New unofficial online Lemmings game...

[Gronkling]

Are the leaderboards sorted by time? I think it would be better to sort them by some sort of average of the 3 things. Its not really important though. 

[bombsite]

Yes, they're currently sorted by best time.  I was thinking of incorporating the other values (tools left and lemmings saved) but wasn't sure of the best way to implement it.  For example, if someone completes a level in 1:00 saving 10 lemmings and someone completes the same level in 0:30 saving 1 lemming, then how would I calculate which one should be at the top?  I would need to come up with some sort of algorithm for this, unless there's already an existing one in any of the Lemmings versions?  Or maybe I could just make the leaderboard headings clickable so you could display the leaderboard in the order of your choice?

[DragonsLover]

There's one thing, however: people may exploit bugs to their advantage, causing them to complete the levels in shorter time than intended. Perhaps it should be disable until the bugs are fixed?

[Simon]

Yes, they're currently sorted by best time.  I was thinking of incorporating the other values (tools left and lemmings saved) but wasn't sure of the best way to implement it.

The generally accepted hierarchy is to
rank by lems saved first;
if equal, rank by skills used;
if equal, rank by time used;
if equal, rank by whoever achieved the record first.

Sometimes, there is analysis on how to complete levels faster or with less skills at cost of less lems saved, but this is more seldom.

-- Simon

[bombsite]

There's one thing, however: people may exploit bugs to their advantage, causing them to complete the levels in shorter time than intended. Perhaps it should be disable until the bugs are fixed?

When the bugs are all fixed, I may just reset the leaderboards for any levels where cheating via bugs may have been possible.

The generally accepted hierarchy is to
rank by lems saved first;
if equal, rank by skills used;
if equal, rank by time used;
if equal, rank by whoever achieved the record first.

Thanks Simon, that's useful.  I'll try and incorporate that ranking method.

[Ron_Stard]

Will be great if we can load and play custom levels  . But of course, that is secondary now, with all the current bugs unsolved.

[bombsite]

Will be great if we can load and play custom levels  . But of course, that is secondary now, with all the current bugs unsolved.

The bugs are getting solved gradually - I've created a simple shared spreadsheet on Google Docs where you can all add bugs and see what my progress is with them at https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap23uZVbRvYqdHMwQkFLYXA1NXNGSG5XNEQ3XzJZREE&hl=en_US&authkey=CLLqteQJ.

[Clam]

Yes, they're currently sorted by best time.  I was thinking of incorporating the other values (tools left and lemmings saved) but wasn't sure of the best way to implement it.

I had an idea once that you could have separate records for the three categories. Then you could do a playthrough where you try to save the most lemmings, another where you use the fewest skills, and another where you use the least time. This avoids the problem of trying to work out which type of record is "best" - IMHO, they are all equally worthy. Each category could have its own leaderboard, or (as mentioned) you could choose to sort the leaderboard by any category.

There's one thing, however: people may exploit bugs to their advantage, causing them to complete the levels in shorter time than intended. Perhaps it should be disable until the bugs are fixed?

I'd say an unbreakable record is a nice reward for playtesting in the early stages of development.

[bombsite]

It seems to insist on using a cursor for selecting lemmings, as if I was on a regular computer with a mouse. It looks like I have to tap once to place the cursor, and tap again when a lemming is inside the cursor to use a skill. On a touchscreen device, it would make more sense to just tap the lemming to assign a skill.

I've made a slight change which should make it easier to select Lemmings on touch devices.  If anyone can test this it would be greatly appreciated!

[Clam]

Found another issue: the game freezes sometimes when I restart a level. The only way to unfreeze it seems to be to reload the page.

EDIT: oh heck, now all my lemmings are looping the "oh no" animation and not exploding.

[bombsite]

Did you restart the level using SHIFT-Q?  I've seen that bug before and wondered if that could have been the cause.

[Clam]

Yep, I'm using Shift+Q to end levels before restarting. I've no idea what causes the permanent "ohno"ing though

EDIT: I might have pinned down the freezing issue. It seems to happen when you quit while there are explosion particles on the screen.

[bombsite]

I think when I experienced the permanent 'ohno'ing, some of the Lemmings were dying by other means (drowning/splatting) whilst being nuked at the same time.  Is this possibly what happened in your situation?

I'm thinking of adding a replay feature so I can see exactly what happened when these bugs occur!

[Clam]

There weren't any lemmings dying when it happened to me - I had all 50 lemmings (on Fun 6) ohnoing at the same time

[bombsite]

EDIT: I might have pinned down the freezing issue. It seems to happen when you quit while there are explosion particles on the screen.

That's exactly what was causing the problem, and it's now fixed!  Thanks for your help