Merry Christmas everyone! Welcome to my second Neolemmix level pack! :D
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/895603042584498190/923934803772968970/logo.png)
(They are Lemming&Lemmina :lemcat:)
I've made a holiday pack to celebrate the
30th Christmas in Lemmingland.
It's a small pack of
30(+1 credits level) levels across three ranks:
Retro,
Avant-garde,
Bonus1.) Download Links(Dropbox):Level Pack: Xmas Lemmings 2021 V1.3 (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oyqnmr6psc7iqx1zhokh3/Xmas_Lemmings_2021_V1.3.zip?rlkey=2yxa4m74rc8cdodnc6nu82k4d&dl=1)
Music: Xmas Lemmings 2021 Music (https://www.dropbox.com/s/tvpj1dc3l3oerii/Xmas_Lemmings_2021_Music.zip?dl=1)
Intended Solution Replays: Solution Replays (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/88p248i3q8dwivhme3fzc/XmasLemmingsIntendedSolutions.zip?rlkey=0txnz2ddo2vgkpkfwtasq72qw&dl=1)
This pack has all the music files in the subfolder "Xmas2021". So
do not manually move the music files into the main music folder!The only thing you have to do yourself is to extract them into your main NeoLemmix folder.
2.) RanksThis pack is divided into 3 ranks:
1. Retro (Easy-Hard)(12levels)
Retro rank levels primarily use Snow(OhNo) and Snow(Raymanni) tilesets and take some decorations from various other styles.
It starts with lighter puzzles and X-of everything levels and gradually enters harder territory.
All levels feature classic 8 skills only and some occasional Neolemmix objects such as pre-assigned hatch.
(https://i.imgur.com/vqNUxZP.png)
Retro3 Snowy Wish – Wishing you peace, health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year.(https://i.imgur.com/bgovIDy.png)
Retro9 Rendezvous at the Cavern – A secret rendezvous in the cavern...2.Avant-garde (Easy-Hard)(12main levels + 1credits level)
Avant-garde rank mainly uses Snow(OhNo) & Snow(Raymanni) tilesets too.
The difficulty resets to [Easy] once you finish the retro rank and start Avant-garde rank.
This rank features all 21 Neolemmix skills including slider and laserer.
(https://i.imgur.com/kG6pSNE.png)
Avant-garde2 Meanwhile in Namidaland – Christmas comes in the middle of the summer in Namidaland!(https://i.imgur.com/DIRBbIE.png)
Avant-garde8 Last Shepherd of the Dead - Put them out of their misery before Christmas is over...3. Bonus (Very Hard)(6levels)
These levels are for those who want
extra challenge! :evil::devil:
They were originally in either Retro rank or Avant-garde rank.
Based on the feedbacks from the pre-testers, I gathered the 3 hardest levels from each rank and separated them to this Bonus rank.
(https://i.imgur.com/2VD4JlB.png)
Bonus1 Lemming Entanglement - Is quantum entanglement the key to teleportation?3.) Music Credits:List of music
Every music here is from online game "TalesWeaver".
Xmas_01: We wish your Merry Christmas (https://youtu.be/DJ1qOW0xJC8)
Xmas_02: Where santa goes (https://youtu.be/DJ1qOW0xJC8?t=73)
Xmas_03: Feliz Navidad ~ Christmas Tales (https://youtu.be/EaQYDVG20mA)
Xmas_04: Have yourself a Merry Christmas ~ White LEAF (https://youtu.be/RU6VkioAv44)
Xmas_05: Brand new Spring is coming (https://youtu.be/xgHOl5RWFu0)
Xmas_06: Good Evening Narvik (https://youtu.be/Lctr21iN_u8)
Xmas_07: 열지 않았던 작은 상자(translated to "A small box that hasn't been opened") (https://youtu.be/7LqIIYyt46I)
4.) Thanks to:- Massive thanks to
joshescue18,
NieSch and
kaywhyn for pre-release testing! Just say the word if there's anything I can do to help you. I'm always here. 8-)
-
Namida for creating and maintaining Neolemmix :thumbsup:
- Lemmings Forum community for general support :laugh:
- All of
you for playing my pack. :thumbsup:
5.) External Links:Xmas Lemmings 2021 Level Solving Commentary by kaywhyn : Youtube Link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CfaGTYZWqE&list=PLbp2m4KlFpJvvda92RyHRmsllA6nYyUjn)
Swerdis's playthrough of Xmas Lemmings 2021:
Retro rank - Youtube Link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz-GNKL_VRs&list=PLMDKeLmGYrY1vdP5WJ-DL_Bmwmja4R5Ij)
Avant-garde rank - Youtube Link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CIAFKAOHxM&list=PLMDKeLmGYrY0gh86euV4Y27ZUvyLaU1mZ)
Bonus rank - Youtube Link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENW6n4DudU8&list=PLMDKeLmGYrY0VPSnfExjrjF4T73vaQkCf)
IchoTolot's playthrough of Xmas Lemmings 2021: Youtube Link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYRc8DxwYXs&list=PLKR1N9oJTTlJKVz7PQj1zd5oIbmQtBeqT)
Enjoy and happy Christmas :lemcat:
This is a great Xmas pack that I can really recommend, also to non-expert players (like myself). Armani's creativity in level design is awesome and this pack is yet another example of it. :)
Congrats on the release and merry Xmas!
Thank you for the pack! It is really nice, the difficulty of levels in "Retro" was just right for me :).
Also, I have a huge sentiment for the xmas packs (with snow etc.), cause as a child I would play Lemmings during xmas a lot:)
Misias
Thanks for playing :thumbsup:
If you need any hints or solution replays, let me know ;)
Thanks a lot for the great, creative and climatic pack :) I'm currently at Avant-Garde Ice climbing. So far the hardest for me was Retro ("and there were four again!") - it took me a few of evenings to figure it out :).
It could be interesting to exchange solutions to the retro set. I would be interested if I took any backroutes :)
Misias
Quote from: misias on January 27, 2022, 10:35:22 PM
It could be interesting to exchange solutions to the retro set. I would be interested if I took any backroutes :)
Here're the replays of the Retro rank(see attachment ;))
For Avant-garde5 Ice Climbing,
hints
- You need to use miner to the first obstacle and laserer to the second obstacle.
- The miner destroy some of the builder sacks and this is crucial to the solution.
Excellent, I reviewed your replays and I want to share my solutions to two levels in retro which appear backroute-ish, especially for "Randevous .." :)
Currently, I'm at "Last Shepard of the Dead", but expect to do more this weekend :) Please maybe share your solutions to Avant-Garde so that we can compare once I complete it :)
Misias
Cool! 8-)
Your solution to Retro9 is a backroute. There'll be an update sooner or later. I will probably add an ice blower to the icicle above the hatch.
Your solution to Retro8 is acceptable. ;)
Even if you don't complete the whole rank it's totally fine to ask me hints or replays. Good luck with the rest of the levels! From the feedback I've got, Avant-garde8 is not too bad and Avant-garde9 & 10 are pretty difficult.
V1.1 is out! ;)
Level fix:
-1 09 Rendezvous at the Cavern - added an ice blower
I've started playing this and have so far completed the Retro ran (replays attached).
So far, wow there are some brilliant levels in this pack :thumbsup:! Also the background art & theming is beatuful too - excellent job on this.
Spoiler
Retro 1 Nice first level to the pack - not too difficult but not a pushover either. The worker lemming (or rotten egg) needing to take the top-route rather than following the same path the rest of the lemming would take was a good detail.
Retro 2 Nice semi-open ended puzzle around containing the crowd. I was convinced a save-all solution was possible here, and eventually found something that worked using some blocker trickery at the start.
Retro 3 Good early level, saving the climber using a basher was a nice detail though the timing was a little tight on my solution.
Retro 4 Nice builderless level! By bumping up the RR I was able to save a 2 miners which I imagine are required to do a bit more crowd control if you don't do this.
Retro 5 A nice challenge to try and save as many as possible here with an open skillset. I managed a save 29/30 in the end but I tried for a while to get a save-all by using the builder + digger + builder trick to turn a lemming around, but couldn't quite connect back to basher tunnel without running out of skills to get back up.
Retro 6 Nice puzzle with two distinct workers meeting up - not too hard but satisfying to solve :thumbsup:
Retro 7 Very nice idea with re-using have all the blockers get freed to become blockers a 2nd time. The terrain hints to place the blockers was a nice idea to reduce execution complexity on this one.
Retro 8 I like these sort of levels where it is about efficently solving a seemingly simple looking terrain area. It wouldn't surprise me if there more than one solution to this given the skillset and terrain shape, but I settled on an approach using two different digger pits.
Retro 9 I really liked the multiple workers interacting on this one, and the timing with the icicle was very satisfying when it just worked out :thumbsup:
Retro 10 Very clean solution, and very clever. The top-left hatch was probably the area I wanted to build bridges with the most, but the solution cleverly requires patience with this hatch in particular. I really liked that no timing was needed in the solution to this level - I did initially think the solution might involve 6px steps around the bottom hatches and some clever timing, but those solutions all ran out of builders.
Retro 11 Another very good puzzle. I found this a little easier than 10 but that's probably because I spotted how to handle the bridge area quite quickly fortunately. Not using a blocker to turn the miner, which is the initial temptation for this level, was a nice twist.
Retro 12 This is a beatiful solution :thumbsup: and probably going onto my LOTY list. There is some very nice subtlety to where you need to place the skills on this for it to work out, and when they are placed correctly everything clicks into place in a very satisfying way. An early solution I had that didn't quite work (but thought it might have been the trick) was to put a builder ontop of the walkway after the exit to turn the lems around - I was quite pleased with spotting this as I thought I had to the key to level, but nope.
I'm not sure quite how well I'll manage on the last Bonus rank when I get there, but i'll give them a good try!
Thanks for playing my pack :thumbsup:
All your solutions so far are either intended or acceptable!
Spoiler
1 01 Last One Out is a Rotten Egg - Intended! You figured out that the hero lemming who prepares the path for the crowd should be the last lemming spawned! Otherwise all following lemmings will splat and you can't waste any builders in this level to break the fall.
1 02 White Christmas - My solution takes the top route but your solution is also fine ;)
1 03 Snowy Wish - Intended! You can turn the climber around first and make him build twice. Then the timing is not needed. ;)
1 04 Claustrophobia - I've received quite a few different solutions from multiple people. And I would say your is also a clever alternative solution! :thumbsup: Check the replays pack above(main thread)! I included various solutions from people as well as my own one.
1 05 So Close, yet so Far - Saving 100% is possible! (there's the 100% replay in the replay pack! 8-))
1 06 Christmas Crossing - Again 100% intended!
1 07 How to Escape an Avalanche - Acceptable! You didn't put one of the blocker at the correct position but the main spirit of the level is still there! The level is set up in a way that the blockers are freed in perfect timings so they can join the second part of the level in correct timings. The 4diggers+4blockers are for destroying the icicle terrains and you have to build spiral staircase to the exit with all 6builders and 3blockers.
1 08 Harvest of Screams - That's 100% intended! This level has several possible solutions and all of them require two different digger pits as you did!
1 09 Rendezvous at the Cavern - 100% intended!
1 10 And There Were Four Again! - The solution was made based on my solution to original dirt level "And then there were four..." And yes, I know I complitely overcomplicated the original level when I was a kid. :forehead: I added some wall-traps from pillar tileset to make my old overcomplicated solution into the intended solution.
1 11 Roof of the World - Perfect! If you figure out that you have to separate 4 athletes and contain rest of the crowd with a blocker, the solution will comes to you naturally.
1 12 Forbiddiden Knowldege (Part 1) - Glad you like this level! This is also one of my personal favourite levels of this rank. :laugh: Originally there was a sequel level named "Forbiddiden Knowldege (Part 2)" in the second rank but I ended up rejecting the level as the solution was quite hackish and requires some obscure trickery.
Good luck with the second rank!
I uploaded the intended solution replays. (with some alternative soutions from pre-testers :D thank you all!)
Check the main thread above!
I completed the 2nd rank tonight - some more excellent levels great job Armani!
Spoiler
1 Frozen Fractals All Around - As you said the difficulty resets at the start of the rank. Not too difficult but again still a bit of puzzle here with using the slider.
2 Meanwhile in Namidaland - Nice decoration on this one! I ended up doing something a bit fiddly on this one and I'm sure there is a cleaner way to handle the crowd.
3 Xmas in Lemmingland - Using the walker to not need to complete the bridge to icicle was probably the trickies part of this one. Another nice puzzle using the new skills.
4 We Move Unseen - I liked the two paths on this one, and the helper markers in the floor to line up the laserer was a nice detail. This was a fun one to watch complete afterwards too.
5 Ice Climbing - The levels started to get a bit trickier here! There are some nice details in the solution here with how the 2nd climber is used & letting the first climber get back up.
6 Santa Training Center - A great single worker level. I really like the way the miner continuing is used twice - the first one is quite telegraphed but the second one is much more subtle. I saw in the intended solutions you even did the thing I did in mine where I checked both bridges worked before mining the left one.
7 CAUTION Thin Ice - This is quite a tricky one! The key for me on this one was realising where the jumpers had to be placed at the end and working backwards from there.
8 Last Shepherd of the Dead - Great use of the zombies on this one & the little hiding area is a fun idea.
9 Get Your Sled Ready - Nice level combining a couple of tricks together. The level shape very strongly hints at continuing a skill, but also using compression and the stoner + blocker effectively adds some nice extra complexity.
10 Sorry No Rooms Available Tonight - My favourite of the rank :thumbsup: - The way the blocker lemmings are used on this level is really elegant.
11 This Level has no Time Limit - This is a fun change of pace level and pretty tricky to work out what actions you can spare on the main worker. In particular the details about holding back the crowd to allow the bridge time to complete & the oh-noer still blocking the zombie make the solution to this quite well hidden. Very nice puzzle.
12 Presents for You - A great level to finish off with thematically and in terms of puzzle :thumbsup: - Initially I wanted to collect the basher pickup above the water, but that caused problems later on when trying to use the cloner effectively.
13 Thanks for Playing - Credits :)
I also checked the replays & liked the 100% solution for Retro 5!
Only the bonus left to go :scared:
Again, all your solutions are either intended or acceptable. Well done!
Spoiler
2 01 Frozen Fractals All Around - nice solution! :thumbsup: As long as you don't let the whole crowd to take the bottom route(which I think is impossible) it's fine!
2 02 Meanwhile in Namidaland - Yeah it's more of an visual level than a clever puzzle level. Any solution is acceptable in this level. ;P
2 03 Xmas in Lemmingland - 100% intended! :thumbsup:
2 04 We Move Unseen -
Quotehelper markers in the floor to line up the laserer was a nice detail
Yes I tried to minimize execution difficulty. That's why there're markers in the floor in this level, 1 07 How to Escape an Avalanche and one level in Bonus rank. ;)
2 05 Ice Climbing -
QuoteThere are some nice details in the solution here with how the 2nd climber is used & letting the first climber get back up.
Exactly! Especially if you don't see that you have to break the builder bridge with the backward miner, you'll have a hard time solving this level. :evil:
2 06 Santa Training Center - 100% intended! 8-)
2 07 CAUTION Thin Ice - Ha! that's actually nice logical deduction! I wanted the players to think that they have to save multiple jumpers and a basher for the last part but it seems like I failed successfully here. :forehead: Good job on not falling into my trap! :thumbsup:
2 08 Last Shepherd of the Dead - I made a cozy shelter for that shepherd lemming. :laugh:
2 09 Get Your Sled Ready - This level was made using bottom-up design tactic. I first depicted the sled with snow tiles and developed the solution based on that. ;)
2 10 Sorry No Rooms Available Tonight - Thanks for the compliment! It's important to realize that you can't use all 3 stoners at the bottom and you can afford only 2! And you also have to figure out that you have to send the first lemming to the bottom and made him a blocker and release him when the stoner bridge is finished!
2 11 This level has no Time Limit - I wanted to include at least one action-based level with many jumpers and here it is! 8-) You contained the crowd at different location to me but it's totally fine!
2 12 Presents for You - Good job 100% intended again! The most difficult part of this level in my opinion is figuring out when and where to use the cloner.
I was quite surprised that you've found intended solutions to every single level so far! :thumbsup:
Bonus rank is mostly untested. So I wonder if the current trend continues...
Good luck with the Bonus rank! :laugh:
I made a start on the bonus rank and have got a solve for the first 3 levels. I am going to try the next 3 either tomorrow or friday. On two of the levels I had some very close solutions which didn't quite work - so have included a couple of extra replays too as you might be interested to see things I tried which almost worked.
Spoiler
1 Lemming Entanglement - This is an excellent level :thumbsup:. I think this is probably the hardest of the 3 I've played so far. I ended up solving this one by thinking about the level in reverse and asking about if it could ever work if I: (1) built from right to left from any of the 3 junctions or (2) Use the teleporter to bring the crowd down. After ruling those out I was able to focus on the other possibility and spotted the trick with releasing blocker with the digger which unlocked the rest of the level.
2 No Matter Where You Came From - Another great difficult level, and the verticality makes a nice change. I was able to find the route down quite quickly but, the main bit of difficulty was optimising enough skills & working out how to create a filtering device for the swimmers & sliders similar to the one used at the top of the level. There probably is a cleaner way to do this than how I managed it, but hopefully I'm not too far off with this one.
3 Hold My Beer... - This one looked like it was going to be difficult from the preview screen, and it certainly was. I had quite a few ideas that either ended up a skill short or a lemming short. I included a replay with one of my closest failed solutions where I was missing one floater at the end. My solution probably brute forces a part of room 2 a bit to make sure all the lemmings came out the pit in the same way - I'm guessing there is a cleaner way to do this part by saving a miner elsewhere which I probably missed. Very nice puzzle :)
Finished the bonus rank and the pack :thumbsup:
Comments on the rest of the bonus levels:
Spoiler
4 - This level looks very scary at first, but wasn't quite as hard as it looked at first! I did manage to save 31 with skills leftover, so maybe I found a backroute or something unintended here.
5 - Probably one of the easier ones of the bonus rank, but still a very clean solution - I like the way the three workers are needed to build the path. The main key for this one was deciding what needed to happen to free the crowd, and the rest of the level followed from there.
6 - What a level to finish the pack off with :thumbsup: - I found the last piece of the puzzle on this one to be very hard to spot. I managed to make fairly consistent progress in working out a route at the start of the level but then hit a huge wall where I would lose an extra floater or be a skill short. I easily was stuck for at least 30 minutes trying lots of different ideas with no luck. I was just about to close out of the level to come back to it later when i realised what the solution was. Another LOTY worthy level here in my opinion.
Overall an incredible pack and absolutely would recommend others to play this (even if it isn't christmas)! There are some really stand-out puzzles with a great variety in how they are solved.
I think the easy-hard rating is a fair description of the dificulty for the first two ranks which have a fairly balanced difficulty curve too. I found avant-garde to be a bit harder than retro overall, but I am better at solving classic skills levels so that might just be me. The Bonus rank marks a step up in difficulty over the first two ranks and is fair to call very hard - I found Bonus 1 & 6 to the hardest of the rank, so the difficulty here I guess really depends what you get stuck on.
Finally, great job again on the menu graphics and a nice selection of music too. This really was a very fun pack to play!
Congraulations! and thanks for playing :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Spoiler
3 01 Lemming Entanglement - Well done 100% intended :laugh: I really like your thought process and logical deduction. You really are a talented puzzle solver! :thumbsup: I honestly thought this level is the easiest among Bonus1,3 and 5(levels that were originally located in the Retro rank.) but I again failed to judge the difficulty of my own level :forehead: Fun fact: This level was originally named something like "Four Different Ways to Die" which refers to the 4 loses in this level.(fire, trap, bomb, and nuke :XD:) But I thought that title was not a good name for a holiday level. :laugh:
3 02 No Matter Where You Came From - Close enough! It's not too far off with the intended solution! The only different part between your solution and mine is the bottom floor. The main puzzle of this level is to find correct route for each groups of neutral lemmings.
3 03 Hold My Beer... - It's quite close to intended. I decided to fix the level a bit but I think your solution is nice and clever!
3 04 Prerequisite: Advanced Fluid Mechanics - This one on the other hand is bad backroute :XD: But this is the only real backroute among all 30 levels and I'm happy with that :thumbsup: The cloner is supposed to used in other location.
3 05 Curious Minds - Yes finding out how to release the crowd is the most important thing in this level. I don't know why but I thought this level is the hardest level among Bonus1,3 and 5. :XD:
3 06 This will be a Better Year - Glad you like this level :thumbsup: I almost rejected this level in the development phase since the last piece of the puzzle you mentioned is hard to see and I was afraid that people might get angry when they see the solution replay :XD: Nuke solution is not something everyone likes. :XD:
V1.2 is out! ;)
Level fix:
-3 03 Hold My Beer... - added some steels(at the third room)
-3 04 Prerequisite: Advanced Fluid Mechanics - added an ice blower
Hi Armani,
I have finally finished solving all of the pack, picking up where I left off from the pre-testing days, solving everything except for
Avant-garde 10 and all 6 Bonus levels. Here are my replays, and some feedback on the Retro level that wasn't included before release, as well as the rest of the feedback I didn't give. For the ones I already gave feedback, I'm just going to copy-paste :P
Retro Rank FeedbackNice rank where the levels use only the classic 8 skills. A lot of nice puzzles here.
Spoiler
Retro 1 - Last One Out is a Rotten Egg Very nice level! Not too hard but at the same time not completely trivial.
Retro 2 - White Chirstmas (sic, title has been corrected) Oops, unless that was intentional, "Christmas" is spelled wrong :P Biggest gripe here is that unless I severely overcomplicated the solution, the builders are super precise. There's very little leeway in placing them and not getting killed by the ice steamblower trap. I would definitely ease up the precision there!
Retro 3 - Snowy Wish As mentioned on Discord, I said this level's way too hard for its position because a lot will not realize that a lemming needs to turn around in the basher tunnel. Even more, it must be the climber that needs to turn around. It is way more precise than it needs to be because the pillar is quite thin and so there's very little room for the climber to turn around. You certainly don't want to start a pack off with a harder than usual level, as I believe this puts the pack at great risk of being rage quit.
edit: Armani has made the pillar thinner per my suggestion/feedback. It's a much better level now, and it was a good idea to not make this the opening level of the pack, as the new Retro 1 is definitely easier.
Retro 4 - Claustrophobia Wow, what a nice level that gives only bashers and miners! My only gripe here is that at the top right where you need to bash to the left it's very unclear that the lemmings can step up where there's a little overhang and they fall just before it. I mistakenly thought it would cause them to turn around. I would make it more visually clear that it won't turn them.
edit: I needed to resolve this one, as I gave Armani the feedback that the nook at the top was a bit unclear whether lemmings would turn around or be able to step up. Fixed my replay there, it plays out the same.
Retro 5 - So close, yet so far Haha, reminds me of The Tomato Watcher's R2 because of the title :laugh: Nice open-ended X-of-everything level here. Bonus points for it being really nicely decorated! :thumbsup:
Retro 6 - Christmas Crossing Nice level where you need to get a lemming on the other side of both OWWs to bash the crowd free. Just me, but I wonder if it can be made clearer that the drops are survivable? Yes, there's always the splat ruler, but I think the precision on the drops can be eased while not harming the level in any way.
edit: Also needed to resolve this, as a change was made to make one of the walls on the side clearer that the fall is safe. Level still plays out the same with where the non-floater needs to go and the floater the other side.
Retro 7 - How to Escape an Avalanche Pretty nice concept here, where you need to send out multiple climbers and block in the right places so that you can release them all with one well-placed miner. I did have to rewind plenty of times, though, to keep readjusting the blocker positions, especially the leftmost one.
Retro 8 - Harvest of Screams Great level! I really love the solution here involving two separate digger pits and blocking the left-most one to be released later by the worker who built the bridge to the exit. It took me some time to figure out where to put the pits and when to block, but it's still a nice added challenge.
Retro 9 - Rendezvous at the Mountain Cavern Nice puzzle, I especially love how multiple workers need to be sent to different areas of the level to do work and prepare the path for the others. It can be difficult to get two of them to fall in opposite directions where they land on top of the sign. The timing is a bit tight near the end as well, but that's probably because I brought that on myself. By this I'm referring to the digger where he almost dug through the builder's staircase to prevent the others from getting to the exit.
Retro 10 - And There Were Four Again! I was stuck here longer than I needed to because I was a dummy for not realizing that you can safely drop them onto the small steel block at the bottom from the top on the right side! :forehead: It's funny how I never noticed this before on this particular level from OL. As a result, I kept coming up a builder short. At the same time, I can still see this one being a difficult one for some, so I guess its position in the rank is fine. Still, nice remake of "And then there were four..." from OL but Christmas themed.
Retro 11 - Roof of the World Wow, great level! :thumbsup: It was really fun to figure out and solve this level. The only hard part is knowing how to isolate 4 workers to go on and block to turn the builder so that you can send two climbers on ahead, as well as a third one to mine the blocker free who will both become floaters. Also, placing the other blocker where the crowd is compressed so that he can be mined free with a climber later from above. Also, timing the climbers so that the second one turns around in the miner tunnel can be difficult. Overall, this was very satisfying to solve :)
Retro 12 - Forbidden Knowledge (Part1) The Part 1 in the title needs a space between "Part" and 1. Somewhat hard level but another great one. I like how one needs to release the pre-placed climber first and then use him to release the pre-placed floater/climber. I think the hard part here is seeing that you need to mine in such a way so that you don't release the crowd because the wall is still too high. I think most would think to mine so that you end up releasing everyone when you can actually afford not to since you can build them out later. Overall, great level to finish off the rank.
Avant-garde Rank FeedbackNow we add the NL skills as well. Once again, I was able to solve everything
except for Avant Garde 10 edit: I was able to solve it, I went about the level completely wrong.
If only I had another walker :laugh:
Spoiler
Avant-garde 1 - Frozen Fractals All Around Nice NL skills only level to start off the rank! Not hard but not trivial either
Avant-garde 2 - Meanwhile in Namidaland Nice homage to namida :laugh: Similar to "Vacation in Gemland" from Holiday Lemmings in that it's the only non-Snow level in the pack and it's also in the Rock tileset. Nice open-ended level that I would say is easier than the aforementioned level, because the difficulty is a huge jump up in that game. Love the touch of decoration in the level!
Avant-garde 3 - Xmas in Lemmingland Another nice level. Not hard but not easy either. Love the Christmas tree near the exit!
Avant-garde 4 - We Move Unseen Ah, Starcraft 2 reference! :thumbsup: Great level, especially with how some are swimmers, the rest are climbers and need to shimmy. There's the laserer trick with firing two of them at the same location to keep the shimmiers going again, just like Icho's R2. It's a nice one and all, I just hate the extreme precision needed for it.
Avant-garde 5 - Ice Climbing Somewhat hard, although the hardest part is certainly seeing that you need to stack at a certain location at the start so that the climber does not go out into the water and drown. Also, there's the maxing out the RR so that everyone makes it past the stack on time before it becomes too high and turns some around, which is certainly the hardest part to see. That's exactly what did me in on Gear World 7 in LemRunner :XD: The rest of the level's somewhat straightforward, although one needs to realize to have the first climber turn around to mine the crowd out while the second one goes on to build the rest of the path. Nice level here!
Avant-garde 6 - Santa Training Center Wow, I really like this level! :thumbsup: One of my favorites in the pack. The builder/miner combo is clever, especially the second one so that you can get low enough to bash to avoid the icicle trap. I also love the very long shimmier section at the top. Well done here! :)
Avant-garde 7 - CAUTION, Thin Ice Another nice level, although a bit difficult. Once again, I didn't realize that the crowd can get over the first pillar without needing any help. The hardest part was realizing how to contain and get the crowd down safely afterwards. The rapid fire jumping to get up higher to dig away the final obstacle was pretty interesting.
Avant-garde 8 - Last Shepard of the Dead Another great level. I like how only one needs to use the teleporter to forge the path. Some skills leftover, but I'm guessing that's fine.
Avant-garde 9 - Get Your Sled Ready! Nice level, although I was a bit of a dummy and didn't think to send the entire crowd into the pit on the right where you need to use stackers to help a fencer. Clever level here, I really liked it :thumbsup:
Avant-garde 10 - Sorry, No Rooms Available Tonight Unsolved, I ended up skipping this one as I had already spent a couple of hours on this with no success when I asked you if you could verify 100% solvability on Discord. I will try again some other time.
edit: Finally was able to solve it earlier this month. This is a very hard but really good level! ;) The hardest thing to see here is that two stoners is actually enough to cover the entire gap at the bottom. Otherwise, most would seem to conclude that you need 3, but the problem here is that you can't afford to use all 3 stoners down there, as you need the third one for the tiny gap where the left entrance is. Thus, I take back what I said with reducing the precision here. I simply went about the level completely wrong, such as using a stoner to make one of the exit platforms with just one builder. The way the blockers are used here is really nice. To achieve bridging the gap with just two stoners requires very pixel precise builder placements. In this way, the stoners will be at the maximum width from one another in order to be able to bridge with only two stoners. Nice job here!
Avant-garde 11 - This Level has no Time Limit Ironic, considering that you need to get the bomber pickup and use it on the blocker just before the zombie gets to him but at the same time the zombie needs to turn around on the blocker before he explodes. Nice level, although again I was a dummy here and didn't realize to have everyone jump over the stack to be released :forehead:
Avant-garde 12 - Presents For You Looks intimidating and very hard, but it's really not that bad. It's all about knowing which pickups to go for first, as well as making up for a basher shortage with a cloner. The only problem I kept running into was making sure that I had a spare jumper for the end, as one needs to jump over the exit in order to bash through the OWW.
Avant-garde 13 - Thanks for Playing Self-solving level, where you don't have to do anything. Nice message :)
Bonus Rank FeedbackThe 6 levels here, as Armani described in the OP, are simply the 3 hardest levels from both the Retro and Avant-garde ranks. Indeed, these are all quite difficult, although I thought both Bonus 4 and Bonus 5 were the easiest of the rank :P
Spoiler
Bonus 1 - Lemming Entanglement This was a really hard level and one that I was stuck on for a long time. I was constantly either a lemming short of the requirement or a skill short. It might be a bit too hard for its position as the first level of the rank, actually. If anything, since I thought Bonus 5 was easy, it might be suitable to swap with it instead. Anyway, the most difficult part to see was blocking in the compressed crowd almost up against the pillar on the right side. For some reason, I didn't think a bomber would be able to blow through the rest of the pillar and also free the blocker at the same time. This took a very long time to see. Before I was successful in solving the level, I kept trying other things, such as building over the icicle trap or building over the top and other shenanigans, but they all ultimately don't work. Needless to say, there were plenty of times I kept thinking I had the level solved but then something pops up or I forgot to take something into consideration. The level definitely wasn't nice to me at all :XD:
Bonus 2 - No Matter Where You Came From Another really hard one for me that took me a while to solve. This is also one of two levels from the rank that I had an attempt before the pack's release, the other being Bonus 1. The start was what prevented me from getting the level solved, as no matter what I did I wouldn't have the necessary skills at the bottom to separate the swimmers from the sliders. I also kept running out of skills, as when I think I've saved enough and optimized some areas it comes back to surprise me that I'm out of jumpers/shimmiers. Turns out that I massively overcomplicated my solution, as both builders at the start, as well as the stacker on top of the first one, are all very pixel precise, and I had to cancel the stacker with a jumper on the 7th brick so that he's still able to get over it to place the second builder very precisely. Comparing to your intended solution, the second walker was what kept causing me to run into problems, where I turned him around on the left side so that he can build over the ice steam blower. In any case, this is likely the first major backroute, but the solution is so complicated it might still be a fine alternative despite not using some areas that the intended solution does? :P
Bonus 3 - Hold My Beer... Another one that didn't look too bad but was surprisingly a very hard one despite being a 3-of-everything. It's not obvious at all how to allocate the skills to the various rooms at all. Plenty of times I would end up a skill short or be short of the requirement. My solution is almost the same as the intended, except with the way I did the 3rd room and part of the 4th room. It seems I also backrouted this level, as I didn't use the clever trick of releasing the blockers when you built over the top one in your solution and hence why I had some skills left :P I was also a dummy for a long time here in that I kept thinking to release the crowd in the first room to the left instead of simply blowing up the blocker and releasing them to the right :forehead: Doing it the other way caused me to run into skill shortages or be short of the requirement.
Bonus 4 - Prerequisite: Advanced Fluid Mechanics Much easier than the first 3 levels of the rank IMO. It was still challenging, but the really good kind that wasn't too frustrating and is also one of my favorites! :thumbsup: The hardest part here was stoning in the water so that a glider can land on it to platform and clone. I spotted this very quickly and early on, but I kept stoning him when the swimmer was at the surface so that the icicle overhang would interrupt the platformer. I also missed the area underneath the exit that can be bashed through for the swimmer to come back around for some time. Finally, even after I had everything all figured out, I was a dummy for a while about how to save the climber/glider athletes. Then it dawned on me that the gliders need to hit the stack in order to bounce off and go towards the exit. That was clever. Also with how only 1 stacker needs to be used in order to get a glider over the top to land on top of the stoner. I kept thinking two stackers are needed :forehead:
Bonus 5 - Curious Minds I'm surprised you thought this was the hardest level. I thought this one was another easy one, probably easier than the previous level. It's almost very obvious where both miners need to go, the only hard part to see here was the bomber, I thought. Nice level that involves sending out 3 worker lemmings. Great use of the builder/miner combo too, though this might be another hard one to see. The only reason this an the previous levels were far quicker solves for me is that I'm just one of the more experienced solvers :P
Bonus 6 - This will be a Better Year Not the hardest level by any means, but it does require a really neat mechanic that can easily be overlooked here, which it was the case for me. I pretty much had the level solved in the first 10-15 minutes upon reaching the level, it was the nuke I missed for a very long time and thus the main reason why the level took me far longer than it should had. Very nice use of the nuke here, where it all comes down to activating it at such a time so that the timer goes off on the digger while he's still in the digger animation and before he transitions into a faller. In this way, it causes him to go into the ohno animation and fall on top of the exit trigger and exit safely without exploding. Even when this lightbulb moment came to me, I still needed to work out the timing of the fencer so that everyone makes it into the exit on time, meaning everyone is walking out to the left together and not separately in either direction. Very nice level to end off the pack! :thumbsup:
All rightie, thank goodness I finally got through the pack, even if it took me 3 months after release to solve the remaining 8 levels (7 that were part of the second patch, one new level (Retro 8) that was released to the public and not during pre-testing. The pack's definitely nowhere near as hard as Uncharted, but there's still a lot of very hard nuts here! Thus, you somewhat achieved your goal of a lower difficulty with this pack, but I would warn others that it's not a whole lot lower :P Looks like you got carried away with the hard puzzles :laugh: Even then, this is still a great pack that I, as one of the pre-testers, can recommend others to play, with the understanding that it won't be a very quick solve, as a lot of levels still have a lot of bite to them here. Then again, a lot of my sour tone with the pack came about due to how I was under a lot of self-inflicted stress and pressure from finishing my LWT LP before the end of 2021, so there's that too :XD:
Thanks again for this Christmas pack, Armani, and I'm hoping to record a level solving commentary video series for this soon :)
Everything intended or acceptable :thumbsup:
I think I already responded to most of your solutions so I will only respond to the new replays ;)
Spoiler
Avant-garde 5 Ice Climbing :
QuoteSomewhat hard, although the hardest part is certainly seeing that you need to stack at a certain location at the start so that the climber does not go out into the water and drown.
Actually you can place the stacker pretty much anywhere you want and increasing RR is not necessary here. The climber lemming can just climb over the stacks and turn around at the leftmost cliff. Anyway your solution is intended :thumbsup:
Avant-garde 10 Sorry, No Rooms Available Tonight : Great job! 100% intended :thumbsup: As you said, you have to figure out that two stoners are enough to close up the gap. I wanted to reduced the precision as much as possible but I didn't see any easy way to do so as I had to make the gap narrow enough so two stoners from the above are enough to cover the gap and at the same time I had to make the gap wide enough so you can't cover the gap by assigning two stoners to the two walkers.
Bonus 1 Lemming Entanglement : I didn't expect this level was indeed the hardest level among bonus 1,3 and 5. I think I underestimated the difficulty of Bonus1.(+I might have overestimated the difficulty of Bonus5 :XD:) The reason why underestimate this level was probably it requires the same trick(compress the crowd with a blocker and release them with a digger) twice. But you also have to see some other things such as a bomber is enough to blow up the leftover pillar as you said. You also have to take advantage of "1 lemming per teleporter" thing multiple times. Probably these are what make this level difficult.
Bonus 2 No Matter Where You Came From : At first, I was going to accept any solutions that slider group and swimmer group take different routes and reject all other solutions that both group take same(or almost same) route. But I changed my mind and decided to accept your solution as it was pretty impressive. :D
Bonus 3 Hold My Beer... : Great job on saving some of the skills :thumbsup: I don't want to enforce single solution to this X-of-everything level and you allocated the skills really well so I will take your solution as a challenge variant of the intended solution. ;)
Bonus 4 Prerequisite Advanced Fluid Mechanics : Finally I got an intended solution replay to this level :thumbsup: I'm glad this level is working as intended.
Bonus 5 Curious Minds : No idea why I thought this level was the hardest among 1,3 and 5 :forehead: Probably I thought sacrificing a lemming at the bottom(the one who build once to make a platform for the climber lemming to fall) was hard to see.
Bonus 6 This will be a Better Year : Nice job :thumbsup: The original idea of this level came upon to me like this: I was thinking if it is possible to make a level that requires nuke but nobody dies from the nuke :laugh: And it turns out that it's possible! I intentionally made the save requirement 30/31(you start with 30 lemmings but you have a cloner ;) ) so when you fail the level by one lemming, I wanted you try to find the way to save the lemming who start digging under the hatch! But in fact the final glider lemming is the one you need to save. Congratulation for not falling into my trap and finishing the entire pack :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Thanks again for playing :thumbsup: and I added your solutions to bonus2 and 3 to the replay pack! So there're now 4 alternative solutions from you in the replay pack ;)
I finally played through the pack. :)
I don't think I hit any major backroutes, but let's see.
Replays are attached!
@IchoTolot
Thanks for playing :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Bonus1 is a backroute.
Your solution to Retro8, Bonus2 and Bonus3 are acceptable variance. You were slightly more effcient on them :thumbsup:
All others are exactly intended :thumbsup:
I attached the fixed version of Bonus1 below! I will update the main topic once the level is confirmed solid ;)
update on Bonus1 Lemming Entanglement
- swapped the positions of the pick-ups(climber->builder, blocker->climber, builder->blocker)
-1blocker, +1climber
(The intended solution remains unchanged and none of the submitted replays will be broken)
Here is my resolve. :)
Still seems a bit suspicious.
That's intended :thumbsup:
I updated the main topic as well!
V1.3 is out! ;)
Level fixes:
-3 01 Lemming Entanglement - swapped the positions of the pick-ups, -1blocker, +1climber