Guigui makes a good point.

Replay Insert mode arrived after the standard mode, when advanced players wanted more out of it.

Thus could be tricky for newcomers, sure. UI is key.

I'll come back to this.

I also use LMB to 1 frame skip a lot. I even set RMB to 1 frame back skip.

Now that I come to think of it, the clash for LMB is actually triple : cut replay, skip, assign.
I switch to hotkey for skip only when I want the cursor to be over a lemming during the skip, so this does not clash with assign.
I only see the replay as a mean to get faster to a certain point in the level to try something else after I cut it. In this sense the replay cut is a point of no return after which I take back the control of the level.
Insert replay changes a lot of things in that regards, but I'm willing to try it.


I fear how beginners will understand his though.
Every single new player I know, me included, had a hard time understanding the replay idea where getting back in time does not forget the future.
Now we add another layer where taking back the control of the level by playing it via assignment does not forget the future either. An example of how this may be very hard to understand :
- this obstacle may be handled with either a bomber, or a builder.
- lets try the bomber. ... Well this was not such a good idea.
- rewind, it is handy instead or restart all, thanks, and try the builder.
- skip the builder animation, it is handy thanks.
- what ?? I end up with an already destroyed bridge and I have lost a lemming ??

This is very weird when you think of it this way, fear this may unsettle newcomers.

Sometime ago i really wanted to play some of lemmings engines, but I never really got a computer  (at least yet), so my only option is my phone.
but now I do know a few things that let me run some lemm engines on the go.

1. Winlator
A actually pretty good PC emulator for android, it uses box64 and wine to run windows games.
Neolemmix worked pretty good on this emulator, however some issues started to appear, like for example, when I try switching levelpacks, the game just crashes, and also the skill hud was REALLY REALLY small and I didn't really know at the time how to change it, aside from that I guess it worked fine. 

As for Superlemmix, the game ran pretty badly on winlator, it was like in a snail's pace, and it had the same issue as NL where switching levelpacks causes the game to crash.. 

And lix.. lix simply did not work on winlator unfortunately  , when i try starting it up, it was basically just a black screen, later crashing.



2. Gamenative (my current "emulator" for lemm engines)
It's also a pretty good emulator, and as the name suggests, it lets you run games natively to your phone! 

Neolemmix worked fine, at first the hud was pretty small but I managed to fix it, the game's a bit slow even in low resolution and fast-forward doesn't work, but I'll probably fix it later.

Superlemmix also worked as well as NL, nothing much to comment about

I finally managed to make lix work, the game seems to run at normal speed, with fast-forward working and all! 



3. Other stuff

A. The lemmings level database works perfectly, it can be a little tricky to play it with touch controls, but you quickly get used to it
B. DHTML lemmings also works fine, nothing much to talk about.
C. For Droidlings, I couldn't get the original lemmings levelpacks to work there, but I could play the original levels from that engine.


I guess that's it, it was a bit complicated to get some of these engines to work on a phone, but i guess that's what you get for trying to run a PC program on a Android!

Welcome Valentin! Hope you enjoy the forums!

When you merge insert mode and regular replay mode, consider changing the default for the user option that keeps/deletes the garbage from keeping the garbage to deleting the garbage.

Definition: In this thread, with garbage, I mean assignments to the same lemming in the future of the newly inserted assignment. Usually, these will desynch because of the newly inserted assignment. In rare cases, they remain useful. (In other threads, it might mean any assignment in the replay that fails to resolve, or that resolves but does something else than originally intended, but those meanings are a different concern out of this thread's scope.)

Reason for changing the default to deleting the garbage: When you push the merged mode to users, this will behave more closely to how assignments behaved before merging the modes. This will be a new additional reason. Another reason is the same as before, the garbage is practically never useful, and you can play around fringe cases (assign climber early/late to preserve/lose it). Another reason is playtesting feedback from across 2 years now: Lix insert mode deletes the same-lemming garbage, I like the deletion there, and I've never gotten feedback that the garbage should remain.

Do you think you want the option (to preserve garbage) for yourself still after you make airclick replay cutting optional?

-- Simon

Hmm, we all found different habits around the LMB clash, i.e., around the two meanings (cut replay, advance) of left click:

• Icho clicks to advance if the click won't affect the replay. Icho presses the hotkey to advance otherwise.
  
• WillLem always clicks to advance. If that click would cut the replay, WillLem first enters the cut-preventing insert mode.
  
• Simon: I always press the hotkey to advance. I only click to affect the replay. I fear clicking.
  
• Guigui, I haven't asked explicitly yet how you prefer to advance by 1 frame. Do you click to advance? Do you press the hotkey to advance?
  

The click to advance seems popular.

WillLem's proposal still reconciles this. WillLem proposes: Create a user option for whether air click cuts the replay, and have only a single mode during play that always inserts. I don't know if this is ultimately best (well, when do you ever know that); it's the best I see for now. It's not clear if Icho is going to like this, but Icho is happy to try.

I agree with Icho that conveying replay mode in the UI is important. We're still in the early bronze age with this, even Lix, which displays "Replaying. Click to play from here." Post what comes to mind. If it's ultimately separatable from merging the modes, we can always split it to separate topics later.

-- Simon

Quote from: WillLem on July 22, 2026, 10:11:17 PMThere may be a better way, though. My goal would be to not litter the directory with temporary replays, ideally.

Maybe a dedicated folder (or subfolder of the replay dir) for these ones, and one file per level (perhaps tracked by level ID)?

Welcome! Commander Keen was also a classic for sure!

Quote from: Proxima on June 23, 2026, 04:54:06 PMI still believe that the methods I suggested could work or could be made to work, for pretty much any level. In case it's not clear, I'll go over the steps more carefully:
* Choose a skill that is not currently used, for example, digger.
* Add a section, enclosed from the rest of the level, with a pre-placed lemming and a separate exit. Set up this new section so the lemming can only be saved with a digger.
* Add a digger skill pickup.
* Now, if for example there are 20 lemmings in the main level, you can have a talisman for saving 21. This requires getting the pickup skill.

Great thanks. I have applied this idea in my level.

One level : You Go Lemmings ! You Go Lemmings ! UGO 2026.nxlv
I hope you will like it.

Thanks to Guigui, WillLem, Proxima, namida, and Simon for their indications which helped me to finish the level.
Special thanks to Guigui for playtesting.

I specify that the level is finished and I don't ask for changes or modifications.
I just hope you will not find too many backroutes...