[NeoLemmix 1.43] Lemmicks - Lemmings with gimmicks! ANOTHER UPDATE

[Strato Incendus]

The day of the first release is finally here!



...is a pack for NeoLemmix 1.43 which features the gimmicks - which were culled from the current versions - in a systematic rank-by-rank approach.

You'll need NeoLemmix Player 1.43 to play this! Get it here.
This means:
- The level sides are solid, not deadly.
- Some levels feature ghost lemmings which are unaffected by any type of object, but can be assigned skills by the player.
- There is no fencer skill, no skill blueprints, and no clear physics mode.
Technical stuff:
- If you rewind or framestep, the NeoLemmix player will also switch the selected skill to what you had selected at that particular frame, rather than keeping your current one selected.
You can change this in the settings, however! I'd certainly advise for this because it's an unnecessary and easily avoidable source of confusion and annoyance .
- If you can't solve a level, you can press 1 on your keyboard to advance to the next one and try later - or jump between levels by using the arrow keys on the level preview screen.
You don't have to write down all the access codes! You simply cannot choose directly from a level list, but you can still play these levels in whichever order you choose.
- The music is slightly louder .

Lemmicks is my largest pack to date with 170 levels total.
Each rank is dedicated to a separate gimmick or combination of gimmicks which remains consistent across the entire rank.
There are no time limits on any of the levels. Some will still require you to be quick in one way or another.

Download:
Level pack
Styles folder (to make sure you have all the tilesets for 1.43, put this in the same folder as the 1.43 NeoLemmix Player)
Music pack
The music mainly consists of Lemmings 3D tracks, plus the regular Lemmings / ONML ones and an occasional throw in from Lemmings 2: The Tribes.
Some levels however feature sneak previews at the music for Lemmings World Tour, my next pack in line!
Everything is in MP3 format, because these files actually turned out smaller than if I tried to convert them to high quality .oggs.

Currently, my own music tracks don't loop as nicely in NeoLemmix yet as they did in the software I recorded them in. So I'm open to any suggestions on how to improve this!

And now, on to the ranks!

1. BASIC (20 levels)
Gimmicks: None (unless "Ghosts" and "Solid sides" count )
This rank is supposed to introduce you to the skills and objects of NeoLemmix (1.43) in the quickest way possible.
For seasoned NeoLemmix players, this means predominantly:
- Getting you used to solid level sides again.
- Familiarise you with Ghost lemmings.

The 8 commandments

2. MOIST (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Rising water
All permanent objects rise at the slowest possible rising speed of 255 frames per 1 pixel rise. This may cut off paths you want to take, buttons or pickup skills you want to hit, or endanger the crowd you leave behind - but it might also be helpful on other occasions!

Bathroom leak

3. CIRCULAR (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Vertical and horizontal wrap
Whenever a lemming leaves the screen at one end, it will reappear at the other.

Circular logic

4. CONSEQUENTIAL (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Countdown other skills
You don't lose 1 of the skill you use, but one of every other skill instead.

Limited resources

5. TWISTED (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Backwards walkers
Lemmings walk backwards, but still perform skills in the direction they are facing.

Face the danger

6. WHIMSICAL (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Turnaround on assign
Lemmings walk as normal, but turn around whenever you assign a skill to them.

All along the watchtower

7. ETERNAL (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Hardworkers, Non-fatal bombers, Permanent blockers
Bashers, platformers, and builders go on indefinitely; this extends to miners and diggers as long as they have terrain to stand on.
Bombers don't kill lemmings.
Freed blockers become blockers again as soon as they have solid ground under their feet. They can only be turned loose using walkers.
Stackers and stoners are unaffected, as well as all skills which are permanent skills already.

May the Force be with you

8. EPHEMERAL (2 x 5 levels)
The only rank with a split set of rules.
Gimmicks Levels 1-5: Non-permanent skills
Lemmings lose their athletic skills again after one successful use.

Ignorance is bliss
Gimmicks Levels 6-9: Exhaustion, Lazy Lemmings
Lemmings stop performing skills earlier than they would normally do; athletic skills still stick to the lemming, but only work for short heights.
Swimmers and disarmers are unaffected.

The average Joe
Gimmick Level 10: All three gimmicks combined!

9. HASTY (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Frenzy, Superlemming, Instant Pickup Skills
The pause button doesn't work, the game speed is increased, and Lemmings use pickup skills they walk through instantaneously, if possible.
You can however still rewind using the minus key - and you'll probably have to do this a lot!
Also, be sure to use the hotkeys (the F-keys at the top of your keyboard) to select skills! You won't always have enough time to do this with your mouse.

Frenz with benefits

10. COSMIC (10 levels)
Gimmicks: No gravity
Lemmings can't fall down, but walk in the air. You can still use diagonal slopes of terrain to get them down, though.

NASA training lab

11. SUICIDAL (10 levels)
Gimmicks: Karoshi
You have to kill the Lemmings rather than saving them - the way you accomplish this is up to you!
The nuke button is disabled here, and dropping the Lemmings into the abyss at the bottom of the screen doesn't count as "killing".

Kill Lem all

12. BEDLAM (40 levels)
Gimmicks:
All gimmicks introduced in the previous ranks can appear in any combination with each other, as well as with new gimmicks which weren't covered before. Most of the time, a pre-level text screen will inform you about the active gimmicks, but sometimes you'll just have to figure them out for yourself!

Eternal endless infinity

13. NOSTALGIC (10 levels)
Gimmicks:
A bonus rank dedicated to all the features removed from NeoLemmix in the meantime.

Give up the ghost

Feel free to send me your replays and/or information on any backroutes you find!
I didn't receive anything along these lines while the demo version was up during the development phase, so the testing only starts now with the official release.

Hope you enjoy this little trip back in time!

[Flopsy]

AWESOME! I will commence my Youtube LP of this pack at the earliest convenience.

The first video will be on Tuesday March 20th following the last LPIV Talisman Hunt video and then will be every Tuesday after that!


I'm going to have problems recording this because I can't get v1.43 to work full screen currently due to my odd screen size of 1366x768.

At least leading zeros are back!

[Strato Incendus]

Great, I'll be looking forward to it!

When you say the first video will be uploaded on March 20th, how much buffer do you usually have between uploading and the actual playing and recording of the video?

I'm just asking because, with about a month left in between, there may be some replays by other people sent to me in the meantime, so I might already be able to overhaul some levels which may have turned out to be backroutable by then .

That way you'd already get to play a "more fixed" version of this for the LP, rather than being the primary backroute seeker that nin10doadict became for "Pit Lems" !

I'm going to have problems recording this because I can't get v1.43 to work full screen currently due to my odd screen size of 1366x768.

Perhaps someone who was involved with 1.43 can help with that? namida, anyone?

At least leading zeros are back!

Haha, I was considering whether I should check the box "center single digit numbers", but then decided I had gotten used to the leading zeros so much during testing that I left it the way it was.

Good to see my decision is being approved!

[namida]

You don't have to write down all the access codes! You simply cannot choose directly from a level list, but you can still play these levels in whichever order you choose.

You can also enter the rank name and level number (eg. "TRICKY25"), or the rank and level number - making sure to put both as a two digit number (level number can be three digits if it needs to be, but cannot be single-digit - add a leading zero) (eg. "0205") as a password. This won't work if your pack is set up so that levels are locked until the previous level is beaten, though (or more precisely - it will, but only for levels that have already been unlocked).

Perhaps someone who was involved with 1.43 can help with that? namida, anyone?

1.43 always displays 320x160 of level area on-screen at a time, plus the 320x40 skillbar. This can only be scaled by integer amounts; and 1366 x 768 is an odd resolution for this - the highest integer zoom that can fit on screen is 3x, giving 960x600, which leaves quite a large black border.
If you're using capture software that allows you to capture only *part* of the screen instead of the whole screen, set it to capture the area between 203,84 and 1163,684 (960x600 area).
As a last resort, you could always try using window capture and run NeoLemmix in windowed mode, or set your screen resolution to something else temporarily (although most common widescreen resolutions less than 1920x1080 suffer from the same problem; the only one that may work better is 1280x800, but chances are this won't work with your screen).

[Flopsy]

I've already started recording the pack, I've already finished the Basic Rank but I had to skip over 2 levels.

Spoiler

Level 6 - this level was way too precise and even on assigning the cloner at the beginning, the disarmer still died to the spike trap. I ended up skipping over it because I couldn't be bothered with the level.

Level 11 - yeah, this one just plays on Hard For Flopsy mkII for me, I hate gliders and stoners used in unison! I gave this one a good try but no cigar!

March 20th is when the LP will start on my YouTube channel, I don't usually set myself a buffer I just try to record everything as soon as possible to save myself becoming overwhelmed.

To be honest, Lemmings Squared I'm still kind of stuck at the moment and DoveLems I have to wait on my co-commentators for that now so it's nice to have something else to play.

I've found a way around the no full screen option, I've just switched to windowed mode because my capture software allows me to snap to a window only.

The Basic Levels were not a good sight to see when coming to the pack to play Gimmick levels but I persevered and finished the gimmick-less rank to start us off!

[Strato Incendus]

Good to know, I already uploaded an updated version - the change however only affects the last Bedlam level (I added some steel there to make the Rising Water gimmick relevant). So you might want to update before you get there, but this will probably take some time, considering it's the 160th level in the pack .

But of course you're free to play the ranks in any order you wish! As I said, there is no increasing difficulty between the ranks per se, just different gimmicks - although the gimmicks featured in the higher ranks do add more complexity to the game than in the lower ones.

If players want to skip the Basic rank and get right to the gimmicks, more power to them! I just think at least ghost lemmings are something many of the newer community members are probably not familiar with. Plus, as you probably noticed, quite a few levels in the Basic rank exploit the solid level sides, which it also takes some time to get used to again, I guess.

Therefore, since these changed game mechanics required me to create some introductory levels anyway, I thought they might as well be a little challenging in and of themselves !

To your level remarks - first of all, I attached replays for the two levels in question.

Spoiler

Level 6, "Do not fear":
A disarmer can't disarm while climbing - this is the only way I can imagine how your disarmer died to the spike trap.
Destructive and creative skills however will stop when a disarmer runs into a trap and he will start disarming it.
Hence, you have to send a lemming over the top to dig down the side of the wall - which means the cloned lemming has to be a disarmer as well (i.e. the disarmer has to be assigned before the cloner so that there are two disarmers in total, one for the rope traps and one for the spike trap).
It's still precise, I agree, because the lemming from the top arrives at the spike trap trigger just in time when the second disarmer climbs up. But when you see it working out, it looks pretty cool!

Level 11, "Mene mene tekel u-parsin":
Don't worry, I've learned my lesson from "The Lempire strikes back" that gliders can't bump their heads on stoners, because their position trigger is at their feet.
There is a reason why the last updraft doesn't reach all the way to the edge of the level - there's a gap there so the glider can fall down again. He then bumps into the solid level side, turning around, and then you can make him a stoner. In my replay I needed two stoners applied this way in order to cover the gap all the way to the level side. Then the next lemming can climb it up.

[Colorful Arty]

Hey Strato, I played some Lemmicks over spring break, and it's a pretty sweet pack! I love these gimmicky levels, and it's a nice refreshing take on Lemmings!

Some thoughts on the levels and ranks I have played:

Basic:

Spoiler

First things first, I love the Biblical references in the titles!

Secondly, this rank took me completely by surprise by how brutally difficult it is! I got stuck on level 6 for a long time because I thought there was a gap to the left of the leftmost pillar, and it wasn't at all obvious that a lemming could climb + glide to the top. Even after that, the timing is way too tight. I recommend making it more obvious a lemming can climb+glide up the left side and raise the needle trap by at least 8 pixels.

Level. 8. One of the hardest levels I've seen in years. I spent HOURS on this level unable to solve it; I literally had to ask Flopsy for help in solving it. I did not think it was possible to trigger the radiation by going under it; every time I tried either the lemming was too low, or too high. Since this is a tutorial level, please add a basher to the skillset to make it easier to execute. I haven't tried any other levels in the rank.

Moist:

Spoiler

Really great levels in this rank! Level 2 was much harder than any of the other levels, but still an awesome solution! Currently I am stuck on level 7.

Circular:

Spoiler

My favorite rank by far! I love the screen wrapping and it makes for some very fun levels! I'm currently stuck on Lem it snow.

Consequential:

Spoiler

I like this rank much more than I thought I would. I'm only on level 3, but the first two levels were fun challenges.

Twisted:

Spoiler

I cannot even play this rank as NeoLemmix gives me an error saying:

Access violation at address 008A8A0B in module 'NeoLemmix Old.exe'
Read of address 00000000

This same error pops up in the Suicidal rank on level 2.

Whimsical:
Eternal:

Spoiler

Another one I liked more than I expected! I'm current stuck on level 9.

Ephemeral:

Spoiler

Very fun rank! I'm on "I'm no Superlem" (is that a Scrubs reference?) but haven't really attempted it yet.

Hasty:

Spoiler

I'll be honest, I do not like this rank. The no pausing and SuperLemmings don't add to the difficulty due to the rewind feature existing, they just make the levels annoying and unfun to play. If you only had the instant use pickup skills gimmick for this rank, this would be more fun to play (or eliminate rewind abilities )

Cosmic:

Spoiler

Me personally, but I HATE the no gravity gimmick; I could never figure it out. I will likely not play this rank.

Suicidal:

Spoiler

I was very confused when I learned that bottomless pits apparently don't kill Lemmings. Still, this should be a nice rank if only I could get the second level to work.

Bedlam:

Spoiler

I am stuck on Lem Jong Un (amazing name by the way). I've tried a lot of stuff but I'm getting no where.

Nostalgic:

Spoiler

I'll attempt this at the end.

I've attached my replays.

[Strato Incendus]

Ah, great, thanks for playing, Arty!

First things first, I love the Biblical references in the titles!

I was indeed hoping for you to do so, more than for anyone else .

Basic

Spoiler

I got stuck on level 6 for a long time because I thought there was a gap to the left of the leftmost pillar, and it wasn't at all obvious that a lemming could climb + glide to the top. Even after that, the timing is way too tight. I recommend making it more obvious a lemming can climb+glide up the left side and raise the needle trap by at least 8 pixels.

Moving the needle trap might be worth considering indeed . I like the way it looks at the moment, with the needle trap locking exactly with the terrain, rather than sticking out - perhaps it will work if I just invert the object, so that the trigger area is a bit higher, but the graphic remains in the same place? After all, it's always just one of the four needles that actually triggers the animation.

For the left side: You mean it wasn't obvious that the terrain goes through all the way to the level side? Well, that's easy enough to try with the cloner right at the start, isn't it?

I could move the wooden bar at the top slightly more to the right to make it more visible that you can climb past it on the left. However, due to the low height of the entire region, I can't really move it all that much because the glider needs to be able to land on it when falling from the ceiling, and he doesn't have that much way to go to the right.

I'll have to watch Flopsy's struggles with this level, because he also mentioned it and actually couldn't solve it. Watching him think about this live will hopefully demonstrate where the problem with this one is .

The replay you sent me, for that matter, was the solution exactly as intended !

Level. 8. One of the hardest levels I've seen in years. I spent HOURS on this level unable to solve it; I literally had to ask Flopsy for help in solving it. I did not think it was possible to trigger the radiation by going under it; every time I tried either the lemming was too low, or too high. Since this is a tutorial level, please add a basher to the skillset to make it easier to execute.

If my calculations are correct, that would break the level because it would make the radiation useless - you could just mine to the left and then bash twice to remove all the terrain above the exit without having to blow up a lemming. And as it has become a hobby of mine to create interesting radiation levels - partly just to show everyone the potential that was lost by removing it - I'm glad to hear I was actually able to create something that challenging with it!

Curiously, this one wasn't on Flopsy's "hard to do" list. So again, I'll have to watch his solution to this and how quickly he figured it out.

It should be noted though that the main point of the Basic rank is to reintroduce the seasoned NeoLemmix player to the different game mechanics of NeoLemmix 1.43, and how NeoLemmix skills like the Glider behave differently with it (also referring to "Mene mene tekel u-parsin" here ).

A player entirely new to NeoLemmix skills and objects should probably not start with Lemmicks as their first pack anyway, because then, they'd have to learn about all the standard NeoLemmix-elements in addition to the gimmicks, which will probably just end up with a complete sensory overload .

So it's really a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation here: Flopsy could have done without the non-gimmick levels entirely, but seeing how much confusion climbing up the level sides is causing already, I guess it's important to include these levels that rely on this mechanic - without already introducing gimmicks on top of that. Yes, some levels teach you this the hard way, but on the other hand, that makes sure you remember it!

Would be quite a bummer to get surprised by the solid level sides in e.g. the Cosmic rank, where a lemming climbing up the level side won't come down again, which can ruin your entire plan! .

Moist

Spoiler

Level 2 was much harder than any of the other levels, but still an awesome solution! Currently I am stuck on level 7.

You used the cloner in a different spot than I did, perhaps that simultaneous management of two lemmings made it more difficult than it had to be .

With regard to level 7 however, that might be more necessary. Without having seen your attempts, I guess you may already have considered the possibility that a single pioneer lemming might be too slow to get everywhere in time.

Circular

Spoiler

I'm currently stuck on Lem it snow.

Conception-wise or execution-wise? I was hoping the title would provide enough of a hint of what you have to do. Pulling it off however might be a little fiddly, but that's always a thing with slowfreeze.

The reason I like both radiation and slowfreeze however is not to annoy the player with getting the exact spot of assigning right, but rather because it allows to restrict the use of bombers and stoners to a certain area - namely, the distance of terrain the lemming can cover before the countdown reaches zero.

Pickup skills can only do that with very strict sequencing, because once collected, they can be assigned anywhere. A slowfreeze object is like a mean value, and 9 seconds to the left and to the right is the standard deviation . Everything which falls outside of that interval, the lemming can't use the stoner there.


Regarding the technical difficulties on the Twisted and the Suicidal rank: Perhaps it's down to the name? I created an entirely different folder for NeoLemmix 1.43, which is a bit of a waste because this way I also have a music folder in each of them, which obviously takes up more space. However, that allows for a NeoLemmix.exe to be in each of them, too. Perhaps it's the name "NeoLemmix Old.exe" that causes the problem?

I'm only speculating here, I just tested both ranks again and everything works fine.

Although there were some levels in either Wafflemm's hard drive or namida's recycle bin-pack which I couldn't play either. But then again, these collections of levels aren't maintained as actual packs anymore, so I just attributed the error messages to that :/ .

Eternal

Spoiler

I'm current stuck on level 9.

Seems like it's aptly titled then !

Ephemeral

Spoiler

I'm on "I'm no Superlem" (is that a Scrubs reference?) but haven't really attempted it yet.

I haven't really watched that much Scrubs, I was more into House, M. D. . But I did indeed have the title song in my head when creating this level, so I guess that counts?

Hasty

Spoiler

The no pausing and SuperLemmings don't add to the difficulty due to the rewind feature existing, they just make the levels annoying and unfun to play. If you only had the instant use pickup skills gimmick for this rank, this would be more fun to play (or eliminate rewind abilities )

Perhaps a split of the gimmicks, similar to the Ephemeral rank, might be useful here then?

The issue is that some levels, like "Lem out of Hell", "Optimal utilization", "Throw me a lifeline", and "Heart attack" are merely about fast execution, while others are mainly about the instant pickup skills. In the latter levels, the other two gimmicks are just annoying, because the levels are difficult enough conception-wise already. However, if I removed Superlemming and/or Frenzy from the entire rank and made it just about instant pickup skills entirely, then half of the levels would become completely pointless.

So perhaps a split in the middle of the rank will do wonders.

I'll watch the rest of your replays soon and comment on them later!

Remember that you can still use the arrow keys to jump to the next level if you get stuck anywhere! There's no need to stick to the level order just because there isn't a level list like in new NeoLemmix. You still don't need a level's access code to play it, fortunately .

Especially in the Bedlam rank, each level is designed as a challenge for itself, so feel free to jump around if you can't get past "rocket man"!

[nin10doadict]

I did some leafing around and found some solutions that appear to be backroutes. Most of the pack is too hard for me to really delve that deeply into, especially considering there are a few troll levels thrown in. The entirety of the Hasty rank comes to mind. Can't even do Hasty 1 because I can't click that fast. Terrible.

[Strato Incendus]

Thanks for playing, nin10doadict!

Spoiler

Bedlam 06, "Temple Run": I didn't know it was possible to use the slope in the water! But I don't have a problem with it either. It's quite a creative solution indeed, so I don't want to ruin it.

Bedlam 19, "Lem Norris": Once again, a very clever solution to bypass the disarmer! With Karoshi levels in general, it will be hard to switch off all possible ways of killing a lemming. Finding creative ways to kill them is actually the main appeal of this kind of levels. So think I will leave this option available, too. Would be easy to remove it by simply removing the slicing trap, but I actually think it's pretty cool to solve it this way!
I could even remove a couple of skills to make the Slowfreeze (the intended killing option) a red herring, so that one has to use your solution! But I guess I won't be that mean...

Bedlam 25, "Individual practice routines": That was actually exactly as intended. There simply isn't much design space with this combination of gimmicks.

Bedlam 30, "We all fall down as one": That on the other hand is a backroute indeed. Looks like the terrain I offered was slightly too long. So either I'll have to cut away a bit of terrain or increase the number of lemmings.

Bedlam 32, "Burn at the stake": This is also a backroute. I'll have to cover the platform with the exit entirely in steel to remove it.

Circular 06, "An arrowr in the level design?": Oops, yeah, I should have made that one-way wall go through all the way to the ceiling. Thanks for finding this backroute!

Eternal 06, "Coming soon: Shimmiers": Nope, pretty much the intended solution as well. You just used the bombers for stalling, rather than for creating a trap pit. That way, the lemmings already hovered across the lava while the builder was still busy, rather than "shimmying" along beneath the platformer bridge. So you just missed out on the visual effect I was going for, but the solution in itself is correct .

Moist 04, "Need a lift?": I tested this level for a backroute where one just goes through the arrow-shaped piece of terrain at the ceiling, and found that there weren't enough builders to do this. Now you've figured out a way to go right away to the left, however you still had to use the main "trick" of the level, so I don't know whether this is that much of a problem.

With regard to the Hasty rank: I will release an update soon which is going to include the announced mid-rank split between the gimmicks, similar to the Ephemeral rank. Now I have the opportunity to fix a couple of backroutes in the process, too .

The instant pickup skill-levels won't have Frenzy or Superlemming enabled, and they will make up the first half of the rank, i.e. putting the more "puzzly" levels at the beginning of the rank.

The "speedy levels" will then come at the end of the rank, levels 07 through 10, thereby making them more optional . Instant pickup skills won't be relevant on those levels, since these levels don't include any pickup skills anyway.

I'm announcing this already now, just to prevent Flopsy from possibly rage-quitting and skipping over the entire rank , in case he's already played that far.

[Strato Incendus]

And the update is here! The link is still the same as in the starting post, so you can also just download the pack again from there!

Changelog

Spoiler

Hasty rank: Levels now have either the instant pickup skills gimmick or the Superlemming + Frenzy gimmicks enabled. I have rearranged the level order so that the instant pickup skills levels come first, because those are easier execution-wise.

Basic 06: Instead of raising just the spike trap, which would have looked weird, I raised the entire section of terrain a little to reduce the pixel precision required here. No changes to Basic 08 yet, waiting for Flopsy's solution here .

Moist 04: Added some steel and one-way arrows to make this one harder to backroute. May still be possible though.

Circular 06: Made the one-way arrows go all the way through and added steel to fill some gaps.

Eternal 04: I hadn't considered the fact that the gap between the tree and the piece of steel, which was intended as a trap, actually auto-solves the level with swimmers if the water goes all the way through. So I removed some of the water and cut it off with steel, to be on the very safe side:) .

Eternal 06: Added hatch labeling for the gliders in the bottom hatch. I had gone over all levels to label the hatches prior to release, but apparently this one escaped me.

Ephemeral 02: Removed the stacker to enforce a more specific solution.

Ephemeral 03: Added some steel to cut off a backroute that doesn't require the use of climbers.

Ephemeral 07: I found out my intended solution didn't actually require the diggers. So I've slightly altered the terrain on the lefthand side of the level to enforce what I had in mind originally.

Bedlam 01: Required even more steel to cut off even more backroutes.

Bedlam 30: Shortened the ledge at the bottom to prevent a release-rate based backroute.

Bedlam 32: Made the platform with the exit entirely steel so it can't be dug into.

[Flopsy]

Sadly I've taken the tough decision to stop LPing this pack, it is too difficult to play on this Laptop I'm using because the screen size is 1366x768 which makes the screen size odd and I have to resize all my recording tools to account for this.

Also I feel the pack is a little too over precise for NeoLemmix v1.43 and the levels are too difficult for me. I feel like I'm a victim of needing clear physics and a splat ruler which I've taken for granted.

Also because my laptop can only seem to handle short burst recording sessions, this seems to have worsened the issue and is having a severe effect on me being able to record any Lemmings videos full stop.

Either way, I have little interest in further recording videos for it and I feel like the difficulties described above are only going to shadow my judgement on the pack ultimately and I'd rather not rage quit (like I have in other packs) in the later ranks which is almost 110% guaranteed with the difficulties on top of this!

This is not Strato's fault and I encourage everyone to still play this pack as it is a very high quality pack, it's just the timing is wrong for me to play this pack right now. I would like to pick up playing it again if and when I get a better laptop which is not an obscure screen size but that might not be for a while yet.

The videos will continue until 8th May (Part 8) and I reached Level 9 in the Moist rank but then they will stop after that.

[GigaLem]

The best thing I could suggest for you flopsy is saving up and investing in a desktop rig.

[namida]

I would like to pick up playing it again if and when I get a better laptop which is not an obscure screen size but that might not be for a while yet.

1366x768 isn't "obscure", just "not well handled by older NeoLemmix". It's actually the most common resolution for laptop screens at the moment, with only 1920x1080 even coming close.

There might be an old commit of the source code somewhere in GitHub that's new enough to have the "use all available screen space" feature, but old enough to still have gimmick support. Not 100% sure on this, I forget which order those changes were implemented in. If there is, getting a build of that could be a possible solution here, although keep in mind it'll probably also have physics somewhere inbetween those of V1.43 and V1.47 overall.

[Strato Incendus]

Technical difficulties can absolutely suck the joy out of any game, for that matter, so I feel for you, Flopsy . However, your computer only being able to do short recording sessions seems to be a general problem, not a Lemmicks-specific one, I guess?

I'm having similar issues with my laptop as well; games from 2009 that used to run smoothly before now get really laggy frequently - probably because I was using Windows 7 back then, and Windows 10 takes up a lot more with regards to both space and RAM (it's not uncommon for 2 of my 4 GB RAM to be in permanent use by some kind of background processes, even when I'm not doing anything on my laptop). It's from mid-2010, after all, and both new games and new operating systems have the annoying tendency to exploit the most current hardware capacities to full extent just for the sake of it.

That's one of the things that brought me back to Lemmings, actually, because it's so light on the graphics but has great gameplay. Most modern games are the exact reverse, it seems .

So I hope you give this pack another shot, should you decide to get a new PC anyway (whenever that may be). I know I'll have to do that soon, even though I don't necessarily want to, because I'm not that interested in that many new games; but unfortunately, a lot of what I'm already using is constantly getting updated, too, until my laptop won't be able to keep up with that anymore either.

However, you made some comments with regards to gameplay as well, and that's something I might be able to fix - so let's get ahead:

Also I feel the pack is a little too over precise for NeoLemmix v1.43 and the levels are too difficult for me.

Can you name any examples? As I've said before, "Do not fear" was not intended to be that precise and I wholeheartedly apologise for that one . I just solved it in the way that seemed most natural to me and had no idea I was just one pixel short of failing. But that level should be fixed by now, and you also told me you've solved it in the meantime.

So I guess you've found some more?

Or are there some specific gimmicks you're having trouble with?

Because if you've played the Basic and the Moist rank, you haven't gotten into the level mechanic-warping ones yet.

Basic relies heavily on solid level sides to really hammer them home. And while you did overlook that rules change in several levels, I guess that would just make you more likely to remember it in the later ranks .

Moist shortens your time for solving levels due to rising water, or exploits swimmer dynamics (like in "Here comes the flood", "Need a lift?" or "Baptised by the Holy Ghost"). But apart from that, it doesn't mess with the game mechanics.

If you're just intimidated by "Bathroom leak", remember that levels are only sorted by difficulty within the ranks. The ranks relative to each other are NOT increasing in difficulty.
"Bathroom leak" is hands down one of the hardest levels in the pack because there is so much going on. That doesn't mean all the levels coming afterwards will be even more difficult - quite the opposite, actually .
That's why I encourage jumping around in this pack, like one would jump around in "Lemmings 2: The Tribes":

I didn't want to create only easy "Rising water" levels, and only hardcore "Karoshi" levels, but easy and hard levels for each gimmick.

I feel like I'm a victim of needing clear physics and a splat ruler which I've taken for granted.

With regard to clear physics, I have largely refrained from using hidden traps here precisely for that reason (as I announced in the development thread).

There are a couple of levels using the Purple graphic set where the traps can be considered hidden - that's because these traps were designed to blend in with the terrain, like the boulder trap from the Dirt tileset (which is also used on one level I think, and therefore hard to spot).

With regard to the splat ruler, I'm not aware of any levels among those you've played so far (meaning up to "Bathroom leak") where fall height is a critical variable - drops should either be small enough to know they are not splat height, or so great that it's obvious they are splat height.

Then again, of course I don't know yet what kind of solutions you have come up with .

The only levels where I could see fall height being difficult to assess are the several "We all fall down"-mockery levels throughout the pack. You will clearly be able to identify those by the way they look. In all those cases I can assure you that the terrain is placed exactly at splat height , just like in the level that inspired them.


Well... I guess the pack is up for grabs, then? I didn't intend to "beat" Flopsy with this pack, least of all that early (in contrast to other level creators who openly proclaimed that "beating the player" is their goal ). And I see that all the technical difficulties make this harder than it has to be. Most importantly, I don't want to "beat" any player by creating something that's just not fun to play.

But apparently, even with regard to pure puzzling difficulty, I have still managed to create something one of the long term and experienced forum members considers too hard for him, so... I guess that's some kind of achievement?

So... anyone else willing to test their skills on this - now reportedly difficult - pack in public in the meantime?

I only have a few select replays so far, so I can't really tell how hard most of what I've come up with here actually is... (well, except for the last levels of the Hasty rank, of course ).