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Messages - kaywhyn

#1651
All rightie, 20 more levels solved and thus the entire Legend rank is completed. My replays up through Legend 40 are attached, and as usual my feedback.

Spoiler

Legend 21 - Kashmir Nice level featuring a variation of the basher/tunnel trick, where instead of bashing right at the fencer tunnel, must bash a tunnel to get to the fencer tunnel and use it to get to the OWWs. Once again, saw the solution quickly, just annoying to pull it off.

Legend 22 - Blowing in the wind This one was easy, although I'm not sure if my solution is intended since I avoided using the radiation. Still, nice level involving how to eliminate the zombies guarding the top exit, as well as the zombies that can climb. I got rid of them by making a digger pit deep enough for them to splat.

Legend 23 - Wish you were here Another very easy level. It appears that putting the slowfreeze out of the way completely was deliberate and intended.

Legend 24 - Let my Lems open the door Ok, I definitely backrouted this level, since I don't even disarm the trap. There's enough resources to avoid the trigger from both sides. Here, I used a builder from the left and then a stacker from the other side. Nevertheless, this repeat seems somewhat easier, although I have a feeling that they're both difficult in their own right had I not been able to backroute this one.

Legend 25 - I will survive Way too easy. Here, I used the left crowd to come to the right entrance's aid. Also, not sure if my solution is intended or if it's open-ended.

Legend 26 - Time to say goodbye This one was quite difficult. In particular, the beginning is the hardest part, and the solution is very difficult to spot. It took me a long time to come up with this solution, especially platforming over the tiny gap in the rope instead of using a stacker to get over it. Nice use of miner cancelling for the exit area.

Legend 27 - Thunderstruck Ugh, I knew there were hidden traps, but I didn't make that connection even when I saw that the glider skill shadow was cut short. Then, zap and took me by surprise. Then again, the zapper traps are quite appropriate, since I understand that the dark grey clouds are supposed to be thunderclouds and hence the lemmings get zapped by lightning. Definitely a nice touch to the level! Also, the zappers being hidden is perfectly fine, since I believe in real-life you can't even see the lightning until it flashes. Anyway, despite the hidden traps, this was a very easy level, but I'm not sure if I also backrouted this level by taking the ceiling or if that route is intended. Also, by taking this route those gliders at the very beginning were unnecessary, and so I could had saved a couple more. Guess I was just being dumb.

Legend 28 - Just a little bit... Not difficult, just tricky in figuring out how to optimize your resources. Despite there being a lot of bashers/diggers/builders, they surprisingly run out fast.

Legend 29 - Africa This was a really good level! :thumbsup: The solution is quite ingenious. Nice job. Nice looking level too ;)

Legend 30 - Knocing on Heaven's door Also a really good level with an extremely great solution, although this was a bit difficult to figure out. The tricks of sending out another climber while the second builder was in progress, as well as bashing into a stack and building so that the climbers can't climb out and die, were clever! :thumbsup: Since the solution relies on the ceiling, I'm thinking about how you managed to make this level work in New Formats, since the ceiling is deadly there. I'm guessing you simply covered the ceiling up with terrain.

Legend 31 - Ganglem Style Ah yes, the huge hit song that made Psy famous several years ago. I'm guessing the music video continues to receive a lot of views today. This one was quite difficult. I figured out building in a digger pit to contain the top crowd and using the upside down stoner to save the bottom entrance from dying to the bottomless pit quickly. The rest after that weren't as obvious. The main difficulty lies in optimizing your builders to get up to the exit after using fencers and stoners to turn around.

Legend 32 - A whiter shade of pale Nice short and easy level. The only difficult part is the very precise placement of the stacker so that only one lemming gets trapped in between the stacks after cloning it, which is then assigned a climber to get the crowd up to the exit through the thin ceiling.

Legend 33 - Housing of the Rising Sun Nice repeat of the original, where the entrance and exit swap positions. Almost like a Reverse Lemmings pack for the level. The repeat gives the appearance of being easier than the original, but don't be fooled, for resources here are still tight considering the huge level size. Here, I avoided using the teleporters, although I suspect that it's still possible to use the one inside the house to get to the top part of the level, and so I could had made my life much easier. Perhaps all that's needed was a digger pit so that all of them can still teleport despite overflow. My solution uses all the builders.

Legend 34 - Purple Haze Nice puzzle and somewhat easy level here! :thumbsup: It can be a bit tricky to isolate two lemmings on the left side after platforming the bomber hole in the starting area, but even if you only get one lemming trapped, a climber is provided in case that happens. At first, I wondered if the exit area is splat height, how to get the lemmings down safely. I quickly figured it out by bombing the lemming when it gets on top of the terrain so that there's a tiny hole in the platformer bridge to allow another worker to fall a bit lower on the terrain to platform to the right and therefore makes the fall safe.

Legend 35 - Scarborough Fair I really like this 1-of-everything puzzle! Very easy, although I found out that the stoner isn't necessary in order for the lemmings to exit. That's the first solution I found, but the replay I attached in the zip file does use the stoner.

Legend 36 - The Phantom of the Opera I have seen both the movie and the Broadway show when I was in Vegas back in 2007 with my high school's choir tour. Nice, easy level as well. The only difficult part is turning a lemming around to bash through the flag so that no one else gets past the platformer bridge. Using a short basher tunnel did the trick. I also probably could had saved a few extra lemmings had I used the extra platformer I had leftover for the middle gap at the bottom.

Legend 37 - Breaking the law Yup, I do believe you have succeeded in making your hardest level ever, although that might not be true anymore considering I still have LOA to look at. Clearly the hardest level of the rank. This level managed to stump me for probably a good hour or so. I initially tried a lot of other stuff before coming up with an extremely fiddly solution that takes advantage of the fact that miners can still continue despite making a very tiny hole from which lemmings in the other direction can fall in. That one was extremely difficult to get right timing wise so that only the miner and possibly only one other lemming is heading to the left, which I wasted a builder in turning the non-miner around. Also, in this solution I wasted the stacker on the left unnecessarily in the platform below the one the top entrance falls on. I'm guessing you intended for a digger to continue by digging through the top platform with the help of the stacker, as well as a basher to hit all 3 brick walls in the middle. I definitely tried several times to try and make that work, but I couldn't, especially since I would waste too many builders to get the setup right, if it's even possible.

Legend 38 - Thriller Iconic song by Michael Jackson. Of course there's zombies in this level, since they were in the music video. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be this easy with the solution I came up with in my replay. Just bashed the ceiling to sacrifice one lemming to get the zombies away from the exit. After they all got trapped at the bottom, short digger-basher staircase, then one final builder to get the lemmings home.

Legend 39 - I will always love Lemmings This one was difficult to figure out. For a while, I kept thinking I needed to beat the crowd before they arrived to the worker lemming in the bottom left so that I'm able to block and turn the builder to get to the exit. Then, I noticed that the wall on top of the bridge is high enough so that the lemmings can't get past without being a climber or fencing/building. That's when I realized that I simply overcomplicated the solution in my head and the level is easier than I think it is. Still, the level's difficult to figure out due to the very tight skillset. If timing the climbers to block at the end of the builder staircase to turn the builder around to build to the exit, you can simply stop the miner going to the right with a builder. However, you can simply avoid the timing completely of releasing a climber to block by using the miner cancelling trick, therefore avoiding the need to use a builder to stop the miner. Also, the only entrance in immediate danger is the top right, so that can be a difficult to figure out, but once you're successful in not losing any lemmings there, the rest of the level can be done as usual according to the replay or a slight alternative in the bottom left.

Legend 40 - The Time of my Life I thought this one was going to be difficult, but this was surprisingly easy for me for the final level of the rank. This one is probably my favorite of the rank :thumbsup: Really nicely designed level to boot. I love the fencing through a builder to get past the final two walls with the right-most entrance.         

@eric ok, push has come to shove here, and with your most recent post you've pushed my buttons. Please stop spamming the level pack topics with "I've watched the replays." No one cares. You watch them at your own leisure, because there's absolutely no need to inform Strato or anyone who's actually playing the pack of anything that might had broken. Of course the replays work, I solved the levels myself and therefore can easily verify they haven't broke. You have your own replay topics, you can say it there instead. We already had this conversation, so it's starting to annoy me for repeating myself. In case you're not aware, you've gotten most of the community annoyed with your spam. I've been trying so hard to be patient with you, but it has reached its end. Enough is enough. If you were actually playing the pack and trying, it wouldn't be as bad.   

With 6 ranks completed, you now have confirmation from me that none of the 240 levels I have solved broke and that they're all still solvable. Also, it's time for me take a temporary break from the pack until an update for the Encore and Groupie ranks is released. No rush, take your time. I'll be busy taking care of other things Lemmings-related in the meantime. Happy viewing/fixing :P
#1652
20 more levels completed, and thus the Legend rank is half solved. Replays up through Legend 20 attached, and of course my feedback. Starting to get very difficult here, but still a bunch of great levels in this batch! ;)

Spoiler

Legend 1 - Bolemian Rhapsody Starting off the rank is a pretty difficult level. The solution is somewhat difficult to figure out, and the execution is somewhat difficult as well. Still, really nice level, and I love the song Bohemian Rhapsody. I haven't seen the movie of the same title that focuses on Freddie Mercury, though, which of course post-dates the pack.

Legend 2 - Purple Rain O.o that's nice animation of the falling titular "purple rain" in the background. Too bad I'm disgusted by the color purple. More of those hanging from the ceiling things which I thought were traps, but luckily there's only 1 and the trigger is visible. Very easy level compared toe the previous one.

Legend 3 - We can be heroes Very easy level despite the very high RR. Not sure if using the ceiling to turn around is intended, though.

Legend 4 - Take me home, country roads Ok, this level is just pure evil execution wise. :evil: I figured out the solution very quickly and hence it's a very easy level, but a glance at the skillset and my immediate reaction was, "You got to be kidding me. Crossing a miner AND a basher and they still both continue." I'm definitely aware that it's possible from reading your topic some time ago on levels you got stuck on due to not knowing if a certain trick was possible, such as certain skills crossing one another and whether both continue, one cancels out but not the other, or both cancel out. Very fiddly here, especially since it's very easy to cancel the miner than the other way around, let alone both continue without cancelling. Of course, if one isn't aware of this being possible, the player may rage quit or think the level is impossible.

Legend 5 - Hallelujah This one was also a bit difficult to figure out, but it wasn't too bad. One thing that completely caught me off guard by is the Moon being a solid object in this level and hence builders will hit their head.

Legend 6 - Lems in the sky with diamonds I love this Beatles song! Very easy level. I wonder if the updrafts being complete red herrings are intended, as the glider cannot glide onto the next updraft after using the previous one. In any case, my solution doesn't use the updrafts and the level's solvable without them.

Legend 7 - Lemmingrad Obviously a reference to the country Leningrad. This is a really good level, but it's extremely annoying execution wise since there's a lot of pixel precision assignments. I came up with mining through two sets of builders pretty quickly, but I was immediately disappointed to find out that the builder staircase below the updraft falls only slightly a bit short in height to allow the miner to continue. I figured it had to be part of the solution, since the skillset doesn't allow for anything else. After struggling with it for a while, I then realized the purpose of the bomber/stoner to allow another climber to build at the appropriate height to allow the miner to continue through both sets of builder staircases. Very nicely designed level, and I especially love the lemming statue where the updrafts are.

Legend 8 - Master of Puppets This one was a difficult level to figure out, especially the end part of how to get to the button buried in the wall and then later both crowds up to the exit. Even the middle with the toys/toy traps was difficult to determine the best way to get through. In the end, I have a bunch of climbers leftover.

Legend 9 - Eye of the Tiger Easier than the previous level, just difficult timing wise if compression is supposed to be used to minimize losses to the cat traps. In particular, getting the glider close to the worker lemming after digging through the branch was tricky to achieve. At least a walker is provided in case the non-glider falls in the wrong direction after the digger gets through.

Legend 10 - Wind of change Too easy. Nice looking level, but nothing too special here.

Legend 11 - Living on a prayer Not much more difficult than the original version. Plus, I might had cheesed and backrouted the level, since I have so many skills leftover.

Legend 12 - We will rock you Good song by Queen. Very easy level. Nice trick of using a platformer to allow the basher to bash through both sets of green pillars.

Legend 13 - Nothing else matters I might had severely backrouted this level. Tricky but not a difficult level. Just need to get a lemming to go to the left so that he can platform to the right, and also get another lemming to turn around after the up arrows on the thin floor to platform to the left so that by the time the crowd arrives none will fall through before they're done.

Legend 14 - Can't get no satisfaction? I really liked this level! Very nice solution :thumbsup:

Legend 15 - Waterloo Somewhat easy level despite the zombie horde coming for the regular lemmings. The only tricky part is getting rid of the zombies, but once you successfully get rid of them, it's a really easy level.

Legend 16 - Bridge over troubled water Not too different from the original version other than no miner this time to trap the crowd while a lemming goes on ahead to forge the path and bridge the water gaps. Still an easy level.

Legend 17 - Y. Lem. C. A "It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A" Love this song a lot. Way too easy, and other than a nicely designed level with the "M" being in the shape of a lemming, nothing too special.

Legend 18 - Comfortably numb This one is quite difficult. The hardest part is getting the lemmings up to the exit area, especially since you only have platformers to work with to close gaps, the main drawback being that the skill does not add height. To make it easier to get up, you have to block a miner midstroke and release it with another lemming close by without destroying the miner staircase. The platformers may seem plentiful, but I ended up using all of them in my solution. Also, this is the very first time I have seen the apple worm trap. Really nicely designed level. Looking at it sure makes me hungry :crylaugh:

Legend 19 - Imagine Not a difficult level to execute, just tricky timing wise. Still, nice level and solution, especially with getting a climber to turn around near the end of the miner tunnel to bash out the lowest group ;)

Legend 20 - Don't stop believin' O.o this is a really good and easy level! :thumbsup: Very nice solution of using the lemming from the left entrance to dig away the floor to allow the lemming from the right to get out via swimmer and climber. I also love this song of Journey's a lot. Even the train mentioned in the song is here in the level. Nice!

Quote from: ericderkovits on October 08, 2020, 02:15:38 AM
yes kaywhyn: I can translate Amateur 32 Ich und mein Holz = means Me and my Wood. In germany expecially at christmas time they make alot of wooden things like NussKnackers(Nut crackers). and other wooden things. Also this is another reason I want to go to germany in the future at Christmas time to see alot of the christmas markets. Also maybe like 6 months ago I bought a german kuckucksuhr(cookoo clock) which is made
mostly of of wood too. The clock also actually got sent from germany too. It plays 12 different german tunes. very nice. Also Strato(I think), Icho and Simon all live in germany. This is why I'm really fond of Icho. Also I like when Icho puts german titles for some of his levels(reunion and even United). Also even for my Angry lemmings I have a couple of german .ogg tunes. Like Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann(very well known german folk song)
means My father was a wanderering Man.

Thank you for a detailed explanation of the level title, even though you're late to the party here, as it's already been long after I have solved the level and Strato had already explained to me that the translation was in the pre-text. And yes, Strato, Icho, Nepster, and Simon are all from Germany. Still, this isn't the only one in German, there are several others in the pack.

All rightie, one more post of replays and feedback when I finish up the second half of the Legend rank, and then temporary break from the level pack until an update for the final two ranks is released. Still loving this pack a lot! ;)
#1653
Rockstar rank completed and thus 200/320 levels in the pack solved! :) Replays up through Rockstar 40 are attached, and more feedback. As usual, I really loved a lot of these levels and puzzles! Definitely feeling the difficulty rising faster than I thought it would and hence my progress through the pack slowing down but in a good way, since the levels are still quite manageable and doable, and the pack continues to be quite enjoyable and not too frustrating ;)

Spoiler

Rockstar 21 - Dziesma par Lemmi The end part was difficult, ensuring that no one was facing right when the digger broke through I'm not sure if my solution is intended even though I use all skills.

Rockstar 22 - Summer of '69 Good song. Easy level. Nothing too special here. Only tricky part is making sure no one lands on the land above the entrance, so here I made sure to delay the last builder assignment to make sure it doesn't happen. I have a miner leftover as a result.

Rockstar 23 - Machine head This seems to be all on timing, building to the top and getting to the button so that the worker on the other side of the wall can exit before he slips past the locked exit. Other than that, not too difficult, but not trivial either.

Rockstar 24 - I'd do anything for Lems Easy level as well.

Rockstar 25 - Through the fire and flames Probably a bit easier than the original version, although there's certainly execution difficulty with the fencer through the builder at the end. I had to adjust the builder position several times before the fence finally went through the walls and builder. What might escape less experienced players is using stackers to allow a basher to continue instead of stopping.

Rockstar 26 - Sweet Home Alabama Not difficult, just tricky to figure out the best way to get through the numerous obstacles. Especially the skillset will seem to be very tight due to the huge size of the level, but it's not that tight, as I still have several skills leftover. Also, I didn't realize the spoon and folk are steel.

Rockstar 27 - Clocks Excellent level that managed to stump me for a good 20 minutes. I kept puzzling about how a climber would be released after the fencer tunnel is sealed with a stacker if the basher is used for the yellow poles near the exit. Then I suddenly remembered the basher in a fencer tunnel trick from United. Even with that, it was very frustrating getting the stacker placements correct so that the basher will continue through the yellow poles as well. I had to try adjusting so many times before it finally worked. Oh, good song as well. I pretty much love Coldplay.

Rockstar 28 - Berlin Definitely a difficult challenge without a climber to free the lemming who digs down to get the bottom button. I still loved this level a lot, especially since it was very satisfying figuring out how to get everyone through to the exit. I did have to adjust the builder placements a couple of times before the miner would go through all of it and the OWW columns.

Rockstar 29 - Hollywood Hills Good and really nice looking easy level. I thought it was going to be difficult due to the stackers, but no, it wasn't that bad at all. It might look like you can also bomb from the other end of the basher tunnel, but then the level's probably unsolvable due to needing two bombers on the left end to get up.

Rockstar 30 - Losing my religion I initially tried a lot of fiddly pointless stuff for a few minutes when I realized that the level's much easier than I think it is. Ok level, nothing too special here.

Rockstar 31 - Cold Turkey Pretty easy once you get past the tricky stuff at the very start, where you must bomb twice in order to make a safe landing for the crowd. Nice bomber trick in the pit to get the cloned basher to stop. Nicely designed level! :thumbsup:

Rockstar 32 - Engel Way too easy and again another great looking level. I love the bombing a lemming in the digger pit to release both the digger and the crowd. It's very obvious that the stoner is needed as stepping stone to get into the exit, because you need to remember that direct drop is not possible anymore in NL, as well as only floaters and gliders can exit without any terrain beneath the exit.

Rockstar 33 - St. Elmo's Fire This one managed to stump me for about 15 minutes, but that's only because I was a dummy. In particular, I kept trying to see if I could save a constructive skill in the starting area because I think I kept being one short. Turns out to be somewhat easy. It's all about getting high enough to avoid the OWWs and being able to use only 1 destructive skill, except for the first one which in my solution required 3.

Rockstar 34 - Let me put my Lems into you Ah, there's that level from the Demented rank of Paralems. This version seemed much harder, and indeed the level was difficult for me. Since a blocker is used to turn the lemmings around to get to the top, that means you can't use the stoner. Also, I simply used a stacker right up against a couple pixels of high ground in order to turn the lemming around to make a landing bridge for the crowd to land on in order to get to the exit.

Rockstar 35 - South of Heaven Way too easy! I've already seen this trick from a level in United, where the intended route was building to the outside and then using the diggers/builders to make a builder wall. Icho's version is much harder, since all builders are used and it's not at all clear how many builders are needed to achieve the builder wall and to get to the exit.

Rockstar 36 - Streets of Philadelphia I say more tricky than difficult in figuring out the best way to get through the obstacles and where to platform so that the lemmings can still get up. Still, nice level.

Rockstar 37 - I'm your Venus O.o, very nicely designed level depicting the planet Venus. Speaking of which, perhaps you can try the entire solar system of the other 7 planets. Anyway, way too easy.

Rockstar 38 - Stonehenge In contrast, this was a really hard level and stumped me for at least a good half hour. Probably the hardest level in the entire Rockstar rank. It was thanks to CPM that I saw those gaps in the leaves and used it to my advantage to get up the level thanks to a stoner/stacker combo. For a long time, I kept using a stoner underneath the entrance and the left Stonehenge to get over the top and I was going to use the miners to get them out, but the biggest problem is that the gap before the exit is exactly one full bridge length, and by that time I was already out of builders and wouldn't have anything to turn the lemming around. You definitely did a nice job recreating the real-life Stonehenge with this level, but I was definitely frustrated by being a builder short and not being able to turn the worker around to mine the crowd out. In the end, I might had cheesed and backrouted the level, considering I have several skills leftover. Also, there appears to be no opening animation for the hatch.

Rockstar 39 - Holy Mountains Way too easy and much easier than the previous level. Very nice looking level! :thumbsup:

Rockstar 40 - Dream On Definitely a harder repeat, but not by much. Very nice solution, though! :thumbsup: I say more interesting than the original version, considering that you cannot mine the left crowd out with a miner due to stoners missing this time, so instead you need to get someone from the left entrance to set up the bridges in order to get past the OWW. In other words, instead of a worker from the right entrance doing all the worker, it's now reversed, where the left entrance does all the work.

Onto the Legend rank! Once I finish the rank, I will stop until an update for the Encore and Groupie ranks is released. So, this means two more posts of replays and feedback before none for a time. This will give me the opportunity to play catch up on resolving United, as well as the contest levels and playtesting your LOA pack.
#1654
Rockstar rank half completed. Here are my replays up through Rockstar 20 and my feedback. Lots of really good levels in this batch despite the difficulty being somewhat high or about the same as the Diva rank! :thumbsup:

Spoiler

Rockstar 1 - Heavy Metal Universe Good somewhat easy puzzle to start off the rank.

Rockstar 2 - School's out This was a pretty good level that is a bit tricky to figure out. Initially I kept trying to block at the very end on the lower level, as well as bomb a faller and digger the top wall so that it's not splat height, but it doesn't work too well, especially since if any turn back they'll fall into the quicksand.

Rockstar 3 - C'mon Lemming, light my fire! This was also a very nice, short and easy puzzle. I like how one climber needs to be sent up to bash, another needs to turn around in the basher tunnel to mine the crowd out, and a third climber needs to bash the miner tunnel made so as to avoid the fire coal box.

Rockstar 4 - Staying alive Ah, I love this song by the Bee Gees. I really liked this level! :thumbsup: Though it may seem counter-intuitive, you want to delay the glider assignment so that a cloned glider can get onto one of the honeycomb tiles to make a splatform for the crowd that comes out of the hatch fast. This still gives the worker lemming enough time to platform the water gap before any drown. This level took me about 7-10 minutes to figure out.

Rockstar 5 - Ace of Spades This was tricky, but it's still a nice level. I like how you depicted each of the four different card suits here. The hardest part is containing the crowd at the very beginning. It involves quickly bashing first, then digging down, then bashing with the next lemming that comes just as it falls into the digger pit so that the following lemming can still turn around and get trapped in the digger pit. Once you are successful with that, the rest of the level is easy.

Rockstar 6 - Crazy train More tricky than difficult to figure out, but still a nice looking level and puzzle hopping from train section to train section.

Rockstar 7 - Otherside I really liked this one too! Probably my favorite of the first half of the Rockstar rank.

Rockstar 8 - Highway to Hell Way too easy. I also liked this one. 1-of-everything, but the only skill I didn't use was the climber.

Rockstar 9 - Leaving on a jet plane Not a difficult level, just tricky due to the travel suitcases. A bit builder heavy, but it's fine.

Rockstar 10 - Another brick in the wall I think this is a really bad backroute. So many skills leftover.

Rockstar 11 - Banditi di Praga This one was a bit difficult, with the middle with red brick structure the most difficult part and also ensuring that you have enough destructive skills for the end. Really nice looking level, though!

Rockstar 12 - I want out Excellent level! I really loved the solution here. Not too difficult but at the same time not trivial either. This is probably my second favorite of the first half of the rank.

Rockstar 13 - Under bergets rot Not too different from the original version in terms of the skills provided, but the major difference is that here you cannot delay the crowd and keep them in the starting area. Still a good level.

Rockstar 14 - Boulevard of Broken Lems Whee, splat hatch level. Still very easy, though.

Rockstar 15 - Viva Colonia! Ah, there's the level that Icho found that was broken due to the glider opening its glider too late in order to use the updraft. In the New Formats version, I was able to solve it without using the glider, meaning the level was still solvable even with the broken glider physics. Still, since it ruins the intended solution, the best thing to do was to fix the updraft placement so that the lemming can use it to glide upwards. As for the level, it can be a bit tricky, but it's not too terribly difficult.

Rockstar 16 - Sweet Lem o' mine O.o this was an excellent level with a cool solution that managed to stump me for a long time, about half an hour or so. At first, I thought the right entrance being preassigned swimmers was pointless, but it turns out that it's necessary in the solution. Nice! ;) I also kept incorrectly assigning the climber to the first lemming in the right hatch, but after a while I figured out that it needs to be a glider instead. This definitely seems like a level Icho would make, so you certainly got a bit of him in your level making :P

Rockstar 17 - The final countdown On first glance, I was like this is too easy, but after a few seconds playing the level I noticed there was a time limit, which then quickly changed my mind. Even with the very tight timer, it's still very easy. Very nice level and solution. I really liked this one. If you're not aware, I love time limits in this game, so it was very satisfying to beat the clock here. It's appropriate considering the level title anyway.

Rockstar 18 - In the shadows I was a bit annoyed with the repeated stoning to avoid the stomper traps, but luckily only 3 each are needed for both. Other than that, I really liked this level as well. I think this is the very first level where I see that a swimmer will climb a wall instead of dive underneath if assigned one, so I got to keep that in mind. I did realize that a climber needs to scale the wall, but for a few moments I wasn't sure if it could do it, since I assumed (incorrectly) that it would dive underneath instead of climb. Guess climbing takes precedence?

Rockstar 19 - Run to the hills This was a really good zombie puzzle! Another level with a timer, but definitely justified to ensure that the player doesn't wait around for all the zombies to die to the dragon trap before solving. This was actually tricky and a bit difficult, especially since it's not easy to figure out how to avoid zombie infection, whether they're coming towards the crowd or avoiding them around the dragon trap area. Just when I thought I had the level all figured out, the crowd gets infected by a zombie as they're coming down the staircase towards the dragon trap. I probably could had saved a lot more time instead of finish with a few seconds to spare. I might had even made the solution more difficult than necessary.

Rockstar 20 - Any way you want it More tricky than difficult, but this was a really good level. The timing is quite tight for all three sections, especially for the left crowd with the bashing and the miner for the right-most entrance, but the key is delaying the second lemming in each section with a builder to allow the first lemming in each section enough time to break through or to contain the crowd in the case of the digger pit at the top.   
#1655
Hey Shmolem, not a problem at all. If you're stuck on a level in a particular pack, then getting away from it and playing other packs in the meantime can definitely do wonders. Just remember that you can always ask Icho or any of us who has completed Dovelems for a hint if you need one.

As for Devilish 27, I took a look at the level, and yes I remember this one being a difficult one when I first played the pack on Lemmini way back in 2013 or around there. Obviously it's a remake of "They just keep on coming/One way or another" from the original Lemmings, and I think the solution is pretty awesome here. I couldn't remember the solution for a couple of minutes, but I did play it and I was able to solve it again after having not played the pack for a really long time. Regarding your approach, if you were successful in pulling off that route, it will have to be patched out. However,

Spoiler

builders "hitting their heads" can probably be used to your advantage here, as annoying as it usually is depending on the level. As a matter of fact, it uses a very similar trick in a level that you might had solved not too long ago before this level.
#1656
Diva rank completed and thus halfway (160/320 levels solved) through with the pack already. Here are my replays up through Diva 40 and feedback. In contrast to the first half, I felt the second half of the Diva rank was overall much easier.

Spoiler

Diva 21 - Let it go Excellent level! I really liked this one and the solution :thumbsup: I did have some trouble, but that's only because I kept placing the platformers in the wrong places. The animating falling snow is great too. Elsa's made an eternal winter in the level.

Diva 22 - Wrecking ball Nice and easy level as well. Not sure what the stoner is for. It's very easy to save everyone.

Diva 23 - YerushaLem shel zahav Ok level, although I probably made it harder than I needed to. In my solution, there is a tiny piece of land that the glider lands on in the digger pit so that it's able to glide into the exit. Without it, it will die to the bottomless pit.

Diva 24 - Rolling in the deep Ok, this was pretty frustrating, not because of the hidden traps (already know that from the first version played earlier in the pack) but how to get past all the traps while only losing 1 lemming. Probably the hardest level in the second half of the rank. I initially tried compression, but I would always end up losing 1 too many, and so I ended up using a different solution which involves fiddling with the RR so that I could bomb the second lemming on the stack early enough so that the stacker lemming can progress further without being hindered by the stack. The rest of it was avoiding the triggers by going underneath or building over them before the rest of the crowd can catch up. According to Arty's LP, he was able to get compression to work. Turns out that I had the stacker in the wrong place. Nevertheless, both versions of the octopus level are quite difficult.

Diva 25 - Touch my body My solution seems a bit fiddly and I might had backrouted it? Lots of skills leftover. It's practically the same as Arty's, except I take advantage of the fact that you can stone the blocker and bash the terrain it makes.

Diva 26 - Simply the best I'm not sure what the point of this level is ??? Way too easy.

Diva 27 - It must have been Lems Way too easy as well. Nice level, though!

Diva 28 - Call me Yet another really easy level. Not sure what blocker pickup is for. I didn't even use it!

Diva 29 - Cotton-Eye Joe Somewhat easy. The only thing I'm quite surprised by here is how the cloned glider was able to not get stuck in the updraft if assigned at the right time.

Diva 30 - Something in the water I've heard this reference before, but I forget what it's referring to. A fish or shark maybe? Of course, I'm sure it refers to what the pickup skills resembles. Anyway, too easy.

Diva 31 - Burn Somewhat difficult in that you can't waste any of your platformers. Also have to cancel a miner with another. Being able to assign a platformer to a miner will probably escape many players, although I've known this fact for quite a while, and hence the level wasn't as hard.

Diva 32 - Weisse Rosen aus Athen More tricky than difficult in that it's not easy to figure out how to get both crowds up to the exit. The right entrance is easy, the left isn't that much harder, but it will need help from the right entrance.

Diva 33 - Titanium Nice easy level! Definitely deviates in that normally one bashes/mines OWWs, but here it is necessary to build over the OWW at the top, as you don't have enough bashers for all the OWWs.

Diva 34 - Out of L.A Ok level in that it's a bit tricky to figure out. Builders may be plentiful, but don't be fooled, as pretty much almost or all of them will be used. Here, I had 1 leftover. I don't suppose the level isn't any specific location in LA but rather just how there's a lot of skyscrapers? I attended college in LA for 4 years.

Diva 35 - Total eclipse of the builders Nice repeat level that's definitely different from the original. Not that much harder, it's still easy, and I like the solution.

Diva 36 - Horehronie Way too easy.

Diva 37 - Ebony and ivory "Live together in perfect harmony." Great song. Once again, builders may seem plentiful, but all of them were used in my solution. Skillset is also quite tight, but overall it's not a difficult level, just tricky to figure out the best route to take.

Diva 38 - Set fire to the rain O.o I like the falling rain in the level, and it definitely makes the level aptly named. Very nice puzzle! I absolutely loved the solution here. The left entrance can be quite tricky to figure out, but I didn't find it that bad. Plus the skillset lends itself extremely well so that one can quickly deduce what needs to be used to temporarily contain them while one goes on ahead.

Diva 39 - My Lems will go on Very nice level, both the design and puzzle! :thumbsup: 1-of-everything to boot too. Nice recreation of the Titanic and the infamous iceberg that sank her. Clearly the title is a nod to the movie Titanic, which features the title track "My heart will go on." I love Celine Dion. Great and powerful voice. I surprisingly haven't seen the movie! As for the level, the only difficult part is with the leftmost hatch in how to isolate a worker lemming while ensuring no one else slips past the stack. This was probably my favorite level of the entire rank.

Diva 40 - So Wat? (I'm still a rockstar) Somewhat easy to finish off the rank, although can be a bit tricky to figure out. It's a nice looking level, though.     

Onto the Rockstar rank! ;)
#1657
Quote from: Shmolem on October 06, 2020, 05:44:00 AM
I've been trying to beat some of the other contest levels.. and I haven't been able to solve any of them :-[ I've come very close to solving some but haven't actually beaten any..

You can do it, Shmolem! ;) Just don't give up! I agree that a lot of these are quite tough, but I was able to solve most of them after a lot of struggling. If anything, you can always send a replay and ask the level author for some hints to possibly help you solve them if you still can't figure them out even after spending a lot of time.
#1658
Halfway through the Diva rank, so time for more replays and feedback. Replays up to Diva 20. Wow, excellent levels as usual, but the Diva levels are considerably more difficult than the ones in the previous Professional rank. The hardest one by far before the halfway point of the Diva rank was definitely Diva 19. That one stumped me real good for about an hour.

Spoiler

Diva 1 - Eternal flame Easy and excellent level to start off the rank

Diva 2 - Munich First splat entrance level of the pack, I believe? Pretty easy as well. Truthfully, I thought those black square blocks were steel, but luckily they aren't.

Diva 3 - Hot stuff Somewhat difficult in that figuring out the best way through the obstacles and not running out of builders/platformers isn't easy at all. Still, nice level.

Diva 4 - Lempire State of Mind Obviously a reference to the Empire State Building in New York. I visited it back in 2003 when I went on a Washington D.C trip with my middle school. I think the highest floor we went to that time was the 101st floor out of 116. Artistically, very nicely designed level! This one was another difficult one as well, especially since figuring out how to get up this very tall building is hard. Timing the first builder to have a blocker turn it is a bit difficult. Still, great level.

Diva 5 - All the single Lemmings Excellent and easy level compared to the last two. I absolutely love the solution here! :thumbsup:

Diva 6 - Diggas in Paris There's the level from Paralems. I used a different solution in that I simply built over the Eiffel Tower. So much for digging through the tower, which is the solution I used in Paralems.

Diva 7 - Born this way Not a difficult level per se, but rather difficult to execute. Concept-wise, it's clear what needs to happen: Swimmers use the bottom left exit, climbers use the top exit, and floater/gliders use the bottom right exit. Nice level, though.

Diva 8 - Dragonstea din tei Ahaha, I remember when I first found out about this song from my sister back when I was either in high school or in the early years of college. "Numa numa yea, numa numa numa yea" (not sure about the word that's different from the "numas"). Good level, although I might had backrouted this level, since I don't use the blocker or collect one of the basher pickups.

Diva 9 - I won't hold you back Excellent level and solution! :thumbsup: I initially tried the bottom left path, but realized it won't work after a few minutes, so that's a pretty good red herring.

Diva 10 - Umbrella Another excellent level with a great solution! :thumbsup: I'm not sure if it's possible to solve without raising the RR like I did at the very beginning.

Diva 11 - Don't cry for me, Argentina Easy level. Nothing too special here. Ok looking level.

Diva 12 - Walking in Lemphis Another level from Paralems I believe? I used pretty much the exact same solution here as I did for the Paralems version.

Diva 13 - Brick house Somewhat easy. Nothing too special here either other than it's aptly named.

Diva 14 - Foot of the mountain Nice somewhat easy level. Not very difficult, but at the same time the soluton isn't trivial either. I like how you need to send three lemmings to forge the path.

Diva 15 - If you're going to San Francisco Always a very nice city to visit, although certainly not the place I would permanently settle in since it's too cold for my liking. I'm also very spoiled by the warm, sunny weather in SoCal, having lived in the southern region of California my entire life. This one was difficult, although certainly the hardest part is figuring out the best way to get up and onto the outer parts of the Golden Gate Bridge. Probably would had been better with the pillar tileset since it's pretty close to the "golden" color.

Diva 16 - Puff, the Magic Dragon I really liked this one! :thumbsup: Very nice solution, especially with the bombing the wall with a glider and having a glider get into the hole to make a splatform for the crowd. Also, nice hidden zapper trap from the bubble tileset in the dragon itself, which definitely took me by complete surprise. Again, I haven't been playing these levels with CPM activated at all. Really, I'm just taking the hidden elements of surprise as they come. At first, I thought the basher skill shadow being cut short was due to no more terrain to bash through when in actuality it was due to the zapper trap.

Diva 17 - Believe in life after Lemmings "Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say, I really don't think you're strong enough, no." Couldn't resist here either haha. I also really liked this level! :thumbsup: Nice use of two tricks here, sealing a basher tunnel and sending a climber while a basher tunnel is in progress in order to bash the OWW.

Diva 18 - Royals This should be a very bad backroute, considering I don't use the two pickup skills at all.

Diva 19 - Barcelona I don't remember if Barcelona was one of the cities of Spain that I visited when I went on my high school's Europe trip back in 2007. I think we just stayed around the Madrid area. As I already mentioned, this level stumped me real good for an hour, and this is by far the hardest level of the Diva rank so far. There might be some in the second half, but that remains to be seen. I ultimately brute forced it and stopped a digger from the left entrance with a miner from the second entrance from the left and was able to lose two lemmings, one of which a bomber was used, and so I have a bomber leftover.

Diva 20 - Only time Much easier than the previous level. Nice use of preplaced radiation zombies to free the top entrances.

Needless to say, the difficulty has ramped up considerably from the Professional rank. The levels started getting really difficult as I got closer to the halfway point, and there were certainly some tough ones in the first 10 as well, although not as much. Well, let's see how the second half of the Diva rank goes. 
#1659
Professional rank finished. Attached are my replays up through Professional 40, as well as my feedback for Professional 21 through Professional 40. The puzzles continue to be excellent, and more high praise incoming! :thumbsup:

Spoiler

Professional 21 - The lion sleeps tonight Awimbaway awimbaway awimbaway awimbaway (I'm sure that's not correct at all, just what it sounds like to me, but the following is right) "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." Haha I couldn't resist. Nice short and somewhat easy level, with the very high RR adding a bit to the challenge. I guess the cat trap is the closest that we can get to an actual lion in the game, although I think the tiger is closer to a cat than a lion is. I do have a bomber leftover, but I lost one to a cat trap, which is fine since we're allowed 2 losses anyway.

Professional 22 - Samba de Janeiro O.o nice level and solution! :thumbsup: Very nice design. The only tricky part is the right edge of the cross, where a combination of two platformers + a builder is used, and only that must be used. Otherwise, you're not going to have enough for the water gap, and you won't have anything to turn the swimmer around.

Professional 23 - Streets of London Another nice looking level using the city tileset. And of course the most appropriate "London Bridge is Falling Down" tune to boot, since it's all about London. Nice Big Ben design there. Not a very hard level, but it is a somewhat tricky 3-of-everything level, especially upon first glance it might not seem to be enough. Being economical and efficient is the name of the game for this level. If you are, you can still end up with a lot of skills leftover like I did here.

Professional 24 - Malle ist nur einmal im Jahr Very nice level and solution here too! :thumbsup: Somewhat easy despite the high RR. This level definitely seems like something Icho would make, only maybe not quite this very short, but how a crowd will be heading into danger, that part reminds me of his style of level making. Maybe it'll be easy for me to guess which levels you tried imitating his style in the Groupie rank. I have a glider and swimmer leftover.

Professional 25 - A Spacelem came travelling Too easy. Nice looking lemming garden gnomes, two of which are blockers and one which seems to be playing dead.

Professional 26 - Budapest This one was quite difficult, actually. The skillset is extremely tight, and all of them are used in my solution. Especially for the right half, the skill placements all seemed very precise. It's also difficult to get the bomber hole in the middle column just right so that the lemmings can travel to the exit, as well as still be surmountable.

Professional 27 - Moskau, Moskau Very nice decorative level! :thumbsup: This one was also difficult, although maybe not as difficult as the previous one. I think only the cloning the miner part is very precise, as well as the builder for the very last gap before the exit.

Professional 28 - The Irish Rover Whoa, what a cool looking ship from a distance, and you made the lower decks visible where the lemmings start. Not difficult, but it is very tricky to figure out the best way to navigate through the many obstacles, so the 5-of-everything skillset is quite tight. What did you do so that none of the many sideway barrels don't spawn lemmings? I initially thought they were all going to have lemmings get released, truthfully. Also, not sure why the lemmings are preassigned swimmers, especially since they can't be saved once they do fall in the water.

Professional 29 - Rock you like a hurricane Not difficult as well, just tricky in figuring out how to be efficient with your platformers/builders, and I ended up using all of both! This time, the exit has been rotated sideways, although I believe you mentioned that they're all upright in New Formats?

Professional 30 - Smells like Lem spirit Excellent puzzle! The only difficult part is figuring out how to mine the bottom crowd up, as well as how to bash the upper part of the OWW to get to the exit.

Professional 31 - Bay of Pigs Nothing too special about this zombie level, especially since my solution is probably not intended, as I don't use a glider to get over there to platform to the crowd. Instead, I simply platformed across in the starting area, since it seems that anyone on top of the stack can't get infected by the zombies even when they're climbers but the overhang prevents them from climbing more than 1 pixel.

Professional 32 - Bratislava Lover Very nice looking level and great puzzle! This level does a very good job of teaching the player that instead of using 3 builders to get up to the exit, which would be what most players would do and is perfectly fine if there were more builders, but since we are limited and won't have enough left for the other gaps, one must bash and interrupt it midstroke with a walker so that you can get up to the exit. Excellent! :thumbsup:

Professional 33 - Aquarius Another great looking level, as well as a very nice puzzle. It is somewhat tricky, but not terribly difficult to figure out at all. It's obviously clear that only the far left exit is accessible once all buttons have been pushed. The platformers may seem plentiful, but you must be efficient in their use.

Professional 34 - Bang-a-boomerang Another good looking level and a great puzzle on top of it. It is somewhat tricky as well to figure out, but it's not too terribly difficult either. The most difficult part is timing the release of the second climber to block and turn the miner. I like how the miner needs to circle back and release the crowd with a digger and a bomber. It does result in a very long wait, especially since the builders haven't been used yet and the crowd will have to walk all that way, but thank goodness for the time skip (just spam spacebar).

Professional 35 - Iron Maidan Not sure if that's the intended spelling or if that's the correct song title, but I know it as "maiden." Ok looking level, but the puzzle is really great! Nice use of digger cancelling, as well as platforming to the columns instead of platforming near the top surface of the exit area and having to fence repeatedly until you can get high enough to get to the exit. Luckily, the crowd has a long way before reaching the worker lemming in progress.

Professional 36 - Down in Mexico Really nice looking level and also a great puzzle too! A bit tricky to figure out, especially since I initially tried digging and then stopping it with a bomber once it was close enough to the level of the platformer. After a few tries, it was then clear that this wouldn't work out at all since a climber in the pit needs to be released before the bomber explodes but also the worker and climber would be too close to each other that the first one wouldn't have enough time to make the miner tunnel deep enough to turn the other one around to mine down to the crowd. The key here instead is making a bomber hole at the edge of the starting area so that the platformers can close the gap and no one will fall off the bottom.

Professional 37 - Sun of Jamaica Very nice looking level and a very nice solution that comes together quite nicely! :thumbsup: Easy level, with the only tricky thing being how to isolate a worker lemming, as well as realizing that you must bash high enough on the second palm tree on the ground in order to be able to access the exit.

Professional 38 - Ovo je Balkan Somewhat hard level with a difficult to spot solution. Still, I love the solution! Good looking level too. I think that digging and bashing under all the mines is a really good red herring. Of course, if you make the connection with the fact that there's 5 mines and that you can lose up to 5 lemmings here, then it should be clear that it's ok to lose a lemming to each one if you remember they're 1-time traps only.

Professional 39 - Taj-a, Taj-a, Taj-a, Taj Me Have you seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show? I saw it sometime ago at a local movie theater, where the actors walk around the stage and engage with the audience. Way too easy, and nice attempt at recreating the Taj Maha of India.

Professional 40 - Queen of Chinatown Good looking level, but most importantly easy and very nice puzzle to finish off the rank! :thumbsup: I really love the solution here. A lot easier than the Amateur rank finisher.     

Quote from: Strato Incendus on October 05, 2020, 02:03:41 PM
Your level of boredom with the Noisemaker rank was likely a little amplified by you having played my easier packs back-to-back with this one. If you're basically waiting 150 levels (Paralems) + whatever number of Pit Lems levels was easy for you + 40 Noisemaker levels for a real challenge, you need quite a lot of patience. :lem-shocked: This will be less strenuous when the Noisemaker rank is the first thing you encounter from me as a level creator - which I assume will be the case for most players, since only LWT is available for New Formats so far.

Also, just the fact that the real, exciting stuff actually begins with Amateur 29, while everything before that were simply tutorial-like levels that aren't really tutorials in the sense of teaching what each skill does, but instead skill combinations and tricks. Once I got to Amateur 29, my excitement for LWT really kicked up to 11. Ah, see what I did there? Haha.

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I don't quite understand how the Noisemaker levels can be boring and challenging at the same time, though? ??? Unless the challenge is about execution difficulty (I recently played that "I am A.T." remake in Lemmings Plus I), which I tried to avoid as much as possible in LWT, I don't see how these too things can go hand in hand. ;)

Yea, challenging and boring does sound very strange indeed. For sure it applies to execution challenges, but perhaps for difficult levels they are boring when they can't be solved at first? Once again, I expected to be able to breeze through the Noisemaker rank and up through Amateur 28 very quickly just to get the boring tutorial-like level styles done and over with, particularly since I pretty much knew all those tricks already, but that was most certainly not the case. I guess it was more of the fact that the unusual high difficulty put me off more than it usually did, and it is certainly all over the place, with it being much worse in the Noisemaker rank. Also, I think you're right about how I'm currently playing your third pack shortly after I finished both Paralems and Pit Lems. Maybe if I had spaced out the timing of the playing of the packs, maybe I wouldn't be put off as much as I was when I played through the first two ranks. 

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QuoteI also consider Noisemaker 8 - Glide and joy to be another unusually difficult level

I agree, which is why I made the pre-level text more explicit about the required trick.
Sadly, I'm pretty sure the precision you mentioned here is required to actually enforce Glider usage at this point: If the lower platform of steel just stuck out slightly below the steel pillar, you could just build over there regularly and wouldn't need the Glider - a regular Faller would also survive. ;) Can't have that! :evil:

Good point! I totally didn't think about that.

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QuoteFinally, not a difficult level per se, but I consider the trick needed in Noisemaker 33 - Mein kleiner gruener Kaktus to be an extremely obscure one for less experienced players.

This particular trick I actually discovered by accident while playing one of IchoTolot's levels. And that one didn't include an introductory hint.
I agree this trick is obscure, which is why the level is rather late in the Noisemaker rank. But since this is one I actually found myself without any hints from the forums, replays etc. (in contrast to many of the other tricks featured in this pack!), I'm inclined to consider it easier than some of the other tricks the player is supposed to learn here.

I believe I also discovered this trick by accident as well in a Lemmini level pack. It might had been Pimolems, or it might possibly had been Lemmings Reunion. I really don't remember.

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Finally, a big issue with the pack is that it tends to take quite a while for the level preview to load up. The worst offenders in the Noisemaker ranks are the two artistic levels I just mentioned, Octopus's Garden and Vegas Lights. The latter takes the longest out of all the Noisemaker levels to load up.

In these cases, it's because of tileset mixing. Occasionally, this may even lead to Old-Formats NeoLemmix crashing, as mentioned in the starting post. It's not going to affect your progress / save game, though; simply restart NeoLemmix and open the level again.

Some of the graphic sets simply have long loading time becaues of high resolution, though, even if you're not mixing them. For example, all of GigaLem's Freedom Planet tilesets. You may have noticed that the Pit Lems levels "Arigato, Lemming-san!" and "You want it, you got it!" also take a good amount of tile to load for this reason. ;)

Even the ones that don't tileset mix also take some time to load, although most certainly not as much as the ones that do or the high-res ones. In New Formats, the level previews literally load up practically right away for me, whereas for Old Formats even the classic styles without tileset mixing there's about a 3 second delay before the preview loads up. And yes, the random crashes in Old Formats is quite annoying. Luckily, they're non-fatal and won't erase all progress made. If I'm not mistaken, there's no plans to mitigate or even eliminate the random crashes for Old Formats?

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This is not my Autumn tileset, it's GigaLem's remake of namida's Lemmings Plus Tree tileset. So namida is to blame for the leaf trap blending in with the trees (kind of reminding me of the boulder trap from the Dirt tileset) :P . GigaLem just adapted the trap faithfully.

Oh, my bad. I thought it was a tileset you made for some reason.

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Although, since you mentioned the barrel, I think you're referring to the dog on the balcony? ;) That is actually supposed to be the dog peeing on the lemming. Hence it's yellow, and there's the little puddle on top of the barrel. I think I used a different water drop trap on another level featuring a dog from either Paralems or Pit Lems.

Yes, the one on the balcony. What about the trap that sucks the lemming up to the dog's mouth? What kind of trap is it? It's one where lemmings are immediately sucked up once they step on the trigger area, so for sure it's not the sucker trap from the bubble tileset.

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Precisely, new players would be completely stumped by this if the level didn't tell them about it. ;) I never knew it was possible until I saw it done on a level - a level which I had considered impossible before that. The digger trick you mentioned in the spoiler isn't actually part of the intended solution. Nice to know, though - and yes, given the behaviour of Blockers, it makes total sense. ;)

Yea, you're right.

Spoiler

I could had simply dug just before the one-way field and then bash. The one-way field will turn it around, effectively assigning a cloner skill on the basher.

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QuoteAmateur 32 - Ich und mein Holz Nice level with a great solution! :thumbsup: You, Simon, Icho, Nepster, or eric can translate the level title for me.

The translation is already included in the pre-level text: It means "Me and my wood".

Oh darn, wonder how I missed that?

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QuoteProfessional 13 - Tulpen aus Amsterdam I really like this level too, both the artistic quality and the solution :) The builder/platformer for both gaps are a bit precise, but luckily you only have to do the combo twice. Here, the flag pole was solid, so something really needs to be done about this in being able to differentiate whether it's solid or not. Although, if I'm not mistaken, only the white ones are non-solid, while any other color pole is?

Correct - the white flag pole is an object from the L2 Circus tileset, whereas the other ones are solid terrain.

This issue goes back all the way to the original design of Lemmings 2: The Tribes: On the Circus tileset, it was just the flag poles. L2 Shadow is an even worse offender with its street lights (switched on or off), phone boxes, clouds, the moon with a face, and the windows from "Georgia on my mind", all of which are objects - while the trash cans and hydrants are solid, as well as the moon from the L2 Polar tileset.

We cannot "fix" these tilesets because they are official ones. I could have refrained from using the Circus flag pole, but too often, an actually solid flag pole would have been in the way, and providing an additional destructive skill to get rid of it might have opened up backroutes. Of course, I could have refrained from using solid flag poles at all, then - but in this case, the landscape was so flat (well, duh, it's the Netherlands :P ) that I needed to add at least some form of altitude gain to make this more than just a "build across the water canals" level.

Fair enough. Thanks for letting me know that my guess was correct as to which flag pole is non-solid while the rest are. Of course, you can just not put in the white flag pole and let the flag just fly in the air without one, but obviously that's not possible to do in real life, so realistically it would be very out of place and just plain weird.

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Professional 19
QuoteProfessional 19 - Atte katte nuva Wow, I really like this level! :thumbsup: My favorite level of the rank so far. Not only does it look really cool with the snow falling in the background, I really love the solution! Very easy, and I like the releasing the blocker with the fencer trick from the other side which I recently learned in a United level in the Bonus rank.

Yes, this is why I consider the Fencer a criminally underrated skill, and heavily oppose people whenever they claim it's superfluous.
It's a reverse Miner, folks! Use it like a Miner! ;)

Exactly! ;)



Regarding you're still needing to fix and update the Encore and Groupie ranks, I'll probably just play up through the Legend rank then and stop there until the update is released. I'm one of those who hates for my momentum to halt, especially when I'm on a roll with the pack now. I was thinking of just stopping when I finish the Diva rank, but honestly I'm plowing through the levels much faster than I thought I would. I can certainly agree with your assertment that LWT is kind of intermediate in difficulty in regards to your other packs. Paralems is the easiest, LWT in the middle, and Pit Lems hard. Although there are still some levels that are unusually difficult in LWT, for the most part I haven't encountered levels that are very hard other than Amateur 37. So, I think I'm in agreement that LWT has intermediate difficulty overall just based on the first 3 ranks completed so far.

Onward to the Diva rank! Again, apologies if I'm going way too fast for your liking. Once I get to the point where I will stop my playthrough of the pack, I will switch gears and finish up resolving all of United, as well as test your LOA pack and possibly the contest entries that I haven't been able to solve if I haven't figured them out yet. There's only 2 no solves and only one level I need to resolve right now, although the latter may change depending on if the level creator releases an update that breaks my solving replay.
#1660
Quote from: NieSch on October 05, 2020, 06:03:08 AM
About my rule 1 level: it's definitely solvable so don't worry that I made a mistake there. Just don't give up. ;)

I'm sure it is. I'm probably just going about it the wrong way or, more likely, I'm missing something obvious. The level has certainly done a great job of stumping everyone who has tried it so far: Armani, Nessy, and me. Besides your R1 level, the only other level I have left to solve is crane's R1. So, it's just the R1 levels from you two that have been no solves for me. Everything else I have either solved or I need to resolve, and I still might possibly have to resolve some other levels that get fixed in the meantime and hence my existing replays might break.
#1661
Well, I'm halfway through the Professional rank, so I'm back again already with more replays and feedback. Here are my replays up through Professional 20, as well as feedback for Professional 1 through Professional 20. Well, I must say that I continue to be impressed by the high artistic quality of your levels and puzzles that were definitely promised during my playthrough of the Professional rank so far, after finally getting past the boring stuff from the Noisemaker rank and the little over the first half of the Amateur rank ;) I'm probably now going a little way too fast for your liking, especially since I have seem to pick up significant speed, so perhaps I should slow down my playing of LWT a bit so as not to torture you with so much work fixing up levels for LWT as well in addition to LOA.

Spoiler

Professional 1 - I wanna rock! Nice, challenging level to start off the rank! I like how you must dig low enough on the stoner steps in order to be able to fully build the bridges, although the stoner placements can be a bit precise. Skillset is quite tight, and the solution ends up using everything, so you cannot waste anything at all! Also, you must choose correctly for the gap at the beginning, or you're not going to have enough to solve the level.

Professional 2 - Carry on wayward Lem Nice and easy breather level after the previous challenging level. Somewhat a huge builder fest, although builders can be quite tight.

Professional 3 - Sex bomb Not a difficult level, since it was quite obvious to me what needs to be done, just very difficult to execute. I can only imagine how much harder this level would be with timed bombers, so I think this is one of the few to be thankful of untimed bombers. Not to mention that timed bombers won't even work for this level anyway, since the lemmings are too close to the edge of the wall where they start and hence won't be able to make a safe pit in the wall for lemmings to all down safely.

Professional 4 - Fencing Queen Another nice easy level with a great solution :thumbsup:

Professional 5 - Vienna Can be challenging due to the extremely limited destructive skills, but even the builders are somewhat in short supply so you need to be efficient with their use as well. It's still an easy level, though.

Professional 6 - Walk like an Egyptian Probably my second favorite level of the rank in the first half of the rank :thumbsup: Can be tricky to figure out how to get the lemmings down to the lowest floor before the exit, but it's still an easy level with a really awesome solution :)

Professional 7 - Holy Diver Way too easy and nothing too special here

Professional 8 - Blocking all over the world Ah, there's the level from the LOL rank of Pit Lems all fixed up for LWT. It's definitely harder now, especially since you have prevented me from solving it the same way I did the Pit Lems version. Still, the solution is nice when you can piece it together.

Professional 9 - Dig in a box Nice short and somewhat challenging level. They key here is making sure only one lemming is on the other side of the exit while the rest are on the other side. The RR plays a really important role here in getting all the crowd out in time before the digger finishes and causes some lemmings to splat. The first digger near the exit and builder are somewhat precise.

Professional 10 - Buildy Jean The tricks from Stop and stair return here, builder wall and building to seal off the basher tunnel so only one worker lemming goes ahead and forges the path for the crowd. Nice level!

Professional 11 - Making your mine up Nice level primarily involving miners. You probably intended the miner cancelling trick, but that trick is not required to solve this level, as I solved it without it.

Professional 12 - Block around the clock Too easy. I even got the talisman too even though I have not taken a look at the list beforehand. It's so not a gold talisman, it's way too easy for one.

Professional 13 - Tulpen aus Amsterdam I really like this level too, both the artistic quality and the solution :) The builder/platformer for both gaps are a bit precise, but luckily you only have to do the combo twice. Here, the flag pole was solid, so something really needs to be done about this in being able to differentiate whether it's solid or not. Although, if I'm not mistaken, only the white ones are non-solid, while any other color pole is?

Professional 14 - Waka-waka Nice 1-of-everything level involving mining into steel to turn the climber around since you have to save everyone here. Non-solid white flag pole, so it seems my guess is correct so far?

Professional 15 - Auld Lem Syne Too easy. Nice looking level, though ;)

Professional 16 - Pompeii You did pretty good depicting the resulting eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii that resulted from it all those years ago. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of the song by Bastille though. I found it annoying back when it played on the radio a lot. As for the level, pretty easy, with how to get into the exit that's buried by the lava being the only challenging thing of the level. The main critique I have is that the platformer/builder bricks are completely invisible against the purple background.

Professional 17 - Surfin' bird Whoa, that's a cool looking exit. Another easy level.

Professional 18 - Sur le pont d'Avignon If I'm not mistaken, the title is French for South of the Avignon port? I don't really know French, I took Spanish all 4 years of high school. Anyway, another really easy level, as well as a very nice looking level, especially with the lemmings swimming in the lake.

Professional 19 - Atte katte nuva Wow, I really like this level! :thumbsup: My favorite level of the rank so far. Not only does it look really cool with the snow falling in the background, I really love the solution! Very easy, and I like the releasing the blocker with the fencer trick from the other side which I recently learned in a United level in the Bonus rank.

Professional 20 - Rome Nice looking level that includes Italy's flag. Easy level. My solution seems to be a backroute? Not sure if you intended the use of the teleporter or if it's a complete red herring.     

I think what I will do is finish up the Professional rank and then dial back and slow down my playthrough so as to give you a chance to catch up on fixing levels for the Encore and Groupie ranks, as well as possibly any that I might had backrouted from the Noisemaker and Amateur ranks. I'm sure making you work, aren't I? I'm going to try not to torture you too much with that. Or I might also finish through the next rank as well, which will leave me at the halfway point of the pack. We'll see what happens.
#1662
Resolved mantha16's R1 V2, as well as Crane's R3 V2.

@mantha16 Now the level has gone from downright impossible to very open-ended and very easy. Nice level! :thumbsup: Definitely much easier than your R3, although both of those are easy IMO. Your R2 is the hardest one, but with your R1 fix I have now solved all 3 of your contest levels. Great job with all of them ;)

I think strato also said that he kept having problems with pickup skills resetting their counts when he was making his LOA pack. The counts would be fine in the editor, but when loading them in the player the counts would reset. So, you're not the only one experiencing that problem.

@crane No, reducing the jumper count didn't make the level unfair at all IMO. All I had to do to fix my replay was platform and mine at the very beginning. Then again, I don't know if my new solution to your R3 is intended.

@Niesch regarding your R2 level, something happened to it where the exit count limit is no longer present. Thus, any number of lemmings can now use either exit. Your R2 V2 didn't break my replay, so it's fine there, just the exit count limit disappeared. You might want to look into what happened there.

Quote from: Nessy on October 04, 2020, 11:46:46 PM
Also as an additional note some of these contest levels are very tough!

I agree with you here! Almost all of these are quite tough levels. They're also great levels if you're able to solve them IMO.
#1663
Quote from: Armani on October 04, 2020, 06:55:06 AM
Played Rule1 levels just now. I might have found intended solutions for Steeplechase and I'm Loving This Circus. And I gave several tries to NieSch and Mantha's levels but no luck yet.:P I will try again on another day.

Oh good, I feel a lot better knowing that I'm not the only one who hasn't been able to figure out manth16's and niesch's R1 levels. Not that it's a good thing to be stuck, because it sucks. Before that, I thought I was a dumb dumb if I couldn't solve them. If there's anyone who I thought would be able to solve them, I thought you be able to, seeing how you managed to solve all of the R2 and R3 levels just like me, but apparently not yet as well. However, you managed to solve Crane's R1 level which I haven't been able to yet. It definitely would had been solved already without the very strict time limit, but so far the clock has been my biggest enemy on the level. I'm definitely going to keep trying, though. I'm probably not that far off, just need to figure out where I'm going wrong that's causing me to be a second too slow.

Quote from: ericderkovits on October 04, 2020, 08:35:04 AM
Also thanks Armani for thinking my level was difficult. Makes me now glad I put it in my Mayhem rank of my Angry lemmings pack.

Yea, you definitely underestimated the difficulty of your own level, eric. It is quite a difficult and tricky level. It's quite easy for the level author to either underestimate or overestimate the difficulty of his or her own level since before anyone plays the level only the creator knows the solution. That being said, I haven't looked at your R1 V3 yet, but I will soon!
#1664
Just like that, Amateur rank already completed! Here are my replays up to Amateur 40, as well as my feedback on the Amateur rank. Same thing, since it's mostly just tutorial (not really) style levels, I'll probably do the same thing here as I did with the Noisemaker rank, meaning I likely won't give feedback on each individual level until Amateur 29 and beyond.

Feedback on the First 28 Tutorial-Like Levels of the Amateur Rank

Let me start off by saying that it was a huge relief to finally start hearing the other music tracks starting in this rank. I got annoyed with the boring ONML music rotation very quickly in the Noisemaker rank. Don't get me wrong, you did a good job of remixing the 6 ONML tracks, but it was very boring hearing the same 6 tunes throughout the 40 levels of the Noisemaker rank. Indeed, I found myself rocking out to some of your original Lemmings music track remixes in the Amateur rank :thumbsup: In particular, I love the music for Amateur 7, as well as the following level, Amateur 8 (Very nice How Much is That Doggie in the Window? remix! :thumbsup:), Amateur 9 (especially the beginning which sounds almost like something from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite, specifically The Flower Waltz), and Amateur 13. Nice job with these! :thumbsup: The rest of the tracks I was either partial to or wasn't a fan of. I would probably love both The Can Can and She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain tracks if they weren't as loud.

After I finished the Amateur rank last night, I headed over to the LWT New Formats topic to read the posts on the Noisemaker and Amateur ranks. Apparently I echoed a lot of Icho's feedback for the Noisemaker rank here for Old Formats, so you're going to see me echoing a lot of Icho's feedback for the Amateur rank as well.

In contrast to the Noisemaker rank, the tutorial style levels in the Amateur rank were more enjoyable and weren't nearly as difficult, and the difficulty isn't all over the place. At least after the first 2 levels of Amateur, which I felt were difficult in their own way, although the former not as much as the latter. For Amateur 1 - It's a Long Way to the top, it is a bit difficult to see that 4 stackers is sufficient to get over the first wall. Even if it's difficult visually, I guess it's very easy to deduce that stackers must be used for that, based on the skillset, since 2 builders is obviously nowhere near enough to get over the first wall. Then again, it's always difficult to tell how many stackers are needed to get over any wall, especially since most of us are used to using builders to get over walls.

For Amateur 2 - Timber (It's going down!), the only difficult part is the leftmost entrance. It's not easy to figure out how to delay the lemmings long enough for a worker lemming to mine the tree obstacle before anyone turns back and drowns. The other two entrances are very easy to figure out. Then again, this is also the very first time I have played a level in your Autumn tileset, which means I need to get used to recognizing the objects but most importantly the trap, which blends in very well with the other leaves, although I correctly suspected the bottom one on the left since it really stand out, even if the top trap took me by complete surprise, since I have never played this tileset ever.

After the first two levels, then I say we had a long stretch of fairly easy levels. Amateur 3 - Walking on sunshine will likely look impossible at first glance for most, but then I looked at the number of lemmings in the level, and with two hatches, that means 5 out of each, hence the 5 swimmers. Also, since you later teach that the water breaks falls with Amateur 12 in the pre-text, I'm wondering if these levels should switch positions. The only problem here is that this would break the already neatly placed levels according to movement of skills for the first three levels (up, down, and horizontal), so unless your intention is for the player to figure out that water always breaks falls, I would say this can be a huge step up in difficulty for the less experienced players. Luckily, if the player manages to figure that out, the rest is easy.

Amateur 8 - Who let the dogs out? is quite a difficult level and I would even say is a huge step up in difficulty compared to the previous levels of the rank. It's not easy to figure out how to navigate the terrain and around the dog traps with the extremely restricted skillset. Truthfully, the missing disarmer was the very first thing I noticed in the level, so naturally I scanned the level to find the disarmer pickup. Surprisingly, I couldn't spot it myself, so at first I thought you were trolling and made an error for the level. I did suspect that it was the mound next to the last dog before the exit, but I wasn't certain. It should be obvious to you that I resisted turning on CPM, and I played the entire level without the aid of it. Indeed, the "boing" pickup sound took me a bit by surprise after I passed the mound I suspected where the pickup was. I then rewinded a bit and took another quick look, and I finally did see the disarmer icon in the mound. Quite well-hidden, if I do say so myself.

As for the level, I got to say that it definitely shouldn't be a surprise that indeed there are hidden traps in the dogs, particularly since the pre-text somewhat hints at it. It's also as you say, your animals are hungry for lemmings. I got to say, though, that you did a great job of depicting dog poop at the barrel, and when the trap went off, my reaction was, "Eww, the dog pooped on the lemming and killed it!" There is also some kind of trap that sucks lemmings upwards in the first and last dogs that I encountered in my solution when you get to its mouth. I got to ask, what kind of trap is it that's sucking the lemmings upwards? Especially since the lemming immediately gets sucked up once it steps on the trigger area. Obviously, it's to give the impression that the dog ate the lemming, so I thought that was fun to see. Above all, great looking level! ;)

I say Amateur 13 - Ayo Technology is a pretty difficult radiation level. It's definitely not easy to work out how to manuever the lemmings with the radiation coundown to get them to explode in the places that will get the crowds from either side up to the exit. The save requirement might seem very lenient, but even with the cloners it's pretty tight. Nice looking level though, with the depiction of the atom and referencing lemmings being blown into atoms with the radiation.

Amateur 15 - Ring, ring! can also be difficult, but I say more tricky than difficult. The solution I came up with building into terrain to turn around at the end to bash the OWWs seems to be the more difficult alternative. I read your spoiler list on what you intended on this level after I had saved the rank, and indeed having looked at the level again, I say destructive skills going against the OWW is the much easier option here. Once again, nice looking level depicting a telephone with the number keys.

Amateur 16 - Slide it in can also be difficult as well, especially with figuring out how to get the floaters home since they take a little longer to open up their parachute compared to gliders. I might had overcomplicated the solution tremendously though. Indeed, I just tried it again and saw that there are much easier ways to solve it than the way I did. This was what gave me a lot of problems on Hasty 6 of Lemmicks, and I mentioned that was the hardest level of the rank.

I think Amateur 17 - Float is also another difficult one, especially with figuring out how to get past the flower trap and how to bridge the gap before anyone else arrives and falls into the bottomless pit. I didn't use the stoner, so I wonder what the purpose of it is. Probably means I also backrouted the level, but I'm not sure.

Amateur 18 - Tears in Heaven is yet another difficult level and I would also say is a huge step up in difficulty to the previous difficult ones I just mentioned. The right crowd is easy, but the left crowd is quite difficult. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get all of the left crowd to the miner tunnel on the right side.

Amateur 23 - Fields of gold is a difficult level in figuring out how to navigate the honeycomb and getting the right crowd up to where the left crowd can get up. My solution is probably quite fiddly and there are probably much easier ways.

Amateur 24 - Wonderwall Not necessarily difficult, just tricky, in regards to getting the basher/blocker trick to work at the very beginning, but I was already aware of this trick and so this level wasn't as hard. Definitely for less experienced players it will be a very hard level. The one thing I didn't know about was

Spoiler

a digger turning around when dug directly on top of a one-way field, but I guess this makes sense since this is akin to digging and releasing a blocker, who has the ability to turn a digger in the other direction when you block in the digger pit.

Amateur 26 - Like ice in the sunshine Nice slowfreeze puzzle that gave me a good struggle for about 10 minutes, so it can be difficult and is somewhat a big step up in difficulty, even with the very restricted skillset. Definitely getting the crowd down safely is hard, and also figuring out how to stop them from walking into the trap.

Finally, Amateur 28 - Zombie is quite a difficult level to finish off the tutorial-like puzzles. Once again, compression for the win here and releasing the crowd at the right time to avoid infection. Before that, I kept trying to actually get rid of the zombie by making him drown, but I wasn't able to.

The other ones I didn't mention in the first 28 levels weren't as difficult and were enjoyable and more to my liking. In particular, I absolutely loved Amateur 5 - Sugar Baby Lem (easy level and nice looking level), Amateur 6 - Cliffs of Dover (nice puzzle and how there's two solutions, my solution spares all the climbers), Amateur 7 - Join me in death (I still enjoyed this one despite the stoner staircase and repeated bombing/stoning, at least it wasn't to the extreme and done to death like it was in Paralems), Amateur 9 - Greensleeves (nice, easy puzzle!), and Amateur 11 - Whole lotta Lems (very nice puzzle, although I initially tried to get all lemmings through the pillar for a few minutes until I realized I was going about it the wrong way and that the several climbers provided had a purpose, and the miner placement and timing can be a bit difficult).

My favorite level of the rank in the first batch of 28 levels was Amateur 19 - Holding out for a hero. Decent looking level and also a very nice, easy puzzle on top of it! :thumbsup:

I also really loved Amateur 25 - Radioactive. Very nice and easy radiation puzzle! :thumbsup:

Lastly, Amateur 24 - Firework I immediately thought of the nuke being required just based on the level title, especially since it does indeed look like fireworks from all the lemmings being applied a bomber skill with the nuke. This is one of the few levels that I have played where the nuke being required for the solution didn't escape me. For some reason, that one level in Lemmicks where the nuke is needed completely went over my head. I think this is the third level that has Katy Perry as an artist, so you're apparently a fan of her, as am I.

Ok, that took longer and I wrote a lot more than I thought I would, but at least the boring tutorial-like levels are done and over with. Now finally onto the open-ended puzzles and the more exciting stuff. The remaining feedback will be on the final 12 levels of the Amateur rank, starting with Amateur 29.



Feedback on the Last 12 Levels of the Amateur Rank, Starting with Amateur 29

The rest of the rank lived up to my expectations of very exciting and well-done puzzles, and so luckily you managed to get my engagement level back up, and so I will definitely be playing out the rest of the pack with joy, unless I start getting annoyed with future puzzles that have stumped me, but I highly doubt it, since so far it's been looking really good ;P It's going to take a while, since I still have 240 levels to go, but I'll get through the whole pack eventually. In the final set of 12 levels of the rank, the hardest level for me was certainly Amateur 37. I still loved the level and solution, though! ;)

Spoiler

Amateur 29 - Seven Nation Army Very easy level to start off the open-ended puzzles of the rank after the previous 28 tutorial-like levels. Somewhat nice looking level too despite the minimal design in the middle.

Amateur 30 - Georgia on my Mind Already difficult with the second puzzle level, but still not overly hard and quite a nice level. Definitely a nice departure from the standard block the crowd in and have a worker lemming forge the path by temporarily delaying/containing the crowd with a miner pit in both directions and bashing to the right before the lemmings get trapped in the windows. I didn't realize those flashing windows is just scenery. Also the flag pole being scenery and not solid. I'm not sure if it's the exact same in New Formats, but I definitely wished something was done to make the flag pole more clearly scenery and not solid. Great looking level too! :thumbsup:

Amateur 31 - The Great Indifference The 0 save requirement was what immediately caught my eye. Is that intentional? Upon loading the level I immediately exited. It's still a very easy level, so I might just go back and actually do the level for real later on.

Amateur 32 - Ich und mein Holz Nice level with a great solution! :thumbsup: You, Simon, Icho, Nepster, or eric can translate the level title for me.

Amateur 33 - Eagle Somewhat difficult, but still easy. Also a very nice looking level! :thumbsup:

Amateur 34 - Levels Easy 10-of-everything level despite the lose 1 save requirement, although can't be wasteful with your skills, especially the builders. I like how you included a level from every rank of the original Lemmings and put them together to make this level: Fun 1, Tricky 1, Taxing 29, and Mayhem 12. It's just like traveling in time in the game here.

Amateur 35 - Black Polished Chrome This one was quite difficult for me, actually. I struggled with this for a good half hour, but finally managed to solve it. Definitely not easy to find an efficient path through all the obstacles with the extremely restricted skillset to reach the hidden (not hidden at all but in the context of the original Lemmings game it definitely would be hidden) exit inside the wall. For the exit, I kept not having a basher to access it. In the end, two bombers and a platformer leftover.

Amateur 36 - Walk this way Nice puzzle involving a temporary stacker to prevent the glider from exiting and then later circling around to bomb the top of it from the right side! Probably my favorite among the final 12 levels of the rank :thumbsup: The only difficult thing is platforming so that only the glider makes it across so that it can circle back while the rest of the crowd can still fall down and get to the exit coming from the left.

Amateur 37 - Shipping to Boston By far the hardest level of the rank but I still love the solution and level. Very nice puzzle with a bunch of tricks required! :thumbsup: Struggled for a good 40 minutes or so. The key here is realizing that it's possible to give the first lemming enough time to seal up the gap and losing only one lemming in the process by making the second lemming a bomber to contain the crowd. The level is still no cakewalk after that. Other tricks needed are bombing the second wall as the climber either starts hoisting or falls one pixel from the other direction, temporary 1 bridge for the next gap after that, getting up to the steel platform with a combination of a builder and a stack interrupted with a walker, and finally building to bridge the chain gap to turn around and circle back to the crowd to release them. The final builder can be used to get up on the blue square blocks platform. All of these required things make it a very difficult level.

Amateur 38 - The Shocker Nothing special here and way too easy. Nice breather after the previous brutally difficult level.

Amateur 39 - Japan Nice looking level that is somewhat difficult but still a really nice puzzle! I like how the radiation must be used to bomb the gray pillars but then you also have to figure out how to avoid the radiation traps later afterwards. A couple of skills leftover, but I'm guessing these are fine.

Amateur 40 - God gave Rock n' Roll to you Very nice level to finish off the rank. Somewhat difficult and definitely not trivial despite the 5-of-everything skillset of what you're given. At first, I was wondering where the exit was in the level. I spent a couple of minutes digging through the terrain, as well as the guitar picks at the top. I then experimented and tried going to the very last guitar and to my surprise the worker exited. To be fair, this is the very first level in the music tileset that I have ever played, and so I was completely unaware that the vertical standing black guitar is the exit. It should also be clear that I didn't use CPM at all. I simply wanted the challenge of finding the exit without the aid of it ;)

Also, for a while I tried to use the upper path of going on the piano keys for probably about a good 15-20 minutes before I then tried the lower route. I did try the lower route before spending time on the upper path, but I quickly abandoned it when I saw that you need at least two platformers to make it across the gap. Once I did come back to the bottom route, I quickly realized that's where the stacker can provide the few pixels of width to allow lemmings across the gap without using up another platformer, since three platformers are needed to get to the exit.

Most importantly, very nice looking level!:thumbsup:     

For the Amateur rank, I recognized 10 of the songs by title

Overall, the Amateur rank was a huge improvement compared to the Noisemaker rank. It was still somewhat boring, but nowhere near as much, and the difficulty doesn't jump all over the place like it did in the Noisemaker rank. The Amateur rank definitely lived up to its promise of superb looking levels and well-made puzzles after the first 28 tutorial-like style levels. Indeed, I praised almost all of the final 12 open-ended puzzle levels of the rank, so that's certainly saying something. So, it's thanks to those levels (and some of the ones in the first 28 to an extent) that managed to get me engaged and hyped up about the pack again. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the rest of the pack and finishing up the whole thing! ;)

I think from here on out, I'm going to post with my replays and feedback when I get to the halfway point, ie, after 20 levels. As I said before, 40 levels is just way too much to write feedback on all at once. 20 levels at a time should be much more manageable in terms of how much time I waste writing my feedback. Indeed, that's exactly what I did with United, although I sent replays to Icho whenever I got truly stumped, not necessarily at the halfway point, although I did that too!

Onward to the Professional rank! :)       
#1665
Good to know! :)