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NeoLemmix => NeoLemmix Levels => Topic started by: kieranmillar on May 06, 2023, 12:47:26 PM

Title: Kieran's Abandoned Zone (v3)
Post by: kieranmillar on May 06, 2023, 12:47:26 PM
Sometime in the 4 year gap when Quest From Kieran was abandoned before I came back and finished it, I had apparently started another pack with more of a focus on Neolemmix features like new skills and styles, talismans, and taller levels rather than the purely vanilla affair of QFK. I found these levels earlier today, and so have transferred them over to Neolemmix v12.12.5 and released them now as a tiny pack, because I feel certain that I will never come back and turn these into a full pack.

The levels all use Lemmings 2 styles and music from Jazz Jackrabbit. There are 9 of these levels, that I've ordered into what I think is the proper difficulty order. The levels are much easier than QFK, at least at first, with spare skills and excess save requirements. Perhaps this was a rebellion against my own usual very hard and specific level design, I feel like the first 5 levels are a fine difficulty for most people here, nothing too challenging, with the latter half being the usual Kieran Millar fare.

As a bonus, there is a 10th level at the end of the rank that will look familiar to QFK players, yes, it's another one of those levels, this is one I had replaced with an alternative before anyone else got to see it. Looking back at it, I think it got replaced for either being too precise (sorry in advance) or maybe not distinct enough in its solution from some of the other levels that made it, but well, for whatever reason I replaced it you get to see it now for the first time, another hard QFK level. It also has a unique music track by the same author as the music used in QFK, yes, another distinct variation of this same music piece, he made a lot of these.

I've decided to provide the official solution replays in advance, as I have abandoned these levels and am not interested in making backroute fixes.

Here is some of my own commentary on each level looking back after all this time. Not spoilery but if you want to avoid spoilers at all costs maybe don't read this anyway

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

How to Install

Extract the contents of the zip file into Neolemmix's levels folder. Then inside Neolemmix, press F2 to select the level pack you wish to play. If you want the music, extract the files into Neolemmix's music folder, keeping them inside the KAZ folder rather than the music folder root.
Title: Re: Kieran's Abandoned Zone
Post by: kieranmillar on May 06, 2023, 01:54:06 PM
Well isn't that typical. After I posted this I suddenly had a thought that Climbing the Castle had a backroute, and yep, there it was. Well I thought it would be a shame if this was left in a broken state forever so soon after posting it, so I made a change. I then checked the other levels, and made changes to Letting You Down Gently and Final Resting Place too. I've uploaded a v2 of the pack and solutions to the original post. Sorry about that!
Title: Re: Kieran's Abandoned Zone (v2)
Post by: kaywhyn on May 07, 2023, 07:01:15 PM
Hi Kieran,

I have solved all of the levels in this small collection. My replays are attached.

General Feedback

As stated in the OP, Kieran started work on another level pack while being on and off about the QFK pack. Until now, these levels have never been seen by anyone other than Kieran. Honestly, in my experiences I found a lot of these just as hard as the levels in his QFK pack, though I admit some of these I was a really big dumb dumb. For example, NGL, I was actually stuck on the first level for a good half hour or so, and I even thought it was impossible and was wondering how in the world is it possible, after I have officially ran Kieran's official solution for the level through the MRC and it reported as "passed." Turns out I was very dumb and overlooked one critical thing (more details later). Even then, it was also nice to see some of the levels which likely won't ever be put into an official level pack.

Abandoned Rank Feedback

As I recently finished my LP of QFK, I thought I take a look at these rejected levels that were slated for the next level pack that Kieran was making, especially since it's just 10 levels and hence I thought it wouldn't take too long. Turns out to be very wrong, as there were three levels in here that took me quite a while before I solved it. These were Abandoned 1, Abandoned 4, and Abandoned 6. Abandoned 10 also took a while only because of the solution being very precise even though I've realized it very quickly. It probably wasn't a very good idea that I went through this small collection pretty late at night, when I wasn't really at my sharpest :XD:

Abandoned 1 - Letting You Down Gently As previously mentioned, I was a huge dumb dumb on this level and eventually thought how in the world is this possible after I ran your solution through the MRC, until I finally realized the key thing I was missing :XD: In actuality, it's a very easy level indeed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Abandoned 2 - Low Tide Not much to say here other than my solution is probably a bit more complicated than the intended one. This one still isn't easy to figure out despite it just being a 2-lemming level.

Abandoned 3 - Stepping Stones Another easy one, and even the talisman solution isn't that much harder :P

Abandoned 4 - Abseiling Another one I was a huge dumb dumb on, though at the same time it is a hard level, and there's some red herrings here that look like they could work but don't. Nice solution, though!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Abandoned 5 - Tartan Stack Nice medium difficulty level here, though the timing here can be a bit tight, especially as the main challenge is due to how you can only lose 1 after using all cloners.

Abandoned 6 - Climbing the Castle One of the hardest levels in this collection, though I overcomplicated the solution with some very precise skill assignments and timing.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Abandoned 7 - Roofer Madness Nice fun one to figure out. The talisman solution is somewhat challenging, but it luckily isn't too difficult.

Abandoned 8 - Sink Holes Yea, seems quite backroutable :P

Abandoned 9 - Final Resting Place Backrouted as well, and I've seen the intended solution which is definitely far more impressive than my solution.

Abandoned 10 - The Ultimate Quest, Take 5 Yea, this one is somewhat harder due to the precision needed, though I pretty much had the solution figured out after about 5 mins or so.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Overall, these levels were still somewhat an enjoyable challenge, even with some still in a backroutable state. Thanks for releasing these! ;)       
Title: Re: Kieran's Abandoned Zone (v2)
Post by: kieranmillar on May 07, 2023, 08:13:35 PM
Thanks for playing kaywhyn, your demos and feedback are fun to watch and read as always. I appreciate them.

My comments on your solutions:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Kieran's Abandoned Zone (v3)
Post by: kieranmillar on May 08, 2023, 08:14:45 AM
After watching kaywhyn's solutions again on his youtube channel, I figured I really did want to have a stab at fixing Final Resting Place after all, so I uploaded a v3. The tweaks also necessitated a new official solution, so that's uploaded too. While at it, I spotted that in Abseiling the exit terrain was off by 1 pixel which looks like a clear mistake by past me so I tweaked it, but this doesn't impact solutions.

Welcome to Kieran's Increasingly Less Abandoned Zone.