Quote from bizob on May 1, 2008, 11:55 pm

LOL
rellikpd:

I do hate the way the thing around the [spoiler]gun looks. The stand has to be that high for the double-fling to work (at least for me),[/spoiler] but i really should come up with something better looking. I'll work on it before I do the final release. I promise. [spoiler]As for the room itself, I could put a big portal cleanser (2 high) right on the edge of that top section and change the floor back to concrete. Which could also solve problem #1. And uber-tiny hole was just a joke, it will be back to normal size.[/spoiler]

Hmm some experimenting to do.

By the way a new version update Now with a Challenge Map!

Quote from rellikpd on May 2, 2008, 5:50 am

[spoiler]ultra small hole[/spoiler] was funny, just don't know if it would be visible to someone who hasn't played your map. and to fix the portal gun stand. thats fine you can still have that stand, but don't make it glass... make it func_brush with a whole in it. give it some pretty texturing, and then it doesn't look like a bag of dog shit (i kid, i kid)

aside from that this thing is great.

i want to make a note here (again): [spoiler]i like the way the map is "visually" linear. but as soon as you step over/on the steps they drop. and since you ain't got super powers (portal gun) you ARE stuck. and it "seems" like it would be simple to get back out. but without a portal gun, it ain't. then you get that. and it still seems like it would be easy to get out. but without a cube it ain't. it was a very good way to think FOR the player (ie: you don't allow him to get back to the button without all the proper tools) but without babysitting him (cuz you make us still solve the puzzles). and then once you do. you have to backtrack along everything you already did. BUT since you have to do so in a "new" way (ie: gun & cube) it doesn't FEEL like you are replaying the same part of the level

and one more note on the double fling thing. i liked it. but i like "hard, but not impossible" flings i don't mind flings that take some forethought but not necessarly lightning like reflexes....... however ALOT of people would not be able to pull that one off. as much as it pains me i think it needs to be fixed or tweeked down a bit. cuz it doesn't really fit with the same difficulty level as the rest of the map. so either make the rest of it harder or calm this part down a bit: (but definately save the dimensions cuz this would be a great fling in one of your "harder" maps )[/spoiler]

Quote from bizob on May 6, 2008, 8:55 pm

I cleaned up the [spoiler]portal gun delivery system[/spoiler]. It's not as impressive as I had hoped it would be but I think it fits the map well and looks acceptable. I also changed the last rooms solution slightly. [spoiler]The hard fling is still an option and will help in the challenge map but it's not the only way out.[/spoiler] The new version (1.0) is a "final compile" with cubemaps built for HDR and LDR. Hopefully there are no errors left. I look forward to starting the whole process over again with chamber_02

Mods: could you please leave this in WIP for a few days so I can make sure there are no problems before calling it final. Thanks.

Quote from rellikpd on May 6, 2008, 9:50 pm

"looks" really good.
only things i have to complain about are: you need to fix it so it doesn't always start black when you load a save its annoying just sitting while it fades from black, it looks like you're using the map properties "start fade" instead of a env_fade not sure as i've never really used those type of fades. but i'm sure thats whats "wrong"

also: i like the way the new portal pedistal looks.. but you could have just as easily not made it glass. just a solid box or top. incase you wanted to use the orriginal solution, which i really liked, just... that it would be considered REALLY hard. cuz the new solution is really easy lol. although it might be cool for "challenge" purposes

aside from the fade issue (which is really just a gripe, and is kinda annoying) i'd say if you're ready to move this to [Release]

Quote from bizob on May 6, 2008, 10:28 pm

You're right about the "start fade" property. It seems that the env_fades do not work (or so I've read) so I took the easy way out. I do have the fades in there but they didn't work. I'm gonna turn off the "start fade" property. I didn't even notice it caused a "fade-in" on every reload. I can certainly see how it would get old fast for the player.

For the pedestal I wanted something a little more than just a stand coming out of a hole in the floor. I wanted the pedestal model to be more visible. although what I ended up with wasn't much more than a square hole in the floor, hey I tried. I may take the gun away in a future map so I can have another go at it.

I'm still on the fence about the last room. The one thing I didn't like about the first set up was that you could place a portal up on the wall and "creep" out of it to shoot a portal on the upper floor (see infernet89's video). I like this skill and you will have to use it in my future maps but I wanted to avoid that for this solution. That's why I made the upper floor that metal texture for a short time, but that left the hard fling as the only solution and, like you said, the difficulty for it was out of place in this map. I feel moving the portal cleansers was a good compromise. Since this is the first in the series, I wanted it to be fairly easy.

Thanks again for your input rellikpd, it's been a great help. Now I have to start thinking of stuff for chamber_02. I'm kinda thinking of "Time, The 4th Dimension" for a theme.

Quote from rellikpd on May 7, 2008, 5:26 am

since this is the first in a series of maps... then yeah the "new" solution for the last map ([spoiler]multi-fling then a simple ceiling/floor hop[/spoiler]) is ok i guess lol just... after finally getting the [spoiler]multi-ANGULAR-fling[/spoiler] on your uberhard version... i was a little sad it was so easy... but it fits way better for sure.

now go make the other 20 maps!

Quote from bizob on May 7, 2008, 1:41 pm

I promise you will see that fling again just maybe not for a few more maps.

Now on to Chamber_02. Hopefully I can get some concept stuff out next week. This one will be slightly harder than the last one but still pretty easy.

Quote from bizob on May 12, 2008, 9:57 pm

Well, I reverted the last room's solution back to the original solution. I also fixed the fade in so that it is shorter and only happens from the entry elevator. I added a sign to the first puzzle as well. It's probably not necessary, I think the average player could figure out what needed to be done, but I thought it looked more professional and polished.

I did have some issues with building cubemaps for some odd reason so I'll hold off calling this "final release" untill i'm sure my map won't crash anybodies game. I tested it twice myself and everything went fine.

Quote from rellikpd on May 13, 2008, 1:38 am

looks GREAT. console reported no errors. and the map looks beautiful. i like the new icon for the first puzzle. not needed. but for those who are... well. for those who probly shouldn't be playing this game anyway (lol) then it might help. anyway its a cool icon regardless.

only thing that had me going "OH yeah. duh" was the room where you [spoiler]get the portal gun, i was trying to solve it using the multi-angular fling when i relized i could just portal bounce up to the ledge lol nice use of misdirection (with the multi-angular fling icons)[/spoiler]

also the PG pedistal looks great. much better.

nothing else to say, imo its ready for its [RELEASE] tag.