A while ago, the standard Stacker and Platformer sprites for default lemmings in New Formats were changed: Where once they used to look exactly like Builders, the Stacker now moves the bricks over his shoulder "horizontally", rather than in a curve, and the Platformer is on his knees when platforming, like in Lemmings 2: The Tribes, rather than walking on his feet, like the Builder.

However, the X-Mas sprites, for example, still use the old animations, as far as I can tell?

I'm not sure about GigaLem's Freedom Planet sprites, which are, apart from the X-Mas sprites, the only sprites I am aware of that aren't mere re-colourings, but have a distinct shape.

Any of the re-coloured sprites will most likely have the new animations for Stackers and Platformers already, because they work off of the default sprites.

Since we have a currently-ongoing debate about changing the appearance of one-way arrows, now seems like an appropriate time to bring this up:

While trying to fix backroutes to my levels, I repeatedly ran into the issue that there is no type of one-way arrow that allows a Miner to pass, but not a Digger - and vice versa. This pretty much solely boils down to the fact that horizontal one-way arrows can still be dug into (as predicated by the original Lemmings rules, which shouldn't be altered), whereas downward arrows are more strict, reliably preventing Bashers from passing through them. In other words, horizontal arrows only point towards the one side from which you cannot remove the terrain, whereas vertical arrows (both downward and upward) indicate the direction in which you have to move with the destructive skill.

Now, since downward arrows have been around for ages, I don't think their behaviour should be altered either - thus, it would still be impossible to create terrain that allows Diggers to pass, but not Miners.

However, what we could create is a type of one-way arrow that allows Miners to pass, but not Diggers.

You guessed it: I'm talking about diagonal one-way arrows!

In order to make these more universally useful, I'd make them a little less limited, with the arrows actually pointing in both directions, but at an angle. Moving diagonally along this trajectory would be possible, whereas moving along the opposite diagonal line would not be. Straight vertical or horizontal movement through this terrain would of course also be impossible.

As such, diagonal arrows would allow both Miners and Fencers to pass, but only from opposing sides - e.g. a Fencer from the bottom left or a Miner from the top right, but not a Fencer from the right or a Miner from the left. And then vice versa for diagonal arrows in the opposite direction.

Now, obviously, there are many cases in which you want terrain to be Miner-friendly, but not Fencer-friendly - or vice versa. This is usually one of the most critical steps to enforce whether lemmings can pass through a chunk of terrain only from above or only from below.

And this takes us to the question whether several different types of one-way arrows can be stacked. (I haven't actually tried this yet.)

If this is the case, then you could already create unidirectional Miner terrain right now, by stacking downward arrows with horizontal arrows: The downward arrows would prevent bashing and fencing, while the horizontal arrows would force the Miner into one direction only. Diggers could still pass through both unaffected.

Now, if the same logic were applied to diagonal arrows, you could indeed create Miner- and Fencer-exclusive terrain by stacking vertical arrows with diagonal ones: The diagonal arrows would limit the terrain to being removed by either Fencers or Miners only - and now, depending on whether you have upward or downward arrows stacked onto them, you could limit the area to only Miners or only Fencers specifically.


In general, I think the ability of Diggers to bypass any type of one-way arrows, except explicitly for upward ones, is a massive loophole that can easily be exploited for backroutes, independent of the setup of the individual level.

Therefore, we could really use a tool to rein in the Digger.

Just like in the neighbouring thread for objects from Lemmings Revolution, I'd like to go over the objects in Lemmings 3D this time (as they appear in the Practice rank) and discuss to what extent they might be worthwhile additions to NeoLemmix. Once again, the ones I'm in favour of are in green, the ones I consider redundant or actively harmful red. I'm also going to list possible tilesets that would be most suitable for such objects.

I guess this will be much shorter, because we can start with what we already have (those I kept in black):

Teleporters. Work in NeoLemmix exactly like in Lemmings 3D (=release-rate sensitive, with animation).
Tilesets: L2 Space, orig Marble, ohno Brick, namida Circuit, plom Psychedelic Mod, and many others!

Splitters. Work in NeoLemmix pretty much exactly like in Lemmings 3D, of course only turning lemmings left and right, meaning some lemmings can be sent back into the direction they came from, which can never happen in Lemmings 3D. L3D is actually the reason why I keep calling these "splitter blocks", because they were referred to as such in the game (but probably only because pretty much everything was a "block"; L3D also spoke of "one-way blocks").
Tilesets: ohno Brick, namida Candy, namida Machine, namida Clockwork, and a couple more

Highlight Lemming. Is a feature, not an object, and already exists in NeoLemmix, just like in L3D.
Tilesets: All.

Virtual Lemming. Virtually impossible to include in NeoLemmix!
Tilesets: None.

One-way arrows. We've had them since the dawn of time.
Tilesets: All.

Mud. I don't see how this is in any way different than regular water? If it's supposed to act like quicksand (like the sand pits in the L3D Golf tileset), or other types of "terrain" that lemmings can drown in, i.e. water that Swimmers should not be allowed to swim through:
1) We already have dedicated traps to simulate quicksand in namida's Desert tileset (and GigaLem's modification of it).
2) We already have "acid", in the form of water objects that behave like fire objects, for any type of water area that we want to make inaccessible to Swimmers.
Possible tilesets: orig Dirt, ohno Rock, namida Mineshaft

Deflector blocks. Only useful in a 3D setting. A similar thing is true for the "semi-floating blocks" in L3D that can't be climbed up, nor can lemmings slip through these low gaps as regular Walkers. This is something that won't work in NeoLemmix, because classic 2D lemmings can slip through any gap as tiny as a single pixel. If you want to make a straight wall inaccessible to Climbers without resorting to fire objects or Pillar spike traps, put a one-way field onto the wall pointing into the opposite direction: Since Climbers are located one pixel inside the wall, they will turn around and consequently let go of the wall as soon as they attempt to start climbing.
Possible tilesets: All.

Trampolines. This is the biggest thing in my book: Trampolines have been a regular part of Lemmings evers since Lemmings 2: The Tribes. Especially with the re-introduction of anti-splat pads, I think these would be a worthwhile inclusion: Like splat- and anti-splat pads, they should only affect Fallers, not regular Walkers, and they've never been release-rate sensitive in any Lemmings game. In Lemmings 3D, fall height affects the width of the ensuing jump; for simplification, I'd suggest to ignore this and simply define trampolines as "if a lemming moves into this area AND that lemming is a faller, that lemming performs the same motion as the regular Jumper skill". Meaning: No tumbler physics or similar required!
If these objects would be grouped together with splat- and anti-splat pads, they should only work if the lemming hits terrain inside their trigger area. But this is up for debate. Like anti-splat pads, trampolines would always prevent lemmings from splatting, no matter the fall height - but the resulting jump might catapult the lemming into a different type of danger zone, where the anti-splat pad wouldn't do the same (for example, over a Blocker / Stacker / Stoner holding the others back, into a gap / trap / fire area, etc.).
Possible tilesets: L2 Circus, L2 Cavelem, Raymanni Circus

Springs / Catapults. These would be very similar to trampolines, but release-rate sensitive, and they would affect regular lemmings walking onto them the same way as lemmings falling onto them from the top, like traps. In L3D, they're actually more similar to teleporters, not only due to their release-rate sensitivity, but also due to them having a defined start- and ending point: In contrast to trampolines, lemmings using catapults in L3D always land at the exact same target spot.
Meanwhile, in Lemmings 2: The Tribes, some types of catapults increase the difference to trampolines by the player being able to move them around - as such, e.g. L2 Circus has both trampolines and the canon that can shoot lemmings over gaps and walls. Others, in contrast, like the dinosaurs from L2 Cavelem that fling lemmings around with their tails, cannot be moved around. Thus, depending on how many degrees of freedom we add to these, these could either be valuable additions next to trampolines, despite the differences only being minor - like with the skills Floater/Glider and Stoner/Stacker. Or they could end up so similar to trampolines that they would be completely redundant. Personally, I tend to think the latter is more likely.
Possible tilesets: L2 Sports

An argument against both trampolines and springs / catapults can be made if there's a general intention to create some type of overarching object that just grants any type of skill to a lemming passing through it. Still, I think such an object would be more of an abstract "skill donator" or so, rather than something more "realistic", like a trampolin or spring.

Rope slides. Can basically be summarised as a release-rate sensitive bridge across a gap of arbitrary length. This would probably work best by having a "rope object" of which several could be placed next to each other, like updrafts, rather than having a single object for the entire slide for which you can then define the length by entering a number, like for water areas. Then again, if we wanted to keep the release-rate sensitivity, this would probably only work with a single object of arbitrary length, indeed - then, this object could check whether it's currently being used like a lemming or not, like a teleporter. The question here would be: What happens if a level designer puts several rope slides in the exact same position? Then it doesn't become apparent to the player that several lemmings can use this slide in parallel.
Alternatively, these could act as pre-defined spots in the level where lemmings start to shimmy by themselves, much like a trampolin would turn any lemming falling onto it into a Jumper without prior skill assignment. In that case, the argument that can be made against trampolines and springs / catapults by employing a general "skill-donating object" could also be made against the rope slide, if it were just an object that "gives the Shimmier skill to any lemming walking into it".
So, overall, I tend to be on the "no"-side here, but I can still imagine this as potentially really cool - if people find enough dedicated uses for it.
Possible tilesets: All.

Slippery blocks / Ice. In Lemmings 2: The Tribes, lemmings needed to be Skaters to even move across this type of terrain; in L3D, in contrast, every lemming stepping onto ice will start sliding by himself. They can't be assigned any skills aside from lethal ones while sliding on ice --> In L3D, this means only Bombers; in NeoLemmix, it would include Stoners, as well. This might become important as one of the few methods to actually turn lemmings around while on ice. I think Cloners should work here, too, though.
Basically, ice restricts the types of skills that can be assigned to regular Walkers in the same way as water restricts it for Swimmers.
Optionally, it could also slightly increase their speed of movement, but this isn't a "must"; it would also suffice to simply have the lemmings perform a "balancing" motion to identify them as moving on ice. They should be able to go up and down regular slopes, like in L3D. Six-pixel ascensions, in contrast, seem counterintuitive to me here.
And then, there's the question on whether lemmings should jump, as they do in L3D, when they reach the end of an ice area that coincides with the edge of a terrain piece, i.e. a gap with a vertical drop. If so, I'd also restrict this to just a regular Jumper motion, like with trampolines, rather than making it dependent on the distance the lemming has covered on ice to pick up "momentum" or so.
Possible tilesets: ohno Snow / Christmas, L2 Polar, Raymanni Snow


So yeah, trampolines and ice / slippery terrain would be worth considering, in my view - not only as inspirations from L3D, but they would also bring more select elements from the Lemmings 2: The Tribes tilesets over to NeoLemmix, without adding such obnoxious stuff as the chain or the fan.

ccexplore just made me aware of this page, which, in the subsection for Lemmings 2: The Tribes, lists the claw from the Medieval tileset as a trap.

I think I've never actually seen that in action in any of the L2 Medieval levels? In IchoTolot's LP, the lemmings just walk past beneath the claw safely.

In NeoLemmix, this claw is a regular terrain piece anyway.

My level "Check mate" from Pit Lems was considered the hardest level in the pack by nin10doadict when he let's-played it. Nevertheless, the level has remained in a comparatively low position, early in the third of five ranks, because it had one decisive facilitating thing going on: Once you had worked out a particular approach, you could just continue repeating that approach across the entire map to solve the level.


Check mate (Pit Lems, WTF 04)

In contrast, I have just finished creating a level where, after having identified a certain approach, this will get you somewhere - but continuing with this same strategy all the way to the end will cause the level to fail.

This inability to switch strategies and continuing with the old one is also known in psychology as perseveration.

Here is the level in question (replay included in the attachment).


The bee


I've explained the solution in the spoiler above, because I'm not certain whether this level is 100% proof at enforcing this yet. That's why I've provided the replay.

I'm pretty sure there are other custom levels also using this strategy to lead the player astray. Can you name any?

Also, maybe our Finnish users might understand the reference this level is making. After all, it's about someone whose name is very closely related to Lemmings...

I've noticed that sometimes, individual skills on the skill panel will not show a regular lemming with green hair and a blue shirt, but either an athlete (blue hair, green shirt), or even a zombie, should zombie lemmings appear on the level.

If this were only specifically applying to permanent skills, i.e. Climber, Floater, Glider, Swimmer, and Disarmer, I'd understand. It's somewhat strange anyway, because for several years now, the player actually never gets to see a regular-coloured Climber, Floater, Glider, Swimmer, or Disarmer - assigning any of these skills to a lemming will immediately reverse the colour scheme between hair and clothing.

I only consciously noticed this difference while testing my pack for 1.43, "Lemmicks", because back in version 1.43, athletes didn't change colours yet.

However, now in New Formats, the recolouring of the lemmings on the skill panel seems to be arbitrary, not restricted to athletic skills, but I've also seen it happen with Walkers, Blockers, or Cloners. The Cloner is an interesting case, because one of the two lemmings looked like a regular lemming, the other one like an athlete.

Is there some pattern behind this that I simply don't understand, i.e. is this intendedl? I wasn't sure, that's why I hesitated to report this as a bug immediately. If it is one, please move this post to the Bugs subforum (most likely referring to the player rather than the editor).

Since it seems to occur arbitrarily, I unfortunately can't provide any specific steps to reproduce this either. So this is just a rough survey on whether anybody else has noticed this phenomenon?

I'm talking about the latest stable version 12.6.5.

One year, one month, and one day after its initial release, here's the New-Formats version of Lemmings World Tour at last - the largest pack currently available for NeoLemmix!
This remastered version has had all levels adapted that originally featured radiation or slowfreeze.
I still encourage anyone who's interested to try out the original version for Old Formats, which I will continue to maintain. It includes all levels the way they were originally intended to be!

A huge upside of the New-Formats version is the increased stability. The intense mixing of graphic sets in this pack led to more or less frequent crashes in Old Formats when loading up a level, requiring a simple but inconvenient restart of NeoLemmix 10.13. I have not seen this happen in the New-Formats version yet!

The attached ZIP-Folder at the bottom of this post includes the custom success- and failure jingles, as well as strato_generalmd, my modified version of the general tileset that used to exist in Old Formats. It contains some recolourings of various objects, Colorful Arty's rain and snow animations, as well as pre-placed builder staircases.
The attached style strato_generalmd is required to play the New-Formats version!

This is the updated version of the graphic set and the pack for NeoLemmix 12.7.0.

My Instruments tileset is part of the official styles download now, as well as nin10doadict's cattrap.


God gave Rock 'n Roll to you*

The music pack can be found here.
It consists of my self-recorded rock/metal versions of all the standard Lemmings and Oh No! More Lemmings tunes, except for ONML 04 and the special graphics tracks (Beast, Menacing, and Awesome).
All instruments were played / recorded and all tracks mixed by myself.



For everyone new to this pack: Lemmings World Tour is based on the idea of a Lemmings band touring the world. Every main level is inspired by a song title, with the author line being used to credit the artist who originally performed the song (not necessarily the composer ).

Hence, all the music is played with real instruments, including the success and failure jingles. The levels also depict as many different places in various countries across the globe. Thus, many level titles will refer to a song title and a geographical location at the same time. You will also usually find the flag of the respective country on each of those levels (examples see below).

This pack consists of a whopping 320 levels - 40 for each of the 8 ranks.
These ranks are named: Noisemaker, Amateur, Professional, Diva, Rockstar, Legend, Encore, and Groupie

It also ends with the largest level in existence - one that is too large to even be created with or properly displayed by the New-Formats editor, but was converted from Old-Formats directly, together with the entire pack.
It is strongly advised to switch off the high-quality minimap when playing the very last level (Groupie 40) - game fluency will improve drastically that way.

With that out of the way, let's take a closer look at the ranks!

NOISEMAKER
This rank is all about teaching you essential mechanics of the game and vital, but maybe somewhat obscure skill tricks - rather than the usual X-of-everything levels you might find on the lower ranks in other packs! Pay close attention to the pre-level texts, they can give you essential hints! Also, beware the occasional troll level. There is a certain infamous, lemming-eating Octopus hiding on this rank, and one of the two levels shown below requires the lemmings to dive in a fountain. Sometimes, this pack will put visual aesthetics over strict, mechanical fairness, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

Vegas Lights

Grenade

AMATEUR
On these levels, the skills are grouped thematically (upward-moving, downward-moving, destructive, creative etc.), and the more advanced objects get introduced, such as pre-assigned skills and pre-placed lemmings, splitters, force fields, and teleporters. More landscape-like levels start occuring towards the end of the rank.

Shipping up to Boston

Georgia on my mind

PROFESSIONAL
The first levels of this rank are going to test what you've learned about the skills so far, requiring several of the previously-introduced tricks, but now without prior announcement! Also be prepared to navigate some pretty huge cities, as you're playing in more and more important locations around the world.

Moskau, Moskau

Streets of London

DIVA
Now you can really start showing off your skills - but don't get too cocky yet! There are still much harder songs coming...

Weiße Rosen aus Athen

Barcelona

ROCKSTAR
If you want to play on the big stage, you must master how to control the crowd. Can you hold them back when you have to, and make them move when you want them to?

Streets of Philadelphia

Cold Turkey

LEGEND
The songs on this rank will be remembered for all eternity. In other words: Probably just as long as solving these levels might take you!

Ganglem Style

The Phantom of the Opera

ENCORE
Here you can find levels from my preceding, Old-Formats packs (Paralems, Pit Lems, and Lemmicks) that also were named after song titles. The only one missing is "Turn this club around!" from Lemmicks. Without that one, there were exactly fourty of them, so I thought they would be a good fit here. They were not selected for their quality, though - but indeed mainly for their titles. So definitely expect these to be easier than the previous ranks, but that might be a welcome relief after the hard stuff! Also, due to the absence of gimmicks, the Lemmicks levels usually have completely different solutions compared to their first appearance.

We are the Lempions (Pit Lems)

All along the watchtower (Lemmicks)

GROUPIE
These levels were created by Colorful Strato and incendoadict: I identified the signature level-design features of most of the active content creators, and then built a level for each of them pretending I were them! Some people have even had several levels dedicated to them - and no, the "author" line is not being used to spoil that for you. Which level was inspired by whom, that is something you'll have to discover for yourself! Many of these levels are still named after songs, in which case the author line will mention the performing artist, just like before. Other levels will have non-song names, and therefore no author line either.

Bon appetit!

Take a Byte

Have you taken a guess at which user inspired which Groupie level? Then you can check whether you're correct right here:

I hope the release of this pack to New Formats can bridge the gap between very easy and very hard packs a little! It's currently rather difficult to find "intermediate" content. The radiation- and slowfreeze levels from Old Formats could be replicated in New Formats to varying degree - some solutions might be more interesting, some more dull than in Old Formats.

Finally, I have tested each level in the New-Formats version of this pack at least once, but with 320 levels in total, there's always a remaining chance that I've missed something that doesn't work as intended.
So please, report any issues you find, just like you would report any backroutes!

And with that, all I have to say is:
The stage is yours!


*The red Stratocaster from the Instruments tileset is a Wikimedia Commons picture created by Johan Förberg.