Hello grams88,
I have completed the level pack, so I just wanted to attach my replays and give some feedback. I've also done an LP of the pack.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJvuoGCKxPyBXHeIsM8DzlC7. Enjoy!
General Feedback on the PackThere's going to be a lot of echoing of what others before me have already said. As some of the long-time members already stated, there's way too many of the type of levels that most in the community dislike. In particular, there's way too many builderfests, as well as a lot of unnecessarily very tall levels that don't serve any purpose for being tall. For the latter, a lot of the levels can be done on a much smaller map. For the former, I definitely don't mind the occasional one, but after a while it does get on my nerves. In the same way, I don't mind the occasional hidden exit levels. Fortunately, there's only two of them, but there's too much buried exits, though! After a while, it got on my nerves that one needs to uncover the trigger area of the exit.
I will say the same as namida here, and overall I wasn't too impressed with the pack. However, I have noted that the pack isn't all bad. Despite a lot of the levels being of the type that most don't like, there's still some true gems in here.
For the Blue Slope rank, I must say my favorites here were Blue Slope 10 -
Treat Earth Well and Blue Slope Slope 16 -
Strange Place. I would agree that Blue Slope 18 -
Very Dangerous Trail was the hardest of the entire rank. A lot of the splat falls were annoying, but that is the main obstacle of the level. Now that I think about it, I think there were some things that I could had made easier in the solution.
For the Red Slope rank, my favorites were Red Slope 3 -
Tetris Blocks, Red Slope 5 -
Think Carefully, and Red Slope 15 -
Only One Miner. Red Slope 3 took a while, but it was a really satisfying one once the solution did click. Red Slope 5 was a really good puzzle to figure and hash out although admittedly the overhang to prevent coming back to the left was a bit annoying
Red Slope 15's practically similar to Blue Slope 10 in the level idea of isolating a pioneer and then releasing the crowd later, although the solution in both cases are obvious.
I would say the hardest in the Red Slope rank was Red Slope 10 -
Learn as You Lem 2. It might seem that you have a lot of builders, but they surprisingly run out very fast. I'm not sure if it might be possible to finish with a spare builder or two, as well if a solution involving the bottom might exist. Still an unnecessarily tall level in my opinion, although without the decoration at the bottom the level would look super bare, so I think it's all right here. Also, levels where you have to assign so many of the same skill to a lot of lemmings aren't exactly my favorites, either. The level might had worked better if the entrance was a pre-assigned floater one instead.
For the Black Slope rank, I think this was probably your hardest rank in the pack. Honestly, despite being the final rank, the Orange Slope rank wasn't that bad. There were still some hard levels in there, but I think it was mostly due to how I'm already familiar with a lot of the tricks needed on many of the levels there.
My favorite in the Black Slope rank was Black Slope 1 -
Great Lemming Caper Part Two (extremely nice reworking of the level from the OL with a really good solution!
). As for the hard levels, lots of them here: Black Slope 3 -
Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere, Black Slope 7 -
Uphill Struggle, Black Slope 8 -
Welcome to the Red World, Black Slope 13 -
Only Across, Black Slope 16 -
Welcome to Grassland, Black Slope 17 -
Two Blockers, and Black Slope 18 -
Big World. The hardest part in Black Slope 3 was getting down safely, especially with the very limited builder supply. I guess the same can be said about Black Slope 8, since getting down safely is definitely the hardest part. I seemed to have found a really difficult solution to Black Slope 8, in contrast to Swerdis', hence why I really struggled with this level. The hardest part in Black Slope 13 was containing the crowds on the left side, but even after that, getting up to the exit is also very hard, especially considering the very limited builder supply.
For Black Slope 7, the main difficulty seems to come from the execution. In particular, doing the part with getting out the starting area without spending a builder was very frustrating to do. Even after that, the level still isn't a complete cakewalk, especially with making a climber friendly wall for everyone.
Black Slope 17 is extremely punishing in the skillset in that it allows absolutely no leeway or recovery from misplacing even one single builder. The hardest part to do was the far right side, but that in itself is super precise, making the turnaround point and getting up to the next platform with as little builders as possible. I would definitely reduce the precision here or even provide a couple of extra builders. Nothing is more frustrating than having to rewind so much and having to redo several parts of the level because of one screw up in one part of the level.
Most importantly, I will have to apologize for my full blown-out rage I exhibited in my LP on Black Slope 11 -
Welcome to Venus. This is truly the first time I have ever fully raged on camera in an LP. It came from a combination of factors: using a route with very fiddly terrain that kept failing, fed up with a lot of the same stuff that had already been done to death before this point by this point in time, such as with the huge builderfests and very tall levels that are not necessary at all with being tall, and just being cranky from lack of sleep. As it turns out, I failed to realize something that I never considered in any of my attempts that would had made it a solve much earlier, hence I was a complete dummy on the level. In any case, it's amazing that I've managed to hold it together for more than 20 LPs before I truly raged for the very first time in an LP video. Not to mention deep down I felt I was suffering and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, stressing out a lot, and wincing in pain so much because I really wanted to just be done with the pack and get on to others I wanted to LP, because, sorry to say it grams88, but I wasn't the least bit impressed with the pack overall. However, as I've stated many times,
it's the level I rage at, not the designer, as the author is the last person I would rage at. Even then, there's absolutely no excuse for my full-on rage, so again I apologize for that to you and also my viewers who see it if they happen to watch it. At the same time, I believe in always having the original recording, and hence I still upload it anyway, just to show viewers what can definitely happen during an LP. Obviously, I'm not proud of the moment I truly raged, but I still feel that I must show the video, anyway.
Luckily, it did get somewhat better after the Black Slope rank, because I felt the Orange Slope rank was your strongest rank in the entire pack. My favorites here were Orange Slope 1 -
Abandoned Building, Orange Slope 2 -
Cascade Again, Orange Slope 10 -
Getting Through Those Bars, Orange Slope 12 -
Trap of Death, and Orange Slope 14 -
Floating Dream. Orange Slope 2 is a very nice remake of "Cascade" from the OL. Certainly harder, especially containing the crowd in the starting area, but once you figure it out, then the rest is somewhat easy. Orange Slope 12 is a really nice one, although I just hate how the starting area is quite small to work with in order to be able to save everyone.
For Orange Slope 1, that's a really clever trick with building so that you get close enough to the wall to fall and bomb to make a hole for the climber to get into and build the splatform for the crowd!
For Orange Slope 10, I'm already familiar with the trick of removing the ceiling to keep a builder going so that he doesn't hit his head and stop, hence why I found it easy. Even then, it's quite cool that this might be the longest I've seen to repeatedly chip the ceiling off for the builder, although I think there's a similar level to this in Nuked Lems. This can be difficult to achieve due to the timing needed, but fortunately it worked out perfectly for me.
For Orange Slope 14, that's very clever to sync up lemmings so that a lemming can fall safely onto the steel block after a few builder bricks while it's still a safe drop. This seems to be the reason why we're allowed up to 10 losses so that the builders aren't wasted. Thank you for providing way more than enough builders, though!
The hardest in the Orange Slope rank were Orange Slope 4 -
Frozen Ice Cave, Orange Slope 5 -
13th Kruger, Orange Slope 6 -
Lemmings vs Spiders Two (also a very boring and annoying level to play and solve), Orange Slope 13 -
Big Tree, and Orange Slope 18 -
Fire and Death. There is a very similar level to Orange Slope 5 in Nuked Lems, except this one didn't give me as much trouble, interestingly enough. Still a really hard level, especially since it's not so obvious how to distribute the skills to any section at any point. This makes it very hard to plan out the solution. At least the number of trapdoors matches the number of lemmings, whereas there are some that don't spawn any lemmings in your Nuked Lems pack. Once again, the hardest part in Orange Slope 13 appears to be containing the crowd without a builder, as the level doesn't appear to be solvable if you do spend a builder to contain the crowd. Orange Slope 18 is a hard level only because it's the only level in the pack I wasn't able to solve after two recorded video attempts and hence had to switch to off-camera time. The solution itself fortunately isn't very tight, but there are a few very pixel precise skill assignments. I would definitely reduce the precision needed, just like Nepster said. Still quite a solid level, though!
Orange Slope 4 was just a very hard level, albeit also an annoying one with the very fiddly terrain and many places where you can't get through without being a climber, especially combined with the very restricted skillset. The start was especially hard to figure out, safely containing the crowd and figuring out what skill you can afford to use. If intended, I must say that interrupting a basher midstroke with a blocker and letting one through is quite clever! Also, I don't know if it was intended for the second icicle trap to not kill anyone due to the trigger being buried in the terrain.
The original version definitely does NOT warrant a repeat in Orange Slope 6! It was just very annoying and it's not obvious at all what is the best path to take with either of the entrances. Not to mention it just seems like a much worse complete mess of webs meshed together. I definitely think this level can go and it wouldn't harm the pack too much at all. Besides, there have already been a few bomberfest levels before this one. Guess this one just pushed the limit there.
Finally, for Orange Slope 11 -
Follow the Steps Down, My Love, the lizard trap does not eat the Lemmings at all. I checked in the editor, and the trigger is too high by 1 pixel. Therefore, my solution shouldn't work at all but it does due to the misplaced trigger. Think the easiest fix would just be to spend another skill there with another lemming ahead of time so that not too many get killed and it would still be a solve.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend anyone to put this pack on their "to-play" list due to the reasons above, although it's nice to see that you took some of the feedback to heart to improve with your second pack. Now that I've played both of your packs, albeit backwards due to playing your second pack first before your first one, I can definitely agree that Nuked Lems is somewhat a step up from this pack. Especially in the builderfest levels, where I don't think there were really any in Nuked Lems, but unfortunately there's still a lot of unnecessarily tall levels. I still saw a lot of the same things in Nuked Lems, such as that one bomberfest level and the several mini sections that I really struggled with. Still, Nuked Lems is an improvement over Ski Sloping Lemmings.
So really, I guess I might spare anyone the agony of playing through this pack. Admittedly, I really did feel like I was suffering from a heart attack at some point during the Black Slope rank and felt I was suffering unnecessarily from LPing the pack. Honestly, I felt it was the worst decision I made in LPing the pack, but that's on me, as I brought it on myself. No fault of anyone's. However, it's nice to finally know that all levels are solvable and that now there's one person who solved the entire pack.
Just like the others have said, please don't take my harsh criticism too personally as well. Like Swerdis, I myself have not made a level pack yet, and I'm not sure if I ever will, although I haven't ruled it out completely, so I'm not sure if I personally can do better than this. Still, I hope the LP is enjoyable to watch despite my rising rage as the LP goes on. Outside of this, I hope you're doing well and that we'll see you around here sometime again soon!