This map introduces my mini campaign "The Core" where you will work your way to solve puzzles using either companion cubes or spheres...

External: http://www.cosmicdreamer.be/thecore.vpk:** 0  B

Click here to download The Core Companion oriented mini campaign

&

Nice work so far. I don't know what you have planned out for the chamber, but for the moment I found the discouragement redirection cube along with the excursion funnel to be useless.
There's also seems to be a bug with the portals; occasionally a portal will be placed upside down causing the laser to miss its target.
Otherwise quite good.

nice work so far, I didn't use the redirection cube or the funnel either, dunno what the intended solution was, i threw the two cubes and myself over by portaling the laser, jumped from the button plateau onto the exit platform

well as I know theres 2 valid solutions, either you portal yourself over with the companion cube, or you do it from the redirection platform with the redirection cube. As long as you have to portal back via the bts scene to move yourself to the exit panel I guess I can live with other "solutions". I'd like to see some videos, then I can take measures to fix things where I'd find that the puzzle is too much broken or cut by the player...

Fixes that I'm preparing for the next version:

Gameplay enforcement tweaks:

grate at cube button to prevent hopping on the cube to shortcut to the platform
placed the vertical portal surface under the exit platform to avoid undesired funneling
swapped cube/laser cube dispenser positions
Mounted the laser on the ceiling to enforce the useage of the redirection cube
changed portal surfaces in the "laser room" to enforce usage of redirection cube
built blocking wall to prevent solving phase 1 of the puzzle in an undesired way

Fixes:

added autosave when entering the room
lighttboard now propperly working
lowering slime a bit so that faith plates don't appear flooded
some behind the scenes visual optimizations
exit door now closes behind you
exit door indicator now hooked propperly
playerclip to prevent people from intentionally dropping behind the catwalk in the BTS scene

Additions for the next version:

story element in BTS section..
vpk structure (place in addons folder)
sounds added to vpk structure
extra materials added to vpk structure
Several custom scripts to direct lightboards and level transitioning in my campaign

I've updated the first map of the campaign with several internal and gameplay optimizations...

note:

From now on, it's in vpk format and it needs several actions for it to work:

• in your portal2 folder create the addons folder and place the vpk there
• ingame type snd_updatesoundcache if you want to hear the companion's sphere passby sound...

I'm playing custom maps and record my first time of playing them. So the run is not perfect and may not use only intended ways, but maybe it can let you see how other people may understand the map or you could just enjoy someone playing this map for entertainment.
Anyways, here is the recording:

CcB1Yrmwcoc
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcB1Yrmwcoc)

Also note the video description for more feedback and my signature for additional project information.

btw this was an earlier version than the currently downloadable file here.

I'm ready to release my second map as test version for my campaign. So if you download the vpk now you'll find sp_cosmicd_00 and sp_cosmicd_01 included.

• sphere voices in map 2 will probably not work unless you extract the VO (sound/cosmicd/ijcore) from the vpk to your main portal2/sound folder and type snd_updatesoundcache
• Map 2 has to be further detailed and finalized
• no changes to map 1

cd

Changes coming up:

• map 1: placing the portal surface which is under the panel on the rear side vertically, under the BTS entrence
• map 1: new puzzle element, An emazncipation grill in front of the second faith plate to force gameplay elements to be played out the way I intended.
• map 1: place a light source up the BTS portaling area so that player can notise it from below...
• map 1: place piece of catwalk on the room entrance leading up to faith plate 1
• map 1: give the laser cube dropper a delay of 2 seconds so it can be reached by the player
• map 1: removed tractor beam because it doesn't have any function anymore

Map 2: placing glass panel next to the "ballshower" timer button's location so you can't shoot a portal from the ijcore's relaxation vault room...
map 2: kill off accumulating blobs at the highest point of the tractor beam when tractoring them in
map 2: Removed a floating brush in the tractor beam and gel sprayer compartiment

I will reintegrate some of my ideas that are cut from map 2 into map 3, the final map.

Soon there will be a maintenance version of the current release with some fixes:

Map 1:
- Emancipation field in the middle of the room no longer needed (as tractor beam is removed too)
- Gave the exit hallway an exit look consistent with my designs for the other map in this regard

Map 2:
- hurt trigger at the tractor beam generator position to prevent blobs from accumulating when sucking up paint
- made exit area consistent with the rest of my maps (with wall embedded backlight visuals)
- Fixed some pneumatixc diversity vent mechanics at the exit.

No map 3 yet, it's still only 65% complete.

quick follow-up on my campaig. I've done 2 extra maps (maps 3 and 4) and after internal playstesting i'm busy with an optimalization build. I'm also waiting for assets from my friends like glados voices, extra pictograms and elevator movie.

But it will never be releaseworthy like I want it before valve clears out the issues with correctly pluggable custom campaign scripts, where the player can also select the maps from the main menu and hear all the intended sounds...

Done some internal playtesting with an updated build this week. You know you might find it a bit meh that there's 2 slightly breakable puzzle maps. But i'm at the point that I can offer a much more complete experience with my maps from now on and onward.

There's a slight chance that I will release "the core" with the "makeshift" extra manu's , rigged manifest file for addition of sounds and so on, however this chance is about 10%. I've told before about all the engine "shortcomings" for complete campaign;

I'm in the progress of tweaking the maps according to what I saw from some playtesting. In addition, I'm getting custom icons and the glados voice courtecy of MissyChrissy (anglsummer4 on youtube). Soon I'll also get some assets that will greatly add to the backstory of my map.

Like Dead Before Dawn, this is again a cool volunteer community effort with several team member showing their enthousiasm of making a "comunity driven" map.

I like this

Neat maps! The faith-plate section took some figuring to work out, and the companion sphere section was more challenging. I was happy to deposit the companion sphere at the end to shut up the little bugger. Can't wait for the next maps in the series!