NeoLemmix (Player: V1.26n-C | Editor: V1.26n-B)

[namida]

Got a decent update to NeoLemmix and a minor update to NeoLemEdit. Actually this NeoLemEdit update I did quite a while ago, but it appears I completely forgot to release it. The NeoLemmix update V1.07n is new; you might've noticed a few minutes ago that I already released an updated version of the LPIII Demo that runs on it.

NeoLemmix V1.07n changelog
* Added Sky and Circuit styles to NeoCustLemmix.
*  Fixed a rank name mix-up in the ONML Neo player.
*  Fixed the absence of destruction particles in the LPDOS Neo player.
*  Teleporters and receivers no longer are restricted to triggering
   the next part of the sequence (ie: receiver animating, or lemming
   being available again) on the last frame.
*  Receiver no longer has to immediately follow the teleporter in the
   object order; it will keep searching until it finds a receiver.
   This even means multiple teleporters can link to the same receiver.
*  Teleporters no longer remove the lemming from the level (this isn't
   the same as killing it - the lemming is treated as if it still exists
   but is not positioned anywhere or doing anything) if the teleporter
   can't find a receiver - which is still possible if the level doesn't
   *have* any receivers.
*  Added a scoring system. Note that there is no option to determine
   pass/fail based on score and never will be; it's there purely for a
   bit of extra fun.

NeoLemEdit V0.52 changelog
* Pickup skills, buttons and locked exits now display correctly.

Download links:
NeoLemmix V1.07n: Downloads available here
NeoLemEdit V0.52: Download



I won't give full details yet on how the scoring system works (since figuring it out is half the fun), but I'll give a few pointers:

• Nothing *too* obscure is taken into account.
• As you'd probably expect, getting 100% significantly increases the score, although not to the point where I'd confidently say that the highest-scoring solution for a level will always be a 100% solution if one exists.
• All skills are not considered equal. Builders have the largest impact, while floaters and bombers are tied for the smallest.
  
• The time component is based on both how long it takes you to save the first lemming *and* how long it takes you to complete the level in general.
• The time component is only updated when a lemming exits (or in a Karoshi level, dies); so you don't have to rush to exit the level once you've saved your final lemming.
• Not saving any lemmings results in an automatic score of 100 (the lowest possible).
• The highest possible score, theoretically, is 20,000; though in practice it'd be almost (if not literally) impossible to make a level where this can be acheived. Although it will usually be the result if you use the skip level cheat.
• Comparisons of scores between two different levels is probably not going to say much; I would only try to compare scores to other scores on the same level.
  
  
  EDIT: On second thought, I think it's a bit unfair for me not to reveal the mechanics. I'll put them in spoiler tags, just in case you'd rather not read the details, but here they are if you want them.
  

  At the start of the level, the score is set to 20,000.
  
  During the level, it will be affected by the following factors:
  > For every frame that passes *before* you've saved any lemmings: -2 points
  > For every frame that passes once you've saved at least one lemming: -1 point
  > Assigning a climber or blocker: -25 points
  > Assigning a floater or bomber: -20 points
  > Assigning a builder: -120 points
  > Assigning a basher or miner: -50 points
  > Assigning a digger: -40 points
  > A lemming is killed by a triggered trap (even in Karoshi levels): -150 points
  
  Unlike the others, the per-frame penalty is not applied immediately. It is simply memorised at the time; it is only applied when a lemming is saved (or in a Karoshi level, killed). This is to avoid scores being dependant on how quickly you can hit Esc after the last lemming exits. One second (by the game clock, not real time) is 17 frames, just as it always has been in DOS/Lemmix.
  
  At the end of the level, the following additional penalties are applied:
  > If the release rate was increased at any point: -100 points
  > If the release rate was decreased at any point: -400 points
  > For each lemming you failed to save: -100 points
  > If you failed to save 100% (but still passed the level): -2000 points
  > If you failed the level but did save at least one lemming: -10000 points
  
  If the score is less than 100 at this point, it's set to exactly 100. Also note that if you don't save any lemmings, your score will always be 100 regardless of any other factors. And the release rate ones are not impacted by how many times you've changed it or how much you've changed it by; only the "yes or no" matter of if you've increased / decreased it or not. However, you can't work around it by setting the release rate back to minimum before exiting the level - NeoLemmix is too smart to fall for that!

  
  EDIT: I've noticed that there's no way to see the score on the final level (unless you fail it, which means you won't get a good score). I don't see this as being a *huge* bug so I'm not going to reupload just to fix it (except for the LPIII demo because I'm not sure if I'll update that again), but it'll be fixed in the next version.

[namida]

Hm, I found a bug it seems no one had noticed yet (it's Lemmix-specific). Most of the keyboard shortcuts don't work when Caps Lock is on. This will be fixed in has been fixed for V1.08n, and I'll probably backport the fix to all versions of CustLemmix too. Though it's probably not too big a deal, considering it went unnoticed until I spotted it (and I noticed it through the source code, not through running into it while playing, so... xD).

By the way, I haven't forgotten about the ideas in the poll (I actually had a look at a different method of the instant RR99 thing - my idea was to make right-clicking the + or - instantly max/min the RR; I haven't actually implemented such a feature yet, just looked for where in the code I would need to implement it), don't worry. I have another idea of what I might do for implementing buttons for these kinds of things, though.

[namida]

Okay, so I've thought of a few ideas of how to implement the extra buttons, I'd like some input on which ideas you guys think would be best.

1) Moving the minimap slightly across to make space for Restart and Fast Forward buttons.
2) Halving the size (vertically) of the Pause and Nuke buttons, to add two extra buttons behind them.
3) Removing the nuke button; the F12 shortcut key could still remain. This would only allow for one extra button unless I combine it with #1, though.
4) Adding an option (most likely based on a shortcut key and also saved in the INI file) to change between showing the minimap or showing extra buttons.
5) Using the space which displays the info about the lemming(s) under the cursor; obviously the buttons would only be displayed when the cursor isn't overlapping any lemmings.

In any case, the fast forward button could also double as a frame advance button when paused. The last two options could also allow for Save Replay and Load Replay buttons too.


Also, I'm currently working on adding support for VGASPECs (at this time, only displaying, not creating - because I still haven't got around to adding support for saving compressed DAT files; it can still only decompress them) to NeoLemEdit. I don't plan to use VGASPECs for LPIII at all; it's more to aid with tuning up the steel in The Covox Level more than anything else. xD

[namida]

Okay, that was actually pretty simple. (I suppose it helps that 90% of the needed code can be reused from the code for standard graphic sets. xD)

Not quite ready for release yet; still got to make adjustments to how it handles certain other things when a VGASPEC is involved, and for example, the fact that it doesn't yet update the VGASPEC displayed when you change the setting in the General (so far, it only checks when loading a level). But the big part is done. V0.60 shouldn't be too far away.

It doesn't render the objects in the changed palette at the moment; that isn't an urgent detail but I'll get around to it eventually.

[namida]

Alright, here it is! Now you really can edit *everything* in a NeoLemmix level - even a VGASPEC one! (Well, NeoLemEdit can't make VGASPEC files yet, only display them; but NeoLemmix has no special features relating to VGASPECs at this point so any existing VGASPEC creation tool will do the trick.)

http://www.mediafire.com/download/94d5zqp6r1t2p36/NeoLemEdit_v0.60.zip

NeoLemEdit v0.60 changelog
> VGASPEC levels now display properly instead of only showing objects.
> The VGASPEC box in the General menu no longer displays slightly off-position
  while editing it.
> The VGASPEC number displayed in the General menu is now in line with the file
  names, instead of with how it's stored internally (EG: VGASPEC0.DAT level will
  now show 0 in this menu, not 1), and will display "--" on levels that don't use
  a VGASPEC. A button has also been added to set the VGASPEC to "none".


Note that all options relating to terrain pieces (selecting them, editing them, placing them, and of course displaying them) are disabled when a VGASPEC is active. However, they are not erased - if you change the level back to a non-VGASPEC one, the terrain pieces will be there again.



Another feature I'm going to add for NeoLemmix v1.08n (obviously, this will be an option that can be toggled on a per-player basis like LookForLVLFiles or secret level support) is an option in the INI file to override the levels' gimmick settings, so that you can try playing levels with various gimmicks without having to edit the level files, and perhaps also a "Challenge mode" setting that doesn't enforce skill limits, but rather, they count upwards so you can see how many you've used. (EDIT: Actually ended up implementing the challenge mode first. Although the way it works is REALLY kludgy - it just sets the skill counts to 0 at the start, and then causes the gimmick check function to report "yes" on the Reverse gimmick even if it isn't actually a reverse gimmick level - just for reference, this doesn't interfere with oher gimmicks (except maybe the overflow one due to them having somewhat opposite effects; haven't tested that yet).)
And a feature I REALLY need to remember to do in the next NeoLemEdit update... making the negative number display neater (and for that matter, allowing input of negative numbers where applicable).


EDIT: Next release will have fully NeoLemmix-adjusted version of Covox. Maybe Prima and/or X9192 too, we'll see. They're definitely next in line anyway; just a question of whether or not it'll be V1.08n.

[namida]

Okay, here's the V1.08n update for NeoLemmix. Most notable new features are the challenge mode and gimmick forcing; the bug with score display on the final level is also fixed, and the bug with watching replays then trying to use external style files in NeoCustLemmix is fixed.

Also, Covox Lemmings is now fully converted for NeoLemmix. I didn't do Prima or X91/92 yet.

You might notice a "DebugSteel" option in the INI files (except CustLemmix, Covox and LPII Bonus), that's something I've added to help with doing the conversions, and it only shows up in beta version players (or those where I explicitly enable it; this can be done seperately from marking as beta). If you really want to know, what it does is causes the game to only render the parts of the level that are covered by autosteel. In general, it's an option you probably want to leave off. I'm simply telling you for completeness's sake; no need to hide anything (except maybe a few gameplay features I'm keeping as surprises for LPIII; although if you can be bothered experimenting nothing's really stopping you from discovering them on your own).

Downloads are here:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/4j8e2flyzclai/V1.08n

EDIT: Found a MAJOR issue in the challenge mode. If you find the number sometimes jumps up instead of just going to 1 the first time you use a skill; redownload and it's fixed. I also have noticed (I forgot to damn check this before I uploaded >_>) that challenge mode and the Overflow gimmick do not work very nicely together. That's not an urgent issue (since it affects a grand total of one level and has simple workarounds) so I'll fix it in V1.09n; in the meantime, either disable challenge mode (since Overflow gives you infinite skills anyway) or use the force gimmick option to disable the overflow gimmick.

NeoLemmix v1.08n changelog
*  Fixed a bug in NeoCustLemmix that caused external files to not load correctly
   after viewing a replay. (Also affects my development copy of LPIII; but that's
   a bit irrelevant to you guys. )
*  Fixed the absence of destruction particles in the Xmas 91/92 player.
*  Score is now displayed correctly on the congrats screen after beating
   the final level. (This was fixed for the V1.07n version of the LPIII
   first demo, but not any other V1.07n players.)
*  Fixed some issues relating to players with cheat codes and/or LookForLVLFiles
   disabled. (This was also fixed for both versions of the LPIII demo but
   wasn't previously fixed in the main code.)
*  Keyboard shortcuts now work correctly when Caps Lock is active.
*  Added "Challenge Mode". Set this in the INI file; when active, skill limits are
   not enforced, but rather, all skill counts start at 0 and how many you use is
   tracked.
*  Added an option to force a specific gimmick to always be active. Putting it as
   0000 will disable the option; to force all levels to have no gimmick use a code
   that doesn't correspond to any gimmick (0105 and 0106 are guaranteed to NEVER
   have any effects, as they're the default values placed in that field by LemEdit
   and NeoLemEdit respectively).
*  Covox Lemmings Demo NeoLemmix version is no longer considered beta, but the
   first proper NeoLemmix version (V1n/1.08n).



I have a question for when I approach the official packs that exist on both Amiga and DOS. Should I keep the DOS stats (ie: max 80 lemmings), or adjust them back to the Amiga values? (I'll be keeping it at 80 for LPDOS either way.)

[namida]

I decided to try the LPII Bonus levels from Reverse and Flight with gimmicks forced off. xD

Reverse 1, 2 and 5 were dead easy (though 1 is anyway ), while 3 and 4 appear to be impossible. 6 was somewhat interesting, not as much as its normal incarnation but still.

Flight 1 and 2 were both pretty interesting, 3 was easy. 4 and 6 are very clearly impossible (due to fatal falls from exit; 4 due to water that you can't get to even nearly quick enough from the other entrance, and 6 due to splat and not having any floaters). Flight 5, I wasn't able to solve, but I'm not quite ready to declare it impossible yet. (Flight 7, of course, is not a gimmick level anyway)


I also tried the Karoshi and Backwards gimmicks on Covox, but the only one that was somewhat interesting was Taxing 1 on Backwards.


...also, playing around with this has made something else very clear. I need to add an option to disable gimmick/frenzy musics (and just use the regular ones) in V1.09n.

[Minim]

I have a question for when I approach the official packs that exist on both Amiga and DOS. Should I keep the DOS stats (ie: max 80 lemmings), or adjust them back to the Amiga values? (I'll be keeping it at 80 for LPDOS either way.)

I'd keep the DOS stats to be honest, rather than do the hard work of changing all that.

As for gimmicks, I don't quite understand how the whole gimmick system works (or how you explained it even). Can you explain what process I need to do to activate the Flight gimmick for example? Can you also explain how the code works? (because just changing numbers isn't do anything for me at all, well, not at the moment so far)

[namida]

I have a question for when I approach the official packs that exist on both Amiga and DOS. Should I keep the DOS stats (ie: max 80 lemmings), or adjust them back to the Amiga values? (I'll be keeping it at 80 for LPDOS either way.)

I'd keep the DOS stats to be honest, rather than do the hard work of changing all that.

As for gimmicks, I don't quite understand how the whole gimmick system works (or how you explained it even). Can you explain what process I need to do to activate the Flight gimmick for example? Can you also explain how the code works? (because just changing numbers isn't do anything for me at all, well, not at the moment so far)

Well, if I was going to change it back to Amiga, I'd do so by hunting down (or failing that, extracting from the game - there was info posted on how to do so here at one point, I'm sure I could dig it up) the actual Amiga level files. I could possibly even also look at adding a bonus rank (with things like the budget version levels, Going Their Seperate Ways, SNES/Genesis-exclusive levels, etc).

If you look on the first post of this topic, near the bottom of it there's a list of gimmicks. The Flight gimmick (or as it's called in the list, "No Gravity") is 4207. So, after you've run the player once (whichever player you're using), if you open the INI file, you'll notice this line (it'll probably be the last line, but it might not):

ForceGimmick=0000

Change this to "ForceGimmick=4207", and *all* levels will now be No Gravity levels. If you were to instead change it to, say, 4204, all levels would now be Karoshi (the gimmick where you have to kill the lemmings instead of save them) levels. FFFF (or 420A) would make all levels Superlemming levels. Et cetera. If you set it back to 0000, levels will act as they normally do, while if you set it to something other than 0000 that doesn't actually correspond to any gimmick, all levels will become gimmick-free (even those that usually have gimmicks).

All the gimmick codes have 42 as the first two digits (except for the ONML SuperLemming code, FFFF), and they're hex, not decimal (this just means that the digits go from 0 to F instead of simply 0 to 9, with "A" coming immediately after "9"). The choice of 42 rather than any other number was completely arbitrary (well, I'm sure most of you get the reference, but I could've chosen *any* number), but the use of *some* kind of number here was to keep it well seperate from the "FFFF" code used in ONML, and the "0105" default value put into that field by LemEdit.

Karoshi (4204) and Backwards Lemmings (420B) seem to be the most interesting ones to play normal levels with - the latter is an LPIII gimmick but it was built into NeoLemmix and revealed before LPIII was even announced.

[Tsyu]

Well, if I was going to change it back to Amiga, I'd do so by hunting down (or failing that, extracting from the game - there was info posted on how to do so here at one point, I'm sure I could dig it up) the actual Amiga level files. I could possibly even also look at adding a bonus rank (with things like the budget version levels, Going Their Seperate Ways, SNES/Genesis-exclusive levels, etc).

Mindless ripped the Amiga levels some time ago. Here they are:

http://www.camanis.net/lemmings/files/rips/levels/

The levels are in the same order as those in the DOS version, but they're grouped into sets of 4 instead of 8 (since that's how the Amiga version stores them).

You may notice a "Book Club" version there. It has the same levels as the normal Amiga version, except two of them are completely different: Level001-2.lvl (Tricky 21) and Level009-1.lvl (Taxing 20). As far as I know, those levels are not found in any other version of the game (except perhaps the Atari ST Book Club version). This version was discussed in this thread, where you can also find level stats and screenshots, courtesy of yours truly.

The levels in the Amiga version of Oh No! More Lemmings are identical to those in the DOS version.

The Amiga version of Holiday Lemmings '93 made adjustments to some of the levels and included a completely different level for Flurry 8. Holiday Lemmings '94 (the Amiga version, not DOS) made tweaks to even more of the '93 levels. The levels that are only in '94, however, are identical in both the Amiga and DOS versions.

[mobius]

I voted for the wrong thing... I meant to vote for: remove nuke button for another button. Nuke is still works with F12 or whatever button and I don't like accidentally clicking on it on the panel.

[namida]

The levels in the Amiga version of Oh No! More Lemmings are identical to those in the DOS version.

Does this even extend to levels having only 80 lemmings, etc?

I'm not really aiming to include every *version* of every level - I'd rather stick consistently to either DOS or Amiga, including special levels where relevant. Now that I think about it, the best idea for these extra levels might be to include them in a completely seperate player; NeoLemmix mechanics are consistent across all players (except for presence/absence of secret level support, which is irrelevant outside of LPII, LPIIB and LPIII) so it doesn't need to be in a specific player as such.

But one way or another (lulz, level name reference) I would like to make all traditional-format levels available in it, apart from for example the Genesis (or was it SNES?) version levels that are just ONML levels remade in Orig styles. I'm even contemplating remaking the SEGA style in DOS so we can have the 10 levels from there.


Also: Re: H94, are we talking new levels among the H93 ones, or just modifications to the existing ones?

[Tsyu]

The levels in the Amiga version of Oh No! More Lemmings are identical to those in the DOS version.

Does this even extend to levels having only 80 lemmings, etc?

Yes, they're bit-for-bit identical. The same is true for the Holiday '94 levels.

Also: Re: H94, are we talking new levels among the H93 ones, or just modifications to the existing ones?

Just modifications.

[namida]

Sweet as. I managed to locate the Genesis levels too, so I can probably also include these. (Although I believe one uses a VGASPEC; I don't have a copy of that. )

So far, for extra levels (if we're assuming the Amiga versions as the base versions), I've got:
> The two unique Book Club version levels (Amiga)
> The four unique Budget Version levels (Amiga)
> "Vacation in Gemland" (DOS)
> "Sixes Not!" (Master System)
> "Stepping Stones" (Master System)
> The two versions each of the five SEGA levels (Master System) <-- well, haven't remade SEGA Five yet, but I will do so soon enough
> "Going Their Seperate Ways" (Mac)
> "The Apple Computer Level" (Mac demo)
> All the non-VGASPEC unique levels from Genesis (but I'm missing the VGASPEC ones, both the levels and the VGASPEC files themself)

(I'm not going to remake EVERY level from a console port that can't be directly converted to LVL format; I'm just giving Master System special treatment cause I can. xD It was the first version I played, after all.)

As I said, I might also look into the SEGA levels from the Master System version.

Also, I'm going to include the Amiga version's 2-player levels in the Orig player; so they're not missing from that list, they're just not going in the Extra player. Do any other versions have these? (I think I heard ONML does. H94 doesn't seem to - if it does, they're not in the rips - were there any in H93?) Also, was there anything special in X91 or X92 on Amiga, or are they identical to DOS? Note that I absoultely do not plan to actually add a two-player mode at any point; it's just the levels themself.

The SMS version of Mayhem 17 is actually somewhat challenging under NeoLemmix mechanics, as NeoLemmix's (and for that matter, DOS/traditional Lemmix too; there's no differences between the two for this) release rate 50 is significantly faster than Master System's release rate 50.



Also, it would be really helpful if anyone has the Genesis VGASPECs (especially the Sunsoft one, but the others would be good too), as well as any other unique levels I may have missed (doesn't SNES also have 5 or so in a rank titled "Sunsoft"?).  I can't seem to find those. I need both the LVL files and the VGASPEC files. No, I just need the VGASPECs now.

[namida]

I voted for the wrong thing... I meant to vote for: remove nuke button for another button. Nuke is still works with F12 or whatever button and I don't like accidentally clicking on it on the panel.

What one did you accidentally vote for?



By the way, I've started working on remaking the Sega style. Now, this style does make use of more than 16 colors (once you take the fact that DOS/Lemmix/NeoLemmix uses a fixed set for the first 8 colors). Fortunately, a lot of this is varied shades of the same color*. So I just need to take care with how the palette is constructed, and the resulting style should be usable under both NeoLemmix/NeoLemEdit and things that support only traditional DOS format (although color variety will be reduced and may in some cases be glitchy; I know traditional LemEdit has some graphical glitches with such styles, while traditional Lemmix displays them fine apart from the reduced color depth). And all versions of CustLemmix support the extended palettes anyway, not just NeoCustLemmix. Heh, this is actually kind of exciting; I deliberately made sure the format of the extended sets was such that such a thing could be done (styles that work in 16-color engines but will take advantage of 32-color engines when used in one), but this is the first time actually having such a style (since the LPIII ones are *not* designed to be backwards-compatible).

* In fact, if we count very close shades as the same (with the lightest blue and lightest browny-yellow being considered to not be paired with anything), it comes to exactly the number of colors that can fit in a 16-color style's palette.