Alright! I have deliberately not read any of the previous comments yet, so that I don't feel the need to reply to anything, but can just state my "unbiased" opinions first. As this is ehat I understood namida asks from us here.
- What is your favorite trick you've seen / found involving one or more of these new skills? (Use your own judgement as to what constitutes a "trick".) As a courtesy to other members who may want to discover tricks on their own, please spoiler tag this.
Sliders falling off their own Builder staircase to turn around, and then potentially continuing to shimmy along the underside of their own Builder staircase! Also, Sliders can drop into Laserer tunnels from above and immediately start shimming down those Laserer tunnels. This is not possible with Fencer tunnels because they are too narrow to shimmy through.
Note that Laserer tunnels can also cross easily. This is a HUGE upside over Fencers. I've made an entire level around trying to cross two Fencers ("En garde!" from Pit Lems) because it's so hard to do. In case of the Laserer, it's not the lemming himself that removes the terrain, so the ray can cross the part where the other one has already removed terrain.
Freeing Blockers by throwing grenades at the ground under them, or by frying their butts with a Laserer from afar, those things deserve an honorable mention.
- If all four skills were to make it in, but you were allowed to make exactly one change to how one of them worked (not including bug fixes - assume those will happen regardless), what would your change be, if anything?
Most likely, I wouldn't change anything; I'm perfectly content with the current arcs of the Laserer, Spearer, and Grenader. And regarding the Slider, the only required changes I am aware of are indeed bugs.
However, if I had to offer one thing up for consideration, it would be the size of the Grenader's crater, making it smaller, closer to that of the Bomber. Maybe that would make it less prone to causing backroutes by just nuking away huge chunks of (even one-way) terrain.I haven't used the "dent the ceiling to stop a Shimmier" application yet, especially since I've now found out that can be done with a single Spearer to the ceiling as well. (Only at least two spears are enough for the Shimmier to land on them; a single spear will be something the Shimmier bumps into so that he falls down.)
- If you were responsible for picking which skills do or don't make it, and were told you could only pick one skill to make it in, which one would you pick? Why?
Tricky. I'd have to coss a toin between Slider and Laserer. But at this point,
if you held a gun to my head, I would probably prioritise the Laserer. I have found ways of simulating some very specific Slider behaviours with Floaters falling through one-way fields. But I haven't found any way yet of emulating a Laserer.
That said, the Slider is still my very strong second, followed by the Spearer. And as said above, my favourite trick(s) involve(s) the Slider. If it weren't for the Laserer having a 45-degree angle and therefore allowing Shimmier interactions as well, the Slider would still be first.
- If you were (same), and were told you must pick exactly one skill to reject while keeping the others, which one would you reject? Why?
The Grenader. For the following reasons:
- Backroutes featuring the Grenader are hard to prevent because they are like Bomber backroutes, i.e. can ignore one-way arrows, but the crater is much larger. Spearer backroutes are easier to prevent because they are similar to Stoner backroutes (except the Spearer isn't quite as broken). The Grenader however has an upside compared to the Bomber, because it's not only larger, but also not lethal. Thus, the Spearer is a weaker Stoner, but the Grenader is a stronger Bomber. At least when he stands right next to or right below his target, so that the grenade immediately explodes. Of course, you can't abuse the Grenader as a Bomber where there is a lot of space.
I for one like to design around certain limitations. This is why I like the Spearer more than the Grenader right now.
- The Grenader is the only new skill that isn't part of Lemmings 2: The Tribes, so I would be less bothered by losing it compared to any of the others. Sure, comparable to the Bazooker or Mortar, but still quite different flavour-wise.
If one skill had to get cut, I don't know if the Spearer would still have a chance of getting implemented if the Grenader had to go, or if Spearer and Glider would count as one skill that would also get culled together. But I think this "2 in 1" approach only made sense when it came to programming effort; now, both skills can justify their existence independently of each other, with the only connection being that they should share the throwing arc.
TL;DR: My priority list is 1) Laserer, 2) Slider, 3) Spearer, 4) Grenader. But I want to stress very strongly that I still hope to see all four skills implemented. And I'd be happy to toy around with the Grenader much more when I can be certain that it will stay. Instead of all my levels featuring it being... well... blown up by its elimination.