portal 2 mappnig

[Passerby]

im considering starting to do some mapping for portal 2 and just want to grab some feedback on what gameplay elements and types of puzzles everyone liked from the previous 2 games, and things that you saw in one of the games you want to see taken farther.

[blue_h3x]

The chamber here at 1:52 except swap the plasma balls with suction cones (or what ever they are called). Though change the layout as in not the exact same chamber. Bah, you know what I mean, I hope.

[Laserrobotics]

Complicated things that involve thought and logic rather than twitch and timing.

[Mincus]

Double flings. Not twitchy ones.
There were plenty in Portal 1 that weren't twitchy and not many in Portal 2 at all.
I like flying through the air between portals.

If you've played the Portal: Prelude pack, basically don't do any of the stupid twitch stuff in there (respect to the guys who made it, they put in a lot of work, but the maps/puzzles just didn't feel Portal-y).

I think there's a lot that could be done with those suction things, they didn't get used much. Maybe redirecting gel around, if they'll do that?

Gel on boxes is fun. Making them bounce to release buttons/break glass and slide down slopes/etc.

I mentioned it before, but in the single-player there's no gel/light bridge puzzles (I know there's some in co-op though). Timing with light bridge activation + gel splatter could be interesting.

Not guaranteeing any of these will play well, but should be worth checking out.

[blue_h3x]

Despite videos showing these and them seeming to show a big part, I never saw them in the final release. Also this looked fun

[Mincus]

Despite videos showing these and them seeming to show a big part, I never saw them in the final release. Also this looked fun

Apparently they had some bad feedback from the trailers about it looking too hard.
I (once again) blame consoles with their broken FPS controls. Nothing there looks difficult with a mouse and keyboard to me and I can't twitch play well. I used to get stuck on the platform flings in Portal 1 quite a lot for instance.

[Passerby]

ya i liked what i saw in the vids, and i am trying to go for a approach that relies more on planning than twitches.

going to play the first one again soon than try to get some ideas down on paper.

keep the thread going so good ideas sofar.

[blue_h3x]

Too hard? Nothing's worth achieving if it's just given straight to you.

[Passerby]

Too hard? Nothing's worth achieving if it's just given straight to you.

valve seems to be in the game of pleasing the console bitchs now. so instead of dealing with PC users who have been into gaming since the 90's or earlier that are using fast and precise input devices, they got to deal the the generation of console gamers which expect everything to be easy and use slow and cumbersome input devices.

[blue_h3x]

Breeding the generation of tech dependant brainless sheep.

[Mincus]

going to play the first one again soon than try to get some ideas down on paper.

Play with dev commentary on as there are some interesting points on level design. For example on how the energy ball was introduced, with them working in an additional 2 test chambers so that you didn't get energy ball + energy ball through portals + energy ball redirection + platform activated by energy ball receptacle-thing all introduced in the same puzzle.

Since Left 4 Dead, Valve sometimes do too much to please the play testers and post-release comments. They take in almost every little problem to try and make the games as smooth as possible to the largest number of people.
That does tend to leave those who have a lot of game experience under their belt sometimes feeling like the games are too easy. This is why I suspect Portal 2 feels a bit lacking in certain areas. Catering to if not the lowest denominator, a lower one than they should be.

Anyway, just don't have areas that are giant "search for the surface I can put portals on" which the underground bit of Portal 2 had a bit of. It's clear that puzzles have been removed from some of those areas: remember the multitude of pillars with lots of portal surfaces on? Then you just place a portal up high and one near the ground and skip it all? It's where asbestos is mentioned by Cave Johnson, that looked to me like there should be more to it.
Not to mention all the ones removed from the trailers, as previously mentioned. So much missed opportunity.

[blue_h3x]

The lack of saves with commentary was an offput though, with only a few 20-30min slots to play in I'd like to jump in and out. Did you play lost coast? Is P2 commentary like that?

[Passerby]

The lack of saves with commentary was an offput though, with only a few 20-30min slots to play in I'd like to jump in and out. Did you play lost coast? Is P2 commentary like that?

p2 commentary is like is for EP1 dosnt take control of the camara or anything just has nodes in the map.

[Mincus]

The lack of saves with commentary was an offput though, with only a few 20-30min slots to play in I'd like to jump in and out. Did you play lost coast? Is P2 commentary like that?

Just checked and you can run through each chapter separately. The nodes are pretty sparse so getting through each one in under 30 minutes shouldn't be a huge deal.
There's also commentary on some of the co-op maps. Forgot about those, might go look through them now.

[Sensei Le Roof]

The chamber here at 1:52 except swap the plasma balls with suction cones (or what ever they are called). Though change the layout as in not the exact same chamber. Bah, you know what I mean, I hope.

Excursion funnels.