Author Topic: [NeoLemmix] Paralems  (Read 23150 times)

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Offline Strato Incendus

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[NeoLemmix] Paralems
« on: August 23, 2017, 03:55:57 PM »
I was unsure whether a pack where not everything about the levels is set in stone should still be considered "in development". But as I've seen in a neighbouring thread, Nessy has also released a pack yesterday and might still do some changes to fix backroutes. Therefore, since all five ranks in my pack are completed, I consider it "finished" for a first version.

So let me hereby introduce you to PARALEMS.


:compat-new:

:compat-ver-10-13::compat-yes:

I decided to go with this name because the pack strays from the mainstream NeoLemmix philosophy of being a puzzle game. It should therefore be noted right from the start that mechanically, this may be a NeoLemmix pack, featuring lots of the new objects, skills, and zombies; philosophically however, it is more of a Lemmix pack. Don't expect puzzles only when you download this, because that is not what PARALEMS is going for!



A quick overview of what you're getting yourself into here:

General
- Paralems has 150 levels distributed equally among five ranks: Harmless, Disturbing, Disgusting, Abhorrent, and Demented
- some levels are re-runs of original Lemmings levels, but this time they have to be solved with different (NeoLemmix-) skills
- quite a few levels contain zombies, however they don't appear prior to the Abhorrent rank
- Paralems tries to go along with the original Lemmings philosophy of "different cognitive demands from different levels". While some levels may be "puzzly", others will "measure" different cognitive skills, such as multitasking, creative (ab-)use of gameplay mechanics, or just pure reaction speed.
- There are time limits on most of the levels, again going along with original Lemmings.
- Occasionally, there will be hidden traps or exits, like in the original Lemmings. This is mostly done for aesthetic reasons, or to create the impression of the Lemmings actually entering into a building, a spaceship, or similar. Therefore, for exits it is usually fairly logical where they are going to be. As it is also said in the pack itself, looking behind doors, windows or inside buildings / vessels might be a good idea in general. You obviously can always use true physics mode, but I doubt it will even be necessary: On a macro scale, the position of the exit should be quite obvious, and on a micro scale, the skill blueprint of a digger or basher stopping at the trigger is a clear hint something is going to happen there ;) .
- Beware of animals ;) . Most of them are not friendly, even if they may be in other packs...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For the "reaction time" levels, you obviously could run them with the pause button switched on. I can't stop you from doing that, but you will probably notice pretty quickly that you're fooling yourself ;) , because these levels are specifically designed to measure speed.
For the multi-tasking levels, I recommend zooming out by using the scrolling button of your mouse. It's really helpful for keeping track of all that's going on simultaneously at opposite ends of the screen.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


The extremes
While most of these levels are pretty "normal", I've also made some to deliberately take things to their extremes. There is:
- a level without any terrain
- a level without any skills (that doesn't mean you can't do anything, though... ;) )
- a level situated entirely under water
- a level that will fail before the "Let's Go!" sound if you aren't fast enough :D
- an ultimate trolling level where all the normal rules of Lemmings are turned on their head... ;)

I can however assure that all of these levels are solvable, and I will gladly upload replays of any particular level as a proof :D .

Flavour and music
Many levels in this pack are definitely more driven by flavour than by mechanics. Their titles will refer to movies, books, music, politics... or just the current state of the world.
There might be some stuff in here that could theoretically "offend" some people; to me, no concept or idea is above scrutiny or mockery - like original Lemmings sparked some controversy with "All the 6's".

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The allusions to the mentioned topics are usually more than obvious, so especially for "movie levels", it would make sense to run them with the original scores as soundtrack. Obviously, these are copyrighted, so I can't upload them. But in case you own any of the tracks yourself, since they are quite popular, I encourage you to put them into your NeoLemmix music folder under the following names, so that the levels where they belong to automatically recognise them. As long as you only do this for private use, it will certainly improve the atmosphere of playing this pack :D .

I obviously wouldn't suggest doing this though if you're a Let's Player, like Flopsy, namida, IchoTolot etc. ;)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is my first attempt at creating a level pack, so bear with me :D . Thanks to the NeoLemmix engine, you can play these levels in whatever order you like, so I hope there's something in here for everyone.

Some levels may be too easy or have backroutes; some may be too mean; some just redundant or not in the right rank for their difficulty. Hopefully we will be able to identify those together.

If I've sparked your interest and you're ready to take a look, I always appreciate your feedback ;) .

Download link, Paralems Version 2, since this file seems to be too large to attach:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r005kodylk2o33z/Paralems.nxp?dl=1
« Last Edit: October 10, 2017, 06:14:18 PM by Strato Incendus »
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline Ryemanni

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2017, 04:16:25 PM »
150 levels! :lem-shocked:

I will give it a shot soon! Can't wait to play the "ultimate trolling level".. ;)

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2017, 05:01:24 PM »
Thanks! :) As you can probably imagine, that level comes quite late in the game.

I've just noticed however that you will probably be the only one on this forum who understands the 15th level of Harmless... I doubt the title is grammatically correct though :D .
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 07:48:59 PM by Strato Incendus »
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline Colorful Arty

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2017, 11:21:37 PM »
Just finished the first rank, and I love it! Great intro levels, and I really felt like these had a similar feel to the Fun levels in original Lemmings. I cannot wait to play the other ranks! :thumbsup:

My replays are attached, here are some general comments about the levels:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My Youtube channel where I let's play games with family-friendly commentary:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiRPZ5j87ft_clSRLFCESQA

My Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/colorfularty

My levelpack: SubLems
For New formats NeoLemmix: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4942.0
For Old formats NeoLemmix: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2787.0
For SuperLemmini: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2704.0

My levelpack: ArtLems
For New formats NeoLemmix: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4583.0

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2017, 12:08:59 AM »
Hey Colorful Arty, thanks for your feedback! ;) I guess we're going to have a lot of "inside spoiler-conversations" now ^^, but it's certainly better this way than doing everything via PM, in case others who have finished the rank want to read it as well.

So spoiler warning for the Harmless rank:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

By the way, I haven't created any talismans yet, but try to solve "Tailor-made for stackers" with saving 100% ^^ - it is possible, and you're going to need that trick for a later level...
« Last Edit: September 03, 2017, 04:16:03 PM by Strato Incendus »
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline Nepster

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2017, 04:34:28 PM »
I played the first two-and-a-half ranks. They indeed resemble much more the original game, than many of the newer custom packs. Even though some levels were clearly not intended to be played with all the framestepping and other help, I made use of the liberally. Replays are attached.

Some general remarks (click to show/hide)

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2017, 10:47:56 PM »
Thanks for playing and uploading your replays, Nepster! I will return to your pack soon, too, I just took a pause to look at Nessy's new offering, after other users had said the level building style of the two of you was very similar ;) .

Judging from your replays, you solved a lot of these levels the way my brother solved them, so I will encourage him to try your pack next - apparently you and him seem to think in similar patterns ^^. Except that you seem to like builders a lot, even when other skills would provide a faster route ;) ...

That takes me to your remarks, I'm going to answer in spoiler form again.

Spoiler for Harmless rank

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler for Disturbing rank
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler for Disgusting rank (up to level 10)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

PS: A note to Raymanni: The "ultimate trolling level" (it's not named that way, though ;) ) will probably be ruined instantly if you use true physics mode. So if you enjoy getting trolled, resist that temptation - you can't un-see things, after all ;) .
PPS:
Quote
Even though some levels were clearly not intended to be played with all the framestepping and other help, I made use of the liberally.

I just wanted to state at this point that I really miss the Frenzy gimmick ^^. Lemmings Revolution made excellent use of that! :P
« Last Edit: August 24, 2017, 11:13:25 PM by Strato Incendus »
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline Nepster

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #7 on: August 26, 2017, 06:20:34 PM »
Some comments to your reply (click to show/hide)

Attached are only a few replays this time, because "Tower of Babylem" (Disgusting 22) gives me an error "List index out of bounds (17)". Without having actually debugged this, it very much sounds as if you have an old version of a style, which still has more objects than my up-to-date one. Probably some backgrounds are still contained as proper objects in your version.
So please redownload the styles from the NeoLemmix homepage, either via the editor (Tools->Download Graphics Sets) or via the player (Options->Check for Style Updates Now), and then try to open the level in the editor and see whether this gives you any warnings.

Moreover I noticed that your pack is created with an outdated Flexi Toolkit for version 10.12. While this shouldn't create any problems, I would advise downloading the most recent version of the Flexi Toolkit.

Offline nin10doadict

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2017, 12:32:37 AM »
I've started playing through this and jumping around the difficulty ratings. It's been pretty fun so far, though the difficulty does fluctuate quite a bit.
Troll levels just don't work in NeoLemmix, as I learned the hard way. Pretty much anyone is going to press the clear physics button and then all of the trolling is revealed.
I do like how you put the traps behind the creatures. It just looks neat, even though there are some who I know will hate this. "The Black Widow" was pretty fun to see how the traps were stacked up like that.
I do believe I've found some backroutes though. "Painful Parkour" seemed a bit too easy because I found a way to basically ignore the bottom half of the level, and "Luring Lemmings into mousetraps" can be done by just using a digger near the start and cranking the release rate. I also feel like "Lemming epigenetics" and "Shock absorber" aren't different enough. The reduction in skills for the harder level doesn't really change anything.
These are just some things I've noticed up to this point. Overall it's looking good though!

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2017, 09:53:46 AM »
Quote
Attached are only a few replays this time, because "Tower of Babylem" (Disgusting 22) gives me an error "List index out of bounds (17)". Without having actually debugged this, it very much sounds as if you have an old version of a style, which still has more objects than my up-to-date one. Probably some backgrounds are still contained as proper objects in your version.
So please redownload the styles from the NeoLemmix homepage, either via the editor (Tools->Download Graphics Sets) or via the player (Options->Check for Style Updates Now), and then try to open the level in the editor and see whether this gives you any warnings.

Thanks for the advice, I've updated all these styles now, it seems like there were indeed updates available that I didn't have yet. However, opening and playing "Tower of Babylem" in the editor works the same as usual. I'll take a look at your replays now and see whether any errors occur while doing that.

EDIT: Nope, everything works in my version!

Sometimes, the game crashes indeed, but when this occurs seems kinda random. I've had this happen to me for example on "The Wall (Part II)", restarted the game and everything worked fine. So there doesn't seem to be any particular level that is damaged. I've only noticed that "Throw me a lifeline" takes quite long to load on the preview screen; perhaps that's due to a higher resolution of the gigalem_dragon tileset?

Spoilers for nin10doadict
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoilers for Nepster

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: August 27, 2017, 12:41:54 PM by Strato Incendus »
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline Nepster

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2017, 06:20:45 PM »
Finally solved the remaining level!

Regarding the bug I encountered: Once I deleted my tancastle.dat file, it worked perfectly fine. I don't know whether my version or the in-built one is the more recent one, but likely the cause was on my side.

Quote
Sometimes, the game crashes indeed, but when this occurs seems kinda random.
This is very likely due to several consecutive levels using too many different graphic styles. The game then has problems creating all the bitmaps. Fixing this bug is one main reason why there will be a new-formats version of NeoLemmix.

Comments on single levels (click to show/hide)

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2017, 03:40:30 PM »
Congratulations, Nepster, you've been faster than my brother on this one and are thereby officially the first one to complete PARALEMS! ;)

Similarly to before though, you did in fact use a lot of the same solutions as my brother once again ^^. Details see below.

Spoilers from Disgusting to Demented
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thank you very much for playing the entire 150 levels with such ambition and giving such extensive feedback! I will begin overhauling the levels now, though I'm still waiting for my brother to make it through the last couple of Demented levels, but there's enough stuff to fix on the lower ranks to get started already.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2017, 06:45:38 AM by Strato Incendus »
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline Colorful Arty

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2017, 07:48:51 PM »
Here are my replays from the Disturbing rank. While overall well-done, there were two many builder/platformer/stacker fest levels for even MY liking, but I did enjoy them overall, and the Bitter Lemming repeat took me far longer to figure out than it should have. ;P

Also, I believe Disgusting 10 is impossible just looking at it. I even used clear physics mode to see if there were hidden exits which there weren't. >:(
My Youtube channel where I let's play games with family-friendly commentary:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiRPZ5j87ft_clSRLFCESQA

My Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/colorfularty

My levelpack: SubLems
For New formats NeoLemmix: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4942.0
For Old formats NeoLemmix: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2787.0
For SuperLemmini: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2704.0

My levelpack: ArtLems
For New formats NeoLemmix: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4583.0

Offline nin10doadict

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2017, 02:24:15 AM »
I also thought Disgusting 10 was impossible just from looking... And then I started it and saw that all the Lemmings were swimmers. :o
This is why it's a nice thing to put pickup skills next to hatches that release Lemmings that have preset skills.

I kinda wish you hadn't used copyrighted tracks for the custom music. It's better than nothing, but if you don't own any of those tracks (like me) then there's no difference. And some of the default music tracks are pretty lame IMO, so I don't want to listen to it for a long time while trying to figure out a hard level. I end up muting the music and picking other music that I think matches the level theme and have that play in the background. ;)
I've managed to clear all but the last rank so far, which I have made some progress on.
A few notes on some levels...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: [NeoLemmix] Paralems
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2017, 05:54:29 PM »
Thanks for sticking with it, guys! :D I consider "no ragequits so far" a first mark of success...

Spoilers for Colorful Arty
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoilers for nin10doadict
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In general, I find it funny that "Skies aflame" seems to cause so much issue. Without knowing what pre-assigned skills lemmings have, other levels would be "impossible", too - like "Volunteers first!" or "Point me to my training course", both of which appear earlier in the pack. Yet, "Skies aflame" is the first one causing trouble, apparently :D .

I'm currently working on a more puzzly pack following Pit Droids philosophy, but even those levels will have differently skilled lemmings coming out of the same hatch sometimes (as this also happens in Pit Droids). Such a hatch could also not be labeled, because placing all the skills of the lemmings coming out of that hatch above it could mean two things: 1) All the lemmings in that hatch have all these skills, 2) The hatch spits out a sequence of just-climbers, just-floaters, just-swimmers etc.

In short: Simply letting the lemming come out and hovering your mouse over it (which you will have to do anyway to actually try solving the level) will provide you with much more information than any label applied to the hatch. ;)

It's quite baffling to me that people claim a level were impossible even before they have actually tried to play it ^^. And no, calculating through everything in your head might be "trying to solve it", but not "trying to play it". Even pure puzzle levels often require some trial and error, e.g. because a player can easily under- or overestimate the length of a builder / platformer, or the angle of a miner / fencer, or just the time a lemming needs to get somewhere. Even some of Nepster's levels, which I would consider the epitome of "puzzly", have such timing challenges involved. How would you be supposed to solve these types of levels just by thinking through everything in your head? ;)

Quote
I kinda wish you hadn't used copyrighted tracks for the custom music. It's better than nothing, but if you don't own any of those tracks (like me) then there's no difference. And some of the default music tracks are pretty lame IMO, so I don't want to listen to it for a long time while trying to figure out a hard level. I end up muting the music and picking other music that I think matches the level theme and have that play in the background. ;)

I guess if NeoLemmix can't find a music file with the required name, it just plays the standard rotation of Lemmings songs? If it were only the main Lemmings music, I wouldn't consider that a problem - other packs work this way, too, like Nepster Lems. However, I believe if there's no track specified, NeoLemmix circles through the standard Lemmings songs plus those from Oh no! More Lemmings, doesn't it? ;)

Yes, some of the Oh No-songs are indeed quite lame or annoying... if any particular music annoys you, you always have the option of deliberately failing the level so the rotation goes on to the next track ^^. Or you put some of your own favourite tracks into the music folder and name them like the tracks listed in the starting post. That should be less annoying than having to switch to iTunes in between levels ;) .

Otherwise... there's always YouTube, just sayin' :D...
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels