BEFORE YOU VOTE, READ!

So yeah, I think I asked this question on twitter but only like two people replied, and they were only allowed 140 characters.

I've been in the mood of repackaging all my stuff. The last few weeks, I shipped out A Little Higher and Tornate with fixes and a proper install version. Feather Away was made for the Workshop and For Old Times Sake is a P1 map. Then I get to Blue Portals where the main download does not work, and you need to install a patch. And only some textures and stuff went missing.

I have a full restored Blue Portals file on my computer as I type, ready to be reuploaded. I had it for a year now. But the reason why I did not update it was because Colossal and I always felt that Blue Portals needed to be "fixed". It has been needing this since it's release. Back when I first started Blue Portals in 2008, it was a different time. Most people liked the side flings, and timing puzzles from what I recall. When Portal 2 was announced, people were more focused on elements. Blue Portals in development struggled in this area linking two ages together. You can tell by this after the buggy Chamber 06 and 07. You go from more total bullcrap to a fun element to play around. As I see from most maps these days, no one really likes really flinging puzzles as much. So in the end, the project was a mappack, wannabe mod.

When development of Blue Portals 2 started, the focus was it to be more based on the elements and cubes, and have it be taught like the player never played Portal before. (Because Blue Portals assumed you were pro at Portal). But because of the whole filesystem of the newer Source engine branches, Valve's love to break Portal 2, and the DLC1 update, Blue Portals 2 was said to be canceled, but it was truly just shelved.

Since Blue Portals and Blue Portals 2, I've gained so much more knowledge about pretty much everything. I can now model, decompile and recompile them, do some texture work, and actually know what's too much. I have so much ideas that where used in BP2, and other ideas I wanted to do in the original but I couldn't because I lacked the skill I have now.

I was thinking that this Blue Portals would be more focused on elements from the start like BP2, but still have fun flinging puzzles, just nothing like what I demanded in 05. **The thing is that I want to keep it using Portal 1**, and that may be an issue because most people just have Portal 2. and since the filesystem is what shelved BP2, this can be a deal breaker. I also wish to not only keep it in Portal 1, but to make it look like a Portal 1 project and not a Portal 2 wanna be. Here's something I was tinkering with.

One other thing is that I want to work on Vectronic a tad more because I have access to the code base. I mean, I can use that leak, but I'm sure Valve will take it down although I heard that they said that they could not do anything about it because it would be recompiled code. Dunno, don't wanna go down that ally and get on the badside with Valve.

Thoughts, feelings, suggestions, comments, all welcomed. This thread is pretty much a go or no go for the reboot. If I feel that there is a lack of interest, I'll just reupload BP how it is and work on other things. If it does get massive support, I do wish to keep consent updates with this community. TWP does not need anymore super secret mods.

reepblue wrote:
Most people liked the side flings, and timing puzzles from what I recall. When Portal 2 was announced, people were more focused on elements.

I think that Portal 2 has shifted our perception of Portal puzzles - now we desire aha moments found in the correct combination of puzzle elements. But I don't think the flings and timing puzzles should be eliminated. It's part of what makes Portal 1 different from Portal 2. Yes, side flings are not innovative and at this point it's more of a cliche (I think most of the mods/maps have it ) but that doesn't mean flings can't be used in a puzzle way. No Elements is a good example.

I'm definitely up for the reboot and what's even better is that you will make it for Portal 1. Just remember that if you want to get that P1 feeling, you have to make the chambers like obstacles you have to overcome to survive and bring back the joy of using portals (what I mean by that is that Portal 2 chambers are focused on mechanics, but it would be good to combine the exploration, freedom and use of portals from P1 with combinations of elements and logical thinking from P2).

Fluppy wrote:
I think that Portal 2 has shifted our perception of Portal puzzles - now we desire aha moments found in the correct combination of puzzle elements. But I don't think the flings and timing puzzles should be eliminated. It's part of what makes Portal 1 different from Portal 2. Yes, side flings are not innovative and at this point it's more of a cliche (I think most of the mods/maps have it ) but that doesn't mean flings can't be used in a puzzle way.

I think this is the main thing.
With portal 1 you were pretty much limited to cube/button and portals.
I still hate energy balls so I'm not mentioning them, they've killed me too much.

In portal 2 because of the more test elements portals themselves have been changed from a puzzle element more towards a tool to solve the puzzles. I think both approaches have their own pros and cons and their separate audience.

All in all I'd love to see it happen and I'm sure many with me! I think in order to drag in some more portal 2-only players a smart learning curve would really help.

Fluppy wrote:
If you make a reboot, will you remake the problem chambers and keep the good ones or keep the current campaign and just make a new one?

It's gonna be a mixture between the BP2 levels and some rooms from the original, totally replacing the old one I still really like the learning curve I had going in BP2.

Lpfreaky90 wrote:
In portal 2 because of the more test elements portals themselves have been changed from a puzzle element more towards a tool to solve the puzzles. I think both approaches have their own pros and cons and their separate audience.

All in all I'd love to see it happen and I'm sure many with me! I think in order to drag in some more portal 2-only players a smart learning curve would really help.

I think this is why Blue Portals got attention. From the start, it had the special cubes, and it got the light mechanic and fans after the Portal 2 announcement.

The learning curve is what makes/made Blue Portals bad. If you know how to use portals, it's fun and challenging. Normal users, hard and difficult. I still think it's gonna be a mix between old flings and timers mixed with elements. However, because of the 'trend', It's mostly gonna be more about elements.

Speaking of which, a lot of cubes are gonna be cut, and the Ice cube is gonna be more useful. Also, some elements from BP2 will be included.

I appreciate your interest. Maybe tonight I'll do more prototyping and post my results before I go to bed. for now, here is an older screen of the last prototype. (Note, anything in that image I'm mostly not gonna do.)

Honestly Reep, all of this is entirely up to you. I can imagine the LOT of work this remake must suppose, so you'd better balance the effort in one hand and the gratification you can potentially gain out of it in the other hand. To me, as long as I'm fine with my own work and managed to achieve my personal goals mapping-and-puzzle-wise, my work deserves all my effot and my time... even though I often feel like I'm mapping for like 5-6 people in the world... but that's not your case!

Regarding the old flinging puzzles VS more elements, well, I DO love flinging, and in fact, I tend to add some flinging maneuvers always in my maps... and I remember having really good fun flying around in Blue Portals! So if you already have some additional cool stuff and elements (or even the older cubes and mechanics) to include, this new version can only make this better, bro.

About the the old SDK, well, it's true that not all players have got Portal, but ey, I can't think of a better reason to spend EUR7,00, damn! I would buy Portal each and every single day of my life Sincerely, mods like Portal Pro, Factum Solus, Rexaura, Portal Prelude or Blue Portals, or jewels like Try Anything Twice or Manic Mechanic are, not only a good reason to buy Portal, but an extension of Portal that could make it endless! not to mention the 2000+ custom maps there are out there....

And finally, I think that a brand new Blue Portals could be the perfect prelude to publish Blue Portals 2!

Cheeer up, mate!

I did what I did in BP2 and used a series of white lights and made it warm with color correction. The color correction is mostly yellow with a hint of magenta.

I thank you all for the support, I'll keep posting here to make "hype" and to make it the best I can as long as people keep giving input.

josepezdj wrote:
About the the old SDK, well, it's true that not all players have got Portal, but ey, I can't think of a better reason to spend EUR7,00, damn! I would buy Portal each and every single day of my life Sincerely, mods like Portal Pro, Factum Solus, Rexaura, Portal Prelude or Blue Portals, or jewels like Try Anything Twice or Manic Mechanic are, not only a good reason to buy Portal, but an extension of Portal that could make it endless! not to mention the 2000+ custom maps there are out there....

That's why it really sucks that the 7hour download on portal prelude and BP and stuff that my computer seems to cancel after about 3 hours doesn't allow me to play any portal 1 moddb mod.

Rexaura works cause it's on twp

Seriously, who voted woth a "No" ?

Going more for a dark warm then the bright warm of the original. What do you think?

reepblue wrote:
Sorry for the two days of no updates but here is the same room as before taken at a different angle.

Going more for a dark warm then the bright warm of the original. What do you think?

I think you should do that with some of the maps in the original lighting method too since I like both of them, and variety is always good.

reepblue wrote:
Sorry for the two days of no updates but here is the same room as before taken at a different angle.

[-sneep-]

Going more for a dark warm then the bright warm of the original. What do you think?

Looks nice, it complements the textures well.
Speaking of textures, those look rough as compared to BP 1, which is always nice.

**EDIT:** Talked to Jeep and he had no idea.

Quote:
10:09 PM - Reepblue: Hey Jeep, I'm sorry to bother you while in game, but I have a question/concern about the original Portal. Why is it that when you guys ship out the latest 2013 branch build, Portal gets no love. It still has the broken/outdated shaders in hammer, and the in-game tools still don't work simular to how it was with all games when the 2013 branch came out of beta.

10:10 PM - PersonGuy: Sorry, I don't know much about the maintenance updates we ship on older games. My guess would be a difference between multiplayer and singleplayer. I've heard the a DX upgrade coming for a bunch of games and Portal is probably on that list.

Still does not make sense being that HL2, the episodes share the same branch as one another. :/

CamBen wrote:
I always just use hl2 lost coast to edit particles in cause it's so useless anyways, and I can't save particles made in portal 1 either.

I'll just use my Portal setup I've made with the SDK base. I have thoughts of uninstalling the retail game and keep my up-to-date mod version.