Author Topic: Ron Stard's Rodents  (Read 9706 times)

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Offline Ron_Stard

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Ron Stard's Rodents
« on: May 23, 2020, 12:48:45 AM »


My first level pack ever!

I've always wanted to make one with the original graphic styles and the original skills. So here it is!

Ron Stard's Rodents has 10 levels with 10 different graphic styles from the original games previous to Lemmings 2: Lemmings, Oh No! More Lemmings! and Xmas/Holiday Lemmings. I have omitted the special graphic styles because I think they are weakly associated with the Lemmings Saga.

I've tried to make levels with creative solutions, tight time limit and not too many lemmings. But of course, the experienced player may find the pack very easy and/or boring. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Changelog
2020/05/30 - Second version of the pack - 1.0.1
-Terrain changes in levels 2, 6, 7, 9 and 10 of Amusing rank
-Skillset changes in level 10 of Amusing rank
2020/05/23 - Initial release - 1.0.0
« Last Edit: September 09, 2020, 12:14:40 AM by Ron_Stard »

Offline NieSch

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2020, 03:35:34 PM »
Nice looking (large) maps and clever puzzles! I'll post some replays soon.
My NeoLemmix packs: All You Need Is Lemmings - Long Live Lemmings! - Yippee! More Lemmings
SuperLemmix: Tomb Rodents featuring Lemmina Croft

Offline Ron_Stard

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2020, 05:02:38 PM »
Nice looking (large) maps and clever puzzles! I'll post some replays soon.

Thank you for your feedback :thumbsup:

Offline NieSch

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2020, 06:09:20 PM »
I solved half of them now. I guess some solutions are not intended. Here they are:
My NeoLemmix packs: All You Need Is Lemmings - Long Live Lemmings! - Yippee! More Lemmings
SuperLemmix: Tomb Rodents featuring Lemmina Croft

Offline Ron_Stard

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2020, 06:56:10 PM »
I solved half of them now. I guess some solutions are not intended.
You're right!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Offline NieSch

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2020, 07:25:59 PM »
Yeah, backroutes can hurt. But there are always ways to fix them. And a backroutes versus fixes battle can be fun too and even improve the intended solution.
My NeoLemmix packs: All You Need Is Lemmings - Long Live Lemmings! - Yippee! More Lemmings
SuperLemmix: Tomb Rodents featuring Lemmina Croft

Offline Ron_Stard

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2020, 07:54:07 PM »
Yeah, backroutes can hurt. But there are always ways to fix them. And a backroutes versus fixes battle can be fun too and even improve the intended solution.

Agree!

Should I upload right now a progressive corrected version of my pack, or wait for all the backroutes to be found before posting it?

Offline Swerdis

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2020, 01:17:06 PM »
Hi,

since I don't make progress in SEB Lems at the moment, I decided to give another pack a try - and this would be yours. I made it to the end and want to say that I like this little pack. The levels are well designed, yet not too complicated - and though I don't exactly like time-limits, I feel they are appropriate here. I also think that I had an easy deal with some levels only because I am familiar with some tricks that are not known by total novices. That's especially true for "Christmas at Damocles' and "Workers of the World". For me, that hardest level was "Marooned" with a lot of precision required. I especially liked level 9, Honi Soit (what does that mean?). At a first glance I thought this level would be a pain because of the 44 climbers, but then it turned out to be real fun. You seem to like climbers, by the way.

All my solutions can be found on my youtube-channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Vidusaka

Offline Proxima

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Offline Swerdis

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2020, 04:29:04 PM »
Thanks!

Offline Ron_Stard

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #10 on: May 25, 2020, 06:15:32 PM »
Hi,

since I don't make progress in SEB Lems at the moment, I decided to give another pack a try - and this would be yours. I made it to the end and want to say that I like this little pack. The levels are well designed, yet not too complicated - and though I don't exactly like time-limits, I feel they are appropriate here. I also think that I had an easy deal with some levels only because I am familiar with some tricks that are not known by total novices. That's especially true for "Christmas at Damocles' and "Workers of the World". For me, that hardest level was "Marooned" with a lot of precision required. I especially liked level 9, Honi Soit (what does that mean?). At a first glance I thought this level would be a pain because of the 44 climbers, but then it turned out to be real fun. You seem to like climbers, by the way.

All my solutions can be found on my youtube-channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Vidusaka

Thank you very much for playing and for uploading your solutions to the Internet! I'm glad you liked my pack! :thumbsup:

About your solutions:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thank you very much again for taking the time to solve all the levels and record your solutions. I take it as a compliment, I didn't expected it :thumbsup:
« Last Edit: May 30, 2020, 08:53:15 PM by Ron_Stard »

Offline Swerdis

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2020, 05:49:29 PM »
Hi,

thanks for your detailed feedback. I watched your intended solutions which is always an interesting thing for me. I especially like you solution of Honi Soit. Maybe the intended loss of some Lemmings at the beginning deterred me from trying it this way. And you avoided the trick I used - to make a builder lay a step through a thin obstacle to make the fall safe on the other side. I thought that would be required here.
 
When I create levels (I didn't make a pack so far, just individual levels that are supposed to form a pack one day) I deal with backroutes depending on the level type. Let's say when a level is built around a specific trick, then figuring out that trick should be a conditio sine qua non for the player - then I want to eradicate every backroute. But there is another set of levels that instead provide a limited set of skills that can be applied anywhere. These levels are not trick-based, but force the player to economize with what he has got available. When I make a level like this, I have already in mind right from the outset that there are (probably) multiple paths possible - ideally none of them should be easy to find. In cases like this, it's not important for me to have exactly one solution - and I would remove backroutes only, if they are absolutely trivial.


Offline Ron_Stard

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #12 on: May 27, 2020, 09:15:06 AM »
Hi,

thanks for your detailed feedback. I watched your intended solutions which is always an interesting thing for me. I especially like you solution of Honi Soit. Maybe the intended loss of some Lemmings at the beginning deterred me from trying it this way. And you avoided the trick I used - to make a builder lay a step through a thin obstacle to make the fall safe on the other side. I thought that would be required here.

Actually, I put the thin steel in order to avoid that route. I was considering just leaving the lemmings fall free, since NeoLemmix doesn't have timed bombers anymore, but I wanted the levels to be exactly the same and have the same solutions for NeoLemmix and Lemmix/SuperLemmini - in fact, I upload both versions to the forum and the Camanis site. Maybe I consider to change that for this particular level.
 
When I create levels (I didn't make a pack so far, just individual levels that are supposed to form a pack one day) I deal with backroutes depending on the level type. Let's say when a level is built around a specific trick, then figuring out that trick should be a conditio sine qua non for the player - then I want to eradicate every backroute. But there is another set of levels that instead provide a limited set of skills that can be applied anywhere. These levels are not trick-based, but force the player to economize with what he has got available. When I make a level like this, I have already in mind right from the outset that there are (probably) multiple paths possible - ideally none of them should be easy to find. In cases like this, it's not important for me to have exactly one solution - and I would remove backroutes only, if they are absolutely trivial.

For me it's important to "force" the player to get the same or similar solutions I prepared, because I feel they are spectacular and brilliant (at least to some degree). But of course, that requires waaaaaay more planning and research than I did. Backroutes hurt me a little, because I didn't use unknown or uncommon glitches or tricks (except maybe in Workers of the World) that forced the player to choose another route. I think only a few of my levels allow different routes, at least from the point of view of my intended solutions.

I wonder if you and NieSch would help me with reworks and fixes of the future revisions of the levels (I mentioned both of you, since you were the only two users that gave me feedback).

Offline Swerdis

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #13 on: May 27, 2020, 05:05:01 PM »
Yes, you can count on me on that as long as my time allows it. For me, when I try to solve a level, the only thing that counts is the result. I don't shy away from using glitches when it works and I won't watch out for a better solution then. Because it's always up to the creator to prevent that :-)

Do you plan to create a larger pack?

Offline Ron_Stard

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Re: Ron Stard's Rodents
« Reply #14 on: May 27, 2020, 09:42:54 PM »
Yes, you can count on me on that as long as my time allows it. For me, when I try to solve a level, the only thing that counts is the result. I don't shy away from using glitches when it works and I won't watch out for a better solution then. Because it's always up to the creator to prevent that :-)

Thank you, I will send you some P.M. with level modifications in the following days.

Do you plan to create a larger pack?

Yes, but not adding levels to this one. My original idea was making one level per graphic style of the original games (thus designing only 10 levels), and releasing the pack for Lemmix, SuperLemmini and NeoLemmix, with the same solutions and the same (original) skills. Since that plan was completed (despite backroutes), the next logical step would be making a levelpack without being limited for the original scenarios and skills, and of course, with new levels. I am still toying around with simple ideas, because I am not familiarized with the new skills and physics.

But yes, that is my plan: to make a level pack with more levels.