Rough vs. Straight Terrain

[Wafflem]

Not sure if there is a topic on this, but I've decided to make it as a poll.

I've seen a lot of opinions that a lot of people prefer to make levels with straight edges as opposed to rough terrain, because rough terrain can be very tricky to handle and it can be very hard creating difficult puzzles out of such terrain.

What is your opinion?

[exit]

I prefer straight tilesets(marble, pillar, brick, and maybe crystal or fire) but some rough-edged ones like rock I really enjoy building levels out of.

I think people dislike rough-edged tilesets because they can be imprecise.

[namida]

IMO, building good levels with the rough-edged tilesets is harder; not nessecerially impossible though. Especially in the lower ranks, where aesthetics are arguably more important than challenge factor, the rough tilesets can be quite useful. However, when it comes to hard levels, they're definitely easier to make with the smooth sets - definitely in my experience, the majority of my hard levels (apart from those that are so-called "Nintendo hard" rather than genuine hard; for example Mental 25), either use the smooth graphic sets, or if they use a rough tileset, they tend to use the smooth pieces of them. The most obvious symptom of this is the rarity of Sky levels in my higher difficulty ranks, as that consists solely of rough (or at least curved) edges.

That's not to say I don't have any genuine-difficulty levels using them; some that come to mind are:
LPI: Psycho 18
LPII: Genius 1, Genius 4, Genius 18 (NeoLemmix version obviously)
LPII Bonus Pack: Flight 6, Rush 4
LPIII: Fierce 8. Probably my hardest rough-edge tileset level of all time. There's others, but they're dwarfed by this one.
LPIII Bonus Pack: The final levels of all three gimmick ranks (two of which are using the Sky set, amazingly; the third one is Martian)
Holiday LP: Arctic 5, Arctic 6
LP Omega: Mental 8, Mental 12, Mental 15, Mental 24

[Wafflem]

I prefer straight tilesets(marble, pillar, brick, and maybe crystal or fire) but some rough-edged ones like rock I really enjoy building levels out of.

I think people dislike rough-edged tilesets because they can be imprecise.

IMO, building good levels with the rough-edged tilesets is harder; not nessecerially impossible though. Especially in the lower ranks, where aesthetics are arguably more important than challenge factor, the rough tilesets can be quite useful. However, when it comes to hard levels, they're definitely easier to make with the smooth sets - definitely in my experience, the majority of my hard levels (apart from those that are so-called "Nintendo hard" rather than genuine hard; for example Mental 25), either use the smooth graphic sets, or if they use a rough tileset, they tend to use the smooth pieces of them. The most obvious symptom of this is the rarity of Sky levels in my higher difficulty ranks, as that consists solely of rough (or at least curved) edges.

That's not to say I don't have any genuine-difficulty levels using them; some that come to mind are:
LPI: Psycho 18
LPII: Genius 1, Genius 4, Genius 18 (NeoLemmix version obviously)
LPII Bonus Pack: Flight 6, Rush 4
LPIII: Fierce 8. Probably my hardest rough-edge tileset level of all time. There's others, but they're dwarfed by this one.
LPIII Bonus Pack: The final levels of all three gimmick ranks (two of which are using the Sky set, amazingly; the third one is Martian)
Holiday LP: Arctic 5, Arctic 6
LP Omega: Mental 8, Mental 14, Mental 15, Mental 24

I definitely agree with both of you that rough-edged levels are imprecise and are much better to work with in easier ranks, and you can get creative with them in any way, yet you can still retain the challenge factor in them. Puzzling 13 "The Martian Lake Beast" is an excellent example of this - it has the great design of the beast, but if you want to go for 100% the level can still be a slight challenge because you have to build a splatform and find a clever way to contain the lemmings while one gets to the exit. Puzzling 14 "So This Is How It Ends" is also another excellent example; it's a multiple-approach level, but the solutions are not very obvious until you take a closer glance.

I didn't find Mental 8 "Silica Valley" to be very difficult; the matter is all in the timing. In fact, I was able to beat it compared to some Perplexing levels. Also, isn't Mental 14 "Something for a Lemming to Do" a straight-edged level?

[namida]

Yes; I meant to say Mental 12 (Cave of the Cactus). Fixed.

Which actually reminds me of another very good example that I missed the first time - the final level of LPII, Genius 20 "Cactus Central". It's the only rough-edged final level in a main series Lemmings Plus pack (LPI does use the Fire set which has a lot of rough terrain, but it almost exclusively uses the straight-edged pieces in the places that matter).

[Clam]

Straight terrain is easier to design with for sure, but it's also easier to use when you play the level. With rough terrain you have to analyse the terrain more closely to work out things like: where will my builder turn around, how far do I have to dig before the lemmings can't jump out of this hole, do I need two bombers to make a holding pit here or is one enough, which way will the lemmings fall when the digger breaks through the floor... With straight terrain (and a little experience), you know what what you're gonna get.

I like to make some rough-terrain levels purely for the sake of variety - though not nearly as many as I thought, judging by ClamLix in its present state (I count 3, maybe 4, out of 30 in the hardest rating).