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Messages - kaywhyn

#1441
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Doomsday Lemmings
November 26, 2020, 05:18:15 AM
My replay collection for the pack is updated. 4 levels ended up breaking in the 12.10.0-A version of the pack. I simply went back and imitated the solution I used in my LP of the pack. The 4 replays that were affected going from v12.9.4 to 12.10.0 were Outbreak 5, Plague 6, Apocalypse 3, and Apocalypse 6. These v12.9.4 replays were ran through the replay refresher for v12.10.0, but it resulted in these 4 replays breaking. The same 4 replays still broke even without the replay refresher. It's not needed anyway, since the replays were made in the v12.9.4 NL player. I initially didn't want to bother fixing them since they'll be different from the solution used in my LP, but since it's only 4 replays, I went ahead and fixed them. It was super quick anyway. So, the solution isn't exactly the same in terms of where and when I executed the skills seen in the LP, but the solutions are pretty much carried out in the exact same sequence seen in the LP. I didn't bother changing any of the solutions, just for consistency with the LP.

My replay collection in reply #76 on the previous page all still work if you use v12.9.4 of the NL player. The reason some replays broke is due to how I had v2.03 of the pack, which is much older than v12.7 and is no longer available for download and is the reason why some of my replays ended up breaking going to v12.10.0 despite being ran through the replay refresher. So, download the replay set in this post instead.
#1442
Awesome! :thumbsup: I will watch the whole thing later on, but I have noticed two things just from a quick search during the video: You were able to solve both Painless 1 and Painless 5 much faster than I did :-[ I don't supposed you had watched my LP before recording your first rank playthrough? It's not a problem if you did. It always makes me happy to hear/read that others are indeed watching my videos. Then again, you mentioned at the very beginning of the video that this is the first time you are playing the pack, which would mean that this is indeed the very first time you are seeing any of the 10 levels of the Painless rank. If you watch Part 1 of my playthrough of Lemmings Migration, believe it or not my dumb moments on those levels are both real and authentic. I really was stumped for a good 5 and 15 minutes on those two levels, respectively. You can even tell that I took it in great stride and still had a great time during my LP despite already being stumped on the first level of the pack. I think I pretty much guaranteed amusement and laughter with Part 1 of the LP just from that :P No worries, though. Not only am I more than happy to show people how I approach level solving, I was trying to be entertaining at times as well and just to show viewers that I was enjoying myself during the LP.
#1443
In Development / Re: Random level sharing topic!
November 25, 2020, 09:09:28 AM
Quote from: WillLem on November 25, 2020, 04:40:42 AM
Thanks for the replay kaywhyn, I had another go at this level and was almost there with it!

Spoiler
I'd figured out that you needed to shimmy along the underside of the overhang, and that you needed to build from the bottom right and mine to create a path. A bit more time with it and I probably would've spotted the Blocker turn. The only thing I probably wouldn't have figured out on my own is the Jumper>Shimmier transition - I'm not sure it would've occurred to me to do that, mainly because I've become too reliant on Skill Shadows, which of course can't show skill transitions.

My pleasure. In that case, the NL Introduction Tutorial pack would had been extremely useful for you! :P At least you attempted and got as far as you could with it. That's what I admire in level solvers, even if they don't end up getting the solution entirely on their own ;) Also, there was one part of the jumper-shimmier transition that I misunderstood for a while, and that is I always thought that assigning a shimmier to a jumper could only be done while the jumper was still in the upward motion of the jump. It turns out that you can still assign a shimmier to a jumper when he's moving downward as well, but you have to do it before he becomes a faller, i.e, before he falls straight down vertically. Once that happens, it's no longer possible to assign the shimmier to the jumper.

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Consequently, I'm glad I've played this level (and been shown the solution) because it's reminded me of one of the many reasons why I wanted an option to disable Skill Shadows in the first place! Viewing a level purely as a map makes you think differently and try things out that you might not otherwise have thought about if you're just relying on normal skill placements. I'll have to make sure to use the toggle when I get stuck on levels like this in the future! ;P

I know what you mean! I don't mind playing without skill shadows either, especially since none of us ever had them while growing up with the game. I consider without skill shadows playing the game for real, although TBH I'm too lazy to switch the option off since I'm too used to it by now. However, it does go without saying that solving the levels without them enabled is much more satisfying than with them enabled, even if it does end up being more frustrating.
#1444
In Development / Re: Random level sharing topic!
November 25, 2020, 04:03:27 AM
Wow, this is a really good level, Armani! :thumbsup: I like this level and love the solution so much, much more than your pillar level :P Here is my replay solution ;) I did struggle for a bit with this level, but I managed to figure it out in about 15-20 minutes. Definitely was a much faster solve than your pillar level for me. Everyone else, definitely play this level! It's so good. Very clever solution. It's somewhat difficult, but IMO it's not too hard at all. I say the hardest parts are definitely the middle and exit area.

@WillLem You're on the right track, the first 6 skill assignments are all correct, everything else after that you need to think some more. Keep trying. It's a really awesome solution! ;) If you are still stuck and need a hint, see my replay.
#1445
Thank you to everyone who has provided input on recommendations/suggestions for packs for me to LP. I've thought long and hard about what my next few LPs are going to be, and I have decided on the following for my next 3 LPs:



  • Yipee! More Lemmings


  • Sammings 1


  • Lemminas

I will likely either start them later this week over the weekend, or I'll start next week. After these 3 LPs, I will very likely do Sublems as recommended by both Strato and Swerdis, followed by namida's Lemmings Plus 1, as I feel this is a great supplement to Arty's pack due to how they seem to both be similar in difficulty. It's important to note that I have already played both Sublems and LPI, but the latter was on Dos and a really long time ago. In my playthrough, I was able to solve all of the levels except for 2, where I know the solution, I just can't pull them off due to the lack of convenience tools on Dos: no directional select, no framestepping, and cannot assign skills while paused. Also, in the NL version many of the levels ended up getting replaced. Perhaps once these are done I will jump around in regards to level pack size for my future LPs. I would also like to do Mazulems for New Formats at some point. This is yet another pack that I have played a really long time ago, back when I was still a high schooler in the mid 2000s.  As a matter of fact, it was the very first full (more than 10 levels) custom pack I have ever played on Dos before Dovelems, which was my first Lemmini custom pack I played. I might had played several 10 level custom packs on Dos before playing Mazulems on Dos, but I don't remember.

The reason for the smaller packs is because I feel it's more important to ease one into LPing large packs by doing several smaller ones first. Also, the 3 packs that are on this list are ones I have never played. I am willing to LP packs that I have already played, but these will come later, as for the time being I'm prioritizing packs I have never played, since my LPs will be complete blind ones this way. For the first one, I was thinking of doing zanzindorf's mini packs, but I have already done his Volume 1 on Superlemmini a really long time ago, while Volume 2 I have yet to play, so only the second volume will be a blind LP. Then again, I remember pretty much none of the levels by title, but I will most certainly remember them by seeing the level, so it's almost like a blind replay. Also, zanzindorf has plans to expand his complete set of packs, so I will probably hold off on LPing his pack collection until then.

With this, I think there's a few here who have tried Yippee! More Lemmings, and from what I read it sounds like there are some hard levels despite just being 5 levels in each rank. Would those who have played it say it's comparable in difficulty to Lemmings Migration, my very first pack that I LPed, or definitely a bit/way harder than that? Difficulty doesn't matter to me, as I will hopefully be fine when LPing it. As long as I enjoy myself doing my LPs, and I've enjoyed every single moment of it in the two LPs I've done so far, it's all good.

Quote from: WillLem on November 17, 2020, 11:06:42 PM
I can see your list is already pretty massive, but if you fancy a pack that you'll likely breeze through fairly quickly, give Lemminas a try! :lemcat: I'd be really interested to see if you find any of the levels challenging!

The really funny thing was that I had decided several hours before you posted suggesting your own Lemminas pack that I was definitely going to LP Lemminas ;) I will provide you a link to my LP once I start it and have it available. Interesting fact: Sammings 1 is exactly half the length of your Lemminas pack. I could continue this pattern by LPing Lemmingbytes, since it has 128 levels total, but too bad I already finished the pack earlier this year. Sublems comes pretty close to that, so this can work. I may still end up LPing Lemmingbytes in the future though, especially since after the first 3 level packs on this list are all ones I have never played, followed by two packs that I've already played. So, I might even squeeze in Lemmingbytes before Sublems and Lemmings Plus 1 for the very reason that I'm indeed willing to LP packs I've already played, if only just to continue the 32, 64, 128 pattern :D 
#1446
Quote from: Strato Incendus on November 24, 2020, 10:42:26 PM

QuoteParalems => LWT => Lemmicks => Pit Lems

Really? You found Pit Lems harder than LWT? Guess that gives me even more motivation to convert it to New Formats, then! :thumbsup:

You're welcome ;) I'm definitely looking forward to Pit Lems remastered, though if I'm not mistaken you said it's pretty much a compilation of your best levels from Lemmicks, Paralems, and Pit Lems? If that's the case, then not much for me to look forward to other than how the backroute patched levels turn out.

I should emphasize that IMO Pit Lems isn't that much harder than LWT. As I said before, in LWT there were generally only 1 or a few levels in each rank that I found hard, and hence I certainly agree with your assessment that LWT is intermediate in difficulty. Also, there's 40 levels in each rank, and so the difficulty was allowed to be much more gradual and slower in increasing. LWT also had a lot of pre-texts, while Pit Lems didn't have as much, so in that way Pit Lems can definitely seem to be that much harder than LWT, at least for the less experienced players. I was already familiar with all the tricks outlined in the pre-texts for both the Noisemaker and the Amateur ranks, and so that's why the pack appeared a bit easier to me. However, I admit that even I need an occasional reminder of some of them. This probably means that it might be better for players to play LWT first for the easier difficulty compared to Pit Lems. At the same time, I'm the opposite in that I generally play the smaller packs first and then the bigger ones, though I occasionally digress from this and instead generally play the harder packs first and then the easier ones next, like how I did with United, regardless of pack size.

In contrast, there's only 20 levels in each rank in Pit Lems, and so the difficulty increased much faster, although the levels themselves in the ranks already start off difficult. Then again, it's possible that I might had found some levels much easier than they should be due to backroutes, considering that you haven't watched my replays for the other ranks besides Groupie, and so my assessment of LWT's difficulty is probably more diluted than it should be.

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Also, nin10doadict was indeed able to beat the entirey of Pit Lems, but did not progress that far into LWT, as far as I know.

I did see some of his LP of Pit Lems, and IIRC I think there were two levels that he got hints on and did post-commentary, one of which was the checkerboard level, the other was the one I got stuck on, it was the rank finisher of the penultimate rank.
#1447
Level Design / Re: Vote on the theme of my next pack!
November 24, 2020, 09:40:28 PM
Looks like a great starting point to me with the list of possible tilesets to use! :thumbsup: Now I'm definitely very excited to see how the actual levels turn out with your awesome artistic skills ;)

Quote from: Strato Incendus on November 23, 2020, 01:34:50 PM
I could already open an In-Development thread for Lemmings Universe, but I want to wait with that at least until I've officially released Lemmings Open Air. Otherwise, it will look like I'm starting several things and never finishing any of them. :P

Exactly. Not only that, I prefer people not overwhelm themselves if they can help it by having multiple projects in progress. It's all about baby steps and taking things one at a time as they come/go. Just better for one's sake and sanity this way IMO :P
#1448
Quote from: Strato Incendus on November 24, 2020, 08:47:58 PM
Quotebrutal difficulty of some of the levels in the main ranks, especially the Legend rank, the final main rank of the pack.

Really? ^^ "Brutal" is a word I maybe would have expected for some levels from Lemmings Open Air, not from this pack. Maybe that's because IchoTolot seems to have breezed through this pack quickly and easily, so that I had already given up hope that any of those levels would pose an actual challenge to adept solvers such as you and IchoTolot.

I don't quite remember which of the Legend levels you considered the hardest, but maybe I'd have to check those specific levels again to see where you're coming from. ;)

Yea, "brutal" is definitely an overstatement, since I only considered a few levels in each rank to be much harder than the rest in the same rank, and even then the hardest levels of each rank aren't very hard to the extreme. Here, I was simply making the comparison that the difficulty of the Groupie rank, while definitely harder than the Encore rank, which I easily breezed through due to having already played your Lemmicks, Paralems, and Pit Lems all in their entirety, as a whole, doesn't come anywhere near the difficulty of the main ranks, most notably the Legend rank, which I thought was definitely the most difficult out of all the 6 main ranks. The Legend rank had a lot of difficult levels from what I remember, and I considered those brutal compared to the other hard ones in the other main ranks. But yes, I am in agreement that "brutal" is a much better descriptive word for LOA's difficulty rather than LWT. LWT is most definitely intermediate in difficulty compared to your other 3 packs. In order from easiest to hardest, Paralems => LWT => Lemmicks => Pit Lems. Though, due to the changing gimmicks in Lemmicks, its difficulty is hard to place.

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As for the final level of the pack: Yeah, that took IchoTolot one hour as well. It's not necessarily for difficulty per se; it's just because there's so much stuff to cover.
In the end, I'm probably happy that the New Formats editor has a pixel limit, so that I can't even be tempted to ever create such a monster again. :evil:

"The Grand Puzzle" was my first attempt at creating a Final-Frustration-like experience; in Lemmings Open Air, "Hammer-Smashed Face" is my second one.

Truthfully, the final level of LOA was nowhere near as stressful as The Grand Puzzle. Slightly easier as well, and I definitely prefer LOA's final level to LWT's final level. If you read my feedback on The Grand Puzzle, I'm not a huge fan of the level, mainly due to how I got quickly annoyed at how much scrolling needs to be done and just not being able to watch all crowds at once.


Quote
Well, if you really actually do forget your own solutions again quickly, then this might be the best chance you have to do a semi-blind LP. ;) In other words, just running the replays over the levels with post-commentary might be a wasted opportunity. At least as long as you're not really getting stuck - which I think both of us would have good reasons to doubt, now that you've already solved the entire pack in Old Formats.

I might still do a creator's commentary later, where I can run the replays with commentary... or IchoTolot might upload his solutions for New Formats to YouTube eventually. (Which would then be the same format in which you're planning to LP the pack, so if you're both just running the replays over the levels, it would be a very similar experience for the viewer, therefore most likely redundant.)

Well, at least many of the details of my solutions I tend to forget. My United level solving commentary video series is pretty much a complement to Icho's Creator's commentary, the difference being is that I not only explain my solutions but also I give input and thoughts on the levels themselves too from a player's perspective instead of from a level designer point of view. This means that if you ever end up doing a creator's commentary for your LWT pack, I might end up doing the same thing and complement your video series with mine. Or if it doesn't happen, I might just end up actually doing the non-blind LP, and possibly just switch to post-commentary if I get really stuck, though I highly doubt that will happen at all, considering the longest I've been stuck on a level in this pack was for about a good 45 minutes or so.

Quote11 failed, some due to the glider issue, others for various reasons, most notably due to the ceiling being deadly in New Formats, while another 14 is undetermined (see my attached mass replay check text file for v12.10.0). Curiously, for v12.9.4, there are more problematic replays (mass replay check text file for v12.9.4 also attached). In both cases, it reports as Diva 24 not being found, although I ran my replay and it does work, so no problem there. However, it reports an error with Groupie 39 due to the generalstratomd style missing.

Quote
- Groupie 39 isn't the only level to require the strato_generalmd style; it's also needed for e.g. the level "Weiße Rosen aus Athen", for my custom white flower traps, and for the level "It must have been Lems", with my custom Builder staircases pre-placed inside the level.
So if you don't have that tileset installed (even though you should, since it ships with the New-Formats download), those other levels should have produced error messages as well.
Maybe you downloaded the styles together with the pack, but they didn't get unpacked into the right folder? ;)
If you unpack the ZIP into your main NeoLemmix 12.10 folder, the levels folder should automatically get integrated into your levels folder and the styles folder into your styles folder. If however you unpack them directly into levels, then the styles will end up in the wrong place.

I checked my styles folder for New Formats and it appears that I didn't extract all of your styles folders to my NL directory. Though, it's possible that I might had just simply used the styles manager download, but I didn't see the strato folders in the styles folder of NL, and so maybe not ??? I redownloaded the pack for New Formats and now it fixes the error with Groupie 39 in the mass replay text file. The same problematic replays are still reported, but again that's expected going from Old Formats to New Formats.
#1449
Thanks for the kind words, Strato! :thumbsup: It was extremely satisfying solving the entire pack.

Quote from: Strato Incendus on November 24, 2020, 11:43:07 AM
Lemmings United of course is pretty huge as well, and I believe it's the second largest pack, i.e. after Lemmings World Tour. That said, what's deterring me from that pack is not its size, but it's sheer difficulty, of which I have already gotten a taste when playtesting just the first rank. It definitely seems to be the optimum of level quantity and quality among all packs currently released (that is, if you equate "quality" partly with "difficulty" :P ; but I definitely can also see the huge amount of effort IchoTolot put into designing the terrain landscapes. So that I have some pretty level pictures to admire, even if I can't solve them :D ).

You can do it, Strato! :thumbsup: I believe in you. It's definitely a huge commitment though, no lie. So many of the levels ended up taking me hours or even days/weeks/months. Yet, I kept coming back and persevered and pushed myself to get past the roadblocks, even when I had nearly given up on solving the pack several times during the Genocide rank, the 5th and final main rank of the pack. And yes, there always is the excellent artistry of the United levels to admire ;)
#1450
I totally forgot that I wanted go back and solve Amateur 31 - The Great Level of Indifference the legitimate way by actually playing it instead of simply let myself pass by not playing it, so here's a 100% solution to the level and hence the gold talisman. I have also reattached my replay collection in my previous reply above, so if you want to you could redownload that or download it if you haven't done so yet. Plus the New Formats version actually has a save requirement, and so I will have to play it anyway.

Quote from: Strato Incendus on November 24, 2020, 11:28:54 AM
Damn, you're faster than I can reply to these! :thumbsup: In a weird anachronism, I've watched your first half of Groupie before the rest of your replays (and also before IchoTolot's re-solutions for New Formats... he already announced he "re-backrouted" the levels, so I assume he found some of the same backroutes you found :D ).

Well, I'm honored. :P Haha I definitely had the momentum going as I was going through the Groupie rank, so I thought why stop when I'm on a roll? Yes, there was slow going at times on some levels due to me being a dummy, but for the most part the Groupie levels don't come near the brutal difficulty of some of the levels in the main ranks, especially the Legend rank, the final main rank of the pack.

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QuoteOverall, an excellent pack that I would definitely recommend despite the very large size of the pack.

Thank you very much for recommending this pack to others! :thumbsup:

This is your flagship pack. I happen to be musically inclined from a really young age, and other than the extremely boring first two ranks which I think you correctly attributed to the fact that I played your Paralems and Pit Lems in quick succession, this pack gets an extremely positive reception from me due to the so many excellent puzzles, both the extremely artistic levels and the ones that aren't as much :) So really, the very artistic side of the levels is an extra plus if the puzzle/solution happens to be great in the first place, which I thought most of them were. This pack never got too overwhelming at all, except possibly the final level of the pack (just due to what you need to do in the first few minutes of the level), though there were some extremely tough nuts in the main ranks, but I felt they challenged me appropriately and in a really good way ;)

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I'd be honoured to see that, of course! :thumbsup: It would be interesting to watch in comparison, not only because you would be the first person LPing the New-Formats version - Flopsy has uttered interest in doing it, but no certain plans yet, as far as I could tell; and also, he would probably use his own music playlist again - but also because it would be the first non-blind LP.

When I do do this, should I do it post-commentary like I'm doing with United? Or should I just LP it as if from complete scratch? Even though it's not really, since it will be a non-blind LP like you said since I've already seen all of the levels. Come to think of it, I notice how very quickly I tend to forget my own solutions to other people's levels, and so I might just do the former. Then again, maybe doing the latter is better and makes for a much more enjoyable experience for both me and the viewers, especially a pack author such as yourself ;) IIRC the longest I have ever struggled on a level in this pack was probably for a good 45 minutes or so, although I think the final level was close to an hour.

edit: After running my replays through the Replay refresher tool, I ran a mass replay check on them for the New Formats version. As I expected, several replays don't work, although I'm surprised that not as many failed as I thought there would be. 11 failed, some due to the glider issue, others for various reasons, most notably due to the ceiling being deadly in New Formats, while another 14 is undetermined (see my attached mass replay check text file for v12.10.0). Curiously, for v12.9.4, there are more problematic replays (mass replay check text file for v12.9.4 also attached). In both cases, it reports as Diva 24 not being found, although I ran my replay and it does work, so no problem there. However, it reports an error with Groupie 39 due to the generalstratomd style missing. So, it looks like I would have to go back and fix a lot of replays anyway, so perhaps this would point to doing the actual LP being the better option? Also, if I do this, I will definitely take your advice of devoting just a video to the final level, since it generally cannot be solved alongside other levels in the same session.
#1451
When only Maso 8 was mentioned, I kept wondering what level is this. Now that I took a quick look at it, yes, I 100% agree with both Shmolem and Swerdis that it is an extremely annoying level to pull off, especially when I first played through the pack on Lemmini many years ago. As I had mentioned a few times before, it's far worse on Lemmini due to no framestepping and skill shadows. Also, there are some really good levels that I ended up not liking as much as I should had only because of the execution difficulty that resulted in too many restarts, but this is more true with Pimolems than it was with Dovelems for me. Should be a much more enjoyable experience for me if and when I start playing Dovelems in NL. Just like both Shmolem and Swerdis said, it's obvious what needs to be done, just executing it in the middle area is frustrating. If anyone had mentioned the level title, like Pieuw did, I would had immediately remembered "Oh yes, that level! I remember I was very annoyed and frustrated when doing the solution." :evil:
#1452
And, the biggest pack that has ever been released so far has finally fallen by my hands and been completely solved by me: Lemmings World Tour for Old Formats! Yup, all 320 levels solved. I definitely would had had all of the pack solved quite some time ago, but it was advised for me to wait for an update to the Groupie rank before I started solving the pack again. So, after I had finished the Legend rank, I took a hiatus, only to later continue playing the pack about a month or two later and play the Encore rank when it was said that no backroutes surfaced from Icho's playing of the rank for New Formats except for possibly Twilems, which Strato said he might patch.

Modified the OP to reflect the completion of the LWT pack.
#1453
And, the Groupie rank is done and I thus have solved all of the LWT pack for Old Formats! :thumbsup: Icho may be the first to finish the New Formats version of LWT, but I'm officially the first to have all of LWT Old Formats solved. So, here is my entire replay collection for LWT Old Formats, all 320 replays. IMO, the second half of Groupie wasn't that much harder, but the final level of the pack was definitely the hardest, although certainly not the hardest level I have ever played. Not by a longshot. I also was far less successful with guessing the designer styles for the second half of Groupie.

edit: Reattached my entire replay collection due to going back and actually legitimately playing and solving Amateur 31 the right way, and unlocked the gold talisman along the way, and so I added my new Amateur 31 replay and got rid of the old Amateur 31 replay, which technically isn't really a replay of the level at all.

All rightie, onto the feedback for Groupie 21-40.

Spoiler

Groupie 21 - Kiwi knights in white satin Very nice level and puzzle! :thumbsup: I really like this one. Not hard, but not easy either. I had a feeling this was zanzindorf's tileset.

Groupie 22 - We are yung Obviously this is yung's design. I have also played his first and only pack, where I agree with you there are too many walkers provided for releasing the blockers in his pack. No real challenge at all. Similarly, this level is way too easy with the abundance of platformers and builders. I ended up getting over the OWW through the top.

Groupie 23 - The Earth Song I incorrectly thought this was a Nepster design, but now that you mentioned it's a bulletride design, yes I do see the Walk in the Park level design here. I don't recall the other level of his that you also put in here. I need to dig up that pack again. It's been a while since I solved all of Lemmings Stampede. Another great level. I'm not sure if the miner cancelling trick is required, although I can't thinking of any other solution that wouldn't require it.

Groupie 24 - Dove is in the air Ok, I definitely would not had guessed Dodochacalo here, although I also incorrectly guessed him in an earlier level in this rank. I'm sure I backrouted this level, considering that I have plenty of skills leftover, the only trick I make use of is a digger cancelling another digger, and I simply use the first few climbers as delays to give the builder enough time to bridge the gap to the exit.

Groupie 25 - Part of ze Reunion I definitely knew this is Icho's, since yes he's known for his Reunion pack. Not only that, the City tileset 100% points to Icho. Somewhat difficult, but it's not too hard. Nice level as well. I definitely don't like how it's difficult to see stuff in this tileset though. Skill shadows definitely came in handy to see if the structure on the far right would stop the miner in my solution.

Groupie 26 - Clam-a-Lem-a Ding Dong I definitely knew from the level title that this must be Clam's. That reminds me, I still need to play clemmings. Perhaps I can LP that one after the ones I have planned. He appears to have also vanished from the forums, so I haven't gotten to know him at all. Ok level, also a bit difficult, but not too hard. The fiddliest part of my solution is the drop before the exit at the very end.

Groupie 27 - Deceit and destruction I also knew this is Deceit's from the level title. I have played and beaten all of Deceit's Lemmings, but it was a long time ago and on Lemmix. The final Mayhem level was also one of the last levels I managed to solve after a while. I couldn't beat it at first, but I eventually was able to figure it out on my own. Difficult only due to the 2 builders, but it was still easy for me. Digger cancelling a digger for the win again ;)

Groupie 28 - Hiroshima Now it's time for Gigalem. Here I thought this was yours, though, since I remember you doing a Japan level earlier in the pack. Should had realized it from the tileset that this level is Gigalem's style, although to be fair I haven't played his Millas' packs yet. This was a pretty cool and great radiation level, I thought. Solution isn't that hard at all despite the radiation. I don't mind radiation/slowfreeze, though. The only hard part of the level is the end where the zombies are. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the radiation at the end is placed in such a way that the lemmings will never explode before reaching the exit? I think the only way for that to happen is if the lemmings have far to drop down, giving the timer more of a chance to actually expire.

Groupie 29 - Every Geoff you take Obviously Geoff's style from the title, and I recently finished my second playthrough of his Geofflems pack. Very nice level here too! :thumbsup: I especially loved the building to turn around trick and digging through the staircase to drop to the exit level near the end with the worker lemming.

Groupie 30 - Joga I definitely would not had guessed mobius at all. It's been way too long since I completed Mobilems. I first solved all of the pack on Lemmini, so perhaps I should revisit the pack for NL. Easy level.

Groupie 31 - Ya ochen rad Title definitely escapes me, and I certainly would not had guessed Gigalem. I really like this puzzle/level! Definitely requires some thought to solve. It's a bit difficult, but not too hard. Very nice solution. I had a feeling there were hidden masher traps, and indeed there are.

Groupie 32 - Fernando I knew this was Fernandes' style from the title. I have also played his master's degree pack from earlier this year. Starts off easy but definitely got hard as you progressed in the pack. Pretty easy level here. Nothing too special.

Groupie 33 - We don't need another hero I definitely would not had guessed Deceit here. I thought it was either a namida or a Nessy level. Both are wrong :crylaugh: This level stumped me for about 10 minutes. In particular, the builder gap is such that the worker lemming will never turn around, so the challenge was figuring out how to get the crowd out before doing so. Still a really nice 1-of-everything level. Not sure if bashing against the OWW to turn around is intended, though I can't think of any other solution that doesn't require it.

Groupie 34 - I see fire Definitely not in a million years I would had guessed kieranmiller. I have not played anything by him at all. As for the level, this was a bit difficult, especially the beginning, but level's not overly hard. The rest of the level after the beginning is easy.

Groupie 35 - Fly me to the moon I would not had guessed Arty here either. I believe it was thanks to your Pit Lems pack that I learned the Moon object is actually solid. I always thought it was background. Just from the level title itself it's very obvious where the exit is. No real challenge at all here. Very easy level. Nice looking level too.

Groupie 36 - What does the fox say? I definitely didn't have Gronkling in mind when predicting whose style this is. I thought it was a Gigalem one or possibly someone else (don't remember who). Other than his Lemmini minipacks, I haven't played anything by Gronkling. He hasn't released any level pack yet, I believe? I wonder what's the status on his Lemmings Evolution pack now that he has returned from a very long absence. I'm very positive my solution is a backroute. I'm sure it's not supposed to be that easy :P This was even one of the levels you changed too. Looks like you have to fix it up some more.

Groupie 37 - Johnny B. Goode The B in the title totally escaped me and didn't point me to bsmith. I have played his small pack about a month or two ago, though it was my second playthrough (my first playthrough of the pack was several months ago earlier this year). You're absolutely right about him remaking several original Lemmings levels, as I also noted that in my feedback to his pack. Very nice no builder level/solution! :thumbsup: This one was easy for me. Even after figuring out the solution, the other thing that also needs to be figured out is how to stop the climber from splatting after mining the crowd out.

Groupie 38 - A Mazu Grace Obviously the design is the author of Mazulems. Mazulems was pretty much the first full custom pack I have ever played, though I believe this was back when I was a high schooler and on Dos. My first custom pack on other engines was Dovelems on Lemmini several years later. I really like the solution here! :thumbsup: I thought it was quite clever sending two climber lemmings to bridge the gaps from the other side before releasing the crowd. This was an easy level for me. The only part I don't like is how part of the steam is touching the lemmings through the builder staircase at the end. Seems that lemmings are fine if it's the end that touches them since they don't get killed.

Groupie 39 - Not the incended solution It definitely escaped me that this is your design style. I think I also agree with the community that your levels tend to have backroutes abound, although it's just like you said, you didn't have anyone test your levels/packs before you released them. You changed that with LOA. This was a really easy level despite how I was taken by complete surprise with the hidden traps in the skull. I definitely should had known those creepy looking eyes were traps.

Groupie 40 - The Grand Puzzle To finish off a very well-done and the largest level pack so far ever released is a very large level. I have not played Nepster's Final Frustration level yet, but I knew this level was his style given what I read about the level in the level pack topic. As a matter of fact, I still need to go back and finish solving Nepsterlems. I'm currently stuck on the first level of Black Hole, so I think at this point it'll be amazing if I manage to solve even just one level in that rank :crylaugh:

Anyway, as for this level, truth be told, I initially was very intimidated by the extremely large level size. The high RR definitely didn't help matters once I started playing the level, but once I managed to stop those entrances that are heading into immediate danger, the rest of the level wasn't so bad. Needless to say, the first several skill assignments have to be extremely quick. I'm not sure how many, but I believe it's the first 15-20 skill assignments that need to be quick, so the beginning is definitely the most stressful part. However, as I just said, once you successfully manage to do all of that, the stress is eliminated and then you can take it a bit more easy. The level still doesn't become a whole lot easier, though.

I think as is true with almost everyone here and on difficult levels, builders is the skill that we all try to conserve as much as possible. Indeed, when I had made a lot of progress on the level and neared the end, I realized that I was running out of builders very quickly, and so the first thing I did after that is to find the places where I used more builders than was necessary and hence save rather than waste them instead. The destructive skills also surprisingly quickly, though I think the bashers and miners are the more problematic ones than the diggers. Due to the extremely high save requirement, it can also be really difficult to save all the blockers, especially the ones that are headed the wrong way. I think the most difficult area for me was the exit area, especially in regards to how to prevent climbers from going out to the right and dying. Also the area with the gold pillars with the two very tiny gaps can be difficult and very fiddly. The second right-most entrance area can also be difficult. After doing what I did by mining right away, I definitely could had made it easier by digging first. It's just that I didn't know where two builders would reach to seal off the gap with a lemming from the right-most entrance.

Several tricks are needed here: Digger-basher staircase, good use of delaying tactics without using builders, and either miner cancelling another miner, basher blocker turnaround, or digger cancelling another digger, and of course releasing blockers. As I'm writing this, I just realized I probably could had made the right-most entrance much easier by using the digger cancelling another digger trick. Or at least dig, block, and then dig with a left facing lemming to release the blocker.

Though I managed to solve the level, I'll be honest and that is I'm not a huge fan of this level due to how so much scrolling needs to be done, especially since it's impossible to watch all entrances depending on where you are in the level. If anything, I got extremely annoyed by the excessive scrolling that needed to be done very fast. That definitely made me dislike the level even more after I was past the initial intimidation. Because of this, a lot of pausing is needed, and it definitely makes planning the solution out that much more difficult. Looks like I echoed Icho's dislike of extremely large levels where you can't see all lemmings at once. 

Overall, an excellent pack that I would definitely recommend despite the very large size of the pack. Even better if you're musically inclined, since you'll likely be able to understand the level title references to the songs. Though, it seems that not many people are fans of radiation/slowfreeze, and if that's the case, I say they shouldn't bother with the Old Formats version and just play the New Formats version instead. As you know, I don't mind the culled radiation/slowfreeze, so I was willing to play through the Old Formats version. I wasn't playing it just to be the first person to complete the Old Formats version. Even then, there aren't that many of these levels in the pack itself, so there's still a lot of just standard puzzle levels that players can enjoy if they don't want to bother playing the radiation/slowfreeze levels. And who knows. When I do the New Formats version, I'll probably end up LPing it. It'll take an extremely long time, though, and from what I remember it's definitely very slow going at first with the first two ranks, especially since the levels in them are not your tutorials at all, and some are difficult. Of course, I'll let you know when I have started it and provide you the link ;)
#1454
Halfway through the Groupie rank, so you know what that means: More replays and feedback! Here are all my replays up through Groupie 20. Also, 300 levels officially solved. Wow! :lem-mindblown:

In contrast to the Encore rank, which I breezed through in just 1.5 hours, it has been much slower going in the Groupie rank. The difficulty's definitely picked up again. Not necessarily a bad thing with me. Still a lot of good levels I have played so far in this batch. I'm looking forward to the levels in the second half and seeing how many more designs of others I can recognize.

To be honest, I got way more of other authors' level designs than I thought I would, and so I'm actually having a lot of fun guessing whose level it's designed after. I seriously thought I wouldn't get many right, especially since it's been a long time since I played many of the packs by authors other than Icho and namida and, of course, you. Then again, it's only been about a year since I played those packs by other authors, so I guess it make sense that I'm able to recognize some of the designs despite having not seen any or remember any of their levels by design for quite a long time. By my count, I got about 11/12 of them out of the 20 I have played. That's not too bad, actually! :P

Spoiler

Groupie 1 - When the cat's away Ok level to start off the rank. I immediately thought that this must be nin10doadict's level due to the cat trap. I still need to familiarize myself with the Food tileset, since I wasn't aware that both the ketchup and mustard are traps. I think so far I'm familiar with the apple worm trap, and to an extent the blender trap.

Groupie 2 - That's a hard level that is! Even though I have yet to play any of Flopsy's packs, just by the tileset itself I immediately knew it was Flopsy's level. I didn't think this level was hard at all, but due to the 99 RR and managing the crowd this would be a hard for Flopsy level if I'm not mistaken. It was easy for me since I'm already well aware of the glider-stoner trick in such a way that the ohno animation is skipped completely but the stoner still connects with the ground.

Groupie 3 - Waking up the neighbours Not very hard, but at the same time not trivial at all. I did not recognize this as Proxima's design. Not to mention I didn't recognize the tileset either, so that's one part of it, but also because his TM Challenge pack is the only pack of his I have played.  It's the only pack of his that he has ever released so far I think? Even then, that's not a really good indication of his style. Plus, I believe it was a collab with mobius. I have not played any contest levels by him. Good to know that this is Proxima's tileset.

Groupie 4 - Praise be to God! I totally failed to recognize this as Colorful Arty's level. I kept thinking it was Gigalem's, but I think what made me realize that it has to be Arty's is due to the basher and digger crossing in the solution. But yes, I can definitely see how it can be Arty's style of designing, especially since he's extremely good with very artistic levels. Easy level, the only hard part is making the basher and digger cross successfully. Luckily, the setup is somewhat easy. You yourself used this trick in one of the main ranks, except it was with a basher and a miner going in the same direction.

Groupie 5 - No true Scotslem Thanks to how I recently played Lemmings Migration, I immediately realized this level must be Nessy's, since I noticed he used the mine tileset a lot in the pack. This is still a huge backroute, considering I don't even collect the builder pickups! I'm not sure how you missed this very obvious one when fixing the level up. Wonder if Icho came up with the same backroute or if he solved it the intended way.

Groupie 6 - Stacks and stones The only reason I guessed Raymanni was due to the tileset itself, and yes I did play Raylems, but it was a long time ago. This was a really great level, although it was extremely annoying hearing the crackling sound all the time when the lemmings kept stepping over the piece of snow terrain that breaks away anytime they kept walking by it. I definitely could had prevented that by placing the first stoner better.

Groupie 7 - (K) itty Compression Again, I immediately knew that this was nin10doadict's level due to the cat traps. Nice and easy level, and as the title suggests compression is the way to go.

Groupie 8 - Icho chambers Obviously Icho's level, although it appears that this is half correct, as I failed to realize it's also in the style of Proxima. Now this was a hard level for me. It's definitely all about resource conservation. The hardest part for me was the bottom left, especially building up to the teleporter area after mining down to the entrance. There were a couple of times that I thought I had the level solved, but after a few time skips I realized that I had lost more lemmings than what I still needed to save. Turns out that the lemmings who walk out to the left in the teleporter that leads straight to the water drown because I hadn't prevented that from happening by building to sealing off the gap.

Groupie 9 - Wrong This was another stumping point for me, but that's because I kept thinking I had to build, then dig before the lemming takes a step, then build to turn him around. As it turns out, there aren't enough skills to do it with the blocker that got released, as well as with the lemming that releases the blocker. Then I made the connection with the climbers provided and realized that I was being a dummy and that one needs to destroy the end of the builder bridge going to the left so to allow both to climb and get to the other side so they can get to the exit. Nice level, though!

Groupie 10 - Read my lips Obviously Flopsy's due to the appearance of the letters making up SEB. Unless this is supposed to be an open-ended level, this is a backroute? I didn't collect the the 4 pickup skills on the right side at the top. At the same time, it's not a hard level, but once again it's not trivial either. In particular, resources are much tighter than they appear to be, especially the builders even though there's plenty of them.

Groupie 11 - Killed by death I didn't know this was Sqron's level until I noticed the SQ in the pre-text. I have played the snack pack, so I have played his levels before. It's been a long time, though. That reminds me I need to post my replays and feedback for that pack, as well as for Raylems. The hardest part is definitely making sure enough get past the lizard trap, because it triggers way too fast. It's also the reason why Perky 20 from Casualemmings (Super mecha gators) is giving me so many problems. Yes, I'm still stuck there. It's amazing even at a 99 RR all lemmings up until the 4th one in a row die to the trap. So, the only way to get a lemming past it sooner is to clump up the second one extremely tight with the first one so that they're almost behind one another, which I achieved via a walker skill. The rest was making sure the crowd was in a perfectly straight line so that enough will get past the trap.

Groupie 12 - Tin Limmings on this livel Here, I seriously thought this was Gigalem's level due to how he has a lot of misspellings in the pre-texts and level titles. Also due to the tileset I thought it was his. Other than Lemmings Plus Alpha and Lemmings Plus 1, I haven't played any of namida's other packs, so I definitely won't recognize any of his designs in your Groupie rank. Nice level here with a great solution! ;)

Groupie 13 - You know you make me wanna shout ("shout" gets cut off in the level title) I'm sure my solution is a backroute. The intended solution is probably way more complicated than that.

Groupie 14 - Scot-free I had a feeling that this was also Nessy's design, and indeed your spoiler tag confirms it. I kind of recognized it due to the bridging a gap from both sides. However, the one trick that I didn't use is building over a digger pit so that lemmings are walking in only one direction. I might had been able to save the builder bridging the gap from the left with better timing, though.

Groupie 15 - Take a Byte One of the levels you showcased for the rank in the OP, and the one I immediately recognized as Wafflem's. I have also played through his Lemmingbytes pack. I didn't collect all the pickups, although I think this is more about figuring out how to get to the ones you need in order to solve the level. Obviously a miner needs to be collected. I say this level was a bit difficult, especially navigating through the waffle at the end. Another difficult part is getting past the apple worm trap at the very start, but the trap is slow, so it's not too hard to figure out.

Groupie 16 - All for love Even with an infinite amount of fencers, this level's not easy. I also happen to be really bad with stackers and how to use them to get up levels and releasing the crowd due to how it generally holds them back after the 7th/8th brick is laid down. It wasn't until after a time that I realized that not everyone needs to get be able to get up due to the seemingly generous save requirement. Also after a few attempts I realized that I can get the lemmings bunched up by assigning fencers right on top of one another. The funny thing was that I had realized this while I was CC'ing (candy crushing) because I remember that fencers will continue in a fencer tunnel even though they're not removing any terrain due to the upward slope a fencer tunnel makes.

Groupie 17 - I am E.T. I seriously thought this was Dodochacalo's style since he a similar level in his Dovelems pack. Oops :-[ I honestly don't remember any similar level in Sublems. It's been that long since I first played the pack, but I played it on Superlemmini. Here, I thought there was a mistake in the level, because I knew to make the digger-basher staircase at the end, but after running out of bashers the wall was still too high for lemmings to step up. Then, I realized that it needs to be done immediately after the climbers makes it to the top and that I don't need to spend a basher up there and could simply use a builder to turn around after digging low enough at the edge. It does make for very precise skill assignments, though. Good thing for framestepping here.

Groupie 18 - Le vent nous portera I immediately knew that this was Pieuw's design just from the French level title. That reminds me. Have you shown Pieuw this level yet? If not, right now should be good since he has finally returned after being gone for so long. I didn't use the trick from that Brick level in Pimolems for my solution, although it still uses all skills, so this should still be acceptable. Instead, I simply used a builder to seal off the bahser tunnel, which is pretty much a variation of the trick you alluded to that is used in the Pimolems level.

Groupie 19 - All you zombies Ok, I also thought this was Gigalem's, since he seems to also like zombies and I recently solved his entire zombie pack again. I totally forgot that you like zombies and slowfreeze. Oops. :-[ I don't mind either of them, although I find zombies slightly more annoying than slowfreeze. Maybe Gigalem likes radiation, slowfreeze I'm not so sure. Anyway, my solution is probably a very glaring backroute. I don't think the solution is supposed to be this simple.

Groupie 20 - Bon appetit! Looking at all those foods in the preview screen sure makes me hungry :crylaugh: Really nice design here. I totally failed to realize there's multiple authors' design in this level. I only thought of Wafflem due to the waffle. But yes, you're right, I do recognize Arty's cake. I didn't recognize Pieuw's soda on the side, though, even though it should be recognizable as one. This level can be difficult, but it's not too hard. It's all about getting through the level with efficient skill usage.       

20 levels left in this gargantuan pack! Almost at the finish line :)
#1455
Level Design / Re: Vote on the theme of my next pack!
November 23, 2020, 12:36:24 PM
Quote from: Strato Incendus on November 22, 2020, 01:34:42 PM
Reading it again, I think your suggestion didn't refer to tilesets directly, but you definitely gave me the idea to have several levels per planet / moon. ;) With my original concept, I guess our entire solar system would have been confined to one rank, with just one level per planet / moon, and then we would have gone straight out into the unknown.

Indeed, I wasn't referring to tilesets at all and therefore wasn't suggesting only one tileset per rank. My suggestion was simply name each rank either by the name of a planet in our solar system, or some word describing the planet, like maybe greenhouse gases for the rank name instead of Venus. For the former, it's like you said, this would require you to come up with the same number of levels for each one per rank/planet. Not only that, it's also very tricky considering that as we know not all 8 planets are the same in terms of physical properties and whatnot. Now that I think about it, it might just be better to simply use adjectives for the ranks so that it can better describe other planets and other celestial bodies and not just the planets in our solar system.

In any case, it's way too early for any of us to be suggesting ideas for you for this astronomy pack if you ever decided to do one due to the overwhelming majority that went with astronomy, since your current priorities are the packs you still have in development. Also, it's ultimately your pack and therefore you get the final say in how your project comes out. If it ever gets off the ground, I will definitely look forward to this astronomy themed pack of yours! :thumbsup: