Just a heads up, it's going to be a record-breaking 34 degrees and very humid in Leeds on Thursday 13th.

I'm still happy to go ahead, but wanted to float the option of rescheduling for the following week if people would prefer slightly cooler weather. Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd are supposed to be sunny and 23 degrees, a bit more manageable for those who struggle with hot weather.

If nobody replies, we can assume we're still on for Thursday 13th.

In the interests of keeping the original levels readily available for all new users, CE will ship with this version of the compilation from now on.

I'll send some updates to Proxima for review in due course, ensuring that the following have been done:

1) Restore Call in the Bomb Squad and Save Me decorative terrain
2) Special windows/exits for A Beast of a Level and co.
3) Add numbering to the .nxlv files
4) Include the edited version of PoP YoR ToP!!! from my previous post (above)

Pending approval from Proxima, I'll ship this version with the next CE update.

Quote from: namida on August 08, 2026, 11:58:41 PMKeep new (non-12.14) characters in a seperate file

This is probably the cleanest way to do it for panel characters/icons.

I've now reverted 'panel_font.png' and 'panel_icons.png' to their NL 12.14 counterparts. Custom .pngs will load exactly as before.

Meanwhile, the new characters are included in a new 'ce-panel_chars.png' sheet, which will ship with CE.

Fixed in NLCEPlayer commit 9a6c403.

After a cup of tea and a think, here's a suggested scheme:

GREEN = State is OK / Normal

Use this for: hatch count, there are regular lemmings in the level, save requirement is met, time limit is infinite


TEAL or CYAN = Pay attention!

Use this for: cut future replay actions warning (the recently-added 'CUT N TASKS'), only Neutrals remain, save requirement is not met but there are enough lemmings remaining to be able to meet it, time limit is finite

 
RED = State is critical

Use this for: there are not enough lemmings remaining to meet the save requirement, time limit is about to run out (15 seconds is good for this)


BLUE = Information only

Use this for: lemming actions when hovering over a lem, panel button hints, overtime


No other colours.

---

The only issue I can see with the above is that { lemming actions when hovering over a lem } is currently Green, and this is what people are used to. We could also do with differentiating it from { panel button hints }, as both could be - for example - 'BASHER' (the former for a lemming performing the Basher action, and the latter for the Basher skill button).

We could either:

a) Use Purple (or some other colour) for one or the other

b) Continue to use Green for { lemming actions when hovering over a lem } and accept the slight inconsistency in the proposed scheme

c) Some other suggestion (please post if you have one!)

Agreed, this should be shown.

Try this:

If you playtest a level in CE 1.1.2 from the Editor (using F12), it will show a clickable text 'Show Skills Used', which opens a dialog showing the exact skills used in the most recent playthrough. This is primarily a level creation tool, but could be carried over to gameplay as well.

Would you prefer the clickable text for normal gameplay, or is just the 'total skills used' count sufficient? Thinking about it, we could show the 'total skills used' count and make it clickable anyway.

Quote from: Simon on August 04, 2026, 08:18:26 PMClock turns red at arbitrary time (1 minute? 15 seconds?) and turns purple when it's not sufficient for winning. Instead, ditch the arbitrary threshold. On different maps, different thresholds will feel like too short anyway. Consistently use red for insufficiency.

Purple is essentially 'overtime' as opposed to 'insufficient time to win'. It's only there because gameplay doesn't end when time is up, and it might be useful for the player to know by how much their attempted solution exceeds the time limit. Red could be confusing here, especially since the timer counts upwards at this point.

Instead, red is used to mean 'time is nearly up'. We could adjust when this happens depending on the total time limit, but it seems better to keep it consistent for all levels.

Quote from: Simon on August 04, 2026, 08:18:26 PMSave requirement is printed in blue ... This removes the meaning of other colors

Save count is printed in blue until it is met, then it changes to green. Yellow probably makes a bit more sense but then visually blends with the time limit counter when it is yellow. Could we try teal instead?

Quote from: Simon on August 04, 2026, 08:18:26 PMLemming count is yellow when there are neutral lemmings. Why is this important? Why do we have to pay attention? I would understand it becoming yellow when there are only neutral lemmings left.

Agreed, this has never fully made sense to me either. Let's make it change only when neutrals are left.

Quote from: Simon on August 04, 2026, 08:18:26 PMLemming count also becomes cyan in some cases? When and why?

This is when there are only neutrals left (I think...?).

---

Bottom line: agreed, we can look again at the panel's colour scheme.

@Proxima - I'll probably start including your compilation with CE, after making the updates you've suggested in your OP.

Every now and then, someone asks about the OG levels. Many people probably don't ask, but still want them. Let's just provide them once and for all.

The strongest likelihood is that those packs include a version of 'panel_font.png' which is missing the '+' symbol (which was recently added in CE).

If you go to the root folder of the pack in 'levels', check to see if there is a copy of 'panel_font.png' and, for now, either delete it or rename it to something else. That should fix the issue.

I can't think of a sensible way to deal with this engine-side tbh. CE could perhaps see if the target .png is the same width as the one it expects, and - if it isn't - load the default instead. There might be a better way.

OK, we have this working quite well. Up to 20 levels can be saved in the list.

I've followed the usual blueprint: the first 9 items are '&indexed' so that they can be opened using 1-9 keys, and I've added a 'Clear' menu item as well so that the list can easily be cleared.

We can give this a test run in the next release.

Implemented in NLEditor commit 8907017.

OK, so I've done a quick pass of all OG-style traps. Here's what's been edited for the PG versions:

Note that the _md versions of these styles, and the 'classic' style, have also been updated as they contain some of the same traps.

Brick roller - Removed blood. The lemming now appears as a flat pancake at the other side

Crystal slicer - Removed blood. This one is actually a lot funnier without it!

Dirt 10 tons - Lemming disappears after being squished
Dirt snapper - Removed decapitated head
Dirt boulder - Recolored blood to the same color as the boulder. The effect is that the boulder leaves a trail of mud (rather than gore) after squishing the lemming

Pillar rope trap - Removed the stone ball from the second part of the animation. The effect is that the lemming is thrown behind the trap

Snow icicle - The lemming is squished rather than sliced in half. Much less graphic

The above will probably do it for now. Most of the others are already fairly humorous/family-friendly rather than gory, but please feel free to post any suggestions that you might have.

It's very difficult to know exactly where to draw the line. It's probably the sort of thing we can keep coming back to over time rather than something we have to perfect right out of the gate.

I'll ship the feature in the next version of RetroLemmini with just the blood removed (where relevant) - that won't take long to do and may be satisfactory for most users that want a parental setting.

More nuanced editing of the trap animations can come later. Hopefully, people will suggest specific ideas and (even better) provide an edited spritesheet that we can just drop in to the relevant style.

Quote from: Guigui on August 01, 2026, 09:01:56 AMAnother suggestion for keeping or erasing replay may be to use the popup already existing when closing a level within the editor.

This could work for sure, but let's see if we can do without it first. 'Always Keep' or 'Always Delete' are likely to be sufficient for most users. Those who want to be able to manage things themselves will likely always keep the replays anyway.

Quote from: Guigui on August 01, 2026, 09:01:56 AMAlso is the auto_playtest folder inside the replay folder or in the main directory ?

It's in the replay folder (i.e. 'Replay/Auto_Playtest' or 'replays/Auto_Playtest' if using a CE directory rather than a NL one).

Quote from: Guigui on August 01, 2026, 09:01:56 AMFinally on a side note I'm wondering where are the current replays stored ?

At present, replays are only auto-saved if a user has that setting toggled on (and, they're saved to the usual location - i.e. 'Name_of_Pack/Auto' if the level is from a pack, or 'Auto' if it isn't). And even then, it will only save successful completion replays. Otherwise, it's (currently) necessary to manually save the replay when playtesting.

Good idea, I've put this one on the to-do list.

I've looked everywhere but can't find the original suggestion. I'm pretty sure it was from Lana.

She suggested that Lemmini could have 'Parental' settings which display a 'take a break' message at certain intervals, and remove the blood from trap animations.

I've all but implemented the second of these suggestions. Style authors can provide '_pg' suffixed versions of any sprite in the style. If RetroLemmini finds the PG version, and the user has toggled the 'family friendly sprites' option ON in settings, it loads that one instead.

Initial implementation in RLPlayer commit 08d1c67.

I do need a bit of help with this though.

Firstly, it's difficult to decide which of the trap animations should be given PG variants. The ones that feature blood can be edited to be less gory, but what about the others?

Secondly, the editing work will require an artist's hand. If anyone wants to volunteer to do this, I'd be very grateful for the help. It will basically entail editing the OG (orig/ohno) styles' trap animations to be as un-gory as possible.

Also, how should the feature be worded in the Options menu? I've currently gone with 'Use family-friendly sprites if available', indicating the main aspects of the feature:

1) It's the animations themselves that have been edited
2) The intention is to make them less graphic
3) Some styles may not provide such alternatives (the original styles will all have PG variants included, but custom styles made by Forum users may not)

Any other thoughts/suggestions regarding this?

Since the RetroLemmini Editor has the F12 Playtest feature, I'd say this just about qualifies it as being an integral Editor, albeit one that exists as a separate program from the game itself.

Closing this as resolved ✓.