Xtreger wrote:
@Jose : No problem, it's better to concentrate on the competition... I'll be sure to play it whenever I can after its release, and good luck with the contest.

Thank you man, to be frank it's a relief becasue I'm going nuts with the competition! I'm sleeping like 4 hours a day! (seriously!) because I have to work all the mornings long... However, this weekend I expect to be completely isolated at home, I'll cut off any communications, and maybe, if I can give the contest map a long advance, I'll be able to include the things I want to in the demo, ok? Thanks for the good luck, mate! You too!

FourthReaper wrote:
Anyway, Jose, this mod seems great and if I had a moddb account I'd be tracking it for sure. I'd love to get my hands on a beta. even though it's probably wise to play it after the contest has ended.

Thank you Fourth. About the demo, YEAH it will be definitely the best idea to wait until we all have enter our submission and played the huge bunch of maps about to come because of the contest!!! Last summer this was crazy!

I've decided to avoid direct comments to ppl entitled as a dumb (or "Moron designed to make you an idiot") by the moderators in order to not get any comment in return (and trusting this measure will make them sink in oblivion little by little), but I'll say that of course anyone is absolutely free to grab anything (s)he wants (or is able to get) from my work when it's released. Indeed, do not hesitate to contact me by pm for whatever query related to my instances and such, ok?

josepezdj wrote:
anyone is absolutely free to grab anything (s)he wants (or is able to get) from my work when it's released. Indeed, do not hesitate to contact me by pm for whatever query related to my instances and such, ok?

Thank you! I love the visual style of these maps, and I would love to use some of those materials and brushwork-models in my own levels (with attribution of course).

josepezdj wrote:
Thank you man, to be frank it's a relief becasue I'm going nuts with the competition! I'm sleeping like 4 hours a day! (seriously!) because I have to work all the mornings long...

Damn... you're going to destroy everyone. I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

That is, if you can hit the deadline and not be a perfectionist about it

Kaleido wrote:
I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

What do you consider "blocking out"? Because you only have a week left and while I may not have the best map, I have at least finished detailing the greater part of two maps. "Blocking out" the third.

But then do you mean coming up with a puzzle? Or placing the structural brushes? Or just not detailing yet? 'Cause I'm starting to worry about you.

FelixGriffin wrote:
Thank you! I love the visual style of these maps, and I would love to use some of those materials and brushwork-models in my own levels (with attribution of course).

Thank YOU Felix, I'm glad to hear you're liking something I built! Indeed I'm so happy that you even want to use that stuff .

Kaleido wrote:
Damn... you're going to destroy everyone. I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

Hahaha... thanks for your trust in me Kal! However, I trust in MAAAAANY mappers here and I don't think I'll win anyway. I'm taking this very seriously due to the fact that it'll be my very first release ever! And I'm so nervious, that's why I can't stop my brain from continue thinking after I went to bed

Kaleido wrote:
That is, if you can hit the deadline and not be a perfectionist about it

You have sussed me out already! hahaha... Yeah, I'm trying hard but I can't get my habits away easily! Let's see what I can finish into the deadline... however, what I finish would forcedly has to be well done, even if it's only a couple of chambers.

FourthReaper wrote:
I assume you're going with your own theme, jose? Because that can indeed give you a major advantage. Puzzle-wise, of course, I have no idea how good you are.

Hehe... thanks for your support on my visuals. I also like much your "penrose" series theme, it's very smooth, friendly and detailed, specially like the lighting! Good job, mate! If I must be sincere, I will ofc go with my own theme taking the chance that the custom content is allowed... but not anything related to what you've already seen though I'm taking the chance that I have to map the whole thing from scratch to try a new approach that can be later included into the mod. As I've mmentioned some times, there will be a "Enceladus" themed chambers (warm lights, brownish and sandy textures and such...), and a completely different styled chambers type which will suppose the BTS parts of the mod... the Aperture Labs part, those hidden areas behind my observation rooms. And THAT would be my card for the contest. And to be frank I never started any visual approach until now. I spent a couple of days testing textures and mixing different ones altogether until I found a visul style I like... Let's hope so do you!

Regarding puzzles... well, let's hope you think I'm good at it too!

FourthReaper wrote:
Kaleido wrote:

I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

What do you consider "blocking out"? Because you only have a week left and while I may not have the best map, I have at least finished detailing the greater part of two maps. "Blocking out" the third.

But then do you mean coming up with a puzzle? Or placing the structural brushes? Or just not detailing yet? 'Cause I'm starting to worry about you.

I believe he is referring to lay out the whole structure of the map without detailing, only making the brushes that will contain the playing areas and puzzles... I'm not sure how everyone does to this regards... but for me, it's very important to decide the visuals first, the textures, lighthing sources, other "ornamental thingies", how will I place/combine them, etc., and to begin from there on... Then go designing each chamber with its structure, corners, floors and ceilings, the buttons in place, fizzlers, portalable panels (watching out the possible angles from which to shoot a portal is possible) and such... To make a puzzle is not that hard once you have it la

Man, you seem to have muuuuuch free time!, blocking out the thrid map??... Maybe you are a faster mapper than me, or Kaleido I'd better get cracking on this week!!!

I assume you're going with your own theme, jose? Because that can indeed give you a major advantage. Puzzle-wise, of course, I have no idea how good you are.

I will ofc go with my own theme taking the chance that the custom content is allowed... but not anything related to what you've already seen though I'm taking the chance that I have to map the whole thing from scratch to try a new approach that can be later included into the mod. As I've mmentioned some times, there will be a "Enceladus" themed chambers (warm lights, brownish and sandy textures and such...), and a completely different styled chambers type which will suppose the BTS parts of the mod... the Aperture Labs part, those hidden areas behind my observation rooms. And THAT would be my card for the contest. And to be frank I never started any visual approach until now. I spent a couple of days testing textures and mixing different ones altogether until I found a visul style I like... Let's hope so do you!and later added:
||I'm not sure how everyone does to this regards... but for me, it's very important to decide the visuals first, the textures, lighthing sources, other "ornamental thingies", how will I place/combine them, etc., and to begin from there on... Then go designing each chamber with its structure, corners, floors and ceilings, the buttons in place, fizzlers, portalable panels (watching out the possible angles from which to shoot a portal is possible) and such... To make a puzzle is not that hard once you have it la(yed out?)
Wow, you're taking aesthetics pretty seriously then, cool.

josepezdj wrote:
||> FourthReaper wrote:

Kaleido wrote:

I'm still not even done blocking out my puzzle....

What do you consider "blocking out"? Because you only have a week left and while I may not have the best map, I have at least finished detailing the greater part of two maps chambers. "Blocking out" the third.

Man, you seem to have muuuuuch free time!, blocking out the thrid map??... Maybe you are a faster mapper than me, or Kaleido I'd better get cracking on this week!!!||
Sorry, I mean chamber. And well, I'm not really fast, they're probably just smaller rooms than those of some others. I've seen quite a few chambers of others in the Contest WIP thread, so I was already worried about being too slow, actually.

Besides, you have to work a lot IIRC. I have a holliday, barely have to do anything.

FourthReaper wrote:
Besides, you have to work a lot IIRC. I have a holliday, barely have to do anything.

YRCI! (you remember correctly indeed... lol) Even though I enjoy reduced working hours (only mornings) during this period, it is too few hours! Lucky you!

FourthReaper wrote:
Wow, you're taking aesthetics pretty seriously then, cool.

Yeah I guess! (I think u 2)
*
(Btw, where is that WIP maps section of the contest? you mean in the workshop?)*

josepezdj wrote:
FourthReaper wrote:

Wow, you're taking aesthetics pretty seriously then, cool.

Yeah I guess! (I think u 2)

(Btw, where is that WIP maps section of the contest? you mean in the workshop?)

I do like spending time on making a map look better (pretty much all I have left to do on my last chamber, but it might well take me all week ) so I guess you could say that. But I always know to appreciate other people's efforts as well.

And here is the WIP Contest Showcase Thread. It's not as widely used as it should be if you ask me, though.

SergeantFTC wrote:
So, the contest has been over for almost a month and we haven't heard anything. Obviously I understand that you are busy, but would be nice to hear that you haven't given up on it.

Yeah, correct! the contest is over for one month now, but I need to tell you that I haven't stopped mapping during that time my dear friend Indeed I had 2 weeks of summer holiday but I still mapped a lot instead of being at the beach getting tanned, lol... I had a pending thing with my contest map... now it's reworked and improved.

You can find it here I really hope you're interesting in playing it.

It's also in the mod's moddb page. The reason is written there but anyway, I'll copy here:

"My intention was to take the chance the contest afforded me to arrange something new, but at the same time, something I could use later on in the mod. As I planned to create an opposite atmosphere to the warm and sandy looking chambers I've been showing here in the mod's website, I thought the contest was the perfect opportunity to start doing so, and the result is this map."

So I'll include this bits into the main story of the mod. And due to the reactions about the difficulty (I insist in the fact that this newer version is much more easy to perform though), this map will be left for the end of the first chapter of The Enceladus Initiative. The name of this chapter is obviously The Second Exodus.

If you still you need me to say that I'm not giving up on this, you got it:

I won't ever give up on this, dude

Thanks for your support!

It is going sloooooow I decided to not update as often as I was doing, not here or at moddb... I plan to finish all the beginning to the mod and then make a teaser trailer video with all the new things I've made. I guess I prefer a big impact instead of a step by step teasing

I'm sure you'll love it. This time I'll use ALL my strength to cause a really shocking effect :p

Stay tuned.

EDIT

Man, I just realized I didn't really say anything! >.<

HOW THE MOD IS GOING ON...
||What has been shown here and on modDB is a bunch of maps I've made that are already finished, only waiting for many improves and additions... This means that even though the majority of them has been already beta tested and such, MANY things have changed during all this time, one of the most important of them, me Meaning that I've become much more demanding with my own work and in the way, I've learnt interesting things about mapping and customization and also improved my mapping and designing skills. So I need to edit all those previously finished maps.

On the other hand, Ive got a very clear idea of the begining that I want for the mod, for the story. While some bits are not much difficult to achieve, some others will require some tries and further deepenning into mapping, but I'm excited about them because they will always suppose a good challenge to me as mapper That said, let me tell you some bits...

The beginning will consist of an accident where the spacecraft will land on a very special environment and where the player will need to explore for a while to be able to realize where she is (main character is Chell).

In order to tell the story, my intention is to create a character, some sort of entity that will accompanny you along the journey; similar to what Wheatley does in Portal2... but a bit more Sic-Fi

This begining will include the meeting of this secondary character, a quest to get the portalgun, and a very innovative big "facility" I designed, which is only partially mapped... This is what I'm doing currently, this "facility". It is taking long time because I'm never fully satisfied with it (as it often happens to me >.<)

This part will consist of some puzzles with no portalgun, due to the fact that there will be none at the beginning and indeed this part is a quest for the portalgun...

I'm focussed in this part atm, and in some free moments at work I use to make some of the many custom textures I need for the mmod ||

I hope this is a better reply!