Quote from xitooner on January 29, 2008, 7:20 pm

Adair wrote:

Edit(again):
OK now I've beaten it, all of it. I must say that the confusion of part1-room2 was the biggest challenge. Although I did feel a great sense of accomplishment after figuring that part out. Sure there's a puzzle here or there that made me wonder if I'd solved it as intended, but there wasn't anything else that had me stumped for more than a minute or so. I think it really all comes down to me not recognizing that the fizzlers are cube friendly.

I'd say great job on the puzzles, they made me think even if they didn't stump me for minutes on end. The music is well placed, especially in the second chapter it felt like I really was breaking rules.

Thanks! Sorry about that initial confusion; I definitely got to work on that; if you have any suggestions on how to make it easier, please let me know.

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And finally a little gripe:

Yes indeed; there will eventually be an incinerator, or you will leave the map with the cube; I am not sure. When this map truly ends, I intend for it to be a lead-in to the next map, and you will be in BTS area as a setup for the next map in the series.

The missing puzzles at the end are going to have more cube-interaction; whats there enow is decidedly weak (which gave me the idea for the "you do all the work while the cube just sits around" comment). Even as it is though, I am beginning to think I've built up the cube commentary to the point that I either have to give it a REALLY good send-off, or I must carry it off into the sunset forever. . .

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Just thought of one more question: [spoiler]what was the purpose of the cube in the first room of part 1?[/spoiler]

Nothing at all; just a plaything for you. I wanted you to have something traditional that you could play with on a frictionless surface (that didnt want to kill you first). If you wanted to, you could have used the cube to do "frictionless bowling" with the turrets, or could bring it into room#2 and have a cube on both buttons (not required, really). I once tried "cube surfing" too. . .didnt work too well.

Also, the RollerMines are mostly there to introduce them in the series, althgoh they can be quite an irritation if youdo the map that way. I expect to use them again in a later puzzle in this series (maybe in this map), and since there was no formal introduction to them in Portal itself, I did it this way.

Quote from rellikpd on January 29, 2008, 9:44 pm

i am on stage 3 "allez hop"? and i have yet to figure it out, please help? lol all the other tests were "easy" once i figured everything out. thats not to say i solved them really fast. hell no they; took awhile to figure out and understand the fling/sliding thing, but they were awesome. your design and everything is really good. and what an orriginal concept. oh yeah and i must make a note here:
MOST AWESOME GLaDOS voice in any map i've played so far. most are 'horrible' and although this isn't a "perfect" glados replica, its damn close (considering you don't have Ellen McLain doing the voice for you. and i can even hear the sarcasm/belittlingness of her voice. very good.

what i most like about the ramp/sliding part of them map was, even when i was failing horribly i was still having fun figureing it out. what a great way to make even failure fun! don't change it. don't cut it up into multiple puzzles. the large multiple sliding areas are great!

anyway. maybe i'm just missing something on test #3 not sure. but i'm back to work on it.

edit: aw ok. last puzzle wasn't so hard once i figured out wth i had to do :-p the "FIRST" part of room #3 was very hard to get. but once i figured it out. the last couple peices were very fun :-p

all and all. man i give this shit a 11 out of 10!
only thing i could say is i did notice a couple of places that seemed to "leak" or what we used to call HoM (hall of mirrors) too tired or i would post screen shots. maybe later :-p

Quote from Deviant on January 29, 2008, 9:56 pm

I'm sorry, xitooner, but I broke your map. I have no idea what would cause that, but it was cool.

I like it so far. I got to that puzzle in the video, then had to quit, but I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Quote from xitooner on January 29, 2008, 10:44 pm

Deviant wrote:

I'm sorry, xitooner, but I broke your map. I have no idea what would cause that, but it was cool.

I like it so far. I got to that puzzle in the video, then had to quit, but I'm looking forward to finishing it.

THATS STILL THERE? I've seen it before, but it was never as wild-looking
as that for me; congratulations (I think)! I usually fell into nothingness!

I THOUGHT I'd fixed it; I think it has to do with the angled wall with the
portal near the bottom; the lower edge of your portal gets very close to
the edge of the map, and since its not parallel to the wall. . .some weird
effects happen and you somehow slip out. There is definitely
something "odd" that happens on the upper and lower edges of a portal
that I have seen in other experiments. I thought making the wall thicker there had made it go away, but I guess not.

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all and all. man i give this shit a 11 out of 10!
only thing i could say is i did notice a couple of places that seemed to "leak" or what we used to call HoM (hall of mirrors) too tired or i would post screen shots. maybe later :-p

rellikpd, your whole post is the kind that makes all those hours I spent
making this worthwhile! Thanks! If you should spot those leaks again
sometime, let me know.

Quote from Ryanocerous on January 29, 2008, 11:26 pm

Just finished it, and I have to say I am awestruck. Original, top notch design and creativity, and that was definitely the best custom GLaDOS I have heard so far.

I love that you incorporated the frictionless surfaces seamlessly with the interesting flings. I have to admit the floors threw me for a loop at first, but once I learned to [spoiler]jump[/spoiler] I found them to be really enjoyable.

The second room was extremely confusing at first, but after completing it I felt a great sense of accomplishment, and I really like how it is set up. I see no reason to split it up, and really hope you don't.

I was kinda disappointed that the final room ended so quickly, given how easy it was, but I was happy to see it will continue.

I didn't notice many things to criticize at all, and I'm pretty nit-picky. The GLaDOS voices overlap and are intelligible if you move too quickly through the map. Also, the things "protecting" the cube in the first room just kinda spin and hop in place on the frictionless surface, never able to chase me. Lastly and probably least important, the fizzler in the energy ball dispenser part of the second room didn't give me the satisfying fizzle I was expecting when I threw the turret through it. I didn't experience what Deviant did, and I did exactly the same thing.

Great job all in all. Instantly a favorite of mine. I really can't wait to see more.

Quote from Adair on January 30, 2008, 12:56 am

I went spoiler tag happy in this post

xitooner wrote:

And although you can see the exit is above you, there should be no way available to you to reach it at this time. Once you get the hang of frictionless flinging, you know what you need to leave the room past the line of turrets.

I actually worked out a way to get up to the door to chapter 2 before it ever occured to me that I could frictionless fling past the turrets in room 1. But its not easy so you may not need to change anything. I'll explain it just so you know how its done.
[spoiler]first move the cube, then...
1] place orange portal up against the wall on the tilted panel
2] place blue portal on the floor somewhere
3] go through portals in a way that allows you to land on the tilted panel
4] from tilted panel shoot blue on the highest part of the wall
5] go through portals and...
6] while falling from the blue reshoot blue on the floor below you
7] fly out of orange in general direction of the chapter 2 door, but...
8] in midair direct yourself to land on the observation room window ledge
9] shoot blue onto floor directly below you
10] fall into blue trying to fall close to the far side of the portal
11] fly out of orange holding forward the whole time
(if you do 10 and 11 just right you will actually hit the side of the platform where the chapter 2 door is)
12] hit the side of the platform and press back a bit so you can shoot blue below you
13] fall into blue and fly out of orange holding forward
...that should get you up there[/spoiler]

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[spoiler]After getting rid of the turret, now you have to figure out how to get the glass wall to permanently stay open (you can see it opens when you step on/off the button); you'll need the cube from below.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]At first I was going to try getting the cube for the button(and in my previous post I described a sneaky way to get it really easily), but then I thought about it and ended up starting the ball race by first pressing the small button from a maximum distance and then stepping on the big button for half a second to let the ball out.[/spoiler]

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[spoiler]Puzzle #4 is a race with the energy ball... Your starting point is labelled with 4-dots and the switch that opens the gate has 4 dots... Along the way you will end up flung way up to that glass ledge with another timed switch[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I never did figure out how to use the long curving slide. Here's how I got to the small button on the glass ledge:
1] stand on big button that lowers the glass
2] shoot blue to the far side of the room onto a patch of wall with a grated ledge sticking out
3] shoot orange on wall near big button you were just on
4] after getting the ball going go through portals and stand on grated ledge
5] look right and shoot blue onto tilted panel
6] run and jump off grated ledge at a 45 degree angle holding forward as you fall
7] shoot orange on ground below you as you fall while holding forward to enter orange portal at an angle
8] fly out of blue and land on glass ledge.

Edit: I just figured out you can do almost the same thing by:
1] put cube on button to hold glass down
2] shoot orange across room onto tilted panel
3] jump off the tall ledge at the ball start position at an angle
4] hold forward while falling so that you can shoot blue below and fall in at an angle
5] fly out of orange up to glass ledge

I also did it the intended way which is simultaneously the funnest and most difficult; odd[/spoiler]

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[spoiler]Once solved, now you have to figure out where to place portals in room#2 and room#1 such that you can get enough momentum to get yourself flung up to the exit using the angled wall in room#1.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I'll have to try this method out since I used the fling described at the beginning of the post.[/spoiler]

^Edited^

Quote from xitooner on January 30, 2008, 1:26 am

Adair wrote:

I actually worked out a way to get up to the door to chapter 2 before it ever occured to me that I could frictionless fling past the turrets in room 1. But its not easy so you may not need to change anything. I'll explain it just so you know how its done.

Wow. Really; wow. I had been pretty sure many of those things you did werent possible; I never could pull them off. I will have to come up with a suitable comment for GLADOS to make just for anyone working so hard to get up to the exit area before the doors are open. You certainly deserve SOME recognition for that!

And I knew you could get up to the energy ball area without a cube, but I never dreamed you could get the ball past that glass without a cube and still have any chance at all of reaching the final switch! Of all you did, thats the only one I think I'll have to investigate and try to prevent; I just dont want people skipping the 1st half of the race. Heck, I thought putting the switch up there so high would force people to use the long curving slide; thats why I did it! Oh well. . .

Quote from Adair on January 30, 2008, 2:25 am

xitooner wrote:

I just dont want people skipping the 1st half of the race.

Err, one more thing:
[spoiler]If you put the cube on the button to hold the glass down you can then start the ball and jump directly into the glass chamber where the final small button is. Yes, you have to start the ball and once its out of the way you run toward the edge jump+crouch at the last possible moment before you would fall. You jump toward the hole on the side of the glass chamber holding forward the whole time and when you get there spin your view left so that you change your direction and you can just barely get the lip of the ledge there. The only reason I can think of to do this is a least portals or least steps challenge because it doesn't save time...unless someone was able to use the cube to deflect the ball in such a way to...I'm not even going to try.[/spoiler]

Btw, In the second chapter [spoiler]there is a very tall glass wall to fling over. I only just now did it right. Before I was jumping down to the window ledge and then using a similar technique to whats described above(midair direction change) to jump around the glass. Sometimes I just don't see the intended solution first ...and when your map is called "Thinking Outside the Cube" its hard to know whether I'm supposed to break all the rules or just some of them.[/spoiler]

Quote from infernet89 on January 30, 2008, 1:59 pm

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=CPjbeNyQOYY