The thing I was mainly annoyed at was the fact that some issues, like with "The Last Laugh" (another level of Pieuw's which was altered significantly) I'm fairly sure I brought up quite a long time ago; *before the pack was stable*, before it was even finished, but my comments went ignored. So the argument of time and effort doesn't really hold for that one in particular.
I don't remember exactly what was said back then, but it seems likely that there was a similar problem with a lack of communication, so I apologise for that. You are a valued contributor as well as a good friend, if it's okay for me to say so, and I never wanted to hurt you or make you feel you were being ignored.
Regarding "The Last Laugh"... going into a spoiler tag since I don't know whether Simon has solved it:
I don't know what the original version of the level was like, but considering the Lix version on its own merits: the trick of using the jumper-climber to keep a lix busy is a nice linchpin that doesn't appear elsewhere, and is very well-hidden on this level, making it satisfying to solve. I would definitely argue for keeping it even if this solution is nothing like what was originally intended.
And of course, I'll be happy to look at and give feedback on any more levels you post, even though it's not my place any more to make the final decisions. I was really happy that you chose to remake "Leave No Lix Behind", which is an absolutely beautiful level ... and I don't think I have ever solved "Locked and Loaded", so I'll have to give that one a try as soon as I have a free evening!
And I'm sure that if you give us some decent levels, we can make room by throwing out some of my lesser works like "Dr Strangelix" and "I'm Gonna Make You Mine".
Regarding "The Last Laugh"... going into a spoiler tag since I don't know whether Simon has solved it:
I don't know what the original version of the level was like, but considering the Lix version on its own merits: the trick of using the jumper-climber to keep a lix busy is a nice linchpin that doesn't appear elsewhere, and is very well-hidden on this level, making it satisfying to solve. I would definitely argue for keeping it even if this solution is nothing like what was originally intended.
fair enough. If people really like this level that much, then leave it as is. :thumbsup: I am a bit doubtful of this; Simon played the level on stream the other day [and was on totally the wrong track, but seemed confident he could make it work; it was very fiddly, I don't like those kind of things in my levels.
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Another Funeral: the title is in reference to at least two old Lemming levels [by Martin Z and Fleech, and possibly more] with the title of "Four Lemmings and a Funeral with 4 lems, save 3 each]. I wonder if most people playing that get this reference?
The intelligent thing to do (which I will now do) is to take a close look at all the feedback threads that have accumulated over the past few years and then respond with better comments. I'm also against levels that are very finicky (whether intentional or not), so that's another reason to remove for me.
I'll just make these levels and upload them here and let people comment on them and see what others think.
My comments stand on Babylon Fading and 6 Gaps.., and the others.
6 Gaps: pretty boring even for a beginner level imo. Babylon: kind of similar to Nortaneous's level [Lixlada?]. I've abandoned these levels.
to repeat; The Gr8 Escape; I think 'Try Climbing that' (attached in a post below) might make a better replacement here, they are similar in nature but the latter is more interesting (and harder) imo.
I'll upload my replays for all of these as well [attached below]. Repeating myself again but all of the levels I'm picking here are ones that imo went above and beyond to begin with, and that's partly why I even considered this in the first place.
I agree on Leave no Lix behind; as with most of his levels there was a clever solution hidden but this one had much easier solutions, I made one small change which I can't remember exactly (I was going by my NL version when I redid it), reduced one skill or something like that to enforce this elegant solution.
Locked and Loaded; my solution should theoretically work on Cheapo but I never actually pulled it off, because good old Cheapo, but there were backroutes I removed by removing some decorative terrain. This honestly quickly became one of my favorite levels ever. Maybe I'm weird and its not that great. At least Armani seemed to like it as well. [he helped me backroute fix]
my replay for "Niche" is one of 3 that I have. IMO this makes a great level that is a bit unique and looks impossible at first (especially to a newcomer) but turns out to have a ton of leeway and several solutions but nothing trivial. [Some solutions may be easier than others and I'll gladly adjust the level based on feedback, or backroutes of course]. I don't recall offhand that there's another level in the pack quite like this.... maybe there is??
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A while back I make a post saying I was going to quit working on this project forever or something like that, I guess at the time I figured my interest would never return. Well at least now I have some spare time to do a little bit, and help however I can. I can test stuff for others if anyone would like :thumbsup:
tiny point: I'd like to have at least one level in this new Chicago style; maybe I'll redo one of my own or do a new one in it?
my replay for "Niche" is one of 3 that I have. IMO this makes a great level that is a bit unique and looks impossible at first (especially to a newcomer) but turns out to have a ton of leeway and several solutions but nothing trivial. [Some solutions may be easier than others and I'll gladly adjust the level based on feedback, or backroutes of course]. I don't recall offhand that there's another level in the pack quite like this.... maybe there is??
If by "like this" you mean multiple exits and having to work out which one is reachable, there's "Bet You Can't Save Just One" and "Buridan's Lix".
"Bet You Can't Save Just One" has a single intended solution, but there are (known and accepted) multiple solutions, including one that reaches a different exit. "Buridan's Lix" is intentionally built around both exits being reachable.
In the spirit of cooperation, I looked through the pack to compile a shortlist of levels I feel we could most easily get rid of, particularly from the middle ranks:
C4 "Once you pop, you can't stop" -- timed bomber level that doesn't really pull its weight with untimed
C11 "Babylon Fading" -- I agree with mobius; the route is obvious and the main challenge is multitasking, which is more annoying than hard with framestepping features
C39 "Dr Strangelix" -- same as "Once you pop"
D19 "This is too much stepping stones" -- ceiling route level where the route is obvious and the only difficulty is execution
D31 "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" -- builderfest where the only slight interest is the trick of using two parallel platformers to allow builders to turn around; some people miss this trick, which must make the level even more annoying
Removing Too Much Stepping Stones is fine. Derailed Level kinda does this kind of route better, anyways.
Thanks for the opinion! I'd leave it to you whether to keep or remove Too Much Stepping Stones. As I wrote above (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6106.msg97327#msg97327), the considerations to cut levels are mainly to improve how level authors appear in Lix. If we cut Too Much Stepping Stones, lemforum will still have many excellent puzzles by you across all difficulty levels.
I personally think Derailed Level is late-Daunting to mid-Vicious, but yea this type of solution is odd and plays well with the way my mind thinks as a player.
100 % agree that the fundamental idea isn't too unnatural, and would fit well into late-Daunting to Vicious. My reason for late-Vicious to early Hopeless: Even if you know the main idea of Derailed, it's still hard to make it work and tie all ends together. Last week, it took me a few evenings to re-solve it after ~6 years even though I remembered the main trick. The skillset is scarce.
PS: Ferry Tale is way too hard for Lovely. I'd put it in Cunning before Lovely, but late Quirky feels right?
Quirky or Cunning is conceivable, yeah. I've just made Ferry Tale even harder than it had been: I've fixed the cluster-then-bat backroute. See attachment: Now, we must save 5/5 (was 5/10) with 0 blockers, 0 batters (were 1 and 1) and instead builders 2 -> 3. Terrain is identical to how it always has been since 2012.
This is now in Lix 0.10.2. It still sits in Lovely. We'll uprank it within the next few weeks, as soon as we have a plan for it.
From the start, build towards the crane, with the aim of containg the crowd here. The bridge takes a while, and some lix will slip by.
The 2nd-to-last lix that slips over the unfinished bridge will bash, hit steel, and turn. The last lix that slips over the unfinished bridge will be the worker.
At the end, bash the initial bridge to free the crowd.
-- Simon
Okay, I've had time now to look through all of mobius's new levels. Haven't solved them all yet. My thoughts on each one:
Private Room Without Room -- This is a good, easy level. We can definitely find room for it in Lovely, whether we end up removing 6 Gaps, Golden Steps, or some other level. The only thing against it maybe is that it feels similar to some existing levels, such as Q22 Every Which Way But Loose -- it's a bit like a simplified version of it. Still, overall a good choice.
A Break in the Platform -- Really nice level. Early Cunning would be about right for it. The main route is fairly clear but you have to work out exactly how to rescue the crowd without making a hole in the route to the exit. Good puzzle with a clear linchpin.
Leave No Lix Behind -- This is simply beautiful. A lot of the skill assignments are obvious, but when you try to put them together, the real puzzle reveals itself. Definitely one we should make room for -- late Daunting feels about right.
Locked and Loaded -- Haven't found the intended solution yet. I was able to backroute it by building/bashing to get up the second miner obstacle from left to right. Since this seems clearly impossible without hacks, I believe mobius when he says there is a really nice main solution. I'll keep trying to solve it, but the level would need more backroute-proofing before we could use it. If it does get fixed, it could go in late Vicious, maybe even Hopeless.
Niche -- This is a "make the destructive skill continue" level similar to H28 The Lix Lies Down on Broadway, but much more fiddly, and what you have to do is pretty obvious, whereas the reason Broadway is so hard and so highly ranked is that it hides very well the fact that it's a skill-continue level at all. So, not wild about it, but it could go somewhere around Daunting if we end up with enough levels we want to cut.
Try Climbing That! -- Seems very similar to 100% Built By Lixes, just more annoying because everyone must climb. Not sure this is worth including.