United, which as we all know is probably the hardest pack there currently is
You see, I just accepted that claim for a while, but aren't you still stuck on NepsterLems?
I totally missed your post when I responded back. I guess that's the problem with having the setting of seeing the newest posts first that I forget that sometimes there are older posts than the most recent one I get brought to. Perhaps I should change that setting.
Yes, but I think namida, you, and I all are
The earliest roadblock for me was Planet 13 I believe. Then the next one after that was Sun 7, then Sun 20, and finally my current one is Black Hole 1. Keep in mind that I generally don't skip around a pack, as I prefer to play levels in order. I believe you have skipped around Nepsterlems if I'm not mistaken
I think with United, it took the top spot because a lot of people who had been here for a longer time (and who had therefore beaten NepsterLems) got stumped by it.
But if you have solved all of United, yet are still stuck on NepsterLems (granted, I don't know for how long you've been stuck) - meaning we now also have people who beat United, but not NepsterLems - those packs might actually be somewhat equal in difficulty.
It's been about 7-8 months since I started Nepsterlems, so almost the same amount of time it took me to completely solve all of United. As I have said before, there were plenty of things that made that happen: out of a job due to the pandemic, the fact that Neutrality 41 managed to stump me for 3-4 months, the longest that any United level has ever stumped me, among others. If I was still working a job since the time I lost it back in March, I wouldn't even be anywhere near done with solving United right now. I might still be plowing through the Genocide rank or possibly even the Bonus rank right now.
Since there have been levels that managed to stump me for months, by Icho's definition Nepsterlems would be given the extreme label as well. So, you might be right that Nepsterlems is closer to United in actual difficulty. However, as namida has said, the reason the levels are difficult are for different reasons. At least in Nepsterlems, there aren't any fancy tricks or anything due to being relegated to just the classic 8 skills, and this community as a whole seems to be most familiar with the classic skills. In this way, the levels are simply standard puzzles that are deceivingly tough, and I constantly felt like I was always a skill short in the later ranks. But, the same can be said about the NL exclusive skills, where one just needs to familiarize him/herself with them. Then levels that just use the classic 8 being easier won't be as accurate anymore.
In contrast, United demands a lot of tricks, as well as numerous super large levels to plow through. It's definitely a pack not for the faint of heart, and it's expected that you be able to commit huge amounts of time to be able to work these levels out. Yes, many of the levels took me a really long time, but I was willing to sit through them and get stuck, only to keep coming back and get myself unstuck. Now, I was able to work almost all of the tricks out on my own. The only one I wasn't able to was a particular one that was first needed in a Tension level. Then I went to play Wafflems in the meantime from the vague hint that Icho gave me for the level.
Since I'm currently stumped by the first Black Hole level, at this point it'll be an achievement if I solve even just 1 level from that rank
It took me between two and four years to solve Devil's Right Hand (the only level from Nepster's final rank I ever solved), that is from the time he released that level in a small 10 level pack before he finished his big pack. I can't remember exactly how long cause I don't know the dates. And it wasn't for a lack of trying; I came back to the level many times during that time. But I'm proud of that.
Congrats mobius!
That's better than me since I haven't been able to solve any Black Hole level ever since I reached my current stumping point with the first Black Hole level. I don't skip around level packs, and so I'll be stuck there until I finally solve Black Hole 1, if I'm able to. I'm just not seeing how to possibly solve it, as everything I've been trying hasn't really gotten me any closer to a working solution.
I can vouch for the difficulty of Gronkling's levels. I foolishly offered to playtest a mini-pack of 10 levels. Solved only 2 of them. Both solutions were backroutes
Hey, at least you still managed to solve some of them!
The ones you did solve you probably were still able to offer Gronkling valuable feedback anyway. Even the ones you couldn't solve can still be helpful for him.
And - I was genuinely trying to solve those levels as well! My LP series has probably falsely given the impression that I give up too easily when presented with a challenging level, but I can assure you that this isn't generally isn't the case; I can be very tenacious when I've decided to engage with a challenge, and usually find a solution one way or another.
I have yet to see any of your LP videos of first ranks in their entirety, but the problem is that a lot of the packs you have covered in this series are ones I have yet to play, and I don't watch until I have played the pack myself first. If I'm not mistaken, only TMChallenges, Nepsterlems, and Lemmings Migration are all ones I have played before you recorded yourself taking on the first rank, and so I can watch those. I don't doubt the truth of your statements here at all, especially in regards to giving up easily
I'm intending to do a series where I solve just 1 level in the final rank, to show that I can do it (and because I've given a lot of air time to easy stuff, it'll be fun to take on a few challenges as well!)
Sounds like a great idea. However, I feel this would work best by asking for recommendations on what levels from last ranks to try, as it's easy to just take one look at a level from the preview screen and think, "This looks like one I can handle, let's give it a try" and then it ends up stumping you horribly. At the same time, since you're just doing 1 level and will keep videos no longer than an hour, this can probably still work since you can still afford to commit an entire hour to just a single level on video if it's a really hard one.