Status: I feel more changes than simply removing the option are justified in regards to this; see reply #7. These changes have been implemented for the next update.

Status: Fixed for the next update.

Status: Will be included in next update.

Status: V1.40n has added improved buttons when playing packs that are made for (or upgraded to) V1.40n or higher; retroactively applyinging them to older packs is probably more hassle than it's worth.

Status: Changed from "Bug" to "Suggestion" as current behaviour is intended.

Have decided against allowing Walkers to be used on Swimmers.

Have decided in favor of making swimmer-bombers apply destruction mask as normal, and implemented this for the next update.

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Original Post

I am not sure whether the following two behaviors are intended or not. At least I did not expect them to be that way.

1) One cannot assign walkers to swimming swimmers. As walkers have an effect in pretty much any situation, this strikes me as weird.

2) A swimming swimmer explodes when given the bomber skill, but never removes any terrain. As one doesn't see this behavior in other situations, it was probably precisely coded that way. But I see no reason why?

Status: Re-added for next update. Suggested change of always enabling it in packs with Unlock All enabled has also been implemented.

Status: Not a bug. Resulted from a misunderstanding of how the option works.

Edit Simon: This topic belongs to a series of related ones:

• Save requirement: show during play
• Required-saved, out+hatch: display during game
• Add cloners to initial count of lems (this one)

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Two questions, because I just played a cloner level:

1) If we display "required - saved / out + hatch" how do we count cloner skills? My intuition says: "required - saved / out + hatch + cloners".

2) Assume that at the end of the level when all lemmings are either saved or dead, a player has a few cloner skills left. Should these be automatically added to the saved count?
Pro: If I don't need cloners, I tend to forget to assign them while playing. More than once this resulted in me failing a level only due to this. I found this quite annoying.
Contra: Currently one may create levls, where the main problem is turning around cloned lemmings.

Quote from: möbius on December 15, 2015, 01:06:17 AM
I realize apparently no one else considers this a problem but I do: I wish for a volume control of some kind because I think the default volume of both sound and music is way too high.

You are certainly not the only one who consideres this a problem. But it is already on the list of changes for NeoLemmix V2.

PS: Perhaps the current discussion should be moved to a thread in the NeoLemmix V2 subboard, because it mainly belongs there?

Here is an obscure low-priority bug: Pickup-skills, zombies and ghosts appear only at the second frame. So when pausing at the first frame, the player will see a rather inaccurate version of the level.

Here is a glitch concerning a platformer+cloner interaction:
Start a platformer. After placing the first brick, but before he starts moving forward, clone the lemming. Then the cloned lemming moves forward through the air and places his first brick midair. This is an unwanted behaviour, because it allows the player to separate one lemming from all others in a rather glitchy way.
Example level with example replay attached (for V1.35C).

PS: This glitch does not work for cloning builders (as far as I can tell).

I just used the Flexi Toolkit for the first time and following the tutorials it worked really well ! Not a single error message!
But there are still a few places, where I feel that the Flexi Toolkit could be improved. None of the following is a serious issue, so if anything needs more than changing a few lines in the code, it is probably not worth the effort.

1) File - Save...
Currently it is not clear, what is saved if one just clicks "Save...". As I first thought it would already save everything as a .exe, it might be good to replace it with "Save System.Dat" or something like that. (Yes, I know: there is a "Build exe" as well, but a stupid user like me reads "Save" and thinks this is, what he wants it to be...)

2) Settings - Options Default
Please force the user to confirm that the options should really be reset. The buttons are rather huge (at least compared to all the checkboxes), so it is easy to hit them accidently. On the other hand, I don't think they these options are needed often, so hitting "OK" one more time should not be too annoying.

3) Settings - System.Dat
At the moment, you must hit "Export System.Dat" in the Flexi Toolkit, then go to the NeoLemmix Editor to actually edit the System.Dat and finally go back to the Flexi Toolkit to import the changed file again. This is quite much work for changing a few more options by checkboxes. So why is it necessary to change all that in the NeoLemmix Editor? Why not letting users make these changes already in the Flexi Toolkit?

4) Levels - Adding Ranks
When I first got there, I hit "Add" (rank), and the Toolkit did... nothing ! Well, at least nothing visible. That was very confusing, as I intuitively thought, that I had to enter a rank name first, then click "Add" to create a rank with that name. So:
Important change: On adding a rank, give it a generic name (e.g. "Rank 0") and do not leave it blank.
Optional additional change: If the user has already entered something in "Rank Name", give the newly created rank this name automatically.

5) Levels - Buttom naming
You have two buttons "Add", "Delete", ...; one for ranks and one for single levels. I would prefer to change this to "Add Rank" and "Add Level" on the buttons. This might mean making the interface slightly bigger, but that should not be a big problem.

6) Musics - Special Level Settings
I have several levels with the music setting 253 (arbitrary music track even though gimmick "Deadly Sides"). However in the .exe level 1 always plays track 1, level 2 always plays track 2, ... In other words: The music setting in the .lvl file is not respected! I haven't yet tested what happens when specifying a usual track number, but at least "253" gives problems.

7) Musics - Restart Standard Rotation
Why is it preset to "1"? When creating the first .exe, I missed this option and thus all levels played track 1. My suggestion: Leave this empty by default and identify "empty = total number of tracks loaded".


And I have a few wishes for additional setting options. They are mainly meant for the V2 incarnation of this Toolkit, as they likely require bigger changes in the source code for the toolkit or even the player itself:

8) Optional Talisman display
If a level pack does not have Talismans and one does not plan to include them ever, the display of the Talisman review in the main page of the player only confuses users. So there should be an option to remove the ability to see the talisman count. Alternatively one may implement it in the player itself to display the Talisman option only if there actually are talismans available.

9) Cheat mode automatically enabled
Currently I haven't found an option in the Flexi Toolkit to create a player, where the cheat mode is enabled by default. This is important to me, because I want to encourage players to skip levels they do not like.

10) Customizable option menu
Many current options are irrelevant in a full player. Some like the "Steel Debug" or "Look for lvl-Files" option are even actively harmful in a finished player. Why not having an advanced menu, where one can remove certain options for the final player?
On a related (and off-topic) note: Why is the Music and Sound option in the player combined? Wouldn't it be clearer for the user to have "Music On/Off" and "Sound On/Off" as two separate options?

Recently we had a discussion on the climber mechanics for V2.00 with respect to low terrain. Regardless what the rule is, it should be applied consistently. However in NeoLemmix V1.35C this is not the case!
If the wall is at least 8 pixels high, a lemming might climb it, even when there is terrain among the lowest 6 pixels. But if the wall is precisely 7 pixels high, he turns around ! The reason seems to be some too rigid terrain checks for hoisters.
Example level attached.

namida has recently opened up the discussion for small physics changes for NeoLemmix V2.00, so I will start by discussing one pecularity of bomber mechanics.

It concerns bombing in miner shafts: The bomber hole slightly depends on the direction the lemming is going! See attached picture. Upper row shows the two choices of bomber holes for lemmings going down, the lower row does the same for lemmings walking upwards. The bomber holes for ascending lemmings is actually one pixel further to the left that for descending lemmings.
This small difference has one rather big consequence: Only ascending lemmings can create bomber holes that turns other lemmings around - descending lemmings cannot!

I suggest changing the bomber placement for descending lemmings into the one for ascending lemmings. This way it is unlikely to break any existing levels (as turning lemmings in such bomber holes was already possible in original Lemmix and NeoLemmix up to now), but makes the behaviour uniform.

THIS LEVEL PACK HAS BEEN RELEASED. THE RELEASE THREAD IS HERE!


Welcome to NepsterLems - A big level pack with 111 challenges! 

All levels have been created and playtesting will start soon. However for the first public release you will likely have to wait until NeoLemmix V2 is finished.

A few words on the structure of this level pack:
There will be no introductory levels - you can find excellent ones in DoveLems, but as well in most of the recent level packs. Instead NepsterLems starts with two ranks of 15 levels each, all sharing two basic concepts:
- Each level has 5 respectively 10 of each skill.
- Each level puts several obstacles in your path, but they can be overcome in many many ways.
After that you will find 4 ranks of 20 levels each and a final "boss" level. Throughout these ranks your skill sets are quite limited and so is the number of (intended) solutions. Mostly the levels are quite small and designed to display a specific theme, quite often specific skill interactions or lemming movement.

Rank 1: (Screenshots will follow at some point)
You always have 5 of each skill. The terrain usually gives you many options - and be sure to use them. Despite being the first rank, you will find only very few any-way-you-want levels.

Rank 2:
Now it is up to 10 of each skill - and much more complex obstacles. Even more so than in the first rank, planning a general route at the beginning is advisable.
Warning: The last two level of this rank are MUCH harder than many of the levels in the following ranks. So do not let them discourage you!

Rank 3:
Ok, let's start with giving you less and less freedom to solve the levels. The first levels start around Tricky/Taxing difficulty, but soon progress to Mayhem.

Rank 4:
Now you need more and more tricks, unusual combinations of skills, etc. However the solutions are not yet overly convoluted (main word being "overly").

Rank 5:
By now all the levels can easily compete in difficulty with late Mayhem or late Havoc. Be prepared to use non-linear approaches or (and?) heavy multitasking.

Rank 6:
These levels should give headaches even to the greatest experts. Go and let the lemmings perform a complex dance on your screen!


Technical stuff:
I will use NeoLemmix V2, so no special modifications are needed any more.
The final version will (hopefully) run on a slightly modified NeoLemmix engine. The most prominent changes to usual NeoLemmix will be:
- Less strict terrain checks for builders. They will behave more like in original Lemmings.
- Slightly relaxed terrain checks for climbers, e.g. climbers may "climb" through the stairs in the Pillar tileset.
- Direct drops to the exit are removed: You lemmings will splat instead.
The levels in the teaser promo will likely differ slightly from the final versions.

Many thanks to...
- DMA design for inventing the game Lemmings,
- Eric Langedijk for creating Lemmix, which was used to create all my levels,
- namida for providing the NeoLemmix engine,
- all other level designers for all their level ideas, which inspired my levels
- and everyone on LemmingsForums in general, for keeping Lemmings alive. It was you, more than anything else, that spawned the idea of NepsterLems in my head.

I apologize...
- to all other level designers, because one should read the "ideas, which inspired" above as "ideas, that were blatantly copied".
- for always making so hard levels. If you fail to solve some level, you are totally correct in blaming me for this. But always keep in mind that I am not forcing you to deal with my levels - you are free to ignore them or damn to the Lemmings hell .
- for not being any faster in creating levels. NepsterLems is now almost one year in making and when I told möbius in January about releasing it in "about 2 or 3 months", it seems that "about 5 or 6 months" would have been a better guess. PS: Turns out, that even this guess was more than optimistic .

I wanted to update my level pack Nepster01 in the level database. But if I move to my level pack and click "edit", then I can only modify its name and the description, but I see no way to upload an improved version of the level pack?
Do I have to delete the whole pack and do the uploading procedure again with the new version?