Lovechild Map Pack (GUIDE 08/05/13)

[lovechild]

Very important update; Re-release due to yet another oversight on my part. Plus, more stuff. Can't beat more stuff...

Look guys, sorry for constantly updating my map pack and still obsessing over it. I assure you this is the last major update for a week, at least -- It's pretty well done, save the failtastic 8-1 boss. When I sort out that boss battle, it will be the last update for sure, since SE is coming out. Sometimes I miss things, and I don't leave good notes for myself so there. Of the one person that sort of cares enough about this to keep on updating and playing the pack, thank you for your time, and I wish to see you and everyone else on this forum when SE does come out. :)

(Post #2 has the download link.)
(Post #3 has the guide, WIP)

Put your 80's on and take yourself back to a time when games were meant to be suffered through. This map pack was designed to be difficult. It was not made to be nice, because Kooplings aren't nice, and neither is Bowser. If you want a nice, easy game, pick up your DS and play Super Princess Peach instead. Maybe you'll hear your mother laughing...

This pack also has some issues, and I had to accommodate the best I can with Mari0's camera, as on occasion you'll encounter levels where you have to scroll the camera before you can do anything. Rest assured, those sorts of levels are far and few between. You msy have to utilize some old Mario tricks like edge jumping.

This pack plays best with a controller. If you're not using a keyboard with decent anti-ghosting, either use your Xbox 360 controller, or whatever twinstick DirectInput controller you have laying around.

Don't be a potato, think with portals.

(There use to be screenshot here but they were SO outdated that using them here are fruitless. Consult the guide for images of levels.)

The maps contained herein retrogrades to the design of the old Mario bros. game for NES, where most of the objectives are held in one room, within tight quarters. There are bonuses abound in this game, mostly lives, as you'll lose a bunch of them if you are not both careful and skilled. This is only a beta

Vanilla mari0, just extract to your mappacks folder and play! Latest post should have the most current release. I'm mostly done, so any suggestions might get tossed out the window. Only if you find a game-killing bug, will I fix and up some more material. Otherwise the next couple updates will be slow to come and may very well be the last.

It has been over a year and I am updating it once again. So what's in this release?
Clever use of enemies on switches
Laser and light bridge puzzles
A decent boss battle (WAS before I goofed it up! Fixed now!)
Advanced levels for masochists

All that and more in the fifth demo release of my pack!

Additional credits and contributors:
BobTheLawyer - Better editor mod
Camewel - Screenshot mod (his thread OP has link rot. Ew.)
Qcode - For happening to have screenshot mod and combining these two together.

[lovechild]

Now with 20% more windows!

The pack, far as I am concern is next-to-finished. Might spruce up the boss battles, but they won't be a full-on release like this one because bosses are of relatively low importance. Demo 5 revision 3, from Mediafire! [External link]

I have finished fussing with World 2 images, for some odd reason the screenshot mod wants to do nothing but transparent images and that made me so sad I put it off for a whole month. Sorry folks.

This latest update also addresses a recent issue with multiple levels.

[lovechild]

Only if you really need it, here are level panoramas and guides for you in case things get really frustrating. Check back occasionally for new content!

1-1: Hard start

Begin by shooting a portal up, so you can shoot a portal down and fall to the ledge left of where you began. Then shoot a portal to the right, where the weighted storage cube is; Bring the cube to the floor.

Shoot a portal to the right where the five-thousand megawatt super-colliding super-button is, then shoot a portal on the floor to bring the cube to the button, which will hold it down and keep the door open.

Lastly in the left room past the door, use portals to project the hard light bridge. If you screw up the first time, worry not; The cube will block the discouragement laser. But can you discourage yourself from touching it?

Bonus hint:
Did you know you can collect objects through hard light bridges if they are close enough?

1-2: A simple velocity puzzle

There is a weighted storage cube in the middle of some discouragement lasers. Use portals to bring the cube closer to you, then shoot the nearby wall to launch the cube off the screen, and to the button.

Do it again, only with yourself and use the elevator shaft to fling yourself to the flagpole.

Bonus hint:
When flying, you are as invulnerable to fall damage as a weighted storage cube.

1-3: Red cross

(Note: You don't have to play the puzzle fully to solve it.)

Begin by shooting a portal at the floor, then to the elevator shaft where two cubes are. Grab the cubes and take them to the lasers on the floor to block them, and press the button to open the door out.

Return where the first cubes were; There is another are you can reach with yoru portal gun, but you can manage. Brung these cubes into the room where the first cubes were, then shoot another portal above the lasers, so you can drop the boxes to block the lasers. Then use the aerial faith plate to launch yourself up and to the door.

There is a conversion gel dispenser in the next room. Use it, along with the bits and pieces of portalable surface to enter the small alcove with the cube; Experiment, you'll get it eventually.

Grab the cube and place it in the pillar at the middle of the room. Then use velocity to bring the cube to the super-button at the bottom. With the exit open, you can either use velocity to fling yourself to the gel dispenser, or you can use a more safer alternative and shoot portals to make a hard light bridge go skyward as a brace to keep you from falling to your death, as you try to redirect it so you can walk to the flagpole.

1-4: Live ammunition

As you proceed deeper into the facility, you'll see some of Bowser's minions populate the levels. Caution using them.

Either the Goomba or the Koopa can be used for the button at the right. When you begin, a door will open to dispense a second cube; get in there and grab a cube for the button on the floor, then use portals to bring the other cube to the button at the ceiling.

The discouragement laser's energy is next; Shoot a portal at the elevator shaft, then aim a portal below the ceiling you started under to make contact with the laser panel.

In the next room. portal your way to the flagpole, using velocity at the very end to fall through and out the floor, past the discouragement lasers.

Bonus hint:
If a portal surface is thin, only a portal of the same color can be placed at the other side.

2-1: Mile-wide lasers

Begin by shooting at the floor, where the conversion gel is coating the floor. Then shoot either of the walls near the ceiling, an let the platform become coated with the gel.

Get close to the entry portal on the floor and try to jump in, so the velocity propels you onto the platform -- You'll barely make it. Then set the box aside and shoot an exit portal anywhere the floor is coated to create a place where you can infinitely loop through.

Fall back onto the floor and place the box on the button above the conversion gel generator to open the door into the next section. Portal your way back to the platform above, and fall infinitely. Then shoot an exit portal to the left and fly to the open door. If you glitched through the wall and to the laser, sorry.

The next puzzle still needs the conversion gel from the other room, so lay an exit portal down, and place an entry portal to bring you back into the room prior. Grab the box again -- Don't mind the door closing, you have portals!

Use the box to get past the laser, then get enough conversion gel laid out so you can portal to the other side and continue to the right to complete the level.

Bonus hint:
Go back.

2-2: Insurmountable walls

Begin with shooting a portal at the conversion gel on the floor, then use another portal at the elevator shaft to coat the wall opposite in gel, then shoot two blocks down from the ceiling at the elevator shaft, and then once again where the gel is going. Due to the weird nature of portals and gels in this game, doing this will eject gel from the exit portal, and onto the very top where you need it to be.

Now place a portal at the very top of the wall where the first button you encounter is, an another portal to walk into. Walk into it. You can get to the very top a variety of ways, find what works for you.

Press the first button and get into the middle section to grab the box, using the box at the portable wall to the right to proceed toward the exit. Set another portal down at the portable wall in the next room, so you can return to the middle, press the left button once more and press the button to the right to open the trap door in the middle, which will make the box fall onto the super button and open the exit. Portal into the right room once more and proceed to the exit.

Bonus hint:
Mirror mirror on the wall, who will persist enough to reach the bonus?

2-3: Baptism by fire

Start off by going into the pipe. In the same room, you will wind up at the top. Make your way to the button in the middle, and mind the firebars. Hit the button to open the doors. There is a cube sitting in the next room for no particular reason; Ignore it. Bring the next section into view, and while avoiding the extra-long firebars, shoot portals at the bottom of the wall in front of you, and the wall behind you (nearer the sign) so you can jump to the flagpole. Things appear to be getting soggy...

Bonus hint:
Jump, right away.

2-4: Sabotage!

Seems the minions have been at work making your day worse. Fortunately Mario's portal gun works underwater! Go down the shaft at the beginning, or feel free to explore; Exploration can oftentimes lead to unexpected riches, but can sometimes also bring you back to square one.

The (very wet) elevator system redirects you to an unbalanced scaffold, where you will be traversing across to the end. The associates are familiar with cannons, and have dispensed their technological resources to killing you. Begin by placing a portal at the oncoming floor and ceiling, so you can clear the light bridge.

You will see a cube. You can rush it and hold onto it, using the cube to block the oncoming laser, or think with portals and avoid using the scaffold, but also being stuck in a potential bullet trap.

The next area with the double-down arrows direct you down with good reason; There is a portal surface on the ceiling. Using the light bridge aimed at the nearby portal surface, alternate between handling the cube and shooting portals so you can run to the next button, which will open a door you need to go through. Avoid being hit with bullet bills and fall down away from the button to rendezvouz with the scaffold once again. At the end, use your collected knowledge from earlier to shoot yourself up the barricade add to the flagpole.

Bonus hint:
You can always go back.

3-1: Torrential Downpour

The facility continues to be flooded! In a continued bid to test you, the next room leads you via scaffold to a button; Jump up, press it, then return to the scaffold to traverse inside the next rooms. The AI also neglected some areas of the course, making it difficult to keep the water from overtaking the room.

Begin by picking up the cube. You saw this trick earlier in 2-3. Shoot a portal at the newly-opened portal surface and the one on the floor. Then use portals to work past the laser and to the button, which will open the hatch which leads down at the beginning. Use the cube to block the laser and remove power from the light-bridges -- Timing is of the essence, so you will need to run past the open doors beofre they close on you.

Go down the pipe, then in the next section, get to the flagpole.

Bonus hint:
Backtracking can lead to some interesting places...

3-2: Semi-automation

With the flooding resolved, normal testing can continue -- Except, Bowser's minions decided to modify some aspects of the puzzles. What is suppose to be a safe and fun experience is now made deadly with lasers. Fortunately, they had to keep it solvable or the AI would go nuts.

So begin by shooting a portal up, while the laser is on. When the laser goes off, the door will remain open briefly; see this chance to grab the cube, then look right and up; You'll need to keep the portals around.

Fall down the shaft with the button, and the door will close; The lasers will kill the Goomba and grant you control of the first two lasers from earlier -- if only you had another cube. Lay a portal down so you can exit where the lasers were shooting at before, so you can shoot a portal down where the conversion gel is. Press the button.

Another cube falls, go get it. Use the cubes that fall out to block the lasers and proceed to the flagpole.

Bonus hint:
Keep the cube.

3-3: Trapped!

As our hero went down the elevator, suddenly he felt it stop, and then a blast broke through the elevator. The kooplings were coming to capture him, until some misplaced laser beams killed them...

Elude the lasers, then spread conversion gel all over the place, until you can line the beams up so they hit the plates. This will open the doors. In the next room, another koopling will be trying to kill you with lasers at the ceiling. Figure how to get out, then exit past the emancipation grill.

Bonus hint:
Thinking with lasers and portals can really help...

3-4: Outside?

Begin by clearing the first two jumps and trying to remove the enemies on-screen. Then either by high-jumping or flying to the other side, get where the spiny is (presently offscreen), then when in that area, set up portals so you can run and leap onto the next high ledge Mario cannot normally reach. Drop down, then use your portals to clear the blockade and reach the finish.

Bonus hint:
You should know how to use your portals by now...

4-1: The facility

Begin by breaking into this building using the laser-powered light bridges -- Someone wired them wrong to be always on, so the panels turn them off instead. Using those same lasers, there is another set of plates at the ceiling. These will turn them off for a duration, which you don't want quite yet, but good to bear in mind.

The last set of panels in this room opens the first door and turns off the lasers inside for a duration of six seconds. You have that much time, to then turn off the lasers, and portal-fly your way to the door. There is a laser over a pit, which you must use to open the last door and escape the room before you die.

Jump over the raised pedestal and make your way to the exit.

Bonus hint:
Lasers.

4-2: The outpost

This one begins with you outside of a fortification the kooplings built using their collective knowledge of Aperture Science technology. Begin with creating a means to get inside from the top. Now, get the green koopa inside the room witht eh button that will disable the light bridge to drop the red koopa down and open the door.

Enter the room and stomp the enemy, using the shell to break the way out. The next puzzle involves a box and a laser. Get the box to the button and use portals to direct the laser to hit the laser panel, to open both of the doors and complete the level.

Bonus hint:
The box, once again is your saviour.

4-3: The last stand

Kooplings have been hard at work preventing your progression, even hoping you'll by some miracle smash bullet bills into yourself. Except, they didn't know bullet bills do not respect walls! So, portal your way past the first laser, and mind the laser ceiling as well -- There is no way around it.

There is a portalable wall out of sight -- Just aim your cursor and you'll see it turn green eventually. This is the ideal place, as you'll want to set up portals so the bullet bill kills the green koopa at the second button keeping the door closed -- That koopa will also keep the first door you've seen closed.

Once you use the bullet bills to kill the first koopling, the easiest way to return where you once were is to shoot a portal on the floor and jump -- The momentum will allow you to clear the lasers that will kill you if you don't get enough velocity to clear the gap. Return to where the first door was -- The one that was first open -- It's open once more, so shoot a portal below the floor and jump into it so you can once more set up a bullet bill to kill the next koopling.

Killing him opens the second door, but it also activates the disabled lasers from before. At present, they are no more than an obstacle, portal past them and reach the end. There is also an arbitrarily-placed box at the end that serves not much purpose toward completion.

Bonus hint:
The box, once again is your saviour.

4-4: We're tired of you Mario

They want to kill Mario. They want to kill Mario, and are willing to go extraordinary lengths to make barely-solvable puzzles. Wait for the laser beams to go away before trying this level.

The easiest way to do this may be the most roundabout way -- First, set up portals so you can jump over the lasers, doing so expediently so you don't get killed by the lasers. Then reposition your entry portal to first open the doors to the small, enclosed area the red koopling is in, then jump above where the lasers will be prior to repositioning the portal once again, so the laser van then kill the koopa. This all must be done quickly.

Then, return where the lasers were, and set a portal where the super-button powered lasers are, falling out of the portal that previously was used to kill the koopling, jumping up to hit the pedestal, and drop a box which will defend you from lasers. Use this box to keep yoruself from being fried, as you power the lasers for the doors you opened earlier to kill the koopling.

Get inside the room and press the other button to open the door at the elevator shaft where you began at, and turn around to drop the box on the button the koopling was using earlier to activate the lasers you had to jump over. Quickly fall before the lasers turn on. This is necessary to do due to a portal-firing limitation -- Even though you are within clear range to fire the portal, the object is JUST enough outside the screen to force you over where you began. (Shame, I know. Maybe this will be fixed in Mari0 SE)

Now where you began once again, shoot a portal down where the deactivated lasers are, and fall through the door that is now open. Use portals while standing on the hard light bridge so you can live past the lasers at the other side of the map -- Yeah, if you were observant, you would have seen four lasers, two pointing down, two pointing at the door -- The latter set will kill you if you are not standing on the hard light bridge. Work out how to get past those lasers, and don't die as you fly to the flag via the faith plate!

Bonus hint:
Try to remember your portals. That box will come in quite handy as well.

5-1: Coming soon
6-1: Trust game, Classified
6-2: Laser crucifix, Classified
6-3: ???, Classified
6-4: Bouncehouse, Classified
7-1: The other side, Classified
7-2: ???, Classified
7-3: Hot barricades, Classified
7-4: Between you and Bowser, Classified
8-1: ???, Classified

Quick reference albums:

W1: http://imgur.com/a/orIxN
W2: http://imgur.com/a/ORzf6
W3: http://imgur.com/a/dsS0b
W4: http://imgur.com/a/8Li6U
W5: Coming soon
W6: Classified
W7: Classified
W8: Classified

Fixed images (modified from albums):
1-1, 3-1, 3-3

[Da2Shae]

PSST, You might want to add a few screenshots to your thread!

Also, theres no need to make a new comment EVERY TIME you update the game. Just make it in the first post and just change the download link to your map pack.

[lovechild]

PSST, You might want to add a few screenshots to your thread!

Also, theres no need to make a new comment EVERY TIME you update the game. Just make it in the first post and just change the download link to your map pack.

It's easier IMO to just make a new post. That and it post-bumps me to the top. Unless y'all have something against post-bumping (i.e, a bannable offense) then I see nothing wrong with how I do things right now.

Also yeah, screenshots. If the titlebar in the posts are an issue, I'll just gimp 'em out; forgot to toggle window decoration off prior to taking them.

[Da2Shae]

PSST, You might want to add a few screenshots to your thread!

Also, theres no need to make a new comment EVERY TIME you update the game. Just make it in the first post and just change the download link to your map pack.

It's easier IMO to just make a new post. That and it post-bumps me to the top. Unless y'all have something against post-bumping (i.e, a bannable offense) then I see nothing wrong with how I do things right now.

Also yeah, screenshots. If the titlebar in the posts are an issue, I'll just gimp 'em out; forgot to toggle window decoration off prior to taking them.

Yeah its good to bump your threads i suppose. Just make sure you post the updated link in your original thread, that way newcomers won't just come in and download version 1 of your mappack in the OP and not realize that there are updated versions in the comments. (This will become a problem if the thread gets several pages long)

[lovechild]

Bump. Also, the new content is awesome.

Added worlds 3, 4 and a boss battle in 5
Did more clever puzzles using lasers and death traps, gave players clever way to dispatch enemies
Tried to use gels, but I kind of grew tired of integrating them since jump gels and speed gels have rather limited use.
Modified some of the older levels, hopefully they're better than ever. If I ever get around to making more complete worlds, I'll try to integrate "Action" sections with the speed gel, but don't hold your breath.
World 5 might need more than the lives you've got! If you REALLY need it, there's a way to get more than enough lives every time. See if you can't find that secret.

[BobTheLawyer]

Can you please put the download in the first post?

[Mari0Maker]

What OS do you use? Or is that just a skin?
Back on topic, the map looks pretty good. :)

[Dark[Ol(U23)leneri]]

i downloaded but it seems to have only 2 worlds

[Dark[Ol(U23)leneri]]

so... what i can say.
non infinity lives in hard mappacks is bad

[lovechild]

Should I spoil how to get into the world select in-game?

Also, there are PLENTY of secret 1-ups in the game. You have infinite time, so where you think there can be a 1-up, get it!

[lovechild]

What OS do you use? Or is that just a skin?
Back on topic, the map looks pretty good. :)

That was back when Ubuntu was good and I could use Emerald and Compiz without much problem. Emerald, with my own button theme.

[lovechild]

Can you please put the download in the first post?

It's in the second post. If you can't scroll down to post #2, you might not want to play this map pack after all. :/

[Firaga]

Try not to triple post, it's much easier to edit them.

[HansAgain]

I don't know why the new members don't see the EDIT button and use it, i saw it when i just had registered.
Now i think Saso should make appear a note when one have registered, saying: "There is an EDIT button, use it when is necesary".

[TripleXero]

lovechild has been here over a year, not a new member

[lovechild]

Posted guide today for world 1. The hardest part is making the images for it. This will really suck to do later...

[TurretBot]

This is pretty simmilar to Outside The Box, looking at your images. All the rooms seem to be at a small width.

[TheJonyMyster]

Without playing it, you can never tell.

[TurretBot]

Without playing it, you can never tell.

well, just SAIYAN!

[lovechild]

This is pretty simmilar to Outside The Box, looking at your images. All the rooms seem to be at a small width.

That changes as you play the game. The first maps are really tut maps for people to play with. I'll work on the other images, using a Linux system to get the full map hopefully without having to cut/paste a hundred different pieces together.

Also in a Linux system, I can disable the window decor, ++awesome for me.

[lovechild]

About what I said earlier, yeah, doesn't really change, there's just one really action-y stage, then it's back to boxes. But they get more involved.

Now for the latest "Update", it's just a fix for world 5. So here are the issues I resolved --

• Checkpoint at fourth puzzle didn't work quite as planned. You get stuck behind the wall in the first puzzle at respawn, so I included an (invisible) down pipe to the fourth puzzle.
  Final puzzle and boss level were not by any means linked, fixed that.

I hope people have been enjoying my work so far. Even if you're not, as I said, the pack isn't nice or tame, So whatever, go stab yourself. :P

[lovechild]

Bump because of a new release. And advanced levels...

[lovechild]

I forgot to fix the starting position in 2-4 before I posted it yesterday. Apologies, go to post #2 and update it!

[lovechild]

I messed up bad. I fix it good. Bump post FTW... except not really because few people -- if any -- still care about this pack but why the hell not?

So the story is this. For the 8-1 boss, I was playing with how Bowser acts underwater. I left underwter in 5-1 on, as well I left the emancipation grill for no reason whatsoever. So I fixed it to make the level beatable. If you made it to world 5, I am SO SO sorry for this oversight, and I hope that now you can complete the game and give it due diligence.