Yeah, the most annoying thing for me personally is that the currently selected skill jumps back automatically when rewinding or framestepping - if you had a different skill selected at that particular frame.
It's not a bad thing in general, you return to exactly that frame - it's just something which is handled differently in 10.13, so it requires some time to re-adapt.
Which is why I do this pre-release phase to hopefully make the levels worth the slight drawbacks of the old engine!
I've tried out all the gimmicks yesterday night (with exception for "Clock" and "Bait-and-Switch", for which I couldn't figure out what they do at all).
Here are some I still consider as proper ranks for this pack:EPHEMERALGimmicks: non-permanent skills, possibly with exhaustion and/or lazy lemmingsThis would compile all things "temporary" into one rank as a counterpoint to the Eternal rank. Judging from the aforementioned Neo Lemmix Introduction pack however, especially
lazy lemmings is particularly annoying, because all creative and destructive skills barely cover any distance before getting interrupted, and even with a bunch of skills at your disposal you'll have to re-assign stuff all the time.
Non-permanent skills is more interesting, because a complete execution of one skill is possible, the lemming just loses it once it's finished with the execution. Essentially, this would turn e.g. a swimmer into a kayaker (makes it across one pont of water no matter how big, but then loses the skill again so it would drown in the next). Also, this allows for a lemming to be a floater first and become a glider second - or vice versa - which are mutually exclusive otherwise.
Exhaustion (Lemmings cancelling their permanent skills after a certain TIME rather than after one complete execution) was less annoying than lazy lemmings on its own; a climber could still make it across several small pillars in sequence, but not over a single huge one. In combination with non-permanent skills however, every climber would only make it across single small altitudes; every floater would have to be assigned shortly before hitting the ground to survive, and for each drop anew; swimmers would only make it across single small water pits, etc.
Therefore I'd say this rank should feature either Exhaustion or Non-permanent skills. Even though on paper I like the idea of combining all three "temporary"-gimmicks, in practice it's very likely to be a pain
.
CONSEQUENTIAL
Gimmick: count down other skillsThis is probably the most puzzle-friendly gimmick aside from wraparound: Whenever you use a skill, the skill count of that particular skill remains the same, but all the others go down by 1. One could think of this as "skill communism": Suddenly all the skills have effectively the same value, and it's about the total number of skills you use rather than specific ones. This may at first sound easier than regular lemmings in theory; in practice however, e.g. a builder path above several columns or bashing through all of them may require more skills than digging into the ground and bashing through all of them at once (which requires only 2).
I have attached an introductory level for this which I've just created, since it didn't appear in the Neo Lemmix Introduction Pack
. If anyone sees an option to beat this level with only 3 of each skill, please tell me. I tried it and would have loved to keep it this way, but it just didn't work for me.
Gimmicks I might use for single levels (which would mean they'd have to go into the BEDLAM rank):Assign to allRelease rate will probably be a crucial factor with this. Also, the terrain might need to look very specific. Hence I don't think there is enough potential for an entire rank here, but certainly for one or two levels
.
One skill per lemmingIf this would only allow one PERMANENT skill per Lemming, this would be great to enforce the "exits which only permit climbers / floaters / swimmers etc." idea, which was discussed as a possible new feature
. The problem is, it only allows any particular Lemming to execute one single task (permanent or non-permanent), after which it becomes impossible to click on that lemming. With a huge crowd of Lemmings, this becomes less of an issue, of course. It should mainly affect pioneer-style levels or such with a lemming count between 0 and 10, possibly going up to 20 lemmings.
Unalterable terrainI thought this would effectively make all terrain steel, but no: Bashers, miners, and diggers can still go through terrain, it's just that they leave it intact so no one else can follow
. This looks pretty funny, like the lemming becoming permeable and going straight through a wall. I already have an idea of how to combine this with "one skill per lemming".
Steel inversion and fall fatality inversionProbably qualifies for the obligatory fair trolling level, where a player can rely on the fact that every regular lemmings rule is systematically reversed: Small drops kill a lemming, larger ones don't; steel can be bashed through, regular terrain can't; I should probably throw in "hardworkers", "non-fatal bombers" and "non-permanent skills" as well. Meaning: Builders, platformers, bashers, and bombers are eternal; climbers, floaters, gliders, disarmers, and swimmers, which are normally permanent skills, now are not.
Ghost on death / Zombie on deathAre mutually exclusive (if both are activated, a dying lemming becomes a zombie, as it seems). Some levels might require a ghost, but you have to create one first. Zombie on death is particularly funny with Karoshi of course, because as you may have found out already, turning lemmings into zombies doesn't go towards your kill count.
Clone on assignVery specific version of "turn around on assign". I'll have to watch out for both terrain shape and saving requirement here (since especially with Pit Lems I often ignored how generous the cloners make saving requirements, as I have learned now!). But one or two levels with this might be fine.
Nuclear bombersSimply increases the radius of the bomber's effect. Already enabled on one of the levels from the starting post, an currently vital to it's success.
Corner-casesInvincibilitySomewhere between "non-fatal bombers" and turning lemmings into ghosts (they are unaffected by traps, including zombies and water, which means they walk where they'd otherwise drown or swim). Additionally, they can survive any falls.
Solid floorLemmings can't drop out at the bottom of the screen. This however is also true for the "no gravity" and the wrap gimmick, so... unless I want to create another "no terrain level", this time without even water at the bottom
, I don't see where this would provide any extra benefit.
Release-rate fluctuationWhenever you assign the skill, the release rate either switches up to 99 or back to the starting release rate. Again, a very specific level design seems necessary to make this relevant. But it might still be doable.
Gimmicks which I consider pretty useless:Reverse skill count / Overflow skill countsDoesn't this just give you an infinite number of skills?
DisobedienceIf I want a level without any working skills, I just don't provide any skills at all
, easy as that. Have already done so twice ("You can't even" from Paralems and "Apraxia" from Pit Lems), don't need a gimmick for that!
Classic ZombiesWhat exactly does this change compared to "normal" zombies?
Clock, Cheapo Mode and Bait-and-SwitchThough I admit I haven't even found out yet what these gimmicks do, so perhaps someone can inform me?
Finally, a special thing is the "gimmick" called "
deadly sides": In current NeoLemmix, this isn't a gimmick anymore; it's the new standard.
What do you think, should I enable it on all the levels, just to reduce the "adaptation costs" for newer players returning to this?
Or should I leave the solid walls intact, because that's what players would expect when going back to NeoLemmix 1.43?And should I introduce the two new ranks "CONSEQUENTIAL" and "EPHEMERAL"?