Lemmings Community Compilation Levelpack

[Crane]

The two "Blast Furnace" levels.  The second one was originally an attempt to fix the backroutes, but I figured they worked better as Part One and Part Two, since the first one is a fun novelty (roughly Taxing) and the second one has a convoluted solution (roughly Sunsoft).

I confess "Blast Furnace" holds a special place in my heart because I designed the level when I was only 7, back in 1993.  Still, I'll let the community decide if it's worthy.

Recommended Music for Lemmini:

Blast Furnace: TenLemms
Blast Furnace (Part Two): Lemming2

[Crane]

Here's "Tier Drops" and a sort-of 1-of-everything level called "Sharing a Climber?", actually the very first level I made for CustLemm, using that old DOS editor.  It would have made a nice 1-of-everything contribution, but you don't have a floater... saying that, it uses the same trick that Prize Catch is meant to use... I haven't found a backroute yet that saves 100% (the requirement).

NOTE: The steel areas on the floor of Tier Drops will have to be adjusted for Lemmini.  The floor had to be a strange height so the exit and the trap would trigger properly.

Recommended Music for Lemmini:

Sharing a Climber? - Tim5
Tier Drops - Cancan

[Crane]

Last pair for tonight, "Iron Curtain" and "Going Down . . . . .".  Iron Curtain has something weird going on with the stomper trap in Lemmini, so it may have to be adjusted.  "Going Down . . . . ." is a Bubble-style map with a solution where you have to bash along the top of the map and a classic Mayhem trick of having bombers you can't actually use (schmuck bait!).

Regarding rating names, ones that came to mind:

Chaos (a kind of synonym to 'Mayhem' and 'Havoc')
Fiendish
Challenge (as opposed to 'Bonus'... the hardest of the hard)

Now to work on Lemming Cathodes... what do you need exactly, just a pure tutorial level with no danger?  Just it's called Lemming Cathodes due to the electrode traps.

Recommended Music for Lemmini:

Iron Curtain - Awesome
Going Down . . . . . - Tim3

[Crane]

Hmmm, I haven't checked yet, but I might have theorised a backroute with "Sharing a Climber?" that uses the Blocker.  Still, the simplest solution to that is to remove the Bomber and Blocker tools, leaving the tool-set as 01 -- -- -- 01 01 01 01.

[mobius]

Very interesting solution for Sharing a Climber! Unfortunately there is a backroute which doesn’t use the blocker. I think just adding steel on the top could fix this one. Alternatively, if you don't mind this backroute, it is still rather interesting. However, I have a level under nomination that uses a similar trick, however I'm not sure it will be included yet. 
Thank you for responding because I would never have known this was a backroute.

I’ve added these levels to the list. There is no guarantee they all will make it to the final pack, but a few in particular I personally like and think would go nicely. At least one of the Blast Furnaces will definitely make it. Which one would you prefer in case?
Some levels that other people have nominated earlier: Crystal Caves, Nemesis, Oil Refinery (this one can't be used because the only solution found by Akseli uses a Lemmix specific trick and is a little too precise for this pack), Prize Catch, 3W and Come Out to Play.
If Crystal Caves isn't good, could it's fun twin be used instead? Diamond Mine. We are still sort of lacking in easy levels.

also thanks for the music suggestion. I still need to learn how to do that (specify specific songs) but I will learn it from somebody. It’s not that hard to figure out actually, I think.

[Crane]

Crystal Caves is meant to be 'classic Mayhem' in terms of the tools available and bombers you can't use due to the 100% requirement.  You can use the Fun equivalent if you like, although I did see someone mention the harder version being no cakewalk.

Oil Refinery does use a walk-through Blocker (it may be adapted for Lemmini by reducing the release rate slightly, I think) and very precise tool placement, so yeah, I can understand that it can't be used.  Nemesis was a fun one to design!

I'll take a look at the Sharing a Climber solution (hooray for community testing), although I don't have access to my Lemmings files until Monday now - sorry.

[mobius]

I forgot to answer your question: Lemming Cathodes, you can include traps, that would be nice actually. I think the best way to make it a tutorial-like is just lower the save requirement. Something like 50-70%. And make the time limit easy like 5 minutes. Is this okay? I can do this then, you don't have to do anything. Is it is already it's a nice level that's not very difficult but also not too easy for a beginner.

I realized this would kind of spoil most of the level... I think we can just leave it as is, or reduce the number of lemmings and maybe the RR a little.

[Crane]

I was going to say... I might increase the time limit and reduce the release rate... I'm looking at 5 minutes and a release rate of between 50 and 70.  I might increase the number of diggers to 20 so you can recover as well.  I'll experiment a bit.

Looking at previous comments, I do prefer Crystal Caves over Diamond Mine... I'm not sure what your policy is in regards to repeat levels.  Crystal Caves leaves little room for error with its 100% requirement, and you have to watch things carefully because the lemmings on the far right can easily walk into the water, along with a couple of fall hazards (and if I remember, you only have one Floater and five Builders).

I feel a bit cheeky making suggestions so late on, especially as there's an implication that the deadline passed last month.  I do have one of two more levels to suggest after the weekend... JAILBREAK as a Lemmini-only Bonus level (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4cRbJ-HMA), and a marble level called "Turn the other cheek".

I do have a handful of 20-of-everything levels, but the layouts make them more Tricky than Fun, or even Taxing (e.g. Printing Press, 0-10).

[Crane]

Oh, regarding which Blast Furnace to use if only one can appear, I choose the first one.  The second one is when the novelty has worn off and instead presents a very difficult level (hopefully!).

Give me a few more hours and I'll post up Oil Refinery's solution, Turn the other cheek and a Fun level you might like... "Eeny, meeny, miny... OH!".  I'll take a look at Sharing a Climber? too, because I think I've found another backroute of my own.

[Crane]

Indeed, I found another backroute on "Sharing a Climber?" - simply dig just beyond the highest trapdoor, and a mass of lemmings will fall on top of the one-way wall, with many going to the left.  Then you can build up to the thin wall and mine to break through it, and simply bash through the one-way wall.  You complete the level without even using the Climber and with a full minute to spare.  Below you should find a version with the backroutes removed (I do like möbius' backroute, but it leaves open the ability to dig straight down).

Now, Lemming Cathodes... I've actually made it harder in a way, in that it's now very easy to walk into the Ghostbusters trap.  However, you now only have to save 50%, so it's easy enough to botch it together haphazardly and complete it even with the time crunch (a nice introduction to minute levels).  Nevertheless, if you want to aim for 100%, it's quite a challenge.  Note, this should NOT be the first level of the game!  How does it look and feel in your opinion?

"Lemming Cathodes" Music Suggestion: Lemming1 or Lemming3

[Crane]

Oh, nearly forgot these two...

- Does this solution to Oil Refinery use a Lemmix-specific trick?
- "Eeny, meeny, miny... OH!" is not your ordinary level... you have one lemming and you have to work out where to use the Builder.

Recommended music for Lemmini:

Oil Refinery - Tim6
Eeny, meeny, miny... OH! - Tim2

[Burned]

Haven't been in these forums for a while. I've recently gotten back to Lemmings due to Lemmini and Lemmix!

I hope it is still possible to nominate some levels. If I still can, then I feel that some levels from the VTM community should also make their way into this pack.

I would like to suggest another tutorial level: "Ready...Aim...DIG!!!" by Em (from emxxpak.DAT), as it uses miners and diggers. The only minor problem is that the steel is a tight squeeze on the very left, but that can be resolved very easily.

Jeffrey Lancaster also made a whole pack dedicated to tutorial levels in Jeffpack6.DAT. Maybe we can use the level "Training 09 - Let's Go!" as it makes the player apply their skills.

Here is the link for all the VTM files: http://www.camanis.net/lemmings/files/levelpacks/

There are other levels I would like to nominate, but I'll get back to you on those; I just need to make a list.

On another note, I would have loved to nominate one of my Cheapo levels, "Lots o' turning" from my third pack, as it makes the player use a lot of turner tricks with a limited number of skills, but I know that it won't work in Lemmini.

[mobius]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll look at those levels Crane, when I have time, and tell you what I think.
Don't worry about a level for the bonus rating being unfair; the whole bonus rating is supposed to be unfair

thanks for that link Ice_Eagle, we were already aware of it however, many of the levels being voted in are from there actually. Thanks for the suggestion of Jeffpack; I'm not sure if I looked at all of that particular one or not. There are so many levels I'd never have time to go through them all alone.

I'm still in the process of remaking the Cheapo levels btw. Actually I'm sort of waiting for LJLPM to get a working version of his program out so I can remake the levels in a few minutes as opposed to taking an hour as they would take with Lemmix.

[Akseli]

This was my solution for Oil Refinery.

I want to again remind about collecting only already existing levels for this community compilation pack (or are we going to abandon this principle little by little?). Some of Crane's levels haven't been published yet, but yeah it's probably ok to take those which you've created already (=not just for this community pack), although you haven't released them anywhere. I'm probably also a bit worried that if/when you release your pack I've been anticipating, there would be so few new levels remaining (?). I'm just speculating, don't take this too seriously. Do whatever you want, but hopefully this level collecting issue won't go totally out of control. :--D I'm also talking about modifying levels so much that they'll turn out to be whole new levels, which isn't probably the most ideal case in this project?

My favourites indeed from GARJEN00-GARJEN09 packs were Faithful Friends, Nemesis and Oil Refinery (all from the latest pack ). I also liked a lot this Sharing a Climber and then Ball Bearing (3-3), which stumped me for a very long time, pretty clever! Crane, you also didn't response me when I sent you my backroutes for Faithful Friends a while ago, did you manage to watch them and probably fix the level?

[Crane]

I figured that was the case - I'll delete all my unpublished levels.

I did see the backroutes for Faithful Friends and I hope I fixed them, but I don't know, I'm not a good designer or player overall.