Prob Lem's Lix Levels - Latest: Computer Goes Boom (2014-07-02)

[Simon]

The user interface uses the plural "lix" throughout. This brings the game's title in accordance with Lemmings, Hamsters, Clones.

"Lixes" is colloquial. If there are other levels that use this plural, then it's fine. I use this word myself in IRC.

-- Simon

[Prob Lem]

The user interface uses the plural "lix" throughout. This brings the game's title in accordance with Lemmings, Hamsters, Clones.

"Lixes" is colloquial. If there are other levels that use this plural, then it's fine. I use this word myself in IRC.

-- Simon

Y'know, I think I'm gonna change it back...

[NaOH]

The correct plural is hotly debated, and some have even theorized it not to exist.

Depending on who you ask, it's "lix," "lixes," or even "lixen." I would say: all are acceptable, and it's even subtly encouraged to be bold and stay away from the mainstream pluralization. "lixes" was popular on IRC last month, but I've seen a resurgence of "lix" lately instead.

It's a very diverse field, and I'm sure a linguist would have a field day with it.

To get back on topic: "Lab Lix(es)" is very visually pleasing again. It did take me a moment to realize what the "Hrududus" were in the previous level (geeo's black steel in the upcoming and increasingly-poorly-named June release for Lix might help), but I saw what you were going for right away here.

Again, I felt that it was an overly builder-focused level, but since you like the builder skill, why not. I generally find long builder segments to be a bit tedious after a while.

Good work yet again! 

[Prob Lem]

Thanks, again.

I've got some less Buildertastic levels cooking in my head right now, but for one of them I need to re-watch a scene from a movie to figure out all of the details. The other one is inspired by my delightful exploding computer, and needs some more thought before I can make it (it might get abandoned, though - currently the solutions popping into my mind for it are all re-runs of levels in the original Lemmings).

[Prob Lem]

And here's another one that is neither of the two previously described. Another one of those heavily decorative levels, of course.

Monument to Sir Lomax


This one does have a fair bit of building in it, but it also has Blockers, Miners, Bashers, Diggers, Climbers, Floaters, and Bombers (oh my!). And it's a huge reference to Lomax, who totally deserves it. What more could you want?

Mod Edit: Restored attachments.

[ccexplore]

Very nice! It was beautifully made, and a nice number of skills given to make you work a little to figure out the solution.

One thing that caught me, no fault of yours, was I didn't realize Simon's set of steel blocks are sized a little smaller than the steel blocks from a few other sets, so for a while I was gauging fall distances via the steel blocks and incorrectly thought I needed more builders in some places to fall safely.

[Prob Lem]

Quote from: ccexplore on 2014-07-01 06:15:02

Very nice! It was beautifully made, and a nice number of skills given to make you work a little to figure out the solution.

Thanks very much. I thought it was a bit more straightforward than that, so I'm glad it caused a bit of work!

Quote

One thing that caught me, no fault of yours, was I didn't realize Simon's set of steel blocks are sized a little smaller than the steel blocks from a few other sets, so for a while I was gauging fall distances via the steel blocks and incorrectly thought I needed more builders in some places to fall safely.

If it means anything, I had no idea either.

Anyway, here's a new one. It's the movie-based one that I mentioned before...

The Lix Crusade


Naturally, it's based on a scene from the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It's really simple - I just really, really wanted to make the puzzle from the movie into a puzzle for Lix.

I just hope that this doesn't wind up causing issues somewhere, somehow, like "All the 6's"!

Mod Edit: Restored attachments.

[Prob Lem]

And here's the other one that I was thinking of...

Computer Goes Boom


Lots of fast-forwarding required here, I'm afraid, but I was chuckling throughout making and testing it. The flaming computer tower amused me immensely, and the flames in this level are roughly where the worst of the explosions from the PSU going loco took place, in the real thing.

Of course, the monitor's not quite accurate, here - Lab Lix was actually the last one that I made before that computer expired, but Monument to Sir Lomax was the easiest one to adapt into miniaturised (and totally meta) form for the purposes of this level.

EDIT: This version of Computer Goes Boom had a massive backroute and has been removed. For the fixed one, please see this post.

[namida]

A level within a level... Lemmingsception. (Well, I guess I should say Lixception... which sounds a lot better too.)

[mobius]

these latest look very nice. I especially love those check board-inverted green tiles at the bottom on the last one. Very nice touch. I love doing things like that and I'm always looking for ways to do said things in my own levels

You're actually not the first person to make a lemmings level based on that movie! 

http://youtu.be/TlnEz97rz5E?t=26m23s

[NaOH]

I laughed so hard when I saw the partial version of your earlier level in the computer... that's clever!

The inverted occult cube blocks under the monitor are mesmerizing. I can't take claim for them this time, though, since they're just recolourings of the pre-existing cuber art.

By the way, you might not know (I didn't find out until after already having designed several levels), but you can use ESDF to precisely move blocks around with the keyboard rather than the mouse. This saved me a lot of headaches!

I thought I'd attach my replays for your levels so far, just in case I'm doing something unintended.

[ccexplore]

By the way, you might not know (I didn't find out until after already having designed several levels), but you can use ESDF to precisely move blocks around with the keyboard rather than the mouse. This saved me a lot of headaches!

Yes, I've complained to Simon once or twice about the not-so-easy-to-discover keyboard defaults in non-game areas like editor and menu (ie. level select).  Things that should map intuitively to arrow keys and PageUp/PageDn were instead mapped to other keys by default.  At least you can change all the key mappings in Options.

[Prob Lem]

A level within a level... Lemmingsception. (Well, I guess I should say Lixception... which sounds a lot better too.)

Haha.

My original plan was to put lasers and other traps in there and make it a bit of a winding path, but I realised that putting a WIP-style version of one of my own levels would be more fun, since the entire level winds around enough already.

these latest look very nice. I especially love those check board-inverted green tiles at the bottom on the last one. Very nice touch. I love doing things like that and I'm always looking for ways to do said things in my own levels

You're actually not the first person to make a lemmings level based on that movie! 

http://youtu.be/TlnEz97rz5E?t=26m23s

I'm honestly not surprised at all - that scene in particular is a great candidate for making puzzles from.

Thanks for the video link, by the way. It was really interesting to see another take on the same scene in this sort of form!

I laughed so hard when I saw the partial version of your earlier level in the computer... that's clever!

Really glad this was as entertaining as I'd hoped. (And making a second Lomax reference made my own day, heheh.)

The inverted occult cube blocks under the monitor are mesmerizing. I can't take claim for them this time, though, since they're just recolourings of the pre-existing cuber art.

They're actually meant to represent the keyboard, viewed from the front. I'm not quite sure if I pulled that off, but I couldn't think of any other way of making it work.

If I were any good at this sort of thing, I'd be making up a computer style (reminiscent of the one in Lemmings 3D, naturally ), but I'm not, so I'm happy to just keep making the other styles work in other contexts (which I think is pretty true to the original Lemmings, really).

By the way, you might not know (I didn't find out until after already having designed several levels), but you can use ESDF to precisely move blocks around with the keyboard rather than the mouse. This saved me a lot of headaches!

I actually figured that one out by accident when I was getting to grips with the level editor initially. To begin with, I found ESDF to be a bit of a confusing choice (I was expecting the arrow keys, or maybe even WASD), but I'm used to it now and it's quite easy on my wrist (unlike WASD, since ESDF isn't so close to the edge of my keyboard ).

I thought I'd attach my replays for your levels so far, just in case I'm doing something unintended.

Dumb question: How do I view these?

I'll have to check them out later. I'll be needing to boot Lix this evening anyway, in order to fix a massive backroute that I realised is in Computer Goes Boom. I'm not quite sure how I missed it - it's incredibly obvious.

By the way, you might not know (I didn't find out until after already having designed several levels), but you can use ESDF to precisely move blocks around with the keyboard rather than the mouse. This saved me a lot of headaches!

Yes, I've complained to Simon once or twice about the not-so-easy-to-discover keyboard defaults in non-game areas like editor and menu (ie. level select).  Things that should map intuitively to arrow keys and PageUp/PageDn were instead mapped to other keys by default.  At least you can change all the key mappings in Options.

I'm still thrown by not being able to use the Delete key to remove elements in the level editor. Is there actually a hotkey for this? I'm used to the rest now, but I might well change that one.

[NaOH]

To begin with, I found ESDF to be a bit of a confusing choice (I was expecting the arrow keys, or maybe even WASD), but I'm used to it now and it's quite easy on my wrist (unlike WASD, since ESDF isn't so close to the edge of my keyboard ).

[...]

I'm still thrown by not being able to use the Delete key to remove elements in the level editor. Is there actually a hotkey for this? I'm used to the rest now, but I might well change that one.

Simon would be pleased  to hear this. I complained to him about this issue not long ago, but now I've found ESDF to be generally superior. It even allows additional buttons to the left of the directional keys, unlike WASD, which only has Q.

The hotkey for delete is G. I found this confusing at first, too, but now I find it very useful that G is so close to ESDF.  Plus, there's a nice symmetry that "duplicate" is A, which is immediately to the left of ESDF, whereas the hotkey for "delete," G, is to the right.

I'm still advocating for a general-purpose "undo" button, though. As is, I save frequently and revert if anything goes wrong.

I thought I'd attach my replays for your levels so far, just in case I'm doing something unintended.

Dumb question: How do I view these?

I'll have to check them out later. I'll be needing to boot Lix this evening anyway, in order to fix a massive backroute that I realised is in Computer Goes Boom. I'm not quite sure how I missed it - it's incredibly obvious.

Extract the zip into replays/ (or any subfolder of replays/), and then click the "Replays" button on the lix main menu.

Ah... I think I used the backroute.  Good luck patching it!

[Prob Lem]

To begin with, I found ESDF to be a bit of a confusing choice (I was expecting the arrow keys, or maybe even WASD), but I'm used to it now and it's quite easy on my wrist (unlike WASD, since ESDF isn't so close to the edge of my keyboard ).

[...]

I'm still thrown by not being able to use the Delete key to remove elements in the level editor. Is there actually a hotkey for this? I'm used to the rest now, but I might well change that one.

Simon would be pleased  to hear this. I complained to him about this issue not long ago, but now I've found ESDF to be generally superior. It even allows additional buttons to the left of the directional keys, unlike WASD, which only has Q.

The hotkey for delete is G. I found this confusing at first, too, but now I find it very useful that G is so close to ESDF.  Plus, there's a nice symmetry that "duplicate" is A, which is immediately to the left of ESDF, whereas the hotkey for "delete," G, is to the right.

I'm still advocating for a general-purpose "undo" button, though. As is, I save frequently and revert if anything goes wrong.

Ahh, thanks very much!

I like that the rotation buttons (R and W) are near to ESDF, too, incidentally. I use R a lot.

Extract the zip into replays/ (or any subfolder of replays/), and then click the "Replays" button on the lix main menu.

Thanks very much - will do that, now.

Ah... I think I used the backroute.  Good luck patching it!

If you didn't go through the burning computer, then yes, you did. It's not a difficult fix - the side with the vents (the 1-pixel-wide protrusions on one side of the tower, which is roughly how the the real thing was, and which aid the intended solution a little bit) could use some smoke anyway, heheh...

EDIT: Your solutions to Hrududu, and Monument to Sir Lomax are the intended ones, though you executed the latter differently to how I did.

I'm really impressed by the one for The Lix Crusade - it's fairly different to the intended one, and yet it works in much the same fashion. I love levels where there's more than one way of completing it without backroutes, but I never thought that I'd be able to design one. More power to you for that one!

The replays for Computer Goes Boom, and Lab Lix didn't seem to work properly, though, and never reach the end (to a degree the same goes for the one for The Lix Crusade, which mostly worked but never actually reached the end after two Lix got out of the level). I'm assuming you actually did finish them, and that this is some other issue?