Fake Difficulty

[Luis]

Do you consider it fake difficulty when you're trying to find one Lemming that is facing the correct direction in a large crowd only to click on the wrong one? It said this in the Lemmings tropes. If so, is it because the puzzle in the level itself is suppose to be the only difficulty of Lemmings? Won't it make it some of the levels too easy? It was funny when I read that because I have reset a level many times because of that. I'm sure everyone did.(That site tells you stuff that you don't know) I think there's a level with a name that  refers to this: "Careless Clicking costs lives" To me it doesn't matter if whether it's fake difficulty or not, because the game is still fun and addictive, and I think it's ok for custom levels to have it too, because real levels had them.

[Simon]

The problem comes from two things:

• Both DOS Lemmings and Lemmix draw later spawned lemmings over the earlier ones, but earlier walkers have assignment priority. Clam and finlay noted that the latter has priority, so this actually does help instead of hinder.
  
• Neither of them feature directional select.

The only merit for Lemmix to not implement directional select is to replicate the exact possibilities of the DOS version. Lemmix has action replay, so it's not that severe a problem there anymore.

Any other game suffers from not having directional select. The correct thing would be to fix this problem in the game, not to build levels around it. I recall you design for PSP Lemmings, does that really lack directional force? In that case, I'd consider it a courtesy of the level designer to not require necessary assignments into clusters.

Levels with inevitable luck assignments tend to be badly designed, no matter whether they're builtin/real levels or custom levels. There is this Mayhem level with the luck basher to free the crowd, initially featuring 50 mindless and grindy floater assignments for good measure. This is so horrible that I consider it the worst-designed level in the entire game, despite its somewhat decent puzzle.

I have a peculiar attitude to singleplayer puzzle games. The game should be a tool to realize/test possible solutions. Lack of aids makes for a bad tool and thus a bad game.

Besides being a puzzle, a level can satisfy in different ways, none of which require luck or grinding. Some levels simply look beautiful.

-- Simon.

[Clam]

Both DOS Lemmings and Lemmix draw later spawned lemmings over the earlier ones, but earlier walkers have assignment priority.

It's later lemmings that get priority in the original DOS games. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />



As for the original question: The game doesn't go out of its way to help you figure out the assignment priority, so you won't figure it out unless you're observant, and most players never do. So, while we know it and can work with it, to the average player it looks like fake difficulty, which is close enough.

There are a few more classic fake-difficulty elements that don't get a mention on the tvtropes page:

- Hidden traps, which force you to use trial-and-error to beat the level
- Things that look like traps but aren't (eg. the rocks on Mayhem 30 - in fact that's even worse since one of them really is a trap)
- Fake exits, unless there are actually 'hints' somewhere you can 'check'

Also, the game mechanics allow for some other tricks like invisible terrain, fake traps, and invisible traps/exits.

I have a peculiar attitude to singleplayer puzzle games. The game should be a tool to realize/test possible solutions. Lack of aids makes for a bad tool and thus a bad game.

Having used Lemmix extensively over the past few years, I've come to agree with this viewpoint. I have better things to do with my time than restart from the beginning http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" />

[ccexplore]

In my opinion, puzzle difficulty tends to be the most stimulating and engaging source of difficulty for Lemmings.  The fundamental game design makes it such that any other sources of difficulty are just not as fun and tend to detract from the experience over time.  In particular, since you don't get detailed control of characters like you do in typical action/platformer/shooter etc. games, and the environment is not as dynamic as in those games (eg. no moving platforms or enemies/obstacles you need to dodge with good reflexes), Lemmings game don't have the kind of "grind" from those games that tend to be more tolerable due to the action inherently getting your adrenaline going, so that it's still a little fun even when you fail execution the first few times.  Whereas in Lemmings, the kind of non-puzzle difficulty are the kinds of things that are basically luck, and it can be very detracting to have gone through 99% of your carefully planned solution only to be defeated by luck on the last 1%.

Or take repetition.  A game like RPG tend to have a lot of repetition in the form of "leveling up", but at least you get some variety in the form of encountering different monsters, having opportunity to try different moves and attacks, and also to some point it is optional and in your control (maybe you are going for a "low-level" game trying to beat it with the least amount of leveling up, or you can go nuts and build your characters to insane levels and mow through the rest of the game like God).  In contrast, with only 8 skills (and oftentimes using just 1 particular skill type for repetition), excessive repetition in a game like Lemmings (eg. assigning every lemming a floater or you lose) is just not quite as enjoyable.

Of course, people's minds all work differently, so there are no hard and fast rules here.  Even mindless repetition can be relaxing for some.  Since you are not likely to please everyone, perhaps the best thing to do is just to make levels that you'd enjoy playing yourself.

[finlay]

There are a few more classic fake-difficulty elements that don't get a mention on the tvtropes page:

- Hidden traps, which force you to use trial-and-error to beat the level
- Things that look like traps but aren't (eg. the rocks on Mayhem 30 - in fact that's even worse since one of them really is a trap)
- Fake exits, unless there are actually 'hints' somewhere you can 'check'

Also, the game mechanics allow for some other tricks like invisible terrain, fake traps, and invisible traps/exits.

It is a wiki that's free to edit. Go and edit it!

I eventually worked out that the lemming drawn on top gets top priority when assigning skills, which is a lot easier to spot on the mac because the lemmings have tiny eyes and you can see what direction they're facing.

I'm not much of a fan of puzzles that I can see how to do but that I find hard to actually execute. I much prefer a puzzle that takes me time to work out, possibly having to play through a few times to find out what happens when or if something is possible. I know this is just personal preference, though.

[Luis]

Any other game suffers from not having directional select. The correct thing would be to fix this problem in the game, not to build levels around it. I recall you design for PSP Lemmings, does that really lack directional force? In that case, I'd consider it a courtesy of the level designer to not require necessary assignments into clusters.

The PSP Lemmings doesn't have directional select but what it does have is you can pause the game and carefully move the cursor to the one that is facing the direction that you want and click on him. In this version, you can assign a Lemming a skill within the pause, so by the time you unpause the game, the Lemming will immediately start doing his job. This makes clicking on a crowd easier. I tend to try to beat a level without it or not pausing at all, because it makes it too easy. Although, I did made some levels in the PSP editor that will torture you if you don't use this, but it wasn''t my intention to make the level force you to use it. It ended up being like. I only make levels that only I can put up with, and still enjoy it.

There are a few more classic fake-difficulty elements that don't get a mention on the tvtropes page:
- Hidden traps, which force you to use trial-and-error to beat the level
- Things that look like traps but aren't (eg. the rocks on Mayhem 30 - in fact that's even worse since one of them really is a trap)

I noticed in the PSP version of Mayhem 30, there's an arrow pointing that there's a trap there. Although, I still got caught in the trap, because I didn't even noticed the arrow was there.

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