[SP] The Cosmogony Map Pack

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Dreey
78 Posts
Posted May 08, 2014
Hello everyone and happy second workshop anniversary! Anyways, it's been a loong time. I've been working on these maps for quite a while now. So without further ado: it was nice catching up, let's get to business.

Cosmogony is a 6 part map pack set during GLaDOS activation in the Enrichment Center, with custom story and visuals! I tried to follow the Portal story and capture the same atmosphere, so I hope I got it right. After a year and a half of developing and a lot of hard work, It's finally out. I hope you have as much fun playing it as we had developing it.

ALL MAPS ARE NOW AVAILABLE. Thanks for playing!

All feedback is appreciated. Please consider recording a playthrough. It helps a lot and it can turn into an official walkthrough (as I'm in need of one) and be featured in the maps pages!
On a side note, there are A LOT of easter eggs. Seriously. Every map has at least one easter egg. If you find one or more of them, be sure to post it here!
Enough chitchatting! It's you and me against the world, son! Now let's solve this thing!

Click here to download The Cosmogony Map Pack

Click here to download The Cosmogony Map Pack

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Dreey
78 Posts
Posted May 08, 2014
Replied 3 minutes later
### SCREENSHOTS Click to enlarge!






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User
630 Posts
Posted May 08, 2014
Replied 52 minutes later
So, i now played part 1 and part 2.
All what i can say is awesome. I love the detailing, the exploring, the whole environment, the wheatley scene, i didnt expected such nice fun. Found easteregg in part 2 ( which is pretty scary ), the Intro was very awesome too. Cant wait until part 3-6 are up. I'll edit this post after playing them ofcourse
Really a masterpiece, **this** should be a mod, and not the twtm mod
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
Posted May 08, 2014
Replied 4 hours later
Pretty awesome sets of maps so far! I've played part 1&2 and they look and play very well!
here's my playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXfdraF86jU&feature=youtu.be

Can't wait for part 3-6

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Dreey
78 Posts
Posted May 09, 2014
Replied 21 hours later

TheTobbell wrote:
[...] Found easteregg in part 2 [...] Cant wait until part 3-6 are up. I'll edit this post after playing them ofcourse [...]

Thank you for the feedback! Parts 3 and 4 are now up.
Thanks for reporting the easter egg too! It was one of the first easter eggs to be put in the map
The intro was one of the stuff that most changed in the map. First, waking up in the middle of the neurotoxin disaster and just closing your office door to survive felt a bit unrealistic. So I had an idea to make a cinematic intro. Going thru the vents of Aperture and watching GLaDOS being powered up. So as Portal 2 hates .ani files I couldn't place any human NPCs in the intro, and that was disappointing. Just hearing people scream and not seeing them was scary I'll admit, but not as I expected. So there was a long time without intro and with no ideas at all. I was just playing with hammer to see what I could come up with. I didn't want to just throw away all the content I created so I recycled some stuff. Including content from my previous maps, if you played them, you'll notice. So I think I can say my previous maps were just experiments.

Lpfreaky90 wrote:
Pretty awesome sets of maps so far! I've played part 1&2 and they look and play very well!
here's my playthrough:
[video]

Can't wait for part 3-6

Thanks for the video Lp! It helps a lot to see how test subjects... I mean, players behave while playing the map. You're not the only one who don't know how to say the name of the map:
"[koz-mog-uh-nee]" I'll let you search for the definition

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quatrus
1,047 Posts
Posted May 09, 2014
Replied 2 minutes later
Played through 1 & 2 - outstanding, will look for 3/4 now.... Beautiful maps...
Finished 3&4 - excellent again - very nice puzzle in 4...
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Ace Ryder
45 Posts
Posted May 09, 2014
Replied 4 hours later
Incredible, Amazing, Well Done! I left most of my opinions on the collection page on the workshop. But on this forum, I'd like to say a few things about my experience with the gameplay, and some constructive criticism from what I can discern. I'd like to start out by saying that I agree with pretty much everything in LP's video, especially about the amount of doors, so I won't repeat those (anymore), but here's some additional feedback. To anyone who did not make Cosmogony, and didn't play it, stop reading, and go away.

Part 1
-The railings in the first, main room, are a little too short, leading you to think you can jump over them, but you can't. Whereas in the stairwell, with the same railing height, you can.
-I thought it took too long for Wheatley to make his debut appearance.

Part 2
-I also thought the wait time was too long when Wheatley was talking, cause I ran out of things to do and look at, by the time he was halfway done talking.
-In the turret part, it is was a little difficult to realize that you could pick up the turrets inside the containers. And I kept trying to move the light bridge wall really fast to get up the elevator. I think you should make it a little more obvious or change the puzzle around so as not to mislead the player into a wrong solution and think that you have to be an expert player to do it.
-I don't think you should disable the portal gun for the whole office part after the lift, but rather, separate the rooms and decrease the amount of portal surfaces where you don't want them or something. Or whatever.

Part 3
-At the place where the ladder is, there should be more focus on where to place the portal with lights or a cable, I don't know. Just more focus, because it has a gate over it, and at first glance looks like part of the wall.
-Sometimes when you launch the cube at the button the correct way, it doesn't land on the button.

Part 4
-This is the test where I realized that the lighting felt a little destructive to the puzzle-solving process, and a little monotone(ous). I think for this room, a bright or a little warmness to the light would make the player feel more comfortable to try new methods of solving. The general color for the map pack works well for gloomy parts, but in this room it felt a little discomforting. I would like to see more variation throughout the map in terms of light color, just to add to the beauty it already has.

That's all. Again really really enjoyed, best map pack in a long long while, nicely done.

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| \_/ ()
62 Posts
Posted May 10, 2014
Replied 3 hours later
Awesome! When are 5 and 6 comming out?
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Dafflewoctor
415 Posts
Posted May 10, 2014
Replied 5 hours later
One of the best Portal 2 map packs on the workshop, in my opinion. Most of my praise for your work has already been stated here, though, so I'll save you some reading.

I found some easter eggs in episodes 1 & 2. I must say they are very cleverly hidden and interesting, though I don't want to spoil them for others so I'll just say this: Maybe you should ask Gabe. But for the life of me, I can't find anything in episodes 3 & 4. Apparently there's an easter egg in every map, though.

For some reason, that "help me" on the computer monitor really gave me chills. It almost seemed like...

there was someone in there with me...

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Dreey
78 Posts
Posted May 10, 2014
Replied 1 hour later

Ace Ryder wrote:
Incredible, Amazing, Well Done! I left most of my opinions on the collection page on the workshop. But on this forum, I'd like to say a few things about my experience with the gameplay, and some constructive criticism from what I can discern. [...]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm aware of some things you reported, some of them will change in the next update, others I've tried to solve already but couldn't and some I'll leave it. (Like the railing and the turrets on the ground level).
Thanks for playing!!

| _/ () wrote:
Awesome! When are 5 and 6 comming out?

Today, hopefully.

Dr.Toaster Waffles wrote:
I found some easter eggs in episodes 1 & 2. I must say they are very cleverly hidden and interesting, though I don't want to spoil them for others so I'll just say this: Maybe you should ask Gabe. But for the life of me, I can't find anything in episodes 3 & 4. Apparently there's an easter egg in every map, though.

For some reason, that "help me" on the computer monitor really gave me chills. It almost seemed like...

there was someone in there with me...

Thanks for reporting! There's still some more easter eggs to be found.
Episodes 3 and 4 have only one or two easter eggs. However, episode 1 and 2 have a lot yet to be discovered.

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Ace Ryder
45 Posts
Posted May 10, 2014
Replied 12 hours later
LAST TWO PARTS UPLOADED
The last map was so incredible, so many things I've never seen before in a map. All the structures, and everything made architectural sense and it was all plain fun.
Here are the last two things I had problems with:

Part 5

The space under the gel droppers was a little too wide, I accidentally fell in twice and had to restart, as funny as it sounds, it was really frustrating.

Part 6
The solution with the catapult and the fling, eluded me because I thought you were supposed to put a portal on the floor outside the mini test, one over catapult to fling through floor outside, put a portal on the slanted surface, and fall through and out. When I couldn't figure out the next part properly, I did the same thing again and strafed through the air to land on the slanted surface and used the catapult from there. I didn't know that you actually had to fling up to the button and shoot a portal on the slanted surface from inside the test chamber, because I thought that you were supposed to ignore the test and only use the catapult.

Everything else is wonderful and overall one of the best adventure maps out there.
PS Thanks for the response, I think it's great that you're updating it

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LoneWolf2056
193 Posts
Posted May 11, 2014
Replied 9 hours later
An excellent map pack, loved the blend of portal 1 and 2, the puzzles where a pretty great difficulty level, not so easy you walked through but not hard either, though I did get stuck in part 5 a bit xD

Great attention to detail with subtle clues, e.g the ladder to draw players eyes up to the portal surface to enter a chamber etc, though for me personally the super strong blue fog was a little odd in places, especially the offices, I always assumed it was blue cause of the supposed ambient light from the panel arms in the huge bts areas, so it makes no sense in an office.

Interesting finale, thought I found it weird I just dropped dead when I portalled to the room the turrets and laser were in enjoyed the ending credits

Overall I feel when you got in to the puzzle maps they were maybe a bit short, but then again im used to working with always putting 2 puzzles in a map or one large one. No major complaints from me

Great job

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| \_/ ()
62 Posts
Posted May 11, 2014
Replied 7 hours later
Great mappack, but you do need to fix the final map bug LoneWolf mentioned. you also ought to put some glass around the two exit elevator...tubes or whatever they are. and see where you have invisible brushes there, because I can walk on air on one side of the pit (where the exit elevator is) and fall on the other. and the test with the gels - despite the glass, I managed to solve the test without using the orange gel (note that I can't b-hop or use those kinds of glitches). I had to play it again to figure out why you put it there. if you can make the area where the cube is further from the place whre the gel falls, it would be better.

I don't want to sound like I don't like those maps, I think they are great and with these little bugfixes they'll be perfect. the visuals are awesome, the ending is outstanding, the story is fine and the puzzles were challenging enough, but not too hard, just the way I like them. nice job!

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Dreey
78 Posts
Posted May 13, 2014
Replied 2 days later
Hello everyone! I's been a loong time. I've been working on these maps for quite a while now. So without further ado: it was nice catching up, let's get to business.

Cosmogony is a 6 part map pack set during GLaDOS activation in the Enrichment Center, with custom story and visuals! I tried to follow the Portal story and capture the same atmosphere, so I hope I got it right. After a year and a half of developing and a lot of hard work, It's finally out. I hope you have as much fun playing it as we had developing it.

All feedback is appreciated. Please consider recording a playthrough. It helps a lot and it can turn into an official walkthrough (as I'm in need of one) and be featured in the maps pages!
On a side note, there are A LOT of easter eggs. Seriously. Every map has at least one easter egg. If you find one or more of them, be sure to post it here!
Enough chitchatting! It's you and me against the world, son! Now let's solve this thing!

Click here to download The Cosmogony Map Pack

&

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quatrus
1,047 Posts
Posted May 13, 2014
Replied 8 minutes later
Can't say enough about this map pack, a masterwork of Portal mapping....Thanks for creating...
Will play through again to look for the Easter eggs....
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RubbishyUsername
167 Posts
Posted May 14, 2014
Replied 8 hours later
To those who don't want to transcribe it, the two binary messages I found spelt "the cake is a lie" and "where is episode 3".

But seriously, this map pack came out of the blue and instantly became one of the best out there, along side Designed for Danger and 12 Angry Tests. My only complaint is that after the exploring is over, and the other story elements, there's not actually that many puzzles. Dreey, I think that if you wanted to update it, adding a few more tests around Part 3 would be a great idea.

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HeadShot
174 Posts
Posted May 14, 2014
Replied 12 hours later
Sexy
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PCdoc
245 Posts
Posted May 15, 2014
Replied 9 hours later
If you love puzzles - skip right to the 4th map. That is the only map with a decent puzzle - and it is a very good puzzle.

If you like adventure, environments, and great Graphics without any real puzzles to speak of - play all the rest of the Levels. For that alone I give this 5 stars. No, 10 stars - the coding is incredible.

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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
Posted May 15, 2014
Replied 11 hours later
Ninja mod edit: merged the two existing threads; adjusted the link in the first post
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Dreey
78 Posts
Posted May 15, 2014
Replied 2 hours later
Thank you for the help Lpfreaky90!
Testing can continue, everybody back to work.