Okay, time to do this. I'm playing through the Skills rank again and as I go along, I'll write up suggestions for improving the pre-level texts. (I'll also note any other issues, though I don't think there are any.)
Most of my suggestions will be where I think the text is correct but could be written more effectively. I'll use italics where I note an actual grammar error.
General
For the level titles, title case usually doesn't capitalise articles or prepositions ("a", "the", "at" etc.)
Level 1
First paragraph is way too long; we need to find a way to introduce a paragraph break.
Cut "overall" and "starting" from first sentence, then it fits on 3 lines, saving a line.
I would rewrite the next two sentences as something like: "Help the Lemmings by assigning them skills. Each level may have a different selection of skills and limit to the number of each you may assign." I think that should fit on 4 lines, allowing for breaks before and after this chunk.
Last paragraph: "The digger lets a Lemming dig straight down, creating a tunnel that other Lemmings will fall into." Note that "into" contains "in" already, so you can't use it with "in which".
Level 2
Paragraph break after "through the terrain".
"As the digger" should be "As with the digger" and have a comma after it.
Level 3
Prefer "two" over "2" when it refers to something that is counted (like skills) rather than measured (like pixels).
Level 4
Same thing with "2". Don't capitalise "Permanent".
"If they hit their head they fall down again" is unneeded (what else would they do?) and cutting it would allow splitting this daunting paragraph into two gentler chunks.
"2 or more pixel height difference in the ceiling": cut "in the ceiling" as the context makes this clear. Cut "then they fall down again" for the same reason as with climbers. Then the splat height info can get its own paragraph, making it more likely the player will notice this.
I mentioned this already, but say "too far" rather than "64 or more pixels", and talk about the exact height together with introducing the splat ruler, in a later level.
Level 5
Cut "if they are doing any tasks..."; save this for skill interactions in Basic & Advanced Training.
Change "their walking form" to "walking", saving another line.
Cut "which can help you remove terrain".
Perhaps use the space saved to mention the 64-pixel height and splat ruler?
Level 6
Cut "without dying", which is redundant with "survive".
Cut "instead of a standard straight fall".
Spelling: "immediately"
Level 7
Okay but again there's a lot of text here. Maybe cut the bit about platformers also having the clicking sound, as this is easy to infer?
Level 8
Change "a bit related to" to "like".
Again, everything here is okay but I personally don't like there being so much text and would hack away the least informative parts: the last two sentences on stackers, and "This can also be used to block Lemmings".
Level 9
Title: "Amphibic" should be "Amphibious".
Paragraph break after "for good". Comma after "As the Swimmer".
Last sentence: change to "The disarming process takes a few seconds, but the trap becomes inactive immediately."
Level 10
"2" again.
Another very long text, but I don't see any obvious cuts to make.
Level 11
Change "You've clearly noticed" to "You may have noticed". Let's not make the player feel bad if they didn't!
Change "The rate of which" to "The rate at which".
Spelling: "though" (in the last sentence)
Level 12
Change "At last" to "And last".
Change "one after the other" to "one after another" and "which timer" to "whose timer".
Comments on everything other than the hotkey issue:
Rank 1: Greatly improved. :thumbsup: All the main issues have been addressed, and I don't mind that you didn't agree with me on everything, because a lot of the things I said were subjective. The only thing I'd still suggest changing is in Level 1 -- the long first paragraph is a bit daunting for the very first text you ask the player to read, so I'd put a paragraph break after "assigning them skills".
By Rank 2, longer texts are a bit more acceptable since the player has (hopefully) gotten a taste for NeoLemmix and is more willing to spend time reading, knowing they get rewarded with cool levels. So I won't say too much about the length here, but I'll look out in case there are cuts I think you should make.
Rank title: It wouldn't be clear to a new player what you mean by "functions", and "interactables" is cumbersome (and the very first object introduced, background decoration, is not interactive). I would just call this rank "Objects" even though it also tutorialises some hotkeys; most of the focus is on objects, and the hotkeys are just introduced along the way when they become relevant.
Level 1: It's the "paws" button, not "paw". Hence the pun.
Level 2: "Steel can't be destroyed" is true but you could make the stronger statement "Steel can't be damaged". This would also avoid the repetition of destroyed/destructive.
Let's should be lets. "Let's" is short for "let us" and is used to make suggestions, as in "Let's go for a walk."
Level 3: No issues.
Level 4: Typo: "trun" for "turn" at the start of the second paragraph.
Level 5: Cut "to make sure he faces the correct direction".
Suggested rewrite for second paragraph: "Levels may begin with some pre-placed lemmings, which are active straight away. They may begin with permanent skills already assigned to them."
Level 6: "One-way walls" has only one hyphen. Fifth line should be "bashers, fencers or miners".
Second paragraph: "basher" should be "bashers".
Level 7: Comma after "though". Spelling: "necessary".
This level (and also Level 9) requires builders to be placed precisely. I can't remember, did the first rank talk about skill shadows at any point? Might be good to fit in a mention somewhere, and it will be tricky to do this in rank 2 which already has longer texts.
Level 8: Comma after "64-pixel fall".
Level 9: "They only can" should be "They can only".
Level 10: "Splat pads" are not hyphenated, and "anti-splat pads" have only one. "In contrast" should be "by contrast".
Level 11: The wall of text is extremely daunting. Fortunately, I think this one needs a full rewrite anyway, because it shouldn't mention specific hotkeys or time intervals since the player may have a different hotkey setup, and that should shorten it quite a bit anyway.
This was a fun level! :thumbsup:
Level 12: Replace second sentence with "In this case they are marked with the icon of that skill."
Suggested rewrite for second paragraph: "Normally, lemmings are equally spread among all hatches, but some hatches can be limited to spawning a certain number of lemmings." [Keep the part about exits as-is.]
The level is pretty tricky as you can't make any mistakes in where lemmings go -- though by this point we have been introduced to rewinding, so it might be okay to leave it.
Level 13: Typo: "hightlight". Pretty neat level 8-)
Level 14: "Who shall nullify" should be "to nullify". Spelling: "incoming".
V 0.08 is out!
The update introduces the "Basic Training" rank with 25 levels!
The single levels intend to teach the following topics:
- Basic Training
- Basic Training
- Blocker release: Walker, Bomber, Basher, Miner, Digger
- Training: Blockers
- Training: Blocker Digger Release
- Basher Ascend, Climber+Shimmier
- Training: Basher Ascend, Climber+Shimmier
- Training: Blockers, Uneaven terrain
- Builder/Platformer Stretching, Basher positioning.
- Crowd Delaying
- Training: Crowd Delaying, Builder Stretching
- Training: Sorting, Planning
- Blocker Substitudes: Stacker, Stoner. Deployment Speed of Stackers and Stoners.
- Digger Holding Pit
- Training: Digger Holding Pit
- 6-pixel step up, Stepping through Terrain
- Training: Step-up
- Builder+Blocker, Miner+Blocker, Digger+Blocker
- Compression Method
- Training: +Blocker Combo, Compression
- Satcker+Cloner, Builder+Cloner, Glider+Cloner, Miner+Cloner, Climber+Bomber
- Platformer+Basher, Builder+Miner, Digger+Stacker
- Training: Miner+Builder, Cloner
- Walker Interrupt: Platformer, Builder, Basher, Miner, Fencer, Stacker
- Training: Walker Interrupt
Now, I need some feedback again on where I screwed up some texts or maybe missed some things.
If this rank becomes somewhat stable again I will start creating the "Advanced Training" rank. Currently I plan to cover the following things there:
- Precise Digger/Miner/Basher top-down Staircases
- Basher through parallel builders
- Stoner+Stacker step-up
- Digger assignments at the last moment before he falls
- Basher staircases without builders/walkers. 3 parts: 1) Block+Bomb. 2) Block+Dig+Bash/Dig+Block+Bash. 3) Without a crowd and 2 bashers: Block+Dig+Block+Bash
If you have more things that should be covered please post them here and I will consider them.
Changes to rank 2 will be made after the release of the next major NL version to cover anti-splat pads and neutral lemmings.
"Tower Of Training" - I'm not sure about this one specifically as a tutorial level. I was able to solve it using just bashers and builders, for one - I wonder if a tutorial level like this should require more variety...?
"With Minimal Efforts" - This one, on the other hand, needed a variety of skills and was much better. I do wonder if the end part - especially given that the crowd will likely be coming in quite bunched up - might be a bit tricky for newer players though? My other question would be whether it might be better to allow more than one way to deal with the fatal drop, since most other parts in both of these levels can be approached more than one way and fatal falls are a particularly useful thing to know multiple ways to deal with?
"Blocker Rocker" - I think the "block under entrance / fall, dig later" might belong in Advanced Training, personally. My only other criticism here - and this is more relevant to existing players than new ones - is that the pillar bottoms along the way look, at first glance, like they could be squasher traps.
"Steely Halls" - This level lacks introduction text - but I'm assuming that's just something you're doing with the levels that aren't specifically teaching anything?
"Limited Release" - This level feels a bit tricky for beginner, even if the trick is accepted as a beginner trick, because of how little time is left to release the crowd (or the need to find an alternate way to release them and then free the blocker, which isn't impossible) when the route is completed...
"Reach-Around" - This one, again, feels a bit tricky for a beginner tutorial rank - not the sending a worker around part, but the building inwards from both sides part in the middle.
"It's A Stretch" - The level itself works nicely, but I think each gap can be made 1 pixel more lenient, while still requiring the player to stretch every bridge.
"Delaying the Inevitable" - This one was especially well done IMO! :)
I'll continue with this later.
Sorry - I meant "tutorial level" in the sense of that it's in a tutorial pack, more than anything focused on the individual levels themself. I should have clarified this.
Next few levels...
"Chalk Walk" - There are two spots where infinite containment is possible, simply by not assigning a blocker yet. I sent you screenshots of these on Discord. Aside from that, this level is a pretty good one.
"Hidden Crystalline Temple" - Either I seriously overcomplicated this, or this level is really hard. :O Replay attached in case.
"Dig The Trench" - The 2nd builder has to be pixel-precise, I don't see any value added to the level by this.
And now finishing off the rest of the rank...
(Note: Since none of the levels I haven't done yet were included in the changelog, I didn't redownload.)
"Steps and Pixels" - The diagonal pixel thing only occurs in one place, and I think it could be easily overlooked, and is even possible to avert altogether EDIT: no, it isn't, I wasn't quite thinking straight when I wrote that. I think more emphasis on that is needed - maybe some downwards steps with it near the end? That aside, this level is pretty good - and the skill queueing feature makes it a lot more suitable for new players than it would have been previously! :D
"Stepblocked" - To me, it wasn't immediately obvious that I wouldn't need the Walker later, and thus I used a trick that might not be expected (RR99 right away, last lemming builds instead of first) to avert the need for it near the start. Even if the player realises the walker is unneeded, should they choose to assign the builder first, the 3rd lemming gets in the way of the most obvious spot to assign the builder, making the shadow hard to see. I wonder - could the release rate be a bit lower here?
"Concentrated Force" - The save requirement as it stands requires timing the crowd release so the crowd merges with the basher. I don't feel this adds any value to the level as a tutorial, so I suggest dropping the save requirement to 43.
"Blocked In Your Favor" - Very nice level! :)
"Combine & Conquer" - Saying "a well placed builder can keep a Fencer going" is misleading. A fencer will always continue up a builder bridge. No issues with the level itself IMO, although I think demonstrating the fencer case too would be easy enough.
"Equal Distribution" - This one has me stumped. Which would be great in a normal pack, but a bit worrying in a tutorial pack.
"Special Staircase" - The builder not only doesn't need to be interrupted, but cannot be interrupted. Instead, he should be allowed to hit his head. Is this intentional?
"Stepping Up To The Stars" - I had a walker left over - the 2nd basher didn't need to be stopped. (Perhaps you intended a fencer or miner to be used right at the top? I used the miner near the start, then fencer, basher, stacker, fencer, basher, platformer.)
Aside from the level-specific feedbacks, I wonder if there should be a level or two gap between a tutorial level and the practice level that uses what it taught? Enough that the player has to think more than "what did the immediately previous level teach me?", but recent enough that it's still fairly fresh in the player's mind.
Alright, here are my answers:
"Steps and Pixels"
An additional diagonal drop near the exit is a good idea.
"Stepblocked"
Will make the Walker a pick-up, lock and lower the RR.
"Concentrated Force"
This is a slight introduction/training to timing things as well. To the compression tutorial it adds nothing, but I also want to enforce a bit of timing/precision from time to time. Players need to learn it and this is a rather clear and easy case.
"Combine & Conquer"
Will rework the text + make an extra training level with the fencer.
"Equal Distribution"
That's very surprising! Will lower entropy through pick-ups again.
"Special Staircase"
Will rework the builder part.
"Stepping Up To The Stars"
Will enforce the additional canceling.
As I completely forgot a basic trick (Builder Walls), the fencer+builder case should be trained and I was already unsure to place digger stircases in advanced, the Basic Training rank will get 5 additional levels!
So new plan for additional levels:
Basic training:
- Precise Digger/Miner/Basher top-down Staircases
- Builder blocks
- Fencer+Builder Training
+ 2 more
Advanced Training:
- Miner+Platformer,Basher+platformer staircases
- Basher through parallel builders
- Stoner+Stacker step-up
- Digger assignments at the last moment before he falls
- Basher staircases without builders/walkers. 3 parts: 1) Block+Bomb. 2) Block+Dig+Bash/Dig+Block+Bash. 3) Without a crowd and 2 bashers: Block+Dig+Block+Bash
+ X
As for fixes:
- 6-pixel step up, Stepping through Terrain (diagonal drop at the exit)
- Training: Step-up (Walker pick-up, lock+lower RR)
- Platformer+Basher, Builder+Miner, Digger+Stacker (change pre-text)
- Training: Miner+Builder, Cloner (lower entropy)
- Walker Interrupt: Platformer, Builder, Basher, Miner, Fencer, Stacker (enforce Builder interrupt)
- Training: Walker Interrupt (enforce last interrupt)
or turn the Lemmings around...
Well, you have 1 type of skill. ;) Try to remember the skill introduction level for that one. Also you can loose a bunch of lemmings, 100% isn't nessesary.
Aha - got it, thanks! Wierdly though, the stackers were performing the builder skill when I was playing this level yesterday evening... I couldn't make it happen again today though.
Looking forward to the new levels!
Hi IchoTolot,
Here are my replays for the Skills / Objects & Functions ranks. I'll start on the Basic one soon and get those over as well.
Feedback so far (hopefully this will be useful as I am very much a NeoLemmix beginner):
The pack is generally very enjoyable to play through, presenting some challenges of normal difficulty whilst teaching the skills - the pack does a very good job of this and I already feel more at home with NeoLemmix just after these two ranks.
The O&F 11 & 12 pre-screens specify "(None)" as the hotkey for the various tasks; I'm sure this is something you're aware of and will get around to changing, but just a heads-up anyway.
I did find one or two of the levels very difficult to find the solution for, in spite of their simplicity. Namely Split and Splat and Gravity Lab. With the former, since it's not possible to save all the Lemmings it kind of gives the splitter object a bad first impression. My honest advice here would be to slow the release rate to allow the stacker to finish creating a blockade before the next Lemming reaches it; it also gives players the chance to process exactly what's happening with the splitters (the pre-screen explains it perfectly fine, but it's one thing having something explained and another seeing it in action for yourself. It may be worth giving people a bit more time with this one.)
With Gravity Lab, it took me quite a few attempts before I realised that you had to let the first Lemming just fall (in order to have enough builders for the later part of the level). My instinct each time was to make them either a floater or a glider, and I'm sure this will be the case for most NeoLemmix newcomers - after all, we've spent years assigning such skills to Lemmings that are about to walk off a big drop! I did realise from the pre-screen explanation that I was meant to use the updraft to slow the floater down, and to be fair you do say that the order in which the skills are assigned is important (the penny eventually dropped!) buuut… I dunno, I guess it's just a lot to process in one go. Hmmm... maybe leave it actually, coz it is a good puzzle and I won't forget how to use updrafts after that level!
With levels that introduce a completely new concept or object (pickups, buttons, splitters, teleporters, limited-number entrances & exits), it may be an idea to make them as basic as possible - like, first few levels of Fun basic. Just showing the player what the item does, but not in the context of a puzzle just yet. Or, present the item first in a simple set-up level, and then have a puzzle level straight afterwards (this would obviously increase the number of levels...). Just an idea, and one I'm sure you have already considered. If you were to leave it as is, it's totally fine and perfectly enjoyable for any decent Lemmings player. But if the idea is to welcome in complete beginners, then presenting the new stuff in the same manner as the skills themselves may be worthwhile...
Levels I particularly enjoyed were: O&F11 Stop, Rewind and Go, 13 Getting Into Sorting and 15 Night of the Living Lems. These were all my kinda puzzles ;P They do a great job of keeping things simple but challenging whilst also easing the player into new concepts such as limited-number entrances & exits, multitasking in pause mode and... Zombie Lemmings! :lem-mindblown:
Enjoy the replays, I'll get the Basic ones over to you at some point soon-ish.
Best regards,
-WillLem 8-)
It's a great pack, there are some enjoyable levels and as a NeoLemmix beginner I have found it really useful in getting to grips with some of the new skills - there's no way I could have taken on the all-new-skills challenge (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4516.0) without having had a look at this pack first (or, I would have struggled a lot with it at first).
Constructive feedback: I'd just look again at the pre-screens and make sure that they're as clear as possible. I've noticed a few typos and mis-wordings (some examples below):
Before Blocker Rocker: "Blocker are an effective way of containing the crowd, so that a single worker Lemming can create a save way to the exit..."
"Walkers can be used to turn blocker into a normal walker again..."
Before Top-Down Approach: "Bashers won't stop when encountering a slight steel slope as they can going SLIGHTLY upwards or downwards." - should this read "...as they can continue going..."?
"When giving them a shimmier close to the ceiling they won't fall down and transition into a shimmier instead. The syntax of this, if misread, implies that they won't "fall down and transition into a shimmier". It's nitpicking, perhaps, but these things need to be very clear to avoid confusion.
I'm happy to proof-read all of the pre-screen texts for you if you'd prefer to delegate this particular task elsewhere; PM them to me and I'll have a look as soon as I get the chance.
Some positive feedback:
I think you do a great job of keeping the levels fun and interesting whilst also presenting enough of a challenge so they don't just feel like boring tutorial levels. The pack in general is great for this reason.
Favourite Levels:
Top-Down Approach takes a couple of looks to solve even though it's quite straightforward
The Reacharound is a great puzzle - took me a while to unlock the secret to this one
Chalk-Walk is a great concept, and a new one on me. It's inspired me to have a go at making a level like this
The Joy Of Sorting looks incredibly ominous at first glance, but it's just a question of making sure you do things in the correct order!
Blocked In Your Favour does a great job of combining the skills used in the previous few levels; takes a few looks to get right!
Double Down and Equal Distribution - probably my biggest favourites of the whole pack; I love cloners!
Fancy Fencer :thumbsup:
I've attached replays for all the Basic Training levels - very much enjoyed playing through these.
I am a fairly new lemmings player. I've played Fun through Taxing of the original, but nothing else. Skills that weren't in the original are new to me. I thought I'd give my perspective as I play through.
General Comments:
- The visual style is great. All the stages look really good. I like that you used the original themes for Skills, but custom themes for later levels.
- From the perspective of a brand new lemmings player, I think the release rates are a little high across the board in Skills and Objects. See my second post in the thread for some elaboration.
- In pretexts, referencing the pixel counts feels. weird. I don't think it's more helpful than just saying that lemmings die if they fall too far, for example. Perhaps mention the 64 pixels thing when the ruler is introduced?
- There's some issues where for me, in the description, the hotkey says <None> even though I have a hotkey assigned. For example, go-to-next-shrugger is 8 by default, but the description prior to Big Steps Through The Snow just says <None>. Just thought I'd mention it. Also, highlight lemming is not right-click by default (as stated by the Highlights With A Safety Net pretext), it's actually Ctrl+Click.
Level specific comments:
Skills 1. Just Digging Into NeoLemmix - Great. I like that it clearly has spots where you should and shouldn't dig.
Skills 2. Let's Take A Bash At It! - Also great. I really like the fact you included a staircase to show that not all bashing targets are flat vertical walls. However, I'm not sure what the pillar above the staircase shows that the three pillars in the middle don't already.
Skills 3. Fence & Mine For a Diagonal Line - Good. I'd have made a stage slightly more forgiving, but it's probably fine.
Skills 4. Climb Up, Hang On, Get Along! - Another great one. I love how it demonstrates hanging from uneven ceilings and turning climbers around.
Skills 5. Block and Blow In The Snow - Good. I particularly like the the miniature puzzle at the end. A new player must figure out how to go down and turn around at the same time. For example, they might be tempted to put a blocker at the ice tip, only to realize it becomes useless when they the bomb the ice. Good learning opportunity. It's possible to complete this level without using any blockers, which might be unintended. See attachment.
Skills 6. A Float, A Glide, Puts Any Abyss Aside! - Simple but effective. I like that the player is forced to see both skills in action, since there's only 4 of each but 8 lemmings in total.
Skills 7. Building Flat and Building High - Cool, but too hard? I'd DEFINITELY let a new player get a feel for 1 bridge or 1 platformer at a time in a safe, convenient environment before asking them to chain multiple bridges together, build over water, or build through weirdly shaped terrain. It's important to master these skills ASAP, so maybe the trial by fire is warranted, but this stage definitely feels way tougher than anything else in the tier.
Skills 8. Stacks and Stones Saved Our Bones - Clever. I like that the skill counts forces you to use a stoner to block, and forces you to use a stacker at one of the upper ledges.
Skills 9. Amphibious Engineer Squad - Good. I like how it demonstrates that water can break long falls and that one disarmer can disarm multiple traps. What happens if a swimmer meets a wall, though?
Skills 10. Walking On The Cloner Cliffs - Don't like this one. The fact you can just walk the lemming to the exit and then spam clone in front of it feels really cheap. Doesn't really demonstrate what walkers or cloners can do.
Skills 11 They Can't Mash Us All! - Simple and effective. I like it.
Skills 12. Just Nuke Them! - Cool. I genuinely would not have thought to use nuke this way.
---
Objects 1. Up for a Walk? - Beautifully presented. I like (?) how it's designed to encourage use of fast forward.
Objects 2. Iron Anthill - A little overwhelming. I think the same concepts could have been taught with a smaller level. Looks fun to optimize, though.
Objects 3. Time Crime - Good. I like that it shows blockers can be used to save time rather than to avoid hazards.
Objects 4. Trap Roulette - Great. Really like the use of several themes here. Shows what different kinds of blocks and traps might look like.
Objects 5. Follow The Arrow! - Excellent and comprehensive. All four directions were covered, as well as the fact you can use bombers to go against the arrows. One of my favorites in the pack.
Objects 6. Set Your Priorities Right! - Cool. Took me a moment to realize I could assign bashers while the pit was still being dug.
Objects 7. Pick Them Up and Push Them Down - Very nice looking level. A nice introduction to its concepts, as well. Is there supposed to be a one pixel seam between the terrain and steel?
Objects 8. Split and Splat - Simple but effective. I like how it encourages the use of the ruler. The splitters are a fun touch.
Objects 9. Beam Them Over - Great. Fantastic presentation. At first, I wasn't sure about the claustrophobic digging, but I suspect you're using it to bunch the lemmings up so they don't get teleported without picking up the pickups, so it's fine. Are the pickups necessary, though? I think the level works the same if you just gave 3 builders to start with.
Objects 10. Gravity Lab - Cool. It took a couple of attempts to realize the order I needed to assign the skills and how I had to use the second builder. I like how it demonstrates that small delays can make a big difference. Is there a reason why a fencer is provided, rather than a basher? I think a basher would tempt someone to use it to bypass the splat pad, only to find out they needed to save it for the end.
Objects 11. Stop, Rewind And Go! - Tough puzzle. It does a good job of show casing pause and rewind, but it's pretty challenging for a tutorial, since it involves many different skills and the solution isn't obvious.
Objects 12. Big Steps Through The Snow - The final bridge is annoyingly precise... which is good, since it forces people to use the hotkeys. I'm really surprised at how much easier the hotkeys make building. This level single-highhandedly changed my entire playstyle!
Objects 13. Getting Into Sortings - Cute and clever. I appreciate that it works no matter which way the lemmings are walking when they fall down.
Objects 14. Highlights With A Safety Net - Don't like this one. It's odd that this is the highlight lemming tutorial, when the puzzle is instead about realizing that you can shortcut long falls using miners, and that you can build spiral staircases. Consequently, it feels out of place. More like a basic training level than a skill/object tutorial. I think spamming floaters would be fine to create a sense of 'doing two things at once', even if it makes the puzzle less interesting.
Objects 15. Night Of The Living Lems - Great. Love the theming and the fact the puzzle makes you use a few different methods of dealing with the zombies. The cloner pickup feels unnecessary since you don't really duplicate a skill with it. Maybe provide another climber instead?
Objects 16. Neutral Response - Great. I really like that this demonstrates creative ways to get ahead of the pack.
---
Basic Training 1. Tower of Training - I like that the level goes from bottom to top, rather than top to bottom. I also like that it's mostly safe for lems and has an abundance of skills, allowing for peaceful experimentation. Perfect for a first level of basic training. Floaters, diggers and miners all feel pretty useless, though. While I understand that figuring out which skills are more useful is part of the tutorial, I think some small design tweaks facilitate routes that actually use these skills. Also, I don't like the graves at the bottom of the level. It's easy for lems to get stuck between them and freeing them is more annoying than interesting.
Basic Training 2. With Minimal Efforts - Great. I enjoyed the realization that I could escape the starting area by chaining two digging skills.
Basic Training 3. Blocker Rocker - Excellent. Incredible how it demonstrates the need for pioneers and several different ways of removing blockers all in one puzzle. Using a digger in that way was new to me. One of my favourite tutorials in the pack.
Basic Training 4. Steely Halls - Great. Big fan of how this puzzle makes use of concepts from the previous puzzle. I particularly like the ending section.
Basic Training 5. Scrap The Buttons! - Tough. This stumped me for several attempts. I suspect my solution is not the intended solution. I really struggled with finding a way to prepare the path and hit both buttons without a lemming dying or getting stuck. Should probably be after Limited Release, if not later. Realizing I could get the glider to fly again by boosting it up with a builder was a really cool discovery, though.
Basic Training 6. Limited Release - Good. I like the small twist you put on freeing the blocker here. I like how you're still building on concepts introduced in previous levels.
Basic Training 7. Backup Wall - Decent. I like the visual design. Using three builders to make a wall is really precise. Took several attempts to make it work, even with frame advance. I think the ground in the starting area should be flat, because the bumps make it hard to make the wall.
Basic Training 8. The Builder Drain - Great. Seems like a good builder practice level.
Basic Training 9. Top-Down Approach - Excellent. I had no idea bashers and steel slopes worked that way. A clear demonstration of these interactions. One of my favorite levels in the pack.
Basic Training 10. Reacharound - Clever. This one stumped me because I insisted on sending my climber left first. Once I finally figured out that was wrong, it all came together. Really like how this builds on the previous puzzle.
Basic Training 11. Central Fear - Great. The fact lemmings can alternate which way they come out of the window was an unexpected surprise! The level looks intimidating, but turned out to a lot easier than it looked. I actually think this could go earlier in the level list. Directly after Steely Halls, maybe?
Basic Training 12. It's A Stretch - Good. This level is a strange mix, but each half works. I think the bottom could be improved so it isn't just three of the same action, though.
Basic Training 13. Delaying the Inevitable - Great. I feel like the temple aesthetic really suits the level layout and concept.
Basic Training 14. Chalk Walk - Also great. I'm actually surprised by how lenient you were - I placed most of my blockers pixel perfectly and ended up with a huge amount of spare time. Maybe you should shorten the pack's path a little?
Basic Training 15. The Joy of Sorting - Not a fan. While it was a fun concept like the first time, I think this is too similar to Getting Into Sortings. The first half of the puzzle is almost exactly the same. Also, as a tutorial, I'm not sure what purpose this level serves.
Basic Training 16-30 to come tomorrow~
Attached are my replays so far and the alternate (unintended?) solution to Block & Blow
Playing through the latest version of the pack. My feedback on the first three ranks as they are now:
1-1 Intro text is scrunched vertically. Include blank lines after "Welcome to NeoLemmix!" and in between paragraphs. (This recurs on several levels, so I won't point it out every time.)
1-3 Prefer "wider tunnel" to "bigger". When the lemmings have to mine left from above the arrow terrain, it is tricky to select one going the right way without directional select, which hasn't been introduced yet. Maybe add steel on the level edge so that mining the wrong way doesn't fail the level.
1-4 I agree with DireKrow about the awkwardness of mentioning the exact fall height.
1-5 Add 5 more bombers for getting rid of leftover blockers, since the player doesn't know about nuke yet. (It's possible to solve with 6 bombers and 3 blockers, so the player would have enough bombers left anyway, but a beginner player may not solve the level optimally.)
1-8 Hyphenate "mid-air". This is a very long text; maybe cut "Until then Lemmings can still walk over it though" as this is redundant with the previous sentence.
1-11 Hyphenate "bottom-left". Replace "spawns in" with "releases"; we should respect the fiction that lemmings are cute animals we are trying to save, not just game objects. (I am averse to "hatch" as well, but this may just be because both "hatch" and "spawn" are Lix terminology.)
1-12 "Countdown" is one word.
2-1 "You" is missing in "so you can look around". Maybe replace "enter pause mode" with "pause the game" to make room for it.
This level is so large and has so much decoration that fast-forward does absolutely nothing! Namida would be better able to tell you about what exactly is the cause, but this is a big problem for a level that intends to teach fast-forwarding.
2-2 Replace the full stop with a comma after "Levels can vary in height".
Intro text says "None" for clear physics mode even though I have it assigned to "C". One to take up with namida....
Maybe require only 25/30, since the middle group on the left edge can't be salvaged if the basher goes too far, and the player hasn't been introduced to timeskipping for error correction yet. (Or move this level later.)
2-3 Fun level! Easy enough that it could take the 2-2 slot if we decide to move that level up.
2-4 Any particular reason why tracks orig_16 and 17 are skipped? Not complaining, just curious :P
2-6 "Can already have", not "already can have".
2-8 Prefer "cannot" to "can't".
2-10 Really nice level! :thumbsup:
2-11 Prefer "yet" to "still".
2-12 Comma after "ten seconds". I see why this level mentions the possibility of changing your layout -- it certainly makes me wish I had a "back 5 seconds" or "back 10 seconds" hotkey for when I misjudge the long bridges! :P
2-13 Prefer "release" to "spawn", again. I remember this level, and I'm glad you simplified it -- the new version is much less confusing but still a great puzzle!
2-14 Comma after "skipping back", and move "are" to the next line. "Keep track of", not "on". Don't hyphenate "screen area".
2-16 "Safe path", not "save path". "Straight to", not "straight into". "Could theoretically", not "theoretically could" -- although I would prefer to re-word this entirely. It's not theoretical, it is actually an important part of gameplay! Something like "they may already have a path to the exit" or "they may nonetheless be able to reach the exit". Great puzzle -- took me a while to find the solution!
3-1"Practice", not "routine". Because tracks 16 and 17 are skipped in your music rotation, this ends up with the annoying "Doggie" track. Yay.
3-2 Fun level.
3-3 Very nice showcase of blocker removal; no complaints.
3-5 The way the terrain is shaped makes removing the crowd control blocker rather fiddly. Maybe provide a couple of miners?
3-6 Feels redundant. Sure, it shows blocker removal with a digger, but we've already seen that, and that makes four blocker removal levels in a row. The beginner player would probably be itching to see some new tricks now!
3-7 Typo: "substitue". Prefer "three" to "3". Nice that this level has "O Little Town" for the music.
Lower the release rate, so the first builder has already placed some bricks so the player can judge whether the second builder is right next to them! I can do this comfortably, but I don't think a beginner could. The builder to the first of the three islands has to be placed precisely to avoid a diagonal gap into which lemmings would fall, even though this mechanic hasn't been introduced.
3-8 This could be solved with a three-builder wall, but I have other methods 8-)
3-9 Remove "instead", which seems to be a leftover from a previous formulation of this sentence.
3-10 An intro text is needed to explain multiple pick-up skills, and that gliders bounce off walls. Very nice puzzle!
3-11 Nice introduction to the double walker for releasing a blocker. This one doesn't need an intro text; it makes its point very well.
3-12 Comma after "falls off the bridge". Prefer "get past" to "get around". Should the intro text let the player know which object is the exit? The third gap doesn't actually need any stretching.
3-13 Prefer "path" to "way" and "these" to "those".
3-15 Oh, so this is where the level ended up :P
3-16 Comma after "noticed". Typo: "scrificed". Could we not use the Millas? The player won't know what's going on and will probably expect these to be some variety of lemming with special properties that hasn't been introduced yet.
Did I break this level, or were you meant to hold the crowd under the trapdoor? I had several leftover skills and saved one extra, which is okay for a tutorial puzzle, of course. The intro text suggests that you are not meant to do this but instead should let the crowd flow through the level and choose the correct skill to turn them round, which I tried first and got pretty frustrated until I saw that there was a simple way to finish the level. Overall, I'm not a fan of this one.
3-17 Nice simple introduction to the digger pit. Maybe it should be explicitly mentioned that, depending on the terrain and release rate, the second lemming may or may not slip past the digger.
3-18 Towards the end I had to cancel a platformer with a basher, which hasn't been introduced yet. Other than that, nice level.
3-19 Great introduction to its concepts, although deadly edges and building for the sole purpose of turning around on a ceiling should have been introduced before this.
3-20 Typo: "rainsing". "An much needed" should be "a much-needed".
Building to the upper staircase from the nearest step leaves another lemming with the builder, who then dies, but you need 100%. This can be circumvented by building from a higher step, but it seems a bit unfair to require a new player to work that out. Also, what on earth is the walker pick-up skill for?
3-21 "Just abuse that" should be "Just abuse the fact that". Pretty good intro level for this trick, even though it's one I always find annoying when it shows up :P
3-22 "In front" is two words. Commas before and after "for example". Diggers will only be turned around by a blocker in front of them. Maybe these two tricks should be separated into two levels?
3-23 I'm not wild about the precise timing needed to merge the crowd and the basher, but hey, I guess this is what you were teaching, and some tricks just are inherently annoying.
3-24 Wow this is hard! Firstly it's hard to spot the correct allocation of skills to make the route work at all; then you have to spot the correct place to block and compress the crowd. At first I was trying to compress them at the foot of the large wall, and I think beginner players might also have a frustrating time trying to make that idea work before giving up and looking for something else.
3-25 "Lets" should be "let's". Prefer "one" to "1". The last sentence is awkwardly phrased; I would prefer something like "Also, it is possible to assign bomber or stoner to a climber in mid-climb."
Very nice level. The hardest part was realising I needed to use the stacker-cloner at the very start; everything fell into place after that.
3-26 "In the right height" should be "at". Hyphenate "well-placed". Typo: "natutral".
Another nice level; a bit easier than the last two as there were enough cues to work out the skill allocation pretty easily. The only tough part was that the builder has to have his 11th brick touching the wall, since if he only touches it with his 12th, you can't mine in a way that the other lemmings can walk back up.
3-27 Neat. I've seen levels like this before (and made one, in the Lix community pack) but using a fencer rather than a miner improves things greatly, as you can use the skill shadow to judge exactly where to place the builders.
3-28 Discussed on discord. I had no problem here, but it needs an intro text stating that cloned builders/miners have a skill shadow.
3-29 "More interesting" should be "most interesting". Hyphenate "mid-stroke". Excellent introduction to this concept.
Second half of Basic Training:
Basic Training 16 - Hidden Crystalline Temple - Rather tough. I ended up skipping the puzzle and coming back to it later. The main herdles were: (A) realizing that the two lems that slip past a stacker can be used as a pioneer and a stoner sacrifice, and (B) that you should put the lemmings in a holding pattern that you can break out of it using the builders later in the puzzle. I think the pretext needs to be rephrased, because it's misleading. After I read it, I assumed the puzzle would include lemmings dying and instead would be about trying to get your stackers ahead of the crowd so they would have time to put up their walls. Consequently, it took me a while to realize that I had to contain the crowd rather than letting them roam free. I think the pre-text should maybe focus more on how you can use slow construction skills to purposefully create pioneers.
Basic Training 17 - Dig The Trench! - Solid. Not much else to say.
Basic Training 18 - Sandy Danger - Excellent! I like how it's open-ended, but all of the solutions reveal something new and subtle. One of my favourites in the pack.
Basic Training 19 - Steps and Pixels - Great. I was really wondering about this, so I'm glad this level was included. The choice of theme was smart for this.
Basic Training 20 - Stepblocked - Great. I like that it builds on the previous puzzle. Typo in the pretext: "rainsing" should be "raising".
Basic Training 21 - The Steepest Slope - Decent. I'd prefer a different tileset for this, because the dark patches on the crystals make it hard to see how deep/far you've dug. I had to redo my tunnel a couple of times because of that. It works as a puzzle, but I really hope this technique isn't that commonly used, because it's pretty tedious.
Basic Training 22 - A Sudden Change In Direction - Great. I appreciate that the route is so clearly indicated in this one.
Basic Training 23 - Concentrated Force - Good. Nice escalation of a previous idea.
Basic Training 24 - Blocked In Your Favor - Tough. Took me a while to figure out how to get the two pickups. Then it took me a while to realize there was a ledge on the right-hand side of the level that I could use to stack my lemmings up. Can you make that ledge more obvious, perhaps? Now that I know the solution, I think this is a great puzzle. I really like how it incorporates multiple concepts from previous levels.
Basic Training 25 - Double Down! - Great. It was a lot to take in, but the solution was so satisfying to watch! I found a way to save a cloner, as we discussed on the discord (just mine left without cloning at the end), but my replay uses the 'intended' solution anyway.
Basic Training 26 - Combine & Conquer - Also great. Never thought to use construction skills this way before, so thanks for introducing it.
Basic Training 27 - Fancy Fencer - Excellent. The fact you used the bookcase theme was really smart, because you can use it as a grid along with the items on the shelves to line up your diggers and builders with the fencing shadow. One of my favourites in the pack.
Basic Training 28 - Equal Distributon - We talked about this one on discord. It's pretty brutal, but also ingenious and one of my favourite puzzle concepts in the pack. A pretext should probably mention that cloners should sometimes be delayed and/or you might have the right idea on how to solve a puzzle, but you need to change your positioning.
Basic Training 29 - Special Staircase - Great. Had no idea you could interrupt digging skills mid-animation to do those sorts of things.
Basic Training 30 - Stepping Up To The Stars - Great test of the skills you were taught in the previous puzzle. Lots of great tiny lessons.
Attached are the replays of my first successful solutions
Awesome :thumbsup: I'll play through the new version from the start and make notes.
1-1 "even feel overwhelmed" should be "ever".
I appreciate the need to let the player know about pause, but I feel it's really important for the very first text the new player sees not to be an imposing wall, so I want to find some way to fit in a blank line after "...assigning them skills". The next paragraph is really fluffy for very little information, so that would be where I'd look first. For starters, "The first rank of the introduction pack aims to teach you about these skills" is all fluff and can be cut completely. "Each level may have a different selection of skills and limit to the number of each you may assign" is unnecessarily precise -- yes, some levels have identical skillsets, and yes, some levels have the same skills but different numbers -- but the aim here isn't to ward against every possible "oh, you didn't say X" nitpick, it's to communicate to the new player in as friendly a way as possible. So I'd say something like "Each level has a different selection and number of skills", and then I'd take another hard look and seriously consider cutting "and number".
1-2 (and other texts) still need blank lines adding. You mentioned on discord you are aware of this, so I won't harp on it :P
"Hovering with it" should be "hovering the mouse".
1-4 Cut "Then they fall down again". I know you love to be really precise about your explanations, but the result is far too much text, so I think we need to be really diligent about making cuts whenever we can.
1-6 "the lemming it has been assigned to" -> "a lemming". The glider sentence could be reworded as something like "The Glider is similar, but the lemming glides down in a diagonal line."
1-7 I know the builder is a crucial skill, but this text is huge and we really need to find a cut somewhere. Last time I suggested cutting out the second description of the clicking sound, but that is useful information, so I think even better is to cut the first description of the clicking sound, then after the platformer description, say that both skills have warning clicks.
"be not discouraged" -> "do not be discouraged"
1-8 "a bit related to" -> "similar to"
1-9 "As the Swimmer" -> "Like the Swimmer"
2-1 Remove explanation of pause, now that this is covered in 1-1.
Same problem as before: FF has no observable effect. I tried turning off the high quality minimap, and with it off, I could notice a slight difference when using FF, but this is definitely not what you want for a level intended to introduce FF. Also, even if everything were miraculously fixed and FF was just as good here as on a normal level, the level is so huge that FF wouldn't do much to stop it being tedious. Either introduce 10-second skip here, or just make the level smaller.
2-2 "upper right side" -> "upper right"
2-3 Spelling: "immediately". Mention the top and bottom as well as the sides.
2-4 Remove "like bashers, diggers etc". Still has the issue where the intro text has "[HOTKEY:Clear_Physics:1]", so it will only display the hotkey if the user has it set to toggle. Remove the :1 at the end.
2-5 Too much fluff here. I would cut the last two sentences.
2-11 We don't need the technical details, so I would just say "Updrafts prevent lemmings falling through them from splatting."
2-17 "Grey" (UK spelling) is used here but "gray" (US spelling) in an earlier level. I would suggest sticking with one or the other, but perhaps it was deliberate so as not to give preference to either side? :P
3-1 "It should also" -> "They should also"
Oh great, this is going to have "Doggie" once the Jumper intro level is added... unless more than one level will be added in ranks 1 and 2? I guess eventually they will be, since it seems likely another skill will be added before the final version.
3-2 Could use an intro text reminding the player to check CPM because steel may look different in a particular style.
3-3 Good level, although the intro is a little misleading. Platformers don't stop if they hit their head.
3-8 Just noting that this is another level that will be affected by the decision to use UK or US English for the pack. Typo: "substitue".
3-10 "Substitue" again.
3-15 "Immediately" again.
4-6 Comma after "bridge". "a brick" -> "one brick".
The sentence beginning "That's because the builder" is extremely fluffy. Maybe something like this: "That's because the builder places his next brick on top of the platformer, making him bump against it."
4-9 "an much needed" -> "a much-needed"
4-10 "switch into a digger" -> "switch to a digger"
4-14 Typo: "non-permant"
4-17 "do also have" -> "also have"
5-1 "the last ranks" -> "the last few ranks"
5-3 "canceling" -> "cancelling"
5-4 "like" -> "around"; "site" -> "side"
5-7 "being build" -> "being built"
I'll post all replays when I'm completely finished, but I'm going talk about stuff now before I forget what the comments I had were.
It's been a while since I looked at this pack to see how it was coming along, but I've finally played through it again.
While clearly intended to introduce lemming highlighting, it certainly doesn't require it (like most of the levels that introduce the convenience features; not much that can be done about that). However, since the save state isn't very helpful in this level anyway (not sure where a good place to mention it; it would take a very specific type of level to really make it all that useful, I think), it might be worth replacing the note about that with a different convenience tool that's helpful on this type of level - replay insert mode. This is what I used to solve the level.
The most obvious solution here, at least to me, uses an un-introduced trick - specifically, crowd containment with digger+builder. I was wondering it a conscious choice had been made to allow the player to figure it out on their own since the bit about builders turning lemmings around had been recently introduced, but then this trick was formally introduced in a later level, so apparently that's not it.
Currently about halfway through the pack; there's some stuff I think probably should have been introduced by now (mostly regarding cloners) but it's possible I haven't gotten there yet, so I'll hold off on discussing it for now.
Comments on Dullstar's comments:
Basic Training 1 Lv. 7 - Limited Release
The problem is that when you don't want to give the exact ammount of builders the digger pit will always be an alternative --- unless the platform of the starting area is only like 6 pixels thin.
I think a thin starting area is the best way to prevent the digger pit.
Objects & Functions Lv. 15 - Highlists With A Safety Net
All levels with convenience features don't require them. They should just make the level easier.
I personally used save states in this and found it helpful - right before entering dangerous area with the left group. I can see that the insert replay feature can be very helpful here as well, but I still think it's better to boundle this with the general replay feature.
Currently about halfway through the pack; there's some stuff I think probably should have been introduced by now (mostly regarding cloners) but it's possible I haven't gotten there yet, so I'll hold off on discussing it for now.
Stuff will be coming, I just can't introduce everything at once. There are things that have to wait in line.
I also wanted to show off several of the basic colner situations in that specific training level, therefore I first introduced more basic/classic stuff of the other skills. ---> You need to train the skills first before you throw the cloner interaction on top of them. I think the cloner is a very big field with many possibilities and often underestimated in it's complexity.
Since I'm currently stumped real badly in United, I decided to come back to this pack and try out the newest version, as well as to give feedback. I been meaning to give you some feedback for the levels in this pack, but I haven't gotten around to doing so until now due to solving United. I think it was forgotten to state that levels after the new levels were put into the pack were moved by 1 position further. Thus, my replays for Skills 12 still passed the mass replay checker even though they don't solve the "new level" in its position that resulted from the new jumper level in Skill 11. As a result, the Skills rank now has 13 levels instead of 12. In this case, the replays for Skills 12 is for Skills 13, but since that's too chaotic, I just decided to remove the old Skills 12 replays and resolve both Skills 12 and Skills 13 by scratch, but they're both really quick and are over in 5 seconds, so not a problem.
edit: Ugh, just found out that I could had used the text file from the mass replay checker I ran a few days ago for the pack to match up the replays! Man, all that unnecessary time wasted resolving when I had already completed the pack from a few months ago and I thought I couldn't find the replays. :forehead: Well, at least I know for next time now so I'll be using that to send the remaining replays for the last two ranks. I should have them, I just need to match them up and change the file names. Still, it was annoying finding the right replays for each level due to how a lot of the levels have changed positions due to new levels being added to the pack.
Skills 1 - Just Digging Into Neolemmix I like how the title is a nod to the very first original Lemmings Fun 1 level. Regarding the pretext, I don't like the way the last paragraph is written. Perhaps a better wording is something like, after the colon, change "Press <Middle-click> <P> <F11>" to "Pause the level by pressing the middle-button, the P key, or F11 key." This is a series of 3 items, so commas are needed. The rest of the paragraph is fine.
Skills 2 - Let's Take a Bash at It! In the pre-text, you mentioned "as with diggers, the basher stops when there is no more terrain in front of it." Yet, you didn't mention in the pre-text of the previous level that diggers stop when there's no more terrain. Perhaps you can add that? At the same time, it might cause the text to not look as nice, and I'm not sure if it will still make it all fit.
Also, the skill shadow shows when hovering the mouse over a lemming AND when the skill is selected, so that needs to be added somewhere in the 3rd paragraph. Wording could be a bit better, like maybe, "In the last level, with the digger skill selected, you may have noticed a gray skill shadow indicating the effect of the skill while hovering the mouse over a lemming." Since skill shadows was mentioned, perhaps you can mention that it also happens with bashers for this pre-text. However, since it does get redundant mentioning skill shadows for the other skills, maybe not and just mention that the skill shadows show when the skill is selected in addition to hovering the mouse over a lemming.
Skills 4 -Climb Up, Hang On, Get Along! "Climbers can climb straight walls" - Take out the word "can." For the shimmiers paragraph, I would mention that if they encounter the 2 pixels or more that they fall straight down. So maybe the sentence can read, "If they are successful, they go along the ceiling until they reach a two or more pixel height difference, where they will fall straight down."
Skills 5 - Block and Blow in the Snow The level can still be completed with just 1 blocker. For the pre-text, since the last sentence of the first paragraph is a fragment, you can combine it with the previous sentence so that it reads "They do their duty until the very end, like when they are exploded by the the bomber skill, for example!"
Skills 6 - A Float, a Glide, Puts Any Abyss Aside! In the pre-text, I would also mention that a lemming cannot be assigned both a floater and a glider. For comedic effect and not really needed, "Try all you want, it's just not possible." Otherwise, no other problems in it.
Skills 8 - Stacks and Stones Saved Our Bones I would mention that stackers make a vertical wall of 8 bricks. So, the sentence should read, "Stackers create a vertical wall of 8 bricks right in front of them."
Skills 9 - Amphibious Engineer Squad Remove period, lowercase "unless." Also, instead of "inactive" maybe "harmless" is a better word, and I would mention that it becomes harmless "once the disarmer starts its task," so the sentence should read "Disarming a trap takes a few seconds, but the trap immediately becomes harmless once the disarmer starts its task." Or instead of "task," perhaps "job" can be used instead.
Skills 10 - Walking on The Cloner Cliffs Change "to" to "in." Also, maybe a sentence like, "When assigned to a blocker, the blocker will resume walking in the direction it was walking before it was assigned a blocker." However, since blockers aren't given in the level, perhaps we can just take out the information on releasing blockers with walkers.
Skills 11 - Jumping Lem Flash Good jumper introduction level. This is the very first level I have ever played in NL that has the jumper skill, so honestly I'm quite surprised at how high and far jumpers go with a single skill assignment. For pre-text, in the second paragraph add a comma after "arc." Similarly, in the third paragraph add a comma after "jump." In the same paragraph, immediatly is a misspelling. The correct spelling is "immediately." "infront" is not a word and should be separated by a space. Also, add a comma after "him."
Skills 12 - They Can't Mash Us All! The nuke level was previously here, but now it's this level. The first sentence can probably be changed to, "You may have noticed a number above the + and - signs in the bottom-left of the skill bar." After all, the release rate is mentioned in the sentence afterwards, and the way it is now it seems to say that the + and - signs themselves are the RR. That's not correct. The number itself is the RR/spawn rate.
Also, in the second paragraph, change the last sentence to, "Every level has a starting release rate which you cannot go under."
Objects and Functions 1 - Up For a Walk? Add a comma after <Middle-Click> and a comma after <P>. Also, add "and" after the comma after <P>.
Objects and Functions 2 - Time Crime Second sentence - not true anymore since the newer NL versions simply allow lemmings to not exit anymore after time runs out. So, we'll need to change that sentence a bit. Also, add a comma after "point," add a comma after "detours," and add a comma after "things."
Objects and Functions 3 - Index Error Out of Bounds Take out period after "deadly" and put a colon instead. Also, take out period after "immediately," and put a comma instead, and so lowercase "so."
Objects and Functions 5 - Trap Roulette Definitely haven't seen any of these traps before. I wonder who made this tileset. For the pre-text, change "into" to "in." Also, maybe the sentence can read, "One-way fields turn around lemmings in the direction indicated when they walk into it." Partially correct, since if the lemmings are already in the correct direction they will simply walk past it instead of turn around, so maybe another sentence after it saying, "Otherwise, they will walk past it if they're already walking in the direction indicated." Then again, there's no possibility that lemmings can go past the one-way field in this level, so maybe that sentence isn't needed.
Objects and Functions 6 - Follow the Arrow! Take out "here" and capitalize "bashers."
Objects and Functions 9 - Split and Splat Add a comma after "ruler" before "it is deadly." Also, add a comma after "it" before the word "then."
Objects and Functions 10 - Beam Them Up Excellent level that definitely encourages use of CPM, not unless the player is willing to endure trial and error and possibly get frustrated whenever the wrong teleporter is chosen. Recognisable is a misspelling. It should be "recognizable."
Objects and Functions 11 - Gravity Lab I like this level! It clearly demonstrates the differences of the floater, glider, and a normal lemming when they each interact with updrafts. It is somewhat a tricky level, but luckily there's only 3 lemmings and enforces the use of a floater in an updraft just to "delay," not because it won't survive without it, so that the normal lemming has enough time to bridge the first gap before the floater can fall into the liquid pit.
Objects and Functions 13 - Big Steps Through the Snow I use the comma and periods more frequently than the minus key, but this is just personal preference. The comma rewinds 5 seconds, while the period forwards 5 seconds. Also, I use { key more, which goes back to the last skill assigned before the key was pressed.
Objects and Functions 14 - Getting Into Sorting Great puzzle! Not too easy, but also not too difficult. Just the right difficulty.
Objects and Functions 15 - Highlights With a Safety Net I only used the highlight lemming feature once on this level. I don't think the level can be changed to really enforce its use fully after the third builder assignment for the long bridge. In any case, it's still nice to mention it just so players know it's there and available if they want to make use of it.
Objects and Functions 16 - Night of the Living Lems Not too easy, but at the same time not a very hard level either. Since there is an entrance that spawns only zombies, I wonder if this is worth mentioning in the pre-text. At the same time, it's already completely filled up, so maybe not.
Objects and Functions 17 - Neutral Response Nice neutral lemmings puzzle to end the rank! For the pre-text, I would put a period after "them" but before "otherwise." Due to the period, capitalize "otherwise." Just like the previous level, I wonder if it should be mentioned there is also an entrance that spawns just neutral lemmings.
Basic Training 1 01 - Tower of Training Nice any way you want level to start off the rank!
Basic Training 1 02 - With Minimal Efforts Another great puzzle!
Basic Training 1 03 - Headbumper Remove "Although," capitalize "in," change "platformer" to "platformer's," and add a comma after "case." Finally, add a comma after "steel."
Basic Training 1 04 - Blocker Rocker Excellent puzzle! Demonstrates all points mentioned in the pre-text at least once well. Only thing is add a comma after "example."
Basic Training 1 05 - Steely Halls Another nice any way you want puzzle!
Basic Training 1 08 - Spiraling Out of Control Here, it definitely should be mentioned that builders will continue building in the other direction when it hits a blocker, even though it's not required to solve the level.
Basic Training 1 10 - PARKOUR! More fun with the jumper. Excellent puzzle! Only thing is add a comma after "wall" before "then" and add a comma after "this" but before "and."
Basic Training 1 11 - The Guardian I wonder if there should be pre-text here mentioning that the jumper skill can be used as many times as needed on the same lemming "to help isolate a worker lemming and get him far ahead of the crowd to forge a safe path." At least that seems to be the intention here for this level.
Basic Training 1 12 - Backup Wall Remove comma after "walls." For "cover up tunnels," perhaps "seal up" is better, at least it sounds and looks better to me. Maybe the sentence could be, "Builders are also useful to seal up tunnels so that the tunnel-making lemming ends up separated from the crowd."
Basic Training 1 13 - Top-Down Approach Nice puzzle! Add a comma after "slope" and after "ceiling."
Basic Training 1 15 - Reacharound Another great puzzle! I think what will surprise players is the part where the shimmier gives up due to touching the gray pillar with his feet rather than encountering a 2 pixel or greater with his hands mentioned in the pre-text for the shimmier introduction level. At least that caught me by surprise. So, I would suggest lowering the pillar so that it doesn't happen or simply get rid of it. Players can simply press spacebar repeatedly to skip ahead rather than watch the shimmier go all the way across. Also, I would probably change the last sentence to read, "They will just bounce off and glide the other way and not just simply fall down after hitting a wall."
Basic Training 1 16 - Scrap the Buttons! Tricky puzzle due to the limited skillset, but not overly hard
Basic Training 1 17 - Airdrop Incoming! Great puzzle! Add a comma after "gliders."
Basic Training 1 20 - Delaying the Inevitable Your pillar Reunion level from Rank 2 could had done well as a delaying training level too, but then again what fun would it be to reuse levels from your other packs? Also, imo this level works way better as a delaying training one.
Basic Training 1 21 - Chalk Walk Wow, what a great designed level! Great puzzle too!
I will post feedback for the last two ranks next time, as it's already really late where I am.
Feedback for ranks 4 and 5. Also, I've attached my entire set of replays for the pack in my previous post. Please download the new attachment.
Basic Training 2 02 - Hidden Crystalline Temple Somewhat tricky but still a great puzzle that definitely showcases the speed differences between a stacker and stoner well in terms of saving the lemmings from danger. Also illustrates each point mentioned in the pre-text well. Really nice level visually too! For the pre-text, add a comma after "Sometimes" and after "level."
Basic Training 2 03 - Dig the Trench! Add a comma after "often" and after both "builder" words, and one after "rate." Not sure if it's worth it to mention it, but perhaps "at least how many strokes are needed before one builder can't get the crowd out of the pit." I know 7 strokes are needed before lemmings can't get out of the pit on either side, but if I'm not mistaken, at least 9 strokes are needed before a builder can't get them out?
Basic Training 2 04 - Sandy Danger Somewhat easy any way you want x of everything level.
Basic Training 2 05 - Lab Workout Nice level illustrating a jumper transitioning into a shimmier and jumper interaction with the one-way field. Some thought is required where the lemmings start at in order to determine which side the stacker and stoner need to go for the level to be passable. Comma after "ceiling" and "field," replace "are able to" with "can," and get rid of the comma after "around."
Basic Training 2 06 - That Little Extra Help Since you mentioned "constructive" first and "destructive" second, the correct order should be "platformers" then "bashers." That's because by putting "bashers" first and "platformers" in the second half of the sentence, you're essentially saying that the basher is a constructive skill and the platformer is a destructive skill. That's not what you intend to say. Alternatively, you can simply switch "constructive" and "destructive" with one another, but whichever order you choose, make sure to put the word "respectively" after the second of the skill mentioned. In other words, if you want to keep "constructive" and "destructive" in the order you have it written, the correct sentence would be "Most constructive and destructive skills, like platformers and bashers, respectively, can be interrupted with a jumper." If you want to switch the order of "constructive" and "destructive" instead so that "bashers" and "platformers" don't need to switch places with each other, then the correct sentence would be "Most destructive and constructive skills, like bashers and platformers, respectively, can be interrupted with a jumper." I highlighted the correct sentences in bold, and you can simply take your pick, but the first sentence does need to be rewritten, as the way the first sentence is currently writtenn in the pre-text is not grammatically correct.
As for the level itself, it does a great job of illustrating the jumper mechanics points mentioned in the pre-text. However, something needs to be done about the end area, as I solved the level without needing to use a jumper to interrupt a basher and thus I didn't need to use the basher at all, as you will see in my replay. I also have a jumper leftover, but that's not as bad.
Basic Training 2 07 - Counterclockwise Now here you have to interrupt a basher with a jumper and I use all skills.
Basic Training 2 08 - Infinity Add a comma after "lemming" and after "teleporter" in the second sentence.
Basic Training 2 09 - Platstop Get rid of one of the "the's" that you duplicated next to each other, "platformer" in that sentence should be "platformer's brick," and change " making him" to "causing the latter"
Basic Training 2 11 - Steps and Pixels Add a comma after "wall."
Basic Training 2 13 - The Steepest Slope Plenty of commas needed here. Get rid of one of the "ups" in the second sentence, comma after the second "pixels," after "pixel," after the second "miners," and finally after "technique."
Basic Training 2 14 - A Sudden Change in Direction Add comma after the second "around." Ok, you mentioned blockers turning builders around here, so perhaps it's not necessary to mention it for Basic Training 1 8, and I did say that this technique isn't even required to solve the level anyway. So, forget about my feedback where I thought maybe it's a good idea to mention this technique for that level, then. I will strike that part of the feedback out.
Basic Training 2 15 - Concentrated Force Nice short and easy level illustrating the concept mentioned in the pre-text. I would rewrite the second sentence as, "Try to get the lemmings tightly together as much as possible using blockers (for example), and then release the concentrated horde at the right time." Also, add a comma after "way."
Basic Training 2 16 - Blocked in Your Favor A bit harder than the previous, but still a great level. Just add the word "a" before "digger."
Basic Training 2 17 - Double Down! Somewhat tricky puzzle but not too difficult. Illustrates all points mentioned in the pre-text well.
Basic Training 2 18 - Combine and Conquer Nice level! Add a comma after "method."
Basic Training 2 20 - Equal Distribution Nice puzzle! "For example, a cloned miner creates a smaller hole if cloned slightly later." Not necessarily, but I know what you mean. It just really depends on where you start the initial miner and how long you wait before cloning it. Of course, it's all dependent on how the terrain is too.
Basic Training 2 21 - Special Staircase Excellent level that illustrates all points mentioned in the pre-text well. Add a comma after "fencers."
Basic Training 2 22 - Stepping Up to the Stars Nice somewhat tricky level to end the rank. I have a walker leftover, but that's probably fine. Also, I realized that I could had made the end easier by interrupting a miner midstroke when he's still somewhat high so that the lemmings can go over the top and then just platform to the exit. Also, it will avoid unnecessary splatting that way.
Advanced Training 1 - Stepping Up to a Higher Level Nice level to start off the rank. Add a comma after "result."
Advanced Training 2 - Bending Bashers Another great level. I would rewrite the second sentence like, "The two builders need to be placed in such a way that the bottom one serves as the basher's floor, while the top one provides him something to bash."
Advanced Training 4 - Walking Over Dead Bodies Definitely didn't know about this trick before playing this level, so thank you for this. Came in realy handy for some United levels. Add a comma after "stacking" and after the second "arm" and replace "turn into a stoner" with "assign the stoner skill to him."
Advanced Training 6 - Pharaoh's Turnaround Another nice level showcasing more jumper mechanics, this time in combination with a cloner. Only one walker pick-up is not collected, but that's probably fine since the player has a choice as to which side to mine.
Advanced Training 7 - Checkboard's Crossing Somewhat hard level that provides more training with jumper + cloner combination. Cloning a lemming at the end isn't necessary, as all it does is put me 1 over the save requirement.
Advanced Training 8 - Between A Stone And A Hard Place Nice level demonstrating the concept of a lemming turning around inside a stoner terrain. Again, I didn't know about this technique before playing this level. This came in real handy for two Tension levels in United.
Advanced Training 9 - Shimmichanga Another nice level! I have a walker leftover, but that's probably ok since all it does is simply make the worker lemming get to the exit faster. In the first sentence, add a comma after "shimmier." Change "on" that's after "instead" to "of." Finally, add a comma after "far."
Advanced Training 11 - Sorry, Job Already Taken Excellent level illustrating the platformer bricks bumping into one another or extending the platforming and coexisting. Add a comma after "platform."
Advanced Training 12 - Blocker's Blindside Yet another excellent level illustrating the two main points mentioned in the pre-text. Add a comma after "size." I would rewrite the second sentence like, "Also, the turn field affects fallers, causing them to turn around in mid-air with a well-placed blocker."
Advanced Training 13 - Beam Up the Equipment! Yet another level that illustrated skills continuing on the other side of a teleporter that came in handy for a space level in United. "Withh" is a misspellning which should be "with." Also, add a comma after "level."
Advanced Training 14 - A Different Kind of Space Bit tricky level, but I have some skills leftover. I'm not sure what the second shimmier is for, though, so maybe a backroute?
Advanced Training 15 - Welcome to the Crystal Maze! The only thing my replay doesn't use is a digger step in the pit, so perhaps the level needs to change in some way to enforce it better? Take out "in" after "faces."
Advanced Training 16 - Just As He Was About to Fall Being able to assign skills to diggers in mid-air is a technique I'm quite familiar with, as this exists in Dos Lemmings, which is the version I grew up with. Thus, this technique in NL comes as no surprise to me. For the third sentence, take out "then" and replace "to the side" with "in the direction."
Advanced Training 18 - The Fiddler I haven't seen this technique before playing this level either, but I think it can still be worked out whether or not one has seen it. Take out "also," add a comma before "though," and add a comma after "correctly."
Advanced Training 19 - The Fiddler 2: Electric Boogaloo I'm confused by the pre-text. Isn't the lemming that releases the blocker in both cases facing the opposite way of the blocker? If so, then it doesn't make sense to say "Instead of a lemming facing the other way." Also, I only use the second technique of blocking to turn around a lemming that's close to it dig to release the blocker and then bash away from the staircase, so I guess i'm simply confused by what the first technique is. Of course, there isn't really a way to enforce one technique over the other, so I guess one can simply take his or her pick.
edit: After some thought, I think I figured out what you mean with the first technique. I'm imagining the situation where a lemming turns around in the basher tunnel but shortly after turning around, the basher starts bashing again, so this is where you assign a blocker to stop the basher midstroke so that the lemming that turned around at the end of the basher tunnel can release it with a digger. Am I correct? As of myself, I definitely have made use of the second technique far more often.
Advanced Training 20 - Revenge of the Fiddler "behing" is a misspelling, which should be "behind." Add a comma after "way" and after "time." Also, add a comma after "trick" and replace "though" with "around."
Advanced Training 21 - Victory Lap Nice level to round out the pack! Take out the second "remember" and add a comma after "diggers."
Ok, here some explanation is needed. I don't have any input to the displaying of <Middle-click> <P> <F11> as this is a special command.
I can let NL display EVERY key a user has binded towards a fuction. This way it doesn't matter what keys a user uses for a function, as the pre-text will always show the correct keys.
<Key> <Key> is just the automated format for that function. You really want to avoid any unsessesary ",", "and" and "or" as the text should fit inside 1 row as I have no way to include a linebreak inside a keylist.
Thanks for the information. Let's just say that even though I'm mainly a math person and English isn't my strongest point, proper writing still matters to me, and I'm quite nitpicky when it comes to other people committing English grammar and spelling errors ;P Where I come from, you'll be surprised how many students can't even write an English sentence correctly! Regarding items in a series, commas after each item but not the last one in the series is the rule in English. I know that Lemmings isn't an English game, but it's still good to make sure that errors in writing are eliminated. That's why most of my feedback focused on the English writing in the pre-text and not so much on the levels, even though there is still some of that in my feedback. Writing with many errors still leaves an impression, although maybe not a good one. Sure, I myself occasionally have errors in my writing even after I turn in or submit my assignment, but I take the time to extensively proofread my own writing and make sure that it is error-free as much as possible.
I know this pack is still far from done, but overall great job. This is a wonderfully put together pack that I will gladly refer anyone to. It will surely help people out a lot, especially those who are new to the game and/or NL. Even if the player isn't new to the game and/or NL, I would still advise them to play through this pack from the beginning to the end. Not to mention that you still managed to entertain with great humor in the pre-text for many levels. ;) We all could certainly use a chuckle or two, especially in a time like now with the ongoing global pandemic.
Anyway, I hope you find my replays and feedback helpful so that you can make this pack as great as possible. Now that I finally said my piece and given my feedback for the pack, I'm off to hopefully solve more of your United pack. Looking forward to whenever the next patch for the NL Tutorial pack will be. No hurry, of course.
Here's my feedback on the latest patch! Have to say, it really was a lot of fun to play through, and learn all these new tricks, which I'm sure I'll be using on your other packs at some point! And it was exactly what I was looking for in terms of becoming familiar with all the NeoLemmix features.
I've glanced at the feedback others have given, particularly kaywhyn on the latest update, but haven't studied this thread extensively from the beginning so please forgive me if I've brought up anything someone else already mentioned or something that was already discussed and decided upon at an earlier point. Also, You've got lots of feedback on the pre-level texts, I've limited myself mostly to pointing out only very obvious errors.
I've zipped up all my replays, but note that only the ones with the later date are relevant to the current version (don't know if there's an easy way to separate them…)
Skills:
8: Stacks & Stones Saved Our Bones: pre-text: "...turn Lemmings around…" is a bit more natural (to me) than "...turn around Lemmings…"
10: Walking on the Cloner Cliffs: Just a comment, it may sound silly, but having never seen cloners before, this level seemed quite a bit more difficult compared to the previous ones, it did my head in a bit initially working out how to make the "maths" work out. But I'm also probably just an idiot...
Objects & Functions:
5: Trap Roulette: "...turn around Lemmings into the direction they are facing." maybe change to: "...turn Lemmings around in the direction of the Field"? Also, I agree with kaywhyn that the converse behaviour should be mentioned (if not demonstrated?) i.e. that lemmings walking through from the other side will keep walking.
Also, forgive my ignorance, but in clear physics mode, is it possible to see which traps are single-use vs. permanent, or is it just a matter of trial and error?
6: Follow the Arrow: I wonder if this level could use a few more interesting situations for OWW's, especially the new ones, for example it doesn't seem like you need to dig at all to solve the level, except if you're just experimenting…?
7: Set Your Priorities Right: Text doesn't all fit on screen (might just be with my particular key bindings, but I haven't extensively customized them, so presumably many others would see this also)! Also, I can't work out how to select a non-skilled lemming, the middle paragraph currently tells me to press <None> which is less than helpful…
15: Highlights with a Safety Net: This is just my own NeoLemmix incompetence, but right-clicking doesn't highlight a lemming for me, I have to control-click, how does one change this?
Basic Training 1:
5: Steely Halls: Just wondering what the point of this level is? I mean there's nothing wrong with it as a level, but it's a bit less ingenious a puzzle than the previous few, and the lack of introductory text for the first time is a bit disconcerting…
6: Central Fear: I guess this level is also slightly confusing? In that you can solve by going either left or right from the entrance, but the leftward route strangely doesn't ues the disarmer? Otherwise, nice level, I assume the point of it is to make you think strategically about which way blockers are facing, and to use walkers to manipulate this?
9: Deepfreeze: I have to say, I find this level a bit tedious…which might be ok if it weren't so obvious what you have to do.
10: PARKOUR: I love jumpers so much. It does seem really weird to me the way they fall straight down immediately at the end of their jump, rather than continuing the arc - I guess more a question about NeoLemmix than one relevant to this pack though, I presume there was much discussion about this behaviour which I have not seen.
11: The Guardian: Super Fun!
Regarding 17: Airdrop Incoming! I should just say that while I didn't find this as hard as mantha seemed to, to a player new to gliders, walkers, and shimmiers (like myself) it definitely isn't immediately obvious how the interaction and the geometry works (similar to my comments on the cloner/walker level in rank 1). Also, if you check my replay, I seem to have solved it without using the gliders in any meaningful way...
Basic Training 2:
1: The Joy of Sorting: This level at first looked super intimidating, and was the reason I put the pack down for a while last time. Once I did play it though, it was apparent that it was not as nasty as it seemed, especially as you gave lots of leeway with the numerous walkers.
2: Hidden Crystalline Temple: I love this tileset, it's so pretty :cute:. I have skills left over though? Unless you're just offering some leeway.
4: Sandy Danger: I have to say, I found this level not that interesting...is there a specific point to it?
6: That Little Extra Help: What was the basher for? I didn't end up using it - if you wanted to demonstrate cancelling a basher with a jumper, then is it worth making it essential for the solution? It just didn't occur to me to utilise this. (I see kaywhyn had the same feedback.)
12: Stepblocked: I had to experiment and stare at this level quite a bit before I worked out where to build, and why exactly it stopped the other lemmings. That's not a bad thing though, great level!
13: The Steepest Slope: Last sentence of pretext needs a bit of grammar, maybe: "just remember the pause [/paws] button and frame-stepping!" or "Just remember that you can pause and frame-step!" or even "You might find pausing and frame-stepping very helpful!".
15: Concentrated Force: Was this meant to be such a tricky timing puzzle? (Replay attached)
17: Double Down!: Hilarious! Again cloners break my brain as a player new to them, but the difficulty I feel is not unwelcome at this point in the pack, and the amount of fun it is to figure out is entirely worth it!
19: Really finicky, not in an entirely enjoyable way, but maybe it's a good time to introduce such things, especially as you've paved the way so nicely for one to pretty quickly realise the solution.
Advanced Training: This is where the levels started to get really fun :)
1: Stepping up to a Higher Level: Very nice puzzle to start off with!
2: Bending Bashers: In the pre-text: "The two builders need to be placed in such a way that the bottom one…" (jinx kaywhyn!)
3: Higher Levels of Wisdom: Instructions slightly confusing, although they made more sense after having solved the level. In particular was a bit unclear about the fencer tunnels not requiring walker cancellation even though the miner ones do. But this is advanced training after all so I guess you don't want to be flat out giving us the answer…
7: Checkerboard Crossing: I'm pretty pleased with this solution, but I seem to have saved 2 more than you specified?
8: Between a Stone and a Hard Place: What is the 2nd floater for? Using one seems like the most economical way to do this trick…
9: Shimmichanga: What is the extra walker for?
14: A Different Kind of Space: Awesome blocker trick! I have to say, took me a long while to figure it out, especially given the lack of intro/hint text. As I mentioned before, obviously you don't want to give everything away at this point in the pack, and of course it follows on directly from the previous level in terms of continuing skills through teleporters, but as it is this level was the first (and only) really annoying roadblock for me. This could just be my idiosyncracy, but maybe it's worth considering adding a very veiled hint as to which direction the solution is in some pre-text?
Also, how's the rest of my solution? I seem to have quite a few skills left over…
15: Welcome to the Crystal Maze!: Last sentence of pre-text should be (?): "This sounds more complicated than it is…" (not "as it is").
19: The Fiddler 2: I found this level really annoying (that's nothing you should worry about though), obviously given the title, it's meant to be fiddly, but the main thing I was missing was that finding the precise basher stroke you stop him on is the key to the puzzle. Maybe it's worth hinting at this a little more specifically? I don't know though, this late in the pack people really should be thinking for themselves, and it didn't stump me for as long as "A Different Kind of Space".
21: Victory Lap: Amazing little puzzle! Maybe some congratulations text would be appropriate? ;)
Hey uber, congrats on finishing the pack for the time being, since it's still being expanded and in development. This was a pack that I forgot to list as a recommendation, and one that I would recommend to anyone, regardless of whether the person is new or not to NL. Some remarks on your feedback:
Objects and Functions 5: Yes, there is! When you cursor over a trap and then activate CPM, it'll say one of two things, trap with an infinity symbol next to it, or the number 1. The former are continuous traps that will continue to kill lemmings, while the latter will activate once and then won't ever work again after that. The interesting thing is that when I read your question about that, I thought there wasn't a way with CPM either, but I never ever noticed the trap label differences in CPM before. Now I know too!
Objects and Functions 7: Do you mean how to select a lemming that currently isn't performing a skill? That would be the Ctrl key. Also, this assumes that you chose the traditional layout when you ran NL for the very first time. If you didn't, you can change it via the F3 key in the main menu. You have 3 choices of layouts. I'm not sure what the keys for the other two are, since I have always used the traditional one.
Objects and Functions 15: See above for Objects and Functions 7. Regarding customizing the keys, I'm not sure how to do that.
BT 1 6: Wow, that's a nice solution going to the left! :thumbsup:
BT 1 17: The level's very open-ended, so it's perfectly fine to have plenty of skills leftover. As a matter of fact, it's possible to simply do the level with only one worker lemming!
AT 9: Just for saving time and not have to wait for the worker lemming to turn around. It's optional.
AT 14: Nice, exact same solution as mine! Great minds think alike ;)
Regarding AT 19:
This is where you can try and make some slight adjustments with the first basher so that it works out a bit better. In your replay, you bashed right as the lemming touched the wall. Try bashing a little further away from the wall and see what happens.
All your other feedback I'll let Icho address them. He's more than welcome to expand on some of the comments that I already made on some of the levels above.
Thanks both of you, it's nice to know these things now :thumbsup:
AT 14: Swag! 8-)
AT 19:
Yes I definitely had to do that as well, otherwise the amount of wall left at the end would either be too little or too much, but what I'm referring to is that I couldn't get the solution to work unless the basher stopped only having struck away the bare minimum of the terrain, i.e. at the very top of his swing. In all other positions, there would not form that pixel step created by the digger needed for the lemmings to make it up, as the digger would have to dig too low, and create a too-high wall. Not sure if there is a way to make it work at other points in the basher's stroke; one thing I noticed though is that seemingly if you stop the basher at the lowest point before sweeping away the whole piece of wall, turning him into a blocker consistently fails to turn around the lemmings coming up close behind him, although presumably this depends on the exact distance, I just noticed it more in this part of the stroke than others. Like you say, Icho, it sure is fiddly!
And, 5 14 resolved. I have attached my updated replay collection set with the new 5 14 and 5 21 resolved. Yup, I was a complete dummy this whole time. 5 14 is a very nice level now! :thumbsup: I wonder if the level might be a little too hard, though.
In particular, the trick with blocking on a steep slope completely escaped me and I was constantly stuck on how to get the lemmings up if you have to waste two platformers at the bottom to turn one of them around. Funny really, because this blocker trick also escaped me on that one polar level, Scorched Meltdown, in the Genocide rank in United. Of course, I eventually figured it out, but it took a while. Similar situation/context, where I constantly kept thinking I was a constructive skill short. I apparently didn't learn this lesson/trick well :-[ To be fair, I think this blocker trick is very easily overlooked by anyone and hence it can be quite difficult to spot and apply.
Especially for less experienced players, I'm thinking that these players will also be stuck for a long time like I was in wondering how to get the lemmings up to the exit area. Then again, that's exactly what the prior training levels are for, just with AT 14 there's no prior announcement of what prior levels can be helpful here to solve the level. With the way the pack has been so far, you generally have only needed to look at the level immediately before. AT 14 is a big exception, where you need to look at what the previous 3 levels taught. So I'm thinking the way to rectify this is to simply announce in the pretext for the level exactly what you told me in your previous post. The only problem, of course, is that it might make the level much easier than is intended.
The remaining feedback will be on the cleaning up of some pre-texts. Many of them are huge improvements over the last time, so I'm glad to see most of the suggestions implemented :thumbsup: However, there's still some that can be improved further, mostly just comma issues.
Skills 1 - Just a comma is needed after "breath." Otherwise, looks great! ;)
Skills 2 - Great, but unless you already addressed this and I missed it, should it also be mentioned that the grey shadow shows up when the skill in the panel is selected in addition to mousing over a lemming?
Skills 4 - Just a comma is needed after "head." Otherwise, it's good! ;)
Skills 8 - Looks great. I wonder if it should be mentioned that assigning stoners in midair can be used to break falls as well. Then again, you did mention in the pretext a couple of levels before that lemmings die if they fall 64 or more pixels, so it might not be necessary.
Skills 9 - Just a comma is needed after "levels."
Skills 13 - Commas needed after "last," "0," and "button." Also, "assings" is a typo, where it should be "assigns."
Objects and Functions 1 - Just a comma is needed after "area."
Objects and Functions 3 - Instead of a semicolon ( ; ), that should be a colon ( : ). Also, comma after "left."
Objects and Functions 5 - Comma after "activation." Perhaps instead of "with," "through" is probably a better word to use.
Objects and Functions 6 - Commas needed after "fencers" and "miners" in the left/right facing OWWs and downwards OWWs sentences, respectively.
Objects and Functions 7 - Comma needed after "pit."
Objects and Functions 8 - Commas needed after "sometimes," "locked," and "deviate."
Objects and Functions 9 - Commas needed after "sometimes" and "now."
Objects and Functions 10 - Commas needed after "time," the first "receiver" in the second paragraph, after the second "mode," and after "traps."
Objects and Functions 11 - Commas needed after the second "pads" and after the second "which" in the second paragraph. Also, instead of "by contrast," "in contrast" sounds better.
Objects and Functions 12 - Comma after "made," take out the comma after "again." "Frame-stepping" should be capitalized.
Objects and Functions 14 - Comma after "case."
Objects and Functions 16 - Text cuts out at the end. Not sure what should be removed here to cut out the fluff.
Objects and Functions 17 - Comma needed after "otherwise."
BT 1 01 - Comma needed after "first."
BT 1 02 - Comma needed after "steel."
BT 1 04 - Comma needed after "trick." For the last sentence in the second paragraph, perhaps add "can work" after "even diggers" so the beginning reads "Even diggers can work" and the rest of the sentence is fine as is.
BT 1 08 - Comma needed after second "wall."
BT 1 10 - Comma needed after the first "jump" in the third paragraph.
BT 1 15 - "Ammount" is a typo. Should be "amount."
BT 1 19 - Commas needed after "level" and after "also."
BT 1 20 - Commas needed after "sometimes" and after "miner."
BT 1 21 - Comma needed after "time."
BT 2 02 - Comma needed after "also."
BT 2 03 - Very nice pre-text. I wonder if it should be mentioned to stop the digger after at least 9 or 10 strokes (I'm not sure how many pixels the builder adds and the crowd will still be contained). Then again, the player is taught that lemmings cannot get over 7 or more pixel high walls later on, so it might not be necessary to mention when to stop a digger with a builder after a certain number of strokes.
BT 2 09 - Add the word "to" after "latter."
BT 2 16 - Comma needed after second "blocker."
BT 2 20 - Instead of "hole" put "tunnel" since it's technically a tunnel miners make.
BT 2 21 - Comma needed after "bashers."
AT 1 - Remove "to" in the third paragraph.
AT 3 - I feel like "create" sounds better than "form." "Form" works too, just the other one sounds better to me.
AT 4 - Comma needed after "bricks."
AT 9 - Not sure how I missed it the first time, but "under" should really be "above." When you're platforming in the level, the bricks are above the shimmier when he jumps, not under him.
AT 11 - Comma needed after "here."
AT 15 - Remove "in."
AT 18 - Maybe instead of "removed" perhaps "released" is a better word to use here, since we technically want to release the blocker, not remove him by bombing him, for example.
AT 19 - Comma is needed after "way" in the third paragraph.
AT 20 - Add "very" after "are."
AT 21 - Just need to fix the comma being by itself, as it should really be next to "diggers."
With these pre-text changes for the next update, we got one very awesome and excellent NL Tutorial pack which I approve and will highly recommend to anyone! :) Once again, nice job with the levels themselves. Perhaps when the v1.0 of the pack comes NL should definitely ship with this pack along with Redux ;)