Lemmings Plus Omega II - Development Topic

namida · January 08, 2017, 12:08:31 PM

Just had a fairly big moving-around of the levels.

The current planned order for the demo levels (I won't bother actually updating the demo to reflect this) is:

1. Easy As A, Bee, C (unchanged)
2. The Arcade (unchanged)
3. Lemming All-Sorts (unchanged)
4. Lemming Chaos (was 6th)
5. Then Came The Lemming... (was 4th)
6. Odyssey (was 7th)
7. It's Zombie Time! (was 5th)
8. Broken Arrow (unchanged)

Unchanged of course doesn't nessecerially mean their positions weren't changed at all; just that they weren't changed relative to the other demo levels. For example, Broken Arrow was previously in an earlier position than where It's Zombie Time! is now, but Broken Arrow itself was moved to an even later position too.

namida · January 11, 2017, 01:45:04 PM

My latest level has now brought every rank up to a double-digit amount of levels. It's also put the pack overall just one level away from half way to completion!

"Sharp Minded Lemming"
20 lemmings, save 18
Release rate 50, no time limit
1 Glider, 1 Bomber, 1 Blocker, 3 Builders, 1 Basher, 1 Miner, 1 Digger

It's also probably the first somewhat-easy level I've made that I feel suits the abstract1 track (yeah, I know Blissful 5 "Stars In Their Eyes" of LPV had that track, but this was almost solely because I wanted the first 8 levels to introduce all 8 standard tracks). On top of that, it's also the first level I've used the newly-supported one-way-up arrows in, although their purpose on this level is almost purely decorative; and IIRC it's also the first level I've made that uses the "Rotate" flag on an object (notice the sideways water at the edges of the levels, which again, is pretty much pure decoration as the sides of the levels would kill the lemmings anyway, and you'd have to go out of your way to reach them).

namida · January 11, 2017, 02:10:31 PM

I'm going to start looking for testers now. It'll probably be a while yet before I start actually sending any test versions (IIRC, Lemmings Plus V was about 75% completed before I sent anything other than the occasional single level to testers), but I'd like to start getting an idea of who'd be interested.

As usual, the primary focus would be on eliminating backroutes; with a secondary focus on tuning the difficulty curve.

Please note that testers will need to have NeoLemmix V10.12.XX (or a higher future version, if applicable by the time testing starts). It's not just a matter of "I'm only building V10.12.XX NXPs"; there are reasons why some of the levels are entirely incompatible with older versions.

WouterSmits · January 11, 2017, 09:31:58 PM

ilike to test if you give me tips how to beat it
so i can better test

Quote from: namida on January 11, 2017, 02:10:31 PM
I'm going to start looking for testers now. It'll probably be a while yet before I start actually sending any test versions (IIRC, Lemmings Plus V was about 75% completed before I sent anything other than the occasional single level to testers), but I'd like to start getting an idea of who'd be interested.

As usual, the primary focus would be on eliminating backroutes; with a secondary focus on tuning the difficulty curve.

Please note that testers will need to have NeoLemmix V10.12.XX (or a higher future version, if applicable by the time testing starts). It's not just a matter of "I'm only building V10.12.XX NXPs"; there are reasons why some of the levels are entirely incompatible with older versions.

zanzindorf · January 11, 2017, 10:33:24 PM

I'd be happy to help test. I have pretty good luck with stumbling onto backroutes.

namida · January 12, 2017, 11:53:47 AM

Been on a roll with 2nd-rank levels today, which is usually what I find the hardest to make.

2nd rank has actually hit the 50% mark before 3rd rank has (though only by a single level).

namida · January 15, 2017, 01:00:03 PM

While I haven't managed any new levels for a few days, I've gone through and fixed 22 levels that had backroutes (some of which had more than one) today.

namida · January 16, 2017, 10:27:04 AM

I've only made one new level in the last few days (mainly due to that I've been doing a lot of backroute-fixing), and it's one of the ones I don't want to reveal at this stage, so to keep up the previews, here's one that's still fairly recent in terms of creation order. If you were in #neolemmix the other day you might've already seen it, though it's had some adjustments since then, and I also didn't reveal the stats at that time, just the layout.

"USS Lemterprise"
21 lemmings, save 19
RR 99, no time limit
1 Floater, 2 Builders, 1 Basher, 1 Digger

As you can see, this level is very much designed with the artistic side of things in mind, but don't let that fool you - it's quite a clever puzzle too.

At least if it's finally backroute-free, that is... so far, it's been this pack's biggest case of backroute hell. But I think I've got it now; I can't find any more backroutes, but it remains to be seen if the testers can.

namida · January 17, 2017, 12:38:39 PM

The last rank to pass the half-way mark has now done so*! Here's the level that brought Spiky past the 50% mark.

"Take A Bite"
50 lemmings, save 49
RR 80, no time limit
1 Climber, 1 Blocker, 1 Platformer, 1 Builder, 1 Stacker, 1 Basher, 1 Miner, 1 Digger

* Although I have a lot of notes on what should be reordered, so they might not all remain past half-done once the reordering is complete.

We're also getting very close to the existing levels being backroute-proof; compared to the 22 levels that needed fixes in the first test version, (so far at least) only 5 levels needed them in the latest test version.

namida · January 20, 2017, 04:49:04 PM

I'm starting to have a phase of running dry on level ideas again, so as such I've decided to cut this down to 20 levels per rank, for a total of 80 levels. A lot of levels have also been shuffled around now.

I would still be interested in getting one more pre-release tester, preferably someone who's quite high in terms of Lemmings skill. I have approached one person about it, but if they're not interested or unable to do so, I'd be keen on finding another person. Do keep in mind that LPO2 does use the NeoLemmix skills, some NeoLemmix objects, and has a few zombie levels (one per rank).

namida · January 21, 2017, 06:22:24 AM

I recently updated LPIV and LPV to use less conflict-prone music names, and I've now updated the LPO2 demo to also reflect these changes.

I also reordered the levels in the demo to accurately reflect the order the levels are currently placed in in the full pack.

I also noticed a distinct lack of Fluffy levels in the demo, so I added one more to it (so the demo now has 9 levels). There's a very big surprise in this newly added level (the second level in in-demo order).

Please note, this level will NOT work properly on earlier versions on NL than V10.12.XX (although the LPO2 demo as a whole probably won't load on them anyway).

namida · January 21, 2017, 09:55:53 AM

Just hit 60 levels, w00t!

Here's the 60th level.

"Space Oddity"
50 lemmings, save 49
Release rate 80 (locked), no time limit
I'm going to keep the skillset a surprise on this one, for now.

namida · January 25, 2017, 04:37:39 PM

Made the final (in creation order, not in-game order) zombie level today.

"Zombie Fence"
20 Lemmings (+ 1 Zombie), Save 18
RR 1, no time limit
1 Climber, 2 Floaters, 1 Blocker, 3 Platformers, 1 Builder, 1 Basher, 1 Fencer, 1 Digger

namida · January 27, 2017, 02:23:17 PM

I'm at the point where I'm really struggling to come up with more ideas for good levels, so I've moved a lot of levels to later positions to fill in the last two ranks, and will be making easier levels to fill in the earlier ranks.

In fact, to avoid bloating it with poor-quality levels, I'm considering doing something unusual, and having different sized ranks - 15 levels each for the two easy ranks, and 20 each for the two hard ranks.

GigaLem · January 28, 2017, 02:55:39 AM

Played through the demo level with the Fencer skill, darn it now I want to edit with that skill in mind