<continue on from above>
First, refresh your memory with
this picture, which I posted when discussing the glitch/technique used for the 100% solution of wicked 6.
Recall that, back then, my explanation was that you can start building on thin air if you turn the miner into a builder immediately after the mining finishes the ax-strike but before he starts moving forward. I then explained that if you turn the miner to a blocker instead, he will fall down.
But in fact, even back when I tried to create that picture of "building on thin air" on Tame 8, one of my tries (with a blocker) actually ended up looking more like this even weirder situation:
http://www.geocities.com/guestlevels/lemmings/stopminingbeforebreakthru.pngWow, how did that happen? Back then I merely ignored it (it certainly didn't help wicked 6), but recently I re-experiment with it again, and have now come to the conclusion that this is what's happening:
It seems that the game, at least the PC version (though I wouldn't be surprised if it happens on other versions), miscalculates the y position of a lemming during certain animation frames of the mining animation. In particular, observations led me to believe that, from the moment the miner's ax starts swinging forward/downwards, the game already places the miner's position to be 1 pixel lower than the step it was standing on as it swings the ax.
As a result,
even before it actually mined thru the terrain, there's a short moment where its feet is already at the bottom row of pixels of the floor. In other words, it is really standing on thin air, even though it doesn't look like it. And so if at that moment you turn it into a blocker, it would fall down. Thus the screenshot above. This is also possibly why the trick used for wicked 6 worked so well. Had this glitch been absent, it's likely that the blocker would not be able to fall even in wicked 6.
Anyway, again I used Tame 8 (Dangerzone) for the screenshot above, I encourage you to try replicating it. Try to turn the miner to a blocker when the ax is about to do the forward strike that would've broken through. After a few tries you should hopefully end up with the same result.
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Now, Havoc 10 doesn't have blockers. And diggers are not a suitable substitute, since it turns out that each time a digger digs down it actually removes 2 rows of pixels rather than 1 (a topic for some other time), so turning it into a digger will end up breaking thru the terrain despite the miner's unusual vertical position.
But there's a most unusual substitute that serves the purpose here: exploders! You heard me right. Here's the kicker: you know how, when the countdown reaches 0, if the lemming isn't already falling, it first transitions to an "oh-no-er" before it actually explodes? Now, anyone who observes a nuking closely should know that oh-no-ers do fall when the ground underneath its feet are removed.
And so this is the applicable trick for Havoc 10: you timed the exploder while it is mining, so that it turns into the oh-no-er at the same moment you would want to turn the miner into a blocker above. Then because he turns into the oh-no-er, the mining will stop. But then because of the miscalculation of the miner's y position, when he turns into an oh-no-er, he will be standing on thin air, and so he'll fall. In fact, he'll be gone off the bottom of the level before the explosion ever happens. The result is this:
http://www.geocities.com/guestlevels/lemmings/havoc10_thetrick_a.pngWicked, isn't it? Now, be warned that replicating this screenshot is much harder than replicating the Tame 8 screenshot, and not just because timing bombers are more difficult. The real issue is that you have to time it at such a precise moment, that no part of the miner's ax-swing has removed any terrain yet. It took me about half an hour of continuous tries to get this screenshot. Too early and the miner will not fall thru the floor. Too late and the miner will either completely break thru first, or will partially break the top 3 rows or so of pixels ahead, which is still bad since it destroys the crowd-containing capability. The correct timing is about after 2 swings, and just when the 3rd swing is starting (starting meaning the miner starts to throw the ax backwards).
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Now, all these is just to explain the glitch. The actual solution is of course a bit more involved. (For one thing, in the actual solution you start mining a bit more to the right.) And because you effectively "waste" one exploder skill in applying the glitch, you end up having to sacrifice more lemmings to the traps than the previous 14/21 solution. But in the end you
will create a trap-free path for the crowd, and clearly the ability to contain the crowd is a winner here. (How to release the crowd will be left as an exercise for the reader.) More detailed screenshots are available upon request.
<still too long, another break>