New Level Pack - Lemmings Faithful

[92Dexter11]

Hey everyone!
I'm pleased to present my new level pack, 'Lemmings Faithful' - another collaboration with my brother, tan x dx!

You'll need to first download its accompanying style pack here:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6713.0


As I explain in that thread, the gimmick behind these new styles is that they are designed to mimic the style of the original/ohno colour palettes as closely as possible.

This level pack is meant to show off the terrain pieces and objects of the 5 new styles that I created.

There are twenty levels in total, divided into two ranks.
The first rank is very easy - suitable for beginners.
The second rank is slightly harder, but still relatively easy.
The levels have multiple solutions and aren't intended to have any specific solution as the 'correct' one.

If you're a more advanced player looking for a challenge, each level also has an accompanying talisman, some of which are very difficult to obtain!

Here are some screenshots:

Spoiler

Link to the level pack:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9z370ejmfccdfayjddro9/levels-LemmingsFaithful.zip?rlkey=p42q66j1shgbdidhu7hq1h6mw&st=ljtbck52&dl=1

Link to the solutions for the talismans:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/67qekumsgfemrboco20f5/Replay-LemmingsFaithful-talismans.zip?rlkey=4wj90s93k3bses0yjdgrj3cqq&st=w693q2pd&dl=1




Let me know what you think!

[Mobiethian]

Let me know what you think!

These levels are gorgeous and fun! Your tilesets are totally amazing, so much that I started making and experimenting with them in SuperLemmix. I sense a new pack by me eventually! You're welcome to assist with it.

Thank you for the permission to use the tilesets. You've done an excellent job with them!

[kaywhyn]

Hi Dexter and tan x,

I have played and solved all of the levels. Here are my replays and of course some nice feedback. There are a few levels with two replays, but that is because some I didn't get the talisman due to forgetting a requirement, mostly the save all that I happened to overlook a few times

Also, link to my LP: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJvlLFdVV0TNl3zcOkg7Dy7Q

Enjoy!

General Feedback

Lemmings Faithful is the newest level pack by both Dexter and ∫tan x. It is a pack featuring and showcasing 5 brand new tilesets for NL made by Dexter. These tilesets are Autumn, Mosaic, Circuit, Palace, and Rust. For some screenshots of the tilesets, see the spoiler tag in the OP, as well as the styles pack linked. Because Dexter was attempting to imitate the original feel of the L1 and ONML tilesets, he intentionally imposed some restrictions/limitations when making them, such as 6 up to a maximum of 8 colors. For more information on how these tilesets were in these official games, see namida's post in the topic linked in the Lemmings Faithful styles topic.

As several others have stated, the tilesets look amazing. Dexter did a great job with them, and you get to have fun navigating levels in these tilesets with this pack. The levels are all open-ended and therefore shouldn't be too difficult. If you're looking for a greater challenge, you can try going for the talismans, which every level of the pack has. There's only one talisman per level in this pack. Indeed, some of these were difficult to figure out, but they still weren't too hard IMO. In particular, I thought the time attack ones were quite simple, while I find the skill limit ones more challenging. Tricky 9 is probably the hardest of this type to achieve, but is in general not too hard of a level if you don't care for the talisman despite being the penultimate level of the pack. Even the final level isn't very hard but its talisman is a very worthy challenge to finish the pack on. I checked my solution against the talisman solution after I solved the levels and obtained them myself first, and they're all different compared to mine. That's the beauty of the game of Lemmings

Even though this pack is easier than their usual affair, I still enjoyed this pack very much. A lot of the talismans were especially fun to figure out. In this way, some of them kind of remind me of the ones from Lemmings Plus VI. They do increase the challenge, some more drastically than others. I really had to think hard on how to obtain some of them. Some of the ones that require saving all combined with some other restrictions (usually, skill limits) were the hardest talismans of the pack. With this, IMO the hardest one to get was Tricky 3, followed by Tricky 9, Tricky 4, and Simple 9.

The best talismans to figure out IMO are Simple 3, Simple 5, Simple 8, Simple 9, Tricky 1, Tricky 4, and Tricky 10. Simple 2 to an extent, but you can either really overcomplicate it like I did, or do it in a much easier way like Dexter

Simple Rank Feedback

These levels are in general easy for the most part. The ones at the end of the rank aren't that hard either, even when the talisman is considered.

Spoiler

Simple 1 - Fields of Gold Nice level to get players into the pack, especially with a really nice tileset that's reminiscent of the fall weather.

Simple 2 - Lazuli Not sure what the title is referring to here. Another nice level, though I massively overcomplicated the solution when going for the talisman. I checked against Dexter's solution and it's a lot easier to just dig down the pillars. Can't believe I missed that! Well, I do have the tendency to overlook the simple stuff but figure out the hard parts of the solution fast

Simple 3 - House of Fun A very fun one to figure out, especially the talisman, as I love builderless levels myself. This was one that I apparently missed because while I did do the talisman in regards to no builders or bashers, I overlooked the save all requirement So, I quickly fixed that after I finished recording the final video of the LP. Who knew you could do the entire level with just lasers as the only way to destroy terrain for the talisman. Nice!

Simple 4 - Alabashter Nice wordplay on Alabaster Even with the talisman this one is quite easy, as long as you know your time saving techniques.

Simple 5 - Methane Meadows Another great level that was really fun to figure out the talisman. I especially love the added challenge of the splat pad and that it's just a simple matter of building to catch the entrance that's over it. Well done, Dexter!

Simple 6 - Stepping Stones Very easy, even with the talisman

Simple 7 - Ruins of Atlantis Also very easy, even with the talisman Even moreso when all that's required to obtain it is as long as you beat the time by the time you meet the save requirement, you're "golden." Not really, it's a silver talisman, but you know what I mean

Simple 8 - Dodgy Plumbing Perhaps the best level of the pack IMO in regards to the talisman It pretty much reminds me of the huge buildereless level you can find somewhere in the final ranks in each of the numbered Lemmings Plus packs. In this case, none of the 3 constructive skill types are allowed. This was very fun to figure out! On top of the talisman, you have more than enough of everything here so that you don't have to worry about running out of skills, though I managed to use all but 1 jumper Some could easily be replaced with the shimmier skill instead for cancelling skill purposes.

Simple 9 - Danger, Danger! Somewhat difficult to figure out, especially the talisman, but that was because I kept overlooking the fact that everyone is a preassigned climber. As a result, there's no need to mine them out This was still fun to figure out, the hard 5 skill limit really makes you think here. Compression FTW, especially as these are somewhat slow triggering traps. It's still necessary to disarm some while there isn't much you can do about the ones that are hanging on the wall. I could be wrong about that, I still will check out Dexter's talisman solution.

Simple 10 - Bombing Run Redux I spent a little longer here than I needed to, but that was only because I was needlessly fiddling around with the release of the disarmer and making sure he can turn around on the blocker in time in order to mine the crowd out and disarm the trap Not sure why it took me a while to realize that you can recycle the blockers and bomb them in order to make climber friendly walls for the disarmer to come back into position to mine. A very nice level to finish off the rank, even if the talisman is somewhat easy to figure out!

Tricky Rank Feedback

The levels here are a bit harder than the ones in the previous rank, but they still aren't very hard thanks to how the levels are open-ended, even when the talisman is considered, though the talisman solutions are slightly more restrictive than the Simple rank ones due to less degrees of freedom. Some of them were still fun to figure out nevertheless!

Spoiler

Tricky 1 - Shantytown Very nice level to start the rank. The talisman was especially fun to figure out, as you need to really know your platformer mechanics, such as making two build together so that one of their bricks hits the other to get interrupted and turn to take a different path from the others, such as to make the splatform for them at the top. Nice job, Dexter

Tricky 2 - A Duet Somewhat easy to figure out, especially the talisman due to how it automatically locks the release with a laser so you can send a climber/glider out to free the other entrance and then you can use the freed entrance to free the other. Everything pretty much falls into place after that, especially as the miners have to go in the middle as you can't use the fencers to go through the sides due to the trap(s). Nice level from ∫tan x, his first of the pack

Tricky 3 - Which Way, Mr. Scarecrow? This was the hardest level for me, especially the talisman and with how it gets very chaotic quickly with all the splitters and moving parts in the level. I was able to solve it by satisfying the no more than 25 skills total part, but once again I overlooked the save all requirement The latter requirement combined with the skill limit makes the level much harder. I also kept going about the level wrong, especially with maxing out the RR and putting it back down to the default. Took me a long time to realize that you just need to find the ideal RR so that the splitter on the platform just below the starting platforms will never allow a zombie to go through to the left. 70 seemed to have done the trick here. Very nice non-trivial walkers/jumpers level!

Tricky 4 - Pipe Dream Fairly challenging talisman to figure out but somewhat fun too. Took me a while to figure out where to place the blocker and how to free him later on. I checked against ∫tan x's solution and that part is the same. Where we differ is around the middle right area. His is somewhat simpler than mine, especially as we differ in how we get through the obstacles near the exit and how to get the right-most button. Great level, though!

Tricky 5 - Beware the Serpent! Ugh, of course I really overcomplicated how to get everyone down safely, especially at the start! Can't believe I missed the ramp in the upper right that allows you to bash through so that when you build you can drop down safely. Interesting that I missed that but I figured out that part at the bottom with bashing the wall low enough. In any case, my solution shows a different way to get down safely, albeit one that requires a lot of precision and the real possibility of running out of the non-builder necessary skills. Still a good level!

Tricky 6 - Quad Core Easy level for the most part and can be considered a breather, just for some reason I missed the simple dig for a while and then fence up to the right with the upper entrance Look at me overcomplicating stuff with trying to get the bottom entrance up with a fencer and builder

Tricky 7 - Vive La Revolution! Easy one, especially as you have way more than enough skills and it's very easy to contain the zombies once you get the pickups. Can be a bit of a breather level as a result, just like the previous level.

Tricky 8 - The Triad Even with the talisman, this is very easy, though there's still some things the player needs to make sure to take care of, such as the splat fall with the right-most entrance. Other than that, it's still easy even with the builder limit because you have plenty of other skills that allow you to get through the level without using builders.

Tricky 9 - Fear Knot Nice title that's a play on "fear not!" This one is quite possibly another that's hard to figure out the talisman to, although I think as long as you figure out a way to get down as much as possible with the digger then it will come somewhat easily. My solution is different from Dexter's, since I went down the left side, while he went down the right. Nice level depicting the intertwining of wires/cables, similar to how you would see a desktop computer setup.

Tricky 10 - Zen Rock Garden Very nice level to finish off the pack. Even moreso as the pack starts with an Autumn level and ends on one. The talisman is quite a nice challenge here, especially as it pretty much relies on doing as much of the level as possible without builders. Once again, my solution is different from tan x's, though in my solution I had two Lemmings in the end that I wouldn't be able to solve without losing the talisman in the process. It might be tweak-able to allow them to be saved, though. Not sure. Great job to ∫tan x with the final level!  

All in all, even though this is a short 20-level pack and is much easier than their other level packs, I must say I enjoyed this very much! This especially continued the very huge and nice break, along with Lemmings Heritage which I did previously and before this one, from all the brutally difficult levels I endured in DavidLems Even if I was a dummy at times in my LP, I definitely enjoyed myself while playing the pack

Thank you so much to both Dexter and ∫tan x for this amazing level pack, but especially to Dexter for these new, awesome looking tilesets!

[IchoTolot]

I want to throw my replays into the ring as well.

Nice pack concept with easy levels that turn into quite the challenge when trying to get the talisman.

[92Dexter11]

Hi kaywhyn and IchoTolot!

Thank you for your responses!

Sorry for the delayed reply, we've both been busy recently.

We've both looked through all of your replays, and all of your solutions were very creative! We've decided to respond to the level replays that were the most surprising to us:

Lemmings Faithful is the newest level pack by both Dexter and ∫tan x. It is a pack featuring and showcasing 5 brand new tilesets for NL made by Dexter. These tilesets are Autumn, Mosaic, Circuit, Palace, and Rust. For some screenshots of the tilesets, see the spoiler tag in the OP, as well as the styles pack linked. Because Dexter was attempting to imitate the original feel of the L1 and ONML tilesets, he intentionally imposed some restrictions/limitations when making them, such as 6 up to a maximum of 8 colors. For more information on how these tilesets were in these official games, see namida's post in the topic linked in the Lemmings Faithful styles topic.

As several others have stated, the tilesets look amazing. Dexter did a great job with them, and you get to have fun navigating levels in these tilesets with this pack. The levels are all open-ended and therefore shouldn't be too difficult. If you're looking for a greater challenge, you can try going for the talismans, which every level of the pack has. There's only one talisman per level in this pack. Indeed, some of these were difficult to figure out, but they still weren't too hard IMO. In particular, I thought the time attack ones were quite simple, while I find the skill limit ones more challenging. Tricky 9 is probably the hardest of this type to achieve, but is in general not too hard of a level if you don't care for the talisman despite being the penultimate level of the pack. Even the final level isn't very hard but its talisman is a very worthy challenge to finish the pack on. I checked my solution against the talisman solution after I solved the levels and obtained them myself first, and they're all different compared to mine. That's the beauty of the game of Lemmings

Even though this pack is easier than their usual affair, I still enjoyed this pack very much. A lot of the talismans were especially fun to figure out. In this way, some of them kind of remind me of the ones from Lemmings Plus VI. They do increase the challenge, some more drastically than others. I really had to think hard on how to obtain some of them. Some of the ones that require saving all combined with some other restrictions (usually, skill limits) were the hardest talismans of the pack. With this, IMO the hardest one to get was Tricky 3, followed by Tricky 9, Tricky 4, and Simple 9.

The best talismans to figure out IMO are Simple 3, Simple 5, Simple 8, Simple 9, Tricky 1, Tricky 4, and Tricky 10. Simple 2 to an extent, but you can either really overcomplicate it like I did, or do it in a much easier way like Dexter

Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful words! As always, it was a joy to watch your let's play on youtube.
Here's my response for my levels:

Spoiler

Fields of Gold - I made the talisman for this level with going underneath the one way arrows in mind. I should've known you would manage to go over it instead! Amazing!

Lazuli - This one was a blast to watch you solve! I was kind of blown away by your solution, as I didn't think it would be possible to do that with the limited number of builders! The name is a reference to lapis lazuli, a blue-coloured rock.

Stepping Stones - Great work! You certainly saved a lot of time on this one.

Dodgy Plumbing - I'm glad you liked this one! The talisman for this is one of my favourites, too.

Shantytown - Nicely done! Your solution actually differs from mine quite a bit - your use of the platformer mechanic to turn a lemming round actually makes way more sense than my solution, and could be used to save a lot of time.

Which Way, Mr. Scarecrow? - I was initially surprised that you found this one so hard, but in retrospect it's a very tricky talisman because it's difficult to plan ahead - there's no real way to predict how the lemmings / zombies will be moved around by the scarecrows. Your solution of changing the release rate in order to help with the save/skill requirement is a genius idea that I hadn't considered at all when I was creating the level, amazing!

Beware the Serpent! - This one was a blast to watch you solve! I can't believe you missed that ramp in the upper right, either! Great work!

Vive La Revolution! - I actually laughed out loud when you dug a pit and buried the zombies inside of it. Very fun and creative solution!

Fear Knot - This one is one of the few levels where I made the level first with no solution in mind (as you can probably tell based on how chaotic the landscape is ). There's probably a ton of solutions but they're all tricky to find with the very limited skillset. Great job!

My brother's response for the tricky rank:

Spoiler

The Triad: Nice solve! You mentioned in your video that you found this level to be somewhat easy, and that's entirely fair. In truth, my brother and I are really bad at judging the difficulty of a level. This one seemed like it fit near the end of the rank!

Zen Rock Garden: Some nice ascension skills here! Getting everybody up that wall was very fun.

I want to throw my replays into the ring as well.

Nice pack concept with easy levels that turn into quite the challenge when trying to get the talisman.

I've just finished watching your replays, and there are some really amazing creative solutions here!

I was particularly amazed by your solutions for Simple #6, Simple #8, Tricky #1, Tricky #7

Spoiler

Lazuli - Another fantastic solution to this one! Very intricate, how you dug down to create a one-pixel high platform - I could easily see somebody making a difficult puzzle around that concept

Stepping Stones - Very similar to kaywhyn's solution, you both saved a ton of time by building straight up to the second row. In retrospect, I probably should have put another button on the far side of the level.

Dodgy Plumbing - That staircase made from bashers in the latter half of the level was extremely fun and satisfying to look at. Great job!

Danger, Danger! - I was actually surprised that there are so many possible solutions for the talisman for this one. Both you and kaywhyn opted to disarm the floor traps in order to save more lemmings which I hadn't thought of, but which makes total sense. Brilliant!

Shantytown - Another level that I didn't realise how many solutions it had! I thought for certain that with the very restrictive skillset there would be only one.

Vive La Revolution - Another very satisfying solution, especially when all four climbers jump off the wall simultaneously.

My brother's response for the tricky rank:

Spoiler

The Triad: Some nice lemming control here, and you saved more than enough builders! Nice one.

Zen Rock Garden: Wow! 100% saved! That's crazy!

[kaywhyn]

Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful words! As always, it was a joy to watch your let's play on youtube.

Thanks for the response/feedback about my solutions! Glad to hear you and tan x enjoyed watching my LP of your guys' newest level pack

Spoiler

The Triad: Nice solve! You mentioned in your video that you found this level to be somewhat easy, and that's entirely fair. In truth, my brother and I are really bad at judging the difficulty of a level. This one seemed like it fit near the end of the rank!

@tan x

Yea, no worries. That's why I like providing feedback on the difficulty It's pretty common for designers to fall into the trap of underestimating/overestimating the difficulty of their own levels. The reason for this is simple: You as the designer know what's intended, while others who play your levels don't. I myself fall victim to this trap of misjudging the difficulty of my own levels all the time! It's especially true with the former, as I constantly think my levels aren't that difficult, only to be proven very wrong about that from the feedback I receive, including from both Armani and Icho. If my levels give even these two a good run of their solving skills, then I need to stop thinking my levels are easy relatively speaking to the other contest entries and drop that incorrect personal notion of mine!