LemFan's various packs

[JawaJuice]

@Plodderuk Cheers, your first hint helped - dunno why I didn't think of that, but the second... not so much.

Spoiler

If you make the third lemming out of the hatch a climber, you actually end up only losing a single lemming before the platform is complete. However, I'm still faced with the same problem for the rest of the level and saving the extra lems doesn't seem to help any. I suspect I'm just not aware of this trick you mention. One of the few tricks I know that fall into the 'shouldn't work but does' category is the basher/blocker trick (which LemFan has used elsewhere). This is one of my gripes with his levels actually - there is the odd one that can only be completed by knowing some obscure trick. That's poor level design imo. I'd personally be happy for you to post your replay of this level so I can learn a new trick!

[LemFan]

Here is the replay, this is the solution! It is solvable

[JawaJuice]

Funnily enough, I *just* cracked it I was just about to post my replay, which I will do and then compare to yours, LemFan. I'm not sure what trick @plodderuk was referring to -

Spoiler

I didn't need any tricks, just had to send the climbers up closer together so that the bomber doesn't disrupt the wall for the second climber.

While you're here, @LemFan, do you agree that The Top Card is not solvable as it stands?

I'll also say Lemmings Obliterated was a nice pack It's a pity you never got around to finishing it off.

[JawaJuice]

Yep, your solution is pretty much the same as mine, which doesn't surprise me - I don't see any other way it could be done.

[Plodderuk]

Here are some more detailed comments on:
Lemmings Obliterated
I was looking for a relatively easy pack, and Lemmings Obliterated fits the bill. This pack ranges in difficulty from Very Easy to Medium, but mostly Easy – though some are Easy only if you know the relevant trick. There is mild progression in difficulty over the 3 ranks, the first 2 with 50 levels each, then 25 in the 3rd rank. The levels are not numbered, so I've been playing them in alphabetical order of their title. There are some nice challenges, particularly in the later levels.
The pack uses the 8 classical skills, plus Platformers, Stackers, Fencers, Hang Gliders and Walkers, and occasional use of Stoners, Swimmers and Cloners. It makes less use of traps than most packs. Only a few levels need perfect placement or timing.
One level appears impossible, as JawaJuice has noted.
Comments on these and the more notable levels in each rank:

Pathetic rank

The 3rd level, "Adding a Couple of Lems" was not straightforward. It's simple to save all but the last lemming; but freeing the Blocker without losing others needs the lemming that does this to be well separated from the others, and it took me multiple attempts to achieve this.
6th level "Basking in the Bricks" – why provide Disarmers in a level with no traps?
21st level "Jack of Crystals" – the key to making best use of the scarce skills is choosing where and how to use the Digger.
43rd level "The Cubical" - the solution to this has some nice touches, particularly in how to allow the advance lemming to get back to the group, and how to free the Blocker and get the advance lemming home.

Reasonable rank

1st level "Acknowledgements" – this level really frustrated me. From the terrain and the Save requirement, it's obvious what sort of solution is needed. But the terrain also means that each lemming lands in its first frame; this can make it difficult or impossible – depending on when and where a Blocker is positioned - to distinguish an individual lemming and assign it as a Floater, until and unless it falls into the pit. I ended up with a green tick here, but I'm not sure how, and it's not in my Replays.
11th level "Condensation" – requires quite a bit of thought to identify the complicated route which the advance lemming needs to take.
24th level "Modernised Level" – a nice puzzle, with the platforming needing careful positioning.
26th level "ProbLematic" – with careful attention to the terrain, this level is easier than it first appears.
28th level "Rainforest Hunt" – needs careful timing and positioning. At first I couldn't see the relevance of the Stoner, but this becomes clear later on in the level.
33rd level "Singing a Song" – this is one of several levels where a roundabout route is enforced for the advance lemming, in this case to help overcome the shortage of Bashers.
37th level "The Lem Stairwell" – another nice puzzle, where it took me a while to work out how to save one of the Climbers, which is needed to meet the Save requirement.
40th level "The Top Card" – this is the impossible level. I can't see any hope of a solution with the skills provided. I wondered whether there was a clever solution approaching the exit from the far side, but the terrain does not allow this.
44th level "Try the Farmland" – the 'Save 37' requirement can be exceeded, saving all 40. Maybe a backroute?
48th level "Wall Mutilation" – a straightforward level at first sight, but with a couple of subtleties. The terrain allows the Digger-Blocker trick if used at the right place. Also, you need to think ahead about how the Climber will be saved.
50th Level "Wish Comes True" – another tricky puzzle. Working out where to use the Digger and the Stacker was the key for me.

'Depressive' rank:
There are quite a few easy levels in this rank. Comments on some of the less easy:

Spoiler

7th level "Ghostly Forest Beast" – the terrain here leaves many possible routes to ascend to the exit. It's not too difficult to exceed the target and save all.
9th level "Intruders in the Antarctic" – it took me quite a while to get this right; it needs accurate placement of the Bomber and the Miner. 
14th level "Silly Boy" – I'm not sure that my solution is the intended one.
15th level "Something Else Works" – this had me puzzled for some time. There may be several alternative solutions. The key elements for mine were: careful placement of the skills used by the exit, to give enough room for what needed to be done later; and solving the problem caused by this placement, when the mineshaft exit was just too high for walkers to ascend into it.
19th level "Too Far into the Novel" and 23rd level "Vacuum Sucker" – these levels are all about timing, to give the advance lemming(s) time to do their work before the followers come along and fall to their doom. "Vacuum Sucker" is the more difficult, but it's possible to save well over the required number.
24th level "Wafers in the Red Bricks" – I tried 3 different places to use the Bomber; one got close to a solution, but none of them quite worked. Then I realised there is a fourth option; with this it is possible – with a slight tweak - to save 39 rather than the required 38.
25th level "Walk in the Woods" – if my solution is the intended one, this level is a classic of misdirection. The problem with my first attempts was with the mineshaft: either it ended too high (at 7 pixels) for the group to ascend into it; or, if reduced to 5 pixels, this left a hole elsewhere in the mineshaft floor. The obvious likely remedy would be to place it to leave a step 6 pixels high – but, despite multiple tweaks, I could not achieve this. With a different solution 38 lemmings can be saved, but that's 1 short of the requirement. So I went for something completely different, where it's easy to save 38, and the required 39 can be saved with a bit of care; one feature of the terrain makes me think this is the intended solution, though I'm not completely sure.

@JawaJuice: re the Antarctic level, your solution and mine are virtually identical. When I referred to a 'trick' I simply meant what happens when a lemming reaches a thin ceiling from below. I guess it's arguable whether this should be described as a trick.

LemObl_Path_Plukz.zip 
LemObl_Reas_Plukz.zip
LemObl_Dep_Plukz.zip 

[JawaJuice]

@Plodderuk Yes, I realized that we were probably talking about the same thing - it's not something I would personally describe as a trick, but perhaps it should be. As you say, it's definitely arguable.

Spoiler

The lightbulb moment with this level for me was realizing that the climbers needed to be closer together so that the second climber is already past the point where the bomb impacts the wall he's climbing.

It was one of the trickiest levels in the whole pack for me, along with Walk in the Woods, Wafers in the Red Brick, Expo Dept and Too Far Into the Novel from Depressive rank. As far as The Top Card goes, unlike the two apparently impossible levels from the LemFanLems I pack, it's not really clear what LemFan's intent might have been. My guess is it would have involved climbing up, turning around, mining down to the crowd, then to avoid the climber climbing off screen to the left, dig down to the water, and the last lemming dig through the platform so the final two can swim/climb to the exit. But that would require considerably more skills than those given.

RE: Acknowledgements, horrible level tbh. I solved it as much by luck as judgement. As you say, it's obvious how it should be solved but executing it is a royal pita. It reminds me of the Just a Second level that was created more as demo of what could be done in the game. I did attach that replay but it's probably not worth looking at.

In terms of attaching a zip file, I'm obviously no expert being a relatively new joiner myself, but what I do is go to the Preview pane, then simply drag the zip file I want to attach to the area that it says to drag to - I haven't had any issues with it automatically extracting the contents of the archive.

[kaywhyn]

@Plodderuk

What do you use to zip the replays? I personally use Winrar and haven't had any problems with attaching replay collections with it. I'm on Windows 10, but I checked with a Win11 machine and no problems there for me. So, I'm not sure why zip file attachments aren't working for you.

[Plodderuk]

@kaywhyn: I've been using the ZIP option that comes with Windows File Explorer. But it looks like the problem was just my clumsiness, and/or the strange way my PC does things I haven't instructed it to. I think I've found a way to do it.

[JawaJuice]

@JawaJuice: re the Antarctic level, your solution and mine are virtually identical. When I referred to a 'trick' I simply meant what happens when a lemming reaches a thin ceiling from below. I guess it's arguable whether this should be described as a trick.

Spoiler

Yes, the only difference is that you can save one additional lemming by making the third one out of the hatch a climber, but other than that, virtually identical, I agree.

I had a look at some of your Depressive replays and again, we have very similar solutions - the only major divergence of the ones I watched was Walk in the Woods; that was an interesting solution you came up with there! Others, like Wafers in the Red Brick, the execution was a bit different but the basic idea was the same. It probably speaks to some good level design in general on LemFan's part that the solutions are so similar. Unlike his older packs, the opportunity for backroutes is much lower. I should also have mentioned Vacuum Sucker as a hard level in the Depressive rank - had me stumped for quite a while, that one!