Cloned Cube mod for Portal

Hi there it's cubis here again after what has been approximately 7 months or so since the last release of Cloned Cube in December of last year.

After looking at some of the statistics on the mod's decline in popularity around January and "deadness" to today I would like to take the chance to describe the current status on this mod and what I have been doing in the time since that release. Unfortunately, I am a person who is never satisfied with my work so in this time I have tweaked quite a bit of some of my older maps with new textures, mapping, etc with the new skills I have learned over the course of my modding career (2 years). As well, I have spent quite a bit of time working on a new section, the second training map which continue off from the first in introducing the test subject to new hazards like goo and turrets. Some early screenshots are available below:

Link to the Full Gallery

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This map I demonstrated above is in very, very early stages. As the screenshots and rooms progress you may be able to notice the details in textures and brushes decrease but that is why these are work-in-progresses. Additionally, I would very much like your feedback on these screenshots as well as previous alphas, putting this criticism and such in the comments would be awesome. I'm hoping to have this map finished soon to be released in the next alpha although no promises.

I believe that the reason my progress has slowed is a combination of factors including myself having to balance modding along with a number of other activities like friends, work, school, etc. I find myself wanting to mod less and less and spend my free time doing other things but that's to be expected 2+ years in. Another reason why progress has slowed is that I set my ambitions high as most first time modders seem to do. There was no base-framework, no set storyline I told myself to follow (as you can see looking back at some of the old screenshots). I was learning while creating, so the quality varied wildly and my plans for the mod changed at a moment's notice since I have never really been too focused on telling a story.

Anyways, if you made it this far, congrats. In short, I'm still working on the mod albeit at a slower pace. On the other hand I finally fixed hammer to a working state pre-Steampipe update! So mapping is a hell of a lot easier now.

Thanks for sticking with me these 2, almost 3 years
-cubis