After far too long, I've finally managed to get this project finished. And now I'm happy to present 'The Watcher Chambers' map pack.

Due to file size limits on Thinkingwithportals I've hosted the file elsewhere.
Click here to download.

The pack consists of 6 maps (5 fulls maps + 1 intro). Development time has been 7+ months on and off.

Be sure to leave some feedback, and enjoy!

looks cool. will try it later tonight

you need screen shots
and i don't believe that TWP has a file size limit, it will just act a little weird when you try to download it. but it still works. it just gives you a weird file name which is no big deal.
but basically it appears that before a map is moved to [Release] status it needs to: 1) be on the TWP-DB, and 2) have screenshots
i don't believe these are actual "requirements" but it does appear to be a reaccuring theme

Completed it.
If you spent these 7+ months to try and make the most infuriatingly hard maps ever made, I must say you greatly succeded. While this pack has a lot of beautiful moments, especially near the ending, I must say the difficulty in some places was just too much. For starters, what the hell is wrong with chamber 3? What does it have to do with portal? I suggest you scrap it and redo it from scratch. Portal is a game about using your brain and well... portals. Did you think it was a good idea to hinder us from using either?
Anyway, I had to noclip in a part. The water+glass chamber (where glados says "clearly broken"). What did I have to do there?
Btw, aside from the stupid difficulty, this map pack was very good. Especially the last chamber, I found the last 2 puzzles to be both challenging and clever without being too hard. the concept of having to charge up the energy ball by trapping it between 2 portals was very clever.
Btw, I really liked the camera that wouldnt let you pass at the end of chapter 1. Its a really cool idea and I wish you had used it on other occasions.
All in all, I'd give this map a 6/10. Fix the damn difficulty and remove the stupid parts and you'll have a winner.

This map was challenging, inventive, and very cool. I wouldn't say it was too difficult. I've played alot of portal maps, and I can say for certain that an experienced player will enjoy it.

The amount of work you've put into it shows, and it's spectacular.

I went into the map expecting some ridiculous map that relys on exact timing and placing, of doing things over and over again, thanks to the guy who posted above me. But i urge everyone to disregarde that post, this map pack is great.

On a difficulty scale, it is challenging, but it isn't really hard, like for instance Ren's harder tests. (I think it was Ren's tests?) EDIT: no, sorry it was schmitz I was thinking of.

10/10

i'm not really reading comments till i get a chance to play this...
but: Dimn, you've been here since february, and THIS is your first post? thats funny to me

on topic: i'll probly play this tomarow. so far really looking forward to it

Yeah, heh. I felt like I had to post to defend this map. Not sure why I'd ever made an account in the first place heh.

rellikpd wrote:
but basically it appears that before a map is moved to [Release] status it needs to: 1) be on the TWP-DB, and 2) have screenshots
i don't believe these are actual "requirements" but it does appear to be a reaccuring theme

They really should be. But when I'm scanning the forums real fast before a Company of Heroes game, I often forget to check for such things. So, meh.

Dimn wrote:
I went into the map expecting some ridiculous map that relys on exact timing and placing, of doing things over and over again, thanks to the guy who posted above me. But i urge everyone to disregarde that post, this map pack is great.

Sorry but why do they have to disregard my post?
Thats just my opinion, and since I've played all the custom maps released till now with relative ease, I may very well know what is difficult and what isnt.
In my opinion this pack is 10x harder than the Schmitzchamber (which I considered to be the hardest map ever made).
But while the schmitzchamber was hard in the sense that you REALLY had to use your brain and then it became very doable, this was just hard in a trial-and-error, exact timing and placing sense. Think about the puzzle at the end of chamber 1: how many times do you think I must have reloaded because I didnt exactly align the portals under the cube and/or wasnt fast enough to catch it while it was flying? (protip: next time use a ball instead of a cube)
Or what about the energy pellet cube bouncing puzzle? I must have retryed that at least 20 times.
However, I added many opinions on what I liked and what I didnt, its not like I dissed the effort completely. I repeat, the pack is very well made and filled with beautiful moments. And the last chamber is genious AND challenging in a fair way.
But the difficulty and the unfairness, especially with the 3rd chamber, ruins it a lot.
That's just my opinion.

Hmm, I had attached a set of screenshots, but somehow I guess it became lost when the post was moved.

Anyway, for the third chamber I wanted something to test reflexes. I really don't like the vast majority of reflex based puzzles I've seen and I wanted to try something a little different. The chamber was an experiment with trying out a new mechanic. Did it turn out well? Meh, it turned out decent enough, and the people I had play test felt about the same.

As for the difficulty, it's absolutely supposed to be hard, but not to the point of being unsolvable. The skill level is supposed to be a notch above the Portal advanced chambers.

The end of chamber 1 can definitely be tough, hence the hint decals. Does it require some trial and error, sure. Does it require 50 trys, no way. Most people who play tested were able to get it on the 3rd try and I felt that was a reasonable amount of trial and error.
For the ball deflection with the cube, you're supposed to use the shadow of the cube to get it lined up properly. The ball needs to be deflected 90 degrees, so I felt that given the grid on the floor, players wouldn't have too tough a time setting it up. Hold the box in what you think is the right spot, then make slight adjustments. Can you directly see if the ball was right or left of the target? No. Can you infer where it went from watching part of the balls path? Absolutely.

For the room with the glass and water, you go to the pit, place a portal at the top of the wall in the pit, go back to the entrance of the area, place a portal on the floor then do a running jump through the portal. You'll get enough speed and angle from the running jump to clear the gap.

Edit:
Btw, feedback (good or bad) is always welcomed and appreciated.

Syon wrote:
For the room with the glass and water, you go to the pit, place a portal at the top of the wall in the pit, go back to the entrance of the area, place a portal on the floor then do a running jump through the portal. You'll get enough speed and angle from the running jump to clear the gap.

Oh, thats clever. I feel dumb now for not thinking of that
Anyway, I really suggest you change the cube at the end of chamber 1 with a ball. It would be much less likely for it to get stuck.

Kiavik wrote:
Think about the puzzle at the end of chamber 1: how many times do you think I must have reloaded because I didnt exactly align the portals under the cube and/or wasnt fast enough to catch it while it was flying? (protip: next time use a ball instead of a cube)

I must have solved chamber 1 the wrong way, because I didn't do any of that. I just first, put the cube on the blocks at the top through a portal, then used 2 portals to get on top of the cube delivery tube. Jump over, throw the cube across and you can now safely ride the elevator up because the camera doesn't think you have the cube.

I'm stuck on the 2nd though, what exactly does LEAP mean? Could you put a hint in spoiler tags for me?

Ah, clever solution jimmyb.

As for where you're stuck, for the first set of spikes, inch up to them till they shoot out, then walk over to the left side and you can climb over them. For the second, go all the way to the right side, these spikes shoot out too fast for you to just run by them, so you have to make a short run and jump (because jumping moves you faster then running.) If you over shoot the jump you'll hit the next row of spikes. It's a little tricky, but can be done in a few tries. For the third row of spikes, go all the way to the left and inch up to them till they shoot out. Then climb up on them and use that to jump over the next row of spikes. Next go all the way to the right and you should be able to crouch and get by the last set. From there on the rest is simple.

that file server sucks. i get about 20% and then it stops. can you please upload to the TWP-DB?

EDIT: N/M i got it worked but i had to stop/restart the file a bunch of times. luckily IE caches the file as long as you restart it right away, i still suggest you upload it to the TWP-DB

For the glass and water room, I was able to simply shoot a portal on the lower wall, an another portal and the higher wall choke point, jump into the higher portal but not fall through the other side, and running and jumping the length of the portal hole thing to make it across.

As a quick response to the above (I'm not about to continue this arguement past this point) The first review was very harsh, to the point where I almost didn't even try this map pack. And when I did, I didn't have many trial and error occasions, maybe I just got lucky with the cube drop and the energy ball.

However, the quality of the maps, just the mapping designs alone, were great, and I felt that anyone going into playing this map needed a second opinion quickly, before they disregarded it and moved on.

Lesser maps have gotten far better scores than 6/10. And that's just another opinion.

rellikpd wrote:
that file server sucks. i get about 20% and then it stops. can you please upload to the TWP-DB?

EDIT: N/M i got it worked but i had to stop/restart the file a bunch of times. luckily IE caches the file as long as you restart it right away, i still suggest you upload it to the TWP-DB

TWP-DB only allows files up to 40 megs. I had tried to upload it here and wasn't able to cause of the size.

hum i didn't think that was the case. i just got done playing (for now; haven't finished) but either these puzzles are EXTREMELY hard, or i'm not doing something right, cuz i have had to do some "tricky" things to complete them

for example:
in map2 (all boxed in) i simply stood on the platform with the box and held it over my head, and the platform lifted, i tried multi-flinging the box, but to no avail. i could see it was "possible" but not repeatable enough. so i just held the box over my head, and it worked

and in map3 (i think) with all the "sharp" things i could find no way through except bunny hopping (or whatever its called) where you jump backwards and keep picking up speed

and now i'm stuck in the water area that says its obviously a broke test chamber i haven't necessarily got stuck here. but decided to stop for now to play with my son.
aside from these things being incredibly hard. they do look nice. i'm now gunna go back and read others comments, and see what they have to say

Quote:
in map2 (all boxed in) i simply stood on the platform with the box and held it over my head, and the platform lifted, i tried multi-flinging the box, but to no avail. i could see it was "possible" but not repeatable enough. so i just held the box over my head, and it worked

and in map3 (i think) with all the "sharp" things i could find no way through except bunny hopping (or whatever its called) where you jump backwards and keep picking up speed

Hmm, I had thought I'd tested doing that in map2, guess that's something to fix. The idea for making it reproducible is to use the emancipation grid to reset your portals then use the grid on the ground to place the box and portal always in the same location to reproduce it. Perhaps an X decal in the proper location would help. For map3 you're able to inch up to the spikes and have them shoot out without touching them. I'll go back and revisit these during the week and probably put out another release.

Beautiful but HARD!
I'm not ashamed to say I nocliped about 5 times.
You really need to explain the player what to do and how, I'm an experienced portal player and knows almost all of the portaling techniques, but still, on a lot of chambers I totally didn't knew what to do, even with using of glitches.
Anyway, you just HAVE to make it easier because except of it's difficultly this map is awesome.
Btw, your custom particles disappear after loading a saved game. (I noticed it when I heard the waterfall but didn't saw anything.)
Restarting the map fixes that.

I'll investigate the particles as well, it may be that they're being disabled on map load or something.

What locations did you have to noclip Hen? I doubt I'll rework the puzzles as this point (aside from 'safety first'), but I'll likely go back and add hints to make the solutions more clear.