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Messages - Simon

#1
Site Discussion / Re: Lemojis!
April 15, 2026, 04:53:50 PM
Nerd is a surprisingly good solution to the dilemma about the size of the glasses. The pointing finger makes obvious what it is.

I like all of these! Wonderful job!

I'll begin this weekend to replace existing smileys with Lana's smileys.

-- Simon
#2
I voted for no repeats at all. Not every pack needs beginner fare.

But Proxima knows that I don't like repeats in general, and I'm not necessarily the target audience here. Count vote as you wish.

I like how you're not re-packaging levels that already are in standalone author packs.

-- Simon
#3
I wish all of you good luck. It takes coordination and compromise.

Consider long-term maintainership, i.e., longer than 10 years. Is a proof replay enough for coverage/documentation? E.g., Proxima has many anything-goes levels in the Lix lemforum pack, and Proxima judged my player solutions fine even when they varied from his proof replay in fundamental ways. Such mismatch would have been judged a backroute in other levels.

This is a general worry about long-term changes of level maintainership. It's not particular to this collaboration.

-- Simon
#4
Lemmings Main / Re: [DISC][IDEA] Lemmings Co-op
March 25, 2026, 07:28:00 PM
In 2018, I filed against Lix #334 Networked Singleplayer a.k.a. girlfriend mode and it's still unimplemented.

The idea is to solve vanilla singleplayer levels together. Transmit all pauses/rewinds/steps/... over the network, in addition to how Lix already transmits skill assignments. Transmit mouse location, or at least the air clicks. You can voicechat "I want to build from here", then move the mouse, "to here". When it supports several players pausing/rewinding/..., it will trivially support one player with spectators.

I think it's the fundamental mode of co-op. All existing singleplayer levels will be instantly available in girlfriend mode.

-- Simon
#5
I'd like to investigate:

  • Air clicking still cuts the global future.
  • Assigning still cuts the future of that lix.
  • When you hover over a lix without future assignments, still say "Click to insert."
  • When you hover over a lix with 7 future assignments, say "Click to replace 7 future assignments."
  • You still need the tweaker to cut a single lix's future without assigning anything to her. This is a problem, but the scissors panel button wasn't the answer to it in 2023.
  • Opening/closing the tweaker doesn't toggle the mode, unlike Lix 0.10.32, because there will be only a single mode.

I want better visibility/previewability of what your click will do, i.e., from things such as list item #4. Wisdom will be found in better visibility of system status, not in modes.

I don't know whether I should keep two modes or if it's possible to condense cut mode and insert mode into one.

The ideas come from NL: Erase future of same lemming in insert mode.

I'll have to user-test with newbies when all is said and done. It's possible that a single global timeline is easier to understand than many interwoven timelines ... even though I find the single global timeline unnatural. Wonder how newbies will react to either philosophy.

-- Simon
#6
This is still open.

Watching replays is different from rewinding to fix mistakes. You rarely want to interrupt. But you should still be able to interrupt.

-- Simon
#7
Task: Design 1)+2) Yes in a way that prevents my above post's worry of 50-lemming lottery.

Idea: In insert mode, whenever you hover over a lemming, show the number of future assignments that will be cut if we click. You'll know it even in a dense pack, and even without looking at any replay listing. I'll see when I find the time to implement this in Lix.

-- Simon
#8
I'll steelman a case for the restrictive behavior 2) No, and weakly 1) No:

You have 50 lemmings in a dense pack. The replay contains a future builder assignment for one of them, followed by a largely-completed 10-skill route (he's a main worker). Now you want to bash with one of the 50 lemmings in the dense pack. You click into the middle of the pack. If you're unlucky and bash with the soon-to-be builder, you lose the builder's future, i.e., you cut the 10-skill route from the replay.

In Lix, this risk is reduced because Lix (under default options) is in insert mode whenever the tweaker is open. In the tweaker, you see the hovered lix's future assignments highlit. You'll think twice before you click. NL doesn't have this default behavior and indeed warrants separate risk-vs-annoyance balance.

Ideal would be: 1)-2) Yes, and some previewing power into the replay/click, and an undo stack for changes to the replay. Such undo is expensive to implement. Will and I consider undo out of scope of this issue here.

Please participate in WillLem's call for feedback (in the post before this)!

-- Simon
#9
Implementing the function from voice chat.

I can't build Delphi here to test. There will probably be many small errors.

How wise is cutting future nukes when we cut an assignee's assignment future? I think it's correct to cut the future nuke. If you disagree, put Continue; instead of the empty statement ;. I erase future nukes in Lix, got no negative feedback, and most NL levels behave like Lix levels in this regard. Nuke levels are rare and you can always re-insert the nuke. Inserting a nuke shouldn't cut future assignments of anybody.

procedure TReplay.EraseLemSkillAssignment(
  L: TLemming;
  aFrame: Integer;
  DoCutFuture: Boolean);
var
  Item: TBaseReplayItem;
  i: Integer;
begin
  for i := fAssignments.Count - 1 downto 0 do
  begin
    Item := fAssignments.Items[i];
    if (Item.Frame < aFrame or (Item.Frame <> aFrame and not DoCutFuture)) then
      Continue;

    if (Item is TReplayNuke) then
      ; // Always delete a future nuke, like in Lix. Okay in NeoLemmix or not?
    else if (Item is TReplaySkillAssignment) then
      if ((Item as TReplaySkillAssignment).LemmingIndex = L.LemIndex) then
        Continue;

    fAssignments.Delete(i);
  end;
end;

-- Simon
#10
All right, I've noted Saturday, March 7th, 15:00 CET (14:00 UTC). See you!

-- Simon
#11
Hi! Thanks for coming back to this.

Time is tight these weeks. I can offer you: [some dates, WillLem picked Saturday, 7th]. Time of day is your choice, ideally in the atfernoon or early European evening.

This is mainly to look at the NL source to look at the existing infrastructure, and to rule out potential bugs that would arise from the implicit cutting of same-lemming future.

-- Simon
#12
Lix Main / Re: Lix 0.10.32 released
February 24, 2026, 05:08:49 AM
Rubix, you're welcome! I'm busy these weeks/months away from the Lemmings Forums, but the work on Lix will resume, as it always has.

Sorry for the late reply.

-- Simon
#13
Thanks!

Already in 1990, the devs worried about levels breaking after a physics change, and level authors left some leeway for builder bridge widths.

-- Simon
#14
Fan Corner / Re: valentines
February 14, 2026, 10:07:14 PM
Yes, happy Valentine's day, and happy Lemmings release anniversary -- it always coincides, and one is a reminder for the other.

Welcome to the forums!

-- Simon
#15
Lix Main / Re: Newbie with very basic questions
February 13, 2026, 04:54:11 AM


Here's a way to split a stream of lix into two. It relies on the catapult's cooldown time. Then it delays the non-flung stream in a zig-zag to let the flung stream catch up.

Another way, like Icho explains, is to place two opposing entrance hatches next to each other.

Or you can dig manually out of a pit. But this needs a manual skill assignment.

There is no randomness in Lix. Physics are 100 % deterministic. The chaos is emergent from skill assignment side effects, and from multiplayer interaction. Happy level building!

-- Simon