[Neolemmix] Quest From Kieran Development Thread

[Ste Woz Ere]

Played this pack last month, and enjoyed it quite a lot. It was my first custom pack, so I wasn't used to all the advanced techniques (particularly the crazy bomber shenanigans) therefore it was no surprise that I couldn't solve a number of them without help.* (and I would never have got the solution for Rock Climbers, even though I originally solved Havoc 5 by using a simpler version of the same technique)

Highlights included The Burrowers and My First Crush (digger shenanigans), solving some ascent challenges that looked impossible at first sight (Jacob's Ladder, Spiral Staircase), Ultimate Quest 3 (the most epic solve for me) and solving The High Ground by using a route that I'm not sure is intended or not.

Overall it was an interesting brain burn with an introduction to advanced techniques, that is definitely worth a play if you like hard levels with the original themes. (I also swapped in the original 3 music sets, just to enhance the vanilla feel)

* I still don't know the solution for Recession-Proof (the hooooles) and Offshore Rig (1 skill short on every route I tried) due to the lack of a working replay. And while the solution for Ultimate Quest 4 was easy to figure out, myself and the replay found the execution to be impossible.

[Armani]

I was in the mood for playing lemmings tonight.. and this old pack happen to got attention, so here're my solutions.
Nice levels overall not that hard but it definitely has some clever puzzles.

[ericderkovits]

Somehow I didn't have this pack downloaded. Missed this one somehow. Some nice music. Not too big a pack. Perfect for a LP

[kaywhyn]

It's in the "In development" board, that's why

[kieranmillar]

It's been almost 4 years!!! Finally time to finish this pack off. More levels! More fixes! More ... Neolemmix version numbers!

I've upgraded the pack to the latest version of Neolemmix, 12.12.5, which is now required to play this. Please not you will also need to redownload the music, the tracks were renamed and also made much smaller in file size. (Delete the old ones from your music folder, they all used to be prefixed with jsmw_ but now it's qfk_ ).

Thanks you to Armani for another batch of demos, very helpful, got a lot of changes made based off of those.

I'm expecting more backroutes in my new levels, so please upload demos if you can. Please also let me know about the difficulty curve, it is extremely hard for me to gauge the difficulty of my own levels, and I'm worried the difficulty is all over the place here.

Download the latest version, and the updated music pack, from the opening post.

v07 changelog:

Spoiler

Fun
5 - So Close ... And Yet - Added steel
9 - Have a Bash at This - Minor changes to remove Blocker
10 - Well That's One Group Solved... - New level
13 (was 12) - Two's Company, Thirty's A Crowd - Minor terrain tweak
14 (was 13) - Just Dropping In - Terrain tweak

Also Fun
4 - Most Valuable Lemming - Terrain tweak
8 - Tree Top Trouble - Replaced with Rescue Rodents from Not Fun rank (Rescue Rodents unchanged, Tree Top Trouble deleted)
9 - Impact Zone - Replaced with new level, Crystal Cavern
11 - Temperature Drops - New level
12 (was 11) - Iron Awe - Terrain tweaks + major skill changes + lower save requirement
13 (was 12) - The Dire Docks - Major terrain changes

Hard But Still Fun
2 - Once You Pop You Can't Stop - Terrain tweaks + many less bombers + higher save requirement
5 - Recession Proof - Filled in terrain holes just in case you get unlucky with basher, no change to solution
8 - Pillars of the Community - Added steel
9 - Slow Motion - Redone top trapdoor area entirely
10 - Master Exploder - Remove a Bomber
14 - The Bridge Is Out - New level
15 (was 14) - The Ultimate Quest, Take 3 - Terrain change. This shouldn't impact the solutions of the other Ultimate Quest levels, although the same change has been made to them too.

Not Fun
3 - Mined Your Head - Replaced with new level, The Great Firewall
4 - Rising Condensation - Terrain tweak
5 - Rescue Rodents - Moved to 8 Also Fun position and replaced with new level, Crag David
7 - Down the Tubes - Major reworking
9 - The Firing Squad - Terrain changes
10 - Pain Factory - New level (I suspect if any of the new levels are riddled with backroutes, it'll be this one)
11 (was 10) - Offshore Rig - Minor terrain change
12 (was 11) - Toil - Major reworking
13 (was 12) - The High Ground - More steel and minor terrain tweaks

[kieranmillar]

It just occurred to me that new level The Bridge Is Out in Hard But Still Fun rank has a completely trivial backroute. Sigh. Typical I would think of it as soon as I uploaded things. Well it's late today, I'll figure out a fix another day.

[kieranmillar]

Never mind, I couldn't help myself and made a quick fix. No changelog for v08, might as well avoid spoiling the change as barely anyone will have seen the old level anyway.

[WillLem]

Replays for the Fun rank.

Great levels, these. Very well designed and aesthetically similar to L1 and Oh No!, which is always a nice touch. They're way more difficult for a first rank than I personally prefer, but at least some of them have alternative solutions and/or relatively lenient save requirements.

The puzzles are ace, some very interesting and clever ideas in here.

I'll come back and play the rest another time. Looking good so far

[Armani]

I played through the updated levels. (+ new levels)
You only need to check the replays for updated levels, I just take my own replays from above post for other levels.
A lot of them now seems properly patched out and some of them turns out to be my favourite levels.
I especially love Toil, High Ground and Crag David.

And there're some backroutes you probably want to check out.

[kieranmillar]

Thanks both for the replays and feedback.

Attached to the opening post is version 9 with some more changes.

v09 changelog:

Spoiler

Fun
5 - So Close... And Yet - Added steel
13 - Two's Company, Thirty's A Crowd - Skill and terrain changes

Also Fun
9 - Crystal Cavern - Steel and Terrain tweaks
13 - The Dire Docks - Terrain tweak

Hard But Still Fun
8 - Pillars of the Community - Terrain and skill changes
9 - Slow Motion - Terrain tweaks
14 - The Bridge is Out - Terrain changes
15 - The Ultimate Quest, Take 3 - Added Steel. This does not affect the solution of the other Ultimate Quest levels, but may disrupt their existing replays.

Not Fun
3 - The Great Firewall - Increased release rate
4 - Rising Condensation - Steel and terrain changes

There are some other levels not changed in this version that I'm still working on, or thinking of replacing. I'd like some easier levels and some of the really hard levels aren't cutting it for me anymore after looking back after 4 years, or they're broken in a way that I'm not prepared to fix.

[kieranmillar]

Still working on things, but won't have time for a little while so posting the changes I have so far. Still need to do something about some late levels in the last rank, Down The Tubes and Pain Factory, probably replace them.

v10 available to download in the opening post.

v10 changelog:

Spoiler

Fun
2 - Trail Trial - New level
(was 13) - Two's Company, Thirty's A Crowd - Moved to Also Fun 3

Also Fun
5 - Pillar Pairs - New Level
(was 11) - Temperature Drops - Removed level
(was 13) - The Dire Docks - Moved to Hard But Still Fun 2

Hard But Still Fun
(was 13) - The Temple of Doom - Moved to Not Fun 1
14 - The Bridge is Out - Terrain tweaks and increased save requirement

Not Fun
(was 9) - The Firing Squad - Removed level
15 - The Ultimate Quest, Take 4 - Fix typo in music track name

[Armani]

resolved all the updated levels
Now I probably solved most of them in intended ways.

[kieranmillar]

Thanks again Armani. Your replays are very helpful. Might as well post what I have currently. I've finished cleaning up the first two ranks and replacing levels I wasn't super happy with. New levels in Fun rank are very easy but that's fine by me. I'm hoping the first two ranks are now considered done, barring any more backroutes and maybe some more levels I make might get moved into it if they are easy enough.

Levels I have my eye on replacing in the last two ranks are Slow Motion, The Dire Docks, Down the Tubes and Pain Factory.

v11 attached to the opening post as always.

v11 changelog

Spoiler

Fun
3 - Easy as 1 2 3 - Replaced with new level Oven-Ready Lemmings
4 - Diamond Tower - Replaced with new level Suds Law
9? - Humiliated By Burgundy - Removed Level

Reordered a lot of levels in this rank

Also Fun
3 - Two's Company, Thirty's a Crowd - Terrain changes (lol whoops) and moved back into Fun Rank
4 (was 5) - Pillar Pairs - Terrain tweak
5 - Blockers Go To Heaven - New level
11 - Crystal Cavern - Terrain change

Hard But Still Fun
15 - The Ultimate Quest, Take 3 - Added steel. Added to all ultimate quests, but shouldn't impact the replays of the other ones.

Not Fun
1 - Temple of Doom - Increased number of lemmings (and save requirement accordingly) and terrain tweak

[Armani]

resolved updated ones

Spoiler

Oven-Ready Lemmings: Simple but nice level. The top route looks like it's going to work but actually it isn't.
Suds Law: can be trick if you don't see the builder turn around to send the second worker lemming.
Two's Company, Thirty's a Crowd: attached two solutions. Both spare a basher and save some more lemmings than required.
Pillar Pairs: Now I used all every non-permanent skill.
Blockers Go To Heaven: I think I backrouted it.
Crystal Cavern: attached two solutions. First one is just a slight tweak of my previous solution, and the second one is a good old ceiling route solution.
The Ultimate Quest, Take 3: attached two solutions. The second one looks intended Using the bottom of the starting platform requires outside the box thinking and I like it.
Temple of Doom: It's trickier now. I used all the skills and managed to save few more.

[kieranmillar]

Thanks once again Armani, getting very close to intended solutions on all levels now except for the 4 I still plan to replace. I'm good with solution 2 of The Ultimate Quest, Take 3, it's close enough, and besides these Ultimate quest levels are running out of ways to fix up issues without causing problems to the other Ultimate quest levels. After all these fixes I'm just happy finally someone went the right way :p

v12 changelog

Spoiler

Fun
14 - Two's Company, Thirty's A Crowd - Added Steel + widened final gap

Also Fun
4 - Pillar Pairs - Increased save requirement + Minor terrain change at start of level
5 - Blockers Go To Heaven - More Steel
11 - Crystal Cavern - Terrain changes + Extra Builder + Increased release rate (a set of risky changes, I hope it'll be fine?)

Hard But Still Fun
15 - The Ultimate Quest, Take 3 - Steel tweak

Not Fun
1 - The Temple of Doom - 1 less Builder + Terrain changes + slight Release Rate increase