Lemmix goes Custom

[EricLang]

Currently working on a custom Lemmix version to make creating custom levelpacks more easy.
It will be called LemmixPlayerRemake.exe.

- All 9 classic lemmings styles will be built into the executable (dirt, fire, marble, pillar, brick, rock, snow, bubble). No christmas lemmings

-Levelpacks can be created as directories in a subdirectory called "LevelPacks". Each directory will be the name of the levelpack. The unused F4 button in the menu screen will be used to choose a levelpack.

-Each directory must contain a file called "sections.txt" which defines the names of the sections (like fun, tricky, taxing, mayhem) and filled with seperate lvl-files with the naming-convention xxyy.lvl.
xx is the sectionnumber
yy is the levelnumber
No gaps allowed.

-Still figuring out how to define custom music (how to link a level to a particular song).
The music files (.mod, .wav, or .mp3) can be put next to the .lvl files

-How about customizable skillsounds?

- Maybe it will be possible to use custom "special" levels which consist of one big tile (as the "beast" level etc.)

[Mr Kiwi]

That sounds fantastic.  Although why no Christmas?

[EricLang]

Because the style is just the snowstyle and the red lemmings do not add any special game-play.
Besides it would make matters more complicated. I have to add both the normal lemming-animations and the red lemmings animations.

[Dullstar]

This should work great for the Epic Lemmings Fangame!  It looks like it will have every feature I think it needs.  'Course, others want more complicated features, but they can learn to be content with what they get.

[Clam]

Most of the features I really want to see aren't related to game mechanics at all (the one exception being steel areas). They're just menu options and display screens which, in theory, should be easy to implement.

[Dullstar]

If we change steel physics, the level called "0_o" won't work.  It's designed by having to get to the exit via figuring out which metal block is not impossible to budge.  Don't worry.  The terrain attempts to drop hints.

[EricLang]

The program is almost ready to be thrown into testphase.
Any ideas how to link music to a specific level?
I was thinking about the following:
The program scans through the levelpack directory for files with the extension .mod or .wav or .mp3.
These files are sorted by alphabet. When there are - for example - 9 songs the first 9 levels will be linked to these songs. When playing level 10 we wrap back to song number 1 and so on.

[Dullstar]

Idea:  Don't include that YET.

We could make a new type of LVL that does the same things as the regular, only with music added in.  Same with .DAT.  That could work.  Or you could do this:

Changeable music:

Store data in .txt files (or something similar).

Maybe something like, (lemmix directory)\music\whatever.whatever

Don't copy that directly, of course.  I can't program anything.

[EricLang]

Of course it's possible to change the LVL format, but for the remake I would like to stay as close as possible to the original DOS lemmings. I AM working on a clone that is much more flexible, but that needs a lot more time.
Here are 2 screenshots (the links will probably be deleted in the future)

[Dullstar]

Blank level, eh?

I agree with not changing the .lvl format; that is why I suggested using .txt files to do this.

[The Doctor]

If you're going to make it have custom-this-and-that, you might as well create a successor to Cheapo (not literally of course, but in the sense that it has its own graphics, music, level, and interface formats) ... of course, this leads to the problems that Cheapo had (if you didn't have a particular file, your experience was a bit screwed up).

[Mindless]

or perhaps switch to the Lemmini level format?  that way we don't have to reinvent any more wheels.

[The Doctor]

The Lemmini format combined with the speed of Lemmix would be awesome. Therefore, those who can not use Custom Lemmix could still use the levels one way or another.

[Dullstar]

Lemmini had a flaw:  as far as I could tell, you could NOT use the regular graphics.

[The Doctor]

That's not a flaw, that was intentional. It meant that you could implement custom styles using its format. It's a totally different kettle of fish entirely.

Lemmini was a cross platform implementation of Lemmings using Lemmings for Windows' assets and Lemmings (Amiga) music. Lemmix, on the other hand, is a Delphi clone of Lemmings (DOS) using its assets and Lemmings (Amiga) music.

You can't really say Lemmini's implementation was a "flaw" as such, as it was a nearly entirely different kettle of fish altogether.