Always nice when a band member leaves the band hanging a few hours before the gig. In this case, the band member that spontaneously threw in the towel was my old laptop. But thanks to me having backed-up everything in Dropbox, as well as having my previous ZIP file from this thread to save a couple of what seemed like somehow "corrupted" level files, the show can continue as planned!
Only three more levels to go!The reason why I've still added another update to the starting post now (aside from wanting to be on the safe side again with regards to any possible data loss
) is that a couple of levels needed fixing due to not one, but two different physics changes:
Glider-Faller physics change:- Fire escape (Soft rank)
- Hunting high and low (Soft rank)
- Touch the hand of a Lem (Loud rank)
- Valkea joulu (Heavy rank)
- Forlorn skies (Hardcore rank)
"Fire escape" now gives the solution away a little more because a crucial piece of terrain is now shaped in a more salient way. But eh, it's a first-rank level, so why not.
"Hunting high and low" needed some additional updrafts to still catch a Glider who would otherwise have fallen through them.
"Touch the hand of a Lem" somehow had the fire trap in the middle reaching slightly too far up, so that it killed a lemming before a crucial skill assignment.
"Valkea joulu" didn't actually require any level fixing, only my replay needed to be adjusted. You just might want to check yours if you've already played this level. In my case, I didn't even have to replay manually from the point on where the replay broke - just some small replay editing was sufficient. (In case you're new and don't know how this works: Press the key E to select from a list and delete any missplaced skill assignments; press W to turn the replay icon blue so that you can add in further skills without stopping the currently running replay).
"Forlorn skies", as I said earlier, was affected with regards to the starting altitude of a Glider. However, this is in the player's hands, so here also only your replay file might have to be fixed. There was nothing broken about the level itself.
Ohnoers-drown physics change- I believe I can fly (Loud rank)
It took me a while to understand how the Swimmers in this level could actually drown. Especially because this solution doesn't use Swimmers in their standard application:
Swimmers usually don't oh-no. However, Climbers do oh-no. Oh-noers, according to the new physics change and internal game logic, need their hands to oh-no, and therefore always drown, even if they are Swimmers.
Thus, the interaction of Climber, Swimmer, and Bomber was what was causing trouble in this level. I sadly had to fix it in a way now that takes something pretty unique away from the level (the water-on-terrain is now one pixel narrower, so that the Climbers just climb up regular terrain in which they can comfortably oh-no). But at least the solution didn't have to change on a conceptual level.
There is also a music.nxmi file included now! It will simply establish the standard rotation for my custom recordings of the original Lemmings music.
If you don't have the mp3s yet, simply download them from the Lemmings World Tour thread, the tracks are identical.
Finally, apparently I completely forgot about one of my own statements from a previous post:
the download hasn't been upgraded yet, because there's only one more level missing until the Heavy rank will also be completed.
As you can see, the next post after that was already entirely about the Hardcore rank.
I hadn't actually finished the Heavy rank yet! The last level was still missing. The reason I never noticed was that my Heavy folder contained 32 files (30 levels + levels.nxmi + rank sign), as expected. However, one of them was only reserved as a title, the file was empty. I should have noticed in-game in the level selection menu, but I didn't, at least for a long time.
So unless your level selection menu (Armani? kaywhyn? ) already has 30 levels on the Heavy rank and I've missed something / lost a level in the crash, this one should be the missing level from the Heavy rank (meaning I just created it today):
Burning the witchesAnd here are five more for Hardcore, bringing the total level count up to 117 out of 120.
This is the one I was working on when my old laptop crashed, and that I re-created from a spontaneous hand-drawing and memory this morning, having just enough time to save it in my Dropbox before my laptop crashed a second time, this time for good:
Nemesis - sounds like an apt title given the context, but the name was actually already selected prior to that
A slightly more daring case of original-Lemmings tileset mixing:
Crystal mountainThe Hardcore rank features predominantly Death-Metal songs. But I had to add a few more famous Black-Metal bands, as well, like Gorgoroth. Of course, we all know what those types like to sing about:
Open the gatesAnother song by Venom. And what a fitting title for a level on the last rank of a Lemmings pack!
Mayhem with mercyAnd another one with a wonderfully whacky and weird solution. Somewhat pixel-precise, but very cool when it works out!
Fall from grace