November Mapping Contest Voting Thread

[Hober]

No Story by Theprogram00

Out of Order by Jaxe

Untitled by MrCow

May the best mapper win! Voting and discussion are open for one week, closing a little after midnight (EST) when the calendar says it's the 17th.

[volt]

Eh, disregard my last post in the Entry thread, and sorry to be hypocritical, but I can't help but say what I think about these maps. To all voters: don't let my opinion change yours.

No Story - First puzzle was kind of lame waiting for the energy orb. A few places had questionable brushwork, that IMO detracted from gameplay. Breaking in to the observation room was cool.

Out of Order - Some pretty good flings in this map, and overall the map looks well done, but most of the puzzles didn't rely on the companion cube, which was a requirement. The map was based on a companion cube (aka having a normal cube in the same map wouldn't as much sense as a companion cube) so I wouldn't go so far as to disqualify this map, but it loses marks in this respect.

MrCow's map - Pretty darn good. A few visible nodraw surfaces and maybe overuse of the antigravity stuff, but every puzzle required the companion cube, making it feel like you were using teamwork to solve the puzzles. I especially liked the cube elevator. 5/5 A+ will play again. Winnar.

I added spoiler tags so those reading who don't want to know so much info won't get more than they want. --GLaDOS

[msleeper]

Out of Order
I never ever ask for help with maps, but I am totally stuck in the first room. I managed to get my cube... Now what?

No Story
I thought this map was excellent. The new puzzles were innovative, the execution of already well-known puzzles was straight through and very well done. The second puzzle with the shifting "prison doors" was the highlight of the map in my opinion.

I agree with volt that the brushwork and visual design of the map was lacking, and the very first puzzle was a little difficult at first because the slanted brushes that the orb needed to bounce off were a hard to see in the ocean of black metal. The one observation room was also super bright, and could have used some HDR entities to tonemap it down so it wasn't all washed out white.

Untitled
Not only was this map an excellent example of a Companion Cube map, the whole "anti gravity" concept was spec-fucking-tacular. The puzzles were equally as well executed as in No Story, and were enhanced only by the polished designs of all of the rooms. As simple as the "Aperture Test Chamber" theme is, it's hard to get it looking like the official maps, and Untitled really made me feel like I was back in Portal. The GLaDOS voices chiming in all along the way only added to the feeling.

Aside from a few texture problems and one or two small other errors (nodraw texture on the Portal rails in the room before the incinerator stand out), I was able to break the map. In the same room, I managed to get my companion cube stuck somewhere behind the door that shuts after the long shaft and had to reload. Which brought me to another error, the dreaded AI Disabled message which killed GLaDOS.

[volt]

IMO every post will be a review or spoil the map... So we're going to have spoiler text on the majority of every post?

I say give warning in the first post that this thread will spoil the maps, and let the spoilers fly

[Jaxe]

[msleeper]

[Jaxe]

[Leck]

I didn't even finish my map in time, so congrats to TheProgram00, Jaxe, and MrCow for doing one better than me

I voted for
MrCow's map because it held my interest for longer.

[msleeper]

Oh yeah, FYI No Story's BMS file is incorrect. It is missing the path to the subdirectory for the mapfile.

[MrTwoVideoCards]

I voted for Cow's Map, its just better than the rest suffice to say.

[theprogram00]

[MrCow]

arg i can't believe i still have some of those f*cking nodraw surfaces .. i checked everything and still i missed to see some of them

and the no a.i. bug is similiar to the one i had in my old map and i still don't know why ... i wish i could fix it

anyways i made a null-vote because i think i'm not allowed to vote because i'm part of the contest and that would be unfair ^^"

oh and why is my map untitled? its called Weighted Companion Cube Map o.0

EDIT: and just one more question? can i submit a bugfree version later and i'd like to change the gravity effect..? to make it as good as possible for you

[Lorithad]

No story:

This map was alright. It didn't really hold my interest, or challenge me all that much. Once I figured out the first puzzle, it was pretty easy afterward.


Out of order:

The first time I played this, I honestly thought it had a chance at winning. I've since played it three times, and have beaten it with, and without the use of the maze. If done correctly, a large portion of the map uses the companion cube. However, it is possible to skip a very large portion, making the companion cube next to usless.


Weighted companion cube map:

As soon as I finished playing this map, I knew it won. It was the last entry, and it clearly stood apart from the rest.
I know that I usually am against non traditional effects being added into maps that are not cannon to portal.
However, the anti gravity field was very well done. There was a very good learning curve to it, and it even incorperated fling techniques that we already knew about. Just in new and different ways.
When I got to the part with the antigravity shaft, that you use the WCC as an elevator, all I could says was "Cool!"

This map really made me re-live the companion cube experience. Very well done MrCow. And congratulations.

[xitooner]

No Story

Interesting use of orb to get cube, although aiming that orb was a pain in some places. I never did understand what the inside of the extra tunnel (the one with the red glow) was used for, except for walking on top of. I was able to use the cube in that room, and then proceed thru 2 areas without the cube, and then was stuck without it. . .which is all a no-no, IMO. (I made it up where you needed cube to keep the wall out for the rocket). In the moveable-wall room, not only could I do it without cube, I never used any of the port-holes; it was actually easier to use the opposing walls (although getting through the exit door withouth a cube was a tight shot). Maybe if the walls moved faster. . .

Overall, it was okay, but needs to try harder to not let you leave are area without the companion cube, and. . . to NEED the cube.


Out of Order

Some nice flings, and I reallly liked the orb puzzle; not too hard, but not too easy either. I must confess after reading the spoilers here I didnt do most of this map AT ALL the way it was intended. I didnt use the flaming lift, for instance. Once I had the cube, it was easy to drop it to the floor, fing myself over to the button, and use portals on wall and bottom floor to get it there. Consequenlty, I felt a little wierd when I did a few puzzles and saw the door was open to leave; yet I had never done the whole "portal through the holes in wall" thing in the corner!

Nice map overall, but a bit confusing, easily circumvented in places, and not really cube-oriented. Wth a bit more work, would be an excellent map though!


MrCow's map

I too ran into the nodraws; they didnt really take away from the overall affect though, since they were in minor areas. The gravity-affect is certainly cool, and I applaud him for giving us a learning curve with it (ie he started out easy and it got harder). Without that, it might have been confusing, but it never felt that way. It did feel a bit too easy for me though; it wasnt until the last fling before the exit that I even had to pause. (The cube-elevator idea didnt even slow me down; it was the first thought I had when I saw it, which must be a testimony to MrCows teaching, because frankly I am usually not QUITE that quick on the uptake.

Since I didnt use the X on the ceiling, I assume I didnt do that last fling the intended way either; can someone tell me how I was supposed to do it? I just:
1) Found out how to fling up to the exit., and noted I was going under the button.
2) I saw where my last portal on the floor was, and placed the cube next to it.
3) Next time I went through the fling, I grabbed the cube before entering the portal, and then let it go before landing; it went right up to the button.

Also, I did enjoy the very last puzzle getting the cube in the incinerator. . . .


Overall, I have to vote for MrCow. Even for its early simplicity, and slight tendency to beat me over the head with the anti-gravity theme, I still felt this map was the most polished of the three. Every puzzle DID require the cube, which is very important to the contest.

I do want to point out though, for future contests, that its NOT the anti-grav that won this for me. Whizz-bang features without a decent map will fall flat; but MrCow had a little of everything, and all well-done. If there had been a good, solid cube-oriented map in the contest without the whizz-bang, I could easily have voted for it. Its MrCows attention to detail and continuity that won this contest, as far as I'm concerned.

[username]

Mr Cow's map was great, but I was very confused by the elevator. For some reason, I thought I had to press the button while the cube was at the top and make it fall all the way down, through a portal, out the other, and smash into a glass wall, breaking it and continuing outside the map. Maybe I'll use that technique in one of my maps. Otherwise, great map. I found the first puzzle a bit too much trial and error to get the cube on the button. Maybe I'm just too unorthodox.