Tribute to Benny Hill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN5yH2yZpiE)
Flopsy and Wafflem both solved the level this way, merging the crowd in the area with the hatch, rather than using the slope in the middle area to help. This makes the level much more tedious than it needs to be, even with fast forward. Should we prevent this?
Wait :lix-scared:... merging the crowd in the area with the hatch is not the only way? How would you use the slope in the middle to help with this? I'm very curious now.
Bridge above slope = longer fall = non-floaters catch up faster.
The lemforum replay (https://github.com/SimonN/lemforum-replays/blob/master/lemforum/Daunting/tributetobennyhill-geoo-2017-06-21-134813.txt) does it like Flopsy and others (including me).
You can seal the small hole to the trap with one stair and then build the two stairs at the slope which gives you a bit more height as Proxima said than if you only use stairs. But therefore the lix have a longer walking distance. My replay for that is quite long as well but maybe you can arrange that more wisely.
Flopsy, a little hint that might make Merge Sort more enjoyable for you:
At some point, it was suggested to turn the red square blocks into steel blocks, to remove red herrings. This should be a hint for one, but I'd also be curious about your opinion on such a change.
Nessy: I saw you commented on YouTube, did you play through the community pack? How did you feel about this level?
As for Backslash, the solution is different from intended, but it's interesting in its own right so I don't even mind so much.
Nessy: I saw you commented on YouTube, did you play through the community pack? How did you feel about this level?
Yes, every once in a while I would play through some levels in the community pack. I completed the first three ranks and about half of Daunting and some Vicious levels. I even started my own thread where I posted some replays about certain levels (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=3651) I wanted feedback on solution-wise.
I personally don't think the red squares should be changed into steel blocks. I did find "Merge Sort" very tricky to spot the main miner usage that made everything fall into place, but it is still a miner usage that one can figure out eventually after realizing that no matter what they do on the red squares nothing will end up working and thus a player must figure out a new strategy. At the same time, the red squares does allow the solution to "hide in plain sight" without being overtaken by the red herrings it creates at the same time. Changing them to steel might remove too many red herrings and make the solution too clear and take away the puzzle aspect of finding out how to merge the crowd effectively which is how I saw the main idea behind this level.
However, this change might be more sensible if the level has to be moved down a rank. In this case the steel blocks would compensate this down-rank.
I agree with Nessy.
I'd like to keep Merge Sort as-is and not downrank. If Merge Sort must change, maybe like this:
I want to remove the earth blocks that encourage bunkering.
I want to keep high the number of possible miner locations.
(http://www.lixgame.com/etc/mergesort-modern-art.png)
-- Simon
That's an interesting change, I quite like the idea of this.
The miner placement has to be a little bit more careful now as you might break through the floor on both sides of the vertical bar, but maybe this can be alleviated by making the vertical bars a bit wider. It still allows for a range of possibilities of what to do, but pushes the player in the right direction in terms of what to explore/think of.
Attached is the new Merge Sort. I've tried to make this accepted change more beautiful.
(http://www.lixgame.com/etc/mergesort-less-solid.png)
-- Simon
After trying the level maybe the thicker bars aren't necessary, my concern from the previous post is not really an issue.
Pros and cons:
Pro: Thicker bars look prettier than thin bars, probably?
Con: They limit the options of the player as they cannot split the crowd into two separate holding pits with a single miner.
What do people think?
I like the fewer options than with thin walls: It's good that you can't create 2 holes with one miner. In Lix 0.9.17's Merge Sort, you can't create 2 holes with 1 miner either, and it's still hard.
-- Simon
Round Trip (https://youtu.be/Q0BCnHko1NA)
Glad to see Flopsy return to the Lix pack! It's been a while and your videos have always helped me judge the difficulty curve. (Also happy to see the level title in the video title!)
The digger in Round Trip is hard to spot and the solution fell into place nicely once you found that digger.
-- Simon