Portal 2 : Princess No-Knees 3 : Jump Harder

[psion]

Now, in the time it took you to be an insufferable smartarse, and obtain a lmgtfy link, you might as well have just answered the question.

To fix an exploit/bug in the first Portal they made it so that when a portal is opened while you're halfway inside, it would push you out. Reopening the portal while you're traveling through it could be used to increase your exit speed and momentum.

[EvanED]

[This is a bit long-winded, and Psion and mister k already said something, but I'm on the bus and don't have a whole lot better I can do, so here goes.]

Here's my description. (Actually the general form is stolen from the video where I learned about reportaling.)

So a bit of history. You may or may not know that Portal 1 had somtehing called the "portal peeking glitch." This is where you could step into the portal, barely through to the other side, fire, and step back through the portal before the other end hit. With practice, this is functionally equivalent to being able to fire one end of the portal through the portal, something you can't normally do. (Well, it's equivalent as long as you are standing next to an end.) You can do all sorts of things with this. As much as I like peeking, it probably really is a glitch, albeit one that's way less bogus than, say, the wall climbing/flying glitches.

Now, when Portal 2 came out, they wanted to remove the peeking glitch. It's still there from what I'm told, but it's way way harder to execute, and I can't do it. (And while I'm no Transgenic, I have played a ton of portal and am good at it.) The portal travels much much faster than in Portal 1 and there's a strong push. It's this push that is behind the reportal glitch.

I'm not sure if it still does this with the latest patch, but if you put a portal end on the bottom panel of a wall, stepped midway into the portal, then fired the other portal end somewhere, the push it gives you when the portal closed would be enough to shove you a couple steps away from the wall. (Easiest way to reproduce this: walk right up to a wall so you can't get any closer. Put the orange end in front of you, and the blue end somewhere else. Take a couple steps so you're looking at the wall almost edge-on, but make sure you're still on the orange side of the portal. Fire the orange end. Note that you have to take a couple steps to get back up against the wall.)

So, what's reportaling? The canonical case of reportaling is if you have two floor portals, and are oscillating between them. Suppose you are falling toward the blue portal. If you re-place the blue portal right where it currently is, just as you are falling into it, then you will essentially portal-peek: you will fall to the other side of the portal just before it closes. The timing on this was fairly tight, but if you got it right, then as the portal closed, it would give you the push I described in the previous paragraph. This extra push gave you extra momentum, which means you go higher. Do it again, and you'd gain more momentum.

The amount of momentum you could get isn't limitless -- there's a terminal velocity -- but if you retrofitted all of the test chambers with a portalable floor so you could do this, you'd be able to at least come reasonably close to the ceiling in any of them.

The more interesting thing about what you could do with the reportal glitch is it gave a way of solving some puzzles in a completely new fashion. With just one or two uses (as opposed to just using it to build up a bunch of momentum from floor portals). I never did this, but going through the game with an eye to where you could apply the reportal glitch would have been really cool.

The first (and really only, I haven't checked to see what clever stuff people have come up with) example of this is a reportal-enhanced solution to Wheatley's chamber 11. I can't find it, but someone had a brilliant solution, completing that chamber in 10 or 15 seconds, and it relies on one well-timed reportal as you launch yourself from the faith plate into a portal on the slanted surface.

[ProZac]

I have played the new co-op. It was awesome. It seemed more difficult than the previous chambers, but it could be from being out of practice. At least one chamber my partner in science and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to solve a puzzle that boiled down to "Maybe one of us should stand on this button in the middle of the room that we've completely ignored for some reason." I'm fairly certain we did the 'not correct' solution at least once. It involved us using gel falling infinitely, which I recommend people set up just to see as it is entertaining. That gel gets moving fast and seems to start skipping frames and such.

[EvanED]

I have two comments now that I'm going through the challenges:

Slight "spoiler" for the challenges:

Spoiler:

First, I <3 Valve. When you're doing the last Glados level where Wheatley breaks you out, and you're starting to run from Glados and she shows you the "last chamber" (where you get Neurotoxin'd)... they went to the trouble of putting finish line symbols there.

Spoiler for the standard SP story only:

Spoiler:

Second, the Neurotoxin facility level has a lot of meat for speed runners that I didn't recognize until now.


I cut about a second off of that time since that screenshot was taken. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if someone who is crazy good could get almost another 5 seconds. (That deserves a little investigation.) The difference between my time and that peak is in the 8-10 second range.

[The Scyphozoa]

Spoiler:

Second, the Neurotoxin facility level has a lot of meat for speed runners that I didn't recognize until now.

How so? If accelerated back-hopping were possible, that would probably be a good place to do it, but I can't think of any trickses other than "walking in the straightest line possible".

[EvanED]

Spoiler:

Second, the Neurotoxin facility level has a lot of meat for speed runners that I didn't recognize until now.

How so? If accelerated back-hopping were possible, that would probably be a good place to do it, but I can't think of any trickses other than "walking in the straightest line possible".

Spoiler:

It's all in the end bit when you're putting the lasers on the moving platforms.

I think there may be an interesting puzzle regarding when you move the portal from the wall panels over to the ceiling panels and back. One should be able to eke out a little more time by moving the portals back and forth -- if you are good enough to swing back and forth and do 3 portal placements with a couple tenths of a second between them.

It is possible to cut the left pipes at about the following times (top pipe to bottom pipe):

• 47.4 seconds, 52.8 seconds, and 58.7 seconds
• 46.3 seconds, 51.7 seconds, and 57.6 seconds
• 50.8 seconds and 56.7 seconds
• 50.0 seconds and 55.9 seconds

It is possible to cut the the right pipes at about the following times (far pipe to near pipe):

• 49.2 seconds and 58.0 seconds
• 50.4 seconds and 59.2 seconds
• 52.5 seconds
• 54.9 seconds

It's not too terribly hard to get into the control room by the 46.3 second mark. (I am unable to arrive in time to cut the closest pipe on the right, which would be really nice to do.) This gets you the top two pipes on the left.

Then we have the challenge. I think it should be able to cut pipes at 49.2 seconds, 50.0 seconds, 50.4 seconds, and 50.8 seconds if you can move the portal back and forth in each of those gaps. (Realistically, I'm not sure exactly what time the "cut" triggers, or how long it has to be there for.) Assuming you can, this takes care of the remaining two pipes on the left and the furthest two pipes on the right.

Then all you have to do is move the portal back to the right (you have a leisurely 1.6 or 1.7 seconds) to cut the closest two pipes on the right. The last one will be cut at 54.93; this is 3 seconds earlier than anything else I've managed, and 4 seconds earlier than the time posted above.

Edit I'm right, and you can do what I said, and it is 4.3 seconds faster.

Spoiler:

[AvatarIII]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFv4J4yQ ... ata_player

This hasn't been posted yet has it?

[roband]

Oh damn. They need to make that for Android. Well, I expect they haven't truly made it for Apple, but still...

[SlyReaper]

For those of us on crap connections, what is it?

[Xeio]

If you've seen the ad for the new voice recognition software from apple, it's basically redone with glados' voice (with insults, of course).

[mister k]

Coop new levels ard great: challenging and the plot is just wonderful

[Xeio]

Incidentally, about the new co-op levels, was it my imagination or could one person have probably done the white gel level alone?

[The Scyphozoa]

In that phone app ad:
Audio effects are good
Personality is good
But the voice actor doesn't pronounce things the way GLaDOS would.

[mister k]

Incidentally, about the new co-op levels, was it my imagination or could one person have probably done the white gel level alone?

Most of the paint smearing stuff could be done by one player, but there were a couple of moments towards the end where I believe you needed two players.

[rrwoods]

There are a ton of co-op levels in the base game that can be done with one player. People on speeddemosarchive had a field day with that.

[Dark567]

I didn't see this... but I assume everyone has

... but just in case

[EvanED]

I just wanna necro this thread to make sure anyone who cares knows that (1) Valve patched Portal 2 a couple weeks ago with a map editor built into the game (much easier to use than Hammer) and a community workshop feature where you can go and pretty easily play other people's maps, and (2) Mevious has released 19(?) maps under this feature.

(Mevious is the guy behind the Portal Pro mod and is a genius at making puzzles that are ferociously difficult to solve but easy or trivial to execute, and are "obvious" in retrospect. Though his Portal 2 levels are definitely a significant step down in difficulty than Portal Pro, and one or two of them I would say are almost easy.)

[Woopate]

I was going to necro this. I thought the video for the announcement was hilarious. Haven't tried any new maps yet, still working on a playthrough (My computer was down during the launch, so I played it through on a buddy's Xbox.)

[SecondTalon]

Finally playing this game. The various potato references I've seen here, there, and everywhere now make sense.

[SlyReaper]

Finally playing this game. The various potato references I've seen here, there, and everywhere now make sense.

The potato is a lie!

Or something.

[SecondTalon]

I want to be rebuilt and my tumors scooped out AND make $120 in the process.

[Will]

Burning people! He says what we're all thinking!

[ConMan]

You are not part of the control group.

[SecondTalon]

Aannndd.. it's done. Fun times.

So now there's the community test chambers, 5 of which will be mind-blowing experiences, 15 of which will make me feel stupid for not knowing some community level common secret tactic that keeps reoccurring, and 900 will be trickses to get me to look at pictures of dicks.

Or... I suppose there's the...multiplayer.

[Radical_Initiator]

stupid gd multiplayer. Remind me of how few friends I have, OK, EVERY GAME STUDIO IN EXISTENCE????

I wish I had a drink.

Edit: That may not be your problem, ST, but I felt the need to share.

[Menacing Spike]

stupid gd multiplayer. Remind me of how few friends I have, OK, EVERY GAME STUDIO IN EXISTENCE????

Someone I knew played the multiplayer with his attractive, intelligent girlfriend. Gah.

[Radical_Initiator]

Shirley, you must be joking.

[ConMan]

stupid gd multiplayer. Remind me of how few friends I have, OK, EVERY GAME STUDIO IN EXISTENCE????

Someone I knew played the multiplayer with his attractive, intelligent girlfriend. Gah.

I've played some of it with my attractive, intelligent girlfriend's brother. I'd play it with her, but apparently first-person perspective in games gives her vertigo, so even just watching me play it for too long sends her running to the bathroom

[SlyReaper]

So now there's the community test chambers, 5 of which will be mind-blowing experiences, 15 of which will make me feel stupid for not knowing some community level common secret tactic that keeps reoccurring, and 900 will be trickses to get me to look at pictures of dicks.

Most of the ones I've played have been really good. Just play the top-rated ones.

[lemmings]

stupid gd multiplayer. Remind me of how few friends I have, OK, EVERY GAME STUDIO IN EXISTENCE????

Someone I knew played the multiplayer with his attractive, intelligent girlfriend. Gah.

I've played some of it with my attractive, intelligent girlfriend's brother. I'd play it with her, but apparently first-person perspective in games gives her vertigo, so even just watching me play it for too long sends her running to the bathroom

You can activate 3rd person with the developer's console. You just have to reactivate it each level and it's considerably more crude.

Use the ~ to activate the console
Enter 'sv_cheats 1'
Then 'thirdperson'

[pseudoidiot]

This just reminds me that I need to play the multiplayer with someone sometime.

[Menacing Spike]

Use the ~ to activate the console
Enter 'sv_cheats 1'
Then 'thirdperson'

If it's anything like TF2 you can probably automate it, or at least alias it.

Something like
alias "blah blah blah" activethirdperson
bind p activethirdperson

There might also be a file where you can put your script so it executes on load, in TF2 it's autoexec.cfg.

[SecondTalon]

Edit: That may not be your problem, ST, but I felt the need to share.

It is not.

My problem is that out of ... 12 years of online gaming experiences (well, okay, 10 years since I've not really done it since 2010, other than Minecraft.) I've had my time as approximately 5% wonderful experiences that make me understand the appeal of the online thing, 10% mediocre experiences that are interchangeable with singleplayer, basically and 85% horrible, terrible experiences that make me realize that my free time would be better spent staring blankly at a wall as at least after staring blankly at a wall, I'm not pissed off at strangers for being jackasses.

This just reminds me that I need to play the multiplayer with someone sometime.

...we could arrange something.

[pseudoidiot]

This is true! Now I just need to track down where I put my head set. Who knows where it ended up in the move.

[Radical_Initiator]

Edit: That may not be your problem, ST, but I felt the need to share.

It is not.

Good. Happy to see I'm the only one with these problems.

[The Scyphozoa]

Trust me, ST, when I say that Portal 2 co-op has the potential to be one of such wonderful experiences, even if your partner is playing on a toaster.

In particular, the part where

Spoiler:

I was inside a cramped enclosure with moving spikes, being carried around by an excursion funnel, and my partner has to step on a button to reverse the funnel's direction

was pretty intense.

[EvanED]

Actually to be honest, I'm impressed by the quality of the chambers in the community workshop, broadly speaking, even outside of the top levels -- and really, especially outside of the top levels. There have definitely been some real duds, in terms of levels that are just frustratingly broken or not really a puzzle (I've seen a couple giant faith-plate-roller-coaster ride levels) or whatever, but I've also played a lot from the "most recent" window that are actually competently put together, and a few that were actually pretty good. Even a couple that I'm not sure I'd apply that label to I still had fun with. So if you don't mind an occasional dud, I recommend picking some out that aren't in the highest-rated/most-popular categories.

This is even contrasted with what I think of the "highest-rated" levels, which in some ways I'm kinda disappointed with. For instance, the top six levels are all from the "twelve angry tests" series (two tests per level, IIRC). But I actually thought these were pretty "meh" in a sense -- they weren't bad by any means, but I didn't think they did much that was new or neat. (It's possible I may also have wanted them to be harder.) I had much more fun with Mevious's levels, which are pretty much all fan-fucking-tastic, and for some reason lower-rated than many others. (He "only" has 1 in the top 10, though 8 in the top 30. But my own top 10 would be taken up almost entirely by his levels. And ooo, at least one new one I haven't done.)

[SecondTalon]

This is true! Now I just need to track down where I put my head set. Who knows where it ended up in the move.

...head....set? Is that a thing?

[EvanED]

This is true! Now I just need to track down where I put my head set. Who knows where it ended up in the move.

...head....set? Is that a thing?

Oh yeah, of course:

[SlyReaper]

This is true! Now I just need to track down where I put my head set. Who knows where it ended up in the move.

...head....set? Is that a thing?

Oh yeah, of course:

Also these.



You know, for anyone looking for a boring answer.