[NeoLemmix] NepsterLems

[Nepster]

  Welcome to NepsterLems - A big level pack with 111 challenges! 

Right on time for the 25th anniversary of Lemmings, all my levels are finished, backrouted by the beta testers and fixed again. Have Fun!

Download link of version 2.0 for NeoLemmix V10.15.20 or later:
   https://www.dropbox.com/s/fkrqzojlfrwnen7/NepsterLems.zip?dl=1
If you want to have the old version 1.11 for NeoLemmix V10.13.18 or earlier, then you can still get it here:
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/1erpv2pyqjkxqe4/NepsterLems%20V1.11.nxp?dl=1

Rank 1: Comet (15 levels)

You always have 5 of each skill. The terrain usually gives you many options - and be sure to use them. Despite being the first rank, you will find only very few any-way-you-want levels.

Rank 2: Moon (15 levels)

Now it is up to 10 of each skill - and much more complex obstacles. Even more so than in the first rank, planning a general route at the beginning is advisable.

Rank 3: Planet (20 levels)

Ok, let's start with giving you less and less freedom to solve the levels. The first levels start around Tricky/Taxing difficulty, but soon progress to Mayhem.

Rank 4: Sun (20 levels)

Now you need more and more tricks, unusual combinations of skills, etc. However the solutions are not yet overly convoluted (main word being "overly").

Rank 5: Neutron Star (20 levels)

By now all the levels can easily compete in difficulty with late Mayhem or late Havoc. Be prepared to use non-linear approaches or (and?) heavy multitasking.

Rank 6: Black Hole (21 levels)

These levels should give headaches even to the greatest experts. Go and let the lemmings perform a complex dance on your screen!
Advice: Play the very last level as a save-as-many-as-you-can level. Even getting close to solving the level is a huge achievement!

Many thanks to...
- DMA Design for inventing the game Lemmings,
- Eric Langedijk for creating Lemmix, which was used to create most of the levels,
- namida for providing NeoLemmix, the FlexiToolkit and technical help,
- Akseli, DynaLem, IchoTolot and namida for pre-release testing,
- all other level designers for all their level ideas, that I reused in my levels,
- and everyone on LemmingsForums in general, for keeping Lemmings alive. It was you, more than anything else, that spawned the idea of NepsterLems in my head.

[IchoTolot]

Looks like I have sth to play through after my exam phase

[Minim]

Had a quick look at some of your levels in the pack. Some of those levels are just artistically brilliant, particularly Sun 9 and Planet 7. How did you manage to make some red blocks in the Fire set?!

I also tried the Black Hole rating, and managed to solve one of them! I'm not usually well known for solving levels in the hardest difficulty rating, but thought this level looked clear enough what the solution might be. Here's Black Hole 18.

I think this is an excellent pack overall. I'll certainly be trying all of them out later in the day.

[Nepster]

How did you manage to make some red blocks in the Fire set?!

These are lots and lots or the red arrows with the non-red stuff erased and placed above each other with no-overwrite. If you want to study this in greater details: The player allows mass-dumping all levels with F4 on the main menu. Then load 0307.lvl into the editor.

Your solution to Black Hole 18 was introduced by the latest backroute-fix, because I forgot to remove one of the blockers. Still it is close enough to the intended solution to be acceptable.

[Proxima]

I'm hugely looking forward to trying out this pack when I have time. Just one small point for now -- you clearly have an excellent ability for level aesthetics, so I'm sure there are many beautiful levels also in the Planet rating, and Minim has highlighted Planet 7 as an example. Why, then, use such an ugly level to advertise the rank? It really stands out from the others in this post.

[Nepster]

Opinions on aesthetics differ, but seeing that Planet 7 is so popular...

[Nepster]

Regarding the recent changes in game mechanics: I am fairly sure all levels remain solvable in V1.43, but I haven't yet confirmed this by updating all ~60 broken replays. As removing the deadly sides gimmick without replacement would force major backroute-fixes, I plan to check everything only after all currently discussed changes are either decided upon and (when applicable) implemented.

[mobius]

awesome! I can't wait to try it out. --Don't expect a whole lot of replays since your levels are notoriously hard, but I plan to try and solve as many as I can.

These do all look very nice. Also I'm still curious to the intended solution to Devil's right hand...

EDIT: started playing the first rank; really cool levels so far! and the music is really nice too. I particularly like "One small step for Lemkind". A very neat idea.

[IchoTolot]

Finally some time to play it

Step 1 was today: Replay every broken replay again of everything I played earlier (because of the backroute fixes + new physics). And now everything is solved again

Hope I broke not too many levels   (especially BH 20 for the 3rd time by now i think )

Zip file attached!

[IchoTolot]

Ok, the Sun rank has fallen

Some of the levels here I would consider harder than the beginning of BlackHole! It has really slowed down my progress in a good way

Esspecially the last level of the rank was very clever!     The overall quality of levels is really really great here!

Sometimes I would add a bit of extra decoration to the sides, but that is simply just my own style  
As Simon said to me in our meetup: "Nepster hat Geschmack!"       And he is right!

Replays attached!

Onto the last 2 ranks, where I will probably get stuck for a long time!

[Nepster]

Just found time to watch all your replays. Lots of great solutions there, but unfortunately still some backroutes as well. Will upload a new improved version soon. More detailed comments:

Comet and Moon (click to show/hide)

Replays for Comet 5 and Moon 7 are missing (the existing replays are for other levels).
The order is still partially the old one with the following levels interchanged: Comet 4, 9 and Comet 12, 15.
Interesting new solution to Moon 8.

Planet (click to show/hide)

Planet 4: This one riddled with backroutes. Still not the intended solution.
Planet 7: Not an intended solution and there is another level, where you should use precisely this approach. However I will keep your solution until this other level is backroute-free, and will then decide what to do.
Planet 13: Backroute.
Planet 15: Clever alternative solution.
Planet 16: Still a backroute.
Planet 17: Another new alternative solution.

Sun (click to show/hide)

Sun 1: Backroute.
Sun 3: Clever alternative solution.
Sun 4: I thought I had removed this backroute...
Sun 7: Added this backroute while removing another one.
Sun 8: I hate this trick! This is the third level where it creates backroutes.
Sun 9: Again a backroute.
Sun 10: Backroute.
Sun 11: Not the intended solution, but I don't know how I can remove this one. So it will most likely stay.
Sun 13: Not the intended solution. Will wait for further solutions before deciding what to do with it.
Sun 15: Huge abuse of OWW-mechanics. I see no way to block this solution.
Sun 18: Glaring backroute.

Neutron Star and Black Hole (click to show/hide)

Neutron Star 1: Slight variation of the intended solution.
Black Hole 2: I am not a fan of such pixel-precise tricks, but the solution is close enough to the intended one to be acceptable.
Black Hole 3: Akseli already had a similar backroute. Thanks for showing me, that my fix was not sufficient.
Black Hole 4: A prime example of: One backroute fixed = Another one created.
Black Hole 20: Clever, but not clever enough . I will again remove this solution.

I would like to encourage everyone else to either post their solutions here or send them to me by PM, even if you have only solved a few levels.

[IchoTolot]

Ok, uploaded another version which should have fixed the errors that the replay checker had not caught.

+ NS 4-6 + BH 5 added as a bonus

[Nepster]

I finally managed to fix IchoTolot's backroutes (and a few others) and even brought all my replays up to date . Version 1.1 is attached to the first post.
Levels that were modified: 3-4, 3-13, 3-16, 4-4, 4-7, 4-8, 4-9, 4-10, 4-18, 5-2, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5, 6-20.

[IchoTolot]

My biggest hackjob of all time       After getting really frustrated about Sun 7

Replay attached!

[IchoTolot]

Ok next next bunch of replays

Included is everything up to Black Hole 13 + BH 20