Help the Polar Lemmings!

[geoo]

Here's an excerpt from the Lemmings Adventure Gamebook 1 - The Genesis Quest. This part is arguably the hardest section in the entire book, and harder than all levels in the Polar tribe. You're to solve this particular challenge - let's see how you'll fare:

After a long journey, the Polar lemmings climbed up to the top of a tall snowy hill. The other side of the hill is even steeper, and it's going to take some careful thought to get down safely. Looks like you're going to have to help the lemmings again. How will they do it? They could use Skiers, Sledgers or Rollers.



Note: The sledger is the only skill from the book that does not appear in Lemmings 2.

(Fun fact: you can assign rollers not only to lemmings, but also to cupboards so they roll over bananas. Simon dropped the last piece of the inside of his banana onto the floor, and it rolled (because I secretly assigned a roller) under the cupboard. He was afraid he might roll over it with his rolling chair, or the rolling cupboard.)

[finlay]

I like these books. Who else has read them?

(I always got annoyed at it though because the Beach tribe requires a swimmer at one point (with no option to get around it) but doesn't offer them to begin with. I just started taking "Shimmier" as a misprint because they're not actually used anywhere in the book...)

[ccexplore]

Oh, I didn't realize this is an actual puzzle (as you surmise I now nothing about adventure gamebooks in general). I though it was just another one of geoo's late-night rabbles with a picture from the book as a springboard.

How does sledgers actually work in the context of the world of this adventure gamebook?  Do they work just like in real life?

[Simon]

geoo: "Just another one? He doesn't seem to think very much of my late-night rabbles."

The book itself doesn't explain the skills at all, it claims most of them are obvious. It seems safe to assume sledgers use a sledge to sledge down the slope. Nobody knows for sure what's happening in such a gamebook though --  part of the challenge is to make decisions based on incomplete information.

-- Simon

[finlay]

Wait, are you reading the same book as me? I just flicked through the book to find this page and it wasn't like it was a hard puzzle or something.

[finlay]

I am so tempted to sit down one day and transcribe these books onto a wiki or something so that they can be like stored online for posterity.

[chaos_defrost]

Bunch them all together, then at the right time use a bomber to fling the rest so their splat height is reset, guiding them down the hill.

Lose 1 is the best I can do, though, those with more knowledge about Lemmings Adventure Gamebook glitches might be able to save 100%.

[Clam]

Spoilered for those who want to solve it themselves:

Skier would be too obvious. Heck, the lemmings at the front are already in ski gear. Besides, they'll just stop halfway down if the slope changes. Useless.

Sledger must have been left out of the game for a reason. Maybe they weren't tested thoroughly enough due to time constraints, or they were too glitchy. Either way, that could be disastrous.

That leaves Rollers. The cupboard thing is the real clincher. (:

[finlay]

Nah, the cupboard thing is some weird thing that geoo came up with, I guess.

The actual answer, going strictly by the book, is Sledger (after all, why would they have bothered adding it otherwise?). Sledger is the only one that is guaranteed to get you down the slope safely without harm; you have a chance of losing some lemmings if you don't have more than 5 Skiers, because they can't carry as much as the Sledgers can; and with Rollers, you end up making an utter mess because when you roll down a slope with snow on it, you end up being unable to stop, (see here) and you will lose some lemmings.

[ccexplore]

geoo: "Just another one? He doesn't seem to think very much of my late-night rabbles."

Heh, I'm thinking more alone the lines of "Best quotes from IRC and Mumble" when I refer to late-night rabbles, I'm sure from time to time there's actually something brilliant and not some random joke.  (Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with random jokes.)

Anyway, it also turns out I apparently don't know what a sledge is, or rather, that it's the British spelling for "sled" For some reason I'm thinking of some sort of ice axe maybe because I'm thinking of the word "sledgehammer".   (And an ice axe may well have some merit here for climbing down the hill, too bad not an option here.)

------------------------------

If that illustration has any accuracy, I think the lemmings are screwed no matter what you do.   In that illustration it looks more like a sheer cliff than anything resembling a traversable slope.  I imagine with either a skier or a roller they will just fly off into the air and then suffer a long fall ending in splats. The sled can't be better than skiing since it's basically the same principle as skiing (gravity and low friction) with less control (well, depending on how well they can ski I guess.  I don't actually have any real-life experience on sleds, just that I can't imagine it working too well on a steep slope).

I think one can actually argue that normal walking is the safest option here. (!)  Imagine the pixelation of the slope, this turns it into a series of vertical falls if the lemmings were to walk down it like in the actual game.  If anywhere in the slope there is a fatal vertical drop, I'm pretty sure neither the skier nor the roller will traverse that successfully (especially the roller, will have to test the skier to see how steep it can tolerate but I just don't see it working on something so near-vertical) either, so you're no worse off than just walking.  Whereas if there are no fatal vertical falls anywhere, then walking reduces the probability of flying off into the air to 0, compared with skiing and rolling.

[Simon]

I just flicked through the book to find this page and it wasn't like it was a hard puzzle or something.

That's because geoo likes to call things the best, the hardest, etc., to provoke additional attention to this already most interesting question.

Lose 1 is the best I can do, though, those with more knowledge about Lemmings Adventure Gamebook glitches might be able to save 100%.

There is actually a challenge that requires the glitch-heavy divers. But they're used in a highly unorthodox and strange way -- to jump from a diving board into water.

Skier would be too obvious. Heck, the lemmings at the front are already in ski gear. [...] That leaves Rollers.

Haha, exactly my line of reasoning when playing the book.

I am so tempted to sit down one day and transcribe these books onto a wiki or something so that they can be like stored online for posterity.

If you get around to do this, do it -- they're rare to find nowadays. I wanted to have the books for some time, and bought them off Mr. Kiwi's pile of Lemmings things he wanted to sell.

If that illustration has any accuracy, I think the lemmings are screwed no matter what you do.

Absolutely!

-- Simon

[geoo]

You all seem very hesitant to cast your vote, there's been replies in the topic by more different people than votes have been cast. Perhaps this can be attributed to everyone trying to make an educated vote... In any case, you've failed to do so for most part up to now.

Very interesting and sensible suggestions here (Clam's being the most relevant to the subject), but alas, suicidal as they are, the lemmings have set their minds on one of the offered choices. So ccexplore's assessment appears to be accurate.
Steve's solution could also be aided by the newly introduced baseball batter skill (more on that later), while turning it into a lose 2 solution (the batter will have to use ccexplore's dangerous walking route), it is very elegant because the exploder will have lower assignment priority than the other lemmings, thus being certain to be launched into the air with the rest of the bundle.

I don't actually have any real-life experience on sleds, just that I can't imagine it working too well on a steep slope).

I know from experience (of times long long ago) that they actually work quite well on steep and bumpy terrain (unlike skiers), they just have the tendency to break from landing after skipping over exposed roots or other kinds of bumps, sending the sledger(s) tumbling down the hill.