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Messages - Strato Incendus

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481
+1 from my side as well. Opening the save dialog would also make it easier to tell if you have already manually saved a replay or not. Otherwise, you might press U several times during the level, just to be on the safe side, and potentialy create a bunch of redundant replays that are hard to distinguish in hindsight.

482
General Discussion / Re: Where's Gronkling?
« on: November 18, 2020, 10:03:56 AM »
Welcome back, Gronkling! :thumbsup: I've been using a lot of your tilesets recently for level creation, thanks again for making all those! ;)

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Now I just need to figure out what changed in the last 2.5 years. Other than these new emoticons

Well, to start with, we have two new skills - the Shimmier and the Jumper - and there is most likely at least one, if not several new ones coming when NeoLemmix reaches its final version! ;)

The current candidates are Slider, Laser Blaster (Laserer), Spear Thrower (Spearer) and Bazooker / Mortar (Grenadier). The last two form a unit of "destructive and constructive projectile skills".

The new emoticons were made by WillLem, as far as I recall. ;)

483
You could try Arty's SubLems as well; it has a very nice and steady difficulty curve, and it has recently been made available for New Formats at last.

Most likely, it will be too easy for you overall, but if even Lemmings Migration had a couple of levels that managed to stump even you for a while, then at least the Hellish rank of SubLems might still have some challenging surprises for you. ;)

484
A sounds good, but how does the engine track which lemmings are clones and which aren't? ???

I thought after a clone has been created, it's just treated like any other lemming?

485
Sounds like I really need to start watching your LPs, kaywhyn! :thumbsup: Even if Arty leaves the Let's-Play community eventually, I'm confident you will be able to fill that gap!

Especially with regards to harder packs, since you're one of our most adept level solvers. Some of the packs that Arty considered too hard to play on video could then get their time to shine if it's you who's let's-playing them.

Of course, there are IchoTolot's replay videos, but those are things I really just use when I need a "walkthrough" or hint on some level. Not something I watch for entertainment; that requires a human voice in the background at least. (Which is why I've enjoyed IchoTolot's LP of Lemmings 2: The Tribes very much, in contrast! :thumbsup: )

namida used to do Let's Plays for a while as well, but even he got stumped by NepsterLems eventually on the Black Hole rank. I'd be curious to see whether anyone can solve it live and on camera in its entirety...

486
Closed / Re: [SUG][PLAYER] No space bar for advancing menu screens, please!
« on: November 15, 2020, 10:52:01 AM »
Thanks for bringing this up, WillLem! ;) I'm glad I'm not the only one who was irritated by this.

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I will however note that the forward skips are not intended to be used as a pseudo-fast-forward, and that that itself could stop working at any time (instead becoming that the frameskip only responds to tapping)

Well, why make that change if all it does is increase wear and tear on people's keyboards? :P

10 seconds is usually too large of a jump to be used while solving, except for Builders and Platformers, where it fits exactly (but only when done right at the beginning of building / platforming).

Most people will indeed use it to speed up the crowd moving to the exit at the end, i.e. like fast forward. Forcing the players to hit the space bar several times for that purpose just seems like an unnecessary hassle.

487
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Lemmings World Tour Remastered [New-Formats Version]
« on: November 15, 2020, 10:46:00 AM »
@IchoTolot: No worries, by "fixing" I mainly mean "checking everything again whether it works". ;) And then potentially "fixing" the replays instead of the level itself.

As I said though, some levels had random changes to their properties, like the save requirement on "Streets of London" being upped to 59 instead of 57.
???

If IchoTolot's replays still work, then most likely because I've allowed them as alternative solutions. ;) In those cases, often not all the skills are being used, to there is more leeway and less likelihood for failure. If a certain skill is miss-assigned by a couple of frames in my replay, that can cause it to fail, whereas if IchoTolot didn't use that skill in the first place, his solution will be unaffected.

A lot of my replay files also still just run through as normal. I guess on some of them, the failure had to do either with my strato_generalmd tileset not being present yet during the initial mass replay check (since that is obviously one of the few tilesets that don't gome with the standard styles download), or because of overlapping level IDs for reruns.

A noticeable crash however was on the level "YerushaLem shel zahav" from the Diva rank: Apparently, Flopsy swapped out the exit for the Sandopolis tileset? The new one has a narrower trigger area and also looks different. Since the lemmings drop into the exit from above here, the trigger-area size is what's relevant here. I swapped it out for the standard Pillar exit in both Old and New Formats now; that one has a wider trigger area than even the former Sandopolis exit. So now, the level should be slightly easier (not with regard to its puzzle solution, just because of fewer losses; I've provided some leeway for how many lemmings you can lose on this level anyway).


@kaywhyn: Yes, indeed I'd advise to wait with the Groupie rank. ;) It's just a couple of levels I need to fix, but those are very difficult to fix (especially if "fixing" means "enforcing a specific trick that I consider a signature of level designer X"). However, it will certainly be more rewarding for both me and the players when it finally works!



Good to know I can still watch all of IchoTolot's replays in the new version, though! :thumbsup: That saves me a lot of back and forth, thanks a lot for checking this!

488
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Lemmings World Tour Remastered [New-Formats Version]
« on: November 14, 2020, 06:23:57 PM »
I haven't fixed the Groupie rank yet, mainly because there are a couple of levels which IchoTolot backrouted but which I still have no idea how to fix. Right now, ensuring general playability of the pack (i.e. the main ranks) is more important.

Never mind with regard to my ability to watch your replays, though. I just realized: Not only that Old Formats is independent from all of this, I also still have the backup of all the levels in my 12.9 folder, to watch IchoTolot's Groupie replays again if I need to ;) .

All the changes to the levels I only made after I had already copied them to the 12.10 folder. It's just that any changes I make in the New-Formats version will only be done on the 12.10 versions of the level files, since there's no use in maintaining 12.9 any longer.

489
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Lemmings World Tour Remastered [New-Formats Version]
« on: November 14, 2020, 05:35:24 PM »
Okay, good thing I waited with an update until version 12.10 was released, because a bunch of my old replays broke for unknown reasons.

Maybe this has to do with yet another physics change? I remember reading something about a Miner-Basher inconsistency being changed?
It's not mentioned in the 12.10 changelog though, and I can't seem to find a Bug Thread for it either.

Another thing is that lemmings now seem to slip through ceilings through which they didn't use to slip before. (Since lemmings can slip through thin stripes of terrain, they also do that at the top level border, because terrain above the level border is treated as non-existent, even if a thicker terrain piece is placed there.) I had fixed the ceilings for all levels for which it was relevant during the initial New-Formats conversion, so I knew about this. However, now there seem to be levels affected that weren't before.

Those are easy enough to fix: Just add a couple of pixels extra to the Y dimension of the level, select everything, move it down that number of pixels, and the steel piece or whatever I've placed at the ceiling to prevent lemmings from walking upwards and dying gets lowered further into the level. It takes a while to identify them all, though, especially since I've fixed them all before.

A similar thing is true for the Glider-Faller physics change: I had fixed all levels where this was relevant, but now it's suddenly an issue again.

The strangest error was on the level "Streets of London", where somehow the save requirement had been raised from 57 to 59 (out of 60), breaking my solution because I had used two of the three Bombers. ???

I also had to correct the object name for nin10doadict's cat trap again in one level file ("The lion sleeps tonight"), changing it from the style "nin10_cattrap" to "nin10_misc", and changing the object reference to "TrapCat" instead of "catTrap" - even though I was certain I had already done so.



My replays are sorted and the solved vs. unsolved levels after the Mass-Replay check are easy enough to tell apart;
I'm just referring to finding out whether the level broke because of a ceiling death, the Glider-Faller physics change, or because of some other reason.

So far I've fixed everything from Noisemaker up to the end of Professional, but there are still many unticked levels left.

Sometimes, there's actually nothing wrong with the solution, and the reason the level remains unticked is probably just because the level counts as "undetermined", taking longer than the cutoff amount of time after the last skill assignment for everyone to get to the exit. In that cases, I just run the same replay over the level again that didn't pass the mass replay check (and left the level unticked in the selection menu), and it passes as normal and the level gets ticked. So it is also not a problem of the levels not having my correct user name, because I've run them all through the Replay Refresher again.

At least the menu signs were easy to reset to my custom ones :P . Lemmings World Tour actually didn't have a custom rank sign before (custom rank labels, yes, of course, but not the sign itself). Fortunately, I could still grab those PNGs from Old Formats. :evil: I just had to add separate image files for the old up and down arrows. The new ones look nice on the black menu signs I had made for Lemmings Open Air, but I want to keep Lemmings World Tour as it is.

TL;DR: A bunch of levels broke in version 12.10 and this is clearly more than I can fix in one afternoon. This pack is currently not ready to be played in version 12.10!
If you're currently playing it, either keep it in version 12.9 or wait until the update. Either way, be prepared for a bunch of your replays breaking when you update to 12.10.

As a result, I'm also not sure to what extent IchoTolot's and kaywhyn's remaining replays will still work if I watch them now in version 12.10...
I expected some levels breaking with the update, but certainly not THAT many at once! :lem-mindblown:

490
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As far as visuals on the destructive skill, I'd suggest going ahead and using the L2 bazooker for three main reasons: first, anyone who's played L2 should understand exactly what the skill is going to do; second, it will be more distinct from other skill icons that way; and third, we can use the L2 graphics if we want (did we do this for Shimmiers and Jumpers, or did we draw new ones?)

I'd be fine with that! :thumbsup: I guess we should simply call it "Bazooker" in that case, though?

"Grenader" is not an existing skill anywhere, plus there's the confusion with "Grenader" and "Grenadier". Granted, "Bazooka" (the weapon) vs. "Bazooker" (the guy firing it) is a similar source of confusion. But at least there's the precident of it being called "Bazooker" in Lemmings 2, and that name shouldn't be too long for the panel, in contrast to "Laser Blaster".

The main difference between a Bazooker and a Grenadier would obviously be that the Bazooker requires a "shooting device", instead of just throwing the explosive projectile.
This could be the same as for the Laser Blaster in a pinch, just pointing into a different direction (but slightly diagonally upward would make sense, given the parabolic arc of the projectile).

However, if you suggest using the original Lemmings 2 animation anyway, then the "shooting device" is already part of that animation anyway - and it would actually be more effort to remove it, to turn the L2 Bazooker animation into a (throwing) Grenadier, than just leaving the animation as it is and renaming the Grenadier to "Bazooker".

Of course, given the parabolic arc, "Mortar" would still be a possible name as well:
The Bazooker in L2 flies mainly horizontally.
The Mortar in L2 has a steeper curve, as far as I recall, than the current Grenadier. However, both would have more in common than the Grenadier and the Bazooker, because the Mortar is more widely applicable: You can dent ceilings with it, you can shoot horizontally, and you can even blast through the ground like a regular walking Bomber, but at a distance. (In fact, I remember one particular L2 level where you have to use several Mortars in rapid succession to blast a shaft into the ground on the other side of a water pond).

491
An even number for the pure "hand-motion" time (like the current 4 pixels) seems fine by me.

Regarding the movement of the projectile, 7 pixels per frame seems quite fast, but then again, I hope nobody plans to use pixel precision with these throwing skills. (Although the Spearer might lend itself more to that than the Grenadier, because the created piece of terrain is smaller than the large crater the grenade causes).

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Seriously though, maybe we could come up with something totally new that's unique to NeoLemmix and hasn't been seen in either Worms or earlier versions of Lemmings...

COOKIES!

If we want to stick with explosive foods and go with one that hasn't been used before, there is a clear candidate that overshadows all the rest:

The pomegranate (in German it's literally called a "grenade apple" :evil: ).

I still don't understand to this day how Team17, the Worms developers, were quicker to come up with a banana bomb than with a pomegranate.

492
Yes, that would be very helpful indeed - especially when the talismans are based on my playtesters' solutions, rather than my own... :evil:

493
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I was thinking of having them throw exploding sheep, but it's hard to animate that at an acceptable size.

How about a banana? :evil:

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Also, I think throwing normal grenades isn't really something a game could claim exclusivity on.

As is shooting a Bazooka, like in Lemmings 2. ;) Both Bazookas and Grenades exist in Worms, and both are staples of that game.

But I've already said previously that I'm going to make a bunch of more Worms levels with these skills anyway, if they make it into a stable version :P .

494
Looking at the skill panel again: Can the grenade maybe get a different colour, just like the spear?

The Spearer is easy enough to distinguish from the Basher thanks to that colour difference, but the Grenadier can be mistaken for a Basher with two heads. :D

In general: Would the grenade be expected to change colours depending on the tileset, just like bricks (Builder / Platformer / Stacker) and the Spear? ;)

495
Closed / Re: [SUG][PLAYER] "Purge replays" button
« on: November 09, 2020, 10:45:07 AM »
I'm fine with a "Failed" folder as well. :thumbsup: As long as it's some more convenient way of quickly and automatically distinguishing between working and broken replays - the separation is the key issue, not what happens to the failed replays after they've been singled out from the rest.

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