Doomsday Lemmings II (Release Topic)

[namida]

So, I figure that... more than a month behind schedule... it's probably about time to release this.

The pack isn't as large as I had originally intended, and the quality probably isn't up to my usual standards as well. Apologies for that. But I'd much rather release a not-perfect pack than waste levels, especially when some levels (possibly the best ones in here) were contributed by someone else so... here we go! Doomsday Lemmings II!

Download: http://www.neolemmix.com/old/mypacks/DoomsdayLemmingsII.nxp
You'll need a copy of NeoLemmix V1.37n or higher to play this.
This pack has now been recalled. Some of the levels were integrated into the original Doomsday Lemmings; the remaining ones that were made by me can be found in my Recycle Bin: http://www.neolemmix.com/old/mypacks/namidasRecycleBin.nxp

Credit to GigaLem for designing 8 of the levels.

Aside from the zombies that characterized the original Doomsday Lemmings, this pack also brings ghosts to the table, as well as a new mechanic in which some levels have lemmings turning into zombies or ghosts upon dying. The first rank will recap how zombies work for those who've forgotten (or who never played the original Doomsday Lemmings), as well as introduce the new features; while the last 4 ranks provide various puzzles involving these mechanics. Can you rescue the lemmings from this undead nightmare? Play and find out!!!

As of the V1.37n-compatible update, all levels are unlocked by default, so no need for cheat codes. To select a level, you can either enter its rank name (or number) and level number as a code (eg. "HAUNTING03" or "0403"), or use Left/Right from the level preview screen to navigate between levels.

[namida]

(Reserved)

[Nepster]

After playing through most of the pack, I have to say: Zombies are still not among my favourite features, but Ghosts make for a nice addition (apart from some weird behaviours, that I will post elsewhere).

Attached replays and here some remarks to the levels. The spoilers are (almost) only used to hide my ranting .

Treat

Treat 2: 100% is a nice challenge.
Treat 3: The way zombies appear here confused me a LOT. Once a lemming splats, the game puts already during the splat animation (which still displays that of a normal lemming!) a zombie at the place, but it actually only appears after the splatting is done. So the next lemmings will get infected out of nowhere. As this happens already during their fall, they will splat as zombies and really die. Took me quite some time to figure all this out .
Treat 5: Bad level to introduce "Ghost on dying", because no lemming ever dies in this level.

Trick

Trick 1: Nothing special, one just needs several tries until the bomber hole appears at the correct place.
Trick 2: 100% is again a nice challenge.
Trick 3: Nice trick .
Trick 4: Very straight-forward.
Trick 5: Very good level.

Spooky

Spooky 1: There should be a way to save 100%, but I just couldn't find one...
Spooky 2: Excellent level!
Spooky 3: Not my favourite.
Spooky 4: Good level, but the hatches need to be lowered a few pixels. Right now the builders have to be placed extremely precisely. Players will think the direct approach doesn't work and then look for other approaches, whereas they just misplaced one builder and thus got one pixel to low. E.g. one cannot mirror the way I placed the builders, because the lemmings appear not quite in the middle, but slightly off to the sides. So one has to build the stairs from the middle to gain one or two pixels more height. Horrible!
Spooky 5: Rather straight-forward.
Spooky 6: Isn't this Ultra-Violence 29 from IchoTolot's Lemmings Reunion? Even the same solution works!

Haunting

Haunting 1: Good level, but at first I expected the middle of the eye to be air instead of terrain. This was in so far confusing, because my first solution used (in an essemtial way) precisely this bit of air...
Haunting 2: Not yet solved (and not really tried), but I remember the terrain layout from an old Lemmix level (using the bubble style)? Cannot find it right now...
Haunting 3: This level takes a very long time with long waiting periods. This is especially annoying, because very soon in the level, the game takes half a second to one second for computing going backwards one frame. (Want NeoLemmix V2 because of that. Hint, Hint! )
Haunting 4: This is one level, where both issues 1) and 2) of the rant here are combined!
Haunting 5: Good level. It has only one big issue: The basher has to continue bashing while moving down stairs. However the stairs will be built some minutes before the basher gets startet (which is one of the last skills), so one has to play essentially the whole level again every time the basher-stair combo at the end doesn't work. Frustrating!
Haunting 6: Easy.

Demonic

Demonic 1: Quite easy as well.
Demonic 2: Ah, some stacker tricks .
Demonic 3: My solution seems to contain a few parts that are likely not quite intended.
Demonic 4: Not terribly hard either.
Demonic 5: Noone is going to see the button among the zombies, until going backwards a bit. But if you go backwards, the game will take some time to compute the result and during this time the zombies are not displayed, so giving us time to actually see the button. Kind of a new version of hidden traps/exits .
Demonic 6: Isn't this Nightmare 25 from IchoTolot's Lemmings Reunion? Again almost the same solution (at least as for the Lemmini version) works! Btw. the leftmost acid pool reaches into the blue block, therefore removing the possibility to dig there. This makes for a very nasty surprise!

[namida]

Hmm... interesting. I noticed the similarity on Spooky 6 (though a much simpler solution works) since it specifically points it out (the text at the far right), but I hadn't realised others of GigaLem's levels were re-inventions...

[namida]

This has been updated to the official release version NeoLemmix V1.36n. I still haven't got around to adding talismans yet, sorry.

[namida]

I've created an NXP for this (for NeoLemmix V1.37n) but don't have the time to update the site / links / etc until later today; in the meantime, you can get it from this Dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ksc202697azjo3i/AADDli21JMeybRzfMwIEaNwla?dl=0

EDIT: A NeoLemmix Website link has now been added, and put in the first post. The above Dropbox link still works, if you prefer that.