http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/dload.php?action=file&file_id=169

This is my first nearly completed map using Hammer. It is the second or possibly third map in a series of indeterminate length that I am kind of working on called "the Road to Android Hell."

The overall plot of the series is that the player, a test participant loose in the facility, stumbles across the android testing grounds, gets misidentified as an android by GLaDOS, and has to undergo a series of increasingly difficult live-fire excersises and other combat simulations, primarily involving turrets.

This particular map is intended to gradually introduce the player to the concept of turrets placed on rotating platforms. These have been tricky to implement in-game because without adequate protection like a cage they are easy to get behind and tip. I chose to use moats and trenches so that the turrets were defended but could still be knocked over by a determined player.

The map is pretty close to finished. I still need to put in proper soundscapes, music, elevators, and level transitions, and polish it up a bit. I would also like to replace the game_text subtitled dialogue with actual sound files, but I am not really a sound guy, so unless the subtitles really don't work for people I'll probably stick with them. I would appreciate any feedback on how they read, and whether they work for you.

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There is also an accessible bts area and a secret bonus for knocking over all 6 test chamber turrets.

Ok, finished your map.

Last test was very long to finish, and also very difficult if the turrets are still alive.

The sound you play when there are subtitles it's noisy, i hate that.

howewer, i'm going to search the secret bonus for knocking over all 6 test chamber turrets.

EDIT:
founded the bts area, really amazing but it can be very cool if at the first time we enter to the corridor we see an elevator at the end of that with a gman inside closing his doors and going up.

This map is really good.
It uses a new concept, graphics are nice...

I just could not stand the "chatter" sound. It was too loud and annoying for me. This map would gain to have either:

• no chatter
• chatter but with less volume
• Glados custom voice

You choose your solution, but I think voice would be great because the text is pretty good, very in the spirit of Glados.
A few custom textures would also be a perfect finishing touch (room "welcome sign" or "rotating turret" sign, for example.

Someone has founded the secret bonus for knocking over all 6 test chamber turrets?

I just founded the second final, the one who restart the map at the end of that.

Great map. One irritating thing was that I often tried to solve the puzzels the wrong way. Probably not your fault. Skip the noise when the subtitles are shown. They should last a little longer too. The BTS area was confusing because the turrets didn't appear at first. I went back and forth before the doors suddenly opened. This area is also too bright and check the shadows at the elevator. The map restarted for me too, and I didn't knock down every turret.

So far I am getting unanimous dislike for the noise that plays with the subtitles. It sounds like it should either be turned down or removed altogether.

I don't really want to remove it because without it the subtitles are easy to miss once they start playing. What if I went with a different sound?
Originally I was looking for a sound that sounded like the static that occasionally plays with the GLaDOS dialogue, but I couldn't find a separate sound for this in the Portal SDK. There were a couple of sounds that were vaguely like static, but if anything they were more annoying than the random chatter. I'll probably just turn the noise down to barely audible.

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It looks like the multiple endings might be a little confusing. The second ending is not the bonus for knocking over all turrets. It is supposed to represent "Android Hell," which means you have to repeat the test chamber over and over again. The orange Android Hell ending activates when the player enters the BTS area; if they don't, they get the blue ending, which will ultimately load the next map.

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The turrets in the BTS area are activated by a trigger look. Because the player can't move on until they are triggered, I also put in a timer that activates them as a backup. It sounds like finding the trigger look might be causing problems. I should probably shorten the backup timer, and maybe either reposition the trigger look so it is easier to stumble across or add multiple trigger looks.

thehermit2 wrote:
{cut}
The second ending is not the bonus for knocking over all turrets. It is supposed to represent "Android Hell," which means you have to repeat the test chamber over and over again. {cut}

Could you give us some [spoiler] to that secret bonus?

The Road to Android Hell is paved by AI with good intentions.

<downloaded: going to go play>

I thought this map was challenging, but fun.

thehermit2 wrote:
I don't really want to remove it because without it the subtitles are easy to miss once they start playing.

The subtitles are huge and neon orange, I don't think the player is going to miss them. I personally didn't mind the chatter sound that much though.

On the subject of multiple endings, does your final score actually change depending on how you complete the puzzles?

Also, what does BTS stand for?

Behind the Scenes. It refers to the part of the game after the final formal chamber when you're making your way through the actual facility.

i haven't finished the map yet but so far its really cool (and annoyingly hard) but "what" needs to be done is clear. so i don't mind.
as far as the chatter. i liked it myself. kinda represented that i should stop what i was doing and read the text. since i like the game sounds to be heard. so i waited for the damn text to finish before proceeding (because of the sound) however. some of the texts (well really all of them) should be displayed a little longer. now i am not a super fast reader,but i am NOT a slow reader either and a few of them i barely finished reading in time (or missed the last word or two)

anyway i'll post more once i've finished the map.

Hober wrote:
Behind the Scenes.

Thanks. I realized that shortly after I posted.

I found the BTS area by noclipping (because I was too lazy to look for it legitimately) but I noticed that it's possible to get stuck there. You enter by shooting a portal at the X under the stairs in the room with the giant tube, but once you're down there, if the stairs go back down, your portal disappears and there's no way to get out.

Ralen wrote:
I found the BTS area by noclipping (because I was too lazy to look for it legitimately) but I noticed that it's possible to get stuck there. You enter by shooting a portal at the X under the stairs in the room with the giant tube, but once you're down there, if the stairs go back down, your portal disappears and there's no way to get out.

I think I can fix that by putting a trigger that opens the stairs again when the player is under them. Thanks for pointing that out.

ok just finished this one. and man it was really good. hard, different. but possible and easy to understand. only things i found problems with are
1) you can get stuck under the stairs that takes you to the bts area
2) you seem to be able to complete the last puzzle without getting all the cubes... after the 3rd cube was dropped. i was able to (sometimes) get the door open without using all the cubes. not sure how/why this is? exatly HOW are you suposed to beat the last puzzle? i'm assuming by putting all 3 cubes on all 3 buttons?

and lastly OMG what an amazing easter egg!!! i laughed so freakin' hard!

EDIT: thought of a way to fix the bts area below the stairs; you could just simply make the floor portable... this would be a viable fix for 2 reasons, firstly: it would be ok. cuz. well you already found the secret if you are able to target the floor. so who cares right? secondly... putting a trigger under there to make the stairs go "back up" if the player is in this area because one assumes that all actions are triggered by <homocidal AI name here> so WHY would he/she help the player who is attempting to bypass the test chamber? more likely the AI would be happy to trap said test participant in this area with no chance for escape... atleast then they would slowly starve to death and not be a problem no more

Thanks for the review, rellikpd. I'm glad someone finally reported that they got the easter egg to work. I was starting to worry that there was something wrong with it.

Both of the problems you found have been among the glitches that have dogged me throughout the construction of this level.

The three-button puzzle is supposed to work this way:
-Triggering any one button causes the first cube to drop.
-Triggering any two buttons causes the second cube to drop.
-Triggering all three buttons causes the third cube to drop and also holds the exit doors open as long as all three are being pressed.
So when you have all three cubes, you should be able to hold the door open and escape. If it is staying open with only two cubes, there must be some sort of glitch.

The problem with it may be that I built the puzzle before I learned how a math_counter and logic_case work together. Instead I used an overlapping network of something like twelve different trigger_multiples (half for the player and half for the cubes). The triggers are all slightly different sizes so I can tell them apart for maintenance, and this probably caused the glitch that held the doors open.

I think I can solve this by just going over to the simpler math_counter and logic_case pairing.

The stairs have been a trickier problem because they seem to cause some sort of tremendous lag when they are down and there is an open portal under them. That was why I changed the placement of the portal surface so their closing disrupted any portal placed there, forgetting that this would trap the player. I think putting a portal surface on the floor might bring the lag problem back, but I'll play around with that and some other ideas I've had and see if I can't work something out.

Personally I'm still leaning towards the GLaDOS fix because... well, first it would be really easy for me to do, and second there is precedent in the original game for GLaDOS helping the player out when they get trapped. At the end of test chamber 15 you can climb inside the small chamber where the ball catcher is while the timed doors are open, and if they close you are effectively trapped forever. GLaDOS chimes in with a brief disclaimer and then opens a secret trap door that frees you. (I saw a video of this on youtube).

If I add some dialogue explaining what is happening and why and that maybe is also funny, then GLaDOS freeing the player might be acceptable.

thehermit2 wrote:

Personally I'm still leaning towards the GLaDOS fix because... well, first it would be really easy for me to do, and second there is precedent in the original game for GLaDOS helping the player out when they get trapped. At the end of test chamber 15 you can climb inside the small chamber where the ball catcher is while the timed doors are open, and if they close you are effectively trapped forever. GLaDOS chimes in with a brief disclaimer and then opens a secret trap door that frees you. (I saw a video of this on youtube).

If I add some dialogue explaining what is happening and why and that maybe is also funny, then GLaDOS freeing the player might be acceptable.

well there wouldn't be anything completely wrong with this kind of fix... just. for me i think it would be against the orriginal design, most people wouldn't even notice, just us perfectionists. cuz you ARE right glados does something similiar to this in (many) of the orriginal test chambers. however, she does that ONLY if you trap yourself in legitimate parts of the test chamber, "outside" of the test chamber she has little (to no) control. and so. in my opinion, before you have her "fix your problem" try making a different portable surface... or make another way to get out possibly. like being able to get to the bts area WITHOUT using another portal (once you are under the stairs) or maybe make another hall behind you. just slightly. thats not "DIRECTLY" under the stairs with a portalable surface... might fix the lag.

ALSO ANOTHER NOTE ON THE EASTER EGG: i didn't have any problem finding it once i killed all the turrets. the "knocking sound that is louder when you are "around" where it starts" seemed like plenty good enough clue. but not so obvious... so it made finding out "what the hell is that noise?" much more fun, and rewarding once i did find it.

Okay, I see what you mean about GLaDOS not helping the player escape the from the actual test chamber into a BTS area. That would definitely be out of character.

My intention was that she was not aware that there was an exit underneath the stairs, and so perceiving the player as trapped forever would help to free them. But then why put a portal surface there at all? Wouldn't it be easier to design the test chamber without one?

The BTS exit would have to be a thing that resulted from some unauthorized modification of the test chamber to be believable. I think I'm going to have to rethink the storytelling aspect of this.

thehermit2 wrote:
My intention was that she was not aware that there was an exit underneath the stairs, and so perceiving the player as trapped forever would help to free them. But then why put a portal surface there at all? Wouldn't it be easier to design the test chamber without one?

hum... that might work.. especially if you use the
aperture_ai\07_part1_trapped-1.wav
aperture_ai\07_part1_trapped-2.wav
sounds... and then open a way for them to get out. but that sounds like MUCH MORE work than just keeping them from getting trapped (in the ways i stated)