What if you could only assign skills to lemmings facing in one direction?

[Clam]

I've been working through the "wrong-way" solutions for Fun. In addition to the ones already mentioned, I've done:

14L
15L
17L
21L
22L
24L
29R

All with 100%. Zip with relpays attached.


Also:

since we haven't sorted out exactly what constitutes a glitch and what doesn't, maybe we should just forget about glitch solutions?

If we do consider it a glitch, I bashed through the top of the steel on 17.

[chaos_defrost]

Edit: Various improvements to Insane Steve's Tricky results
3: R (100%)
10: R (100%) Use the left group to save the right).
11: R (Using sliding glitch)
13: R (100%; uses steel glitches)
19: R (100%)
20: R (100%)
23: R
24: R (100%)
27: R (Steel bashing)

Wow, 19 and 27 are R possible? Nice.

I thought about it and 8 might have an R solution also. The save percent and number of skills is pretty generous.

[ccexplore]

Tricky 26 L 100%.  I did have to use the miner glitch at the end though.

[edit: I guess miner glitch is somewhat besides the point since I already used the "push lemming into wall via blocker" glitch/trick?]

[Clam]

I thought about it and 8 might have an R solution also. The save percent and number of skills is pretty generous.

It certainly does, but 100% looks unlikely.

Tricky 7R is possible too, with a similar method to Fun 15L. 100% is probably doable, but I'm gonna have to start over and save a builder or two...

Both replays attached (though expect an update on 7).

[chaos_defrost]

I thought about it and 8 might have an R solution also. The save percent and number of skills is pretty generous.

It certainly does, but 100% looks unlikely.

Tricky 7R is possible too, with a similar method to Fun 15L. 100% is probably doable, but I'm gonna have to start over and save a builder or two...

Both replays attached (though expect an update on 7).

Actually, after watching all of your "wrong way" solutions to the Fun levels, I suspect similar ideas can be possible for Tricky also. I pretty much just did the obvious grunt work for those levels 

EDIT: Yea, I think a lot of my "one way only" initial guesses can be made both ways. 100% may not be possible for the wrong way solutions, but they are very likely possible using the tricks I saw in your Fun replays.

[LemSteven]

Actually, after watching all of your "wrong way" solutions to the Fun levels, I suspect similar ideas can be possible for Tricky also. I pretty much just did the obvious grunt work for those levels 

The same goes for my work in Taxing.  Case in point, I've got a 100% Left solution to Taxing 20.

[Clam]

Here's Tricky 7R 100%. I'm not absolutely sure I assigned the climbers facing the right way, but even if I didn't, it's certainly possible to do so (and on any frame you choose).

(edit) uses direct drop, by the way...

[Clam]

Here's another insane wrong-way solution: Tricky 6L, 100%.

[ccexplore]

Tricky 20, Left.

[edit: added screenshots and quick spoiler summary in case they are needed.  However, I don't want to do screenshots unless someone absolutely can't watch the replays, so only if someone PMs requesting for screenshots will I consider doing them]

The key idea is to use a blocker to push at least 2 lemmings into the one-way wall so they are stuck (and free the blocker so the next part works properly).  When you have stuck lemmings climb, their facing direction will alternate between left and right as they slowly move up, making it possible to assign exploder while they are climbing instead of before

[ccexplore]

Tricky 22 R 100%.  Basically just a minor variation of the 100% builders-only challenge for that level (though not builders-only this time).

[Clam]

Here's Tricky 9 100% both ways (with massive steel abuse), and Tricky 11L 100%. 11R is easy enough to do by making a basher staircase, building into the wall first to gain some height.

[ccexplore]

Fun 28 was given up on a little too easily.  Attached is a wrong-way (right) solution.  Talk about brute force!

[edit: added a verbal description of solution.  No screenshots unless someone demands it in PM.]

At the lower ground level, you need a lemming to dig/mine himself a little bit into the ground, and then use a blocker to force the right-facing basher to continue bashing left.  If he's low enough when he started bashing left, his bashing will be stopped by the steel on the left end.  The replay shows one way of doing it although in hindsight, what you see there is probably more complex than needed.

The rest is to brute force your way up to the height of where the exit is, doing zigzagging staircases with blockers.  You need to be horizontally close to the exit, so that you don't ever need to build twice consecutively facing left.  You can build once facing left by building facing right, close to a blocker.  You can also assign blockers on the left end of the zigzag by taking advantage of the platforms that get in the way of the zigzag, which can interrupt a left-facing builder causing him to stop building and turn right, giving you the opportunity to assign blocker then.  Use exploders and other skills to clear stuff that gets in the way of your building the zigzag.  Be sure to use the technique of squeezing a builder between two blockers close together, that way the builder will gain a lot of height without gaining much horizontal distance.  That will be the primary way for you to get high enough to explode a sizable hole into whatever platforms are overhead and in the way.
 

[Clam]

Edit: Various improvements to Insane Steve's Tricky results

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13: R (100%; uses steel glitches)

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27: R (Steel bashing)

Thanks to the lack of water, you don't need glitches on 13 (replay attached). Also, for 27, you can bash under the one-way wall, and build with blockers to the exit to complete the level without using glitches. (The next thing is to check for 100% with glitches, not sure how that'll turn out)

Tricky 26 L 100%.  I did have to use the miner glitch at the end though.

[edit: I guess miner glitch is somewhat besides the point since I already used the "push lemming into wall via blocker" glitch/trick?]

I managed it without glitches (replay attached)


Tricky 30R can easily be improved to 100%, using the replay Adam posted earlier. Since he only lost lemmings from climbing off to the left, you can dig a barrier to stop them and get 100%.


Tricky 25R is possible to get 100% on - it turns out my old no-floater replay is a right-only solution as well!


Updating the list for Tricky now, though there are still some more possibilities to check out.

[ccexplore]

Just when you think wrong-way Fun 28 can't be topped, here comes Tricky 21 Left.  Now I know what the 666 really means.

The key trick is a variation of "push walker through thin wall via blocker" trick/glitch: you can use that technique to actually get a lemming to build "through" a 1-pixel thin wall:
    1) wait for the lemming to just turn around at the wall.  At that point he is standing right at the column of pixels that makes up the wall.
    2) have him start building
    3) anytime before he moves up onto the first build brick he lays down, set a blocker next to the builder.  This will flip the builder's facing direction so he continues on the other way, through the wall.   The game only checks for obstacles in front of the builder, but since he actually started at the wall, the wall is neither in front nor behind the builder, and thus will not interrupt the builder.

So this allows you to build a full 12-brick bridge to the right, but as you know, that's not wide enough to span the distance between the leftmost 6 and the middle 6.  And so here's the grand (and messy) plan to get around that problem:  we first use the build trick above repeatedly to create a stack of full bridges.  In my replay, the stack consists of 8 bridges.  The lemmings that build those bridges are sacrificed (as are occasionally some innocent bystanders that happened to be pushed through the wall by the blocker).  The stack looks something like this:


            XXXXXXXX...
          XXXXXXXXXX...
        X+XXXXXXXXXX...
      XXX+XXXXXXXXXX...
    XXXXX+XXXXXXXXXX...
  XXXXXXX+XXXXXXXXXX...
XXXXXXXXX+XXXXXXXXXX...
XXXXXXXXX+XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX+XXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX+XXXX
XXXXXXXXX+XX
++++++++++
++++++++
++++++


Now imagine using various terrain destruction skills (eg. exploders, and bashers' "backstrokes") to take out all the X pixels, leaving just the +'s (or something close to that).  Notice how the +'s basically form a new 1-pixel thin wall, but 9 pixels away from the original thin wall?  This allows you to do the build trick against this new wall, and as we gained 9 pixels with this setup, we can now span the gap with one full bridge starting at the new wall.

Thankfully the distance between the middle and right 6's are less than the length of a full bridge, so once you get to the middle 6, the rest is (relatively) easy.
 

One question that remains, as I review my solution, is whether 100% is possible.  It does use up a lot more builders though, so there's question of whether you have enough skills and enough time, not to mention some "luck" to avoid accidentally pushing lemmings through a wall into oblivion when applying blockers, which is why I didn't try for 100% on this first stab at it.  Below is an outline of how to modify the above scheme for 100%:

Instead of building a stack of 8 full bridges to create the new wall (but sacrificing each lemming that builds one of the 8 bridges), you will have them build starting one pixel left of the wall, so they can't actually go through the wall.  You will end up with a stack of single build bricks, each protruding 4 pixels through the wall (think Insane Steve's "The Razor's Edge").  This in effect allows you to form a new 1-pixel thin wall, but only 4 pixels away from the original.  So applying this process 3 times, and you will have gained enough distance to span the gap with one full bridge.

Obviously this uses up a lot more builders, but you don't really need much for the remaining parts of the level (my wastefulness in the replay nonwithstanding), so with 66 builders you might still have enough, we'll have to see.  If nothing else, I could do some preliminary (but careful) calculations to see if you go over 66 builders or not.
 

[Clam]

 

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File that alongside geoo's Tame 13. That is legendary.






For what it's worth (which is still something I guess), here's Tricky 14 left. (EDIT: removed, superseded by a 100% solution)