to use 1 bouncing cube to activate 4 cubes. i redirected the end of the laser to the 5th cube. i had a very small gap to shoot a portal outside. now i have two cubes in the main room and the laser redirected to activate the laserrectangle.
ill try to make progress this evening.

That's what I did in hex, too. Grey said it wasn't intended

mhh i guess i solved every part with an unintended solution^^ guess im the first yay greyarea do u want me to upload a video so u can fix the unintended parts?

Here is my solution to the "Hex" area. The setup is as in the video below and then you spam portal through the fizzler until it land.

tSizHROKiGk
Edit: I guess it is the same unintended solution as discussed above.

ye jonatan thats the same solution i used... im rendering a video right now but it will take almost 4h until its uploaded :/

I think I have the intended for Dancefloor now. If so, its pretty cool... And I'm probably wrong again anyway.

sicklebrick wrote:
Heh, so I managed the above solution to Hex ( Hint:2nd cube can be placed elsewhere to help timing )

I'd love to hear some more details about that (PM if you like) because it will need fixing as well.

@marKiu: if you think a video is necessary then yes, but can you just describe your methods for me? I'll try to address everything in the next version. Thanks.

@jonatan: I'm intending to make some of the glass box sides opaque to laser which should address this method and RogerL's laser-sweep-from-near-the-door. Thanks for the video though, it helps a lot.

Heres my video.. sry for the music i forgot that fraps is recording it too... i cut out some parts that took me some time because of the huge fps drops when recording but u should get the idea.


DkAegQPzLbE

Awesome marKiu! Yes all three rooms are not as intended, so I'll be fixing all of that.
It might take me a while though because Steam seems to think my whole Source SDK needs repairing, hopefully it might fix the portal crashing problems.
The changes I intend to make are:

• cubes bouncing in Hex should not be able to hit more than one frozen cube per bounce
• also in Hex, holding a cube and sweeping it over the targets will not be possible from near the door (and is generally not intended)
• in Dancefloor, no portals under the staircase
• in Big Top: I think it will be enough to block directing the laser to the left of the intended robotic cube

Nice job marKiu! I have to admit that Top Hat was giving me a lot of problems, but you made it look easy. Now let's see what happens with ver. 1.3.

markiu how do you get 2 cubes in the hex room? you didnt show that part

I'm afraid v1.3 will take a while longer. In the meantime please refer to my previous post for the changes which are coming. Thanks for being patient everyone.

I think I have the intended solution to the dance floor. Sorry I didn't record the setup, but you really don't want to see three hours of that, do you?
The Dance Floor

I then moved on to the Hex. I only have one cube in there, so I don't know what's going on with Marklu's solution. EDIT: I figured out where the second cube comes from. While trying various things, I managed to get the cube stuck in one of the cages, like so:
TriplexCubeStuck.jpg
In case you're thinking the third cube (in the background) is the second one that Marklu has, it's from the Dance Floor, and it's outside the window.

The video is private?

Yeah, I got my cube stuck like that too. Had to start over; couldn't find a way to get it unstuck.

Read the rest of the thread to find the second cube....

Yeah I can't see your video KennKong. Thanks for the bug report, I might see if I can work around it somehow. At least I've done autosaves though, so if you had already done Dancefloor, you would not need to start from scratch.

RogerL wrote:
The video is private?

My mistake. It's unlisted now, so the link should work.

I did the same thing Kong, but I couldnt get the three to line up and I tried forever. I just stood by the door and did a portal redirect to hit the fast timer on the wall as I exit. Its not perfectly clean, but I spent forever trying to activate all 5 in the same positions as you used... Did it take you a while to set it up?

Nice work KennKong! It's close but still missing a key idea. Those three sensors are not meant to be hit from the same line so I will adjust that in v1.4. In the meantime 1.3 should be out soon.

grayarea wrote:
Nice work KennKong! It's close but still missing a key idea.

Bite me, I did it !
Here's what I think is the intended solution for the Hex:
The Hex

KennKong:

Dancefloor: how the hell do you make a cube spin like that?
Hex: what was the angle offset of the two portals that you used? I tried 30, 60, 90, 120, 240, and 300 degrees for the infini-fling and while they all eventually would hit all catchers, it took way too long to be any use.

And, I agree. After all that work, you're completely in your rights to respond with "bite me". Good job!

RogerL wrote:
Dancefloor: how the hell do you make a cube spin like that?

Place the cube on the edge of the bottom of the stairs, so it is leaning on it. Then shoot a portal under it. It will tumble in, starting the spin.

RogerL wrote:
Hex: what was the angle offset of the two portals that you used?

60 degrees, or more like 61, so the laser would precess slowly around the room. Notice that one of the timers is much shorter than the others, just like the one on the wall of the Dance Floor. Use the other cube for that one.

HeadShot wrote:
I did the same thing Kong, but I couldnt get the three to line up

It isn't obvious from the video, especially since I didn't show the setup, but the cube is tilted ever so slightly. This causes it to trace an arc across the ceiling, so that you can pick up the third target.

When you play a grayarea map, you'd better be ready to abuse your gray matter. I can't think of a way to use this trick to solve "The Big Top", but I amused myself with it.
Useless Trick?
Use opposing funnels to hold a cube in place. The lasers don't line up when the cube is lifted, but you get one extra shot of funnel when it drops. Of course, you can't ride the funnel this way.Imdfu2Bhv_Y
Useless Trick?

P.S. If you're wondering why I usually post links instead of embedding, it's because every time Flash Player updates, it breaks embedding on my machine. I hate having to pull the URL out of the page source to view a video, so I don't make you do it either.

I've come so close to solving this. Just one little problem, I can't grab the cube.
The Big Top (almost)
The Big Top (almost)XdsBxJLQRwU

KennKong wrote:
RogerL wrote:

Dancefloor: how the hell do you make a cube spin like that?

Place the cube on the edge of the bottom of the stairs, so it is leaning on it. Then shoot a portal under it. It will tumble in, starting the spin.

Also, the ledge under the window is specially designed for this...

So the rotating cube solution is the intended one... Just one question: If a rotating cube bouncing between portals (which reportedly took hours to set up) is not a "super ninja" move... what is??

So I've finally updated to v1.3. It fixes unintended solutions in all three rooms.
Hex: lasers can only enter the frozen boxes from one face, this prevents shooting through to another box. Note the darker textured glass. It's opaque to lasers as in Encode. Also, I'm looking into the timing problem, since KennKong's solution is unintended. The key concept of this room is still up for grabs.
Dancefloor: A glass barrier around the stairs should prevent quick re-shooting to finish. Also the sensor alignment has been changed to hopefully prevent KennKong's super tricky arcing path method. A key idea is still missing and it makes the setup much easier.
Big Top: you need to climb higher now before seeing the slanted portal surface. This should block marKiu and KennKong's solutions.
Thanks for playing guys and I'm sorry for the slow responsiveness. Real life has been intruding and it takes a couple hours to compile, playtest and upload this one.

Coming soon in v1.4: the timing in The Hex has been fixed. Using the 60 degree rotation set up as in KennKong's video, it's not quick enough to hit all sensors and open the fizzler. This includes both left-turning and right-turning setups. Take my word for it! You're looking for something different...

Well since you put the new staircase in Dancefloor, I can't do my portal placement for the fast timer...

But I've done it another way, and this should be your intended:

Floor portals close together for the ceiling 4. When the cube is under the beam, it can redirect the laser through the other portal, out its own portal and into the wall receptor. You stand by the door and quick shoot a portal out when the field drops.

Not going to make a vid because its a pain in the ass. This method still takes setup time. I waited a solid minute as it rotated before the orientation was correct to hit the mark...

Yes, congratulations HeadShot, that is Dancefloor done. With more accurate sighting on the setup, it hits more frequently. Well done!

grayarea wrote:
Yes, congratulations HeadShot, that is Dancefloor done. With more accurate sighting on the setup, it hits more frequently. Well done!

Okay, it's official: this is not the type of maps I like
Won't rate it.

Same here. Way too technical for me. I prefer logical difficult puzzles. Won't even try to setup the solution.

If you fully understand the geometry of Dancefloor and if you notice that the floor texture is designed to help you align your portals, then it's very simple to set up and execute reliably. It's simpler than Devil's Tower for example.
It's also exactly what you would expect from the map description. I'm not interested in making easy puzzles, so please don't play the other rooms. I won't trouble you guys with any more maps in future.

Devil's tower does require rather advanced techniques. I think for most people it was too much, I feel I crossed the line. In my next map I will go back make it more technique friendly. However my cubes at least did not rotate, just bouncing between portals. I don't even know how to reliably setup a cube to be rotating while bouncing. The map description said "No super ninja moves". I guess we need to define what this really means.

That being said, it is nice to play difficult maps, so please make more. I just would prefer if the difficulty did not lie in executing the solution, rather to find it.

jonatan wrote:
I just would prefer if the difficulty did not lie in executing the solution, rather to find it.

I couldn't agree more. It's a bit hard for you to judge if you haven't seen the solution. You simply hold the cube up high and walk towards the window ledge. You jump so the cube is sitting on the ledge and when it looks straight you drop it. Is that super-ninja? No reflexes are required and I can do it on my laptop touchpad..
The fact is that it's hard to find, not hard to do.

There's a fine line between a great trick and an unreasonable one. I never thought of the Devils Tower trick, and I probably only discovered the Dancefloor trick because I knew grey experimented with rotations on Devils Tower. It seems like people are getting borderline excessive with the tricks because the community is learning to think about such insane, unorthodox methods.... Its tough to make maps that are innovative and also reasonable to comprehend and execute.

EDIT: And for the record, I think Devil's Tower and Dancefloor are both too difficult to execute. In my mind, Beamchain is best example of a fresh concept without any of the execution nonsense.

Yes I agree, Devil's tower was too difficult to execute. Also some of my other maps I have crossed the line. In Enigma I required a rather unreasonable cube throw. In Seven Gates the bridge thing may be considered too difficult to set up without guidance. Probably I have crossed the line other times as well. My next map I promise be more technique friendly.

The thing with these kind of tricks is, when you do it yourself you feel it is easy to perform, because you have practiced and mastered the technique. For the solver it may require hours of practice and trial and error to perform the feat without any guidance. This is in addition to not knowing if the technique is at all needed for the solution.

HeadShot wrote:
There's a fine line between a great trick and an unreasonable one. . . In my mind, Beamchain is best example of a fresh concept without any of the execution nonsense.

While we're all whingeing about difficulty . . .

I differentiate between ninja skills, dirty tricks and sophistication. I consider ninja skills to be some combination of controls requiring speed and precision. Bunnyhopping, for example, combines running, jumping, strafing, turning and more jumping, in rapid, precise succession. My (non)solution to Big Top was ninja, because it required firing a portal, jumping and turning and firing another portal in mid-air, in less than a second. Followed by more ninja as I hit the portal at the top, and (unsuccessfully) turned, fired a portal beneath me, and grabbed a bouncing cube as I hurtled by. Headshot, if you don't consider how you have to grab the cube in Beamchain ninja, you don't have room to complain here.

Dirty tricks are using elements of the game in marginal ways. The lightbridge stunt in Seven Gates, the funnel/cube snatch in Headache, and the cube rotation in Triplex are all examples of this. This is a choice by the mapper: do I want people to think I'm clever, or do I want them to like my map.

Then there's sophistication, which I define as combinations of elements used in typical ways. The double cube yoyo in Devil's Tower is very sophisticated, as are the lift in Encode and catching cubes on lightbridges in (mind goes blank). I think most players will appreciate sophistication. In my opinion, what pushed each of those maps over the line in difficulty was the execution of other parts: the rapid turning and precision shooting in Devil's Tower, and starting the yoyo in Encode.

Where Triplex falls down for me, is it overloads the player with both dirty tricks and tight timing. For example, my solution to the Hex seems quite logical and reasonable to me, yet grayarea is preventing it with ultra-tight timing. There may be a more elegant solution, but I'd allow people to find either one.

Grayarea, please keep coming up with your sophisticated ideas for maps, I love them. But avoid using tight timing as a crutch to prevent unintended solutions. Hell, avoid tight timing, period. Someone bright enough to conceive of this level of sophistication should consider it a further challenge to their intellect to find a way to make it approachable to more players.

Major kudos to grayarea for pushing the envelope. His intelligence - and jonaton's for that matter . . . are in a different plane than the vast majority of Portal enthusiasts.

In my opinion a slightly higher player completion rate would be a good thing to shoot for, so many people would know that they do have a chance to complete it, even though very difficult. And many people would not complete it. But with just 1% completions (if that) . . . well I don't know if that is a good thing . . .

I need to work on this some more. Tried the Dance Floor window ledge drop and had a lot of trouble not falling through the floor portal after jumping up. When I finally succeeded the cube hit the edge of the portal. After another 100 or so tries - I got it !!! Well, not really . . I could not get the wildly spinning cube to hit all surfaces.It had a sideways and end-over-end combination to it's roll. In other words, the central axis of the cube rotation was skewed about 30-degrees.

Regardless of my own feelings of inferiority - I must give the Author a 5 on this effort.
At the same time I would recommend he scale back on the difficulty level.

grayarea wrote:
You simply hold the cube up high and walk towards the window ledge. You jump so the cube is sitting on the ledge and when it looks straight you drop it. Is that super-ninja? No reflexes are required and I can do it on my laptop touchpad.

Sorry, but my technique from v1.2 was much more repeatable and 100% non-ninja. You say, "drop it". Into what? If the portal is there, you can't walk forward to the ledge. If it isn't, you have to look down, back away and fire a portal. It takes me two swipes of my trackball to go from straight up to straight down, and it almost always turns a little too. In my book, drop, look down, back away and portal in about a second is very ninja.

I got it once in at least 50 attempts by placing the portal first, standing sideways under the ledge, jumping and turning 90 degress to place the cube on the ledge, then dropping and strafing right to get out of the way. If the cube wasn't knocked out of my hands on the jump, it went through the portal and landed outside the other one. One my one success, the cube was tilted quite a bit, and was useless.

KennKong wrote:
Headshot, if you don't consider how you have to grab the cube in Beamchain ninja, you don't have room to complain here.

I'm not complaining, asshole. I don't mind unorthodox methods, thats why I'm the one who figured it out. And Devil's Tower isn't more "sophisticated" than Beamchain. Thats nonsense.

I was simply comparing these puzzles in terms of execution difficulty and how irregular the concepts are. An ideal solution should be easily set up and performed by someone with slower reflexes and should be discoverable by someone who has only been exposed to the official game fundamentals. Sometimes mappers need to sacrifice the elegance of the solution to implement a creative methodology, but that often doesn't need to be the case...

This is my method for Dancefloor. Yes, it is very technical and as I said in the map description you need to have an appreciation for geometry. It's also easy to do on any equipment.

DF
1. direct the laser into the room.
2. you should place the portals in the their final position first, to get the alignment right. Then we move one for the drop and replace it for the exit.
3. place the orange portal under the laser. if you notice that the following are all lying in the same plane:
- the laser line
- two of the ceiling sensors
- their associated timers on the wall
- a line of the floor texture
so, we want the orange portal to be at right angles to this, using the laser and the square floor texture it's trivial to set this exactly. just make sure you're standing so the laser line is aligned with the floor texture line and shoot where the laser is hitting the floor.
4. place the blue portal, which if you've discovered the final trick for hitting the wall sensor you know must also lie in the same plane as mentioned above, so it also has to be on the floor texture line.
also, it needs to be in line with the other two ceiling sensors. by looking at the portaled laser it's easy to work out how far to place it from the orange portal. it's 3 and a bit tiles along the tile line. now you only have to work out the correct angle for the blue portal. this can be tested by sighting through both portals while standing in line with the laser. if you can see the laser line intersecting your targets then you're all set to proceed. if not, you should be able to work out if the blue portal needs to be turned slightly left or right.
5. the drop: move over against the wall containing the narrow window and back up towards the staircase. place the orange portal under the ledge parallel to the wall*, but not under the laser since it complicates the drop. there is a portal bumper and placement helper to help with this.
6. now finally pick up the cube, it needs to be held directly above the orange portal then lifted as high as possible. slowly walk forwards until it bumps into the wall slightly. you will not fall into the portal. jump: the cube will now be sitting high on the ledge. straighten it if necessary. when you're ready just drop it. no quick moves at all. just walk directly backwards and check that it's bouncing and rotating nicely. if not, just catch and drop it again. i might have to do this a couple times until it looks good with a non-corkscrewing rotation.
7. stroll over to the laser and replace the orange portal as before. check that all the sensors are being hit at least some of the time. if the aim is slightly off, you might need to steer the orange portal a bit while the cube is over the blue portal but you should avoid steering the blue one if you're sure it was placed accurately to begin with.
in rare cases, i might need to repeat the drop.
Edit: *

So, I accept that Dancefloor is too technical to set up. Let's move on.
@KennKong: "tight timing" is normally a term you use when you feel the player has to move too quickly. That's totally not the case in Hex. There is a more elegant solution and it is nowhere near as technical as Dancefloor. There is a geometric concept which is staring you guys in the face. As soon as you see it, you'll complete the room. Hint: don't ignore the texturing in any of the three rooms.

Big Top is different. It also contains a tricky geometric puzzle but requires some dynamic portaling which needs timing but no particular speed or accuracy as was required in Devil's Tower. I would suggest you guys solve Hex first and if you absolutely can't be bothered executing Dancefloor then go to Big Top and execute ent_create_portal_reflector_cube from the console.

dancefloor
PKaU6tTvy0g

Hey!

I playe your map the whole day and was able to solve the Hex. I tried many things in the Dancefloor, but I wasn't able to find the key.

But actually. There is no "key" in the Hex or the Dancefloor.
What I mean. A really good map neads a "aha-effect"! So when you are able to solve the puzzle you should get this effect and think: "Yes! Thats the solution. It wasn't that hard!" But you first have to find the key for this solution!

But in the Hex and the Dancefloor you see what you have to do. It's obvious! But instead of finding the key and get the aha-effect I just try and try and try. It's just no fun.

The Puzzle in the map (especcialy the hex and the dancefloor) makes the map funless!

Maye you should try a map with more puzzles but a bit easyer, so the map is still hard to solve, but you have more puzzles you have to think about.

Sorry for the criticism, but it is realy more frustrating than having fun.

Well, that certainly did give me a chuckle. So you have all the "obvious" answers, but you can't be bothered to share them with us. Just to be clear: I'm more interested in solutions than empty opinions.

Had fun learning how to do Dancefloor (using your video). Something I would NEVER have thought of.

Downloaded 1.4... In the elevator it still says 1.3 though.

Thanks, I'm glad someone is enjoying some aspect of it.
I've tried to make something in each room that hasn't been seen before.
I noticed the problem with the game text, but didn't want to spend another couple hours compiling a fix!

I think I have somethink for the Hex...but I just can't do it right! Angles you know.
Here's the idea:



A big loop, with a 72? angle...



Is it possible this way?

By the way, vitalnova may sound a little harsh but he's got a point. This map made me want to yell at somebody! It's a real pain in the neck. But the idea (if I'm correct) is good and original.

It's just...solving it is long, repetitive and boring.

I owe grayarea an apology, for saying what he said, couldn't be done. I was wrong. The funny thing is, I tried using the portal parallel to the wall, but after a few failed tries, I gave up on it. I'm usually quite persistent, but I let myself down on this one, then unfairly blamed grayarea for my failure.

In the Hex, I've gone beyond persistent, and into desperate: 2012-03-05_00003.jpg

I'm lost on Hex too. I want to have both cubes doing an infinifling at the same time, which would halve the time to deactivate, but I cant set it up... Whatever the "geometric concept" is, it probably involves an infinifling. I cant think of anything else that will dynamically change the cube positions at a fast enough rate....

I've spent over 7 hours on this today. Got off to a good start, getting the Dance Floor to work multiple times. Then I got stuck in the Hex, again.
Things which don't work

1. Edit - put one cube inifling back so that grayarea's reference to 4 and 5 make sense
2. Two cube infinifling, like HeadShot said. Not even close to workable.
3. Two cube yoyo. You can only hit four targets, and the short timers on two of them won't even let me get all four lit at once.
4. Rotating yoyo. I've tried at least a dozen ways to get it started, and haven't even gotten close.
5. Portal laser vertically, pivot cube along ceiling (all the receptors can be hit this way). Got the buzzer once, but couldn't drop the cube, turn and shoot through the fizzler.

KennKong, I agree your earlier Hex solution was elegant. It should be a big hint that I think mine is more elegant which would rule out your 4 and 5. I would not have designed your solution as the answer because it breaks the elegant symmetry: hitting the empty box, hitting the fast timer many times. I can promise you there is no more cube spinning or stacking in the remainder of the map. It's relatively conventional compared to Dancefloor.
Edit: ugh: just saw your last comment. As you know, that's not it. I'll look into it.

@HeadShot: you're 100% correct in your post. The idea of a two-cube infinifling is something I've toyed with in the past, but it just doesn't work because of the physics.

@Thornscrup: interesting idea Have to disagree with you about vitalnova though. They were obviously playing v1.1 or whatever and didn't read that I'd fixed those problems. To say the solutions are "obvious" and lacking in "aha effect" is ridiculous. On the other hand, it's quite possible that people will find it more frustrating than fun. My goal is to make a truly difficult puzzle- if they only want to have fun they should go play angry birds.

Uploaded v1.5 which tweaks the timing in Hex slightly again. The timer near the door is faster so it must be triggered last. On the plus side, I've made sure that the fizzler will stay open for at least half a second. This makes the final exit portal a lot more relaxed and will hopefully save some mouse buttons. See? I'm not pure evil.
I also fixed some cosmetic stuff.
Generally I have to apologise for the messy walls and misaligned textures. It's just incredibly hard to make things in Hammer that aren't square. I will remind you again though, that some of the textures might serve as clues in each of the three rooms. Do not come crying to me if you ignore them!

grayarea wrote:
My goal is to make a truly difficult puzzle

In that case, be assured you've reached your goal!
Anyway if my idea's "interesting", I'm gonna try again. Pure scientific curiosity. Not for fun.

...and by the way, Angry Bird bores the hell out of me.

I got the field down by shooting a portal under the rotator cube for 3 activates and quickly moving the other by hand for the other 2. Buuut that didnt feel very elegant.

I really think this is very close to the intended solution. I just can't quite pull it off. This solution is simple to set up, and easy to execute. I just think the timers are so short that if you don't fire the last portal when the cubes are in the perfect phase, it just won't go.
The Hex - Proposed Solution
tFLNaPkka0A

KennKong wrote:
I really think this is very close to the intended solution. I just can't quite pull it off. This solution is simple to set up, and easy to execute. I just think the timers are so short that if you don't fire the last portal when the cubes are in the perfect phase, it just won't go.
The Hex - Proposed Solution
tFLNaPkka0A

I pretty much gave up on floor oscillating ideas now that grey said the field will stay down for a full half second. I hope youre right though...

Guys I said yesterday that HeadShot was "100% correct" in his post, meaning all of the comments:

Quote:
Whatever the "geometric concept" is, it probably involves an infinifling

I also said that a two-cube fling doesn't work. So you need to go back to basics: one cube falling continuously between the ceiling and floor. I've also said there's no sweeping the cube around and the textures will help somehow.

grayarea wrote:
So you need to go back to basics: one cube falling continuously between the ceiling and floor. I've also said ... the textures will help somehow.

I'm hurt. I posted a solution involving an infinifling in v1.2, and you said . I did it a slightly different way (opposite rotation, different cube placement) in v1.4, and you said . And believe me, the textures were key. I aligned the ceiling portal using the ceiling textures (thanks, Redunzl), and the floor portal using the white arrows. So if your intended solution is different merely in the orientation of portals and cube placement, again I say, "Bite me!"

I'm analyzing video of the yoyo solution frame-by-frame, to measure the timing as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, I don't have a single recording that shows all the timers in one shot. And in every recording (9 in all) the cube phase is slightly different. But based on the average timings I have so far, I calculate there are 3 frames overlap (0.1s) between the expiration of the first timer activated in a cycle, and the activation of the final timer. It should work!

@Headshot: It won't hurt my pride one bit if you find the solution that pleases the Gray Lord of Difficulty first. See if this helps:
observation
The cube activates targets as it drops out of the ceiling. So theoretically, you can activate two targets in one pass through the portals.
I'm going to give it a rest for a while.

Quote:
So if your intended solution is different merely in the orientation of portals and cube placement, again I say, "Bite me!"

It's more different. It's more elegant. Definitely take a rest.
Edit: and just to be crystal clear, earlier I defined what I consider to be inelegant: hitting the fast sensor many times and hitting the empty box.

As for your observation: very tricky. I wasn't aware of that, so it's not intended.

EDIT: (Replaced video)
Here's a possible way for the Hex :


Z0xpzm3S6As

http://youtu.be/Z0xpzm3S6As

The later part of the video shows how the tiling in the ceiling is related to the geometry of the room, and how to use it as a guide to place the ceiling portal. Then it shows how the floor portal is relatively placed and the cubes arranged.

Sorry if some of these points have already been mentioned before, and even if this solution is unintended, hopefully it will be of some help.
And now I'll be gone for a vacation, so unfortunately I won't be able to attempt this for a while. (On a side note I was having a hard time playing the map - it crashed very regularly showing the same ED_alloc error.)

Got through Hex a new way, might be the intended... Recording now.

Here's my new solution

http://youtu.be/mWYF0GDEiDc

Concept: Infinifling hits 3 of the timers (medium length) repeatedly at 120 degrees apart. The second cube starts on the long timer. After starting the fling (which optimally can go for many cycles before it drifts off the pattern), you pick up and drop the second cube to keep the very fast timer lit. The long timer gives you the longest possible window to shoot your exit portal.

Why I like it: The three timers hit by the infinifling are equal length and the pattern doesn't hit the fast timer or empty cube. You end on the fast timer, since the extremely short length wouldn't give you a sufficient window. The length of time is maximized because you only leave the longest timer deactivated during the sequence.

Anyway, I hope this is it. If not, I give up, and I want to see the intended....

Edit: Actually I have one more concept to try if this fails.....
Edit of Edit: Um no I don't. My other idea sucks. If this video isnt it, I want the damn intended solution. Or else.

@Xtreger: once again I'm astounded by your skills. I've been trying to replicate that and I haven't managed it yet. The cubes seem to always recoil off each other slightly too much. Anyway, I've indicated that you guys are looking for a single cube drop. I'm not sure I can claim that it's cooler or more fun than yours, but it's simpler and much more reliable. I wasn't sure if you were still having the crash problem. I'm looking into it again now.

@HeadShot: likewise very tricky but unfortunately I have to say that it bears little resemblance to the intention. I know you must be tearing your hair out and I'm sorry about that.

I'm not too sure how I can block either of your solutions however. I can say that, as with Encode, when you think of the correct solution you'll recognise it instantly. It's the sort of thing that could pop into your head when you're away from the game having a rest.

I've completed some analysis of the timings, regardless of the mapper's intended solution. My double yoyo is impossible as shown. Numbering the timers clockwise from the door, the shortest timer is #6. In my setup, where a cube drops through the floor after activating 5, then you realign the portal toward 6, it will hit 6 about .25 sec after 5 has timed out.

FYI, the yoyo cycle is 1.5 sec. The 120 degree rotation is 1 sec per cycle. The 60 degree cycle is 2 sec. The timers are: 1 = 1.05, 3 = 0.68, 4 = 1.30, 5 = 0.89, 6 = 0.23.

I have also analyzed HeadShot's solution. It is proven that it works, and the timings confirm it. There are 0.25 and 0.40 sec windows to move the cube from 4 to 6, depending on when you start. The third window is just 1/30th of a second.

@grayarea, you said the solution might "pop into your head". The only thing that has popped so far is my head.

My head has popped too. This thing better be so f** elegant....

KennKong, your timings are quite accurate. Of course, it's not necessary to work that information out and I didn't expect anyone would need to do so, but a close inspection of that list of numbers is quite revealing in fact. Ask yourself why they are all different and what order you can place them in.

One more comment. You guys haven't discovered the texture hint yet. It's not for helping with the portal directions. I'm sure some of you have already discovered an easy and accurate method for visually checking portal alignment without the help of textures or little white arrows?

No, I haven't "discovered the texture hint yet".
No, I haven't "discovered an easy and accurate method for visually checking portal alignment without the help of textures or little white arrows?"

EDIT: I wasn't paying attention. Of course, I know a way of checking portal alignment. Just crouch and look through the portals. If the alignment is right, you'll see one cube directly above another. Fat lot of good that does, since I already know if I'm aligned when I set the portals in the first place.

But I have discovered a hypothetical timing that works, but it's too fast for me to pull off:
I know this ain't it
Using the target numbering scheme above:

1. Place a cube in front of 1 pointing at 6. When the cube falls through the laser, it will activate both 1 and 6
2. Setup portals on target for 120 d. clockwise rotation
3. Align other cube over center of portals
4. Turn and aim at 4
5. Turn to 3 and drop
6. Turn to portal outside and fire

You mean this?
triplex_hint.jpg

Glitch. Sorry about that.

I made a mistake in my calculations on my most recent hypothetical method. You actually have up to 2/3 sec to turn and drop the cube. But . . . I forgot that it takes two passes through the portals for the cube to reach terminal velocity. The first pass takes 2/3 sec, and the second 1/2 sec. So it is impossible this way.

But this should work

1. Same portals for 120 deg. clockwise rotation. Really check your alignment, you might need it to hit 3,5,1 a few times
2. Place other cube between portals and 5, pointed at 4
3. Drop first cube to get rotation started
4. Stand behind other cube facing 6
5. When the laser hits the cube, it triggers 4 and 5
6. You have 2/3 sec to just grab the cube and drop it. It will turn and face 6
7. When the laser comes around to 5 again, it will activate 5 and 6 1/3 sec before 4 runs out
8. Fire portal in Big Top

@KennKong: I think you know this, but for any newcomers I want to make it clear that the intended solution is different and simpler than what you describe, although it's obviously well hidden!
I'll give at least a day's notice before releasing the solution in case anyone is still working on it but I'm not quite ready to do that yet.

My solution for Hex:

1. Two cubes jumping in floor portals and hitting long timers

2. Grabing one cube and redirecting it into short timer, then shooting portal in Big Top

Cheers Jacu Quite clever, but I guess you know that it's not the intended solution. I've said that you're looking for a relatively simple single-cube infinifling (meaning one cube dropping between the ceiling and floor). Probably I'm not going to update this room to block the unintended solutions which are already out there. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed playing the room.

The Hex - for sure this time

I had this pentagram solution on Tuesday, but wasn't setting it up right. The portals are placed on an intersection of the floor textures, and it uses a 144 degree counterclockwise rotation.0dWneiDvpdU

UPDATE: This version shows the setup, and also why I shouldn't be playing grayarea's maps. I got the fizzler on the second try, but my damn slow reflexes show me failing to shoot the portal again and again. Anyway, here it is:
The Hex - complete blunderthrough

Finally!!! I'm really glad it was you who found it cause like I said, you deserve it.
The pentagonal pattern is kind of interesting because 5 is prime and there are 4 different sequences you can choose. Only one of them works and you nailed it. Congratulations.
Here is the diagram which I made for myself in Inkscape during the early design process. This is the "simple geometric concept" which I have been hinting at. concept
The only way this puzzle could be made to be difficult was by presenting the hexagonal (dark lines) solution in an obvious way so that it conceals the very simple pentagonal (light lines) solution behind it.

Anyway, I guess it was too hard and just not worth the effort. I won't do this to you again!

grayarea wrote:
Finally!!! I'm really glad it was you who found it cause like I said, you deserve it.

Thank you. Maybe in two weeks time, I'll have figured out the Big Top, too. I've found three ways to get two shots of funnel, but since v1.4, it looks like it's going to take three.

Sooo what the fuck happened to everything being activated for "half a second"? I based all my ideas around that limitation.

And congrats KK. I'm leaving the rest of this to you. Saving my brain cells for jonatan's #10

I'm not quite ready with my final video for this room, but before I get blasted again for super-ninja fiddly setup and execution, let me tell you that it's less than one minute from entering the room to opening the fizzler...
it's interesting KennKong that your trackball seems to actually help you in that video. I always need to re-adjust the floor portal because the mouse always pans around on me while shooting up or down. Anyway, it's easy to step back, crouch, zoom and adjust until the view through the floor portal aligns with the cube in the distance.
EDIT: actually having seen the rest of the video, you would have done better by also adjusting the floor portal before dropping.
EDIT2: it works better if you place the other cube on the glass ledge near the laser.
@HeadShot: I said "I've made sure that the fizzler will stay open for at least half a second"... what is confusing you about that? When the fizzler opens, it doesn't close again for at least half a second. I went on to explain that this is meant to make your life easier, it's not a limitation. I wasn't aware that you had misunderstood that, or I would have made myself clearer.

What's confusing about that is that there is no visual indication of the half second window. No one could interpret that by looking at the room. You need another timer to show that. It's not the players job to read your forum posts or discover what puzzle elements affect. That's why shit like indicator lights and timers were included in the game.

I like hard puzzles and you're a good mapper, but in your quest to make hard maps you go a little too far outside convention. Cube spinning and texture hints are not something people should have to look for. The first part of Encode was great, make more like that. A novel concept that isn't difficult to execute and creatively combines game basics in a way anyone could understand

Right, so making the map easier with extra fizzler time and texture hints has pissed you off?
I was expecting sour grapes but I'm disappointed you couldn't be a little more creative in finding something to blame for your not solving it.
Anyway, as I've said, I have no intention of making any more maps because I don't want to make easier ones and I don't want to listen to your whining either.

I solved your stupid puzzle 3 different ways. Go ahead and keep mapping for your shrinking fan base, everyone else gave up on you at Dancefloor. And dont stress, you won't have to read any more of my posts because I won't be wasting any more time on your ridiculous fucking maps.

A mapmaker isn't obligated to make a map everyone will enjoy or even one that everyone will be able to solve. Likewise, a player is not obligated to finish a map in the intended way. Seems like a fair deal to me.

THE_HEX
zBHQJ2GTDr4

My solution for The Big Top:

1. One cube parallel to the surface, second one at 45*, pointing at funnel launcher. Cube in Hex pointing at 2nd cube.

2.Flying to the ceiling. Shooting orange portal at surface from previous screenshot and leting pass just one cube, then shooting same portal to surface near ceiling. Cube is resting below me. Shooting blue portal under the cube while falling, then grabbing it and going through portal, to be shoot into final room.

3. The rest is simple: grabing the cube from the other side of the fizzler and destroying it. Catching new cube, and placing it on the button. Shooting one portal on wall, geting back to Big Top and Hex and bringing missing cubes to the final room


EDIT:Here is the video:
_J3EyTq5dD4

I also noticed, that its possible, to turn on funnel in easier way


I hope that this is the intended one

Gray Lord of Difficulty: Damn your attention to detail. I attempted the frozen cube trick to activate the funnel, but you blocked it!

Please tell me now
Based on my analysis of the timings, the solution to the Big Top will require firing a portal above the funnel to carry a cube back to the beginning of the funnel in the same orientation, then refiring the portal beneath you very quickly so as not to lose too much height while falling. If this is true, please tell me now, so I don't waste my time attempting to execute a solution that's beyond my skill level. In my previous attempts, I was able to start the funnel with a single maneuver like this, but having to do it multiple times without fail is too extreme for me.

Jacu, that's definitely not it.

KennKong: as I said, Big Top requires "some dynamic portaling involving timing but no particular speed or accuracy". I would guess you can do it, but it doesn't play to your strengths and I don't want to waste any more of your time so I would suggest you leave it.

grayarea wrote:
Jacu, that's definitely not it.

What it is, is brilliant. When you encounter an obstacle, you can run away (like I am), plow through it (ala Headshot), go around it, or just make it your bitch, as Jacu did.

Yes very crafty Jacu and I found it quite simple to repeat your method!
I've updated to v1.6 which changes how you need to feed the laser into that room.
Feel free to use the ent_create_portal_reflector_cube command if you want to skip executing hex and dancefloor again on the new version.

Just to let you know, I'm planning to upload the full solution video in 24h.

grayarea wrote:
Just to let you know, I'm planning to upload the full solution video in 24h.

Just to let you know, I'm planning to upload intended Big Top solution video in 30 mins

EDIT:
There we go:

Figured out and executed by my roommate. We are 99% sure, that this is the intended solution
Ihbp_HOT9Dc

grayarea wrote:
THE_HEX
zBHQJ2GTDr4

Hmmm I seem to remember you saying early on that a solution of this type was not the intended one...

You don't seem to remember very well.

you're right.. You never did say xtegers was unintended.. it was someone else saying that tried it and then tried something else which you said was unintended.. I stand corrected..
Seems xtger was on the right track.. I was working a similar angle on it (no pun intended) but abandoned because apparently I can't read very well.. lol

No problem Szieve. I'm definitely a little over defensive right now. Anyway, looking forward to Jacu's solution...

I edited my post an hour ago, check it

yeah, you have taken a lot of crap on this...
BUT.... I think you've also opened up the door to some entirely new tactics that will be developed by other mappers as insane as yourself.

Yes, well done guys you've got it. I normally use a different method for grabbing the cube. I let it funnel through the slanted portal before me and then grab it as I fling across. I'll probably upload a video tomorrow.
Thank you and good night!

to Jacu and roommate on putting this all together and making it work. I had worked out that arrangement based on symmetry a week ago. After failing to hit the portals more than twice in a row in countless tries, my frustration meter was pegged. That's why I kept looking and found the near solution I posted on Mar. 3. In that, I tried grabbing the cube the way grayarea described, but it was too far ahead of me to grab. Even before that, I had tried grabbing the cube the way you did, but since the cube was falling farther to the pedestal, it kept bouncing off. I'm glad I gave up, because I had abandoned the intended solution, and would never have found another one.

EDIT: grayarea's method for grabbing the cube is one I didn't think of.

to grayarea for the sophisticated and elegant design of this puzzle. Of the three rooms, I think the Big Top was the easiest to see but hardest to execute, the Hex was the hardest to see but easiest to execute, and the Dance Floor was the trickiest and most prone to failure even when you did it right.

The fact that there were alternate solutions to all three rooms only added to the difficulty. Once you get an idea in your head, it's hard to let it go. And if you have the right idea, but are slightly off in one detail, you may abandon the right approach, as I did in both the Hex and the Big Top.

If I can finish this map, I'll rate it 5/5. Don't hold your breath waiting for the rating count to go up.

KennKong wrote:
to Jacu and roommate on putting this all together and making it work. I had worked out that arrangement based on symmetry a week ago. After failing to hit the portals more than twice in a row in countless tries, my frustration meter was pegged. That's why I kept looking and found the near solution I posted on Mar. 3. In that, I tried grabbing the cube the way grayarea described, but it was too far ahead of me to grab. Even before that, I had tried grabbing the cube the way you did, but since the cube was falling farther to the pedestal, it kept bouncing off. I'm glad I gave up, because I had abandoned the intended solution, and would never have found another one.

EDIT: grayarea's method for grabbing the cube is one I didn't think of.

to grayarea for the sophisticated and elegant design of this puzzle. Of the three rooms, I think the Big Top was the easiest to see but hardest to execute, the Hex was the hardest to see but easiest to execute, and the Dance Floor was the trickiest and most prone to failure even when you did it right.

The fact that there were alternate solutions to all three rooms only added to the difficulty. Once you get an idea in your head, it's hard to let it go. And if you have the right idea, but are slightly off in one detail, you may abandon the right approach, as I did in both the Hex and the Big Top.

If I can finish this map, I'll rate it 5/5. Don't hold your breath waiting for the rating count to go up.

When will we see a vid with the complete intended solution

Without it being a couple hours long I'm not sure we will unless they edit it all together.I wanna see mistake after mistake not an edited version.

Well done guys who have beat parts of this.Way over the top for my liking.Seems to be a niche group here who like to be spanked lol

My video is just over 7 minutes, and it's a straightforward playthrough. It will take me some time to upload however since I live on a tiny tropical island with apparently coconut-based internet. I've shot several versions without any editing or mistakes but in this video I have to admit to cutting out one section in Big Top where I made a completely stupid mistake and had to set it up again.
Thanks for letting us know that you didn't like it Andy.

Here's my full solution video.
TRIPLEX
IkVtg-eqOSg
Low graphics quality, I know. I had a lot of trouble getting the slow-mo bits to record properly and eventually gave up and recorded it in realtime with fraps instead of source recorder.

I agree with KennKong that this is a uniquely sophisticated and elegant map. And even if you never solve all of the puzzles on your own, it will still be hours of fun trying. Its odd to see 10 pages of posts but only 4 ratings. One of them is from me: 5/5. Spank me, mama!

Thanks Roger. It means a lot to hear something positive about my map. Nevertheless, I am still 100% retired. I think this comunity needs to think a little bit about why 90% of all uploads are from inexperienced first-time map makers. I think there are two main reason. Firstly, the tools are extremely poor quality. Take it from someone who has worked in the industry for 12 years. Also, it's because releasing a map here is an experience most people would never want to repeat. Within minutes of releasing my first map, Kerplunk, one of your most respected reviewers was tearing me a new arsehole because he had misunderstood it. Within minutes of releasing Encode, he had given it a 1/5 rating. I think his name is "Dickrash" or something...
A map like Triplex takes three solid weeks of full-time design and development, followed by two weeks of half-time maintenance. Think about that. I encourage everyone with better ideas to release their own maps and let us play them. I promise to be gentle.
p.s. Just want to finally say thanks to KennKong for playing all of my maps. Without his complete dedication, this map would still be sitting on the scrapheap of unsolved crap. Thank you sir.