Lemmings United Development topic (205/205 + 22 levels ready) IN TESTING

[IchoTolot]

After overthinking what tilesets I'm gonna use and how much levels I will made per rank with them I came up with a somewhat final plan how I'm gonna do this:

Each rank will contain:


beach:                2
cavelem:             2
circuit:              1
circus:              2
egyptian:      2
fire:                 1
grnk1_menace:  1
grnk2_beastii:     1   
grnk3_cyber:      1
highland:              2
ichotolot_dune: 3
l3_biolab:      2
medieval:      2   
outdoor:              2
pillar:              1
polar:         2
shadow:              2
space:         2
sports:              2
gigalem_L3Shadow:  1
gigalem_L3egypt:     1

total:      35   

(sry for the jumping numbers, but copy pasting a txt file where you used the tab key seems to not work well here )

That means the total ammount of levels will increase to 5 x 35 = 175 levels!

This indicates it will take quite a bit longer to finish things up, but in return it means more fun packed in the final product and an overall more diverse experience!

[namida]

(sry for the jumping numbers, but copy pasting a txt file where you used the tab key seems to not work well here )

Yeah, tabs don't seem to work too well here; I think SMF autoconverts them to spaces. You can force the use of a fixed-width font by putting [tt][/tt] tags around text, but I don't know if that will help with tabs.

[Simon]

Tell me whether you indent your source with spaces or tabs, and Madame Mystique will predict your personality.

-- Simon

[IchoTolot]

Yeah, tabs don't seem to work too well here; I think SMF autoconverts them to spaces. You can force the use of a fixed-width font by putting [tt][/tt] tags around text, but I don't know if that will help with tabs.

Well didn't help here

Gues I simply need to avoid tabs in here.  The list is also not so super important that I manually fix every line, as everything is still readable.

[xDagmaRx]

I cant give any input on your new pack but I made and account just to tell you that my friends and I love your Lemmings Reunion pack and cant wait for the next one IchoTolot, your a fantastic level maker!

[IchoTolot]

I cant give any input on your new pack but I made and account just to tell you that my friends and I love your Lemmings Reunion pack and cant wait for the next one IchoTolot, your a fantastic level maker!

     Thank you very much for the compliment, made my day!      It is really great to hear that people are enjoying my Lemmings stuff!

The new pack will most certainly still take quite a while, but I am in no hurry mode here, as I want this pack to be as good as it can get and no rushed release shall change that!

I can already say that I have the feeling that the levels for Reunion 2 are of much higher quality + the soundtrack is much more refined as well.  Personally I have a much better feeling about this new pack and consider Reunion as my "first attemd".

I will try to release somewhere next year and I will make sure that I update my progress here in the topic title regulary. Although I am still thinking about the final size of the pack as I really want to get zanzindorfs tilesets in here

[IchoTolot]

Hit the 80 level mark today!

I updated the goal from 175 to 200 on top of that, as I already mentioned in IRC chat that I want to put in some levels made with zanzindorfs new tilesets as well. This 200 creation mark however will be the final maximum.

Furthermore I will include every single level I made for other occasions into an extra rank so it will be 200+ levels actually.

As far as the creation progress is going: I am picking up some speed again (~ 3 level per week), thanks to a new "process" where I sit down for ~ an hour a few times in a week and try to scribble down a level blueprint, which just needs to be made in the editor afterwards.

[IchoTolot]

100 levels reached, so I've updated the first post with some screenshots and the newest information concerning this topic, which also includes a renaming of the pack!

[nin10doadict]

Hm, if the pack is going to have that many levels in it then maybe I'll be able to get few some of them. Looks intimidating but very nice. I'll see how far I can get.

[IchoTolot]

Hm, if the pack is going to have that many levels in it then maybe I'll be able to get few some of them. Looks intimidating but very nice. I'll see how far I can get.

There are quite a bunch of easier levels, so try and see how far you will get.

To solve a pack the technique to make short solving bursts until you get stuck and then come back to it again and again is a good way to progress as well.

[IchoTolot]

Progress slowed down a bit over the last weeks, because of shortage of ideas, testing lots of stuff for other people, university and private stuff......

, but at least I've got an exiting announcement for the release: You will be able to win a prize!

What will the prize be? Well, I've been making quite a bunch of physical level drawings over the creation period and decided that I will send them (together with a postcard maybe ) to the player who beats the WHOLE level pack first!. (testers will be excluded because of fairness, but will be mentioned in the pack itself and can count on me returning my gratitude in some other favors)

The rule on beating the pack and winning the prize will be:

- Send me a functional, solving replay (or release a solving video) of every level (bonus rank included) in the up-to-date version of the pack at the current time!
  That means send me your replays often and do not wait until you gathered everything. If I fix backroutes to levels you have not yet shown me you solved via replay/video, you have to solve them again.
  So also release recorded videos as soon as possible before a new update hits!
  That will also maybe slow down rivals as I can be quick on the fixes and if they just keep on gathering..... 

  This should assure me a quick feedback system where nobody just gathers the replays and send in everything after a bunch of updates have been released.
  I count on you not simply looking up most solutions from other players.
  Also I aim to be as backroute-proofed as possible after the testing phase so not that many updates should hopefully be nessesary (at least for the backroute fix sort of updates).

My stash of drawings currently is 12 A4 paper sheets that sometimes have even multiple level blueprints on them. Sometimes the in game version of the level differs a bit, because of differences in theory and in-game handling, but you know how it goes . The drawings do mostly also include the original planned skillsets, levelnames etc of the level. I hope this will be a good motivation to solve the pack as a whole when it's finally released!
+ I think I will make a hall-of-fame wall on the main post where I include all people who have beaten the pack as a whole (for that testers are included of course )

[IchoTolot]

I've added the current amount of bonus levels to the topic title, so everyone can keep track on them as well.

[IchoTolot]

Hopefully after the conversion stuff is done for me the progress here will speed up again.

Here is a snapshot of another level in the bonus rank, so the ones that might be wondering what the unkown new VGASpec tile in the new editor is all about:



The landscape is a collaboration between Simon and me, based on: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2288.msg64793#msg64793

I just thought it would make a great VGASpec level and made one out of it for United.

[IchoTolot]

I've converted everything to the new format version now and slowly continuing level creation again. 

On top of that I created a little tutorial on how to make your own Levels with NeoLemmix 12.1.0, but what has this to do with the pack?

Well, I made a 1st rank level live on video for this pack as demonstraition. You if you want to see an easy level being created for Lemmings United (--> no real solution spoilers that way ) or simply want to learn a bit about the new editor, follow this link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asE8U9eZ_CY&index=1&list=PLKR1N9oJTTlLTZNfvUzr8bGDI21YLNkSk

[IchoTolot]

Finally the 150 mark has been reached. I've picked up some speed again after the contests are finally running and everything got converted. It also helps that I'm focusing on my own stuff for now instead of doing a lot of testing.

Hope the next dry phase won't be coming soon.