Hello grams88,
I have solved the entire pack. My replays are attached. I have also LPed the pack.
Link to LP:
Kaywhyn's LP of Grams88's Nuked Lems pack. Enjoy!
Regarding the difficulty, after reading from you that the pack is difficult, I was definitely worried that the pack would get too hard even for someone like me, but now that I have solved the entire pack, I'm definitely in agreement that the pack is difficult and challenging. The pack starts with a not too difficult level, but at the same time it's still not trivial. From there on, the levels got quite difficult, although there were some levels where the solution is obvious, but the execution is difficult. Some had pretty tough timings to do.
I say the hardest the pack ever gets is level 13. As can be seen in my LP, this level took up the most videos, 3, before I finally solved it. However, there is a problem with the level where there's 11 entrances even though there's only 10 lemmings. As a result, one of the entrances doesn't even spawn any lemmings. I'm wondering if this was an oversight, as this is definitely a design error.
Speaking of design, there were some levels that were huge where one doesn't even use most of the map. Here I'm thinking 1 and 4. The former seems to have no purpose in having the level be that big, as you can certainly achieve the same result with a much smaller map. The latter is worse in this regard, although props to you for at least in the effort of decorating the level in an attempt to make it look nice
9 would also fall under the latter, although it's not a big level but still has an obvious half of the level that can't be used in the solution. At the same time, the bubble tileset happens to be a tileset that I like, due to the design and also association of fun time with bubbles.
As for the quality, there's definitely plenty of variety in the puzzles. Some were difficult but they felt satisfying to figure out. There were some levels that I wasn't a fan of due to the fiddlyness of the solutions, especially since most of the time it's difficult to know where to place the skills in order to be efficient in the solution. As a result, some of the levels have potential to be better than they currently are with some tweaking/fixing. However, the fact that I solved the entire pack means that it's been proven that all levels are currently solvable and possible.
Overall, this was a decent pack. It's not over the top great, but at the same time it isn't terrible either. So, I would say the quality is average, almost leaning towards above it here. Compared to your Ski Slope pack, I have no idea if it's an improvement, since I haven't played your other pack yet. I will, though. I'll probably just go through it the way it is currently, with a level removed from each rank, resulting in only 19 levels per rank.
1-1: Can You Remember How Nice level to start off the pack. Reminds me of the penultimate level of Clammings, the pack I LPed before I LPed this pack, since it requires the builder wall to turn lemmings back to the exit as well. Again, the huge tallness of the level serves absolutely no purpose at all. It's still a decent looking level though.
1-2: Complex Somewhat more difficult than the previous level, though still not too hard. I say the hardest part is the beginning with getting both crowds up to be able to keep going to the right towards the exit, especially with the limited skillset.
1-3: Down Fall Lemming This one was a hard one for me. I was told by another member that he went down the left side of the level, the route which you do see in the LP but I quickly rejected it as not being possible. That likely explains why I found the level difficult. I guess I thought it wasn't possible due to the skillset. Nice decent looking level!
1-4: Gap Fix I thought this was going to be extremely fiddly to execute, but it turned out to not be so bad. I did have the climber worker make a round, but luckily that's all that is needed in order to have him bunch up with the crowd to get through the spinning wheel traps to minimize losses. Here, the level suffers the same problem as 1 in that it's a tall level where the bottom isn't even used in the solution. However, you get bonus points for the decoration there.
1-5: Lemming Run This one was quite hard. Figuring out the correct path to take is very difficult, especially with the very limited amount of builders and the restricted skillset.
1-6: Lemmings Suicide Yea, I'm in agreement with you here in that I wasn't a fan of this level at all. Way too much bombing. It's not obvious how many bombers are needed to make it through each of the very thick floors. I'm generally not a fan of levels where one has to repeatedly spam the same skill over and over in a very short amount of time. In a way, 4 would be another I wasn't a fan of, although it's just simply spamming climbers to every lemming in a safe environment, so it wasn't too bad.
1-7: Man I Am Stuck This was another hard one for me. This is the only level of the LP that isn't the original recording. I had OBS open, but I had forgotten to switch back to the hotkey function of OBS instead of the function that's printed on the keyboard key via Ctrl + esc. Luckily, I had realized it about 5 minutes into doing the level, so only about 5 minutes of the recording isn't the original. Even then, this level took a long time to solve. It's not easy at all to figure out how to get up the tall level. In particular, the route to take to do so isn't easy. It can also be fiddly in the execution. Fortunately, I'm very well aware of the trick of cancelling midstroke with a blocker and bombing close to it to release him while keeping the staircase intact.
1-8: Muddy Perhaps the easiest level of the pack up to this point. It does feel a bit hackish, though. In any case, nice short and easy 1-of-everything level and was one of my favorites.
1-9: Pipe Pits This one seems like a very severe backroute. It really seems that the level should be harder than that. Then again, it's probably intended, although there is a lot of pixel precision in the digger basher staircase I did at the end. Once more, the bottom half is not and can't be used at all in the solution, although this gets a free pass due to how I like the bubble tileset and the level looks quite nice.
1-10: Sand Slabs This one was difficult for me as well. In particular, I was trying to see if I could save a basher instead of use it in the starting area so that I have one for the end. It's not easy to work out how to make sure everyone is safe at the start. Knowing myself, I likely overcomplicated the solution to this level.
1-11: Save Two Not Four This one I thought wasn't so bad at all, but it was still somewhat challenging. My solution involves getting through the traps without getting anyone killed by them. Originally, I was going to send them out in groups of two through the traps, but I think the problem I had was one of them would need to go back to release the other lemmings later on at the start, and that would end up getting the lemming killed once he's on the left side of the spinning wheel trap where the trigger is. It would necessitate the use of another builder or so in order to avoid getting killed.
1-12: Snow Sensation This one was a hard one. The most difficult was figuring out how to get the bottom crowd up. It's clear that all of them are climbers, but it was hard to figure out where they should go to get up the level. This was still a nice puzzle, though. Here, it wasn't so bad with all the climbers, at least compared to level 4, where there's 60 that need to be climbers.
1-13: Ten Lemming Challenge Challenge indeed. This is by far the hardest level of the entire pack, as clearly shown by how it took me 3 videos before I finally solved the level. It's never certain whether you have the skills distributed correctly at any point, and the risk of running out of skills is very high here. The most difficult entrances to figure out were all the left ones except the one with the lattice grid where it's a dig and that's it. In the end, I manage to have just a blocker and climber leftover. As already mentioned, the level has a problem in that there's 11 entrances but only 10 lemmings. As a result, one entrance doesn't even spawn any lemming. Seems like a oversight design error here.
1-14: This Will Be Mayhem Much easier than the previous one. I say that's really interesting going down through the right edge to set up the route for the remaining lemmings. The most difficult part is probably the staircase on the pillar down where the exit is, but otherwise it's an easy level.
1-15: Timing Problem The next stumper for me. The solution is obvious, just the execution is difficult in order to not lose that many lemmings. In my unsolved attempt, it just simply required a minor tweak at the beginning to get a working solution in the next video. I thought it was going to be quite fiddly due to the climbers and floaters. I tried to compress the groups as much as I could with the floaters initially, but my working solution has so many climbers and floaters leftover. I guess the distance between the blocker and wall was just right so that you can get by with not too many losses to the rope trap. Even then, the level is already annoying as is.
Here, I feel as if I have played this level before. If it's not this one, I seem to recall playing an extremely similar level to this. If I have, I don't recall where the level came from.
1-16: Too Hectic Somewhat easy level. Solution feels hackish to me, especially since the timing has to be right in order to not lose anyone else besides the bomber. This definitely had a "how in the world do you get the lemmings down safely from a very high place if you don't even have floaters or none of them are pre-assigned floaters?" reaction from me. Then I realized how the wall on the sides aren't exactly vertical and there's some offset to provide stepping stones to break their fall. I'm not sure if it's possible to bomb and not have to use a builder to allow them to get down safely, though. Even then, you can afford to use a builder for it and still have enough to solve the level.
1-17: Trapped In Cave Nice 1 builder puzzle! The only hard part is getting up the web so that you can build to the exit. Save requirement is very lenient here, which allowed me to lose a couple that slipped past the digger tunnel at the start.
1-18: Two Sand Lemmings I really like this one. Very nice puzzle that was satisfying to figure out. The hardest part was getting up to the exit. There might be easier ways to get the climber to turn back to the left after mining the non-climber out. I would provide more leeway with the right lemming so that it's clear he can make it down safely with the miner. It's all dependent on where the digger is placed. This is another level I feel I have played before, but whether I have or not I'm not sure. I also don't remember where the level comes from if I have. It definitely looks and feels familiar.
1-19: View From Earth Due to the tall size, I thought I was going to be stuck here for a while. It turned out to not be as hard as I thought. It can definitely be fiddly, though. Bombing through the first wall at the start was the most difficult due to the extreme precision needed. It almost doesn't work either, and it really looked as if they wouldn't be able to step out to the right after the third bomber.
1-20: Volcano Hell Nice level to round out the pack. Certainly nowhere near the hardest level for the final level of the pack. Solution is obvious, execution can be a bit wonky, but that's due to the timing needed to have a worker lemming slip by and blocking with a nearby lemming to turn the miner around after breaking through the wall to the right.
Once again, nice job and attempt with the pack. Thank you for recommending this pack for me to LP. As for my call, I wouldn't exactly suggest to play the pack, since I think it is of average quality. Not over the top great, but at the same time the pack isn't terrible either. It still might be fine for those who loves the game in general to play. I still see great potential with the pack being much better with some major changes, though. I think had you not suggested this pack to LP, I might not had even played it all even though I have plans to eventually play all packs available. In particular, I mostly played the pack to see if I'm able to get through it due to what sounds like a difficult pack and how bad it would stump even someone like me, which as you know I have solved so many packs. Indeed, it was difficult and challenging, and certainly some of the levels were satisfying to figure out.
I hope you find the LP, replays, and feedback helpful!
