Lix Community Level Set - First complete Beta!

[mobius]

I've known for a long time my level "The Picard Maneuver" still has at least 1 backroute (I'm pretty sure it has more). I wanted at least one trick which Insane Steve found to be present in the solution.

I recently made the attached level which is quite a bit different but I'm hoping to enforce that same trick. This level is intended to replace Picard Maneuver. It needs to be backroute tested first of course. Thanks to anyone who plays.

[geoo]

Hmm, I'm not actually aware of a backroute for the Picard Maneuver. The new level you just posts certainly has a backroute though (but it looks interesting):

[mobius]

Thanks. Surprisingly I could make a fix already, and a pretty simple one too.

One backroute on Picard involved bashing into the steel blocks, which in turn, were added to remove another backroute of a different nature which I don't remember so they couldn't simply be removed. Besides these backroutes there still were fundamental problems with blocker behavior.* But in any case; when it's reached this point I 've decided to scrap the level and make it totally different. I don't think a simple fix will fix it; I don't feel like making 10+ amends to a level anymore. [of course that will probably happen to this level too]
Now I've managed to do it with no blockers, and no builders, which is nice.
I discovered this a while ago but I don't think I said anything because I couldn't think of any way to fix it at the time.

*Of which, was partly taken care of in Lemmini due to it's poorly designed blocker behavior, until RTW proved that didn't work either. But I don't like making levels relying on that sort of thing.

[geoo]

Attached is my solution which looks pretty much intended. Nice skill placement puzzle with crowd control.

I'm happy to replace "The Picard Maneuver" with this level. The new level might be a bit harder but I think it's ok near the end of Daunting.

[mobius]

success!

let me know if there are any other levels of mine which could be fixed or replaced. Lately I've been making some major modifications to the Lemmix versions and have found a few ways to remove backroutes etc, that I haven't before.

[Nepster]

Recent game mechanics changes made the attached solution/backroute to "Won't get fooled again" (again) possible.

[ccexplore]

Recent game mechanics changes made the attached solution/backroute to "Won't get fooled again" (again) possible.

Haven't looked yet, but this sure feels like Santa leaving a lump of coal for me.   I guess I'll look over it on my upcoming vacation.

[Simon]

Nah, cc, don't feel sad...



-- Simon

[Nepster]

Here is the new version of Heed the Traffic Light.
Time to find a fix with required SI-change: 1 minute (just change the SI to 25)
Time to find a fix that allows constant SI: 45 minutes

[ccexplore]

Recent game mechanics changes made the attached solution/backroute to "Won't get fooled again" (again) possible.

Finally got around to looking.  Huh, I can't remember for sure what supposedly kept it from working previously? I'd need to see if I can find the computer that still has older versions of Lix.  I may need to start making video captures of these replays now to deal with the versioning issue.

I suspect it might take a while before I can find a way to eliminate this.  Or maybe I'll just give up and let this one in.

[ccexplore]

Hmm, does it have to do with the change to make explodes/imploders instantaneous?  I guess I forgot I might have been implicitly relying on that for certain cases of backroutes prevention there.

I think I have worked out an okay fix related to this, which I'll post later tonight.

[Nepster]

Yes, instantaneous imploders made this possible. Note that imploder holes only hold Lix when the imploder is facing down on the miner slope. So in previous versions one had to wait for quite some time until one could assign the imploder, while losing too many Lix.

[Proxima]

One thing the community set currently lacks is a good early level to familiarise the player with what steel is and how it behaves. Levels 4 (Diamond Dash) and 5 (Hrududu) contain steel, but not in places where the player would naturally interact with it; the first levels where steel behaviour is important are 24 (Pitfall) and 27 (Little Viennese Waltz).

Suggestion: Make the middle pillar of Diamond Dash steel so the player has to go around?

[ccexplore]

Hmm, the level that helps familiarize the player with steel may also be the place to familiarize them with the one-way-wall idiom?  Just a thought.  I don't actually remember if any levels in the set currently features it.

[Simon]

The one-way gadget, made from carefully aligned steel and terrain, is relatively complex. I would rather suggest a dedicated level for this, where you cannot bypass it.

Diamond Dash is open-ended, so it's interesting to put a small piece of steel right in the obvious path.

-- Simon