Map: sp_ravidge_test

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8923481/rav1.zip

I overall felt that the chambers were quite rewarding to complete but were annoying with the simple concepts, that were made maybe a bit too far complex.
Chamber 1 -small cramped and annoying even lossing a tiny bit of momentum cost dear. Also the cramped space was confusing and 'affected' me as I played.
Chamber 2 - Took me a while to do this one as It involved alot of spining and angle ajusting.

You are struggling way more than you need to in both chambers, but mostly the first one. As with many others, you are just one portal placement away from solving it within the first 2 minutes.
The problem that leads to your frustration (I presume there was some) is that you didn't learn from your failed attempts, instead just kept repeating them as if you did something wrong.

In the second chamber you seemed to be doing well enough, you lost the cube due to my bad clipping, but aside from that it was good. The way you got to the exit was very complicated though.. you had the right idea but bad execution.
 

Arnold

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 18, 2008
283
242
I quite liked them but i felt some of the solutions were a bit fickle. probably due to the size of the chambers, and the fact that i had a hard time visualizing everything. I forgot to record a demo though.

As far as diffucility goes, I really wouldn't mind if future puzzles are harder, as long as that diffucility isn't a cause of bad level design or gimmicks.
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
aa
Aug 8, 2010
4,102
6,597
You are struggling way more than you need to in both chambers, but mostly the first one. As with many others, you are just one portal placement away from solving it within the first 2 minutes.
The problem that leads to your frustration (I presume there was some) is that you didn't learn from your failed attempts, instead just kept repeating them as if you did something wrong.

To me, it FELT like that solution would never work- i guessed at the angle, and predicted it would propel me into a wall. To this day i dont know how i can enter a portal at such a shallow angle and leave vertically. While the solution i was working with (as, from the sound of it was this player), was that, going from angled portal to floor portal would fling me from the angled one with sufficient velocity to reach the box -that was my thinking on my failed attempt. Except, that just smacked me into the ceiling. "Ah, well," my thinking went. "Must've bollocked that up, i'll try again, and see if crouching/not jumping/finicky portal placements helps."

The stupididty lies in trying that more than three or four times, and believing that the actual solution is so counterintuitive it couldnt possibly work.
 
Sep 1, 2009
573
323
In the second chamber you seemed to be doing well enough, you lost the cube due to my bad clipping

I guess you can tell that in a demo lol
 

Zhan

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 18, 2010
208
244
At least the way I solved it, the second chamber was really hard, but really fun. I haven't managed to record a demo the way I solved it but I'll describe it so you can think about it:

Once I've gotten the cube past the fizzler and have a portal under the faith plate, I set the cube down some place in the bottom of the pit under the angled surface and get myself bouncing out of a floor portal in the pit off the faith plate. While I'm flying through the floor portals, I grab the cube so now I'm bouncing up and down in the pit holding the cube. I then throw the cube forward at the height of the bounce, put one portal under where the cube will land (in the pit) and the other on the angled surface, which flings it up to the higher ledge.

I've only managed to do it once because it was stupid hard, but solving the puzzle was fun and incredibly satifisfying nonetheless.
 

WastedMeerkat

L3: Member
Aug 15, 2009
144
142
Here are my demos:

http://www.mediafire.com/?m0fw8wmr2am5mkl

Those were pretty tricky chambers, I'll give you that. The solutions were so simple after I got them, but it took me a long time on both. On the second chamber I was trying to find ways to exploit it, and it seems you've got that covered. They're both well done chambers!

EDIT: Zhan, you made it so much harder than it needed to be, lol.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Cool, thanks guys :)
I hope I'm not burning you guys out just yet. As a reward, have a new chamber (and minor tweaks to ch2).

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1281220/portal2/sp_ravidge_test3.zip

ch3.jpg


This latest chamber (#3) is probably the easiest so far. It's not a momentum puzzle, and you can die in it (so any demos you're recording needs to be started every life). It's very rough, but I tried to make something new!
 
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WastedMeerkat

L3: Member
Aug 15, 2009
144
142
Here are my demos for the updated chambers:

http://www.mediafire.com/?bl0odowlzwixs26

I was being pretty dumb on chamber 3, it took me a while to see the easier solution. I was just trying to throw the cube from the light bridge, and that got me nowhere!

EDIT: Rav, I got your message after you logged off. I should have mentioned this earlier, but I forgot to take the demo on my first run through the updated second chamber. I just took a demo of my solution to show you how I did it. I think the second chamber is pretty fun.

The third chamber seems kinda confusing, though. I think the presence of the faith plate makes it seem like it's important to the puzzle, and not just a means of getting back to the starting area if you move your portals away. Maybe rearrange the layout of the room to seem a little more open and condensed; right now it just seems sort of askew. I did like the idea behind the puzzle, though, and it would probably be more fun if the solution was a little more obvious and together.
 
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tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
I loved the third chamber, didn't find it hard or misleading at all.
http://calcified.net/junk/rav3.rar

I looked at the second chamber. I have no idea how to solve it. I spent 30 minutes screwing around before giving up.

I thought I was recording for that but maybe not. Maybe it's in those demos above
 
Sep 1, 2009
573
323

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
aa
Aug 8, 2010
4,102
6,597
I enjoyed the third one. I've got a few small suggestions though.
-The companion cubes were a cool little moment, once, but three times and they feel like an overused joke, i think.
-i once hit my own light bridge whilst trying to fly back. (Not in the demo, accidentaly used the smae name.) Why is the portalable surface above the flinger so big? It just makes it fiddly to aim the laser, and makes it possible to hit your own light-bridge whilst crossing back.

Doy, demo. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13673854/Portal2/Demos/ravidge3.rar
 

Zhan

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 18, 2010
208
244
I like the changes to the 2nd chamber, the final jump to get to the exit is not as evil now, which is good.

I'm not a huge fan of this jump here:
GaLWo.jpg

It might be nicer to players if you added a little platform to get off the light bridge there. The rest of the 3rd chamber was fantastic, though.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
I'm not a huge fan of this jump here:
GaLWo.jpg

You are doing it wrong.
If anything, I'd remove the ability to make that jump (It's not a shortcut, it's just not where you're supposed to go.)

I enjoyed the third one. I've got a few small suggestions though.
-The companion cubes were a cool little moment, once, but three times and they feel like an overused joke, i think.
-i once hit my own light bridge whilst trying to fly back. (Not in the demo, accidentaly used the smae name.) Why is the portalable surface above the flinger so big? It just makes it fiddly to aim the laser, and makes it possible to hit your own light-bridge whilst crossing back.

Doy, demo. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13673854/Portal2/Demos/ravidge3.rar

1) if you're talking about the elevator cubes, it's because it's literally same elevator in each chamber, both start and finish... I haven't really put much effort into making them unique since.. well It's pointless at this stage?
2) Tweaking the force of the faith plate was the last thing I did before release, so I didn't double check it well enough I guess... still I don't really think it's all that much of a problem.
Just you wait until the levels where I do try to kill you.
 
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Zhan

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 18, 2010
208
244
Oh okay, I see. Yeah, then you should probably remove the ability to make that jump.
 

Jack Riguel

L10: Glamorous Member
Jul 19, 2009
721
254
Nice work. I enjoyed the concepts in chamber 2, but chamber 3 was my favorite in both logic and creativity.

Demo Files

Two Things:

*SPOILER*
In chamber 2 when jumping to the third platform where the button drop lies the angled platform seems to hit just at the corner of the edge. I had to shoot high on the angled piece rather then just anywhere to make it to that hight. You might need to raise the roof a bit in the section to the right so that you can keep a little more momentum when clearing the edge. Also I felt as if I had to crouch to make the jump as well, which feels odd needing to hold it down when I'm already flying.
*END SPOILER*
(we really need a proper tag for that)

Also, you can get stuck down near the door in chamber 3, forcing you to commit suicide to get back up. My suggestion would be to add an automatic star platform that can raise once you fall down there while the door is unopened and drop back into the water after getting back up.
Suggestion.jpeg
 

jpr

aa
Feb 1, 2009
1,094
1,085
Demo

The first chamber was sort of annoying because the portals didn't want to appear where I wanted them to. Assuming I did it right.
Speaking of which, the second chamber felt a lot like I was sequence breaking in metroid or something, pretty sure I did it in some totally unintended way.
I liked the third one a lot. It should actually be the first one though since it was the easiest.
 
Sep 1, 2009
573
323
According to ravidge I suck at portal exiting and entering.... you maybe right...
But the 3rd chamber is alot easier than the rest and 'should' come first