Cheapo Level Pak topic

[Special_Gunpowder]

Well, what can I say? I'm a terrible jerk.

"How many licks?" is probably the worst level for hidden traps with a grand total of eight of the blighters scattered about the place. However, I will say in my defence (and this is the case with many of my levels) that I do try to put them in the most obvious places (e.g. the tunnel in the level that might make you think "Hang on, this level can't possibly be that straightforward?" ). And I have made some subtle clues for hidden traps in "Don't be late for church!" so I'm not completely remorseless! (close run thing though)

Oh and Ahribar, I don't think it's so much a case of wtf is up with The Laserium as wtf is up with your solution for it! Bashing under the exit? What are you trying to do? ::

[Proxima]

Heh.... that last comment made me laugh.

All I was trying to do is get the lemmings into the exit.... there is a one-way wall, you know, which means I have to bash through it right to left. The alternative would seem to be to build over the exit to reach the wall, but there ain't enough builders so far as I can see.

- - -

Steve: thanks for looking at my set. Glad you liked them.

They are mostly very easy...... but I was very young at the time, and didn't have much notion about what was easy and what was hard. #9 is certainly possible, but there's a catch to it. Which version of #10 do you have? If you only have to save 6 that's the old version -- I had to make some changes, so you should re-download it.

Please tell me your solution to #8. I have no idea what solution I _originally_ intended, because I didn't write my solutions down; the solution I found when recreating them needs five of the skills.

Glad to see someone shares my views on hidden traps. I _do_ hide the boulder trap in my own levels when I use it, because it's clearly designed to be hidden, but I don't use it much. (Only on two levels so far, The Corridor of Death and Rockabye Baby.) And anyway that one isn't nearly as bad as the icicle, in my opinion.

Don't forget to have a look at Somewhere Under the Rainbow part two!

[chaos_defrost]

I rarely, if ever, use the boulder or icicle traps. Then again, I rarely, if ever, use the snow or dirt styles. My desgin style requires lots of straight edge terrain, and those two styles (And the ONML rock style) have almost no straight-edge terrains.

I think in all of my notebook sets I've finished so far, I have one level of the 76 I have done that is of the dirt, snow, or rock varieties. And it has no traps. (And it really isn't that hard, either.)

My answer to #8 required 6 of the skills. I'll message you with it.

[Special_Gunpowder]

I quite like the icicle actually, call me a sadist if you will. I have edited one level - Frozen Peace - to make some of the hidden traps more visible, as those are kinda cheap shots, but I still stand by the rest of them: the traps are on the whole in all the obvious places.

EDIT: just sending Steve the updated version of Why Bother?, with levels 4, 13, 14, 15 and 16 edited for backroutes and level 25 edited to appease those easily offended by the sight of a huge great icicle appearing out of nowhere and turning a lemming into pat&#E9;.

[chaos_defrost]

I'd probably like the icicle more if:

1) I liked the snow style better for level design, and
2) I wasn't 10 years old when I first encountered it. I can't remember the level I first encountered it on -- may have been Havoc 1, but I do remember being severely freaked out by it. Same reaction to the boulder in Mayhem 30, especially since no other level has it.

I don't actually MIND any of the traps, I've just never been a big fan of hidden traps in general. I will agree, however, that most of the hidden traps are in places where their absense makes the level absurdly easy.

EDIT: The revised version of Why Bother? is again up. Same link as the last few.

[Special_Gunpowder]

Haha, I think I was about 9 or 10 years old when I first encountered the boulder trap. It was on a Mega Drive exclusive level called "Stray Sheep" and remember being fairly put off the level after seeing that trap...although I think an equally large offputting part of that level for me was that it was a hidden exit level a la "Lost Something?" of the kind I hadn't encountered before (I was using passwords to just flick through all the levels I was too crap to encounter at that point in time).

[Proxima]

Well, I was never really freaked out by the boulder, because I couldn't get past Mayhem 26 for years and years (it's enormously harder on the Mac version). I first saw Mayhem 30 round at a friend's house, and he'd already completed it so he showed me where the hidden trap was.

The icicle, on the other hand........ and I know exactly which level I first encountered it on, Wild 12 or 14 (those are both snow levels so I'm not completely sure which is which). On Havoc 1 the trap is in a long straight section where you think there can't be anything, so I was watching another part of the screen...... just the sound was shocking enough.

[Isu]

Ouch, your levels are hard. I've done levels 1 - 4 (all of which it looks like I found the intened solution) and 6. The Icicle traps in "How many licks?" Pee me right off. I could understand the traps under that ball of snow in between the two trapdoors, but en route to the exit? It makes the level seem impossible, (Although I'm sure it isn't) and I found level six a piece of cake compared to what I had just witnessed. Haven't had much of a chance to try anything beyond level 7 yet though.

[Special_Gunpowder]

Yeah, but as I've said those traps are in what I'd consider to be the most obvious route to the exit...try the scenic route!

[chaos_defrost]

Ok, once again, I'd like a few of you to test out a level for me. It seems extremely back-route prone.

Here it is.

The title is "It's One or the Other" -- and you need the BricksLemmus style to play it.

[Special_Gunpowder]

Doesn't seem very backroute prone to me. But then I'm not very good. There doesn't seem to be enough skills to get more than two lemmings in, particularly on the left-hand side.

Also I think I see what Ahribar has been trying to do in my level The Laserium and it's kinda a backroute, at least in the way I designed it. But I might keep it in actually as it does require most of the designated skills (as does the intended route) anyway.

[Conway]

Insane Steve, I can't play your level for some reason. It crashes the game!

[chaos_defrost]

You need the BricksLemmus style to play it.

If you have this style, then I don't know.

[Conway]

It turns out, I had a style with the same name, but I found a larger file with that name in Lemdon.ZIP. Now it works.

  Cool level! It will take some thought. By any chance, is it one lemming from each side that can be saved? It's just a wild guess.

[chaos_defrost]

Don't bother with it yet -- I just found a back-route that makes the level rather easy. Let my fix it, and I'll re-upload it.

Ok, changed. Re-download with the same link.