I more enjoy the kinds of things that do stuff.
But eh, Azerath, I suggest you use a third-party sand because there's more stuff in em, and above that you can have way more particles(dots), and a bigger screen space.
Wxsand(wxfsand? one or the other) is fully moddable and has mods with 200+ elements. You can also define patterns to make "objects"(i.e a companion cube pattern that you can place for instant companion cube). also has some bigger screen space, and temperature(really cool).
Eitherway, I liked your portal place, how about black mesa?(and maybe a portal to Xen(zen,xen? what is it?) somewhere)