I have a couple of major complaints about this map right off the bat. First off, the sounds are very loud and echoy. Second, the first set of puzzles is far too dark. And also, as you mentioned in the readme, it gets laggy at times.

Also, when I loaded a saved game, I got an "AI disabled" error on the screen.

In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

When I finally got to the catwalk with the second button, it happened on accident. What I did was shoot a blue portal on the tilted wall, and shoot an orange portal directly beneath my feat. As I flew out of the blue portal, I shot another orange portal into the pit in the floor and I flung across to the first catwalk. I hit the wall just past the first catwalk where the large pillars used to be blocking the way, and bounced off, allowing me to clear the second goo pit to the third catwalk (and second pedestal button). Was your intention to have the player bounce off the wall here,or did I just get lucky?

For the final fling, after the second turret ambush, which caused me to have insane lag by the way, the way I did it was to shoot a blue portal just above the tilted panel, step out onto the tilted panel, shoot an orange portal on the ceiling, then shoot a blue portal directly beneath my feet. As I fell into the pit, I would shoot a second orange portal below me, and crouch as I went through. This gave me enough momentum to fly across the whole room, and crouching kept me from bouncing off the ceiling. Unfortunately this is just the perfect amount of momentum for me to land in that tiny gap between the catwalk and the floor at the opposite end of the room. It happened several times in a row. You might want to rethink the placement of that gap, unless of course that was your intention.

The maze was an interesting idea. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the pedestal buttons. To be honest though, it wasn't really clear what the second button was supposed to do (I heard a crash when I pressed it but had no idea what happened) and eventually I just got tired of wandering around and noclipped to the third button. Also, several areas of the maze were too dark to see where you were going.

I liked the little behind the scenes area, but I thought the little room at the end with the water jug and the "help" sign seemed a little unnatural. That's just me though.

I'd imagine this could be a really good map once you get it polished.

Ralen wrote:
Is the speed run trick the sparking door that you can walk through?

That's not the speedrun trick. The player is never supposed to get through that door. Guess I forgot to block it off Thanks for noticing that.

Ralen wrote:
I presume that in the final version that indicator strip will activate a door or something?

It will activate something in another room, outside of this map. Just though I should have all the details in, even though it's a beta.

Ralen wrote:
First off, the sounds are very loud and echoy.

That I can't explain. I got that too sometimes, but I don't know how they got there, or how to make them go away.

Ralen wrote:
Second, the first set of puzzles is far too dark.

I can add some more light to that area, no problem

Ralen wrote:
And also, as you mentioned in the readme, it gets laggy at times.

I think the lag has been sorted out, (see here).

Ralen wrote:
Also, when I loaded a saved game, I got an "AI disabled" error on the screen.

From what I've can gather, that seems to happen for random people. I'll see if I can find a way to stop that.

Ralen wrote:
In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

That's probably caused by the angle of the wall. I think a trigger_push timed to start if someone is stuck there for a certain period of time may work. I'll test it out.

Ralen wrote:
When I finally got to the catwalk with the second button, it happened on accident. What I did was shoot a blue portal on the tilted wall, and shoot an orange portal directly beneath my feat. As I flew out of the blue portal, I shot another orange portal into the pit in the floor and I flung across to the first catwalk. I hit the wall just past the first catwalk where the large pillars used to be blocking the way, and bounced off, allowing me to clear the second goo pit to the third catwalk (and second pedestal button). Was your intention to have the player bounce off the wall here,or did I just get lucky?

That sometimes happens. If the player has enough momentum, they can clear the goo and the wall without touching it. It happened with me quite a few times. It wasn't intentional when I first designed the map, but it's another way to get across

Ralen wrote:
For the final fling, after the second turret ambush, which caused me to have insane lag by the way, the way I did it was to shoot a blue portal just above the tilted panel, step out onto the tilted panel, shoot an orange portal on the ceiling, then shoot a blue portal directly beneath my feet. As I fell into the pit, I would shoot a second orange portal below me, and crouch as I went through. This gave me enough momentum to fly across the whole room, and crouching kept me from bouncing off the ceiling. Unfortunately this is just the perfect amount of momentum for me to land in that tiny gap between the catwalk and the floor at the opposite end of the room. It happened several times in a row. You might want to rethink the placement of that gap, unless of course that was your intention.

I placed that gap there to make the player a bit wary about just wandering anywhere, so thw player wouldn't think that everything was safe when they got to the end of that room. All the times I did it, I never went into that gap, however, I built up a huge amount of momentum everytime I did it. Since it kept happeneing to you, I'll get rid of that gap. Wouldn't be good for morale if it kept happening to lots of people.

Ralen wrote:
The maze was an interesting idea. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the pedestal buttons. To be honest though, it wasn't really clear what the second button was supposed to do (I heard a crash when I pressed it but had no idea what happened) and eventually I just got tired of wandering around and noclipped to the third button. Also, several areas of the maze were too dark to see where you were going.

When wandering around the maze, several walls had the 2 dot signs on them, next to a section of wall that looked different from the rest of the walls. When you press the second button, those different sections of walls break, allowing the player into the final sections of the maze, which will lead to the 3rd button on the exit door. As for the dark areas of the maze, I'll have a look around it and I'll add in more light.

Ralen wrote:
I liked the little behind the scenes area, but I thought the little room at the end with the water jug and the "help" sign seemed a little unnatural. That's just me though.

I'm wasn't entirely sure what to put there, as BTS areas in Portal have had signs of human inhabitation in them. Perhaps I shoudl get rid of the jug and just have a few different writings on the walls.

Thanks very much for testing this map for me

Megadude wrote:
That's not the speedrun trick. The player is never supposed to get through that door. Guess I forgot to block it off Thanks for noticing that.

While I'm at it, there's another sparking door that does the same thing, except it has a wall behind it so it doesn't take you anywhere.

Megadude wrote:
When wandering around the maze, several walls had the 2 dot signs on them, next to a section of wall that looked different from the rest of the walls. When you press the second button, those different sections of walls break, allowing the player into the final sections of the maze, which will lead to the 3rd button on the exit door. As for the dark areas of the maze, I'll have a look around it and I'll add in more light.

I saw those signs, but I always thought they were trying to lead me to the 2 dot pedestal button. I couldn't figure out why there were so many of them in so many different places though. Maybe it's just me, but I think you should make their purpose more apparent, for instance have a 2 dot panel right next to the 2 dot button that the player can actually see explode and reveal a new passage way. Either that, or replace them with doors or something, so the player knows the 2 dot panels actually do something, and will know to come back and check after getting the 2 dot button.

Megadude wrote:
I'm wasn't entirely sure what to put there, as BTS areas in Portal have had signs of human inhabitation in them. Perhaps I shoudl get rid of the jug and just have a few different writings on the walls.

It wasn't the jug I thought was unnatural, it was that small cubicle room that seemed out of place in the larger BTS room. I might either make that larger so it's obvious what it's purpose is (storage closet or what have you, maybe make it big enough to hold several chairs or crates or something) or just remove it altogether. It's not really a major issue though.

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Megadude wrote:
Just a small update. I've decided to add another room to this map, but it's a big room. You can only get across by portaling, and there are plenty of portal fizzlers to hinder you. Got the basic structure done, and finished details and lighting on about a thrid of the room. I'm not sure whether to keep the volumetric lighting models or not

The volumetric lighting looks good but it does obscure your view very occasionally. You could try using a point_spotlight which would produce a beam that extends across the room. They're also a bit more transparent so you can see walls clearly near them. On top of that I'm sure they're cheaper to use than volumetric lighting but you'll have to have No Dynamic Light checked in flags.

Otherwise, I like the map. The section with the three cubes and four buttons was my favourite puzzle and also I couldn't get enough of that radio. I had fun placing it on top of stuff and watching it go crazy which it did into chell's body instantly killing her on occasions but that just added to the fun in a wierd way

Maz

mazk1985 wrote:
The volumetric lighting looks good but it does obscure your view very occasionally. You could try using a point_spotlight which would produce a beam that extends across the room. They're also a bit more transparent so you can see walls clearly near them. On top of that I'm sure they're cheaper to use than volumetric lighting but you'll have to have No Dynamic Light checked in flags.

Otherwise, I like the map. The section with the three cubes and four buttons was my favourite puzzle and also I couldn't get enough of that radio. I had fun placing it on top of stuff and watching it go crazy which it did into chell's body instantly killing her on occasions but that just added to the fun in a wierd way

Maz

A lot of people didn't like those volumetric light models, so I got rid of all of them except for the ones on the ceiling, as those look ok but don't obstruct your view.

That radio is just too weird. I wonder how Valve made it so it acted normal, unless being picked up by the portal gun instead of by hand makes it go funny *rushes off to Hammer to test that theory.

Also, to Ralen, thanks for the 2 dot door idea. I'm implementing it now as we speak

Edit: Just to clarify:

Ralen wrote:
In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

Did you get stuck inside a portal placed on the tilted wall, or did you get out of the portal, but get stuck on the corner of the wall?

Pics of last room of the 2nd map:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/bunny04.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/bunny05.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/bunny06.jpg

Pics of first room of 3rd map - time to get your very own companion cube

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/companion01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/companion02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/companion03.jpg

Megadude wrote:
Did you get stuck inside a portal placed on the tilted wall, or did you get out of the portal, but get stuck on the corner of the wall?

Sorry, I didn't see this until just now.

I got stuck outside the portal, in the corner/bottom edge of the tilted panel.

Edit: Just finished some reskins - my first reskins ever Just changed the blue to different colours.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow04.jpg

Megadude wrote:
New pics, including the reskinned models, for the Aperture Science Light Based Energy/Matter Shield, (not sure if to use Matter or Energy in the name, or if anyone has any better suggestions, let me know ).

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow04.jpg

looks pretty sweet, good use of lighting around new fields

I've also made mini versions of the portal cleansers too, for smaller shields.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow06.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow07.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow08.jpg

Some BTS areas too.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow05.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow09.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow10.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow11.jpg

Also, a little vid and a pic of something that will be making frequent appearances throughout the maps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idzQNocdbZ0
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/bot01.jpg

Megadude wrote:
Some more pics

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow06.jpg

lol as someone who works in a place that actually has "rec yards" when i saw this picture i lol'd and cool bot btw
this thing is... looking pretty x-treme keep it up bro!

Should have some more pics another beta ready sometime tonight if all goes well.

I've got a couple of questions for you guys.

• In Portal, there were 2 kinds of voices, the big voice you heard in the test chambers and in the final battle, and the tiny speaker voice you heard in the BTS areas.

If GLaDOS spoke to the player while they were in an observation room overlooking a test chamber, which voice do you think they would hear, the big voice from the test chamber through the window, or a tiny voice from a speaker box?- What do you think is the best approach for releasing betas?

If the beta is released and able to be downloaded by everyone, you can get more responses, but then everyone will know how to complete the puzzles before the final version is released, which will bring down the final version a bit.

If the beta is just released to a few people, the solutions to the puzzles will be kept from almost everyone, and therefore keep the final version challenging, but you get less responses, and only having a few beta testers may lead to some big error being missed.

What's your opinions?

1. This depends on a few things. Does GLaDOS know that the test subject is in the observation room? Also, is there even a speaker in the observation room? If both of those are true then I think she would be talking through the tiny speaker. If either of those are not true then she would be talking through the main test chamber speaker.

2. On the one hand I like being able to play new maps as soon as possible, but on the other hand, maps that have been tested and polished before I get my hands on them tend to be more enjoyable. There's also less of the "This looks impossible, am I just not thinking about it right, or did the mapper screw up?" factor that I get sometimes when playing user-created maps.

IMO
1) if glados knows the player is in the observation room. and no speaker is in there i would say use the big voice outside of the OR and maybe add a filter that makes it sound muffled? or something like that. also keep in mind that when she speaks through the little speakers she really doesn't have much idea whats going on (with regards to chel) at best i think she has some motion detectors (if even that) so i would say that anything said through little speakers should sound as if glados doesn't really know what is going on (for sure anyway)

2) personally i like good clean ready to play maps that have been hammered out and polished. thats not to say they have to look exactly like the retail maps. but atleast been tested thoroughly so that everything works. now unfortunatly there aren't entire teams of people releasing maps. so i'm always hungry for any NEW portal content which is why i even started downloading WIPs. when i first got here i refused to do so cuz i like completed/polished maps. but got so needy that i started to. and MANY people (the perfectionists among us) actually release WIPs that are better than many other (read: non-perfectionists') released maps. so it just depends what you want, but i'd say its best to have a select few beta testers

skip to here to see what rellikpd wrote:

nightfire wrote:
Does that little robot move on paths or is it actually controlled by an AI?

From what I can see, it's tied to path_tracks and it's clearly visible, because it moves in straight lines and turns sharply.

nightfire wrote:
Does that little robot move on paths or is it actually controlled by an AI?

NykO18 was right, it is set to follow path_tracks.

It looks like the beta will have to wait until tomorrow. It's 3.15am and the last beta map is almost finished compiling, but then I have to embed the custom content, create the BNS, then upload everything to the internet, which would probably take me close to 5am by the time the uploading is finished I would guess.

Also, I'm still looking for suggestions for a name for this selection of maps, (maybe a mod depending on when the portal mod stuff is released). So far, I've only got "Portal: The Second Voice".

Edit: I have GREATLY overestimated what I though would be the files size of the maps. Compressed together, they are only 11Mb I thought they would be a lot more. Since the filesize was small, I thought I would try uploading it, and it went quite quickly, so I can release this beta without any further delay, ( I hope ).

I forgot to take any screenshots of the last map in the beta before I closed Portal down, so I'll take some for you tomorrow, or if anyone wants to post some themselves, feel free to do so.

Click here for the updated beta.