Lemmings United Development topic (205/205 + 22 levels ready) IN TESTING

[IchoTolot]

As I reached 100 levels today, let's celebrate with some screenshots!

Also you might notice that I also decided to rename the pack from Lemmings Reunion 2 to Lemmings United.
I have the feeling that this pack is going to be so much better overall than Reunion in levels, music, artstyle etc that simply it beeing "pack number 2" is not enough to give it justice. But what to call it? I went with Lemmings United, because after the great Reunion lemmingkind has been United again and facing more dangerous challenges than ever before (if that makes some sense)

So here are the promised screenshots + rank names:

Rank 1: Pacifism

Symphony of the Night



Here we've got some beginner friendly puzzles, X of everything levels and even 2-3 levels that try to introduce you to all the skills. Basic tricks will be teached and at the end of the rank, you might even get some first challenges.

Rank 2: Neutrality

Another One Bites The Dust!



Harder puzzles more advanced tricks and more and more skill combinations...what's more to say?

Rank 3: Tension

Construct Additional Pylons!



Things might get hairy now, so grap your thinking cap and puzzle your way through!

Rank 4: War

Eternally Revolving



Puzzles tend to get really complicated and confusing now and you 100% need to know exactly how skills and lemmings behave under all circumstances.

Rank 5: Genocide

Deviate!



Good luck dear NeoLemmix player as you now reach the pure organised chaos I prepared for the final rank. Expect mind-blowingly hard puzzles (with at least a few breathers ) that will try to get you into a mental hospital.

Rank 6: Extra

Apocalypse Maintenant



Here I've got some extra content for you! It's basically all contest, collaboration and extra stuff that I've done over the time roughly ordered by difficulty.


So I hope that I've got you a little bit hyped for the pack and stay tuned for further updates!

[IchoTolot]

Alright, I finally hit the 30 level mark today!

Furthermore my music collection is growing to add an excellent soundtrack to the show

Also I started another project to further improve this levelpack. It's a tileset which is based on 4 tiles. These 4 tiles will be the main "blueprint" for the others.
I gave it the alias name "A I" in IRC, but encountered now that the actual name is too long for the editor to handle (Arrakis industrial). So now it's simply called "Dune". As you can tell from the name it has the theme of the Dune PC strategy games.

IRC:
<IchoTolot>success!! my secret project seems to be possible! phase 1 part 1 of project "A I" has been started ^^  maybe at some point it will need a bit reworking again depending on how NeoLemmix handles it, but it is 100% possible and looks great so far =)
<Flopsy>because RTW likes to build the suspense
<IchoTolot>and the start will be very fiddly
<Flopsy>secret project sounds intriguing
<IchoTolot>hehe
<Proxima>does it involve lobsters
<IchoTolot>nope
<Proxima>oh
<IchoTolot>but rams, eagles, snakes and lions
<IchoTolot>kidding

I was not kidding!
+ This project should also serve to increase my drawing + animation abilities which are still quite lacking!

Right now I have made the 4 tiles by carving them out pixel by pixel + resized them in various sizes, which took quite a while as it was a real pain to do
Also I already recolored the L3 biolab hatch for this tileset so that I can test how it actually looks in game. Even these tiles are not 100% ready as I see a few pixel which could need a bit further recoloring.
Next up would be pipes based on the Harkonnen ram horns + steel based on the little steel-like near area of the Harkonnen symbol. Also some normal terrain will be based on this color sheme.
Out of the Atreides symbol I will draw blue terrain blocks to add more variety.
Also sth like an industrial smasher is planned which maybe releases some steam when activated.
The exit/s will also be based on the symbols adding sth like the horns or blue wings to it.
But enough for the terrain plans for now.

Here is a little picture of the current state:



I plan to average 1 tile/object every 2 days or so.
I will keep you informed about this when significant progress has been made!

[IchoTolot]

Here is a little update post

Currently sitting at (only) 37 levels + I drew a few more pices for the Dune tileset.

For the levels: I feel a lot better about the overall level quality compared to Reunion 1. I would rank them as much more refined and more "thought-through" (not harder nessesarily)
                        , + I even think that some Reunion levels are quite "low-quality" in comparison.
                        If this holds I will see via feedback in the testing stage
                        I will most likely make just very few x-of-everything/any way you like/Fun type of levels and shift quickly into in my eyes "easy" puzzles or some stuff where the skill set
                        is just barely enough ----> requires some sort of planning.
                        Also I consider my "current" music selection to be much more fitting and overall better.

For the tileset:

I've got sandstone terrain in the most common shapes now + steel pieces that range from 8x8 to 32x32 + sandstone pipes in a little darker tone

I am thinking about making the Harkonnen emblem (the red one) steel as well, because it "could" be mistaken for steel. What do you think here?

There is still no exit/traps though

Everything is still Alpha, so I might recolor some things in the future.

Nextup will probably be the exit (which will be very hard to make with the picture I have in my mind right now), followed up by some terrain pieces in the Atreides blue.

Preview:

[IchoTolot]

Drew my first exit

Not sure if I will use this in the final version, but it's sth. Used the metal exit as the based and recolore it in Sardaukar gold + also put more fire into it

Added a locked exit as well as I was on it.





Planning on making rough rock terrain, as I found some Dune 2000 pieces as a blueprint. With these + the blue Atreides pieces I think I've got a solid base collection of tiles

Still traps, teleporter, and the pickup/updraft stuff to make.

Put a tacker in the Topic headline to inform about the level creation progress.

[IchoTolot]

A lot of tiles + water and fire has been added.   

New highlights are:

-The rock formations

- Steel slopes

- Blue terrain stripes

-Spice water

-Recolored fire stuff


Above 100 tiles now.

Still to do:

    - Teleporter/Reciever
    - Stomper trap

and what else comes to my mind

Updated test map with some quickly made new terrain formations:

[IchoTolot]

And I've created a Masher tap today    

Details:

- Can handle a Lemming flow up to RR 56.   
- 25 frames of animation

[namida]

It kind of looks like the blood on the top part gets sucked up into it. Instead perhaps, make it look more like it's dripping down and joining the pile at the bottom (that presumably sinks into the ground).

[IchoTolot]

It kind of looks like the blood on the top part gets sucked up into it. Instead perhaps, make it look more like it's dripping down and joining the pile at the bottom (that presumably sinks into the ground).

Yes that should look way better. I want to make some little changes to the smoke as well anyway, as a few pixels seem a bit of and the animation is not quite optimal yet.

This trap probably needs a few rounds of finetuning to get it more fluent.

[namida]

In regards to the smoke, perhaps try gradually darkening the pixels rather than simply reducing the density of them?

[Simon]

Lovely trap! You can draw after all.

Many things to try, see what works best. The animation details don't affect physics, therefore they don't have to make sense individually, but make sense as a whole in the entire animation.

-- Simon

[IchoTolot]

Lovely trap! You can draw after all.

Many things to try, see what works best. The animation details don't affect physics, therefore they don't have to make sense individually, but make sense as a whole in the entire animation.

-- Simon

Thanks     Working on this greatly improved my pixel-drawing skills so far and getting these 100% custom trap animations right will provide further training.

[IchoTolot]

Alright, reworked the trap animation and also made more colored tiles + more different steel shapes to ensure you always get the steel you need!

- Trap has now 24 frames and can handle a 58 RR
- Dimension 32x40



And here the updated testmap with the new tiles



Next up: Attempt to create a Sandworm trap, teleporters and the standard stuff like pickups, OWW's, updrafts etc

I will possibly release a beta of the tileset after that, to get additional feedback from you, but when the time comes do not create real levels with it yet as it is nearly sure that stuff will be changed!

[LJLPM]

The trap animation is very well done!
I still have to create/design animated Objects (traps, doors, ...) for my Android game, and I hope I'll be able to deliver assets with a similar quality.
Good job!

[IchoTolot]

And I am on the finish line to be able to produce a Dune beta

For a sandworn trap the resolution is simply way too low and it would look really crappy, but I've created a Spice-pipe trap as a replacement:



Also Teleporter + reciever is also ready (based on the marble one)





Furthermore I forgot 16x8 sandstone ramps, so I added those as well.

Finally OWW's etc are also included now.




I will reorder the tiles in a more logical order in the next step and after that I think I will release it for a little beta test round!

[IchoTolot]

Hit the 50 level mark today!

Caught up some speed again after finishing up the Dune tileset. Got a good feeling that I will be able to finish this pack this year.