PICNIC (29 levels) Codrin, Iuliana & Stefan - NL doesn't display the "&" correctly in the level list. Easy but good level. Dream Eater - 20-of-all repeat of a later level. Easy but not trivial. Eeny, meeny, miny... OH! - Fun gimmicky level. First Things First - Author should be "Jeffery Lancaster" with a space. Fun little multi-tasking level. Food for the gods - 10-of-all repeat of a later level. Has a hidden trap, and water largely covered by terrain. Save req should be 40 maybe, as 35 can be saved simply by mining at the start and letting them walk through the trap. Still, overall a pretty interesting level. Gotta Save 'Em All! - Might be a 10-of-all repeat? Showcases a trick for isolating a worker. Harbour Lemmings - 10-of-all repeat. Dealing with one-way wall. Hunting Season - 10-of-all repeat? Hidden traps. Tests the ability to deal with traps but would be better if they were visible. In the Countree - Looks like an Orig-style builder-fest, turns out to be a builder conservation puzzle. It's okay. In the cavern... - Orig-style 10-of-all. Okay but nothing special. In the swamp... - Journey for a single lemming. Quite interesting. Land of Confusion - 10-of-all with fireblowers and a death fall to navigate. Good, but tough for a 10-of-all. Maybe should be moved up, depending what existing Rank 2 levels are like. Lem Dunk - Good level but move up. Just being 10-of-all doesn't make it easy! Neighbours - One group of lemmings has to save the other. Interesting level. Not a basher tutorial - Instead it's a tutorial on doing without bashers. Good level. Rounds and swingabouts - Skipped. The problem with huge resource-management levels like this is that getting to the end and realising you needed to use a bomber instead of a basher earlier is not fun, and not an interesting puzzle. Also, this is in no way a Rank 1 level. Singularity - 20-of-all repeat. An interesting set of obstacles to deal with here. Somewhere Under the Rainbow - Oh hey, one of mine. 10-of-all repeat of "Changing of the Guards". I guess it's okay as a landing platform introduction level, but the decorative terrain on the right side makes it backroutable. Song of the Lemming - 20-of-all repeat. Okay but there's a long waiting time for the climber, and water buried in terrain. Stranded - 20-of-all repeat? Some interesting obstacles to deal with here. Not a bad level. The Chopping Block - Utterly trivial. Kill this one. The Great Migration - Very easy 20-of-all. Might be suitable for a very early level. The water on the right is a single pixel too wide to be crossed with 1 builder, annoying. LOL at 15-minute TL. The Shaft - A mildly amusing lesson in observation. I guess it's okay to have one of these. The Small Jail - Rescue the trapped lemmings, or just bomb them out. Might be more interesting without bombers -- although the player can always challenge themselves to rescue 100% if they like. Okay but there are better levels. The endless steps - Precise bomber placement, much easier in NL. Again I guess it's okay to do this just once. Through Fire and Flames - Very easy 10-of-all, could be okay as a very early level. Training Zone Alpha - Skipped. Looks like an interesting puzzle level but definitely not suitable for Rank 1. Turn it Around! - Tutorial on two methods of turning round (3-builder wall and 2-bomber hole). It's okay, but is this really the best the community has produced? Wrong Way, Mr Lemming! - Trivial one-way-wall level. NEW VERSION PICNIC 1. Lesson 1 - Just Bash - Good starter level. Even if this pack doesn't do the traditional tutorials for all skills, it's good to start with only one skill so the player isn't overwhelmed. Moss on steel needs removing now that simple autosteel is deprecated. 2. Rise through the ranks - Climber tutorial. Adds the danger of death but still very easy. 3. Road Block - Blocker tutorial. Simple and looks good. 4. Dangerous Heights - Floaters. Has two hatches to make it slightly harder than Level 2. 5. Dig for Victory! - Diggers, combined with floaters although they aren't necessary. Traps to make it slightly tougher. 6. Play Bridge - WTF. Sure, it concentrates on builders, but this is NOT a builder tutorial level, it's about trapping the crowd and it's not easy (especially with the tight save requirement). Move later. 7. Ups and Downs - "The endless steps" repurposed as a miner tutorial, with other skills. While it can be solved with only miners, the builders help speed things up so that's good. Maybe just remove the floaters and blockers. 8. How I learned to love the bomb - Bomber tutorial with blockers (for redirection, not just for making bombers untimed). This is a fun, interesting level. 9. Wrong Way, Mr Lemming! - Now this works as a one-way wall tutorial. Still suffers from being basically the same puzzle as the original "Keep Your Hair On, Mr Lemming". 10. Arrow keys will help you here! - Directional select tutorial. Not bad. Not many packs think to include one :P 11. Through Fire and Flames - Same level as in old version. I picked this out as one of the easiest levels, so this is a good place for it. Fire pits need some decorative terrain as the gaps (due to the object's reduction in size) look odd. 12. In the cavern... - Another easy level, well-placed here. Moss on steel (same as Level 1). 13. It's a long, long way to fall! - This is "The Chopping Block" given the name of its repeat. Given how easy the early levels of the new pack are, it feels less out of place, but it can definitely go if there's a better level to include. If kept, rename to "Crystal Clear" (the name I gave it in GemLems). I always, ALWAYS give repeat levels different names unless their solutions are also thematically paired, which these are not. 14. The Small Jail - Another one from the old version. Feels in the right place here. 15. Gotta Save 'Em All! - Also well-placed. Simple, but the 100% requirement means you have to come up with something other than the standard blocker-bomber crowd control. 16. Eeny, meeny, miny... OH! - Also well-placed. Only one skill but requires some thought. Nice to have a level like this breaking up the run of 10-of-all levels. 17. Let's get to the bottom of this! - This is "Somewhere Under the Rainbow". I don't know why the title was changed (because Nortaneous has a Lix level with the same title?) It belongs later (assuming a backroute-fixed version will be used); getting down and building a landing platform is tougher than anything the player has had to do yet. I just noticed that the terrain on the lower-left looks like it's covered by the water but isn't; I'll fix this. 18. Dream Eater - This is well-placed. 19. Hunting Season - Still has the hidden trap issue but otherwise fine. Moss on steel again. 20. Food for the gods - Still has a hidden trap and should be save 40, but well-placed. The RR 99 gives the player something to think about. 21. Not a basher tutorial - Another good placement. Now the player has to think about how to use other skills to compensate for the lack of bashers. 22. Harbour Lemmings - A more complex one-way wall level. Also well-placed. 23. Stranded. Well-placed again! You have RR 99, one-way-wall and several hazards for lemmings to cope with. 24. (filler - gap reserved for Minesweeper Lemmings) Given the three hatches to deal with, and the first level taller than the default, I feel this is a good place for it. 25. Song of the Lemming - Much too easy for its place, since you can just bash to the exit. 26. Codrin, Iuliana & Stefan - A small but simple puzzle level interrupting the 10-of-alls. Good call. 27. Neighbours - Quite a lot has to be done here to rescue the lower crowd. Well-placed. 28. Singularity - Definitely belongs near the end of the rank. 29. Rounds and Swingabouts - I gave this one a good hard try, but nope. Still way beyond Rank 1. 30. The Shaft - I guess it's nice to finish off a rank with a quickie. Comparing to the old rank 1, the following levels got moved up: First Things First - This should stay in rank 1. It's a good showcase of "which skills to use where". Lem Dunk - Agreeing with my advice that it should move. Training Zone Alpha - Also in agreement with my advice. Turn it Around! - I still suggest removing this. A builder wall tutorial is not "best of" material. The following levels were removed entirely: In the Countree - A little too builder-heavy, so I agree it's not as good as the levels that stayed in. In the swamp... - Shame, I liked this one. It was a unique twist to have a 1-lemming level. Land of Confusion - I guess it's a 10-of-all with unappealing visuals and nothing unique about the solution. The Great Migration - An easy 10-of-all with nothing special about it.