SuperLemmix probably won't ever get a 2-Player mode, unfortunately, but I wonder if this might be the next best thing...

We can create a pseudo-2-Player mode by adding a new Lemming type: Rivals.

Rivals will behave exactly like normal Lemmings, but with the important difference that they have their own dedicated Exit. If a normal Lemming reaches a Rival Exit, the save count will be decreased by 1, and vice-versa. So, to meet the save requirement for the level, normal Lemmings must reach a normal Exit, and Rival Lemmings must reach a Rival Exit.

The main purpose of this is to make the OG 2-Player levels a bit more interesting to play on a singleplayer system, but I believe this could also prove to be a very interesting source of new and unique puzzles.

This feature is currently very likely to join the Batter and Propeller skills in 2.8, which won't be out for a while yet - 2.7 took a lot of work to get together so I'm probably going to take a break from SLX development for a bit and concentrate on other things. So, we do have some time to bash through ideas on this one.

I would recommend giving the batted lemming a higher and wider arc than the Jumper.

When working on the Hoverboarder skill, I tried modifying the jumper arc for Hoverboarders and (while partly successful) discovered that it’s a lot of extra work for very little gain.

Jumper code is extensive throughout the project and it has a lot of edge cases that would all need to be duplicated for any other "move through the air" actions that aren’t in a straight line and which require complex position checks (note: there is still a Jumper bug in both NL and SLX that neither I nor namida have yet found a fix for!)

I’m not completely ruling out a larger arc, but let’s see how it goes with the much, much, much easier method of re-using what’s already there first; in practice, it might be plenty good enough. The challenge you describe would still be possible to create, even in a level providing both Jumpers and Batters.

Some decisions on the Batter:

The Batter will not be a ranged skill, and instead will function like the Lix Batter, only affecting lems in the immediate vicinity.

The "bat" will be another projectile type, like spear or grenade; we already have a way for lemmings to detect the presence of airborne projectiles, and this works nicely; makes sense to re-use this same logic for the Batter. The obvious difference is that the bat will not be thrown, but instead will take effect during a particular frame of the Batter's animation.

During the Batter's "hit" frame (when the bat is at full extension in the animation), any lems that are in contact with the Bat's collision area will become Ballers - the exact physics of these lems has yet to be decided upon, but current instincts are that it should be a much less complex response than the Lix Batter*.

*Having thought about this again recently, and having re-read Proxima's list of reasons for supporting this skill, I think the Baller's movement should closely resemble (if not exactly be) that of a Jumper; a sprite-swap might be all that's needed, and then we can simply re-use Jumper physics - this would keep the skill action relatively predictable and would cover all of the benefits mentioned by Proxima, as well as drastically reducing the potential workload.

This is a major update, so it's best to download this as a fresh installation.

As always, feedback is very welcome! For a reminder of everything that's been added to SuperLemmix so far, see the full feature list in the OP.

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Please note that the "Replay" folder is now titled "replays" (all lowercase) - please copy your existing replay files into that folder.
I've added a replay to the download just for fun - right-click and Windows-associate the file with the SLX 2.7 .exe, then click it and see what happens

New Features

At long last - a dedicated Classic Mode Button has been added to Menu Screen and Level Preview Screen! This was the very first "dream feature" that prompted me to begin work on SuperLemmix, and it's now been realised! Besides looking pretty, it's now possible to toggle Classic Mode on-and-off on the fly which removes the need to menu-dive when encountering a "Play in Classic Mode" talisman, and hopefully encourages players to give it a try now and again



New Object - Collectibles - Collectibles are objects whose only purpose is to be collected! Records are tracked in the preview and level select screens, and the level designer can choose to make invinciblity a reward for gathering all collectibles in a single level...

"Invincible" Lemming State - Invincible lems can survive any fall, are immune to traps and fire, can swim in all water object types, don't get zombified, are de-neutralised if originally neutral, can leave freezer cubes and bomber craters without being killed during the fireworks, and can use as many skills as they like!

Lava is now its own water object type - swimmable only by Invincible lems!



Infinite Skills Hotkey - this sets all skill counts on the current panel to infinity, allowing the player to experiment with different solutions, get a better feel for the various skill actions, or just have fun with the level without having to worry about the skill count! This should also prove to be a particularly useful tool for level creation as well. Once Infinite Skills mode is active, pressing the key again resets the game to the point at which the mode was first activated, so that the level can be played normally (all skill actions are preserved in the replay, but only those for which there are enough skills will play out from this point on)

End-of-Gameplay Behaviour is now much more comprehensive - in most cases, play will no longer exit to postview unless the save requirement has been met. Overtime will be applied whenever (time is up and there are still lems to be saved), (only zombies remain and there is a Kill All Zombies talisman), and the game will freeze if (all lemmings are removed and the save requirement hasn't been met). This may later be changed and refined, and options may be added, but for now it's the overall best possible behaviour for all possible states

.nxrp File Association - .nxrp replay files can now be associated with the SuperLemmix Player in Windows. When associated, clicking a replay file will open SuperLemmix and load the level & replay, ready to be played back immediately!

The Replay "R" icon is now animated - it can also be clicked to cancel the replay, even in Replay Insert mode

Hotkey-to-Skill Panel Button Assignment - as well as assigning hotkeys to specific skills, it's now possible to assign hotkeys to panel buttons themselves, regardless of which skill happens to be assigned to that button for the current level being played

Fall Distance Ruler has been updated to only show the actual fall distance, nothing else. It also now has the same colour cycle effect as objects in Clear Physics Mode; this has been done so that it's easier to distinguish between the ruler and any surrounding terrain/objects, although this can be toggled off in the Options menu if users would prefer the solid colour ruler

"Icons" folder added to styles with custom sprites - 'levelinfo_icons', 'talismans' and 'panel_icons' can now be customised per-style

The SuperLemmix Welcome Pack has been updated to include levels featuring Collectibles and Invincibility, as well as improvements to various other levels

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Physics Updates

New "Turner" state added for transitioning between Shimmier and Climber on a vertical overhang

Ballooners now turn-and-push away from the wall when assigned to a Climber, Slider, or wall-adjactent lemming

Ballooner "pop" collision is now slightly larger to prevent the lem turning when popping is more reasonably expected



Blockers can be assigned to Swimmers - the effect is that the Blocker is "treading water" - they can be cancelled with a Walker skill

Climbers, Sliders and Drifters now bypass "oh no" and "freezing" phases when assigned a (Time)Bomber or Freezer (or after Slowfreeze/Radiation countdown)

The lem count is now decreased at the end of the Sleeper animation rather than the beginning

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General Updates

Many styles have been updated to reflect the changes in 2.7 - it's definitely worth updating your copy - go here to get the latest SuperLemmix styles

Default pickups, buttons and updrafts have been updated - Pickups, in particular, are now larger and display the relevant explosion graphic for (Time)Bombers

Highlit lemmings are now drawn as selected (the arrow is still shown as normal)

"Flipper" has been renamed to "Splitter" both code-side and in the helper graphics. So, the official and only name for this object is now "Splitter"

"Background" objects have been renamed to "Decoration" for clarity, but behave exactly the same as before

Lemmings now shrug and the "OK" sound is played when a level is cheated. This is just for fun!

The option to recolour Swimmer sprites separately from other athletes has been added. This must be done by manually editing the scheme.nxmi file - instructions can be found here - Swimmers are otherwise recoloured as normal athletes by default

Some unnecessary render layers have been removed; hopefully, this will improve graphics rendering performance

The SLX QuickMod Tool has also been updated. Go here to see what's new

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Bugfixes

Timebomber explosion particles are now the correct colour when a Timebomber is assigned after a Freezer being assigned (previously, the Freezer explosion colours were applied)

LMB-clicking in midair no longer cues the assign fail sound when a lemming is highlit

In Level Select screen, "Reset Talismans" now only redraws the Talisman buttons rather than the entire level preview screen

Exit count numbers are now centred over the exit

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Editor Updates

Bugfix & UI improvement - Levels with missing pieces no longer create infinite popups; instead, a status bar is used to inform the player that the level has missing pieces

Furthermore, saving a level with missing pieces will create a unique file rather than overwriting the original

Support added for Collectibles, Lava and Decoration objects

Support added for Invincibility - allowing this for Collectibles is designer-side optional; if checked, the lemming to grab the final Collectible will become Invincible for the remainder of the level, whilst if unchecked then Collectibles in that level will have no effect other than updating the records

Improved Pickup Skill graphics

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Have any comments? Please use the SuperLemmix Discussion Topic.

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Please note that the "Replay" folder is now titled "replays" (all lowercase) - please copy your existing replay files into that folder.

I've added a replay to the download just for fun, right-click and Windows-associate the file with the SLX 2.7 .exe, then click it and see what happens

Get your copy of SuperLemmix 2.7 here

Position of the message: No preference, happy to test the UI again after you put it into the stats.

It takes a little bit more work for this to behave since it has to override stuff that can still be accessed during the frozen state (i.e. hovering the mouse over a zombie will show "ZOMBIE" in the same area unless we tell it not to), so I'd probably suggest not going ahead with this for NL unless there's demand.

The minimap message works, we've ironed out all bugs, let's leave it as it is.

Do you want a Mumble session with code rewiew? Again, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evening is good.

Sure, that sounds good. Let's catch up again again nearer the time.

FWIW, searching for that game on Google doesn't bring up LF of the LF Discord. Players must be finding the LF Discord some other way.

I have an idea in relation to the classic mode … what about having the option for the level pack creators whether or not to make it a classic mode for the whole level pack or not classic mode for the whole level pack

It has previously been decided that Classic Mode should always be optional, however I have thought numerous times about reconsidering this. When a level is in Superlemming mode, it isn’t possible to rewind or fast-forward or backskip, and Superlemming mode is non-optional, so… I don’t see any reason why Classic Mode should be any different.

With that said, making it a level feature (like Superlemming mode) is a considerable commitment on the designer’s part, and if levels are too difficult or trolling they likely will just put people off playing SLX. Having it as an option and a talisman achievement puts it in the hands of both designer and player, and that seems to be the best approach with all things considered.

It’s an interesting discussion, though. What are people’s thoughts on this? Should Classic Mode be something that level designers can apply design-side?

Now that we have the button, maybe levels can automatically toggle it on, but the player can still toggle it off from Preview if they wish. It would then at least prompt the player to give it a try. Thoughts?