Quote from Mek on December 7, 2010, 4:18 pm

Oh well, this is a visually very nice map. But so hard I couldn't finish it, it got me bored. I am sure it's just me, and others will have great fun in this.
Can't believe you used portal standing as an intended solution

Quote from Amran on December 7, 2010, 4:51 pm

Mek wrote:

Oh well, this is a visually very nice map. But so hard I couldn't finish it, it got me bored. I am sure it's just me, and others will have great fun in this.

Boredom is definitely not what I was going for, but I admit that some puzzles need more iterations and there just wasn't time to continue refining things under the deadline. I do figure the difficulty isn't too bad, especially in comparison to a number of user maps out there, but it's certainly geared more towards the advanced chambers at times.

I did include a bit of a cheat that allows one to bypass the first half of the level pack right up to where things start turning towards the reveal. If you've given up on things and just want to skip around, you can place these portals on these surfaces and wait for the intro VO to end to see what I mean. Though as I said, this does skip a good 50% of the level pack.

Mek wrote:

Can't believe you used portal standing as an intended solution

Guessing you're referring to the room after the first level load with the portal standing. It's just sort of a safe area to show players that that trick is possible. It was formerly necessary in later puzzles, but is now no longer needed. Still handy for one of them though!

Quote from yohoat9 on December 7, 2010, 5:51 pm

I agree with the boredom problem, after just a short portion of the map I had to quit, just too difficult and frustrating, also I found that the puzzles were very very random, not at all did they seem like they belonged where they were put.

[edit]
BTW, the mapping was very good, just the puzzles were too hard.

Quote from Whysopro? on December 7, 2010, 8:48 pm

This map was great! I love how you managed to cram every...little...bit of puzzle into these tiny tiny rooms! Good job it's like a maze in there.

I spent a hell of a lot of time on the energy ball puzzle with the cube bouncing.

Nice lights, nice setup, NICE PUZZLES, nice map! =)

Quote from Amran on December 8, 2010, 7:24 am

Whysopro? wrote:

This map was great! I love how you managed to cram every...little...bit of puzzle into these tiny tiny rooms! Good job it's like a maze in there.

I spent a hell of a lot of time on the energy ball puzzle with the cube bouncing.

Nice lights, nice setup, NICE PUZZLES, nice map! =)

*laughs* Thank you! That's another one of those aforementioned puzzles that needed some reworking I'd say, as it can even give me some trouble at times. The wall on the left hand side can hinder lining the cube up with too much ease.

I had fun piecing it together and intertwining the rooms so that they all fit or doubled back. Next time I'll definitely need a stricter overall plan though.

Quote from Whysopro? on December 8, 2010, 3:34 pm

It's claustrophobic. It's easy to get lost. I like it. =D|-<

Quote from quatrus on December 8, 2010, 6:53 pm

Huge puzzles and very difficult. Like others I got tired of trying some of the solutions and no clip to the objective. There seemed to be little direction in several of the chambers - definitely need to give some thought to numbers or something helpful. Very Hard. I stopped at the room after using the cube to knock down a energy ball into a catcher - it was just too much. I'll go back later.
You put a massive amount of work into this map - I can't believe I'm saying this - you should have gone for shorter and a little more organized....
I'll rate it if I ever finish....but I think it needs more work...

Quote from quatrus on December 9, 2010, 2:18 pm

Arrgh. I got through to the boss battle in A-3. At the end of A-2 I knocked out the turrets in the room with energy balls and the door didn't open? Had to noclip through to activate Autosave for A-3.
End battle was OK - had to noclip again to get up to the second button post [spoiler]- I assume there is a way to fling up there from the control room.[/spoiler].
This was quite a map, you must have worked on it for a long time. Could you go through again and organize it with numbers or something to guide players and make it easier. Some of the flings are very difficult if you don't know the gimmick...portal peeping, hop-ups(?) etc.
Still visually a very nice map - thanks for entering it into the contest...

Quote from Amran on December 9, 2010, 6:50 pm

quatrus wrote:

Arrgh. I got through to the boss battle in A-3. At the end of A-2 I knocked out the turrets in the room with energy balls and the door didn't open? Had to noclip through to activate Autosave for A-3.
End battle was OK - had to noclip again to get up to the second button post [spoiler]- I assume there is a way to fling up there from the control room.[/spoiler].
This was quite a map, you must have worked on it for a long time. Could you go through again and organize it with numbers or something to guide players and make it easier. Some of the flings are very difficult if you don't know the gimmick...portal peeping, hop-ups(?) etc.
Still visually a very nice map - thanks for entering it into the contest...

Sounds like you skipped a section there, the door you mention never actually opens back up, and you need to go through another BTS area to get behind it. (Starting by going behind the extended/slanted wall panel) This whole map could have used some proper Q/A and iteration, but at least it shows the importance of having time to do so with future projects.

There is a way to fling up from the control room too, wondering if you tipped the third turret over in the main room? (This should probably be on a timer as opposed to relying on the player disabling the turret.)

Thank you for the feedback though, these are things to keep in mind! I do like the idea of adding in numbers as reference as well.