Lix Multiplayer Guide by Flopsy (ongoing project)

[Flopsy]

So I have been working on a comprehensive multiplayer guide for nearly 2 years now, I've got it to a stage where I am ready to release it. It is over 300 pages long so it is quite a long read.

Lix Mutiplayer Guide by Flopsy

Of course this guide has only been written entirely by myself but now I am releasing it to the community and the real work on optimising this guide now begins.
The guide is hosted on Google Docs, it can only be edited by myself but anyone viewing the guide can suggest an edit to anything written.
I am open to hearing if something could be written better or if you disagree with the advice I am giving somewhere.

I wanted to do a proper job on it so I made sure I did it in a way that is easy to read and take in the information. Rather than it being just a wall of text, I tried to add pictures and GIF images to convey the points being made in the guide.



The guide is split into 4 main sections.

A: Multiplayer Hints and Tips - Just a general section of tips and guidance split into subsections

• Beginner - Some tips to start off with for newer players to the game.
• Multiplayer Etiquette - A couple of things to be aware of just to be courteous to other players.
• Skills - Specific advice related to the skills.
• Pathing - These hints will help you to plan out your path from starting hatch to exit effectively in a way which is not as vulnerable to attack from other players and also will help prevent loss of your own Lixes during the path making process.
• Sabotage Defense/Prevention - These hints will help you to see incoming saboteurs, and play in a manner to prevent sabotage from other players and keep you out of the firing line entirely!
• Sabotage Attack - These hints will help you to sabotage other players effectively and efficiently!
• The Nuke - General tips on using the nuke in Lix multiplayer.
• Scoring - Some tips on how to read the scoreboard and use it to your advantage.
• Team Maps - Some tips engineered specifically for team maps. These play the same as normal maps but multiple players are controlling the same coloured Lixes now and this gives way to some additional tips which are communication and team based.
• Race Maps - These are special maps where the objective is to save one Lix as fast as possible. Sabotaging and killing opposing Lix becomes more important here.
• Multiplayer Handicap - How to use the Handicap in multiplayer
• Miscellaneous - Tips that don't really fall within a category above.
• Last Words on Multiplayer hints
• Case Studies - a look at some familiar multiplayer scenarios and what to do in these situations.

B: Advice on Specific Multiplayer Levels - advice engineered to specific Lix multiplayer levels. This is a work in progress and more levels will be added over time. I have targeted the levels which have racked up the most plays in Lix multiplayer first and working down towards the lesser played.

• Selective Rescue (geoo)
• Rescue Ranger Trolls (geoo)
• Rescue Rangers Double Team (geoo/Dominator)
• Downward Reduction (geoo)
• Along the Fabrics of your Clothing (Flopsy)
• The Frog Hotel (Ryemanni)
• Twelve Bar Blues (Proxima)
• Clusterfrog (geoo)
• The Great Lix in the Sky (Amanda)
• IchoTolot's Box Maze (IchoTolot)
• Run The Gauntlet (Flopsy)
• Shaft of Chaos (Arty)
• Ghetto Party (geoo)
• Eater Island (Simon)
• The Abandoned Sanctuaries (Nessy)
• Group Therapy (Amanda)
• Playtime (Arty)
• Block Chaos (Flopsy)
• Marble Puzzle League (Kingshadow)
• Eat Me <3 (geoo)

C: Guide to Making Multiplayer maps - tips on how to use the editor effectively and what makes a good or bad level.

• How to use the Editor
• Basics to making good Lix Multiplayer maps
• Advanced Level making tips

D: Iconic Multiplayer Moments - a collection of points to click to in the Lix multiplayer videos for funny moments of banter or other lunacy.

• geoo ranting about Blockers
• geoo moments
• Simon says
• The many sounds of Simon
• Flopsy moments
• IchoTolot moments (or the IchoTolot picks on Flopsy section!)
• IchoTolot says "Ohhhhhh Simonnnn!"
• Colorful Arty moments
• The Birth of the Fun Train
• Other Moments

Credits:
Simon for the ongoing maintenance of the Lix engine and support for this guide through recent Lix features.
IchoTolot for the amazing collection of Youtube videos which this guide would not have existed without this extensive resource.
Armani for showing me how to make GIF images
All the players who have supported the Lix sessions over the years, you are amazing!

EDIT: Added a link to my replay archive. It is organised by level author and then level so you can go straight to replays of a particular level and study replays of a particular level. I'll try and keep this updated often.
(Last updated 26/8/24)

Flopsy's Lix Replay Archive (Dropbox download)
Extract this folder to lix/replays to view the replays in the replay feature of Lix.

[Simon]

Thanks! This is a wholesome collection of wisdom.

The major hints for new players are indeed: Learn the ropes in your own small group of friends, and start with only 2 or 3 skill hotkeys.

The guide has lots of general strategy, and goes into several maps in detail. You get strategic fundamentals, opening theory even, separately for each of the 5 hatches in Great Lix in the Sky.

Some parts I had not realized until I reviewed your drafts. In Downward Reduction, it's certainly good to counter-mine in your own miner tunnels. (= If you mine rightward generally to your goal, mine leftward occasionally to stop lix from leaving the rightward tunnel-in-progress.) Some players cancel their leftward miners, but I let them continue to conserve my attention. You found that there is some strategic value in letting them continue that I never realized: Other players' lix walk rightward, up my leftward tunnel, and into my main tunnel.

I'm happy that it's even possible to write such an in-depth guide on Lix multiplayer in the first place. When I started writing the networking code in 2008, I had read online how the Lemmings 1 two-player mode "was fun". But some games become dry and uninteresting once players become proficient. It's good fortune that interest in Lix multiplayer hasn't fizzled even after 15 years.

-- Simon

[Silken Healer]

Thanks. As someone who used to be awful at Lix. Then, I've played more from IRC and the multi-player sessions, finding it very satisfying to slowly but surely improve, and whilst still being a weak player winning occasionally, this resource seems like a very useful thing to exist.

[Flopsy]

Thanks. As someone who used to be awful at Lix. Then, I've played more from IRC and the multi-player sessions, finding it very satisfying to slowly but surely improve, and whilst still being a weak player winning occasionally, this resource seems like a very useful thing to exist.

You played very well in the Lix session just gone, I wasn't saying that lightly at the time

The guide is designed to change the way you think and act when playing the Lix multiplayer and get people out of the frame of thinking that you can play Lix multiplayer like it is Single player Lemmings, you need to approach the multiplayer in Lix in a very specific way and you can't just pretend the other players do not exist.
So it is a useful read if you can invest the time into reading it. It's by no means perfect (since it is pretty much entirely from my point of view) but it's great to know the things I know now from playing Lix for over 6 years passed down to people who have played less time than I have. It's like a list of advice I wish I knew 6 years ago when I started playing Lix!

You might actually be doing a lot of the stuff already mentioned in the guide so it might not be all that much to take in.

I'm still learning stuff about the multiplayer now so it is a long process however I think this guide would help reduce the amount of time for newer players to get very experienced at the game. I'll still be adding stuff to this guide from time to time as well, especially the advice on specific multiplayer levels.

[Silken Healer]

When I attempt to acsess the list of most played levels it prompts me to sign in to Google. However, I can acsess the list from here: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6574.0 without singing in? Is this intentional? Are there two versions? I don't want to sign in to Google just to acsess the spreadsheet.

I asked you in IRC, but I'm posting this here so if anyone else has that issue they can see the list from that link.

[Flopsy]

Ok that was the wrong page you were sent to, I have now fixed the link in the guide to send it to the page linked in that topic above. Thanks for pointing this out

[Silken Healer]

Thanks!

[Flopsy]

I've added a link to my replay archive at the bottom of the first post where the replays are sorted by level author and then by map, so all the replays for the same map will be in the same folder.

This is handy if you want to look at all replays for a certain map for extensive study of a multiplayer map.
I'll try to keep the link updated as more replays get added overtime.

Obviously keep them separate from your own replays in the replay folder but I've placed them in a folder called "flopsy replay archive" anyway.

[Silken Healer]

Suggestion for the guide: change the bit on the Frog-Hotel that says "(15 could be possible)" to "(20 could be possible)." I've gotten 18/20 home in multiplayer conditions, and in just 0.8 times speed I've gotten 20/20 home. I also saw one of the recordinds someone said "I've gotten all 20 home before." So it's definetly possible.

[Flopsy]

I've edited that part of the guide to reflect your findings.

The only reason The Frog Hotel has featured in the levels section though is because it ended up being the 7th most played multiplayer map in Lix. I can't help thinking it got a lot of plays though because it is a VERY quick map.

Perhaps you can write better strategy than I could for this level, I'd be interested in adding it into the guide.

[Silken Healer]

Do you know who the person who says they've gotten all Lix home is at https://youtu.be/ZoytualdCCM?t=1881 ? I think the person who asks if it was humanly possible to get 20/20 Lix home was me (this was before I started getting too shy to speak again), but I'm not sure who the person who responds is as I don't know most of the players well enough to recognize their voices. I know for sure it's not Lana, and probably isn't Icho? Maybe you could add that he/she got 20/20.

I've been thinking about getting a touchscreen for this level to make it easer.



[15:34] <@SimonN> SilkenHealer: Touchscreen would make Frog Hotel easier: Yes, any one-skill map will be easier, and you can use more than one finger.



Though I doubt most people would get a touchscreen monitor for Lix unless they already have one. I think there might be some apps that can turn a phone/tablet into a touchscreen monitor for a computer, but I haven't tried them.