Guide to Monoportal Mapping : Part 3

by | December 20th, 2019 | Tutorials | No Comments »

 

Conclusion

If you read all the way through this guide and made it to here, congratulations! It certainly makes me happy and humbled that someone took interest in monoportal map-making, as well as take my advice, ideas and suggestions into consideration. I’m very thankful for your readership and interest in what I had to present! Needless to say, this guide is the product of my personal experience with mapping, and reflects my individual thoughts on mapping practices. You may find that you don’t agree with some points in this guide, and that’s not only reasonable, but expected – everyone has different views and opinions on most subjects, and puzzle design is no different.


« Part 1 | « Part 2 | • Part 3

I would like to thank everyone who encouraged me to make this guide, as well as those who contributed with suggestions, ideas, fixes and more. Special thanks to Demon Arisen for helping me with reviewing the grammar and spelling of this guide. Many thanks to TeamSpen210 for helping me with some technical aspects of Beemod and its autoportal. Also thanks to HankyMueller for helping me review some of the concepts covered in the Mechanics section.
While this version of the guide is “finished”, it can always be expanded or improved upon. If you have any suggestions, would like to point out mistakes, request more clarity in certain matters or ask me to cover subjects I haven’t otherwise – for instance, monoportal bootstrapping, or autoportal behind grating – please do let me know. The more people point out ways to improve this guide, the more people it’ll help in the long run.
I would also like to mention that I deliberately avoided tackling most edge case scenarios and circumstances that slightly twist some of the observations made throughout the guide. The reason being that a lot of creative monoportal puzzles will intentionally change things up as to keep them fresh and different. This guide should be seen as a “starter’s pack”, or a baseline, and you should actually explore venues that were not covered in this guide. For instance, how about having a portal behind a fizzler also act as a pocket?
Finally, though it goes without saying, this is not a rulebook. This guide is as reliable as one’s subjective view and opinions can be. You are still free to make maps following your own practices, and my practices are not necessarily the best either. You must weigh in the topics covered here, compare them with your previous knowledge of these subjects, and judge whether or not my advices are worth it to you.
I don’t personally take map requests, as those can be rather time-consuming and demanding, but if you find any good monoportal maps or make one you’d like me to check, you may do so in the comments below. Do keep in mind I am making no promises of playing anyone’s maps or putting the ones I play in my Monoportal Hall of Fame. I may or may not provide feedback on puzzles sent my way, so don’t be disappointed if yours don’t make it through. Remember that the reward of making a great job is greater than the reward of earning a spotlight!
Happy map-making, and I hope to see you guys on the other side of the monoportal!

 

Monoportal Hall of Fame

This collection includes some of my favorite monoportal maps in the Portal 2 workshop. Some are mine, most are from other authors. They vary in difficulty, aesthetics, techniques, elegance, etc. You can try them by checking this collection:

And now, we shall close off the guide with a deconstruction of each entry on the collection. Below, you can see a table for mechanics, logic and position for each map in there. Some maps might feature multiple of each. This is so that you can see, in practice, how each of the topics covered by this guide applies in practice by playing around with an interactive example:

Map Mechanics Connections Autoportal placement
Partnership Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Anti-bootstrapping moving autoportal
Beam replacement moving autoportal
Hierarchy On wall, at floor level
Punishment Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Static/Singular autoportal Behind fizzler
On wall, at floor level
Pondering Fizzler workaround
Teleportable entities onto wall
Static/Singular autoportal On ceiling
Pull the Leg Fizzler workaround
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Beam replacement moving autoportal
Hierarchy On wall
Passenger Teleportable entities onto wall
Flinging out of autoportal
Static/Singular autoportal On wall, higher up
Reverberate Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Portal management
Switcheroo moving autoportal
XOR links Behind fizzler
On wall, at floor level
Stalemate Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Portal management
Anti-bootstrapping moving autoportal
Beam replacement moving autoportal
Switcheroo moving autoportal
Hierarchy On wall, at floor level
On wall, higher up
Axiom Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Flinging into autoportal
Flinging out of autoportal
Portal management
Static/Singular autoportal On floor
Anodyne Fizzler workaround
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Static/Singular autoportal On wall, at floor level
Amber Fizzler workaround
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Flinging into autoportal
Static/Singular autoportal On wall, at floor level
On floor
Monochrome Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto wall
Flinging into autoportal
Flinging out of autoportal
Portal management
Static/Singular autoportal On floor
Mono Portal Play Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto wall
Flinging into autoportal
Flinging out of autoportal
Static/Singular autoportal On floor
Inverted Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Static/Singular autoportal On wall, at floor level
Stargazing Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Flinging into autoportal
Flinging out of autoportal
Beam replacement moving autoportal
Switcheroo moving autoportal
Latest input On floor
On wall, at floor level
On ceiling
Tragedy Pocketing
Flinging into autoportal
Static/Singular autoportal On ceiling
Confined Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto wall
Beam replacement moving autoportal
Hierarchy On floor
Once Upon a Time Fizzler workaround
Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Portal management
Static/Singular autoportal On wall, at floor level
Immortal Fizzler workaround
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Flinging out of autoportal
Portal management
Static/Singular autoportal On floor
Meltdown Fizzler workaround
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Portal management
Static/Singular autoportal On wall, at floor level
Dissector Fizzler workaround
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Teleportable entities onto wall
Static/Singular autoportal Behind fizzler
On wall, at floor level
Phantom Pocketing
Teleportable entities onto autoportal
Flinging into autoportal
Flinging out of autoportal
Portal management
Hierarchy On ceiling
On floor

 

 

Final remarks

This post is an adaptation/transcription of my original guide on Steam, which can be found here:

Extra thanks to Michelle Sleeper for hosting this website and allowing for map-making enthusiasts like myself to share their knowledge with the world.

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