Staff note: Due to the sheer number of packs LemFan has posted in a short time, as well as due to his banning from the site, I have opted to merge all his content into a single topic. Therefore, release posts will be scattered throughout this topic.
Here is the first pack I made.
Will take a look at your pack when I get to it. :)
Maybe consider a thing though:
(https://media1.tenor.com/images/333da17a540320f6f1e1b1089d5d34ec/tenor.gif?itemid=4559759)
Tell users a bit more about the pack!
- How many ranks and levels does the pack have?
- What difficulty will users have to expect?
- Uses it only original skills or tilesets?
- Optional: Show some sneek peak pictures of levels.
With a bit more information I bet more people will be inclined to give the pack a try! ;)
You can take exanples from other pack release topics.
ok solved the pack.
I didn't think any level was difficult really, although I think I backrouted most(way too many skills left)
I also finished your pack, I'd put it at about tricky-taxing difficulty level. It's decent for a first pack, though I think next time you should try and put more care into the appearance of the levels, make sure all the pieces connect together nicely for example. Solution-wise, it's quite easy, but you avoided mistakes that a lot of new creators make, for example no giant building levels or annoying time limits :thumbsup:
Here are my solutions. :)
There should be some backroutes.
I would agree with Gronkling as I think the pack is not too hard and the biggest improvement would be the visual departement.
Also, a few level just had too many lemmings for their own good. If the level is already finished and there are still like 20 lemmings inside the hatch it's a good sign that that number could be a little bit lower.
The biggest thing I found was as I noticed that in a new level my replay for the last level started playing:
- Most levels levels share the same level ID!
You can still change the level ID inside the editor by loading the level, clicking on the "Random ID" button in the "Global" tab and saving it.
If you create a new level always click on new level in the editor and be sure you get a new ID!
If all levels have more or less the same idea the replay system can get really messy.
Hello, I am happy to release my second custom level pack, Pack 1. The difficulty starts off easy but gets to medium difficulty in the later ranks. It has 4 ranks: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Fiendish. Each rank contains 20 levels, 80 levels in total.
ok solved the pack. Much harder than your Badlems one, especially the last 2 ranks.
This is my third NeoLemmix custom level pack. I have taken on board all your suggestions. This is a pack for intermediate players. The difficulty starts high on this pack and stays quite consistent throughout. It only gets a bit harder in Taxing and Mayhem. There are 4 ranks, Fun, Tricky, Taxing and Mayhem.
How are you getting on with the pack?
How hard is the pack, are you getting stuck on any levels.
ok solved the levels. Some of the levels were tricky but the pack is not too difficult. Although probably still many backroutes as still had several skills left.
How many levels are you struggling to solve in Lemmingzones?
I've added Lemzones to my First Rank LP (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4899.msg82920#msg82920) playlist. I've taken an extended break from filming the series, but I would like to get back into again at some point. 10-level ranks are ideal! :forehead: :thumbsup:
Thanks, I appreciate it. It will be interesting to hear your commentary on video
Hi Lemfan! Welcome to the Forum.
I like your user name, easy to see that you are a big fan of Lemmings :D
I solve the levels. There are probably quite a lot of backroutes you might want to look at.
I am happy to release my 4th level pack, Pack 2. It consists of 4 ranks, Fun, Tricky, Taxing and Mayhem, just like the original lemmings. It has 20 levels per rank and the difficulty starts off easy, but gets quite hard from Tricky onwards.
Hey Lemfan.
Your levels are not packed right. All you have is subfolders with each level in each one. Before playing any of this, I want to see it fixed.
They are hard, but again kind of in a semi-functional state
Anyway, I have checked it, the levels are in the right order no matter what, except no level names.
How hard are the levels
They are quite tricky not easy ones where you solve them in 30 seconds
If you keep posting easy ones then people on the lemmings forums will think, oh not him again, he keeps posting easy ones. dont bother doing his, but Pack 2 has some very tricky levels towards the end of the pack. Even will the subfolders, it is still in the right order, Fun Tricky Taxing and Mayhem, and levels are played in the right order, level 1, 2, 3 etc.
Here's LemFan's Level Pack 2.
I adjusted it to be more standard. I hope the author is okay with me tweaking it.
Maybe someone else could add the level names to each level file and repost?
Edit: I finished updating this level pack. I also Included the Level Pack 1 for people who want the first one.
QuoteAnyway, I have checked it, the levels are in the right order no matter what, except no level names.
I think a bit of advice is needed here. :)
Even if jkapp76 just posted. People should learn to do this properly by themselves! :8():
Your levels are currently not a pack.
To fix this: 1.) Put all levels from your "Level 01" - "Level 20" folders in each rank into the respective rank folder itself. As a result each rank folder should only have the 20 levels in it. Then delete all the "Level 01" - "Level 20" folders as they just clutter up everything.
2.) Create a "levels.nxmi" textfile in each rank folder.
Inside you can specify the order inside the rank. Here is an example from a rank of the current contest:
LEVEL Armani_Cactus Valley_R1V1.nxlv
LEVEL IchoTolot_Craze_Or_Crazy__R1V1.nxlv
LEVEL kaywhyn_Everything Comes in Twos_R1V1.nxlv
LEVEL Kingshadow3_The_Monkey_Cave_R1V1.nxlv
This way the file "Armani_Cactus Valley_R1V1.nxlv" will be the first level of the rank in this example.
Do this for all of your 4 ranks.
3.) The main folder of the pack (where the 4 rank folders are present) needs the following files:
"postview.nxmi" - Specifies the postview texts of your pack.
"levels.nxmi" - Specifies the ranks of your pack.
"info.nxmi" - Specifies the general pack information.
You best use files from other levelpacks as a blueprint on how they are structured and which information they determine. Then you can adjust them to your needs.
It's easier than you think!4.)Open your levels again in the editor and type in their respective level name inside the "Title" box and your name inside the author field.
Levels should have name + author!
Quote from: IchoTolot on July 10, 2021, 06:04:04 PM
You best use files from other levelpacks as a blueprint on how they are structured and which information they determine. Then you can adjust them to your needs. It's easier than you think!
Agree completely with Icho here! I recently tried it myself, and it's far easier than I thought. Here, I used Icho's United pack as a blueprint and I simply imitated its structure, but replaced the names of the levels of course in the levels.nxmi file, as well as the scroller text lines wherever it differed in the info.nxmi file.
Quote from: IchoTolot on July 10, 2021, 06:04:04 PM4.)
Open your levels again in the editor and type in their respective level name inside the "Title" box and your name inside the author field.
Levels should have name + author!
Icho's advice is very good, but I would add one caveat -- you do
not need to fill in the "Author" field if you are putting together your own pack and you are the author of every level. The field is there for contests where every level has a different author, or if your pack includes (with permission) a level made by someone else. (There are also exceptional cases, such as Lemmings Redux, where the "Author" field is used for the source of each level.)
I had a little more free time tonight so I finished updating the level pack and re-uploaded it above.
I've been having fun playing it. I just prefer to see these packs polished and complete. Always great to see a new pack.
How hard are the levels across the whole pack?
nearly time for someone to LP the pack.
Are you struggling to solve any levels?
How much harder, hard enough for you to get stuck on some of the levels.
ok solved all the levels, Except Mayhem 3 which is an extremely bad level. Must require extreme precision to pull off with the few skills given.
And even if it's possible, it's still a bad level. I would perhaps lower the locked 99 release rate or decrease the save requirement. I don't think the 40 second timer
is what makes the level difficult but the release rate/save requirement and skills given.
I won't even bother attempting the level any more unless the level is fixed. The level is too fiddly.
Mayhem 3 solved. It's not too difficult. I guess the saving grace is that it's a very short level.
ok, fiddled with Mayhem 3 some more. finally solved. Had less than a second left. I still don't like the level. It's too fiddly with the 3 diggers. Most times I couldn't get them placed close enough so a basher would be on a digger and have the other diggers not continue(too fiddly for my taste). Definitely the hardest for me in the whole pack. Definitely not a fun level at all. I even tried to repeat it a few times. Just too frutrating to repeat. At least for me.
this level is even harder for me than loud 1 of Open Air to get the Talisman.
I didn't think Mayhem 3 was hard at all :P Sure, getting what needs to be achieved can be hard, but it's definitely not a problem thanks to framestepping. It's just all about picking the right lemmings to do the skills. The time limit is also a problem if you allow it to be, but it's not that tight at all.
How hard were all the rest of the levels?
I am impressed with this level! I do agree that it is a bit fiddly.
Hi, Lemfan, I consider the pack easy to medium. Still alot of backroutes. The only level besides Mayhem 3 that gave me a little bit of problems was Tricky 14 but it turned out not to be hard.
Hello there, here is a new pack that I have designed. Now that I am more used to the way that things work on the forum I have taken onboard all the advice and critique that people have been kind enough to offer me. I think I understand all that you have told me about how to structure a pack. With this in mind if there are any constructive points to offer me I will not upload any more packs until I have fixed any issues with this one, which I think was the point all along!
I am happy to release my 5th level pack, Lems One. There are 75 levels in this pack, 5 ranks, 15 levels per rank. The rank are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Chocolate. The levels start to get quite tricky from the 2nd half of Bronze onwards. Most of the levels are quite tricky, some puzzles, possible some backroutes as well. If there are any, I will fix them. There are subfolders with a level in each one, but when you go into the Level Select function in NeoLemmix, you can see exactly the names of the ranks, and you can also see how many levels per rank as well. On every level it says "Level 01", and then the level name, and it is the same for each level in the entire pack.
How hard is the pack overall, what levels are easy, what levels are tricky.
Time for someone to LP this pack
Okay... I feel awkward doing this for a third time now, but...
Here is this level pack with the levels corrected to the normal format. (Bottom Link)
**I also put together a music pack for all of LemFan's level packs. (or anyone's level pack, feel free to use)
https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ1pbwXZ4KB0M4iOkHSeleOz09uGqHn08FEk
How hard are the levels?
I'm only about halfway through the first rank. I'm enjoying it so far. None too hard yet.
I think you should take all of your level packs and make one big "Best of LemFan" pack. You've made 235 levels in just the last three packs, you could trim the lesser levels and still have 180 or 200 in one big pack. You can feel free to use my music pack or other parts I added too.
I made a Menu logo and included some sign files for this pack.
Hey, LemFan...
What is your first level pack?
I found LemmingZones, Pack1, Pack2, and LemsOne... Where's the other one?
I think his first pack was Badlems.
Anyways solved the pack. Some of the later rank levels were not easy. Still some levels with backroutes though.
Yes you are right, my first pack is BadLems.
Here's A custom Logo I made for this Level Pack. And some Signs.
How hard is Lems One?, are you stuck on any levels?
I finished the pack, not sure about anyone else. see my replays that I posted. I still think probably easy to medium. Although I think for
me the hardest level to finish was Platinum 15 (took me the longest), but it's also a really good level with it's solution, definitely my favorite level in the pack.
Also there are some really nice ones in the final 2 ranks. I think this pack is my favorite one of yours, Lemfan.
Pack 3 is interesting, 12 levels in this pack, so it is a very short pack, some of the levels are tricky.
Someone could possibly LP this pack at some point as well.
I am happy to release my longest levelpack so far, 120 levels, with 4 ranks each containing 30 levels each. The ranks are Fun, Tricky, Taxing and Mayhem. It starts off easy but it is a medium difficulty pack, some levels are quite hard, but some of the Mayhem levels are quite hard.
How hard are the levels.
again same issue. These are not packed right. You need to know how to make packs as it's annoying for us to try to do your work.
I just saw @LemFan: You already had the right structure in your first pack BadLems and Lemmingzones!
Just arrange the things as in your first pack: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.0
So you already know how things are done and no extra help should be needed with properly arranging these packs. :8():
Also, I always just see "How hard are the levels." as your comment.
You should maybe focus more on "How good/creative is the solution", "How are the levels on the visual side", "Are there any big unwanted difficulty spikes in the curve" and "Do I avoid commonly disliked things like too fiddely solutions and hidden stuff".
The overall difficulty is of secondary nature.
So - a few people have pointed out that your packs tend to be put together in a somewhat "hacky" way (in terms of how you've actually organised the pack to set up the level order etc).
I strongly suggest looking over the second post in this topic: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4335.0
This gives a tutorial on how to put packs together nicely, so that they eg. don't end up looking like one rank for each level, as this one would.
It may also be worth thinking about a consistent naming scheme, or else using names that don't imply an order - there has also been mention from someone that "Pack 3" is a weird name for what they believe is your 6th or 7th pack. Additionally, "Pack 3" is a very bland name - I'll point out how most people either give their pack a name that identifies the author directly (eg. SEBLems, NepsterLems, ArtLems), or have a series name / names that fit a theme (eg. the "Lemmings Plus" series, or "Lemmings Migration" + "Lemmings Destination", or "Lemmings Reunion" + "Lemmings United", etc).
Additionally, with how many packs you have at this point, you may want to consider creating a single "mega-topic" for all of them rather than one topic per pack, similar to what I've done with the Lemmings Plus series (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=1922.0).
To be very clear - none of the above are actual rules that you must follow, but they are conventions in the community and your packs will make a much better first impression if they are nicely organised and with better names.
I only count 11 levels...
But, I decided to fix the pack. I'll play it later.
...The MegaLems Pack is (probably) too big for me to fix, unless I find a quicker way to do it.
Ok, I fixed the pack. Made sure every level has it's own id, as in some of Lemfan's previous ones they used the same, causing issues.
only thing needed now is a custum logo.
just extract it to the neolemmix levels folder.
Also I spent several hours fixing this. Please Lemfan, in the future try having these issues taken care of before hand (with help from Namida's pack creation post)
as nobody wants to go thru this, especially if you want people to play the pack.
Edit: Ok I've added jkapp76's made logo for the pack into the zip file. so now the pack is done. THX Jkapp76
https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ1pbwXZ4KB0M4iOkHSeleOz09uGqHn08FEk
Here's a music pack I made for LemFan's Packs a week or so ago.
yes I use this music one already for all of his packs. Better than the standard ones.
Fixed now, how hard are the levels
How there will be a lemmings plus vii at some point. Probably not any time soon.
I think my levels are put into a rank folder, but the rank names are named 01 Fun, 02 Tricky, 03 Taxing and 04 Mayhem to keep the ranks in order. It says Level 01 Starting Up and on the second line it is 01 Fun.
make a textfile in each rank folder
What is the longest level pack that exists on the lemmings forums so far
Quote from: LemFan on August 13, 2021, 09:49:57 AM
What is the longest level pack that exists on the lemmings forums so far
I think Strato's Lemmings World Tour is the largest with 320 levels.;)
Ichotolot's Lemmings United is also very large with 238 levels.
How hard are the levels
My levels are arranged into ranks
Ok, here are my replays for this small pack, some tricky levels. I think the 1 Lunch level was the hardest.
Hey LemFan,
I was wondering. Wouldn't it be cool to combine all of your packs named pack 1, pack 2, and pack 3 into one single pack?
This would be 171 levels over four Ranks.
I tried to PM you about this but got no reply.
I went ahead and put something together for you to check out. This pack contains every "pack" level and is put together properly with different level IDs for each level, and I ordered the levels to try and keep it interesting and as impressive as possible using ideas from your packs.
Let me know what you think of this. I can change it or even remove it if you do not approve.
Music Files: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ1pbwXZ4KB0M4iOkHSeleOz09uGqHn08FEk
Edit: I changed the level order some, changed the logo, added a version number and changed the name slightly.
How hard are the levels, how many backroutes are there?
I play this pack currently (Lemmings World Tour) and I'm in the Legend-rank at the moment. This is the sixth of eight ranks, but it's supposed to be the hardest - the remaining two ranks are bonus ranks as I have understood this. Strangely, I must say that I had the biggest problems in the second rank ("Amateur"). That's because these levels teach the player some tricks - and pretty obscure ones partially - while the later levels are more complex, but not THAT much more complicated, the difficulty-curve is flattening. Also, the later levels are very backroute-prone as you can see on my youtube-channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOahFY7zAWCoGpKOQdUf7mw
How hard are the levels?
Ok, Solved the pack. I think this pack is definitely the trickiest of your packs.
The only level I actually hated was Mayhem 24 Brick Stove. Again fiddling with the diggers and fencer was horrid. So hard to execute. Not a fun level again at all.
I knew the solution right away but getting it to work took so many tries. I was almost tempted to just forget trying that one. But I managed it in the end. Still
hated the level though. Other levels in the later ranks were sort of hard too but at least they weren't fiddly.
Outside of Mayhem 24 this pack is pretty good for the challenges.
Your first pack Badlems was just too easy, and not really challenging at all.
Also thanks for commenting on my posted replays for Lems One on my Youtube.
Quote from: IchoTolot on August 12, 2021, 07:02:35 PM
Also, I always just see "How hard are the levels." as your comment.
You should maybe focus more on "How good/creative is the solution", "How are the levels on the visual side", "Are there any big unwanted difficulty spikes in the curve" and "Do I avoid commonly disliked things like too fiddely solutions and hidden stuff".
The overall difficulty is of secondary nature.
To be fair, the things you mention are either different topics than difficulty (i.e. visuals), or topics that may arise as a result of a general conversation about a pack's difficulty (i.e. creative solutions, difficulty spikes, fiddly solutions).
LemFan seems to just be giving players the opportunity to either comment generally, or unpack these items of conversation themselves. More specific questions, whilst ultimately more helpful for particular points, may miss other points which are also worth discussing.
My new pack NumLems has been corrected to the normal format. This pack is shorter than MegaLems but it still has 5 ranks containing 20 levels each. It is also slightly easier than MegaLems. Some of the levels are tricky, but it is a fairly easy level pack. It starts off quite tricky for first levels, but the level pack is still quite tricky overall. It just gets a little bit harder in the later ranks
Can't wait to play it!
I made a Logo for this pack and added the usual signs too.
This pack looks to be pretty well put together otherwise.
Yes this pack took a week to make.
I can see why nobody has replied yet, it's been a few days since this pose went up. Because they are not bothering to solve them, the levels are just too easy.
Quote from: LemFan on September 03, 2021, 07:42:01 AM
I can see why nobody has replied yet, it's been a few days since this pose went up. Because they are not bothering to solve them, the levels are just too easy.
Them being easy would probably lead to more people solving them, but in general the lemmingsforum is rather slow moving and it can take a while before the first solvers come.
Fast replies with replays are often a result from the pack being an "in-development-topic" first and testers already have played large parts of it.
In general new packs need time and soon enough people will come. A few days is not a very long time here let's say.
Also, you have released quite a few packs in a short amount of time and people might still be occupied on earlier packs from you and perhaps also waiting for backroute or general quality of life fixes from your side before moving on to the next pack.
Patience! And maybe use the time waiting to provide some fixes for your older packs that have already received some feedback. ;)
Yes, don't upload packs every few days.
I played through the first rank (replays attached).
My general feedback - you have some interesting ideas. I wouldn't call most of these levels easy, actually - most of them would be medium to hard.
The difficulty curve is all over the place, which leads me to guess - are these levels simply kept
in the order you created them? Personally, I would advise against this. Make levels first, sort them into order by difficulty later. Even once you've got the order more or less, go over it again and see if anything should be moved. It doesn't have to strictly be a case of "every level is slightly harder than the one before it", but this rank felt like the difficulty was all over the place - levels 12 and 14 in particular were quite tricky, while 15 and 18 were bordering on trivial.
In some places, the visuals feel a bit low-effort. The obvious example would be on the crystal levels, where the blue beams just abrupty end in midair. The pillar on the left on level 17 is another example of this. Or, the one-way arrows on levels 13 and 14, which bleed into the terrain beyond where they need to cover - on level 13 this may have just been intended, but I find it hard to believe the small section of one-way arrows in the pit's floor on level 14 was specifically meant to be there.
There are also parts that are unnecesserially execution-heavy. For example, on level 12 - which is, for the most part, one of the best levels here - at least in my solution, the fall distance from the platform to the builder bridge below is
exactly the maximum survivable fall distance. If the builder isn't placed pixel-precise, they splat. If the basher is timed such that one lemming steps up onto the rounded part at the end of the tunnel, and thus falls from 1px higher, they splat. This adds nothing of value to the level - it just makes it more frustrating to execute the solution. Level 19 took this to the extreme, requiring syncing up the timing of the crowd together with
three worker lemmings - I didn't even bother to actually fiddle around and make this work out, instead I just saved a replay when I had the general idea (but with the wrong timing) and left it at that, because these kind of timing "puzzles" are not actually fun to play; in particular,
nothing would have been lost from this level by putting steel along the left wall, so that the basher stops rather than creating a tunnel that goes out of the level, but doing this would
hugely reduce the execution difficulty that makes it annoying.
The last thing I'd point out is that a lot of these levels have little more to them than "do you know this trick?". In general, levels that solely consist of a trick but nothing else, are only interesting if the trick is new, or at least very uncommon - but most of these are very well-known tricks by this point, so the solution is immediately obvious to anyone who's played packs a lot. The best kind of levels for experienced players (aside from levels that come up with and introduce a new trick), are levels where the difficulty in particular comes from figuring out how everything fits together - which may
include these tricks, of course. I'll explain with an example, which I'll spoiler tag for the benefit of those who haven't played yet.
Spoilers for Easy 20
Easy 20 is a prime example of a level that is really just a "does the player know this trick?" check. The interesting element is that you dig a holding pit, then release the crowd with a bomber falling from the entrance. This is the only puzzle in the level - the rest is just building over a gap. Instead, what could have worked better in order to make a level using this trick, would be to have it look like the bomber and/or the digger is needed elsewhere in the level, but in fact there's no other way to control the crowd, so the player would have to find a different way to handle those other parts.
Overall though - you definitely have a lot of potential here, and the kind of levels you're making at this point do remind me a lot of how my early packs looked (back in the Cheapo days), where I'd have some genuinely really good levels but, in an effort to simply get a massive pack together as quickly as possible, I'd also end up with a lot of boring / generic filler ones. My general advice - keep in mind there's more to a pack than just
making levels (in particular, those levels should also look nice, and even more importantly, effort does need to be put into their ordering), and keep in mind the idea of "quality over quantity". It will likely be that some of your attempts to create levels, don't really go anywhere and just have to be discarded - it's disappointing, but it's the reality of level design. For what it's worth, I really do have to say that the quality of this pack
is much better than I had expected based on how frequently you're releasing packs and the comments about the lack of effort on proper folder structure in your past packs - it may be well worth spending some time playing other highly-regarded packs and comparing the levels in those, to the levels in your pack, to see how you can improve even further.
Just to give you an idea on timing - Lemmings Plus II took me about three weeks to make,
with me working on it basically every waking minute at the time. This is, as far as I'm aware,
by far the fastest any large pack with a positive reputation has been created. Most large packs - including my other ones - the creators work on them for months, if not years.
What is a cheapo pack?
I have figured out how to fix the issue with one way walls now, you can just go inside the Pieces section of the editor and click on. Only On Terrain and that way you can fix the one way walls.
Is Mega Lems as hard as the Perplexing rank on Lemmings Plus Omega?
I am happy to release my hardest pack so far. 120 levels in this pack, across 6 ranks, Easy, Medium, Hard, Brutal, Chaos and Clueless. There are 20 levels in each rank and this pack is by far my hardest and best so far.
Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Some of the later rank levels are very hard!
Given that I haven't played Mega Lems and that Lemmings Plus Omega is my own pack (and it's quite hard to judge the difficulty of one's own pack), I cannot answer that question.
However, one piece of advice I'm going to reiterate - difficulty is not the sole measure of how good a level / pack is. Yes, I am aware that
you think that people just want hard levels. Difficulty alone is not what makes a pack good - take a look at GeoffLems, which is a relatively easy pack compared to most custom packs these days, but is still
very highly regarded because, despite not being too hard, the levels are interesting and fun to play.
Quote from: LemFan on September 04, 2021, 07:58:10 AM
What is a cheapo pack?
"Cheapo Copycat Lemmings Game" - often shortened to just "Cheapo" - was a Lemmings clone that was used in the early-mid 2000s for custom levels. Basically, you could think of it as like the NeoLemmix of that time.
Wow! I haven't even started the last pack of yours.
I did make a logo and signs for this pack if you want them.
How hard are the levels?
Hopefully in about 10 years there will be a Lemmings Plus VII and LPO3 and there could even be a LPVIII IX AND X.
I didn't play this pack, but I took a quick look at the previews, and I think the same advice I gave you in the NumLems topic will hold true here as well.
I'd like to make some suggestions for how you could go about creating your next pack. These tips should help you produce a better result, and in particular, to remember "quality over quantity".
For your next pack, create 30 levels. Don't think about what order they should be in; don't try to remember what order you made them in. Just make 30 levels. Spend at least three weeks on this. If you've finished them all after the first few days, go back and work on improving them. Look for backroutes. Add decoration. Make the (non-decorative) terrain look nicer. Cut out tedious bits. If you realise in hindsight that one of the levels isn't so great, get rid of it and make a new one to replace it.
Once you've got 30 levels, at this point, try and sort them from easiest to hardest. It's okay if this isn't perfect - it's not really a big problem if (just as examples) level 7 is slightly easier than level 6; it's more of a problem if several of the levels in the 21-30 range are among the easiest in the pack. Once you've done that, leave it for a few days, then come back and take another look - anything you're having second thoughts about in the order? If you want to go a step further here - instead of using all 30, pick only the best 25 to put into your pack, and throw away the other 5.
Finally, give it one more round of testing - play through the pack, see how it feels. This is also a point at which in general I'd advise to have someone test the pack for you and give feedback, but it can be tricky for newer authors (especially those with a history of rapidly releasing packs) to get others to agree to test - still, if you can, do so, and pay attention to their feedback. Paying attention doesn't have to mean you blindly follow everything they say; but it does mean you should at least give consideration to it and try to understand why they're saying it.
Only once you're sure that your levels are good quality, and that you're happy with the order - then it's time to release the pack.
Yes, this means it will take a long time until the pack is ready. That's fine - good things take time to make. Aside from the example I mentioned of Lemmings Plus II (which, as noted, was worked on basically full-time), all of my large packs took at least a few months to make. Some other creators of highly regarded packs took even longer - IchoTolot's Lemmings United was in development for several years before it was ready for release. You simply are not going to be able to create something of the same quality, if you're pumping out 100+ level packs every few days - this isn't a criticism of your abilities, it's simply unrealistic for anyone to churn out good-quality, well-tested levels at that kind of rate.
And once you do release it - don't obsess over how "hard" it is. That is not the most important attribute of a pack. Indeed, ultra-high difficulty can even be off-putting to some players. Once again, I suggest looking at GeoffLems as an example of how a (relatively) easy pack can still be great.
That is what I am going to do, go back over the pack.
Quote from: namida on September 05, 2021, 07:05:40 PM
Difficulty alone is not what makes a pack good - take a look at GeoffLems, which is a relatively easy pack compared to most custom packs these days, but is still very highly regarded because, despite not being too hard, the levels are interesting and fun to play
Amen. I personally get very put off by packs that start out too hard, and rarely play past the first couple of levels if that's the case (the
only exception to this is mini-packs / single-rank packs which advertise themselves as being particularly challenging - in these cases, I'll usually want to play some of the designer's other content first, if it exists.)
A good pack will always give the player a chance to get warmed up and get used to the designer's style for at least 10-15 levels, ideally even the entire first rank. Think of it as a "getting to know you" phase - very important for a difficult puzzle game which you hope the player will spend hours of their time with! ;)
EDIT: Since posting this, I've started playing your other pack
MegaLems (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5720.msg93202#msg93202), which does indeed have a "Fun" rank with warm-up levels. Very good so far, I'll give some more feedback when I've played more of the pack (and in the actual pack topic, of course!) :lemcat:
I'd strongly recommend using Eric's fixed version of the pack, posted here (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5720.msg93202#msg93202), as the base version of this pack (i.e. from which further edits may be made) - check it over and put it in the OP if you're happy with it.
The levels are tricky.
How hard is the rest of the pack?
Here is my next levelpack. 64 levels in this pack across 4 ranks, Normal, Offputting, Strange and Unalike. This pack is tricky throughout the whole pack, this pack isn't really a walk in the park. It is not that easy.
Not finished yet, still in development. This pack is going to contain 250 levels across 5 ranks, so that's 50 levels per rank. I am currently in the middle of the second rank now. I have still got 3 more ranks to go before I create the levels.nxmi textfiles to make it into a playable pack.
I have made another 22 levels of this pack, hopefully it will be released in about a week. I am currently in the 3rd rank.
I merged the 2 topics.
I have made another 20 levels in this pack, I am currently up to level 25 of the 3rd rank. After this rank, there is still 2 more ranks left of the pack.
I again merged the new topic that was located in "NeoLemmix levels" into this.
And I think it's time for a little warning due to the new topic (even if it was merged now) violates:
Quote from: namida on September 17, 2021, 07:01:52 PM
I have added a new rule, stating that users must not create more than one in-development topic, nor more than one release topic, in any 30 day period. To avoid doubt, this doesn't mean you can't release updates and/or add new packs in a series topic or similar.
This is not retroactive, so if you have already made a topic recently that's not in line with these guidelines, you may leave it up - just don't create further ones until the 30 days have passed.
As either this topic ("Lemmings Obliterated") here in "In Development" or the "ColdLems" (and "NumLems") topic in "NeoLemmix levels" were created in that timeframe.
If you have any new updates to this pack that's been in Development, please just post in this topic here. We do not need a new topic for every update.
Again, you are free to post updates, but please gather them in a single topic rather than creating new ones.
Here's a Logo with signs I made up really quick.
Nice logo, jkapp7 :thumbsup:
As the author of this pack has been placed on a very high warning level at this point (high enough that he is unable to post for a while), it is likely to be some time before he provides any further updates here - just letting everyone know. Reasons for this are not something that need to be known by anyone other than himself and site staff, but I will assure everyone there is more to it than has been seen in this topic (or indeed, publicly in general), and in particular that other people will not end up in the same position just for making one or two mistakes on how they post their packs.
EDIT: This has been upgraded to a permanent ban. Accordingly, I have also made the decision (based as well on the wider context of what he's been doing) to merge all his pack topics into a single large topic. If someone could compile a list of links to the posts in this topic with the newest versions of each pack, I'll add that list to the first post too.
Is it right that LemFan's content should still be publicly available if he's been banned from the site?
That is, he no longer has any opportunity to modify or update the content and so should be allowed to choose whether he wants it to remain available or not in its current state.
Happy to compile the list of packs/links after this particular query has been resolved.
Here's a Logo and signs I put together for his ColdLem's pack.
He was an interesting character around here, while he lasted.
yes he was an interesting character. I know he was a young guy trying to make levels. But I think he should have not made so many packs so close together in time. I still like some of his packs, they are not bad for a young person's attempts. Also he likes to comment on Youtube videos as he comments alot on my Youtube solutions for some of the first few packs I finished and put on Youtube. Whatever he did to get him in to trouble, he should have take more seriously. As a young person hopefully he will learn from this.
Anyways thanks Jkapp76 for the Coldlems logo. Currently on the 4th rank of his Numlems pack. But slowed down on it since I've been doing other things.
Quote from: WillLem on September 20, 2021, 09:43:13 PM
That is, he no longer has any opportunity to modify or update the content and so should be allowed to choose whether he wants it to remain available or not in its current state.
Realistically, I believe the chance of him wanting to do that is close to zero. Regardless - if he were to contact us asking it be
removed, we would do so, after making it clear that it's a one-way thing (ie: we won't repost it later if he changes his mind).
Quote
Whatever he did to get him in to trouble, he should have take more seriously. As a young person hopefully he will learn from this.
And I asked you twice to consort or at least ask me of any changes you wanted to make to my conversion pack. Instead, you ignored my requests and went ahead and did as you pleased, which I think is very inconsiderate since you were changing up my work without permission. Honestly, I'm quite flustered. Even if I don't approve of some of the changes, I would had at least appreciate the "asking for consent" aspect. This is something that has been trying to be hammered into you. Whenever I want to make a change to someone's level, I always ask for permission, because it's the nice and right thing to do. I don't always catch everything, I simply ensure everything works and is 100% possible. So, if someone had notified me of an issue/problem somewhere in the level, I can take a look. That's not a problem, and unless consent has been granted, always run any changes by the author. That would had been most respectful.
Returning to the forum to do namida's job (Thanks for merging the packs together). For convenience, these are all the links to his latest levels (minus the logo/signs that appear in other posts). Any mistakes please let me know. So...
Lemmings Obliterated (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg93625#msg93625)
ColdLems (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg93556#msg93556)
LemLanFems I (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg93424#msg93424)
NumLems (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg93374#msg93374)
MegaLems (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg93189#msg93189)
Lems One (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg93116#msg93116)
Pack 2 (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg92714#msg92714)
Lemmingzones (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg92102#msg92102)
pack 1 (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg91809#msg91809)
BadLems (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5558.msg91736#msg91736)