I've fiddled around on Hammer with some unsuccessful L4D stuff, but this is my first major map. Be gentle!

I felt like making a simple, mini-campaign sort of project. The idea was that it would take place in England around the time of the original Portal game. (I am aware the maps are inefficiently compressed- I'll work on that) I'm about halfway done, if I ever decide to finish...

Hopefully a little bit the humor will appeal to your tastes..
Enjoy!

External: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F2YPRN2Y:** 0  B

Click here to download The Challenge Chambers

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Neji107 wrote:
External: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F2YPRN2Y:** 0??B
The Challenge Chambers

250 megabytes?

Did you compress this or are you serious? EDIT: 480 megabytes uncompressed? Oh my, starting now.

I'm going to edit this post as I play.

Spoilerific
-I wasn't able to do the second chamber without dying (the timing is harsh), but the game handed me a portal gun on reloading the auto-save, intended?
-The jumping section immediately after attaining the portal gun is made difficult by the fact the game pulls you towards the nearest portal.
-The introduction to the second map is by far the most awesome sight I have ever seen. My hat is off to you sir.
-There are a considerable amount of misaligned textured throughout all maps. It will take some time to align them all but is worth the trouble.
-The test chamber with MANY MANY reflection cubes causes immense FPS issues when they are activated.
-Crouching on the speed gel allowed me to boost up the ramp to the exit without separating the bounce gel from the water, intended?
-The suction effect when UltraViolet decides its time for you to revisit an earlier chamber needs to be stronger. Also make sure to delete the player's earlier portals to avoid an oops moment.
-I would advise more use of info_placement_helper entity especially in the areas that require accurate long jumps.

I'm starting to think that most of the 480 megabytes is uncompressed music and sound files.

You need to compress those sound files, get it low enough so that you can actually host it on this website so that it doesn't take 20-30 minutes to download from MegaUpload.

Thanks for the feedback, Nyskrte.
I suck at texturing/decorating, and I'm still a newbie at a lot of this stuff, but still learning!

A couple questions:
1. What exactly do you mean about crouching and flying up the Fast gel to the exit?
2. How do I compress the sound files?

Neji107 wrote:
1. What exactly do you mean about crouching and flying up the Fast gel to the exit?

There is an inherent flaw in speed gel in that if you move along it whilst crouching and then stand up you will get a larger speed boost that if you had run along the surface normally. Allowing me to skip elements of one of your chambers.

Quote:
2. How do I compress the sound files?

You need to reduce the bitrate. There are a few programs that can do this. Audacity is one of them and freely available. Be sure to check that the sounds still sound alright before using their reduced size however.

Is there a certain sound file type you suggest?
mp3? wav?

I could be wrong but I think Portal 2 only recognizes *.wav files.

How about posting some screenshot mate, it might take a couple hours for some to download it all.

Not sure if this is a bug or intended in the current WIP version. Does this map end with a pitchblack room (where you can not see anything at all) within chamber8 without any proper ending?
It showed the text "Into the Sewers, Chapter 2" and then everything was.. well.. black.

Too diluted. The first impression was of a radio drama with a bunch of underdetailed chambers and some ill conceived puzzles, but I reconsidered after 1-hour worthy of material how quality be indeed there but still too sparse (as of this WIP).

No questions asked about the presentation, that radio must be of the utmost importance since the door won't open until you've listened to it all. At least aurally, because on the mapping side the only impressive room I've seen was the "impossible" one: it's safe to safe that the project's got a bottleneck, which depreciates the rest nonetheless (check those gigarooms and repeated barred hallways).

I respected the good flow in the gameplay, but if these maps were released individually I would have deemed many of them mediocre: but put all together, in one sitting, they show an enthusiast drive which keep the project aflow. Pretty much alike many P1 mods of old: much work on the presentation, puzzles an afterthought.

Djinndrache wrote:
Not sure if this is a bug or intended in the current WIP version.

There are no more maps right now, but it could be either the end of the pack or its first part only.

xdiesp wrote:
Djinndrache wrote:

Not sure if this is a bug or intended in the current WIP version.

There are no more maps right now, but it could be either the end of the pack or its first part only.

Alright, just wasn't sure if I should call it an "end of this WIP mappack" or a "bug" within the recording because that looks pretty cut in the video when it suddenly goes dark, announces another chapter and ends then.

Recording is coming with the next major upload session next Tuesday I suppose.

Thanks for the feedback, all.
Yes, Chamber 8 is the last map I had worked on so the fade to black is the end (for now). I'm not sure if I'll keep working on this project - I've been unmotivated as of late.

For my first real Hammer map, I mainly wanted this to be a learning experience because I still have no clue how to do a lot of things.

Neji107 wrote:
Thanks for the feedback, all.
Yes, Chamber 8 is the last map I had worked on so the fade to black is the end (for now). I'm not sure if I'll keep working on this project - I've been unmotivated as of late.

For my first real Hammer map, I mainly wanted this to be a learning experience because I still have no clue how to do a lot of things.

Before continuing work on Chapter 2 if you do, I'd recommend learning with what you have, tweak, adjust and fix what is already made. You'll learn everything you need that way.

Djinndrache wrote:
Recording is coming with the next major upload session next Tuesday I suppose.

Surprising major upload today! So there we go:

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:

t7IS61CYc9A
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7IS61CYc9A)

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

Appreciate it, Djinndrache. That helps a ton!

Just played it through - some very nice ideas, though seems a little unpolished and at least one chamber was complete able without using all the elements inside. Look forward to more!