Forum | Thinking With Portals

#11 · November 28, 2007, 3:30 pm

Quote from Lorithad on November 28, 2007, 3:30 pm
Ok, just played the map. Didn't really like it.

You put not one, but two combine soldiers in the room with us. One would have easily been enough. But instead, i've now had to load the map several times due to the fact that they gang bang me in the corner, and I can't get out. If HL2 NPCs could be affected by portals, that might be different. But instead, they walk right over them. So you have no way to defend yourself at all.

But that's alright. You instead give us propane canisters that we're supposed to push down the button with. That's fine, I did figure that part out, at the very least. My main beef with it, was getting it to stay on the button, long enough for me to get a portal into the second room. And then getting it off.

Next, you expect for us to put a portal behind a cement wall, in order for us to determine the pass code to the door. WHAT!?
Never in portal, let alone half life has there been any instance where you needed to input a code into something. So that never even occured to me, nor would it occure to most of the player base of portal.

Also, during this part, do this:

Put portal A on the front of the wall. Portal B on the back of the wall. Walk into portal A, and try to place portal B further down the wall. This will result in you being booted to outside the map.

And then there was this:
http://members.shaw.ca/lorithad/Portal/SS/p4l0000.jpg
From the look of it, the wall wasn't aligned correctly with the floor. Not a huge problem, but I noticed it.

I never actually finished the map. I got to the point where I was stuck in room 2 without the soldiers, then I came back here to figure out what I could possibly do next, as there was nothing in that room that would make me think that a code could be entered.

http://members.shaw.ca/lorithad/Portal/SS/p4l0001.jpg
Given this picture, I would think the pass code would be 241334, however I don't think it is. You already told us it was 2834. Which yes, I suppose you could say that the 413 on the same horrizontal line could mean 8. But really?

Next comes entering the pass code.
http://members.shaw.ca/lorithad/Portal/SS/p4l0002.jpg

Ok, so you've designed a puzzle that relys on the graphics level of the player, being high enough to even realise there are numbers there. For the record, my graphics are at medium. I'd hate to think what a person on lowest settings would see.

And finally, I want to say that I'm sorry if this post comes off as heated. Normally I try to highlight both the good and bad parts of maps that I test. Unfortuanatly, the things that I disliked about this map seemed to blow away anything nice I could say.

Ok, just played the map. Didn't really like it.

You put not one, but two combine soldiers in the room with us. One would have easily been enough. But instead, i've now had to load the map several times due to the fact that they gang bang me in the corner, and I can't get out. If HL2 NPCs could be affected by portals, that might be different. But instead, they walk right over them. So you have no way to defend yourself at all.

But that's alright. You instead give us propane canisters that we're supposed to push down the button with. That's fine, I did figure that part out, at the very least. My main beef with it, was getting it to stay on the button, long enough for me to get a portal into the second room. And then getting it off.

Next, you expect for us to put a portal behind a cement wall, in order for us to determine the pass code to the door. WHAT!?
Never in portal, let alone half life has there been any instance where you needed to input a code into something. So that never even occured to me, nor would it occure to most of the player base of portal.

Also, during this part, do this:

Put portal A on the front of the wall. Portal B on the back of the wall. Walk into portal A, and try to place portal B further down the wall. This will result in you being booted to outside the map.

And then there was this:
http://members.shaw.ca/lorithad/Portal/SS/p4l0000.jpg
From the look of it, the wall wasn't aligned correctly with the floor. Not a huge problem, but I noticed it.

I never actually finished the map. I got to the point where I was stuck in room 2 without the soldiers, then I came back here to figure out what I could possibly do next, as there was nothing in that room that would make me think that a code could be entered.

http://members.shaw.ca/lorithad/Portal/SS/p4l0001.jpg
Given this picture, I would think the pass code would be 241334, however I don't think it is. You already told us it was 2834. Which yes, I suppose you could say that the 413 on the same horrizontal line could mean 8. But really?

Next comes entering the pass code.
http://members.shaw.ca/lorithad/Portal/SS/p4l0002.jpg

Ok, so you've designed a puzzle that relys on the graphics level of the player, being high enough to even realise there are numbers there. For the record, my graphics are at medium. I'd hate to think what a person on lowest settings would see.

And finally, I want to say that I'm sorry if this post comes off as heated. Normally I try to highlight both the good and bad parts of maps that I test. Unfortuanatly, the things that I disliked about this map seemed to blow away anything nice I could say.

#12 · November 28, 2007, 3:35 pm

Yeah graphics part ruins it...
But... doesn't the blue strip from code keypad to door give a hint?
Also there is an issue that 1 soldier cant actually kill you... even 2 of them do it hardly...

I acknowledge your presence, citizen Frohman.

#13 · November 28, 2007, 3:42 pm

If one soldier can't kill you, that's fine. Its the start of the map. I was killed numerous times by the two soldiers, simply because they cornered me.

#14 · November 28, 2007, 3:47 pm

Guess you are right here, 1'd be enough)

I acknowledge your presence, citizen Frohman.

#15 · November 28, 2007, 3:56 pm

i skipped ahead using no clip >.> and

Spoiler

wow the next part is good with the trick but its hard to aim it properly and i ended up having to literally run back to the main hallway and close the door because the orb was bouncing around and almost killed me o.o

#16 · November 28, 2007, 4:18 pm

Ok... Just figured out there was a

Spoiler

code

(it popped in my mind while I was eating ^^).

Spoiler

Now, I just have to figure how to enter it...

Concerning the "pass through wall"... I put a (blue) portal at the hidden side of the wall, put an orange one in order to get to the

Spoiler

code

side of the wall...
Then, I just put an other blue portal next to me, and, as I think there's not enough space to stay there, it pushed me outside the map...

And in the beginning room, when you get up on the computer screen (using portals), you're then able to portal through the open space on the ceiling...

Well, that's time to finish your map

(And sorry for my bad English, I'm just a French guy ^^)

#17 · November 28, 2007, 4:27 pm

Quote:

And in the beginning room, when you get up on the computer screen (using portals), you're then able to portal through the open space on the ceiling...

Didn't think of this :oops:

And it never actually poped into my mind to enter that space between the portalable and non-portalable walls... Just used portals to look at the code... As you say, needs reworking)

I acknowledge your presence, citizen Frohman.

#18 · November 28, 2007, 4:59 pm

Quote from Ryanocerous on November 28, 2007, 4:59 pm
Hey all, first post. Been lurking a while and finally felt compelled to register.

I ran into a few problems with this map, but overall I really like the style and the addition of guns and baddies other than turrets.

In the first room, the first thing I noticed was the shadow of the chess board through the table. Not a big deal though.

Next thing I noticed is by shooting an orange portal on the floor below the hole in the ceiling, and the blue portal on the ceiling, by falling through orange and shooting blue on the floor as I fall, I can get out of the room. I didn't explore too much outside, but I noticed I can skip around outside the level with portals.

In the second room, I noticed only a few of the surfaces on the ceiling that appear portalable actually allow me to shoot portals onto them. Not sure if this was intended or not.

I managed to get past the second room with the first two soldiers by [spoiler]portaling a water heater thing onto the button, shooting through the door, then taking the heater off the button, trapping the soldiers in the second room while I went on to the third room.[/spoiler] It would be nice to be able to kill the soldiers by dropping things on them.

In the third room, I noticed there is an invisible collision glitch in the corner by the door to room 2 when the door is closed, making you just barely able to squeeze between it and [spoiler]the wall covering the code.[/spoiler]

Also in the third room, by shooting a blue portal [spoiler]behind the wall covering up the code[/spoiler], orange on the outside of it, walking through the portal far enough and shooting blue behind the wall in another spot, it bumps me outside the map.

Also in the third room, by standing on top of the statue/bust and attempting to shoot through the gap above the door, the portal projectiles get frozen in mid air at certain angles.

The code entry in the third room took me a while, but I finally realized to [spoiler]add the numbers in the second row.[/spoiler]

One time when I got to the fourth room, [spoiler]the one with the chair covering the vent/grating[/spoiler], there was no light in the room.

In the energy ball room and the adjacent storage room,[spoiler]I used the energy ball to knock down the box[/spoiler], but the box does not trigger the button to open the door. The door only opened when I stood on the button. I tried to use the box to hold the door open, but the step in the door kept preventing this. This might be part of the puzzle, but I am pretty impatient sometimes.

I couldn't figure out how to get past the room with the 4 soldiers legitly, but I did get impatient and noclip through the door. I also couldn't for the life of me get past the security guy with the gun. I could [spoiler]stand on his head and he wouldn't shoot me[/spoiler], but as soon as I tried to run/portal down the hall toward the ship, he killed me instantly.

I really enjoyed the room with the rolling mine-like things. Great room.

Whatever field you must pass through [spoiler]that disarms you completely[/spoiler] is rather annoying. Not sure what the point it is, but I couldn't figure out how to get any further without noclip.

In the room with four boxes and buttons, the boxes weighed the buttons down, but they did not appear to trigger anything that I noticed. There was a gap that I could shoot a portal through, [spoiler]if directly prior I hadn't watched my portal gun get fizzled[/spoiler], but even then there was no apparent place to shoot the second portal since the door locked behind me. Also, one of the doors in this area has the same collision glitch when close that the door from room 2 does.

I stopped there because I had to run some errands. I'll check out the rest later.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume a lot of my problems were because I am lazy and impatient, but I'm sure you can find some use out of some of this endless rambling.

All in all, I have really enjoyed the different style of this map so far. It is challenging, original (at least compared to the maps I've seen so far), and I look forward to it being completed. Good luck.

Edit: Wrote most of this then forgot to post it, when I finally did a lot of what I was saying has been said. Blargh

Hey all, first post. Been lurking a while and finally felt compelled to register.

I ran into a few problems with this map, but overall I really like the style and the addition of guns and baddies other than turrets.

In the first room, the first thing I noticed was the shadow of the chess board through the table. Not a big deal though.

Next thing I noticed is by shooting an orange portal on the floor below the hole in the ceiling, and the blue portal on the ceiling, by falling through orange and shooting blue on the floor as I fall, I can get out of the room. I didn't explore too much outside, but I noticed I can skip around outside the level with portals.

In the second room, I noticed only a few of the surfaces on the ceiling that appear portalable actually allow me to shoot portals onto them. Not sure if this was intended or not.

I managed to get past the second room with the first two soldiers by

Spoiler

portaling a water heater thing onto the button, shooting through the door, then taking the heater off the button, trapping the soldiers in the second room while I went on to the third room.

It would be nice to be able to kill the soldiers by dropping things on them.

In the third room, I noticed there is an invisible collision glitch in the corner by the door to room 2 when the door is closed, making you just barely able to squeeze between it and

Spoiler

the wall covering the code.

Also in the third room, by shooting a blue portal

Spoiler

behind the wall covering up the code

, orange on the outside of it, walking through the portal far enough and shooting blue behind the wall in another spot, it bumps me outside the map.

Also in the third room, by standing on top of the statue/bust and attempting to shoot through the gap above the door, the portal projectiles get frozen in mid air at certain angles.

The code entry in the third room took me a while, but I finally realized to

Spoiler

add the numbers in the second row.

One time when I got to the fourth room,

Spoiler

the one with the chair covering the vent/grating

, there was no light in the room.

In the energy ball room and the adjacent storage room,

Spoiler

I used the energy ball to knock down the box

, but the box does not trigger the button to open the door. The door only opened when I stood on the button. I tried to use the box to hold the door open, but the step in the door kept preventing this. This might be part of the puzzle, but I am pretty impatient sometimes.

I couldn't figure out how to get past the room with the 4 soldiers legitly, but I did get impatient and noclip through the door. I also couldn't for the life of me get past the security guy with the gun. I could

Spoiler

stand on his head and he wouldn't shoot me

, but as soon as I tried to run/portal down the hall toward the ship, he killed me instantly.

I really enjoyed the room with the rolling mine-like things. Great room.

Whatever field you must pass through

Spoiler

that disarms you completely

is rather annoying. Not sure what the point it is, but I couldn't figure out how to get any further without noclip.

In the room with four boxes and buttons, the boxes weighed the buttons down, but they did not appear to trigger anything that I noticed. There was a gap that I could shoot a portal through,

Spoiler

if directly prior I hadn't watched my portal gun get fizzled

, but even then there was no apparent place to shoot the second portal since the door locked behind me. Also, one of the doors in this area has the same collision glitch when close that the door from room 2 does.

I stopped there because I had to run some errands. I'll check out the rest later.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume a lot of my problems were because I am lazy and impatient, but I'm sure you can find some use out of some of this endless rambling.

All in all, I have really enjoyed the different style of this map so far. It is challenging, original (at least compared to the maps I've seen so far), and I look forward to it being completed. Good luck.

Edit: Wrote most of this then forgot to post it, when I finally did a lot of what I was saying has been said. Blargh

#19 · November 28, 2007, 5:02 pm

Just finished your map... Nice
I loved the

Spoiler

code idea

(even if it took me 30 minuts and a dinner to understand what to do), the

Spoiler

mix with hl?

, and all your original ideas.

But I found other bugs or/and glitches :
- In the first room, if you put a tank on the button, it will open the door. But, if, after, you stand on the button while the tank is still on, and get off, the door will close.
-

Spoiler

In the third room (just after the code room, when you have to portal behind the couch), there's a little space where you can portal under the map...

-

Spoiler

As someone said before, I had trouble to enter the code (texture setting at medium)... I kept doing 2863, had trouble to see the 4, had to put my texture level on high... (I was stupid on that part ^^). But making that more obvious won't be fun anymore, I think.

-

Spoiler

In the four-cube room, sometimes I had trouble to make the button on the wall to work after putting the four cubes on the Overweighted buttons...

Well, that's all for the moment.

To Ryanocerous (if you want how to solve some you weren't able to) :

Spoiler

In the energy ball room, you're supposed to activate the button with the overweighted ball, that is next to the overweighted cube (on the left). For the four-soldier room, just kill them with the energy ball. And for the security guy with the gun, you have to portal the fridge in order to smash him ^^.

Looking forward for new versions, and for new maps.

PS : Too many spoiler tags, but I just don't like to tell the solution, or anything original related to the map...

#20 · November 28, 2007, 5:09 pm

Code: Select all: [spoiler][/spoiler]

Portal 4 Life [RELEASE]