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DireKrow's Playthroughs & Reviews
Proxima:
--- Quote from: DireKrow on April 14, 2020, 05:11:06 AM ---To my knowledge, this was actually one of the first - if not the first - packs ever to build levels entirely out of custom graphics like this. What an exciting piece of Lemmings history!
--- End quote ---
Very likely the first full pack with custom graphics for a DOS Lemmings-based engine (although I think there were custom VGASPECS, i.e. individual custom-graphics levels, before this). But custom graphics had a lot of history on engines that were more receptive to them, especially Cheapo.
DireKrow:
MazuLems — Part 5 (Playthrough)
MazuLems 13 - Lemming in a Cone
Spoiler (click to show/hide)Skills: 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 2 Blockers, 6 Builders, 10 Bashers, 10 Miners, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 27/30
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 80
Playthrough
There's a mountain to climb over and two water gaps to build over. It looks easy enough... or so it seemed, until you stop and really think about it. The steel wall prevents going through the mountain. The mountain is too thin to mine down and too tall to build over. Even if you do go over the mountain, the trap on the other side blocks the way. There's no climbers and only a limited resource of builders.
Is the way forward by digging under the mountain, then? How would you dig up, though? Most perplexing. I decided to take a look in clear physics mode. Maybe there's a gap between the trap triggers and the wall.
There is. So lemmings can actually fall down past the traps, provided they're right up against the inside wall when they do. I have a feeling this isn't intended, though. Check your traps, people!
Just to confirm my suspicions, I tried building over the mountain. The visible mound at the base of the mountain is too close for the builder bridge to gain enough height before it crashes into the mountain itself. So, I have to start the build from further back...
Getting up there uses 5 of my 6 builders. Way too many. I'd need at least 3 or 4 more to make it over the remaining water gaps.
What about going under the steel wall? I can dig up by repeatedly canceling bashers or miners with builders. This will eat into my supply, but maybe it uses less than 5?
Well... one less. Still not enough to even make it over the first water gap, let alone the second. This one's a stumper.
It seems like a stretch, but maybe I need to dig even lower and go under the first water gap, coming out below the bottom most trap. I thought there was no way this could work, but looking at it more closely...
I see two approaches. Either going under the exit and wrapping back around. Or building a zigzag around the trap and entering the exit from the left:
Option A uses 1 blocker and Option B uses 2 blockers. Either way, this makes managing the crowd more challenging. I'll worry about how to trap the crowd later, first I need to see if either of these routes are going to work.
One of them can be quickly ruled out:
Even starting at one of the lowest points, I can't stretch the bridge out enough to make it all the way under the exit's platform without crashing into the ceiling.
From this testing, I think the other route might actually work. Thing is, how will I contain the crowd? With no blockers, I'll need to use digging skills to hold them in place. What makes this even more complicated is that I eventually need another lemming to be the first blocker. How do I release one lemming without releasing the crowd? It'd be easy with climbers, but I have none.
Regarding the 2nd worker, what I opt to try is this:
I have a lot of extra digging skills. I can just leave the extra worker bouncing around in the tunnel and control the timing of their arrival at the bridge by making them dig:
A couple of miner-basher delays later and we have our second worker arriving just as the first finishes their job. Looks like this approach will work. What about the crowd, though? In that little test, you can see I used a blocker. That's unacceptable, since I need both to build the bridge to the exit. I could bomb in the snow to trap the crowd, but that alone isn't quite enough. The 2nd worker will eventually walk back and get stuck too.
I resolve this by having the first worker start their bash before I contain the crowd. Then, once they're past the steel block at the bottom of the level, I establish the crowd-trap. The last lemming to turn around inside the basher tunnel becomes my 2nd worker. They then mine into the steel block themselves, creating a place for them to turn around inside the tunnel:
I build the bridge as before. The second worker becomes the second blocker. At that point, I can free the crowd and they'll remain safe between the two blockers.
Now I just build to the exit:
Success! Used all of the blockers+builders and saved exactly the required number of lemmings. A surprisingly tricky puzzle considering how simple the layout was.
Reflecting on the puzzle makes me appreciate it even more.
Addendum
The walkthrough describes another way to resolve the "contain the crowd + let workers go when they're needed" problem which is cool and I wish I had thought of it. I'm glad I checked it, because it's a trick I'll probably need to keep in mind for future puzzles in other packs too.
Rather than just allowing the 2nd worker to bounce around freely in the the tunnel, you can have all of your workers isolate themselves in seperate digger pits:
Then when it's time for the next one to go, you bash through the side to release them. Nifty!
Review
Pros: Enjoyed the crowd control elements of the puzzle. Enjoyed how limited resources dictated a slightly creative solution. Tougher than it looked.
Cons: Some traps and terrain are misplaced.
Look: It's pretty passable. The snow environment is hard to sell. It's hard to see in the small screenshots, but the lower left corner of the mountain terrain piece is exposed.
Score: 7/10
Solution Replay
MazuLems 14 - Mastermined
Spoiler (click to show/hide)Skills: 10 Climbers, 10 Floaters, 10 Blockers, 3 Builders, 10 Bashers, 1 Miner
Save Requirement: 48/50
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 62
In original releases of the game, 14 was a completely different level called 'Up, Up and Away!' - that one's since been moved to the Bonus levels.
Playthrough
From the level title and the layout, it's clear that the key to this level is the single miner. I'm guessing I have to use blockers to bounce it back and forth, avoiding holes in the terrain.
I can lose 2 lemmings, which means I can use at most 2 blockers. I also have 3 builders to plug holes and turn around with. Maybe something like this...
But there's clearly 6 places where I need to turn or plug holes. Hrm, well, lets try it out anyway and see what happens...
The first thing to note is that when I mine immediately out of the hatch, one lemming slips past. That's annoying.
I can fix it by changing the start position of the mine to the right, over by the mounds of dirt. I'm worried this will mean introducing another blocker into the miner tunnel, but we'll see what happens.
Alright, perfect. Now I just have to build to turn around the miner...
...Wait
*facepalm*
Yep! Genius here forgot that you can't use a builder to turn around a miner mid-mine. Oof, what a birdbrain. :forehead:
Well, that actually changes everything. How am I supposed to stop the crowd from falling in holes and navigate the miner all the way down using only 2 blockers? You can't. That means I need to free the blockers. From my perspective, freeing blockers inside of a miner tunnel elbow can be problematic. I might be wrong, but if you tried to bash them free, you would usually need a way to stop the basher, which is not always available.
So I get this point where I've used two blockers, and the question becomes, how do I free them?
The top one seems to be a lost cause, but luckily, I see a way to free the bottom one. I can have the bash run into the steel block.
It's necessary to block the crowd in at the bottom after one lemming slips past. I need time for that worker to build to the exit, after all. Luckily, that blocker can be freed as well. By putting it at the lip of the tunnel exit, a basher can knock them free while going through to the steel in the lower right.
Thus we end up with...
...the solution! While I didn't get stuck, this still struck me as a great puzzle with a cool solution. I've done a few puzzles involving blockers in miner tunnels at this point, but back when this came out I imagine it was a little more novel. I think it still stands up today. Probably my favourite puzzle in the pack so far.
Review
Pros: Simple yet strong showcase of blocker-miner interaction. I like that you need to figure out how to trap and free the crowd part way through, rather than all at the start. Freeing the blockers was a natural extension on the usual longer-miner puzzle concept.
Cons: Would be tedious to restart or pick lemmings out the crowd in a world without NL's convenience features.
Look: I'm not sold on the use of the blue triangles, but the rest of the level looks great. I'm digging the crumbling industrial ruin vibe it has going on.
Score: 8/10
Solution Replay
MazuLems 15 - The Leap from the Lion's Head
Spoiler (click to show/hide)Skills: 10 Climbers, 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 10 Blockers, 6 Builders, 10 Bashers, 10 Miners, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 60/60
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50
In original releases of the game, 15 was a completely different level called 'Lemming Come Back!' - that one's since been moved to the Bonus levels.
Playthrough
Firstly, what's with the 23? Is it a reference to the 23 enigma? Why here in a level that's an Indiana Jones reference?
Y'know, something feels off to me. Are those little black bars I see between those stars?
Well would you look at that!
Like Phantom Exit, this is a level which suffered in the conversion from DOS to NeoLemmix. Well, I say suffered, but that's subjective, considering the original gimmick is that this level contained invisible terrain. Here, it's been replaced with black terrain. It's almost invisible, but if you look closely you can see it against the blue tinted background.
Invisible anything is really anti-fun to me, but to this level's credit, the implementation isn't as ridiculous as it was in Phantom Exit. There's actually logic you can use to figure out where the invisible terrain is. Past a point, there is no guesswork involved. That's a big improvement. It's cool to see them trying something completely different and I appreciate the effort to make it more of a puzzle this time and less trial and error game.
All of the invisible terrain consists of thin lines between two stars of the same shape. By observing the level layout carefully, you can figure out where all of the invisible terrain is by looking for stars of the same shape, on the same row/column, and drawing lines between them.
With that in mind, we see that there's a few barriers blocking the exit on the far right. We have 6 builders... I'm thinking of doing something like this:
But the puzzling thing about this plan is the very end. How will I get over that crystal sticking out of the ground? It's surprising to think it could cause a problem, it seems like such an insignificant obstacle... but if I try to bash through it, I'll just burrow into the mountainside. Mining and digging won't work. I'm not allowed to bomb, since I have to save everyone.
Sure enough, I went ahead with the plan, but once I reached the crystal I couldn't figure out how to get past. Was there a way to save a builder? I thought about it, but couldn't figure out a way to do so. The only way to get past the crystal seems to be taking a route that lands on top of it.
I review the rest of the level closely and notice something actually really clever. The invisible terrain on the left side of the level is positioned such that you can use it to climb up really high.
In fact, it looks like this might work! If so, that's a brilliant little trick, because it forces the player to really engage with the invisible terrain gimmick and use it to their advantage.
It takes 5 builders to get up top. Note that we need to save everyone, so I made sure to put my blockers in spots I could free them. The one on the right with a basher, the one on the left with a digger falling out of the hatch.
It's clear sailing to the finish. I even have a builder spare!
I free the crowd and they walk through the stars, to the exit. Success!
Okay so I admit, this puzzle was more fun than I was expecting when I heard it contained hidden terrain. Does this mean hidden terrain is a good, though? Nope, and I stand by that. I'm not convinced it improved the puzzle at all. I knew where all of the terrain was due to Clear Physics Mode, so I avoided the worst of the gimmick.
Would have I had anywhere near as much fun if I had to figure it out from scratch? Probably not, but especially if I was unlucky and didn't figure out the trick to it. If you had to figure out where all of the terrain was through trial and error? Good luck with that. The solution demands you figure it all out, too.
Review
Pros: Makes productive use of its gimmick in the solution. The gimmick creates a cool aesthetic. Tries something different. Unique.
Cons: Invisible terrain. Trick to finding it may not be obvious and lead to big frustration. Gimmick didn't translate very well to NeoLemmix.
Look: The X stars don't quite as starlike as the + stars. Aside from that though, it isn't bad. I like the orbs half embedded into the terrain.
Score: 4/10
Solution Replay
Proxima:
"Mastermined" might be the first level ever to use the trick of turning a miner with a blocker. I suspect that Martin didn't realise that you can just assign the blockers inside the miner tunnel; you were meant to drop floaters through the gaps in the top platform, have them climb up and block under the spouts of the flamethrowers. This only requires two blockers, explaining the 48/50 save requirement (although 100% is possible by releasing the blockers afterwards).
Very nice review of "Lion's Head". Despite not being a great level, that was a really entertaining read :thumbsup:
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