[WIP] Saved by the cake

[espen180]

As long as you don't give to mapping entirly. Don't feel bad. All mapers who have mapped a certain ammount of time come across maps that just don't work and have to start over, and I know, it feels pretty hopeless, but it's really not your fault. I'm sure this map would fit nicely in a certain game. Just not Portal.

Try again. Please.

[Astro]

Your post has been deleted and you have been issued a warning. -Espen180

[Lorithad]

Yeah Helix, don't give up. I honestly believe you have everything it takes to make a fantastic map maker.

I just finished the map, and I loved the third chamber. Though I didn't intend on getting there.
Hell, I didn't even know there was more after the cake until I read the download description from the upload. I hadn't made it to an elevator, so it wasn't over.

for those of you wondering how to get to the third chamber:
Emancipate your cake.


If you were to continue work on this map, there really are only a few things that you'd need to do in order for me to really like it.

Move the portalable ceiling tile a little closer to the button opening.
Make the button opening a little larger.
Give some sort of diagram as to the L block, or change the way the L block is introduced. Perhaps a cube dispencer dispencing the wrong item? I'm assuming that can be done.
Give more hints on how to get to the third chamber.
Improve the lighting in the cake area and in the area you drop to shortly before the third chamber. Way too dark.

Once those are fixed, it would be great. Also, I loved the line for if/when you emancipate the turret.

[NocturnalGhost]

Okay, I just played through this map. My first thoughts were:

Room 1: It took me a few deaths to realise what the puzzle was, and why I was dying. This could have been made more obvious by using some kind of energy field or something, instead of just a red line (I didn't actually read your first post, as I wanted to play it with no preconceptions).

The puzzle itself was ok, and I eventually realised that the direction of the ceiling portal was important.

Room 2: (By this I mean the connecting hallway.) The main problem I have with this room is the only object in it, the emancipation field.

The emancipation field is fine for stopping storage cubes being taken further into levels than desired, but the WCC deserves a more grand death than that.

I actually thought that since you had given us a companion cube as opposed to a storage cube, I had to somehow bypass that field, as the companion cube is something GLaDOS thinks humans should be attached to, and therefore makes them consciously kill it, as opposed to leaving it behind, or simply taking it into an emancipation field.

I hope you see my point in that last paragraph, that the companion cube's iconic status means that any "euphanising" should be forced, and more grand.

Room 3: What the hell? lol. I had to come and read this very thread to find out what to do here, and even then I was like "that's stupid". (please don't take offense at that). I believe Lorithad has said most of what i also thought about that particular puzzle.

My suggestion would be, rather than hiding the L-shaped block by embedding it in the floor, just have it fall from the ceiling as you enter the room. Then people will know that it's a physics object, rather than just light shining through the hole in the ceiling.

Also, about the L-block. It behaves very wierdly with regards to physics. I realise this is probably intentional, but it detracts from immersion quite a bit if it always stays the same way up after falling etc.

Last section: On the left hand side of the cake dropper, you can see into the "void". Is there a leak, or nodraw there?


Please take this post as constructive criticism, as this has the potential to be a good map. Also, this is just my opinion, others may vary

[Player1]

Hehe, glad I didn't read through this thread before trying the map. The first room I found cool and satisfying. Working with half-portals that way and having to think about the orientation of one of the portals is very cool and very portal.

The second room I was as clueless as anybody in this thread. I loved it once I got the tetris block out, but honestly it behaves very weirdly. You can't rotate it (except around the up-axis) or anything... Try putting it on the staircase to see what I mean. That kinda breaks the whole physics thing.

I spent quite some time trying to figure out how to get my WCC through the emancipation grid, but that didn't work of course. Most of this was due to me thinking I'd need that to build just that kind of stepping stone thingy that the tetris block allowed me to.

After the second room I only just had time to think "oh fck" before being "saved by the cake". Is that the end of the level? I couldn't find anywhere else to go.

Imo you have to make the picking up of the tetris block much more obvious and you also have to make it a proper physics object instead of that weird floating stuff. It would still be doable and cool if it was a regular physics object...

EDIT: Don't quit please. This map demonstrated some true innovation and I'd love to see it finished. It just needs some polish on the whole "introducing the player to new gimmicks" front to be great!

[Lorithad]

NocturnalGhost, the L block dropping from the ceiling is genius. Pure genius.

[taco]

[espen180]

For your first map ever, I'd say this map is great. From what I read, you have incorporated several portal elements and various entity setups which are extremely rare in beginner maps.

[NocturnalGhost]

[Player1]

[NocturnalGhost]

Can someone please confirm what the real ending is? I've just put the second companion cube on the button. Is there any more to the level after that?

[Player1]

[Lorithad]

In the download comments, Helix stated that It wasn't over until you were in an elevator. So I'm pretty sure that's the end.

[Yekyaa]

Sounds like a fun map that I need to try when I get home aside from
the current complaints. It is still a WIP though so that's to be expected.
Some things may not make sense, and I hope the designer doesn't give
up on this map as it sounds like it could be a potentially great map.

I wish him luck on this and hope to see this map released with at
least some of the major features intact... looking forward to trying it
out in a few hours.

[NocturnalGhost]