[NeoLemmix] Raylems

[Nepster]

I'm not really sure what I could do to the pool though, maybe rounden the edges a bit?

Sorry, but I don't have any good ideas regarding the pool. I can only tell you what I expected it to be: A solid terrain piece as the yellow container and placed above it a no-overwrite water object, similar to the dirt style water.

[Ryemanni]

That could work. I have to look into it!

[607]

Wow! These tilesets do look great! Nice job!

[Flopsy]

The pictures in the preview topic are showing pictures of cats

Just pointing it out in case you haven't noticed Raymanni

[Ryemanni]

Ty for pointing that out Flopsy. The Photobucket cats are still haunting me.

[kaywhyn]

Hi Ryemani,

I played and solved all of the pack from April 2020, about 2.5 years ago, so I just wanted to post my replays. Since this pack is only currently for Old Formats NL, they might not be of interest to anyone, so really I'm just posting my replays for historical reasons. Also, I just recently uploaded my solutions to the pack, and the link is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJuvzyr3-mX-ka3mcZnHzyi6. I must say, it was great seeing my solutions again after so long, as it definitely helped me remember why I liked the pack a lot. Definitely a blast in the past.

General Feedback

Raylems is Raymanni's (Ryemanni's) first level pack. It consists of 6 tilesets, all of which are Raymanni's creations. They're quite impressive! The Food style is definitely my top favorite, along with the Circus and Snow, but they're all visually impressive. This pack is a little bit larger than his second pack, Lemmings Halloween 2017, which I recently finished. It's also a bit easier than the latter, but once again it's still not a complete cakewalk, as there's still some challenging levels here, especially in the second rank, Spicy. However, just like most packs with multiple ranks, the pack follows the natural progression of earlier ranks being easier than the later ones, as well as later levels in a rank being harder than the ones earlier in the rank. This is also quite a decent first pack from Raymanni, although like with anything, it's not without its flaws. For example, there are some levels which have locked RR's for seemingly no reason, as even with the aid of time skips, all it does is drag out the level much longer than it needs to, particularly since the levels in which this happens have a high lemming count. Of course, being his pack, it's possible he either didn't know about this ahead of time, or possibly the RR was locked and he just forgot to unlock it before releasing the pack. There's also one level with a locked RR in which it would greatly benefit from being a pre-assigned glider hatch, namely, Spicy 3.

I also didn't realize it at the time of playing the pack back then, but all the tracks used here are from Lemmings 3D. It helps that I just recently played through the base game for the very first time a few months ago. This reinforces the fact that Lemmings 3D was huge on Raymanni and remains one of his favorite Lemmings games. Nice! Not sure which version of the game the tracks are from or if they're remixes of the Dos ones in some way, which was what I played the game on a few months ago, meaning I'm only familiar with the Dos tracks. I also grew up with Dos Lemmings, and so I'm the most familiar with the Dos version of the music tracks, rather than the default Amiga ones for NL.

Tender Rank Feedback

Pretty decent, well-rounded first rank for the most part. We of course get introduced to each of Raymanni's tilesets here in the first 6 levels.

Spoiler

Tender 1 - Tightrope Dope Nice level to start off the pack featuring a neat trick of stacking builders on top of one another starting on the first brick of each staircase so as to raise it high enough to make the fall non-fatal. Yes, this is more precise than it needs to be, but I can understand why it's this way, as the concept wouldn't work otherwise, so this is forgiven. At the same time, this could be a very bad thing to start off the pack for less experienced players, as they might not be able to work out how to make this kind of splatform. Meaning, this level is a bit difficult for its position despite the minimal skillset consisting nothing but the trick.

Tender 2 - Big Apple Another nice level, though probably more precise than it needs to be, especially with the second miner, which is highly dependent on where you start and stop the first miner. This is also a level where you cannot rely on the level side, as in Old Formats NL the sides are deadly. Whereas if this was for very Old Formats then it's not necessary to stop the first miner with a stacker, as the lemmings will simply hit the side safely without leaving the level and dying. Of course, the problem here is there's no indicator for any first time player that the side is deadly and the only way to know for sure is if the player read up on the physics and mechanics of Old Formats NL ahead of time, or you just try seeing what happens when a lemming reaches the side of the level. Also, not sure what the other skills like the climbers and gliders are for

Tender 3 - Getting piped up Ok level which can be a little challenging, especially with solving everyone before anyone gets into danger, but this won't ever be a problem as long as you make the first lemming a climber back out to the left to build to seal off the gap, though the timing is a bit tight before the first non-glider slips through to the water. Once that happens, the rest is easy.

Tender 4 - Revenge of the Berg! Nearly straightfoward level, with the only difficult part being to separate a lemming from the others by trapping him between two blockers. Also, honestly there's absolutely no reason for the RR to be locked on this level.

Tender 5 - "I finally made it!" Somewhat easy level that looks difficult because of the teleporters but fortunately all teleporters are color coded so you know where the lemmings will end up, with both blue ones going to the same receiver where the exit is. They're also fast triggering ones. Nice builderless level, which is a type of level that I tend to like a lot

Tender 6 - Lemming squared Nearly straightforward level as well, with the only hard part being figuring out how to get all the builder pickups in order to get a lone lemming to build the somewhat long bridge to the exit. I wonder if the title is a reference to the level pack of the same name by nin10doadict

Tender 7 - A very cheesy level I guess there's a kind of word play here in the title, where it could be seen as a cheap level or because of all the cheese that's in the level. Nice builders only level which still isn't a completely trivial level due to the splitters. However, I realized that I made the level a bit harder than I needed to, as it's possible to just have the lemmings drop in the first pit and build out on the far right side. At the same time, if there was a low enough time limit present, then you would just have to do it the way I did with brute force building before falling into the first pit near the start, as well as max out the RR early enough.

Tender 8 - Take a dip Nice concept of turning lemmings around with walkers as necessary until the splatform is ready. It is a bit too excessive for my liking, but that's just me personally, where I tend to not be a fan of levels that have too much repeated skill assignments of the same skill.

Tender 9 - Fixing the leak Not a very hard level, but it can still be challenging despite being a builder heavy level. Fortunately, you have more than enough builders and it's possible to have plenty remaining in the end.

Tender 10 - Through the cold steel Nice digging destructive skills only level that isn't trivial by any means, especially as the route still isn't obvious in any way. I wonder if the precision can be reduced, especially for the fencer, as it can be a quite unforgiving due to the steel placements.

Tender 11 - Lemsweeper Nice concept of figuring out where the safe places to dig are, though honestly I still don't understand the rules to Minesweeper all that well, so I'm not sure if there's any rule here that determines which places are safe to dig. Otherwise, because CPM exists in this version of NL, one could simply activate that to know right away, defeating the entire purpose of the level. Now, if it was in very Old Formats NL, then it's just all trial and error as CPM DOES NOT exist there, but again there might be a rule here that you need to figure out in order to determine which places are safe to dig, but if there is I'm not sure what it is, since I'm still not too familiar with the actual game the title is referring to.

Tender 12 - Curiosity killed the lemmings Nice challenging puzzle, though the climbing and bombing is a bit too excessive for my liking due to doing it repeatedly. I love the puzzle of figuring out how to use the right crowd to rescue the left entrance. It's not easy to figure out at all, and even once you do figure that out, then there's also the challenge of figuring out how to get them down the right side safely towards the exit. Even then, the level's placement is just right, being near the end of the rank. It might even work better as a second rank level, but then there's the problem of figuring out what level from the Spicy rank can swap with it.

Tender 13 - Hello, Mr. Rigatoni! Not sure what the reference here, though maybe it's a Finnish reference of some kind? It sounds like it might be a TV show/cartoon thing. Another nice challenging level, I especially like how the lemmings need to go up the right side and then mine/dig to get to the exit from above, though I realized later that I did a lot of unnecessary stuff when I solved it long ago. For example, it seems that I could had simply fence and then bash out. Not sure why I dug to contain the crowd when the crowd is already contained!

Tender 14 - Popsiclem Another nice challenging level, especially with the main difficulty figuring out how to get up to the exit with just builders, blockers, and walkers. Love the zigzag building with using blockers and then releasing with walkers later to get everyone to the exit for a save all. My only critique here is that the builder placements are a bit precise and hence can be unforgiving, though it is near the end of the rank, so I guess it's justified.

Tender 15 - Escaping reality Nice level to finish off the rank. Somewhat challenging, but it's important to realize to not worry about the losses as the worker is platforming. You have more than enough cloners to make up for the losses, even with one extra to boot.

Spicy Rank Feedback

Levels are a tad bit harder in this rank than the ones in the Tender rank, but they still don't come anywhere near the difficulty of those from Lemmings Halloween 2017. I would have to say Spicy 8 is the hardest of the rank, and possibly even the hardest of the entire pack. Thus, it's probably a bit misplaced and could probably work better for closer to the end of the rank.

Spoiler

Spicy 1 - As cold as it can get This level is a bit hard to start off the rank, so maybe a bit misplaced too. I don't remember if I read up on the stoner-stacker trick before solving the level or if I was able to figure it out on my own. That certain increases the difficulty significantly. Also that one-time trap can take casual players by surprise, especially since it does look harmless and hence there's absolutely no indicator that it's a trap in any way. Even then, it's different from other traps in that it simply breaks the floor away and doesn't always mean the lemming is a goner for sure, as if there's terrain underneath where it falls apart he's still safe and could probably still be rescued later on. Nice trick of gliding over the stoner from above to isolate more workers! Seems I released the crowd too early, as there's one loss here I could had avoided

Spicy 2 - A creep from the deep Another somewhat difficult level, though I admit the concept is nice, even if it's another one of those excessive repeated skill assignments type of levels, which as you probably now know I'm not a fan of. However, I do understand why the skillset is the way it is, in order to demonstrate that stackers can be used to bridge gaps, though it's the least effective of the platformer and builder to do so. However, it doesn't have to be used at the end, it can be done on any of the other gaps too.

Spicy 3 - When life gives you lemmings... Nice challenging gliders and builders only level that requires one to be quick, as the save requirement appears lenient but the losses add up very quickly. As I mentioned earlier this is a level that has absolutely no reason for the RR to be locked. The level still is quite dragged out, especially with a very high lemming count on top of that so that even with time skips it still takes a while for the level to finish. Most importantly, this level greatly benefits from the entrance being a preassigned glider hatch so that this simply reduces the level to being a builders only level, especially if the very first gap at the start is a red herring, though it might still be possible to solve the level even if you spend a builder there. I'm not certain. Perhaps the lemming count could also be reduced, with the requirement being adjusted accordingly.

Spicy 4 - Lemmings 2D Ah, another level with the word lemmings spelled out in the terrain. Not too much different from all the other ones I've played from other level packs in that it's just simply a matter of figuring out the most efficient route so as to make the most of the skills, which isn't easy to do. I'm guessing the title is a reference to how there's a similar level in Lemmings 3D with the terrain spelling out lemmings and was made into a 2D one for NL. I didn't realize you were a huge Lemmings 3D fan, along with namida, Direkrow, and Pooty. I guess that makes sense, considering the music tracks in this pack are all Lemmings 3D.

Spicy 5 - The 12 trials Somewhat huge level that gives an intimidating appearance and can be very confusing because of the many teleporters everywhere. I guess the best way is to simply observe where the lemmings will end up each time after using one, as it can still get confusing even with CPM. Fortunately, each section is easy to figure out. I'm guessing there are ways to make it easier to get the disarmer to the trap before the others get killed by it in the top left.

Spicy 6 - Infinite loop This level I remember being a challenging one and taking me some time to figure out. Certainly the hardest part was figuring out how to get a lemming going out to the left at the bottom to help out the right bottom entrance. Looking back at my replay, there is one skill assignment I'm very confused about, which is the miner I used on the steel. I believe in New Formats NL that skill assignment is impossible, so that probably means the physics was changed between the time of Old Formats NL and NF NL. Quite a nice builderless level but a really hard one, so this might work better for closer to the end of the rank too.

Spicy 7 - Mount Hot dog Another hard level that might work better for near the end of the rank. Certainly the main challenge is figuring out how to get from the bottom to the top where the exit is, as it's not easy to given the skillset. Also combined with the very high save requirement. I also used timing with maxing out the RR to make sure everyone is safe and stacker/bomber trick to stop climbers from going out and dying to the level side.

Spicy 8 - Snowday in Beastland O.o, this level, which I definitely still remember to this day being very challenging. Clearly based on A Beast of a level from OL. Possibly the hardest level in the entire rank and maybe even the hardest of the pack. It took me a while. It's not easy figuring out the best way to efficiently get through the level. Even after ruling out going through the bottom, it's difficult realizing where to get up to go across. It's a nice level but I think this level is too hard for its position.

Spicy 9 - Piperamba On the other hand, much easier than the previous level, though can still be challenging. The only hard part is using a basher tunnel in progress to turn around to bash the crowd out. I wonder if I could had saved 1 over the requirement if I had bashed at the base of the bomber hole before bombing. I don't know if a bomber is enough to get to the exit as a result.

Spicy 10 - Lemmings and ketchup Not very hard and almost quite like a straightforward level, with maybe the hardest part with how to contain the crowd, as the blocker placement seems very critical in this level.

Spicy 11 - The Golden bridge Hard but nice level! The platforming is a bit excessive here, but I can understand why due to the title. Just curious, is there such a bridge where you're from? I'm only familiar with the one from SF (San Francisco, California), but I'm from the opposite end of the state, and if I'm not mistaken there might be one in each state/country which might not be "gold" in color but is an iconic bridge from that place. Other than getting to the pickups in the main teleporter sections in the upper middle area, another challenge is keeping the climbers safe, as you need to save everyone. The main critique here are the stacked pickup skills, as this would be considered unfair design by the NL community due to hidden info. I don't know if putting a single pickup skill with a higher quantity is possible in the old editor. I came long after New Formats has been the main staple for a long time. The solution also relies on the solid ceiling, and if converted to New Formats will require some adjustments in order to still work.

Spicy 12 - Cage of Doom Somewhat hard but a nice level. The most difficult part is getting the two bottom lemmings up to the exit.

Spicy 13 - Stinky Sewers Now back to somewhat easy, though my main critique here is that the drop near the exit is not very clear at all that it would be safe due to that raised pixel of green moss terrain. I would definitely make it clearer that the drop is safe.

Spicy 14 - Return of the king Not very hard, but the main challenge is making sure everyone is safe ahead of the zombie, as you can only lose 1. This essentially means being very quick at the start to keep ahead at all times. Once you eliminate the zombie threat, the rest is easy. Not sure what the climber is for.

Spicy 15 - The Deadly circuit For the final level of the pack, this is quite easy and can easily be swapped with one of the levels near the middle of the rank. The save requirement is quite lenient here. At the same time, I can understand if this was an intentional decision to have an easy level to finish the pack with, as the final level doesn't always have to be the hardest.         

In any case, great pack, and it was a blast seeing my solutions again after so long I've definitely forgotten pretty much every level since I last played the pack.

[Ryemanni]

Hello! I have finally converted Raylems into new format. I guess better late than never, right? Man, I can't believe it's been like 7 years.
I now call it "Raylems refurbished" as I also changed some of the levels up, tried to block backroutes and overall just tweaked everything.
I also took the opportunity to remake some of my old tiles, as they weren't really up to my current standards. I made sure to not change any tile silhouettes though, to not potentially break other levels that use them. Also, even though ive since changed my username to not start with "ray", I will keep using this prefix in the context of neolemmix to not break any old or future assets I may make.

Download from here:
https://www.ryemanni.com/filestorage/RaylemsRefurbished.zip
The zip includes all the levels, remade styles, music and sound effects the pack uses!

[Ryemanni]

There was an error in one of the levels where the level had a time limit of 0:01 instead of infinite time. I have fixed this and updated the zip.

[ericderkovits]

Here are my replays for the Raylems Refurbished (New Formats) version of Raylems