Here it is-- my first custom portal map. Just wanted to get the word out to everyone*

You're awakened to an alternate chamber which quickly splits into a bts (behind the scenes) area where seemingly
turret maintenance was performed but has now been converted into a testing facility for "military androids".

The level is focused on a design of beginner to intermediate difficulty (depending on your skill) and can be completed
or best enjoyed with traditional portal techniques -no gimmicks or cheats.











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***************JULY 06 2008 update*****************

Here's the link for the UPDATED new version:

http://forums.thinkingwithportals.com/d ... ile_id=238



On version 1.5

- The angled wall directly to the right of the portal gun now has an
invisible brush in the recessed lighting area. (you can't put portals
partially under the floor on this wall anymore).

- The large Aperture Laboratory props hanging from the ceiling no
longer cast shadows straight down.

- Aligned the observation room to the left of the portal gun to the
wall textures in the room.

- Portal bumpers have been added where missing; some ceiling sections
in the two-cube room have metal-to-concrete details where I had to
combine a "no portal volume/portal bumper" technique to still keep the
player from creating portals that cut into some of the metal sections.

- Fixed the fizzler where you could shoot underneath in the gap.

- Texture and decals tweaked throughout the map.

- Fixed a cubemap glitch in the LDR setting.

- The climb/jump on the big pile of metal room has been modified
slightly to include a little more portal technique if desired while
keeping the original design intact.

- The boss room has been redesigned~ the turret no longer self
destructs (due to a glitch in how I aligned the func_button to hurt it)
I also took the feedback from many players that were confused as to
what to do with the turret and realized it may be too unconventional or
impractical having to make the turret shoot itself... after
experimenting a bit I created a more obvious solution; without taking
away from the original concept too much. Additionally, I've added some
new ambient sound effects and included a background music track for the
boss fight created by The Hamster Alliance.

- Kept the fling decals in the BTS turret room to coincide with the
story of the map; in other words to coordinate with the other areas as
"intentional" testing zones.

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Some Half-Life 2 models and textures were used; although not required
it's recommended to have the game installed or the sdk content installed
along with Portal for the complete experience.

Cubemaps should be set for LDR and HDR lighting. This is my first
official custom Portal map. Please inform me of any errors, bugs or
gameplay issues that may be found so that I can quickly correct them
as soon as possible; enjoy

Looks interesting.... time to go take it for a spin.

Holy shit looks awesome, I'm off to play it.

Edit: awesome map I really loved it, especially the factory thing and the rocket turret.
But like taco said at the first time I didn't knew how I killed it, then I loaded a save and checked, I didn't knew you can make it shoot itself, usually you can't.

I enjoyed the map, though there were a number of things (maybe I'm too picky) that were a bit off.

Here are a few things that I notices on my first play (SPOILERS):

- The angled wall directly to the right of the portal gun doesn't have an invisible brush in the recessed lighting (you can put portals partially under the floor).
- Both angled walls in that room have a section of wall that "bends" (rather than having an entire section being angled - doesn't look right)
- The large Aperture Laboratories things hanging from the ceiling cast shadows straight down, indicating that there is a light source above them... but there isn't.
- The observation room to the left of the portal gun isn't aligned with the wall textures.
- The two cube-button room doesn't seem to have portal bumbers on the ceiling (there are a number of places through out the chamber, including the boss room, that seem to lack portal bumpers).
- The models for the fizzles do not properly line up with the spaces they occupy. THIS IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE I HAD WITH THE MAP. Why the crap can I shoot under a fizzler but not between two? GET RID OF THE GAPS. *head explodes*
- The boss room was kind of neat, but I killed the boss by doing what? I don't know... I think i made it shoot the floor in front of it? No clue. I treid everything for awhile (held a turret right in front of it so the explosion would hurt it - nothing happened) and then as I continued to mess about the thing gave it's little losing speech. It was frustrating running around the room pointlessly.
- A few texture choices were odd.
- Having the fling decals in the BTS turret room seemed very out-of-place.
- The "climb/jump on the big pile of metal" room was very NOT portal, yet I had a lot of fun completing it - it felt kind of like I was playing metroid.

That's all I remember.

Map = Leet.

playing now..


edit: played, basicly the same list as taco had

[spoiler] the boss at the end... i tried everything, i shot rockets at the light, the observation window, the laser piller things, the doors, nothing worked. but when i ran over to bang on the door with my portal gun (lol) the rocket turret shot and killed itself... im not really sure what happened[/spoiler]

Screenies look like an awesome map. Definitely got visual appeal. Downloading this one now. Hopefully I can stay awake long enough to play it tonight, but if not tomorrow for sure.

Appreciate the constructive critics and good reviews;

I just wanted to follow up and maybe help clear a few of the points Taco and the others have made so far -- especially the "lack of bumpers on the ceilings" and "the boss battle--"~


the following is my breakdown of Taco's notes ( warning *** SPOILERS):


taco wrote:
- The angled wall directly to the right of the portal gun doesn't have an invisible brush in the recessed lighting (you can put portals partially under the floor).

reply:
- I can't believe I missed that wall; it goes to show you even after countless ~and I do mean countless~ play tests something sneaks up; the others all should have the invisible block brush in the recesses and if you notice even the angled wall on the left has one if I'm not mistaken. Thanks for letting me know and I'll be sure to fix this in future updates.

taco wrote:
- Both angled walls in that room have a section of wall that "bends" (rather than having an entire section being angled - doesn't look right)

reply:
- Believe it or not I actually wanted them like that-- now that it's been mentioned that they don't look right has made me reconsider-- in my mind it was concrete so they could have molded it to have that curve instead of having all the block junks fitting the same blocky way; I was imagining the architects of the chamber were going for something less conventional and less boxy ~ that's what I get for trying out some not so 90 degree angle stuff on my first portal mapping attempt ~ hehe ) But I'll see about aligning the texture differently...

taco wrote:
- The large Aperture Laboratories things hanging from the ceiling cast shadows straight down, indicating that there is a light source above them... but there isn't.

reply:
- Help clear this one up and I can fix it aswell; but I thought since there is so much light coming from various angles in that room; above below and to the sides; that there would be some shadow from those large things-- in my opinion it made it look better but let me know if I'm wrong about this.

taco wrote:
- The observation room to the left of the portal gun isn't aligned with the wall textures.

reply:
- damn, damn damn; gotta go take a look at that. -good eye though!

taco wrote:
- The two cube-button room doesn't seem to have portal bumbers on the ceiling (there are a number of places through out the chamber, including the boss room, that seem to lack portal bumpers).

reply:
- I did try and place bumpers on the ceilings; however because of the way I designed the blocks some sticking in and some mixed in with the concrete (portal-able ones) for some reason with the bumpers it often would create a portal inside some of the metal plates. I tried a lot of play testing on this aspect and eventually ended up compromising I actually had to create no portal volumes covering where the blocks seem to come in and mix with the concrete so that the player wouldn't be able to create portals over some of the metal parts. Maybe this is why Valve had the metal and concrete meeting parts so square. Again it's just me trying to give the same two textures a lil' more mix. But I preferred this method than the player being able to make portals on the metal part. As for the boss area; I have no excuse there; I'm going to have to look at it and check to see if I missed them there. There are portal bumpers on all the wall sections however and in the straight forward parts of the ceilings, I'm not that lazy hehe


- The models for the fizzles do not properly line up with the spaces they occupy. THIS IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE I HAD WITH THE MAP. Why the crap can I shoot under a fizzler but not between two? GET RID OF THE GAPS. *head explodes*

- I was a lil' confused about this comment; not sure exactly what you mean; as best as I could answer is I wish I could model a portal fizzler to match every size and gap. I created various sized rooms sometimes a lil out the norm to make things more unique; and in order to fit the map design I had to have fizzlers to prevent the player from shooting in certain spots or from carrying the box where he shouldn't. I think you can shoot underneath and above because the fizzler is not big enough for the space it blocks but they do fizzle out from it's source and I wasn't about to have fizzles coming out of nowhere so I made em emanating from the source and you still can't shoot anywhere to cheat (I HOPE)...

- The boss room was kind of neat, but I killed the boss by doing what? I don't know... I think i made it shoot the floor in front of it? No clue. I treid everything for awhile (held a turret right in front of it so the explosion would hurt it - nothing happened) and then as I continued to mess about the thing gave it's little losing speech. It was frustrating running around the room pointlessly.

-This was my first attempt at portal mapping; learning the entities and such and I wanted to create a mini-boss BUT the question was how to with what was given; I got the idea while playing a portal map and realizing hey; how come I can't create two portals that leads the rocket back to the turret itself; to self destruct that thing. I noticed this hadn't been done before (that I knew of) and then when I tried it in game nothing would happen; as if the turret was some how immune to the blast! I knew then I had part of my boss battle idea ; which is why I made the rocket-turret speak; to indicate as he puts it "you have to destroy me to get passed the chamber" it was the best way I could indicate it without giving up too much of the puzzle. Having the rocket blast destroy the turret was a bit tricky without having him self destruct himself; I went through a ton of play tests setting it up just right so that it couldn't happen; I'm not sure if somehow this is still happening judging from some of the responses but the intended method is "thinking with portals" give it a shot next time you play through.

taco wrote:
- A few texture choices were odd.

- Guess it's a reflection of how odd I am in real life

taco wrote:
- Having the fling decals in the BTS turret room seemed very out-of-place.


- In the readme and description of the map; I mentioned the chamber was a turret maintenance (BTS) area facility now intentionally converted to a test chamber-- for "military androids." As you break through to the BTS area Glados states this aswell...

taco wrote:
- The "climb/jump on the big pile of metal" room was very NOT portal, yet I had a lot of fun completing it - it felt kind of like I was playing metroid.

- F*ckin' LOVE Metroid; since the original 8 bit version up to the new versions now-- I think both Portal and Metroid capture that isolation vibe extreeemely well and I recall playing Portal for the first time feeling somewhat creeped out and loving it (particularly in the BTS ares)... that huge room went through a few tweaks; I had the player using the portal gun more in it before but it pretty much made you navigating the boxes less interesting; in the end I went with a break in the portal gun techniques in exchange for some cool isolated atmosphere and jump practice right before you get back to the portal gun usage plus getting out that section to climb back up does require the gun again and I made sure the jumps weren't annoying but fun... hope that came across.

All in all; you've given me a lot to look into; that I'll try to revise or plan out better for my next map-- glad you enjoyed it and thanks again for playing / reviewing. I put a lot of effort into releasing a solid experience for my first portal map; it was a lot of learning plus trial and error not to mention a sort of obsession to see the finished product.

***Of note: I see the quality of not just our eye and critic but of each others maps is getting better and better; there was a time I wasn't too happy with some of the custom maps being dished out. But in the months since Portal's release (which really wasn't that long ago) I gotta say we've all been coming a long way-- so kudos to all and hope to see more of it. I really enjoy being a part of this community.

Awesome map. I really enjoyed playng that, here it is my way through that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EU4utpXJj8

Good map overall. Liked the design of many of the areas. Thought the part with climbing the cubes was nice, something a little different yet not too foreign from the Portal concept (most of the game is get from point A to point B afterall.)

One thing I didn't care for was the boss battle though. I don't think the goal is particularly clear. [spoiler]I get why the hint dialog was put in, but it says "I am the automated defense system. You have to kill me, etc." But what really is "I"? It could some computer system off somewhere in the facility, it could the lasers, it could in the observation rooms, etc.

It doesn't really help either that players, in general I don't believe, see turrets as an enemy per se. They're more like an obstacle or tool. They aren't really out to get you, they're just sitting there doing their job.

Using rockets to blow stuff up is usually fun, it should just be clear what needs blowing up.
For instance, it worked well on glados because it was pretty clear that glados was your enemy and was out to kill you.
[/spoiler]

I just don't think the shadows are in the right place, it's just odd that a shadow would go straight down without there being a light source above them. Either make the room taller and add a light source, or have the shadows cast properly based on the rooms lighting.


Yeah, pretty mcuh what I meant is that the fizzler model is designed to fit in a 256 unit tall hole - so put it in a 256 unit tall hole, or a 512, or a 768, or a... you get the point. Gaps below, between or above the models indicates that there is a gap in the grid; however, that is not always true in your map.


Yeah, I thought it was pretty good considering what you were working with, though if you revised it a bit, the whole map would improve.


Oh, I totally understand that - the signs still seem out of place, almost like they want to hold my hand.

amazing map. very well made. neat-new look. like the incorpration of lazers (one tiny map i was working on had some lazer effects)

only real gripe is the fizzlers thing. you can put more than above/below each other to close the gap :-/

and the [spoiler]box jumping room had me going "Damn this guy loves box jumping"[/spoiler] though it was fun i guess. but after accidently falling (near the top) twice i was pissed. but i continued basically i was playing just goofing off instead of really trying. so its my fault. not yours. its still cool

and the [spoiler]boss battle:
what to say. i really like the idea that you can make the turret shoot itself. but it wasn't my first instinct (since you can't do that by default) i tried shooting (with rockets) the lazer things. i tried shooting the big white circle above the turret, i tried shooting the "Server" looking things above the door. then i was walking away to set up some new portals and the turret "accidently" shot itself behind my back and i was like "WTF Happened?" reloaded and tried shooting all those things again.. and then even set up the turret to shoot itself but was slightly off and it did a looping rocket path like 4 times lol. but finally got it and figured out what to do.[/spoiler]

all in all. great map.

To The Mods: Just curious if ya'll missed this one? its still in the maps/mapping section

Awesome map, great job with that. It was fairly long and really classy and stylish : the new stuff you designed (like the thingie in the first room) really fits in the portal universe. Also the puzzles were quite nice.
Anyway, about the [spoiler]Boss Battle:

I think to improve it you should make the turret say "I am the automated defense TURRET" instead of "I am the automated defense system". Like Syon i didnt really have a clue that the "system" was the turret. I tought I had to shoot the giant glass eye over it, or the laser shooter etc.
Also in normal portal the turrets are never destroyed by their own rockets... so it wasnt really easy to think of that. Maybe you could change the turret model around a bit by making it look a little ruined. Maybe you can add cracks and rust and sparkles to suggest the thing CAN be destroyed by a rocket.[/spoiler]

Just my 2 cents. Cant wait for your next map.

Just got done playing this one and it was a lot of fun. I thought the environment was very cool, a nice balance between Portal and the HL. These games are related after all people. You have to think ahead as well as react, which is great. Overall great map!

The only part I wasn't too crazy about was the jumping section but I always dislike those so don't take it personally. The fizzlers comments made previously apply to me as well but that's an easy fix. Also the portal bumpers, that's a pet peeve of mine. It takes a little experimenting to find out when to use a bumper and when to use a non portal volume but you'll get the hang of it.

I did run into one problem in boss battle. I shot a portal behind a metal box that was flush to the wall and when I walked through it I was actually inside the box. That's the first time I've seen that in any map I've played. Simple fix again, just move the box a few unit away from the wall and it shouldn't happen. Screenshot on the left shows me half in the box, the one on the left shows which box it was. I went back in game to take these so it's not exactly what I experienced the first tiem but you get the idea.

I gave up. I watched the video, and I just never seen combine balls in the map, only the combine ball spawner.

HUH? COnfused... is anyone else having this problem? Just curious; if so I may have to look into it asap. Maybe you noclip ahead and jumped a trigger or something is best as I can figure for now-- Let me know soon---