A Better way to end our maps
Hey all, great website & community you have going here, I don't know how I didn't find it earlier. In fact I found http://www.portal-mods.com first, good place also, but this one seems to be the original and biggest! GJ
Anyways I have noticed in a lot of the early custom maps being released that the endings are usually just a dead end or an out-of-order elevator 
Or some cake model just sitting there.
I think it would be better if the ending is one of the two following ideas that you would see as standard practice in the conc mapping community in TFC:
1) You just warp back to the start of the map with a "GJ" message or something like that, so you can play it thru again.
2) A big "fuck around / jump around" place.. you know just some cool place with tons of crap to fling yourself thru/off of all over.. not a puzzle, just a place to mess with the portal physics you know? There would need to be a big message or picture of a cake or something to indicate that this is the ending place, and there is no more after this room / place.
Probably some of you already had these ideas in mind and didn't incoporate them because it is still very early on. I thought I would share them anyway though, in case somebody hadn't
See you guys around.
Higgs
Or like on 1 of the maps I was playing, the screen just went black and said like GJ and stuff like that.
This is what I plan on doing with my maps. I think you can force the map to actually end with a point_clientcommand set to "disconnect", but I haven't tested that.
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Yeah, that would work. GAH, why didn't I think of that. I was searching around for something like trigger_endgame or something like that.
To Higgs:
I just want to explain the way I thought when making my map.
The Beginning:
The player starts in the elevator with which he/she is familiar with from the official game. By starting this way, instead of dropping the player in a room my an incubator or just in a box, i avoid the infamous question "Why am I here" which tend to be asked a lot when the beginning is inconsistent.
The map itself:
Self-explanatory really, but anyway, I wanted to make it resemble an official test chamber was to immediately tell the player where he was. Though about all (or all) custom maps claim to take place in Aperture Laboratories, I feel that an Aperture Science test chamber is incomplete with the characteristic elements like the entrance and exit elevator and the observation room.
The Exit:
By having the player enter a new elevator after completing the puzzle I make it clear to them that the puzzle is over. To seal the deal with people who are still expecting more, I display some messages like "Congratulations!", and the credits.
I hope this didn't seem too much like a boast fest or anything. I just wanted to tell people.
If you felt my ending or beginning was missing something, please tell me so I can fix it in eventual future releases.
I think a lift is the best way to end the map.
Does anyone know how to make a fade to black thing at the end?
Does anyone know how to make a fade to black thing at the end?
env_fade
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I will make it so you enter a room, with a piece of cake in it.. and the pieces will determine how many levels you've completed!
I have a good way of ending my map. Just release the SDK valve! 
bscly
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I tried that on my map and it works perfect.
Combined with a env_fade and text it looks really good.