So I dabbled in a bit of mapping after the original Portal, and again with TF2, but college always got in the way. I'm about to graduate, which is great! Should be soon after the SDK is released.

So I was wondering, which puzzle elements people most liked playing with.

Note that High Energy Pellet is not entirely the same as Discouragement Beam, as it allows for bouncing puzzles like in the original game. Also it's more deadly, like if you want to send it down a hallway to make the player avoid it. Discouragement beams are not as scary to me.

I think I listed them all. I'm not putting emancipation grids as they're pretty much standard.

I love all the new elements brought in by Portal 2, but I have to say the single element that made me shout out loud with amazement when I grasped the implications was the hard light bridges. Wow. I'm on my third playthrough now, I keep finishing the game and thinking "Man, I want to play with those bridges again. I'll start over."

Light bridges are basically instant humor devices in coop. I need to play through again, this time with a few beers, and I'm sure I'm going to kill my partner about a million times on accident.

I'd like to add the "Companion Cube" option!

Prok wrote:
I'd like to add the "Companion Cube" option!

If I were to drag a metal cube around in real-life Aperture Science testing and pretend it's a friend, I'd just won't.

ASBusinessMagnet wrote:
I'd just won't.

O_o My mind is full of fsk

I am not sure why everyone likes the Aerial Faith plates so much; I admit they are useful on occasion for making puzzles, but the other aspects more interesting, IMO.

xitooner wrote:
I am not sure why everyone likes the Aerial Faith plates so much; I admit they are useful on occasion for making puzzles, but the other aspects more interesting, IMO.

I agree, faith plates were pretty lame, I just saw them as a way to get somewhere, not really a gameplay element (though they are).

My favourite was the light bridges and lasers.

I think the later test chamber where Wheatley tells you to tell him before you complete it, and then gets mad when you don't that uses the faith plate, uses them really well as a puzzle element and not a means of transportation.

I'm quite surprised how people don't seem to like the energy pellet much. I've been thinking of one puzzle that would involve using light bridges as angled pieces to ricochet an energy pellet around correctly. I hear the energy pellet has no texture in Portal 2, I wonder if we can get this working? Also I wonder if the light bridges would deflect an energy pellet or not.

Hard Light Bridges combine best with other elements.
They go mad with the High Energy Pellets and edgeless savety cubes.
gotta make a map where you paint an edgeless savety cube in blue gel and have it hit an energy pellet while bounching.
The energy pellet actually adds some force on the sphere and reflects on collision.

The element I had the most fun with was definitely blue gel, in the early "underground" chambers where you basically have a giant patch of it I was giggling like a little schoolgirl.

That being said, it's perhaps not the most brain teasing aspect of the toolset. I'm quite a fan of cubes, because they have hilariously goofy physics (cube + blue gel literally will not stop bouncing, and will "walljump" really effectively in tight spaces) and they are so versatile.

Also I love all the crushers / smashers etc, because it impresses me to no end how well the animation / dynamics are done, and I find it much less annoying to get splattered by a double crusher than drowning.

The funnel, because the transitioning between two funnels is cool, with the gel transporting also being very cool. Just putting anything in the funnel is fun.

The gels hands down.

IMO of all the new features, they work best with the original portal mechanic. And even though there are only two effects (technically 3, but the last one applies to the portal only and not the player), I think the propulsion and repulsion are infinitely cool, and they work well with almost any kind of puzzle.

I like the bridges in coop, not so much in single player. My brother and I had a hilarious game in one of the chambers where we'd always drop each other off the bridge into the (explosive!) slime just before they reached land.
In singleplayer they're not quite as fun, but I like how they block the turrets' view.
Still, they'd be a necessary feature if portal were ever to be made into a deathmatch (which would be awesome IMO).

In singleplayer I like the excursion funnels better than the bridges. I thought it was so awesome to have the button on the ceiling and pull the cube to it with a tractor beam.

It's not listed by the turretcubes are hands down my favorite.

After playing portal: prelude i started loving crushing things.
You get into a room and you see the roof coming down.
Also you havae no idea where to go and how to get there.
It sure made me go like oooh shiitt what do i do i need to be fast!

And in Portal 2 the crushing things look even more sexy

msleeper wrote:
It's not listed by the turretcubes are hands down my favorite.

THIS.

As far as testing elements...I have to say the laser. Just to burn stuff. Like turrets. I'd like to set up a mirror sort of thing. Yes, like a mix between BP and P2.