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Messages - Nessy

#601
Quote from: ccexplore on August 18, 2017, 04:34:30 AM
mount c c:\  [you could try changing it to a subdirectory under c:\ instead of c:\ itself, it shouldn't matter]
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
d:
setup
l3d

This worked! :laugh:

I guess the problem was that I had to mount both the C drive and my D (disk) drive, while in my previous attempts I would only mount one or the other. That was the only thing I did different in this last attempt.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to help me out. I appreciate it. :thumbsup:
#602
Hey Yung Gotenks.

Nice fix on the backroute for "Looks Can Be Deceiving". Unfortunately, I was able to find another backroute (replay attached below). See the Spoiler tag for details.

Spoiler

I think an easy way to fix it is to add steel on the bottom part of the large walls I bashed through in my backroute replay. However, I don't know if that will interfere with your intended solution. I did try to solve the level the way I think you wanted it to be solved (replay also attached below) by doing the following:
- I allowed the Lemmings the climb up the first two walls.
- The last lemming made a bridge under the staircase-like structure after those two walls.
- The first lemming platformed over the gap before the trap to allow the other Lemmings to overtake the platformer to fall inside the little structure and get stuck there.
- I used the Clone skill on the platformer when he finished to bunch up two lemmings together so one could get past the trap.
- Finally, that same lemming collected the two basher pickup skills at the end to free the trapped lemmings.

I'm not sure if I was close with this since I didn't use all the basher and platform skills. I don't you to spoiler the solution, but am I on the right track at least?
#603
Hello Yung Gotenks.

Congratulations on making your first pack! I have played through it and here are my comments:

Spoiler

Calm 1 - Just Mine: A nice little level to start the pack off.

Calm 2 - Up And Down Lemmings: Calm 2 is a good first think-before-you-act puzzle where Lemmings automatically walk into danger and you have to plan accordingly. Personally, I think this level should switch places with Calm 3. In Calm 2 the Lemmings automatically head into danger while in Calm 3 they don't, making Calm 2 trickier than Calm 3.

Calm 3 - Up In The Trees: See Calm 2.

Calm 4 - Mind The Pond: Nice little level. By the way, did you purposely leave the flag off the exit? It doesn't bother me, I was just curious.

Calm 5 - The Hellhouse: A good level to end the first rank.

Decent 1 - Frosted And Roasted Lemmings: A good early second-rank level. However, I think the save requirement can go higher, otherwise you can pass the level by focusing on one entrance only. I liked the idea of using platformers or bashers to bypass the traps instead of a traditional "just build over it" approach.

Decent 2 - Cave Lemmings: I think this level would have been better if the number of builders and/or platforms was much lower, as to start forcing the player to be smart about how they use those skills in the terrain. For example, builders can be used over the first pond, but platformers have to be used in the second pond since it is much larger than the first pond.

Decent 3 - There Is Only One-Way: The best level in the pack in my opinion, and a good introduction to one-way walls in the pack.

Decent 4 - Distance: Interesting level. I would force the drop from the second floor to be lethal as to make saving them part of the solution.

Decent 5 - The Marble Pillars: It was a nice level, but I think I would lower the number of skills you have to force the player to be careful about where they use each skill and allow other skills to be used. For example, I bashed under the last trap but a lot of people would just build over it. Forcing the solution to use up all builders and/or platforms beforehand as to force that trick at the end would be pretty neat in my opinion.

Suspicious 1 - Builders Are Your Best Friend: Nice level with an interesting use of the froze trap.

Suspicious 2 - Over The Gap: The look of this level was a bit boring, but that's just me. It was a bit builder heavy for its position and the Swimmer skill wasn't used in my solution. I wouldn't have minded seeing a solution where the Swimmer is used to cross the first large gap and you have to work backwards from there.

Suspicious 3 - Take A Little Break: A bit too easy for its position. This level would probably have made a good early Calm level.

Suspicious 4 - Looks Can Be Deceiving: I have two replays for this level: one is a backroute I found and another one was my attempt at solving the level the way I think the intended solution was supposed to be. Most likely I'm way off, but if I'm not it will be an excellent puzzle level.

Suspicious 5 - Ending It Off: A bit too easy for its position.



Final Comments:

Overall this was a good, fun first level pack. I did notice that there were some levels where the amount of permanent skills was greater than the max number of Lemmings in the level, and that there were some levels where the starting position was not at the entrance. The latter doesn't bother me but it can be a bit annoying to other people. I would also start lowering the amount of Blocker and Walker skills in later levels as to start having the player think about containing the Lemmings in creative ways. Also, some of the save requirments were too low. Other than that keep making levels!
#604
Thanks ccexplore. I'll try your suggestions and Simon's suggestions again later on today.

Thank you everybody for the help! :thumbsup:
#605
Help & Guides / Re: DosBox Help
August 15, 2017, 03:56:53 AM
Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately I tried compatibility mode one more time but nothing. Thanks for your help anyway.

I did originally try running it off CD by placing the contents of 3D Lemmings in a subfolder called l3d:

Z:\> Mount C C:/dosgames
Z:\> C:
C:\> cd l3d
C:\> L3D.exe


But this gave me:

MSCDEX driver not found

Which lead me to try playing off the CD with no luck either.
#606
I found my old 3D Lemmings CD today and I tried to get it up and running using DOSBox on Windows 10 (or is Windows 10 way too far ahead that there's just no hope of running 3D Lemmings using DosBox?), but I'm having some trouble. I'm mounting everything correctly and I keep getting stuck on:

MSCDEX Version 2.23 detected
CD-ROM drive – D: utilized
Please insert 3D Lemmings CD in drive and close door


I've searched the web for help but came up with nothing.

I appreciate any help with this. Thank you very much.
#607
I just realized that I never gave my opinion about hidden exits/traps.

Well, personally I don't like hidden traps. On some levels I was okay with it at best, but on other levels like that icicle trap in the first level of Havoc it was just stupid and unnecessary and added nothing meaningful to the level. Regarding hidden exits I was never a fan myself but I do understand what your saying about using hints like the alternate exit in "X Marks The Spot". I actually found it more annoying when you reach an exit that you can clearly see but a few pixels of terrain is covering the exit trigger area (I'm looking at some of the snow levels from Oh No! More Lemmings :XD:).

Quote from: Strato Incendus on August 11, 2017, 11:25:04 PM
Remember that Nessie tilepiece from the Highland set? It is originally just terrain, but I used to think it was a trap since I confused it with the chameleon / lizard from the Oh No-Rock-Set. But funnily enough, you can actually turn Nessie into a trap by putting that chameleon head behind it. Since both are green, it even looks quite convincing when it opens its jaw.
Would you guys consider that a "hidden" trap already? ;) I mean, that Nessie does look kinda like it's up to no good anyway, doesn't it? :D

Ha ha, I thought the same exact thing when I first played. Regarding whether it would be a good trap is a bit in the gray. On one hand the Nessie does look suspicious enough, but on the other hand we know it isn't a trap so someone might still get caught off when it suddenly becomes one. I think it would be a good idea to introduce it at the beginning of an early level right off the bat to show players that it's going to be used as a trap.
#608
Lemmings Main / Re: Your favorite Lemmings song(s)?
August 07, 2017, 07:33:59 PM
These Amiga tracks and SNES soundtrack are great. Believe it or not, I actually like the Genesis soundtrack even though that wasn't the one I grew up with, and my favorite from that soundtrack is its version of London Bridge Is Falling Down. However, I pretty much enjoy Can-Can on any version ;).
#609
Level Design / Re: up/down-facing 1-way walls
July 29, 2017, 03:17:11 AM
So far, to my knowledge, yes only diggers and miners work on down-facing one-way walls. What's interesting is that bashers have no effect on down-facing one-way walls even though diggers can be used on left/right-facing one-way walls. For up-facing one-way walls I believe only a fencer skill can get across them. A bomber, however, is effective on all one-way walls regardless of what direction they are facing.

I don't know if up/down-facing one-way walls are popular or not. For me personally I do agree that the down-facing one-way walls specifically can be used for interesting puzzles because of the stronger restriction on them. For the Android game I think having a down-facing one-way wall would be okay, but personally if there are no skills or effects that allow lemmings to go through an up-facing one-way wall then maybe it shouldn't be included unless it is used like a type of steel that restricts using skills there (and maybe force the player to only use a bomber skill there).
#610
Level Design / Re: Level ideas Thread
July 13, 2017, 11:23:42 PM
Oh, thanks nin10doadict. That idea of using a stacker as a kind of splatform is a much better idea.
#611
General Discussion / Re: !RANT! >_<
July 13, 2017, 11:20:57 PM
Being a web developer they always warned us to not use those bars that follow you around, or at least practice extreme caution with them. Not only can it be annoying to a user but it can block a lot of content especially when viewing said website on a phone. Even those bars that remain on top can be problematic if done incorrectly. The code used to keep them up there can sometimes be very buggy on mobile devices, like when it seems to jump when you scroll up or down, or when the entire webpage seems to jump upwards when the bar starts sticking to the top (although that's caused by not "filling" in the space the bar left behind when it changes it's position from relative to absolute).
#612
Quote from: Nepster on July 10, 2017, 05:13:30 PM
Make lots of levels without worrying about their difficulty, then sort them into ranks roughly according to their difficulty and finally rearrange them according to player feedback.

This does make sense. If you design a level with a "it's going to be a final rank level" state of mind then you limit your creative freedom and miss out on a chance to make a really solid level that will be great for another rank or something.


Quote from: ccexplore on July 11, 2017, 02:46:54 AM
Honestly, it would be very hard to imagine anyone creating 80 levels (ignoring the repeats) in a perfect or near-perfect difficulty order right on the outset.  Therefore it is much more likely that the levels are rearranged at least a few times before settling into the current in-game ordering.  It's also possible that they may intentionally interspersed some slightly easier levels every now and then to avoid the hard levels getting too discouraging (after all, if you can't skip to the next level, getting stuck really means you're stuck, and having some "breather" levels may be good to keep the player encouraged).

Yes, I would imagine that no one can create 80 or 120 levels with a perfect difficulty order, just because of the nature of the game. Your example of RPGs was a good example as the difficulty can be tweaked with higher stats and higher AI throughout the procession of the game, but for something like Lemmings there are just more factors to be considered and its difficulty progression can't all be done on the first go.
#613
General Discussion / Re: Dreams
July 11, 2017, 02:58:39 PM
Quote from: GigaLem on July 11, 2017, 12:04:09 AM
I see my deceased brother come out of his room, and he was in a chipper mood, he even decided to show my little sister about Amiibos in Smash 4, I had a Samus amiibo in that dream to, I was thinking "No this isn't real" I felt like crying, next thing I knew, he was huging me tight, comforting me.

I know how you feel. I remember when my grandfather died I was little and I would start to see him in my dreams. The one that really got me was one where he hugged me and I told him I was glad to see him again.

Quote from: Raymanni on July 11, 2017, 08:29:01 AM
Just this other night I saw a dream where I was send back to my elementary school and I would have to go through it all again...

I always have those dreams where I'm back at high school and I am late to class but I can't run or find my way around the school. Funny how your brain thinks it's real even though it should know that I'm not back there!

And yes, I think that dreams can be really good sources of inspiration for things. In fact, I believe that a lot of inspiration the author for The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde had came from a dream when he was trying to find ideas for it.

I also think that dreams can sometime reveal things that we never knew we had. Not in a Sigmund Freud way, but I remember having a lot of strange dreams that were chaotic (even for dreamscape standards) during a difficulty part of my life. It was as if my brain was reflected the stress I was feeling even though I didn't physically feel it.
#614
Seems like I caused a hot debate here ;)

Another thing that interests me are the levels that appear on the second-to-last difficulty (like in Taxing or Wicked). It seems like those levels are the hardest to design for because a lot of times levels considered to be misplaced come from there. They seem to be in a strange spot on the difficulty curve. Sometimes they seem like they belong in an easier rank and sometimes they seem like they belong in a later rank.

Usually the first rank is the easiest and sometimes (not always) teaches you the skills and hazards you will encounter (like the first few levels of Fun). The second difficulty is when some more complex puzzles are introduced that require more thought and planning than the first rank, but it isn't overwhelmingly hard. The last rank is usually the one that really pushes you to the limit in terms of high entropy and tricks. Finally, that second-to-last rank... what makes those levels that belong in a second-to-last rank and not the last rank? Would it be a rank that starts teaching the player some of the more complex tricks? Would it be a rank that is just more difficult than its previous rank and easier than its last rank? The latter might be more true and I'm just overthinking it.
#615
General Discussion / Re: Hello Everyone!
July 10, 2017, 02:53:38 PM
Thanks Flopsy for the list. I completely forgot about the Omega series so thanks for mentioning it, and thanks namida for warning that Omega II is for those feeling brave :P.