Stuck In The Middle is a 3 room map with each room being it's own puzzle. The first and third rooms are fairly easy while the middle room is where you may get stuck.

Many thanks to zivi7 from thinkingwithportals.com for testing the map out for me.

As always, feedback, suggestions and video play throughs are always welcome.

Visit the discussion thread at:

topic6334.html

v1.1
-Redesigned the entry area to cause less confusion.
-Changed middle room floor button to pedestal button to avoid issue with cube respawn.
-Lowered travle height of moving platform to avoid cube being trapped.

~Rock

Many thanks to zivi7 from thinkingwithportals.com for testing the map out for me.

As always, feedback, suggestions and video play throughs are always welcome.

~Rock

Click here to download Stuck In The Middle v1.1

Awesome map! I enjoyed it a lot.

Some thoughts:

||The invisible timer for the first door might be a bit confusing just because you cannot hear it. This might lead to the players death if he stands on the panel in the second it rises again. But since it's the very beginning, I don't think that's too much of a problem.

My problem with the funnel from the test version seems to be perfectly fixed now. How did you do it?

It was a little bit tedious to get the second laser cube by pressing against the wall to avoid that ground button. But I guess there'S nothing you can do about it given the block size in the PTI.

Beginners might have problems with the last laser cube - but I don't think you created this for them but the TWP community instead? ||

All in all a nice rewarding map.

Thanks for the feedback zivi and for testing the map for me. I think my maps are getting better as I learn new ways of building puzzles.

Sorry, forgot to answer you "how did you do it" question. I didn't change anything. It may have just needed some sleep!

Don't know where to post anymore....I got stuck twice and quit - 1. if one steps onto the entry dropped platform it closes on you and stuck. 2. I got the cube pinched between the moving platform and the ceiling - no respawn...game locked - no cube...?

LOL, I know what you mean quatrus about where to post. Are you talking about the very beginning in both cases? There is a pedestal button to respawn the companion cube. If you are talking about the laser cube(s), both of those are set to respawn in case of a problem as well. Any more info you can provide would be helpful. Thanks for the feedback.

Great map. I got stuck against the far wall funnel portal - it's happened to me before in PTI maps, maybe just a limitation when I tried to center a cube through the grid. Floating the cube through the funnel worked but took several tries to get it straight - but does put one in position to exit. Might have been easier if the cube could be placed from the back (open or maybe a portal surface?) rather than pushed into the funnel?. Thanks for creating....

@quatrus - I had a bit of difficulty with that cube/funnel combo until I realised there's a real easy way to align it - let's just say that the button to reverse the funnel direction is really well placed....

Which is more than I can say for the button that gets you the second laser cube. That bastard turned this from an excellent map into merely a good one. Floor buttons to drop cubes is a pet peeve of mine with lots of PTI maps, reason being that accidentally stepping on the button will fizzle the cube to my annoyance. My worst case scenario, then, is a floor button that drops a cube onto itself, or perhaps one that forces the player to stand on the button in order to get it. This map manages to do both! It didn't help that when I finally got a cube that didn't fizzle as soon as I tried to walk away with it I promptly got it stuck between the moving panel and the ceiling.

While on the subject, cubes on moving panels is a nice idea but disastrous in practice - the jerky movement of the panels very frequently jolts the cube off its axis and makes things really frustrating.

Those two niggles aside, I liked this map - the first puzzle was solid and I loved the funnel puzzle (once I worked out the super-easy way to do it!) But seriously, I cannot stress this enough - that second laser cube sucked balls.

@quatrus - I've experienced that same glitchy funnel issue on other PTI maps as well. Never seen an issue with it on a Hammer map.

Thanks for the feedback El Farmerino. I did change the second cube drop last night. I put a pedestal button in place that in order to work still requires the first laser catcher to be activated. I saw the same thing happening there. I also changed the height of the moving platform so that the cube wouldn't go all the way to the ceiling. The final change I made was to the entrance area. I opened it up a bit and tried to make the button location a little less confusing.

New version now uploaded. Please give it a go!

I think my puzzles have gotten better along the way but am still learning. It's been tough to get feedback because they're PTI maps and being a Mac user, that's all I've got at this point to work with.