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Topics - WillLem

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196
Lix Main / Option to increase cursor size
« on: December 27, 2020, 05:08:47 AM »
It's in the title. I tried simply resizing the "mouse.png" graphic by 200%, and it worked, but displayed all related images simultaneously rather than just the cursor, i.e:


197
I've been spending a lot of time recently playing through first ranks of packs, in order to research what makes a "good easy level".

As a designer, I often find it more of a challenge to create accessible, playable and interesting easy levels than difficult, well-backroute-proofed puzzles. The latter is a case of making sure that the solution to a particular map is the only one possible, which can be tricky, but the former requires arguably a similar level of care towards making sure that the level is light enough on the difficulty without being too trivial.

As the first ranks of the official games, 'Fun' and 'Tame' (from Lemmings and Oh No! More Lemmings respectively) are often compared to one another. The former is lauded for its straightforward presentation of the 8 skills, followed by several challenging maps which encourage the player to think carefully about how to solve the level whilst also providing them with more than enough skills to explore the different possibilities; however, the latter is universally slated as being largely a pointless set of poorly conceived filler levels.

Some may point to the laziness of every level having 20 of every skill, 50 lemmings with only 25 to be saved, release rate always set to 50, and always a 4-minute time limit, which is far more than the level requires. None of these things ever provide the player with a stimulating challenge in any of the 20 levels. Contrast this with the varied time limits, save requirements and release rates of the 'Fun' levels, and you do indeed have a recipe for boredom.

However, I would point to the maps themselves. 20-of-everything levels are not a bad thing, provided the map provides opportunity for exploration, plenty of hazards to overcome, and the necessity to work your way around it carefully. 'Fun' provides many of these, showcasing the ingenuity of the level designers whilst keeping the game interesting and accessible to beginners. Even as a seasoned lemmings player, I still enjoy playing through the 'Fun' levels from time to time, looking for alternative routes and different methods of navigating the map.

Unfortunately, a lot of the 'Tame' maps simply don't provide the same stimulation. Many of them can be solved with no more than 2 or 3 very obvious skill assignments, and I wonder whether they were just hastily thrown together to provide an "easy" rank for a pack which otherwise presents challenges way beyond that of original Lemmings, or whether the intention was to provide the player with an opportunity to just play around with the skills and see what they do.

If the former, then that would of course account for the generally low quality of the levels, but - if the latter, then there are definitely ways these levels could have fulfilled that intention, if the maps themselves had presented the player with a significant enough challenge.

198
Just wondering if any SL users have ever encountered this when working with custom styles.

So, I've created a PNG with a transparent background:



When I use this image to create a level in the editor, the transparent part appears black, covering any terrain behind it:



Bizarrely, SuperLemmini recognises it as transparent:



Anyone know what's going on here and how to fix it? It just makes building levels with this style that bit more cumbersome.

Any suggestions welcome!

199
I'm wondering if it might be possible to make it so that if you right-click on a skill in the panel, it shows how many you've used so far. Maybe the number could be shown in a different colour to help differentiate it.

Left or right-clicking the skill afterwards could return it to default view.


See Reply #2 for current version of this suggestion

200
Lemmings Main / [REVIEW/FEATURE COMPARISON] NeoLemmix, SuperLemmini and Lix
« on: December 21, 2020, 01:56:01 PM »
Since I first joined the Forums as a SuperLemmini user, I've had an opportunity to become familiar with (and an extensive user of) NeoLemmix and Lix as well. Existing as lovingly designed and maintained engines for playing Lemmings games on a modern PC, these three engines all have something to offer which is unique to them, and however you like to enjoy Lemmings, it's worth giving them all a try.

I've decided to write a review of each, highlighting what I believe to be the pros and cons. This post therefore reflects my own opinion, but will hopefully help new forum users to find a particular version that will best suit their current preferences, and maybe even discover something new as well.

It's possible to enjoy the game on multiple platforms, and I would personally recommend doing so in order to keep your general Lemmings-playing skills as sharp and versatile as possible!

NeoLemmix


NeoLemmix (click to show/hide)

SuperLemmini


SuperLemmini (click to show/hide)

Lix


Lix (click to show/hide)

201
Lemmini / WINLEMM Resources for SuperLemmini
« on: December 21, 2020, 01:54:52 PM »
Just in case you can no longer use your Windows Lemmings '95 disc, here is a copy of the WINLEMM resource directory required for SuperLemmini to work.

Place it somewhere on your C:\ drive, and then navigate to it when prompted. You'll see the following message:



Please ask if you need any help with this, or encounter any issues during the extraction process.

202


Lemmings DD is a small "coffee break" remix pack of 32 levels featuring a simulation of the Direct Drop mechanic from Windows Lemmings (and some older ports).

Originally a bug, this mechanic allowed lemmings to be dropped into the exit from directly above - even if it was from an unsurvivable height, as long as the lems landed on the exit's trigger, they would be saved!

NeoLemmix (and indeed various other engines) fixed this bug, of course, but it can be simulated using the updraft objects. Since these make unsurvivable falls survivable, they can be placed above an exit in order to slow the lemming's fall. And, if a lemming lands directly on the exit's trigger from a survivable fall, they will exit "in midair" (i.e. without touching the ground first), thus also simulating the look of a Direct Drop exit as well.

These 32 levels have all been designed to be completed this way, but as with all of my remix packs, there are a few other challenges along the way, and often multiple ways for the levels to be solved.

I'm sure you'll fall for Lemmings DD straightaway, so take a leap of faith, drop in and give it a try! :lemcat:

What's in the attachment:

:lemming: Level pack
:lemming: Full set of solution replays
:lemming: willlem_special style with modified exit & updraft animations
:lemming: Custom menu graphics
:lemming: Custom skill panel graphics
:lemming: Amiga Lemmings music files

To install, simply unzip the folder directly to your NeoLemmix directory.

203
Lemmini / [TUTORIAL] How to pin SuperLemmini to your taskbar in Windows
« on: December 17, 2020, 11:25:36 PM »
Here's how to pin SL to your Windows taskbar, if - like me - you weren't sure how to do it (since Java executables don't let you pin directly).

Follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the desktop and navigate to New>Shortcut
2. In the window that pops up, Browse to the superlemmini.jar executable Jar file
3. Name the shortcut SuperLemmini (or whatever you wish for it to be called)
4. Check that the shortcut opens SuperLemmini
5. Right-click the shortcut and select Properties
6. In the Target field, type the following at the start, before the “C:/path” text: javaw.exe[SPACE]-jar[SPACE]
7. Check that the shortcut opens SuperLemmini
8. Now, when you right-click the Shortcut, it will give you the option to pin it to the Taskbar! :lemcat:

To change the SL icon on the Taskbar:

1. Right-click the SuperLemmini Taskbar icon
2. Right-click SuperLemmini (or whatever you named your shortcut) in the pop-up menu
3. Select Properties
4. Select Change Icon
5. Navigate to the desired Icon and click OK

You're welcome! Let me know if you have any issues with this and I'll do my best to help.

204
Closed / [SUG][PLAYER] Notify user if a pack recommends playing in high-res
« on: December 15, 2020, 10:12:17 PM »
It's become clear from the recent poll that there is not a lot of interest in high-res mode. From the reasons given, it seems that some people simply prefer low-res, whilst others seem unsure of how to best make use of it, or see it as extra work.

The physics reason remains a fairly compelling one to stick with low-res, but even then I'd assert that it doesn't make a massive amount of difference. I have played in hr mode since its 12.8 inception and have never noticed any problems directly relating to pixel precision during gameplay. In particular, the hr sprites were carefully designed to fit their low-res masks - I should know! ;P

Since there have been other high-res lemmings engines (WinLemm, (Super)Lemmini, Mac, PS2), I'd even go so far as to say that low-res doesn't give a visual tactical advantage either, since the ability to judge things just by looking is based on experience rather than explicit visual information, and most players are likely to have encountered at least one of the aforementioned engines (and thus experienced high-res lemmings at some point). By extension, playing in hr mode for any length of time will allow the player the adjust to the new resolution anyway.

All of this being the case, I'd like to put forward the option for creators to specify a resolution in the level files, meaning that NL will engage high-res whilst playing that level recommend that a particular resolution be used.

If that's not do-able, then how about for packs (this might even be better, since it then wouldn't have to be done for each level individually)?

Designers may spend a lot of time creating high-resolution graphics in order to take advantage of this feature, only to find that the majority of people are playing it in low-res, and thus missing out on their work. If certain levels forced hr mode (and then it reverted to player choice afterwards) specified a recommendation chosen by the designer, then

a) designers would know that their work is being more likely to be viewed and played as intended, and
b) players who normally use low-res mode would be encouraged to appreciate high-res mode occasionally.

205
I'm hoping to get some feedback on NeoLemmix's high-resolution (hr) graphics feature, which has now been available since V12.8.

Please indicate whether or not you use this feature by responding to the above poll, and it would be great if you could expand on this by providing some reasons, thoughts and opinions regarding your choice.

If you do use high-res, please explain what you like about it, to perhaps encourage other users to try it out if they haven't already done so.

If you don't use high-res, please be as specific as you can as to the reasons for this choice.

Thanks! :lemcat:

206
Further to the recent implementation of independent skill panel zoom (awesome :thumbsup:), I'd also suggest allowing the panel to be displayed in a different resolution, if the user's window size and/or screen resolution do not allow the panel to be displayed at its fullest.

My recommendation would be that this simply be an automatic thing in the first instance. So, if a user has engaged a certain configuration of settings (such as for the skill panel to be zoomed, and high-res mode enabled), then the panel will display in whatever resolution allows it to appear largest in that particular setup.

Of course, users should also be able to manually configure this as well, should they wish to do so.

207
Lemmini / [SuperLemmini] Level Packs Index
« on: December 13, 2020, 11:39:17 PM »
SuperLemmini Level Packs Index

Complete list of level packs currently available for SuperLemmini, listed by author.

This post is for packs only. For the individual level sharing topic, please click here.

Please note that this list will be checked periodically, and any packs that aren't fully working will be removed.



Original DMA Games Remastered (click to show/hide)


Deceit (click to show/hide)

Dodochacolos (click to show/hide)

Geoffster (click to show/hide)

IchoTolot (click to show/hide)

Mobius (click to show/hide)

namida (click to show/hide)

Nepster (click to show/hide)

Pieuw (click to show/hide)

Ron Stard (click to show/hide)

Turrican (click to show/hide)





[SuperLemmini] Individual Level Sharing Topic

208
Lemmini / [SuperLemmini] Random Levels for SuperLemmini
« on: December 13, 2020, 11:37:12 PM »
Random Levels For SuperLemmini

Welcome, SuperLemmini users! Please feel free to use this topic to share random levels, such as those that don't belong to packs or that you've just made as a one-off and want to share, or want to get playtested, etc.

Just to be clear, it is of course totally fine to create your own topic for just your own random levels, as Turrican has done. If you wish, I can add it to this list as well.

Here is a handy list of current topics which contain random levels:

Turrican's SuperLemmini Projects
WillLem's "Missing Repeat" Levels
SuperLemmini Level Pack(s) and Levels

209
Lemmini / [SuperLemmini] Engage Xmas mod for one level only?
« on: December 13, 2020, 02:59:35 AM »
Do any SL users by any chance know how to engage the Xmas lemmings mod for just one level within a pack, rather than the whole pack?

210
I'm wondering if there may be a way to associate a replay (.nxrp) file with NeoLemmix such that, when clicking the .rpl, it opens the player, loads the relevant level, and plays the replay.

I'm also half-aware that this has been discussed previously, but my memory of said discussion is very fluffy. I tried doing a search to see if I'd already suggested this, and couldn't find anything, so... apologies if I have done, please feel free to delete this topic if that's the case.

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