Lemmings Plus Omega II - Development Topic

[namida]

Lemmings Plus Omega II has now been released. Release topic: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=3170.0



So, a while back I announced "Lemmings Plus Twists". More recently, I mentioned that I wasn't really enjoying creating that and that I'm putting it on hold, if not outright dropping it (to be decided).

But I also mentioned that I had begun work on another Lemmings Plus project, with little information aside from that it's "a large pack" and it's "not Lemmings Plus VI".

So... large Lemmings Plus pack, not a main series entry... so what does that mean then? Well, after Lemmings Plus II and III, I created a new pack, Lemmings Plus Omega, that made more use of their graphic sets.

And now it's time for Lemmings Plus IV and V's sets to get their turn to be re-used in an all-new pack too!

I'm now officially announcing...




That's right! A new pack, making use of Lemmings Plus IV and V's graphic sets in some more new levels! In fact, those of you who are brave enough to face the risk of getting rickrolled, adventurous enough to click weird links, and persistent enough to keep trying until you get lucky may have already obtained the demo - for the last couple of days I had a link in my signature saying "This link has a 90% chance of rickrolling you" - the other 10% gave a Lemmings Plus Omega II demo.

And now, I'm dropping the whole mysterious, chance-based thing and right together with the original announcement, offering a demo to everyone!

Ten-level demo download: (V0.25)
http://www.neolemmix.com/download.php?program=26
Requires NeoLemmix V10.12.XX or higher; works best with V10.13.XX experimentals.

I'll drop more information over the next few days.



So what's the plan for this pack? Well, as usual, this may be subject to change, but my current target is four ranks of 25 levels each updated info: 20 levels each. And I'm not messing around this time - even the first rank is going to be hard. Some of the levels I've made for the last rank (in my opinion) make even Outrageous look... well okay, that's an exaggeration, but you get the point.

Rank names, you ask? The first one is "Fluffy". It's a very misleading name. The others will be revealed later.

The demo levels are, in the current setup, one from each rank, in the correct order. But, I didn't want to put them in seperate ranks in the demo because it's quite likely that they'll get moved around (I'm sure you can all remember how in LPV's demos - and even LPIV's to a lesser extent - a lot of levels ended up in a different rank in the finished game than they were in the demos, even in regards to the second demos which came out much closer to the packs' completion dates).

As mentioned, graphic set wise, it uses the LPIV and LPV sets. Yes, this is why I changed LPIV to use graphic set-based music rather than a rotation - it would've been weird trying to mix the two methods of music selection into one pack otherwise. So yeah, it'll be the same music tracks again. LPO2 won't use the special final-level tracks from either game or the once-per-rank-level track from LPV... but there is an all-new track for the final level! Which yes, I've already made, unless I end up making another level that I think is even more final-level-worthy. Which is unlikely, because I already think this one is my most epic final level yet.

As you may have noted, in Lemmings Plus V I somewhat moved away from the "once per rank level" concept. Although it technically had one, it was essentially just five different levels that are all on one single map. Since it wasn't received too badly, I'm going to make an even bolder move and drop the once-per-rank-level thing entirely here. But instead - every rank is going to have one zombie level.

And, I'm going to start tracking progress now, so keep an eye on second post if you like to follow that.

Finally, yes. You can expect even more bee puns.



So as you may have noticed, I revealed the names of the 2nd and 3rd ranks - "Coarse" and "Spiky".

Another thing you might have noticed if you paid close attention - or just played the updated demo - is that for the first time in the Lemmings Plus series, there are levels with locked release rates. I'm not going to predict what conventions might be in the future, but for now, this isn't a standard thing of "every level has the release rate locked unless there's a reason for it not to". Rather, it will only be done in levels where it adds to the challenge or prevents a backroute.

There may also be something else new coming, but that's going to be a complete surprise. Even most of the testers aren't going to know about it until they get the test version.



Well, we're almost at half way now, which means a couple of things:

Firstly, I think it's time to reveal the last rank name. So, the four ranks for Lemmings Plus Omega II are - Fluffy, Coarse, Spiky and Sharp. Such a mild-sounding final-rank name compared to "Psycho", "Genius", "Fierce", "Insane", "Outrageous", "Insane" and "Arctic"... okay, maybe not compared to that last one... but don't let the name fool you. There are some truly nasty levels in there.

And secondly, I'd say it's about time to start looking for testers! As usual - looking for a few testers of various skill levels. Don't let the fact that it's a hard pack deter you - the main purpose of testing is to weed out backroutes, after all. For obvious reasons, it's probably best not to help with testing if you're planning on doing a Let's Play of this pack; but aside from that, anyone can apply, though as usual, priority will be given to those who have helped with past testing of Lemmings Plus packs if they're interested.



Given that I'm starting to run a bit dry on level ideas, I've decided to cut the size down to 80 levels; 20 per rank. I've also given LPO2 its first significant level re-ordering, with almost every level's position changed (even after taking into account the reduction to 20 levels per rank; many still changed relative to other levels). This includes 8 levels that moved to a completely different rank; with one case in which a level even moved two ranks - although to be fair, another level moved just as far in terms of overall number of level slots moved, it just wasn't positioned such that this move caused it to jump two ranks instead of just one.

Testing has been going very well. In the latest test version, only one level that was included in the original test version was still showing backroutes - all other backroutes have been in recent addition levels that haven't got much testing yet.

[namida]

Progress

All levels are complete, LPO2 is now in prerelease testing. Level order has been finalized.
Number of levels backroute-fixed in latest test version update: 10
Number of levels with known backroutes: 4
Number of levels with borderline cases or other potential concerns: 0

Demo Levels

The demo levels haven't been divided by ranks this time, as I've found too often in my past packs they end up getting moved around. Instead I've just put them all into a single rank, though I have always reflected the proposed in-game order at the time of any given demo update's release.

In the order the levels are in on Demo V0.25, and based off the finalized level order, the demo levels are:
Fluffy 1 "Easy As A, Bee, C"
Fluffy 11 "Edge Of The Universe"
Coarse 6 "The Arcade"
Coarse 1 "Space Oddity"
Coarse 12 "Lemming All-Sorts"
Spiky 18 "Lemming Chaos"
Sharp 1 "Then Came The Lemming..."
Sharp 7 "Odyssey"
Sharp 13 "It's Zombie Time!"
Sharp 17 "Broken Arrow"

All of these levels have been solved.

[joshescue18]

I solved all of the levels.

[namida]

I solved all of the levels.

1 and 2 are intended or acceptable, 3 and 4 are backroutes.

[Flopsy]

Here's what I have so far, level 3 is unsolved for now

Curious if anyone else is having issues in this demo as well with bombers/nukes causing errors to appear.

[namida]

Already mentioned this to Flopsy on IRC, but for everyone else who might wonder: Flopsy has the intended solution on level 1 (the exact intended solution actually, rather than the acceptable similar solution everyone else has found so far), a HUGE backroute on level 2, and the same minor backroute as joshescue18 on level 4.

[namida]

Updated the demo to fix Flopsy's backroute on "Lemming All-Sorts" (level 2), joshescue's backroute on "Then Came The Lemming..." (level 3), and the backroute they both found on "Odyssey" (level 4). I don't intend to fix the alternate solution to "The Arcade" (level 1), as it's just a slighty harder to execute variation of the intended solution anyway.

[namida]

Okay, since we all love extra preview content... I thought I'd (somewhat) go back in time, and reveal the first level I made towards this pack!

"Ain't Over Til The Fat Man Sings"
50 lemmings, save 45
Release rate 40
No time limit
2 climbers, 2 bombers, 1 platformer, 4 builders, 1 stacker, 1 basher


At this point in time, level positions are very likely to change, but I currently have it placed as the first level of the 3rd rank. I might move it to somewhere in the mid-to-late 2nd rank though, I'm not really sure.

I also put a bit more info up in the first post.

[joshescue18]

I solved Osyssey.

[namida]

That's another minor backroute, though a bit closer again to intended. I probably won't update the demo again, but I'll be sure to fix that for the full release.

[namida]

Here's one of the zombie levels. No, it's totally not based off an Orig level or anything.

[namida]

Just hit 30 levels! Here's the 30th level I've made for this pack*. I'm not entirely sure where this level fits into the difficulty curve yet, though I'm leaning towards at least early 4th rank.

"Broken Arrow"
15 lemmings, save 14
RR 30, locked
No time limit

1 Bomber, 3 Platformers, 1 Builder, 2 Bashers, 1 Digger

This is also the first Lemmings Plus level (at least in terms of creation order) to have a locked release rate.

* Technically, the 31st, because there's one level I made that I later discarded.

[namida]

I reuploaded the demo with four more levels added:
- The first level of the first rank. For quite a while I've usually included this level in demos, so it was a bit weird not to have it in this one.
- "It's Zombie Time", which is shown in one of the above posts.
- "Lemming Chaos", which is the permanent title of the level "The Doubly-Hard-For-Flopsy Level" which I entered in mobius's contest. Since it was already revealed, I thought it made sense to include it here.
- "Broken Arrow", which is also shown above.

In addition to the newly added levels, it also has a backroute fix for "Odyssey".

Link is in the first post. You may want to delete your existing save file, otherwise it'll think you haven't beaten levels that you have (and vice versa) since the levels are in the proposed in-game order, not "the four new additions were put at the end / in a seperate rank".

[namida]

Okay, so, we finally had a rank hit 50% complete. It was the first rank, which is a bit surprising, given how much I've been on a roll with hard levels lately. I have reasons why I don't want to reveal the milestone level here, sorry.

The pack as a whole is now beyond 40% complete, too.

I added a bit more info to the first post, too. All rank names except the final one are now revealed.

[namida]

Okay, so I just made a level that I can reveal.

"Don't Forget!"
10 lemmings, save 9
RR 60, no time limit
1 Climber, 1 Glider, 1 Bomber, 2 Platformers, 1 Builder, 1 Basher, 1 Digger

(Image attached).



I'll also reveal a couple of very minor details about the final level. Very minor, but for those who might want it to be a complete surprise I'll spoiler tag it anyway.

Spoiler

The graphic set it uses is one of the Lemmings Plus IV ones. The skillset has a total of 26 skills; all of which are (at least currently) given from the start rather than as pickup skills. It's also smaller (but probably much harder) than LPIV or LPV's final levels.