November Mapping Contest Voting Thread

[Cyclone]

[MrTwoVideoCards]

Looks like Cow won, good job yo.

[Jaxe]

I'm really not sure what's causing the orb bug. It doesn't happen for me, only one ball ever comes out. Does it happen for anyone else?

[msleeper]

[dfcowell]

I voted for MrCow's map.

MrCow:

Very nice map, the anti-grav was overused though. I liked the lift especially. In the room with the 3 buttons, the energy ball had a bad habit of bouncing around randomly when trapped in between the doors below the catcher. A lot of that was just luck, took me about 5 tries before it bounced into the catcher. Perhaps a WSC in that room in addition to the companion cube, with a WSC fizzler on the exit.

The odd invisible wall detracted a bit, but that isn't anything major. Overall, a great map, but still needs a bit of polish.

Theprogram00:

Had a lot of trouble with the first room. Took me a while to realise that you had to walk along the "tube" to get to the button and even then, I had to noclip to get up to where the door was. After that though, the level was great.

The second room could have been improved by using proper aperture doors, although the concept was very interesting. I liked it, innovative idea, but a bad choice of doors detracted.

The turret room was interesting, but killing all of the turrets got repetitive. Using the companion cube for a shield was good, with both the turrets and the rocket.

Getting "locked on" with the rocket and then relocating the portal before it fired required pretty good reflexes. Took me a couple of tries, but an interesting use of the delay before it shoots.

Lights were a bit bright in the observation room, when I was inside a lot of the textures looked "washed out".

I liked the way you set the start and end up as they are in the official game, added to the "test chamber" feel.

Each chamber was innovative, but the problems with the first room detracted quite a bit. Could have benefited from some voices. The automatic autosaves were great. Lots of potential with this map.

Jaxe:

Didn't enjoy this map at all. Some nice flings to begin with, but where to go after getting the cube was not clear at all. I managed to get the cube up to the top platform (with the two doors and the button) and then get myself into the "underfloor" area, which I promptly got stuck in, since I didn't have the cube with me. Big no-no there.

The buttons in the boxes under the floor didn't make much sense, as you couldn't see what they were doing. I don't know why you made a "crawl space," forcing us to crouch, but it was annoying, since all it did was slow me down. If that's what you wanted, I'd suggest you lower the time on the buttons.

No idea what the flaming lift was for, nor the hole you could shoot portals through in the wall on that top platform. This map just confused me.

[Astro]

Jaxe the major issue with your map was that you had the cube sitting on buttons to open doors...we have been taught through the single player that taking cubes off buttons will close doors...

[Jaxe]

[NocturnalGhost]

I had a brief playthrough of all these maps when they were released, but I just got the time to play through them properly. I definately think the best map won (although there is time yet )

Most of what I think has already been said by others, so i'll be brief.

Theprogram00:
Good puzzle design. A bit simplistic, but i'm fine with that . It was the only map I didn't have to cheat on the first time through, although I was pressed for time with the others (/excuse).

The first puzzle in the map had me thinking for a few minutes, but once I got it, it was cool.

Your map mainly suffered from plain, boring visuals, and lack of sound. If you could balance this with your puzzle design, your maps will improve a great deal. Break up the plain metal walls like they do in Portal, by using extruding panels, lights, varying heights etc. Also, a bit more attention to details would be good, like not being able to place a portal in the incinerator.


Jaxe:
Nice visuals. The first room had some very nice architecture, and it definately had that "Aperture" feel to it. The flings here were hard without being frustrating (however, see the end of my post).

The main problem was the confusing puzzle design. There was no clear indication as to where the cube went, one of the indicator signs seemed to point to nothing in particular, and it was possible to get stuck in the maze. I had to noclip to get out.

Also the map suffers from lack of sounds.


Mr Cow:
Impressive visuals, good use of GLaDOS voices, good puzzle design, and a nice new gimmick to top it off Also, it was the only map that really "felt" like a Companion Cube map, which was probably down to the audio.

The only problem I had was in the room after the cube elevator part. I couldn't figure out how to get the cube onto the button on the ceiling here on my first playthrough. However, I didn't try too long as I was in a hurry at the time, so I noclipped this part.

There are a few small bugs in the map, like the fact that when you open the incinerator, the invisible door opens forwards into the room, instead of sideways. This kind of thing would easily be picked up during a beta test though, so no big deal.


Anyway, well done to all three of you for entering your map into the competition. Your maps all had good points, and if you take the advice given by people on here, i'm sure you will all just keep getting better and better.

One thing I did notice on every map was a distinct lack of func_portal_bumper usage. It hurt some maps more than others, but you should all look into their use:
http://forums.thinkingwithportals.com/proper-use-of-func-portal-bumper-t446.html


Finally, any word on when, and which theme the next contest will be?

[Vengeil]

I suggest the next theme be 'escape' from Aperture Science

not a sequel to portal, but have any test subject escape the facility in any way

[Astro]

The next big ultimate portal map will be getting into the real world and then having a city 17 type of portal game play, that is going to take so much time and energy to desing puzzles in a non-linear env.

[MrCow]

alright the voting is over?
when can i post the updated version of my map?

[youme]

No Story by Theprogram00 - 0%
Out of Order by Jaxe - 3%
Untitled by MrCow - 96%

96 + 3 + 0 = 99

the computer's maths is shit

[xitooner]

[msleeper]

Contest voting over. Congratulations to Mr. Cow, check your PMs for details on your winnings, etc. Thanks to the other mappers who helped contribute, and everyone hopes you enter our next contest!

Mappers, feel free to release updated versions of your maps, and create [RELEASE] threads now.