I felt like weighing in here, as I've been continuing to work on PimoLems, even as I needed to focus a bit more on work. I also took a break to finish Lemmings 2 so that RTW's let's play wouldn't get too ahead of me. I'm decently close to finishing PimoLems, just have slightly less than half of the One and Pickaxe ranks to get through, as well as the last half dozen or so levels of Hurricane, none of which will prove pushovers I'm certain
Well done, uber!
You're definitely well on your way to finishing Pimolems. You're absolutely right about the remaining Hurricane levels. As I have already played the pack, in my experiences, the difficulty starts picking up a little bit before the halfway point of the second rating, but it really kicks up starting with the third rank and stays quite high up through the end of the Hurricane rank. As you might have seen, the Pickaxe and One ratings tend to be slightly easier than the levels in the main pack, but there's still some tough nuts in them, especially near the end. Note that I have only played the Lemmini version of the pack, but as all the levels are the same, my thoughts on the difficulty still holds. Just some are slightly easier or harder depending on which engine you're playing the pack in.
I will probably produce a complete review document of PimoLems, like I previously did with DoveLems, as I feel, like kaywhyn, that both these packs are important historically and aesthetically (not to mention in puzzle design of course), and I want to document my complete reaction. Also Icho you might be interested in my replays at that point, but it does seem like in PimoLems there's a lot less to fix.
Absolutely send your replays whenever you're ready. Not only are they very helpful for level pack authors, I think it's also fun to compare your own solution to others. For that, post them over at
https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2327.0, since this is the Dovelems topic, not the Pimolems topic.
I definitely share Eric's subjective experience that PimoLems is a better quality, stronger pack than DoveLems, although they certainly both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Nothing wrong with saying this at all. It just happens to be one that I disagree with, because I just think that it doesn't make sense to compare two packs from two very different level designers and say that one is better quality than the other, as it's a case of comparing apples to oranges. What makes more sense is comparing two packs from the same author, eg, United being higher quality than Reunion makes sense since they're Ichos' packs. Another thing that makes sense to say is I enjoyed Pimolems slightly more for the better challenges it has to offer compared to Dovelems. Just my insight/thought.
On the other hand, DoveLems I would say has more of an aesthetic, artistic atmosphere about it, Pieuw certainly has his moments in PimoLems, but Dodochacalo takes this to a new place. I'm also unsure about the relative predominance of levels in PimoLems requiring glitches. I like glitches, but I feel somehow that they're not a part of "regular" puzzle solving. In any case those levels, which of course I missed playing the NeoLemmix version, seem to have been tastefully handled from what I've seen.
I'm indifferent about glitches, although I lean more towards I don't like glitch levels, since I'm one of those who believes that all skills should behave predictably and logically, not unpredictably and illogically. There were originally 6 glitch levels that can only work in Lemmini, which is what Pimolems was originally made for. All glitches got removed in NL, and therefore those levels won't work as they are and hence had to be modified/reworked in order to work in NL.
Overall PimoLems has provided me a lot more satisfaction in terms of gameplay, and I really do get the sense that Pieuw is a more careful crafter of pure challenges. If the aesthetic is not an overt focus apart from a few beautiful cosmetic touches, the level architecture often seems like not a pixel is out of place as regards to the functioning of the puzzle, like it's been meticulously refined. And this impression is further backed up when I see him very often having a dialogue in YouTube comments and here on the board with people who play his levels, whereas Dodochacalo seems like a somewhat aloof figure these days (was he ever active much here or elsewhere?).
I'm in complete agreement with the first sentence, as beating Pimolems levels definitely felt way more satisfying than beating levels in Dovelems. As for the last sentence, other members will have a better answer as to whether Dodochacalo was active on here. I only started posting to the forums earlier this year, although I've been a registered member since 2017. I think that time when I was just skimming and reading posts in secrecy, I didn't really see any posts from Dodochacolo, so that might had been long after he became inactive. Or maybe he wasn't ever active. I have no idea.
kaywhyn, you've also touched on something I have been wondering about, which is the exact relationship between the two packs; obviously both creators are French (I assume?) and many levels of DoveLems seem to be inspired by levels of PimoLems, or possibly vice versa. In some ways it seems almost like they have, or had (speaking of the landscape of this community in the Lemmini era) a common goal in terms of extending the field of possibilities of puzzle design, with DoveLems ending up feeling like a more "fun" introduction, and PimoLems being much more punishing, a compendium of unforgiving challenges.
Good observation. I honestly have no idea whether one was inspired for the other.
Btw, I'm also interested if there's ever been a proper ranking of difficulty of all the NeoLemmix packs out there, or at least the most famous ones. I haven't been able to find a handy list, just certain sporadic opinions. I know this is very subjective, but it's interesting to think about what makes a level hard in terms of specific attributes, for instance is it true as Eric implies that it's more difficult to make hard levels when only using the original L1 skills? maybe I should start a topic on this on another board to get a broader survey of opinions, or maybe someone else already has...
I think adding difficulty tags to NL packs was just very recent, as in within the last year or so. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's harder to make hard levels with just the classic 8 skills. Quite the contrary. For very good examples of this, look at Reunion, which you're currently playing IIRC, as well as Nepsterlems. Even though these packs only use the classic 8 skills, they're both quite difficult packs. However, I am of the belief that levels that only use the 8 classic skills are easier than those that have at least one NL skill. I think it's because pretty much everyone here is very familiar with the 8 classic skills and their mechanics, while the NL skills are not as familiar, though it's just a simple matter of familiarizing oneself with them via the NL Tutorial Pack. Then my original statement will become less true.
(PS: kaywhyn congrats on United, that's a massive achievement! )
Thanks a bunch, uber!
Just so you know, I received Icho's United prize in the mail today