[NeoLemmix] Pit Lems

[Strato Incendus]

nin10doadict's LP is providing some valuable additional perspective on this pack! For some levels, I have decided to re-arrange the skill count in order to enforce his solution where the level previously was too unspecific.

Also, I had a really hard time blocking the timing-based solution on WTF 01, "The Mummy". I've added some canopic jars at the bottom so that the zombie can't walk quite as far, and additionally used the "lock" feature on th release rate for the very first time ever .

I'm curious to see what further shortcuts nin10doadict might find, so I can upload another big update of the pack once his LP is finished. From what I could tell during your playthrough of "Mission Impossible", you are now actively looking for backroutes, just like Nepster did, which is very helpful to "cleanse" this pack of any remaining ones!

[Strato Incendus]

nin10doadict has done a great job at playing through this pack, and as he told me there were only 5 from a total of 100 levels he couldn't solve. And except for one, these were not the levels where I would have guessed it!
EDIT: He even did solve 4 of these 5 in the meantime! So I guess they're merely his top (or bottom? ) five now.

These are the levels we're talking about (spoiler warning if you still need to watch his video series ):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Check mate (WTF 04)
Yes, you do have to use the lemmings from above to clear the path for the lower ones. The good thing is, once you've figured out a strategy to get past one of these blocks, you should have enough resources to make it across the remaining ones.


Airborne aid (WTF 11)
If you keep having trouble with finding the correct placing to enter the slowfreeze or clone slowfreezing lemmings: Personally, I'd always start in the middle, which is why I didn't consider this level as difficult as it apparently turned out to be .


Cherry picking (OMFG 20)
You need to climb left before you climb right. And then, it's another case of




Lemmings of Troy (FML 13)
Gliding at the beginning, then some efficient basher cloning, and a nice stoner-miner-cloner combination at the end.


Speedy Lembert (FML 18)
And here comes probably one of the hardest levels I managed to create thus far. Based on "Speedy Eggbert", from which this tileset is taken, I myself struggled with finding the correct sequence of pickup skills on those five platforms on the left for a while. But I remained stubborn and tried to find something that works with what I had, rather than just changing stuff (which is a temptation any level creator must resist quite often, I guess ). But when I finally found it, it felt great! And I left this post-frustrational joy in here for other players to experience.
So you can probably guess, if there was any level I expected to cause people to quit, it was this one!
I noticed the final fencer might be superfluous, though, since the lemming should be a climber by that point anyway.

Once the final episode is out and I've had a chance to look at all the backroutes nin10adict has found, I will upload a (more) fixed version 3. But having found some further backroutes in other, much older packs myself, I guess they can never be ruled out entirely .

[Strato Incendus]

And here it is, Version 3 is out! (The link in the opening post should work as well, of course.)

Changelog

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Na zdorovje Lem. I deliberately tried to backroute this level by trapping the Lemmings on the "pillar" at the beginning and building up towards the wall straight away - which worked. Therefore some steel needed to be added in the upper regions to cut off this shortcut.
The Mummy. See earlier post: When I had only seen Nepster's replays, I was fine with a timing based solution, but when nin10adict did the same, I decided that was way too fast and easy . Some canopic jars have been added at the bottom to shorten the distance the zombie can walk in case he is released to go down there. Also, the release rate has been locked, so that you can't compress the Lemmings to sneak by the zombie in a horde.
Down the drain. Saving requirement increased to make the solution a little more specific.
I want to believe. Thickened the one-way pillar so that it can't be bombed through.
We are the Lempions. The Lemmings from the left hatch are no longer pre-assigned climbers, but regular Lemmings.
You want it, you got it! Lowered the skill count and increased the saving requirement to make this more worthy of rank 4.
Fire in the hole. Swapped a piece of terrain for more steel to enforce a specific solution.
Lem in motion. Made the swimmer a pick-up skill as well and added a little structure on the left, to make it a little more relevant which skill is assigned when. Also, one of the exits was removed, so a little trick has to be done to save one of the cloned lemmings. Still a fairly easy level I guess, but now there are a few more pitfalls (pun intended possible.
Walking in Lemphis. Increased the saving requirement to factor in the cloners, so that you can't let any lemmings die.
Going down the hard way. Made the stoner a pickup skill to enforce my intended solution. Now the level name is even more fitting, because you have to go down to get the "hard" stoner .
You reap what you sow. Added steel to prevent going underneath the entire level.
Icing on the cake. This one has a completely different solution now, because a certain number of builders will always break this level. Once again, I actively tried to backroute this level myself after all these changes. And while I found out this way that there still is an alternative solution which avoids the slowfreeze completely, it requires almost all the skills, too, plus precise placement and some skills paying double-duty. So feel free to choose whichever one you prefer . If you hate slowfreeze, view it as a trap and go around it. If you love it, view it as a tool and use it!
Man shields. Still not sure whether this thing is entirely backroute-proof now, but at least you can't dig down at the end anymore.
Builder buddies. This is one of the levels which would have benefitted from a deadly ceiling - so I made one .
Copycats. Filled the gaps in the steel, where terrain had formerly been, with further steel blocks.
Three Lems, one stomper. Made this a 1 of everything level to make it a little more confusing what you have to do; also added some steel, to make the timing of assigning certain skills slightly more relevant. Again, still a very easy solution, but I hope I could hide it in plain sight now . Probably won't work on the more seasoned ones among you, though.
Acrobatic endeavors. Added vertical firetraps to cut off a high route.
Lemmings of Troy. Added some steel in the castle. You're not supposed to be able to dig straight down . Apart from that, nin10adict's solution was exactly as intended.
Another stunt maneuver. The second circus level which required vertical firetraps. Which simultaneously make this look even more like a circus artists' stunt performance!
Speedy Lembert. The fencer pickup skill was entirely redundant due to the Lemming being a climber at that moment already. So I just removed it.
White Wilderness. The builders aren't needed, yet they provided the option of creating a basher trap, holding back the crowd so you don't have to stall. Now all the builders are gone without any replacement!

And now for some things I purposefully didn't change:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Check mate. Hasn't changed its position . The reason is that once you've figured out a trick which works, you simply have to repeat it over and over again, there's nothing new, because the terrain itself is completely homogenous by design. Figuring this trick out may be somewhat hard for some, but then again I as the creator had to figure this solution out for myself, too: With the only premise having been "I'll make a level which looks like a chessboard and has 15 of each classic skill", there was no specific solution I had in mind which I just had to apply, I had to do trial and error, just like the player, and found this solution pretty quickly.
Crossing the Nile. I have no idea how to prevent compression methods here. Even with a locked release rate, you can still compress the Lemmings between stoners. The intended solution is probably just so complex and skill-thirsty that even with the minimum number of skills provided, a much more efficient solution will always be possible.
Disintegrated. It's still possible to go either to the right or the left. The left solution requires more skills, the right solution however takes two worker lemmings, i.e. multitasking. You're free to pick your poison for this one .
A trip to Yugoslemmia. If you figure out the way to trap the Lemmings here, you shall be rewarded for this by not having to stall .
Get a foothold. I left the "delicious cheese" nin10adict has found for this level in here, because the idea to do that is at least as crazy as the actual execution of the intended solution!

Once again a huge thank you to nin10adict for his very entertaining Let's Play of this pack! There were more remaining backroutes than I had thought. But that just means even more could be rooted out now!

To everyone who played the updated version and wants to take a look at the fixed levels, the changelog is there to tell you which levels specifically might be worth addressing again.

For people who played the very first iteration of this pack and haven't had any contact with it since... I guess almost every level has changed by now . So in that case, decide for yourself whether it's worthy of an entire new playthrough.

And of course, please keep reporting any potential backroutes you discover! As I recently found out myself, even old classics of custom packs like Nepster Lems and Sub Lems are never truly finished, but always remain a work in progress.

[Strato Incendus]

I've just glossed over the levels in this pack again using nin10adict's Let's Play, and the average quality of these levels was, albeit not on-par with what I've created for Lemmings World Tour or the packs I'm currently developing, still a lot higher than I remembered. Thus, I've deemed this pack worthy of conversion to New Formats!

This will most likely take place after the stable release of version 12.7, because I want to be able to at least salvage the levels involving anti-splat pads.

The radiation and slowfreeze levels, which there are more of in this pack than in Lemmings World Tour or Paralems, will be removed from the New-Formats version. Altering the solution isn't really viable, especially since the best radiation/slowfreeze level in here, LOTY nominee "Controlled overload", already is a rerun of a previous level without radiation and slowfreeze ("The long way down").

Now there's the question of how to replace these. The average level quality of Paralems is much lower, so I thought about selecting the best levels from Paralems and putting them in place of the radiation and slowfreeze levels from Pit Lems. Then again, there are most likely a couple more good or at least passable Paralems levels than there are radiation and slowfreeze levels in Pit Lems.

I could fill up the ranks from 20 to 30 levels - with five ranks, this would extend Pit Lems from 100 to 150 levels, just like Paralems, but it would only contain the best third of Paralems levels, with any remaining slots being patched out by Lemmicks levels that still work in New Formats.

So I'd essentially create a Lemmings Redux out of my first three packs, which would otherwise remain restricted to Old Formats. This is not a best-of in the strict sense, because nothing from Lemmings World Tour would be included - it would just be a way of porting all the best remaining levels of mine to New Formats in one fell swoop.

Levels that appear on the Encore rank of World Tour can be included, though, since that rank already is a miniature collection of levels from these three packs. The difference is that the levels on the Encore rank were not at all selected for quality, but only based on their level titles alluding to songs, which goes along with the rest of World Tour.

I'd probably call the resulting New-Formats pack "Pit Lems Remastered", in analogy to Lemmings World Tour Remastered, because levels from Pit Lems would make up the majority of the pack. Therefore, it doesn't really make sense to me to call it something more generic, like "Stratolems" or similar .

Once the stable release of version 12.7 is here, conversion of this pack should go comparatively quickly, at least compared with World Tour, because
a) the pack is much shorter
b) all the missing tilesets I have already converted for World Tour
c) not a lot of levels involve interactions with the ceiling, so there's no need for a lot of re-edits to add solid ceilings to levels that need them.
In fact, the deadly ceiling even breaks some backroutes that I originally fixed by adding the horizontal lightning traps (fire objects) from namida's Sky tileset!

So if you find the freshly-converted Lemmings World Tour too hard, stay tuned for the conversion of Pit Lems! It's quite a bit easier, not relying so much on skill tricks and specific combinations, while still being puzzly, rather than as execution- and flavour-based as Paralems. And the last levels might even give people who can handle Lemmings World Tour some "hard nuts to crack"!

[Strato Incendus]

Radiation and Slowfreeze levels to be removed from Pit Lems Remastered (click to show/hide)

• Annihilation station (LOL 13)
• Petrification station (LOL 14)
• Airborne aid (WTF 11)
• Fire extinguisher (WTF 19)
• Controlled overload (OMFG 05)
• Icing on the cake (OMFG 15)
• Man shields (OMFG 17)
• Get a foothold (FML 09)
• A level of ice and fire (FML 15)

So that's almost 10% of the pack getting lost during conversion. Maybe I can save "A level of ice and fire", although the slowfreeze is quite a bit integral to the solution, and simply replacing it with a stoner pickup skill will make the level much easier, i.e. much less deserving of being in the final rank. The same is true for "Get a foothold". I thought about trying to save "Controlled overload" somehow, but the main trick at the beginning is really the same as during the first iteration, "The long way down".

These 9 levels are going to be filled up first with the best puzzles from Lemmicks, because they are of higher average quality than those from Paralems, and there are less Lemmicks levels overall that are going to work in New Formats without gimmicks.

Priority will be given to levels that don't already appear on the Encore rank of Lemmings World Tour, because I want to avoid redundancy wherever possible. Hence, for example, a level like "Here comes the flood" from the Lemmicks Moist rank, even though I consider it a very good level, is not going to be added to Pit Lems Remastered, because it is already included as a bonus level in LWT. Thus, it has more opportunity to shine in LWT, and another additional level can be "saved" from Old Formats in its place.

Lemmicks levels to be added to Pit Lems Remastered as replacement (click to show/hide)

• Why did you doubt? (Basic 04)
• The 8 commandments (Basic 05)
• Do not fear (Basic 06)
• Eye of the needle (Basic 13)
• Pickup artists (Basic 14)
• Lemming Sudoku (Basic 18)
• The tree of knowledge (Basic 20)
• Save our stuff! (Moist 03)
• Tick Tock (Moist 07)

That's pretty much all the levels from Lemmicks that would still work in New Formats, at least with regard to the ranks covered by Flopsy's Lemmicks LP. There may be some levels on the higher Lemmicks rank that would work in New Formats with some slight modification, I'd have to check again.

"Tick Tock" is going to need some slight modification - for example, a Climber will be needed to get a Swimmer out of a water pit, since that water doesn't rise anymore in New Formats. Also, most of the Lemmicks levels are going to require not only solid ceilings (due to the change to deadly ceilings from 10.13 to New Formats), but also solid level sides in the first place (due to the change to deadly sides between 1.43 and 10.13)!

So I have two options for Pit Lems remastered:
a) Keep it at 100 levels as just a combination of Pit Lems and Lemmicks. I wouldn't go as far as to call it "Pit Lemmicks" then , because not enough of Lemmicks characteristic levels would be present. But those 9 levels mentioned above would simply replace the radiation- and slowfreeze levels, everything else would remain the same.
b) Extend the ranks to 30 levels each, and thereby the pack to 150 levels. This would allow to save select quality levels from Paralems, as well as a couple more from Lemmicks.

Further levels I consider adding to Pit Lems Remastered (click to show/hide)

From Lemmicks

• Gates of Heaven (Basic rank)
• An arrowr in the level design? (Circular rank)
• Coming soon: Shimmiers (Eternal rank)
• Ignorance is bliss (Ephemeral rank)
• Ceiling your fate (Nostalgic rank)
• That's all you're left with (Nostalgic rank)

From Paralems

• Taming the Beast / The Menagerie
• Suomalainen Lemminkainen
• Three waves of Lemminism
• Praise KeK
• The Phantom Lemace
• A staircase of skulls
• Have you seen my screwdriver?
• Volunteers first!
• Staircase to Armageddon
• Lemmigration quotas
• Welcome to Hell!
• Lemmings epiginetics / Shock absorber
• The Death Titan / The Titan returns
• Triathlon / The Olempic Games
• Point me to my training course
• Face the Hydra
• ELemEnts
• The prison cells
• The docks
• Snakes and ladders
• Apocalems Now
• Journey to Emeria
• Don't lock me in!
• Sneak past the guards
• Pull the plug
• We are not invited?
• Help! Get the ratcatcher!
• Buried knowledge
• Beam me up, Lemmy!
• Aerial bombardement
• Rest for the Wicked
• Make yourself useful
• Can you get it for me in time?
• Break my fall
• Six heroes, one destiny
• Synchronized performance
• Painful Parkour
• Maze of omnipotence
• IT'S FEEDING TIME!
• Winter is here

Those are exactly 50 levels. So just off the top of my head, I could indeed create this 150-level version of Pit Lems. And it would only feature the best puzzles from these three packs, plus maybe a couple of levels which would merely be present for aesthetic purposes, such as the ridiculously easy, but somehow quite popular "Death Titan" .

For some levels, though, I'd have to see how well that "hiding traps behind animals" thing, which is kind of typical of Paralems, works in New Formats. Animals made of terrain, like the Highland Nessy, shouldn't be as much of a problem as animals that are already traps, like crocodiles or snakes.

Then again, the main problem with my Nessy trap is that the ONML Rock chameleon, which I used for that, has been made one complete object in New Formats, rather than having the chameleon's head as a separate object. So I might have to add the head to my strato_generalmd tileset again. One level in Lemmings World Tour would also profit from that - it currently looks horrible, with entire chameleons all over the place...

And, of course, from Paralems I'm going to try and save as many of the decent zombie levels as possible!


If you remember any of your favourite levels from Paralems or Lemmicks that you'd like to see in this extended, New-Formats version of Pit Lems, now is the time to tell me!

Keep in mind the main goal of the conversion of Pit Lems is to provide some more beginner-to-intermediate content for New Formats, which currently mainly offers high-difficulty packs.



Finally, I do still plan to put all radiation- and slowfreeze levels of mine together into a short compilation called Nuclear Winter. Naturally, this will have to be done in Old Formats (10.13), but it technically isn't new content for an outdated version.
I'd just like to gather all of them in one place, so that people who play the New-Formats version of Pit Lems or Lemmings World Tour can specifically play the missing levels if they're interested, rather than having to download the entire packs Pit Lems and Lemmings World Tour for both Old and New Formats just to find them.

[kaywhyn]

Just started playing this pack yesterday, and I managed to finish the first 3 ranks in about 3-4 hours. Instead of wait until I finish the pack first before sending replays, I'm going to send my replays now just because I don't want to waste 6 hours of my day writing feedback like I did with Paralems. So, here are my replays for the LOL, ROFL, and the WTF ranks.

My thoughts on the pack so far:

Wow, this pack is a lot better and considerably harder than Paralems, similar to how ONML is an expansion pack to the original Lemmings and is much harder. Just like nin10doadict said, Pit Lems immediately starts really hard, so that the LOL rank reminded me of the Basic rank of Lemmicks, where these two ranks are still no pushovers despite being the first ranks. However, Lemmicks was released after Pit Lems, and so the Basic rank was more well done, especially with the pre-texts. Here, the pre-texts are not as detailed, but being a way more puzzily pack than Paralems, I can understand why you did that. There were still occasional breather levels in the ranks, but for the most part the levels are quite challenging and difficult. The pack has definitely lived up to its expectations of being very fair with a lot of great puzzles that I absolutely enjoyed. So far, I haven't been bored or annoyed with the pack at all, both of which I found myself a lot with Paralems, so that's a really good sign that Pit Lems is considerably better than Paralems. Practically all the levels I have played so far have been quite excellent and have given me quite a good challenge in a really good way. Makes me all the more glad that I decided to take on the pack after all

Now on to feedback for the individual ranks.

LOL rank (click to show/hide)

As mentioned previously, the rank already starts off quite difficult with the very first level. I enjoyed almost all of these challenges a lot and I definitely felt most of them were appropriate challenges for me that has allowed me to stay thorougly engaged with the pack and weren't frustrating at all.

LOL 1 - The art of destruction It's not a really hard level by any means, but definitely much more difficult than how most packs start off, especially how you can only lose 1 lemming and so make the wrong skill choice at the start and you'll have lemmings turning back, as well as make it impossible to complete the level.

LOL 2 - Be creative is also another difficult level, although I used exactly what I did with Harmless 3 of Paralems with the stackers.

LOL 3 - Dead Lems tell no tales is the first non-challenging level of the pack where it's possible to have some skills leftover with a lenient save requirement. It then goes back to

LOL 4 - Athletic Aesthetics being another difficult level that requires a lot of thought on which exit each lemming needs to go to. At the same time, I probably made the level harder than necessary on myself. It was a bit frustrating working out the timing. 

LOL 5 - On the fence can be challenging, but only if the player is not aware that fencing into steel causes the lemming to turn around.

LOL 6 - Blocking all over the world is quite challenging, although I might had backrouted the level since I have several skills leftover. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of the fencer is on this level.

LOL 7 - Candyland climber isn't a difficult level by any means, but the timing of cloning the basher is a bit tricky. Consider making that a little easier. Nothing to say about

LOL 8 - Lemorials other than that it's easier than most of the previous training levels and the solution is simply stone each lemming that comes at the appropriate place.

LOL 9 - I'm going to make you mine requires some thought on which single-use traps to trigger and which ones to avoid, but fortunately there aren't that many choices/possibilities, so it shouldn't take too long to stumble upon the solution.

LOL 10 - Base Jumping Somewhat challenging, but still an excellent puzzle with a nice solution.

LOL 11 - Sadistic choice Good level that's not difficult, but it does require a bit of thought to solve.

LOL 12- All you need is time Too easy, probably the easiest level so far in the rank.

LOL 13 - Annihilation station Back to tricky that requires a lot of thought on how to get the bombers to the appropriate places to get the crowd down safely as well as to the exit. Still, nice level.

LOL 14 - Petrification station The slowfreeze version of LOL 13 and much harder. The main challenge is figuring out how to time and get the stoners to the right places to get the crowd down safely to the exit, as well as how to make the crowd avoid walking into the slowfreeze trap. It is a nice puzzle that I somewhat enjoyed figuring out, but I think I like the radiation level better. The tileset has a downside in that it's very difficult to tell what's a trap.

LOL 15 - Release me Despite being a 2 of everything level, it's quite tricky figuring out how to get to every button. Nice puzzle, though.

LOL 16 - You learn it, you earn it! I have to say that this level is a huge step up in difficulty compared to any of the other previous levels of the rank. At first, I thought the level was impossible because I thought the pillar immediately to the left of the entrance was connected to the ceiling and so there's no way to send the climber. Turns out I forgot the grey border that's shown is the ceiling due to my default zoom level, while the black area below it is empty space that lemmings can walk in. I wonder if the floater pick-up is a decoy and if my solution is intended or not.

LOL 17 - Screwing around Pretty easy, but that's probably because I might had backrouted the level. Then again, this is probably a anyway you want level.

LOL 18 - Ouch, my head! Easy as well. I love the delay tactics needed in this level! Well done

LOL 19 - Apraxia Ah, this is the no skills level you were referring to in the release post. Definitely easier than the corresponding no skills level from the Demented rank of Paralems. I think there might be a range of RR's that can work here. Here, I used a 95 RR.

LOL 20 - Stop right there Excellent level to finish off the rank!

ROFL rank (click to show/hide)

A lot of these were really great puzzles, although some I didn't enjoy as much.
 
ROFL 1 - Honey pie More tricky than difficult, but still somewhat a nice puzzle to start off the rank.

ROFL 2 - That's right Nice puzzle that seems to be a anyway you want level. The first level of the pack to have an excessive amount of skills and to be left with a lot in the end.

ROFL 3 - Step up Somewhat difficult and tricky that still manages to be a bit open-ended. I think the wall height is a bit too punishing, especially since 3 stackers is just barely enough to get them up. In my solution, all the stacks were interrupted at the 6th brick, and the total height was exactly 6 pixels, so one less and both sides wouldn't be able to get up. Also, levels that have an abundance of stackers to get up tend to be the most difficult for me, so this was one of the levels that I didn't enjoy as much as most of the others in the rank.

ROFL 4 - The stock market Nice standard puzzle of isolating a pioneer to forge the path and then release with a fencer.

ROFL 5 - Transporter malfunction Difficult level where all teleporters lead to a bad outcome. This was a bit of an annoying level for me. Not sure if my solution is intended.

ROFL 6 - Basic economics Nice level! Guess I got the timing right so that no lemmings were walking to the left by the time the digger broke through the bottom floor at the top

ROFL 7 - Beware of collectivism Nice tricky level of figuring out how to manage and keep all the different special groups safe: Climbers, floaters, and swimmers. I really enjoyed this one.

ROFL 8 - Doubling down The only very tricky part of this level was the digging and bombing to make a safe drop. Besides that, this can be a tricky and difficult level for most players.

ROFL 9 - The wall (Part III) Picks up again from the two consecutive The wall levels from Paralems. Nice easy level.

ROFL 10 - The long way down Another nice and easy level. The only tricky part is figuring out how to get to the anti-splat pad on the bottom. Luckily, it's just a simple use of a cloner before the last In teleporter. Thanks for making the anti-splat pad inside the wall visible.

ROFL 11 - Wraparound travel I might had backrouted the level. Easy level, though.

ROFL 12 - Lems off the wall Another nice and easy level, although once again repetitive climber skill assignment to 20 lemmings. Not as bad as 40 or more, but still.

ROFL 13 - Let's play Quidditch Ah, a Harry Potter fan I see. I'll be honest, I'm only on the second book. Yup, waste of my childhood. I was never huge on reading. I have seen some of the films, though. I understand the purpose of them being preassigned gliders, as that's how the game is played in the book and the movies. Yet another nice and easy level that's still somewhat open-ended despite the very restricted skillset.

ROFL 14 - Na zdorovje Lem Not sure what the title means. Somewhat tricky level in that it's a bit tricky to isolate a single worker lemming. Nice level, though.

ROFL 15 - Out of the frying pan I do believe there is a level in a Dos level pack with the same title. Nice and easy level!

ROFL 16 - Cannibal cave Somewhat easy level, although the skillset is still quite restricted despite appearing to be leninent.

ROFL 17 - Perpetuum Mobilem Unless this is intended, this seems like a really bad backroute which I solved via compression. Still an easy level, though.

ROFL 18 - Up the garden path A bit trickier than the surrounding levels, but still not that bad. Nice level.

ROFL 19 - Skies and Sand Very nice and somewhat easy level despite the huge size. Once you are successful in isolating the special groups to the right half of the level, the gliders at the top, swimmers at the bottom, the rest is easy. The skillset itself isn't too restricted despite appearing to be so, especially with the ones that you have 5 of.

ROFL 20 - An all new challenge! Nice puzzle that is difficult and hence is quite appropriate for the rank finisher. In my first couple of attempts, I was short of platformers or short of a fencer or stoner, but I was able to figure it out and solve the level  

WTF rank (click to show/hide)

The levels and puzzles continue to be awesome here!

WTF 1 - The mummy This is like the corresponding Abhorrent 1 level from Paralems, being a zombie introduction level. Nice and easy level to begin the rank once more.

WTF 2 - How to be impractical More tricky than difficult but still somewhat easy. Several concepts here: stoner stepping stone for building, stacker staircase, and stacker/stoner staircase.

WTF 3 - Mountain Rescue Very easy and nice level!

WTF 4 - Check mate Chess fan too? This was quite a tricky level despite being a 15-of-everything level. The most difficult part was making sure that you're not being wasteful with your builders, as they're in quite short supply despite seeming like a lot.

WTF 5 - C(l)on(e) fusion Nice puzzle that requires a bit of thought on the proper sequence to do the level, as well as how to rescue the cloned climber. I wonder if one of the fencers is a decoy.

WTF 6 - Under construction Nice 1-of-everything level! My only critique of the level is how part of the top part of the splitter is hidden from view.

WTF 7 - The overseers Nice puzzle! Once again, compression to get the group tightly together, as well as propr timing, to reduce the risk of infection from the zombies.

WTF 8 - Mission impossible Definitely not impossible and not hard at all, although the lemmings still being able to exit despite the exit trigger area being inside steel is quite amusing. Nice puzzle level once more.

WTF 9 - Another rescue mission Once again too easy just like WTF 3 and not that much different other than cloning a digger and bashing while inside the digger pit.

WTF 10 - Down the drain Another nice and easy level

WTF 11 - Airborne aid More tricky than difficult, with the timing needing to be worked out so that the slowfreeze provides a safe drop for both left hatches. I think I certainly could had made it a bit easier by bombing where the updrafts are, as the place I bombed is nearly splat height.

WTF 12 - I want to believe Another tricky level. Isolating 5 lemmings is not easy to do, but that's pretty much the only tricky thing to do for the level. Once you manage to do that, the rest of the level is easy.

WTF 13 - Arigato, Lemming-san! What a really pretty and nice looking level! Too easy and nice puzzle.

WTF 14 - Connecting the dots Unless you realize that you must take the path through the ceiling terrain, it may look impossible to most players. Nice puzzle!

WTF 15 - Crossing the Nile Somewhat difficult level, considering that this is the first level I've played where swimmers encounter trap trigger areas, which they apparently can't disarm while swimming but can if they're performing a task, like mining or platforming. I think this can throw off a lot of people. It certainly did with me. Then again, I think this illustrates a huge mechincs difference between Old Formats and New Formats. Though, I think there was one United level where a disarmer disarmed a trap while it was building, so maybe there's no inconsistency at all. What is consistent is not being able to disarm while climbing, as I remember there was one United level that I tried that with a climber.

WTF 16 - Not the same but yet as one Now this one was difficult but a very nice puzzle this was! The only tricky part was making sure only two lemmings slip by the first builder.

WTF 17 - We are the Lempions More tricky than difficult but still a really nice puzzle.

WTF 18 - Free-floating tent Nice and easy level that requires the solid ceiling in the solution. I think this is what will throw players off, considering that it's not deadly in Old Formats but is deadly in New Formats. Also, various platforms are inconsistent about whether the ceiling is safe or deadly, so that's another factor too in confusing players.

WTF 19 - Fire extinguisher Ok, I was a bit annoyed with this at first, but it turns out that I simply approached the level wrong. Once I realized that I could make it easier on myself by having a lemming drop and glide from the top, I was able to solve the level more easily. Nice puzzle in that the most tricky part is figuring out how to get across the fire pit gap. Once done, it's an auto solve if you managed to have met or exceeded the save requirement. The fall at the end looks like splat height, but it's not.

WTF 20 - Glueck auf! Nice miner cancelling puzzle to finish off the rank! The timing of sending a climber to circle back to mine the obstacles to release the crowd, as well as to send climbers to cancel the miner, is a bit tricky, but you at least provided a couple of climbers to make it a bit easier.

Took me about 3 hours this time to write the feedback. That's about half the time it took me to write the feedback for Paralems, so it's certainly an improvement from sending just a few ranks this time as compared to waiting until I finish the pack before giving feedback. Perhaps I can cut down the time even more by not giving feedback for every single level, as you know I'm very detail-oriented, so even if I skip some feedback for some levels it's still going to take me a while.

2 ranks left, 40 levels to go! I'll likely be able to finish off the rest of the pack later on today Then that will make two packs of yours that I have finished within a week  

[ericderkovits]

thanks for the replays for the 1st 3 ranks. Only the 1st rank replays that were posted before yours worked. The other ranks most failed. So I appreciate you doing Pitlems. Hopefully I'll be able to update my list for old formats packs I have replays for. I did a mass replay check on all 3. And although the 1st rank was all already green the other 2 were not until now. Although I have'nt  watched any of your's yet I will tomorrow (actually later today)

[kaywhyn]

You're welcome. It's a much shorter pack and so I'm breezing through it rather quickly and might be able to finish it later on today despite how it's a lot harder than Paralems. I assume you also got my replays for that pack?

[ericderkovits]

Yesum. And although I had Paralems replays turned green already from other peoples posted ones, I still downloaded yours and even watched your already too.

EDIT: And even when the Mass replay checker says they pass, I still have to watch them, because sometimes people(especially Joshcue18) never wants to Nuke his blocker if needed at the end of levels.
So if that happens I fix them so the blockers(or unsaved lemmings get nuked). Joshcue18 never seems to do this in any of his replays even for other packs. and it's annoying.

[kaywhyn]

Yesum. And although I had Paralems replays turned green already from other peoples posted ones, I still downloaded yours and even watched your already too.

Cheers, sir! No worries if you didn't, just that I know you love getting them from me. Since my replays are fresh and I can obviously verify they all work, a mass replay check isn't needed. The purpose of it is to simply and quickly verify which ones still work (passed), which ones broke (failed), and which ones may or may not have been broken (undetermined). 

EDIT: And even when the Mass replay checker says they pass, I still have to watch them, because sometimes people(especially Joshcue18) never wants to Nuke his blocker if needed at the end of levels.
So if that happens I fix them so the blockers(or unsaved lemmings get nuked). Joshcue18 never seems to do this in any of his replays even for other packs. and it's annoying.

To be fair, nuking remaining lemmings at the end when the save requirement has been met or exceeded isn't necessary, especially since the main parts of the solution has already been seen, and so really nuking is simply at the player's discretion. If the replays work, then it doesn't matter if the person decides to nuke or not. Therefore, unless the nuke IS required in the solution (there are some great levels out there that require nuking as part of the solution), most of the time it isn't integral to the solution at all. Not to mention that it's always faster to simply exit the level via the esc key. I understand your frustration with those that don't nuke at the end, though, but it should just be a minor point. When it comes to nuking, it kind of grew out of habit for me. Especially since it's really fun to hear the "Oh no's" and the resulting popping explosion sound and see the resulting fireworks display on screen.

[Strato Incendus]

Thanks for playing, kaywhyn! I'm happy to hear you seem to have had a lot more fun with this than with Paralems. I kind of have to say "I told you so"... I think I pointed you to Pit Lems right away and warned you that Paralems might not really be worth your while. But at least, now you know why!

I haven't had a chance to look at your replays yet, but I can already provide some comments on your remarks about select levels.

LOL (click to show/hide)

"The art of destruction" and "Being creative": These are the first levels of my "new" puzzle-making style that indeed started with Pit Lems, so they're perfect to demonstrate what this pack is all about. Even though Pit Lems does features X-of-everything levels - that was just me catering to community demands, or what I perceived as such - I think I've stated often enough that I dislike those. Instead, smaller puzzles where all the skills are accounted for are much more rewarding to me. There's a unique feeling of everything falling into place nicely when you use the last skill on the panel and the path to the exit is finished. A feeling that doesn't really occur for me when I look at the panel and think "...and I still had all deez!" 8)

Sometimes, I tend to think levels with small skill panels are too easy, or that it's too obvious where everything has to go, because of course it's much easier to maintain the overview and keep track of the skills on a smaller panel. But if even you didn't consider these first two levels easy, maybe this worry of mine is unwarranted. The idea of starting with small puzzles with tightly limited skill counts right away is something I took from Nessy's "Lemmings Migration": A pack that can easily stump you on its first couple of levels, but if it doesn't, or it only does for a short while, it's much more rewarding than many other larger packs out there. Lemmings Migration is still up there among my favourite packs, along with SubLems! It's also not very long, so give it a try if you haven't yet!

Athletic aesthetics: Yeah, this level is really pretty hard for its position. It's more of a thematic choice (1: destructive skills, 2: creative skills, 3: lethal skills, 4: athletic skills) to position it this early. If I were to re-create the pack today, I'd probably change its position - and I might do so after all, in Pit Lems Remastered. Since some levels from Paralems and Lemmicks are thrown into the mix for that, all the level positions change anyway. But for Pit Lems proper, at this stage I don't want to mess up people's replays by swapping around level positions. This can be precisely one of those early roadblocks, like in Lemmings Migration, that hit you early and out of nowhere.

Blocking all over the world: This level has been fixed a bunch of times and yet people still find ways to backroute it. I think you might have played an older version, though: I remember fixing the instance of this level on Lemmings World Tour (where it's part of the Professional rank, not actually of Encore, because it's such a well-known song, and a puzzle I quite like). But I'm pretty sure I hadn't fixed the Pit Lems original version yet.

Candyland Climber: This is one of the Lemmings-3D remakes mentioned in the starting post. The Cloner just adds some slight variation to it, and yes, that is indeed the most challenging part, because that's the part I added to it. In Lemmings 3D, this level is on the Fun rank, i.e. not supposed to be difficult at all.

All you need is time: Just supposed to introduce splitters, not made to be difficult at all.

You learn it, you earn it!: Funny, I actually thought this level was slightly easier than some of the preceding ones. I don't remember nin10doadict struggling with this one in particular during his Let's Play. Good to know - and nice to hear - that it was somewhat of a challenge for you, though!

ROFL (click to show/hide)

I'm not quite sure what you mean in general when you say "more tricky than difficult". Does this refer to execution troubles, as opposed to puzzle troubles? Or are these just terms for subjectively different levels of a challenge?

Let's play Quidditch: This is the closest thing to a Paralems level that Pit Lems has (aside from maybe the level "Wasted talent", which is a fairer version of the ultimate-trolling level "Trust No 1" from Paralems). Because it's a book / movie reference, and the level justifies its presence through that, more so than through its mechanical challenge.

Na zdorovje Lem: This is a reference to a song by famous German comedian Otto Waalkes, "Nastrovje wom". "Na zdorovje" is often misunderstood to be Russian for "cheers"; it actually seems to be used more commonly to say "you're welcome". "Zdorovje" by itself just means "health". A Polish colleague of mine told me though that "na zdrowie" is indeed used to say "cheers" in Polish. So maybe, that German comedian Otto Waalkes was referring to something Polish instead of something Russian. Anyways, I've spelled it the Russian way. And believe it or not, somebody in the comments of nin10doadict's Let's Play actually got the reference! (IIRC, it was a German viewer as well, though. I doubt that many people outside the German-speaking countries know Otto Waalkes. But in turn, it's probably hard to find anyone in these countries who doesn't know him.)
PS: Because this is technically a song, the level also appears on the Encore rank of LWT. It's certainly one of the better puzzles in the Encore rank, while others were mainly just chosen for their title.

WTF (click to show/hide)

Check mate: nin10doadict considered this the hardest level of the pack, and it was the last one he solved. I placed it here because, once you get the main trick, due to the terrain shape, you can just keep repeating that trick to solve the level. But yes, this is one of the few X-of-everything levels I made that I actually still like. It goes to show how "iffy" terrain shapes can provide such a challenge in and of themselves that even having a plethora of skills, and the many degrees of freedom that go along with that, don't really help you all that much. I've certainly found some levels in Lemmings Plus I now that adhere to this principle. namida seems to be much better at creating this particular type of "any-way-you-want" level than I am.

Airborne aid: I think you're the first one not to be annoyed by this level. Slowfreeze for the win!

Glück auf (yes, that's how you actually spell it, but the NeoLemmix font doesn't cut it yet ): I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that apparently, you were able to pull off the Miner-cancel trick with Climbers.

Back during his Let's Play, I told nin10doadict this wasn't possible, and I even based a Lemmicks level from the Ephemeral rank, "Ignorance is bliss", on this belief. (You had to send up a Climber first, and then perform the Miner cancel trick with that lemming, which now no longer was a Climber, and I believed this was necessary to be able to do the Miner-cancel trick in the first place.)

Consequently, nin10doadict rightfully criticised that this level introduces the player to a corner-case of the Miner-cancel trick right away (=with Climbers), instead of to its "pure form". Because even though he knew about the trick, he wasn't able to pull it off with the Climbers. The intended solution doesn't use them either - it requires releasing the crowd into the tunnel so that one of the regular lemmings can perform the Miner-cancel trick. Of course, nin10doadict was able to do this - but only after I had told him that Climbers couldn't perform the trick.

Later on, while testing the penultimate level of the Legend rank of Lemmings World Tour, I found out that it is indeed possible for a Climber to perform the Miner-cancel trick. It just seems to be much more unlikely, because the Climber wastes time by "hugging" the end of the mine shaft, whereas a regular lemming turns around immediately.

That said, "Glück auf" technically isn't the first level to introduce the Miner-cancel trick: It's already part of the intended solution to "Doubling down". However, that level allowed for an alternative solution, which I wasn't aware of, but nin10doadict used. Hence, he could bypass the necessity to "learn" the Miner-cancel trick in its "standard form", so that when "Glück auf" hit him with the corner case of Climbers + Miner-cancel trick, it hit him out of nowhere.

[kaywhyn]

Thanks for playing, kaywhyn! I'm happy to hear you seem to have had a lot more fun with this than with Paralems. I kind of have to say "I told you so"... I think I pointed you to Pit Lems right away and warned you that Paralems might not really be worth your while. But at least, now you know why!

Yes, Pit Lems is many times way better than Paralems. I love almost all of the puzzles I have played so far. I definitely blame this on my completist personality. To be fair, I did say that I doubt that I would be bored with Paralems or that I wouldn't mind the things that most of the community frowns upon in the pack. Nope, I was very wrong. Also, once I start playing something, I have to finish it to the end. Personally, I consider leaving things on the table unfinished not good. Figuratively, of course. I use my example of my schooling. I took classes towards a teaching credential program at the post-baccalaureate school I attended after I finished my undergrad, but unfortunately I got rejected from the program. I then switched my objective to doing a master's degree, which I finished in 2 1/2 years. I took the next two years off, having been exhausted from doing a master's degree. In case you haven't had the experience of doing grad school, take it from me, it is always very exhausting finishing any kind of graduate degree. Sometime during my second year off from school, I reflected back on how I started work towards the teaching credential program that I never finished. With this, I was determined and decided to come back to school to finish the work I started. I was successful in getting into the credential program, and I proceeded to finish up and get my actual teaching credential just last year.

So yea, once I start something, I have to finish the job/work I started. Just part of my personality Pretty much why I was very determined to solve all of United despite how the extremely high difficulty kept getting to me in the final two main ranks, but especially the final main rank.

Response to your Remarks on the LOL rank (click to show/hide)

LOL (click to show/hide)

"The art of destruction" and "Being creative": These are the first levels of my "new" puzzle-making style that indeed started with Pit Lems, so they're perfect to demonstrate what this pack is all about. Even though Pit Lems does features X-of-everything levels - that was just me catering to community demands, or what I perceived as such - I think I've stated often enough that I dislike those. Instead, smaller puzzles where all the skills are accounted for are much more rewarding to me. There's a unique feeling of everything falling into place nicely when you use the last skill on the panel and the path to the exit is finished. A feeling that doesn't really occur for me when I look at the panel and think "...and I still had all deez!" 8)

Sometimes, I tend to think levels with small skill panels are too easy, or that it's too obvious where everything has to go, because of course it's much easier to maintain the overview and keep track of the skills on a smaller panel. But if even you didn't consider these first two levels easy, maybe this worry of mine is unwarranted. The idea of starting with small puzzles with tightly limited skill counts right away is something I took from Nessy's "Lemmings Migration": A pack that can easily stump you on its first couple of levels, but if it doesn't, or it only does for a short while, it's much more rewarding than many other larger packs out there. Lemmings Migration is still up there among my favourite packs, along with SubLems! It's also not very long, so give it a try if you haven't yet!

Yea, depending on the level, even very small levels with a very restricted skillset can be deceivingly difficult, like with the very first two levels of the pack.
You can consider them difficult levels in disguise even though they give the appearance of being an easy level. I personally don't mind X of everything levels or ones with a very open skillset. If anything, I especially consider the latter levels a very nice occasional breather from all the very difficult ones when it does show up. At the same time, it does depend on the level, because there are still those where even though the skillset may look very open, in actuality is very restricted and tight. There's plenty of that in United, but having played and solved every single level in the pack, save for a couple in the Pacifism rank, every level had a very tight skillset.

And yes, I do eventually plan to take on Nessy's Lemmings Migration

Athletic aesthetics: Yeah, this level is really pretty hard for its position. It's more of a thematic choice (1: destructive skills, 2: creative skills, 3: lethal skills, 4: athletic skills) to position it this early. If I were to re-create the pack today, I'd probably change its position - and I might do so after all, in Pit Lems Remastered. Since some levels from Paralems and Lemmicks are thrown into the mix for that, all the level positions change anyway. But for Pit Lems proper, at this stage I don't want to mess up people's replays by swapping around level positions. This can be precisely one of those early roadblocks, like in Lemmings Migration, that hit you early and out of nowhere.

I'm in agreement here with this level potentially being a roadblock this early in the pack.

Blocking all over the world: This level has been fixed a bunch of times and yet people still find ways to backroute it. I think you might have played an older version, though: I remember fixing the instance of this level on Lemmings World Tour (where it's part of the Professional rank, not actually of Encore, because it's such a well-known song, and a puzzle I quite like). But I'm pretty sure I hadn't fixed the Pit Lems original version yet.

I downloaded Pit Lems for the very first time earlier this year in April, so I couldn't have an older version of the level.

You learn it, you earn it!: Funny, I actually thought this level was slightly easier than some of the preceding ones. I don't remember nin10doadict struggling with this one in particular during his Let's Play. Good to know - and nice to hear - that it was somewhat of a challenge for you, though!

Ok, I didn't think the level was that hard, but to casual and less experienced players, it is a huge step in difficulty compared to the other levels around it. I did struggle with the level, but not that much

Response to your Remarks on the ROFL Rank (click to show/hide)

ROFL (click to show/hide)

I'm not quite sure what you mean in general when you say "more tricky than difficult". Does this refer to execution troubles, as opposed to puzzle troubles? Or are these just terms for subjectively different levels of a challenge?

For example, I think we can agree that All or Nothing from the original Lemmings is not hard, just tricky to pull off. In this case, it's a tricky to execute one. It can extend to puzzle troubles as well, but it all depends on what's needed in the solution. Like those that are just standard puzzles that simply require knowing what each skill does and with a lot of red herrings are probably not difficult, but they can be tricky. So, pretty much subjective.

Let's play Quidditch: This is the closest thing to a Paralems level that Pit Lems has (aside from maybe the level "Wasted talent", which is a fairer version of the ultimate-trolling level "Trust No 1" from Paralems). Because it's a book / movie reference, and the level justifies its presence through that, more so than through its mechanical challenge.

Well, thank you for finally answering my question on what level from Paralems is considered the "ultimate trolling level." It's Demented 26. As I mentioned in the feedback for that level, I thought it wasn't hard at all, especially since I solved it in about 1-2 minutes all without using CPM. However, I was taken by surprise that the supposed pond at the bottom isn't water but actually fire. And yes, I noticed that the lemmings that come out of the hatch are all swimmers, so I thought I could use it as a delaying tactic, but nope, surprise. I think the only thing that might be fishy about my solution was how I was able to bash through the wall without getting scorched by the hidden fire pits, but I believe lemmings don't die to them from below, they die from walking into it on the same horizontal level.

Response to your Remarks on the WTF Rank (click to show/hide)

WTF (click to show/hide)

Check mate: nin10doadict considered this the hardest level of the pack, and it was the last one he solved. I placed it here because, once you get the main trick, due to the terrain shape, you can just keep repeating that trick to solve the level. But yes, this is one of the few X-of-everything levels I made that I actually still like. It goes to show how "iffy" terrain shapes can provide such a challenge in and of themselves that even having a plethora of skills, and the many degrees of freedom that go along with that, don't really help you all that much. I've certainly found some levels in Lemmings Plus I now that adhere to this principle. namida seems to be much better at creating this particular type of "any-way-you-want" level than I am.

This is a perfect example of a level where the skillset may look very open and lenient, but in actuality is very tight, especially the builders. Everything else is not as tight, but it doesn't mean that one can be wasteful with them.

Airborne aid: I think you're the first one not to be annoyed by this level. Slowfreeze for the win!

Actually, I was a little bit, not with the timing of the slowfreeze, but how to getting the timing of the other stuff in my solution correct in order to get the stoners in the right place. That being said, yes, I agree that this is quite an excellent slowfreeze puzzle. Nice job!

Glück auf (yes, that's how you actually spell it, but the NeoLemmix font doesn't cut it yet ): I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that apparently, you were able to pull off the Miner-cancel trick with Climbers.

Back during his Let's Play, I told nin10doadict this wasn't possible, and I even based a Lemmicks level from the Ephemeral rank, "Ignorance is bliss", on this belief. (You had to send up a Climber first, and then perform the Miner cancel trick with that lemming, which now no longer was a Climber, and I believed this was necessary to be able to do the Miner-cancel trick in the first place.)

Consequently, nin10doadict rightfully criticised that this level introduces the player to a corner-case of the Miner-cancel trick right away (=with Climbers), instead of to its "pure form". Because even though he knew about the trick, he wasn't able to pull it off with the Climbers. The intended solution doesn't use them either - it requires releasing the crowd into the tunnel so that one of the regular lemmings can perform the Miner-cancel trick. Of course, nin10doadict was able to do this - but only after I had told him that Climbers couldn't perform the trick.

Later on, while testing the penultimate level of the Legend rank of Lemmings World Tour, I found out that it is indeed possible for a Climber to perform the Miner-cancel trick. It just seems to be much more unlikely, because the Climber wastes time by "hugging" the end of the mine shaft, whereas a regular lemming turns around immediately.

That said, "Glück auf" technically isn't the first level to introduce the Miner-cancel trick: It's already part of the intended solution to "Doubling down". However, that level allowed for an alternative solution, which I wasn't aware of, but nin10doadict used. Hence, he could bypass the necessity to "learn" the Miner-cancel trick in its "standard form", so that when "Glück auf" hit him with the corner case of Climbers + Miner-cancel trick, it hit him out of nowhere.

Yes, I remember you mentioning that you didn't think cancelling a miner with a climber was possible, but you later found out that it is. And yea, I just took a look at the level again and realized that indeed I could had just relied on a non-climber to cancel the miner. I failed to realize the steel on the very far left in the level that I could had used to turn the miner around to come back and mine the crowd out and then consequently release the miner with a non-climber. I think here it took me about 3 tries to cancel the miner with a climber, so not as long as I thought.

For Doubling Down, I'm not aware of any alternative solution that doesn't use miner cancelling. Come to think of it, I think I found out about miner cancelling through Pimolems for Lemmini, and so as a result I'm pleased to see that it carries over to NL.

I'm currently on the rank finisher for OMFG, and I must say that it is stumping me pretty badly right now. I know what the solution should look like in retrospect, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. I think I'll get it eventually if I spend a good amount of time on it.

[Strato Incendus]

which I finished in 2 1/2 years. I took the next two years off, having been exhausted from doing a master's degree. In case you haven't had the experience of doing grad school, take it from me, it is always very exhausting finishing any kind of graduate degree.

My master also took slightly longer than the 2 standard years (you have 6 months to work on the final thesis, and my "clock" started running officially in May 2018, so I had until November to finish it. My master started in October 2016, so that's slighlty more than a year until I handed in the thesis; took until February until I got the final master certificate, though). But after that, I jumped straight into my PhD studies in December 2018.

(I'm going to quote some things outside spoilers now, but I'll leave out the crucial parts of the sentences that actually are a spoiler .)

I downloaded Pit Lems for the very first time earlier this year in April, so I couldn't have an older version of the level.

No, I simply meant that no version of "Blocking all over the world" has been fixed in Pit Lems. nin10doadict solved this level the intended way in his LP. It was only through other players' replays that I discovered it was broken, and then when I had fixed those parts of the level and included the new version on the Professional rank of LWT, Arty backrouted it again. After that, I fixed Arty's backroute in the LWT version, but I hadn't made any changes to the Pit Lems version. Remember that at the type of LWT's initial release (which was Old-Formats), most people had already moved on to New Formats exclusively, and I was getting urged left and right by the rest of the community to move on as well. Thus, I had no reason to assume anyone would still care for Old Formats Pit Lems.

Well, thank you for finally answering my question on what level from Paralems is considered the "ultimate trolling level."

Yeah, sorry, it just occurred to me yesterday that I hadn't responded to that. I thought I should maybe add that to the Paralems thread. But since it was for you in particular, and you had posted in both threads, I thought it ultimately doesn't matter in which one I answer that question. Because it is indeed already mentioned in the Paralems thread - previous users had figured it out already, and also mentioned it in their replies to "Paralems". So anyone interested in what the ultimate trolling level is can open any spoiler tab for the Demented rank in one of the posts in the thread.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And yes, the part with the water being acid is one piece of the trolling puzzle. Although the idea to create water areas that actually act like fire was clearly by namida (the acid is taken from the Lab tileset). Or, more accurately, by the Lemmings developers themselves (since acid appears on Lemmings Revolution).
I would just have thought that our puzzle-fairness sensibilities would not necessarily argue for adopting such a misleading type of object into NeoLemmix. But I guess it was a different time when namida created the Lab tileset. If any new forum member created a tileset featuring acid today (and the precedent hadn't already been set by other tilesets including acid), that graphic set would probably attract quite a bit of criticism from our puzzle-fairness purists.

For Doubling Down, I'm not aware of any alternative solution

Here you can see nin10doadict's alternative solution to "Doubling down": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdFTKhHwAH8&list=PLbyk0AE1WQV0aITefPK5p6wC9-sIozw0n&index=7

I'm currently on the rank finisher for OMFG, and I must say that it is stumping me pretty badly right now. I know what the solution should look like in retrospect, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. I think I'll get it eventually if I spend a good amount of time on it.

Hopefully this little reminder is not a spoiler to you already - I'm just saying this for the sake of game fairness: Please keep in mind that, after several physics changes, Old-Formats physics are quite different to current New-Formats ones. There are certain things you can do in Old-Formats that you can't do in New-Formats, and vice versa. If you've played a lot of New Formats otherwise, you can easily overlook those minor differences. I saw that happen repeatedly to other players during their Let's Plays.

In Lemmicks ("Very Old Formats"), for example, I spent a great deal of time to really drive home the fact that level sides were solid. Pit Lems however does not include any levels specifically designed to remind you of Old-Formats physics - because at the time of creation, those were simply just "current physics".

[kaywhyn]

No, I simply meant that no version of "Blocking all over the world" has been fixed in Pit Lems. nin10doadict solved this level the intended way in his LP. It was only through other players' replays that I discovered it was broken, and then when I had fixed those parts of the level and included the new version on the Professional rank of LWT, Arty backrouted it again. After that, I fixed Arty's backroute in the LWT version, but I hadn't made any changes to the Pit Lems version. Remember that at the type of LWT's initial release (which was Old-Formats), most people had already moved on to New Formats exclusively, and I was getting urged left and right by the rest of the community to move on as well. Thus, I had no reason to assume anyone would still care for Old Formats Pit Lems.

Oh, got it!

Hopefully this little reminder is not a spoiler to you already - I'm just saying this for the sake of game fairness: Please keep in mind that, after several physics changes, Old-Formats physics are quite different to current New-Formats ones. There are certain things you can do in Old-Formats that you can't do in New-Formats, and vice versa. If you've played a lot of New Formats otherwise, you can easily overlook those minor differences. I saw that happen repeatedly to other players during their Let's Plays.

In Lemmicks ("Very Old Formats"), for example, I spent a great deal of time to really drive home the fact that level sides were solid. Pit Lems however does not include any levels specifically designed to remind you of Old-Formats physics - because at the time of creation, those were simply just "current physics".

Yea, it's definitely been a while since I have played any Old Formats packs, so I have certainly forgotten about some of the things that are possible in Old Formats but isn't in NF or vice versa. Paralems reminded me of some of them, such as the ceiling not being deadly but the sides were. I got to admit that the solid ceiling took me by complete surprise and did confuse me momentarily. I don't remember which level I did that in where I go through the ceiling and got hit with a surprise solid ceiling. Guess all the time I spent playing United the last several months had me so used to the deadly ceiling that I forgot about solid ceilings in the Old Formats. I remember sides being deadly in Old Formats, so this would just be a very inconsistent case of all borders deadly except the top. To add insult to injury, in very old Formats only the bottom is deadly, so it was definitely a rude awakening when I started playing packs again on v10.13.18 after so long.

So no, what you described above isn't a spoiler at all, since I played Paralems first and it reminded me of some of the differences between Old Formats and New Formats, mostly regarding the level borders. Whether or not that's helpful for OMFG 20 is a different matter, but like I said I think I just need to spend some more time on it and I think eventually I'll get it. I could skip it, but I have a personal preference of not skipping around to other levels in level packs.

[kaywhyn]

Just solved OMFG 20. Now I really wished you didn't give that major hint away like that. I thought it was clear from my post that I wasn't even asking for a hint, it was simply letting you know my progress on your pack and where I was currently stumped. Granted, I still figured out the solution myself and reasoned it out correctly with my latest post on the level borders, and I was able to test it out just now and indeed it was completely relevant and integral to the solution. Looks like I'll have to tag on a NO HINTS YET please the next time I post on a pack I'm playing and currently stuck. I think it's well-known by now that I'm one of those people who prefers no hints, even when stuck. Yes, I did ask Icho for help with United, but for the record United is the only major pack that I had to do so, and only for 2 or 3 levels. One vague hint without giving away the solution was enough to help me get past the levels I was stuck on.