I extended my stay in Portal

Shoomonger

L4: Comfortable Member
Jul 8, 2009
185
55
A little while ago I decided to play every single custom portal map that was worth it. (Some Portal maps like occasional TF2 maps are just plain crap.) So far I've played almost every single one out there. Has anyone else tried this? If anyone wants I can give a list of good portal maps out there made by the community.
 

PL-7764

L6: Sharp Member
Aug 4, 2009
376
84
Ugh, I played that one you linked to a while back and gave up about 1/3 of the way through, even with a video walkthrough helping me. Seriously, what the heck is up with that spot where you have .001 seconds to fire a portal up a weighted storage cube pipe?! Who would even think to do that?? The puzzles mostly require you to know the answer beforehand. It was even difficult to win with cheats, and that says something. :mellow:
A few puzzles were okay, but I'm sticking to the default maps after my experience with that stuff. I've had an odd urge to play Portal again recently, so I think I need to play the story again from start to end.

Still, there is something to be said for the cool-ness of a few of the new elements in the maps in that pack, especially the electric areas and the HL2 Combine force-fields being reused as bridges. Still, the traps needed work, especially the lasers (one of which cannot be jumped over in one direction and requires very tricky portal-ing to escape from the room on the wrong side).
 
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Shoomonger

L4: Comfortable Member
Jul 8, 2009
185
55
It gets progressively harder till its almost impossibal. the first time through i used noclip a couple times. people should give it a try and if gets too hard use cheats
 

Tapp

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 26, 2009
776
215
It gets progressively harder till its almost impossibal. the first time through i used noclip a couple times. people should give it a try and if gets too hard use cheats

The actual map difficulty isn't the problem, the design is. Smart design can make a difficult map fun, and the same with an easy map. Much of problem solving involves logical thinking, and can actually be quite fun. For example: Hmm, the door is too high. I know! a step! But how do I make one? Oh, a cube. Where do I get a cube? Oh, there it is. But there's a turret in the way. I'll need something to knock over the turret (as previously demonstrated). I'll use a camera. Where's a camera? Etc.

Portal is a fine balance between timing, skill and problem solving, and most custom maps fail to understand that. Oh, and I think you'd find this useful for your extra-hard portal maps: http://www.fpsbanana.com/tools/4278
 

Artesia

L6: Sharp Member
Nov 11, 2008
278
72
I first started my modern hammer experience (used to "try" to map for TFC back in the day) making a yet unfinished portal map called Glass Prison

I stopped working on it when I learned that it was so difficult no one but myself had yet completed everything I had put into to it, and were just giving good feedback but were actually giving up.