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.

[IchoTolot]

After overthinking what tilesets I'm gonna use and how much levels I will made per rank with them I came up with a somewhat final plan how I'm gonna do this:

Each rank will contain:


beach:                2
cavelem:             2
circuit:              1
circus:              2
egyptian:      2
fire:                 1
grnk1_menace:  1
grnk2_beastii:     1   
grnk3_cyber:      1
highland:              2
ichotolot_dune: 3
l3_biolab:      2
medieval:      2   
outdoor:              2
pillar:              1
polar:         2
shadow:              2
space:         2
sports:              2
gigalem_L3Shadow:  1
gigalem_L3egypt:     1

total:      35   

(sry for the jumping numbers, but copy pasting a txt file where you used the tab key seems to not work well here )

That means the total ammount of levels will increase to 5 x 35 = 175 levels!

This indicates it will take quite a bit longer to finish things up, but in return it means more fun packed in the final product and an overall more diverse experience!

[namida]

(sry for the jumping numbers, but copy pasting a txt file where you used the tab key seems to not work well here )

Yeah, tabs don't seem to work too well here; I think SMF autoconverts them to spaces. You can force the use of a fixed-width font by putting [tt][/tt] tags around text, but I don't know if that will help with tabs.

[Simon]

Tell me whether you indent your source with spaces or tabs, and Madame Mystique will predict your personality.

-- Simon

[IchoTolot]

Yeah, tabs don't seem to work too well here; I think SMF autoconverts them to spaces. You can force the use of a fixed-width font by putting [tt][/tt] tags around text, but I don't know if that will help with tabs.

Well didn't help here

Gues I simply need to avoid tabs in here.  The list is also not so super important that I manually fix every line, as everything is still readable.

[xDagmaRx]

I cant give any input on your new pack but I made and account just to tell you that my friends and I love your Lemmings Reunion pack and cant wait for the next one IchoTolot, your a fantastic level maker!

[IchoTolot]

I cant give any input on your new pack but I made and account just to tell you that my friends and I love your Lemmings Reunion pack and cant wait for the next one IchoTolot, your a fantastic level maker!

     Thank you very much for the compliment, made my day!      It is really great to hear that people are enjoying my Lemmings stuff!

The new pack will most certainly still take quite a while, but I am in no hurry mode here, as I want this pack to be as good as it can get and no rushed release shall change that!

I can already say that I have the feeling that the levels for Reunion 2 are of much higher quality + the soundtrack is much more refined as well.  Personally I have a much better feeling about this new pack and consider Reunion as my "first attemd".

I will try to release somewhere next year and I will make sure that I update my progress here in the topic title regulary. Although I am still thinking about the final size of the pack as I really want to get zanzindorfs tilesets in here

[IchoTolot]

Hit the 80 level mark today!

I updated the goal from 175 to 200 on top of that, as I already mentioned in IRC chat that I want to put in some levels made with zanzindorfs new tilesets as well. This 200 creation mark however will be the final maximum.

Furthermore I will include every single level I made for other occasions into an extra rank so it will be 200+ levels actually.

As far as the creation progress is going: I am picking up some speed again (~ 3 level per week), thanks to a new "process" where I sit down for ~ an hour a few times in a week and try to scribble down a level blueprint, which just needs to be made in the editor afterwards.

[IchoTolot]

100 levels reached, so I've updated the first post with some screenshots and the newest information concerning this topic, which also includes a renaming of the pack!

[nin10doadict]

Hm, if the pack is going to have that many levels in it then maybe I'll be able to get few some of them. Looks intimidating but very nice. I'll see how far I can get.

[IchoTolot]

Hm, if the pack is going to have that many levels in it then maybe I'll be able to get few some of them. Looks intimidating but very nice. I'll see how far I can get.

There are quite a bunch of easier levels, so try and see how far you will get.

To solve a pack the technique to make short solving bursts until you get stuck and then come back to it again and again is a good way to progress as well.

[IchoTolot]

Progress slowed down a bit over the last weeks, because of shortage of ideas, testing lots of stuff for other people, university and private stuff......

, but at least I've got an exiting announcement for the release: You will be able to win a prize!

What will the prize be? Well, I've been making quite a bunch of physical level drawings over the creation period and decided that I will send them (together with a postcard maybe ) to the player who beats the WHOLE level pack first!. (testers will be excluded because of fairness, but will be mentioned in the pack itself and can count on me returning my gratitude in some other favors)

The rule on beating the pack and winning the prize will be:

- Send me a functional, solving replay (or release a solving video) of every level (bonus rank included) in the up-to-date version of the pack at the current time!
  That means send me your replays often and do not wait until you gathered everything. If I fix backroutes to levels you have not yet shown me you solved via replay/video, you have to solve them again.
  So also release recorded videos as soon as possible before a new update hits!
  That will also maybe slow down rivals as I can be quick on the fixes and if they just keep on gathering..... 
 
  This should assure me a quick feedback system where nobody just gathers the replays and send in everything after a bunch of updates have been released.
  I count on you not simply looking up most solutions from other players.
  Also I aim to be as backroute-proofed as possible after the testing phase so not that many updates should hopefully be nessesary (at least for the backroute fix sort of updates).

My stash of drawings currently is 12 A4 paper sheets that sometimes have even multiple level blueprints on them. Sometimes the in game version of the level differs a bit, because of differences in theory and in-game handling, but you know how it goes . The drawings do mostly also include the original planned skillsets, levelnames etc of the level. I hope this will be a good motivation to solve the pack as a whole when it's finally released!
+ I think I will make a hall-of-fame wall on the main post where I include all people who have beaten the pack as a whole (for that testers are included of course )

[IchoTolot]

I've added the current amount of bonus levels to the topic title, so everyone can keep track on them as well.

[IchoTolot]

Hopefully after the conversion stuff is done for me the progress here will speed up again.

Here is a snapshot of another level in the bonus rank, so the ones that might be wondering what the unkown new VGASpec tile in the new editor is all about:



The landscape is a collaboration between Simon and me, based on: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2288.msg64793#msg64793

I just thought it would make a great VGASpec level and made one out of it for United.

[IchoTolot]

I've converted everything to the new format version now and slowly continuing level creation again. 

On top of that I created a little tutorial on how to make your own Levels with NeoLemmix 12.1.0, but what has this to do with the pack?

Well, I made a 1st rank level live on video for this pack as demonstraition. You if you want to see an easy level being created for Lemmings United (--> no real solution spoilers that way ) or simply want to learn a bit about the new editor, follow this link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asE8U9eZ_CY&index=1&list=PLKR1N9oJTTlLTZNfvUzr8bGDI21YLNkSk

[IchoTolot]

Finally the 150 mark has been reached. I've picked up some speed again after the contests are finally running and everything got converted. It also helps that I'm focusing on my own stuff for now instead of doing a lot of testing.

Hope the next dry phase won't be coming soon.

[IchoTolot]

Finally all 200 main levels are created, now the following will happen:

- I will prepare a test version for beta testers (this can take a little bit, as I need to order all 220 levels properly, assign the proper music track to everything and put the pack together)

- During testing I will create the dedicated 5 rank finisher levels. Yes, there are actually 205 main levels.   These will be added during the test phase, whenever a level is ready.

- After the 5 final levels are finished, found backroutes are patched out so far and new replays stop coming in from testers, the actual release version will be prepared.


I also prepared 3 batches of blueprint copies that will be given out to the first 3 people who solved everything (including resolving of previously fixed levels and maybe some very BIG backroutes you may have found of course).

I will reach out to the possible testers I have in mind when the test version is ready.

[IchoTolot]

The basic pack is ready. Testing has now begun.

I will soon start to create the final 5 levels and also try to get in a few official permission from some music creators to use their tracks. In general I was very careful and every track should be ok to use on Youtube without any kind of CC involved. I mostly used old video game tracks, CC free music, or custom creations/remixes of tracks. I really want to encourage video playthrough and not hindering them with CC risky music choices.

[IchoTolot]

All levels haven been created and if no new replays come in from the testing side of things I will soon ready the release!

Although rank 4 and the majority of rank 5 are still untested, I don't want to hold back for ages hoping for a wonder. After the public release there will be toms of new backroutes anyway and the intended prize for solving everything will require having acceptable solutions (so no big backroutes) for everything as well. So you probably will need to resolve a few things anyway.