Festival Millas 2021 - Release Thread

[GigaLem]

Again before Christmas, we have the yearly level pack, and im lucky to have this one be made at all

Featuring 2 new graphic sets, A number of Set updates for the sets from 2020 and before, 30* levels (2021 was not gonna be a big year for the FM levels so I aimed for something feasible), and the first use of the FP2 Millas in the Festival Millas set of Packs. Only thing it doesn't have are levels from Nessy, Nessy couldn't make it this year due to scheduling conflicts so I do wish him the best.

Spoiler

*=31 if you count the credits level

First a Preview of what You'll be going through this time



This year's Rank theming is the Chinese Zodiac, Easiest being the Rat Rank, where the more tamer levels are placed, each rank has an end of rank talisman



Second the Dog rank, where learn about bigger responsibilities



Third the Tiger rank, the middle of the road but where path forward won't be easy. The difficulty becomes more ferocious



Fourth the Ox rank, the rank of my Birthyear, Big strength and knowledge is needed for the adventure ahead



Last the Dragon rank, where legends are forged, the most Difficult Tasks are within this rank, you're not gonna beat this rank easily

Level Pack
Download
The Sets needed to play it, basically set's I've used in tandem with the new set's available
Download
Music Pack
Download (I apologize again for the size)

Credits

Spoiler

Project Leader
GigaLem

Original Graphics
Plom510

Level Design
GigaLem, Plom510

NeoLemmix
Nepster, Namida

Based on the Games by
Sabrina Diduro, Galaxy Trail

Music Credits

Spoiler

From - Bemani
Qwispy Joybox
Kors K
DJ Taka
Sota Fujimori
HuMer
Seiya Murai
Lapix
TAG
Nekomata Master

From Nintendo
Toshiyuki Sudo
Shinji Ushiroda
Yumi Takahashi
Megumi Inoue
Go Ichinose
Adachi Minako
Hitomi Sato

From Misc
Steve Duckworth
Joshua Jensen
Leilani Wilson
Toshio Shimizu

From Capcom
Shusaku Uchiyama
Luna Umegaki

[IchoTolot]

Another pack checked in my quest to catch up with my to-play list!

I was very impressed with this one and my biggest critic would be the occasionly background being hard to distinguish.

My favorites would be Ox 06 and Dragon 01.

I can 100% recommend this pack!

My solutions are attached!

[Apjjm]

Very entertaining pack with some stand out levels (In particular: Tiger 3, Ox 6, Dragon 1 & 4 were my favorites of the pack).  Visually the levels all look brilliant with a great selection of music tracks included too. This level pack makes really good use of the newer skills (in particular the laserer & slider are used quite a bit) and has a good variety between more navigational puzzles using movement skills and terrain altering puzzles.

In terms of difficulty, some of the harder levels in this pack certainly offer a challenge, and for the most part diffculty increases as you go through each rank culminating in a bit of a 'boss' level at the end of each rank.

Level-by level thoughts:

Spoiler

Rat 1 - A nice short level to open up the pack. The art already looks great!

Rat 2 - Clean level using laserer and slider. I like the way the slider is used at the end to avoid the lemming getting stuck in a loop, usually the slider is the cause of this!

Rat 3 - Puzzle revolving around continuing a shimmier on the underside of a bridge. This is level is presumably to introduce this tech for later levels, and is a nice level to showcase this cocnept in a way that is discoverable.

Rat 4 - A fun one lemming level navigating the terrain with the slider + jumper.

Rat 5 - Nice use of the zombie on this level to open up the path for the crowd and setup the switcher ready for the neutral to exit.

Rat 6 - The teleporters on this were quite intimidating at first to work out where they all went! However, it turns out they all follow on from each other, but still a bit of care is needed to make sure the you don't leave a lemming stranded somewhere. Nice level.

Dog 1 - Great 2 of everything level and a bit of a step up in difficulty too! Navigating around the laser traps while avoiding a deadly fall makes a nice challenge.

Dog 2 - Another good level. Working out the path for the crowd isn't too tricky but you still have to get the worker lemming to build it effeciently. I did have a platformer and some movement skills leftover, but maybe that is to open up other options?

Dog 3 - I really like this as a follow on from Rat 5 and using the zombies to disarm the switchers. The way the jumper pickups are used at the end is a fun detail too.

Dog 4 - Great level - Seems fairly open to multiple solutions but the difficulty is in effeciently using the skills to reach the various pickups without sealing off the way for the neutrals.

Dog 5 - Another nice puzzle using neutral lemmings + sealing up the walls with the stacker. The skills provided on this are quite generous which made it a bit easier than 4 for me.

Dog 6 - Very good level to end the rank on, and nice ramp up in difficulty too. The path the worker needs to take on this is not obvious and it is easy to run out of skills constructing it.

Tiger 1 - What needs to happen is fairly clear on this one, though my first attempt I tried to build out of the pit first.

Tiger 2 - Really good level and one of my favorites of the rank - I enjoyed the way all the parts of this played out, and reaching the 2nd switch at the end does take a bit of care.

Tiger 3 - This is a brilliant (and difficult) puzzle - I think possibly more tricky than some in the Ox rank. There are a lot of options for how the workers can be used, and skills can easily run out tunneling back too.

Tiger 4 - Very nice level. The way the cloned miner is used on this to mine out from the centre of the statue is a great idea.

Tiger 5 - A large level with lots of one-way walls is quite scary at first appearances! The key to this level was spotting where the first cloner needed to be used to have enough skills to deal with the area at the end.

Tiger 6 - Another very big level and definitely a step in difficulty - I think is probably one of the hardest levels in the pack! The overall ideas in this level are clever and the path the crowds need to take is fun to work out, but a couple of parts of this level combined to make executing the solution a bit frustrating for me: (1) A couple too many cloner assignments on the downward walls to rescue the neutrals & (2) The laser trap near the exit would kill the worker off-screen while trying to frame step to do if I didn't multi-task during (1).

Ox 1 - A bit of a breather after tiger 6, but still a nice level with sending the shimmiers over.

Ox 2 - Really nice level using a combination of methods to get over the buildings in an interesting way. Definitely a very nice looking level too.

Ox 3 - Brilliant level, another favourite of mine - I managed to save 2 over the requirement here which i was quite pleased with. The central area requires sending out multiple workers which certainly made the solution a bit trickier to find!

Ox 4 - Nice puzzle combining navigating & skill effeciency. It can be quite easy to be off by one skill on this one, I managed to save a skill above the big waterfall but i wonder if is possible in other places too.

Ox 5 - Nice level very much focused on getting the workers to hit the flags and end up in the right spot so you can bash the way to the exit - rather than being specifically limited on destructive skills.

Ox 6 - Fantastic end of rank level with needing to send the two crowds along two different routes after they go through the crossover in the middle.

Dragon 1 - Great start to the rank! The way the terain was used on this one is great, and the slider requires some care here too otherwise it can get stuck in a cycle on the edges of the floors.

Dragon 2 - Tricky level, sending the basher along the top to free the crowd was satisfying. Even with spotting how the basher was used managing to reach all the buttons without running out of destructive skills wasn't easy.

Dragon 3 - The main challenge on this one was in working out how to manage reaching the top area given the wall obstacle. I imagine there are probably more effecient ways than I managed!

Dragon 4 - Brillaint level - and it's a builderless level too! Managing the crowd through each area was a really nice puzzle. One of my favourites of the pack.

Dragon 5 - Nice open level, I was very pleased I found a save-all solution on this one.

Dragon 6 - Great level to end the pack on. The symmetrical use of the skills at the start was nice to see. I also liked how the glider was used to send lemmings onto the arms with the buttons, though some of the splat heights here were by quite a small margin. There was a nice twist at the end with the solution to the middle area requring breaking the symmetry of the level.

Dragon 7 - Credits

[kaywhyn]

Hello Gigalem/Plom510

I have solved all of the pack. My entire replay collection is attached. Also, here is the link to my LP of the pack:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJvKzmFvr2PU_tmCVxCwx9Cq Enjoy!

General Feedback

Festival Millas 2021 is another Christmas holiday pack in the series, starting with FM2018 and continuing up to the present and most recent pack, FM2023, which was released at the beginning of this year back in January. Like FM2018 and FM2019, FM2021 is on the smaller side in terms of number of levels. In fact, it's shorter than either of the former packs by 1 level (2 if you don't count Dragon 7). In addition, this pack was made by both Gigalem and Plom510 and has no levels by Nessy here. This pack has levels mostly by Gigalem, as there aren't as many by Plom510 in this pack.

I would have to agree with both Icho and Apjjm that this was an enjoyable pack, even if it's not much on the difficult side of things as some of the previous packs of the series. In particular, I'm in complete agreement with both that Dragon 1 is quite good! Same thing with Apjjm's assessment that Ox 6 and Dragon 4 are great too, as well as his detailed feedback on plenty of the levels. They were both nominated for LOTY 2021 and was where I first played those levels before doing them again from scratch for my LP of FM2021.

Also agree with Icho's criticism of things looking solid when they're in fact background on plenty of the levels in this pack. It's definitely not my old and bad eyes at all! Can definitely do better with making the foreground more distinguishable from the background or vice versa

Another criticism I can add is some levels having very pixel precise skill assignments. This seems to have been a habit that Gigalem is constantly guilty of, as it was also present in some of his earlier packs, and I think Nepster was right to criticize that aspect in one his very Old Formats/Old Formats holiday packs. Now, I know that players can easily bring this on themselves when playing and solving, but in a lot of the cases for this pack they seemed to have been intentional by design. The precision didn't really add anything to the levels and can most certainly be reduced or eased and it wouldn't harm them in any way. At least if they come up in testing my own content, I generally like to discourage pixel precision and hence I will go out of my way to make sure that skills can be placed in multiple positions so that it doesn't lead to player frustration. Needless to say, I don't like players failing my levels because of pixels!    

Having now solved all of FM2021, I have completed all the FM packs up to this one and would have to say FM2020 is certainly the hardest of them all. I still need to eventually go through FM2022 and it might change with that, but that'll have to wait until I do so However, perhaps by the time I do so another pack of the series will have been released. Until then, I'm pretty much all caught up in the series

Rat Rank Feedback

Being the first rank, these are the easiest levels the pack has to offer. Even then, I wouldn't say these are complete pushovers in any way. They still require plenty of thought in order to get solved. Still, there are some great gems here!

Spoiler

Rat 1 - December 1st 2021 Great level to start off the pack. Some skills left, but it doesn't scream backroute in any way

Rat 2 - Crossing that bridge when we get to it. Probably my favorite of the entire rank. I thought the slider wasn't needed at all when in fact it is and then the main challenge was how to save her later. Turns out the digger placement is very important in order to have her go to the exit after the route is done, as she will be stuck in an infinite loop otherwise.

Rat 3 - Over and under Nothing more than a level showcasing that a shimmier can use builders/platformers to keep going, as they are shimmyable added terrain. Needless to say, I've seen this plenty of times by now, but this is still a great level!

Rat 4 - Jump to Solutions Nice 1 Milla level with going about the level to get the buttons with the movement skills provided. My main gripe here is the mostly hidden upside down button. I somehow didn't notice it for a few minutes and the level left me confused as to why the exit didn't unlock. I personally would put it more out in the open so that players don't mistake it for decoration Other than that, nice level!

Rat 5 - The Fork in the Road I really like how both the neutral and zombie disarm the traps to set up the rest of the way for the hatches. There is one crucial detail here, and that is that the zombie must be first to hit the splitter so that the neutral can then go the correct way to collect the pickups. Doing it the other way will cause the level to be unsolvable. I really like that detail!

Rat 6 - The Ranger's Shed Somewhat intimidating due to the teleporters but a nice level to end the rank. Luckily it's easy to see where they all lead to, but I especially like how eventually the Millas who go out of the building pop back inside by using the correct teleporter.

Dog Rank Feedback

The second rank with levels that are a bit harder than those in the previous rank but still not overly challenging. Once again, some great gems here too!

Spoiler

Dog 1 - New Year, New Me! Another nice rank starter, though can be quite challenging due to the really restrictive skillset. The way I bypassed the fire trap where the 0 is looks extremely hackish and doesn't seem like I should had been able to. The trap seems misplaced.

Dog 2 - Roof or Dare Nice wordplay on the classic "truth or dare" Another great level here. I especially like the detail of building over the trap from both sides instead of a basher to go under it. For some reason, I confused the stuff right above the entrance for background, but I think it might had been pretty late at the time I was LPing, or yet another case of my eyes playing tricks on me

Dog 3 - Falling down the Stairs I really like the concept here that the zombies must be the ones to trigger off the splitters so that they enable the neutral to beeline to the exit, as you cannot assign skills to them. The most frustrating part for me here was getting the third zombie out without infecting the worker Milla. This took so many tries because the timing was wrong. I checked both Icho's and Apjjm's solution and turns out all that waiting I did at the start was not necessary to get the timing correct. Instead, I simply lasered at the wrong spot(s) therefore leading to problems with the third zombie. Using jumpers to avoid the splitters are also a nice touch to prevent any of them from sending the neutral the wrong way.

Dog 4 - Train Damage Another nice 1 Milla level but this time she must go around to free the other neutrals. Don't be fooled by the amount of jumpers and builders, as they will runt out much faster than expected, especially if you're being wasteful with them. You must also be careful in making sure there is still a way out and down when constructing the route.

Dog 5 - House of Oddities This one was probably my favorite of the rank. Using stackers to make climber friendly walls for both hatches is quite nice here. Getting into the exit area to set this all up was the hardest part, as you don't have floaters/gliders, but sliders can pretty much be a nice substitute for the former.

Dog 6 - Sven's Training Course Another nice rank finisher but much harder than the previous rank finisher. In this case, it's not as obvious where to send the worker(s) and how to efficiently prepare the route for the others. Fortunately, there's still excessive skills to allow one to craft their own solution. 

Tiger Rank Feedback

Things start to get difficult and dicey here, though certainly not to the extent of the final two ranks to follow after this one.

Spoiler

Tiger 1 - Fence the Rocks, Step by Step! If you're already familiar with the trick of using builders to keep a fencer going, this one is quite easy to start off the rank. Seen this one a few times by now and hence is nothing new to me. It's really just a level showcasing this trick, nothing more. Even then, that's probably the longest fencer I've ever seen! Then again, maybe it's tied for that one Genocide level of United in the length

Tiger 2 - Covering your (train) Tracks I really like the use of the lasers here to make the route for the shimmiers to go from one side all the way to the other. Interrupting the one from the right so it doesn't destroy the platformer at the top is a nice touch. Also being careful to go about the area on the right so the slider doesn't get trapped. Main criticism here is that assigning around 18 shimmiers or so is way too excessive IMO. The same level can be done with 10 or less by reducing the lemming count accordingly.

Tiger 3 - Milla Wall Breakers One of the hardest levels of the rank but quite a nice and decent puzzle. How to get the three pickups at the top was the hardest part for me. I really like the use of the cloners here on the miner and platformer, as well as a stoner to extend a basher. My main criticism here is the very pixel precise platformer and cloning for the water gap. Why is that necessary? Just because you can with pixel precision when making levels doesn't mean you should. They can be fine especially if they add value to the puzzle, but it doesn't do that here IMO. Again, can reduce the precision and the level wouldn't be harmed in any way

Tiger 4 - Between the Pillars of Unity Easier than the previous level, but it's still no pushover. Figuring out how to get through multiple obstacles with just one miner is the main challenge of the level, but luckily one doesn't need that many builders to do so. You still need to be careful with your skills here though!

Tiger 5 - Roadwork Ahead Back to somewhat hard with this one, but it's more intimidating than hard due to the size. This level seems to be all about extending digging destructive skills. I especially like the touch of using a laser to quickly get the entrance into a pit and contained, pretty similar to what I did with one of my levels. My solution doesn't seem quite intended but it's probably still acceptable given the few spares I had.

Tiger 6 - Can't Remain Stationary I think I'm in agreement with Apjjm here that this is quite possibly the hardest level of the entire pack. The most difficult part was figuring out how to rescue the neutrals, as it wasn't obvious how to do all the mining and cloning so that you don't need to use a lot of platformers. Also making the splatform for the neutrals and not getting the slider stuck infinitely was tricky, but I luckily had a spare miner to prevent that. Getting into place to set up the platformers on the far right so that the regular entrance can get down safely also wasn't easy. Even after figuring all that out, the most annoying was how to rescue the slider(s). Using it to get the buttons above the exit was quite a nice touch.

Ox Rank Feedback

Now things get quite difficult with this rank and from here on out with the rest of the pack.

Spoiler

Ox 1 - Fountain of Wishes More or less like Tiger 2, except miners are used to get the builders in the right position to keep shimmiers going. Once again, the lemming count can be reduced so that you don't need to assign as many climbers and shimmiers.

Ox 2 - Leaving Luck to Heaven Not as difficult as it appears, this is quite a nice one. I really like going through the OWW at the top to bypass the one way force field in order to bash the crowd out. Another level where I like the use of the cloners on the miner and bashing. I especially like the use of the shimmiers here to reach the critical areas, especially the one after mining through the first OWW.

Ox 3 - Restricted Area:Do Not Enter Quite a tricky one here but a really nice and decent challenge. How to keep everyone contained until the path is ready wasn't easy to figure out. I like the touch that it must be a swimmer to get into the bomber hole to do the mining and cloning. Also a shimmier to avoid the trap and get the button was nice.

Ox 4 - The Modern Art Gallery Another very intimidating level due to the size and many obstacles in the way of the goal. Using a laser and cloning it for the up one-way terrain was what I really liked a lot here. Seeing the cloning a basher near the start was very hard to see. Using climbers to bomb through pillars was a very nice critical detail. Same with sliding down past the exit and then jumping and cloning her mid-jump in order to get a swimmer into place to do the laser were really details too.

Ox 5 - Wave those flags! It's December! Nice level involving a lot of jumping and shimmying to get around to reach the buttons/flags. There are a few difficult to reach flags but fortunately there's some spare skills so that it doesn't become too frustrating or annoying. Another case of looks intimidating but is actually not too difficult.

Ox 6 - Hydro-Crossing Already solved this one from LOTY 2021 but I decided to play the level from scratch for the LP, as if I never played it. It's been a long time since I last played the level and hence I was struggling to remember details of how I solved it before, especially with how I managed a save all plus the cloner. The result was nearly a 2 hour video There's two replays of the level in the zip, one of them from LOTY 2021, the other just from my LP.

Dragon Rank Feedback

Being the final rank, this supposedly contains the hardest levels of the pack. Truth be told, save for Dragon 5, I didn't find these too bad at all. Dragon 6 is pretty close, but once again another looks intimidating more than hard.

Spoiler

Dragon 1 - Flood in the Treehouse Add me to the list as thinking this level is really good, because I very much am in agreement with both Icho and Apjjm here! The use of the shimmiers and cloning them is really nice. Once again, ugh, that very pixel precise builder so that she doesn't turn around after disarming the trap. Other than that, excellent level!

Dragon 2 - It's the Name of a Frame Great challenging level where I had all sorts of problems due to discarding going through the OWW at the very top. Should had been obvious due to a level from the previous rank requiring that to bypass the force fields, but this is less obvious because using builders to get past the wall where the receiver is looks quite appealing. It's definitely hard to see that going over the top with the first M is most efficient and doesn't use as much skills as going through the teleporter. Pretty similar with those levels that pays tribute to the Lemmings Forums by spelling out "Lemmings" with the terrain, except here the engine for custom levels/packs, Neolemmix, is spelled out with terrain instead. On top of that this is a nicely decorated level!

Dragon 3 - The Low Road The hardest part was simply getting up to the top to get across and over to the left side of the level past the steel wall. It's not as bad as it appears thanks to an abundance of builders, but still you must watch it, as they won't seem to be enough if you're wasteful with them.

Dragon 4 - What are those puppies doing up there?! Already played this one from LOTY 2021 but unlike Ox 6 this didn't take anywhere near as long even though I didn't remember all of the solution. I really like how this is a builderless level, as that's the type I like a lot in this game. Once again, two replays attached, one from LOTY 2021, the other from the LP.

Dragon 5 - Years Later, Still Playing in the Winter Quite a tricky and intimidating level, though it still wasn't too bad. I originally tried going through the OWWs in the middle of the level, but ultimately I went through the ceiling. I don't know if that's intended, but what I did before kept running up short on skills. There's still a lot of nuisances here, such as stopping the sliders from going out the wrong way near the exit, but luckily one has enough constructive skills so that you can still save everyone.

Dragon 6 - IRON JUGGERNAUT (Neon Airshow Mix) Very nice challenge to finish off the pack. Almost similar to the previous level except this one is more intimidating than hard. Another level that took longer than it needed due to how I kept rewinding and constantly kept going back and forth on what and how to do the level. Skills ran out much quicker than I thought they would, and though there were some pickups I didn't end up using in my solution, I think this level was meant to be an open-ended level.

I made an error in the LP with regards to the levels from Gigalems, as those are Dreadnaught levels, not Iron Juggernaut, which as I correctly stated is from Icho's United pack, while there is a sequel to it of sorts from Armani's Uncharted pack, which pays homage to Icho's level.

Dragon 7 - The Trip Back Home Self-solving credits level. Just sit back and enjoy watching the neutrals go to the exit one last time

Thank you again Gigalem and Plom510 for this pack. I enjoyed it very much despite it being on the smaller and easier side. Will eventually get to FM2022!