Integral Lemmings

[Guigui]

Thank you for the replay. We have more or less the same solution of compression involving getting as many lems as possible into the famous small step made by a basher during its motion.

Though you compress higher than I do, which is not silly at all actually : why let them descend to make them ascend later ?

I love that your solution is "clean", in the sense that you compress the exact required number of lemmings to make the ascending stair. I'm joining another cleaner version of mine in the sense that I compress them all on the same frame, and use only the required workers from that clean crowd.

[Guigui]

And now I have cleared the whole pack, with the talismans.

As everyone said before me, this is a very hard and excellent pack ! All levels are carefully designed, solutions are always clever and have a lot of variety, and the high difficulty makes it very satisfying to finally be able to solve levels.
The levels in the first Alpha rank are all open-ended, but it does not mean they are very easy, at all ! And the talismans attached to almost all of them make them very hard 

My way to approach talismans now is not to look at their requirements in the 1st place. So I play and clear the level normally to get the general idea of it. Then I look at the talisman and play the level again to try to get it if possible. This is why you'll see 2 replays for each level with talisman.

Also, being a math teacher, I appreciated the numerous references to maths and science in general in that pack, and in its creator's username 

Incredible job on -ln(cos(x)) for his first level pack 

I'm giving some thoughts on individual levels, the ones that struck me the most.

Spoiler

Alpha 2 : first clear I went for killing all Zombies with the trap up there. It was satisfying to watch them get squished
Talisman took much more time, hard to imagine a way to trap the zombies and escape at the same time !

Alpha 4 : I could do the clean compression required fo the talisman without using the RR. I guess with the given miners and how you can adjust them, you can just create a compression pit which has the correct width for them to compress cleanly. The walker and empty bashers skills allowed to perfect the compression and loose only 1 lemming to the trap.

Alpha 5 : how hard is this one ! Normal clear is manageable, but talisman requires to not loose a single lemming and this is another story.
In the end I used the "take it as it comes" approach. Meaning I did not make many plans ahead, but just used "optimal" methods when they were needed to progress through the level.
Twice I used the platform bricks that go through terrain when the platformer gets stopped by a very thin wall. This reminded of some Armani's levels which used that too, crazy.
In the end I did not have that much trouble getting a close enough crowd to trap them with the last platformer.
This level certainly taught me a lot about sliders, jumpers, platformers. Thank you !

Alpha 6 : what a nice level ! It took me some time to understand what needed to be done, and much more time to do it in under 1m30s for the talisman. "Quick Sort" is definitely the correct name for this talisman ; can you imagine a "Bubble Sort" level tan x dx ?
As everyone, the hardest part was to sort out the floaters from the swimmers. I did it using very close compression, plus the very small delay given to floaters when they open their umbrella.
In the end I think I have a somehow clean talisman solution. Then I looked at Ichotolot's solution to compare and say proudly (no pun intended Icho  ) : your solution is a total mess ! Mine is cleaner 

Alpha 8 : I love this level ! I also learned a lot about laserers here, and could do a save all.

Alpha 9 : kind of easier than the previous level to me, same mechanics used.

Alpha 10 : now this is a masterpiece ! First clear I killed the leftmost zombies, and avoided the right ones. It looked natural but used a lot of resources.
Second clear for the talisman gave a real awe moment :  realization that I could extend that basher all the way through to free both the right and left crowd !
But then putting that extension in place was really tough because so many things have to be taken into account : platform all the way through at the correct height, leave a zombie alive somewhere so that the basher turns into one and does not enter the exit, make sure you have enough resources to free all 3 crowds at the end.
My solution works, and use all resources.
Then I watched Icho's solution for the talisman, it is mainly the same one but is more insane with the basher going down some bridges, and the flow of builders in a hurry at the end to build the necessary bridges. Crazy !
Congratulations for this brilliant level.

Espilon 2 The problem is quite clear after some tries : if you build from the platform then the lems splat before the exir. If you build from the floor lower, the splatform is not high enough. So what to do ??
I love this solution

Espilon 3 I found this one very hard, mainly the part when one needs to avoid the splat by tweaking the diggers. Maybe there is an easier solution.

Espilon 5 Yes, the worker can do everything. I'd think this solution is backrtoute, since it is a very straightforward level this way.

Espilon 6 An occurence of "trigger the thing that will unblock the blockers, before the blockers are even set". Nicely done.

Espilon 7 Roadblock for some days to me. Dolly Dimple bridge on the left side is ok. But the blocker freed by the bomber on this thin floor of the bridges eluded me for a long time. Hard to execute !

Espilon 8 Favorite of kaywhyn, and hard talisman. Discussion above.

Espilon 9 The solution appears quite quick here, but the timer is the issue.
And now appears a very rare case : timed level where if you free the crowd too early, you'll actually loose to time ! Great design !

Espilon 10 Very good finisher for the rank. I love how it is called "what have we learned so far ?" and indeed uses many techniques already seen : Dolly Dimple bridge, mid-air bomber. Plus a blocker used as a waiter, I love them. Brilliant level.

Delta 1 The first level I actually played from the pack, due to my weird habit of playing the ranks backward. And that was a tough start ! I finally got that needed half-turn by having 2 very close lemmings : when one of them becomes a stoner mid-air, the second one gets trapped in the stone and turns. Wow !

Delta 4 Another case of basher extension with platformer. Same method that I used in Alpha 10, but way easier to set up here than in Alpha.

Delta 6 Intimidating at first due to the lack of constructive. Thoug as Icho said, once you see how to do it, it is not that hard to execute. Taught me a lot about stackers too, nice.

Delta 9 Tough one. If like me you want to keep a builder to get above the trap and be able to get over the last gap with an isolated worker, you'll have a very hard time !
Just bomb the trap, and accept to build the last gap while some lems are drowning looks easier.
For some tries I ended up a lemming short of requirement, then I had to willingly cut the shrugger animations in some builder to save some frames and reach the required number.

Delta 10 Not my favorite level I must say. This is the kind of level in which you have to experiement to see what does work and what does not. No real puzzle involved, just trial and error.
After many tries I thought I was about to give up, when I finally could go up that last step with a mid-air stoner triggered right before a builder. This allowed to go higher than the builder itself, and that was done ! I was relieved.