Hi,

Lix is a free-and-open-source game inspired by Lemmings. It's in the public domain and runs on Windows, Linux, and other platforms. We have singleplayer, a level editor, and networked multiplayer.

Download Lix -- if Windows, prefer the 64-bit version

• Play the included lemforum community pack.
• Play the included ClamLix, NepsterLix, Rubix's pack, ...
• Design new levels in the included editor.
• Play multiplayer: Post on the forums to agree on a time, or join IRC.

Homepage
Source code on github
Source code as .zip

Get help, report bugs/features:

• Create a new topic on this board, Lix, on Lemmings Forums.
  
• Or file issues on github.
  
• IRC: irc.quakenet.org #lix, chat in your browser
  

Lix comes with over 700 levels designed by Lemmingsforums members. Build your own levels with the included editor.

-- Simon

0.6.6 uploaded.

The lemforum community pack has Proxima's suggestions up to 2016-07-17. Several levels have moved between ranks. Some have been replaced entirely:

• Out: Minimalism (Part 1), Fear of Heights, That Pesky Gap, Don't Look Back, Too Far to Walk
  
• In: A Necklace of Raindrops, The Road Not Taken, All Around the World, Diggin' the Air, A Soulful Bounding Leap

Use the --coverage switch along with --verify to compute level directory coverage. From all levels that reside in level directories from where you have tested at least one pointed-to level of a replay with --verify, --coverage lists those levels that didn't enjoy even a single solution. Please read levmaint.txt for detailed instructions. Example command line:
lix --verify=replays/path/to/dir --coverage
I have used --coverage to guarantee that the ranks Simple, Quirky, Cunning of the lemforum community pack are solvable.

Fix #113: Shorter key names with unicode symbols. In particular, keys on the numeric pad have a nice symbol that looks like the keypad.

Fix #120: Topology updates correct equation, not only the horizontal equation.

-- Simon

Lix 0.6.6 will have all changes up to this post. Exception: Elixir remains at Cunning 38 with 3 jumpers, not 4 jumpers, for now. Release of Lix 0.6.6 will be in 30 minutes.

For further suggestions, please make a new post. I won't look through the posts above anymore.

-- Simon

Lix 0.6.6 will have all changes above, except for:

• Daunting 29, 30 "Buy One Get One Free" (1 and 2) -- ugly stacked exits to prevent using a bomb hole to bypass the exit. Why not put steel there? -- you or geoo should make this edit. I haven't solved part 2 yet, I don't feel competent to make this change.
  
• Cunning 40 "The Ob3lisk" -- change to 40/80 -- I removed the stacked hatches: Now only one hatch at the top, one at the bottom. Save requirement 20/60, floaters 40->30. When you're done with the top, there are still about 10 lix in hatch. I hope that's okay.
  

If you have further suggestions, please create a new post. I won't look at the posts above anymore.

Delete all failing replays

You maintain a collection of replays in replays/path/to/your/dir. Over time, some are failing. You want to delete exactly the replays that point to a good level, yet don't solve that level.

This solution relies on the order of Lix's --verify output: The first comma-separated field contains (FAIL), and the second field contains the failing replay's filename.

Unix tools:
lix --verify replays/path/to/your/dir/ \
    | grep ^\(FAIL \
    | awk 'BEGIN { FS = "," }; { print $2; }' \
    | while read failingreplay; do rm "$failingreplay"; done

-- Simon

geoo has popped into IRC after his trip to Tanzania. That's good timing.

Plan for the next few days: I want to gather Proxima's proposals to the community pack, and release again. My replay repository on github is out of date, I have to put in Proxima's replays. Reasoning: This makes it easiest for geoo to review all changes. We can still revert afterwards.

Lix will get the --coverage switch in that release. Combined with --verify, --coverage lists levels without at least 1 working replay, as long as the levels reside in a directory from which you have tested at least 1 level. Reasoning: When we have more than 1 replay per level, we don't care anymore about any single replay in particular; we want to cover every level by at least 1 working replay.

geoo manages levels and replays on github. We should decide how to merge. Big singularity commit, then revert single files when geoo doesn't agree with a particular change? Or leave geoo's repository alone until we have 100 % D Lix solvability coverage, because it's in good shape for C++ Lix?

-- Simon

II
III
OO
OOO
IO
IOO
IOOO

-- Simon

Equipping levels with replays as proof, that's extremely smart and is direly-needed tooling. The general principle is that there must be automation for level -> replay, not only, as before, for replay -> level.

I have 200 levels, 3 or 4 replays per level, and the replay checker tells me that 50 of the 800 replays fail. I don't care about any single replay in particular. I can throw away some replays and the pack is still OK.

But I care pedantically that every level remain solvable. The level is the central piece of data in our culture, therefore all tooling should treat the level as central. The tooling must make explicit when there are levels that lack a proof, that's more important than when a certain replay fails.

-- Simon

MEL
PARDY
I
O
CHEESECOKE
LPC

-- Simon

HIT
HTI
THO
LAPACA
CALAPA
HUMP
PUMP

-- Simon

Hi,



Related chat on 2016-07-06 at 21:00 UTC:

Gronkling: SimonNa: Thanks for the backroute! here's a V2 of the level which will be included in the finished game (unless any other backroutes are found) https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B24bnHjK2QUDTGNhMWNxeWJVNlU
SimonNa: Gronkling: that level segfaults NL immediately on loading the level. What NL version do you use?
Gronkling: im using v1.43 for the player
SimonNa: okay, hmm
SimonNa: maybe I lack the tilesets, and the game doesn't give a proper error
Gronkling: just checked and i can load in my player
SimonNa: okay, cool
Gronkling: yes that might be it because i bundled the tilesets with the nxp

-- Simon

Attachment has a solvable Over the Hump, and a proof of solvability.

The hump was unclimbable due to terrain rotation off by 1 pixel. I didn't touch anything but some terrain -- lix count and skillset are as before. The ground platform is slightly longer, so that the level is precision-tolerant even at fixed spawn interval (FSI).

-- Simon

This is important, yeah, because we advertize this pack to beginners.

In general, not all packs need a gentle introduction. For most packs, we can assume that the player is proficient in the game rules. You can have easy levels, but need no ordering geared to absolute beginners. If you want to be suitable for beginners, you must spend 10 to 50 levels on basic ideas. Most packs cannot, and should not, afford that many.

The lemforum pack is an exception, because Lix, as a game, treats the lemforum pack as an introduction to Lix itself. Maybe we should even scrap the dedicated tutorial levels, at least for the skills. But that's material for an extra thread.

D12 "Alternative Methods Required": [I confused this with "Alternative Methods Recommended", that voids this paragraph. I blame the similar name.] You can tunnel through the many thin lines with exploders. Once you're on a low level, hack and slay your way to the exit with builders and bashers. I don't believe the fling route is the main route. At least my instinct hasn't led me to this fling route yet.

Tricks are difficult to assess, yeah. For whom do we rank levels? For experienced players, or for people who know the basic rules? Tricks should flow into the main level difficulty, thus into the ordering. If a level uses a weird, rare trick, it should be ranked difficult, no matter whether the trick has come before.

It's nice to see a trick in its pure form early on. Do you want to design the pack around such introductions? Then you can afford to rank trick levels lower, but must be extremely careful in the design. We aren't starting afresh with the pack design now -- we have 240 levels built and de-backrouted, with only a little consideration towards trick introduction.

-- Simon

My replay for Panic Attack. This replay will solve an adaption that requires 16/20 and is identical otherwise, and would save 17 lix then.

We can look into namida's 2-builder version. That requires nontrivial terrain changes.

-- Simon

Merge Sort: rank 3 -> rank 4. Or put more steel, to point out where you should not mine.

Mice Pipeline: rank 3 -> rank 4 or 5. This is surprisingly red-herring-y. Doesn't look like one core trick.

Tapestry: late rank 3 -> early rank 3.

Obelisk: Reduce height by a factor of 3 or 4, or scrap the level. At full size, the execution is a pain in the ass. Hatch stacking is extremely misleading: With 130 in hatch, and a route that saves the top hatch, I cannot get 65.

If we keep this at reduced height, it's slightly underranked. I'd scrap this, and find an elegant puzzle instead of this repetitive click marathon.

Merde Merde: rank 6 -> rank 4 or 5. Elephant method works: ram your head against this until the solution drops.

Elixir: rank 3 -> rank 6. If you don't want to rank it up, then jumpers 3 -> 4. The backroute-proofing made Elixir extremely hard. Many middle-Hopeless levels are easier than this: Merde Merde, Panic Attack (assuming an adaption without RR-fiddling), No More Heroes (Proxima is unsure), Don't Catch Me.

For comparison:
I've tried Don't Catch Me in rank 6. I spent 30 minutes yesterday, and 10 minutes today, and solved it.
I've tried Panic Attack. About 25 minutes yesterday, then solved, followed by a long redesigning discussion.

Maybe those were too hard? Shall we compare the 5 hours against rank 4?
Repeating Patterns from rank 4: Took me 5 minutes.
Backlash from rank 4: Took me 1 minute to get 36/40 and 5 minutes to get 37/40. With chat in IRC in between.
Narbacular Drop: 15 minutes, including a private discussion with möbius and Proxima on how to adapt to fixed spawn interval. Thus, pure play time was about 5 minutes, too. Excellent level!

Do I want to downrank any of these 5-minute levels? No. I may be too used to the exact mechanics. Proxima doesn't have a 5-minute-time with them, and finds them adequately ranked, too.

Elixir is rank 6.

-- Simon