[NewFormatNL] Clammings

[mobius]

@Josh; thanks! will look at these soon
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The following levels are out of order; [this is how they should've appeared]

Arcane 4 - Interval Training
Arcane 5 - A step two far?
Arcane 14 - Over and Under and Out

I don't know how this happened but I'll fix it for the next update.

[mobius]

Update: Some changes to music, and backroute fixes. See first post for full change log. Note that there's been an update to the music pack.

Thanks to joshescue for replays. Only Insane 4 was altered; the others were acceptable alternate solutions.

[joshescue18]

How about this?

[mobius]

that's intended, nice job

[Nessy]

I finished Humane and Arcane!

Comments

Overall I think the order of the levels is pretty solid in my opinion Here is a quick summary of how I found the levels:

- Humane 21 ("Times Four Circular Clicking") took me the longest to solve from the rank, especially considering the fact that Humane 20 ("Lemming Pachinko") and 22 ("Altitude Training") took me much less time to solve in comparison with 21.

- Arcane 1 ("Barrel o' Laughs"), 2 ("The Other Side"), 11 ("Mont Blanc Tunnel"), 21 ("Flotilla"), and 25 ("Lem Ramp Scam") were the easiest in the rank although I am not sure about 25 because I may have backrouted it. Please see the list about that below. Please keep in mind that Arcane 11 and 21 were easy for me because I knew the trick involved though.

- Arcane 23 ("The Dying Seconds") and 24 ("Over And Under And Out") were the hardest levels in the entire pack so far, especially Arcane 24... that one was a major butt-kicker

- Arcane 5 ("Sandy Knolls") and 20 ("Who Lives And Who Dies") were my favorites so far!



And here is a small list of levels I think backrouted or did unintentionally:

- Humane 23 ("Lem Squared")

- Arcane 12 ("RABBIX")

- Arcane 17 ("Coming Down Alive")

- Arcane 25 ("Lem Ramp Scam")

[Nessy]

I finished the first 16 levels of Insane!

Comments

Unfortunately the only levels I knew the solution to were Insane 3 ("Bumpy Ride"), Insane 8 ("Hall Of Stalling"), and Insane 10 ("Urban-ledge-end"). I recreating the solutions on my end though.

Here is how I found the other levels in this rank so far:

- I found Insane 1 ("Hello, Goodbye") to be much easier than the last two levels of Arcane to be honest

- Insane 7 ("Spiralling Snowstorm") and Insane 13 ("Evacuating A Retirement Home") were GREAT LEVELS!



Finally here is a small list of levels I think backrouted or did unintentionally:

- Insane 4 ("Advanced Altitude Training")

- Insane 11 ("Pick Me Up") Either this is the best backroute ever or it's the most amazing and WTF solution I have ever seen!

- Insane 14 ("Box Of Tricks")

[Nessy]

I finished the last of Insane!

Comments

Unfortunately the only levels I knew the solution to were Insane 17 ("Santa's Workshop") because I helped test it a little before release , Insane 22 ("Fill The Floor") from Wafflem's stream, and Insane 25 ("From The Brink") from curiousity during that same Wafflem stream .

Here is how I found the other levels in this rank so far:

- I pretty much enjoyed every level in this last stretch

- Pretty much Insane 22 ("Fill The Floor") and onward were the hardest levels in the pack so they are more than appropriately ranked.

- Insane 21 ("The Square Route Of Lemming") felt very easy compared to the levels around it. This is why I want to double check it for a backroute below.



Finally here is a small list of levels I think backrouted or did unintentionally:

- Insane 18 ("Lemming Recycling Plant")

- Insane 21 ("The Square Route Of Lemming")

[mobius]

Version 6 update:

Fixed an issue with the custom skill panel not displaying correctly. Thanks to Icho and Nessy for pointing this out.

backroutes:

I mistakenly thought I already looked at these latest replays by Nessy (a while ago) but I didn't!!
Thanks to Wafflem for reminding me (and Nessy for these replays)

Spoiler

Arcane:
About Face: That is actually a really creative solution!! I didn't change it.

Mont Blanc Tunnel has a small backroute but I'm unable to fix it atm.

MAJOR backroute fix to Lem Ramp Scam

Insane:

Advanced Altitude Training: removed bomber.

Alcatraz: slightly different solution. I'm not going to make any more changes to this level as it's huge = backroute fixing becomes exponentially harder the larger a level is.

Leaky Building Syndrome: slightly alternative. Not sure how to fix atm.

Pick Me Up is intended.

Rounds and Swingabouts: same comment as Alcatraz

Box of Tricks is a backroute but I have no idea how to fix this.

MORE WEE CREATURES: alternate but still ingenious solution!

Training Zone Alpha; slightly different but not sure I can or want to make a change.

Square Root: it's slightly different but acceptable. The main tricks are down.

Lemming Recycling Plant: slight backroute fixed

Floodgates Open: a little different from mine; there may be more alterations as well; the level is still crazy hard enough; no need to make any changes XD

[Akseli]

Thanks mobius and Wafflem for this NeoLemmix pack of Clam's best stuff!

I attached my solutions so far, solved 70/75, still remaining Insane 10, 20, 22, 24 and 25. I've played Clam's Lemmix packs 5 or so years ago, and now found some of the solutions I hadn't yet solved. I haven't touched ClamLix, those levels were new for me.

Here's Clam's packs in the Lemmings level database with level pictures. Levels from Lemmix packs that aren't in Clammings are:

- The Square Route of Lemmings (1-4)
- Singular Squish (1-9)
- Brick Replacement Therapy (2-7)
- Stay Out of the Pool!!! (2-10)
- RABBIX (3-2)
- Pillars of Hades (3-7)
- Rise Through the Ranks (4-2)
- Dropout (4-8)
- Singular Squish II (6-1)
- Digger convergence (6-4)
- 11 Xmas levels out of 13. Spiralling Snowstorm and Santa's Workshop are there, and they're real puzzles, others seem to be technical levels.
- Both CSTame packs. Ridiculous and technical solutions to already existing ONML levels.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with these levels that didn't make the cut, some of them have solutions that need original game mechanics, but most of them aren't that interesting. One okay level could have been ClamSpamXmas09 level 1: "Happy New Year: The Reversal!" but the three Christmas levels that are in Clammings already are perfect.

____________________

Then, ClamSpam05 and its repeats. Here's Clam's original post for challenge solutions in his pack. Did you mobius or Wafflem take these from here or where did you find them? Pretty nice. Advanced Altitude Training and OH NO! MORE WEE CREATURES, did you come up with these modified names yourselves?

The repeat for Lem Squared is named Square Squabble, that's in ClamLix and has the layout of Clammings Insane21: The Square Route of Lemming. The Square Route of Lemming was the title of ClamSpam01 level 4, that's not in the pack. These issues shouldn't matter too much, I'm just pointing them out if you weren't aware of them.
- Insane 14: Box of tricks - This level title is from a ClamLix level, that's somewhat similar to this (repeat for Circus lemmings in training), I guess.
- Arcane 13: A step two far? - Even 5 blockers are removed (from the original level) which makes this level even more hard and interesting, challenge solution was "just" save 100% with no builders.
- Guns Blazing challenge is seemingly "no bashers". There isn't this repeat in Clammings, but I have to say I don't have the slightest clue how that should be solvable.
- The other challenges aren't that interesting and they don't need to be in Clammings, yep.

More comments:

- Humane9: Web 3.0 - I can't find this from my laptop, but I'd recall it was 3-of-everything level, so it's been changed for Clammings?

- Humane18: Works on so many levels... - The decoration on the sides has been removed, even though all the other levels have most of the decoration.

- Humane22: Altitude Training - The one-way wall is missing, intended?

- Arcane10: About Face! - This level has changed somehow (in addition to welcome decoration), the steel blocks are attached to terrain and the lemmings are climbers by default, are these changes supposed to decrease multitasking?

- Insane7: Spiralling Snowstorm and 17: Santa's Workshop - Ooh, I love the song here and in addition, these two levels are absolutely fantastic!

- Insane10: Urban-Ledge End - The song doesn't loop, it's all quiet after few minutes.

- Insane17: Santa's Work Shop - Why is the time limit 25 minutes, is there a funny story for this?

____________________

Finally some spoilery comments on the levels:

Spoiler

Humane23: Lem Squared (and its repeat, too) - The platform where the exit lies is a bit high, so you have to time the bomber in mid-hoist to make an ascendable slope for lemmings. In original Lemmix level, you didn't need this much precision, you could just bomb a standing lemming on it.

Arcane17: Coming Down Alive - Yeah, I don't know the intended solution and I have no idea how to prevent these solutions that save multiple diggers.

Arcane20: Who lives... and who dies - This is a rare Clam level I hadn't solved in Lemmix. Even with NeoLemmix features my solution barely makes it in time, huh! Feels hard for its place.

Arcane22: Turning The Screws - I think it's intended that all four blockers that turn the middle lemmings in midfall around are from the groups from the edges, now it's possible to use two of the blockers by lemmings in middle group. So the traps could be moved a bit closer to the middle.

Arcane24: Over and Under and Out - Yes, this was super hard, should be Insane, many solutions fail due to one pixel only, and the one I found in the end feel hackish, too.

Insane2: Dig this - After a bit fighting I actually found a decent solution. Then I watched my 5 years old Lemmix replay and I had backrouted the level like this, 2 solutions attached.

Insane19: FALL AND DIE - This is an easy level for its place, I wonder why Clam has put it in Insane in ClamLix, too.

Insane21: The Square Route of Lemming - I agree with Nessy, this level is a walk in the park compared to entire Insane rating.

Insane23: The Floodgates Open - Awesome, didn't solve this back in Lemmix! It's seemingly possible with 3 diggers saved and under 4 minutes to do, like the time limit was originally, but I like the stats the way they are now, no need to change them.

Oh yeah, and one more question: Do you know Clam's intended solutions for sure?

[mobius]

Thanks for all the comments! I will look over the replays when I can. (It may take me a while!)

We used the (or based on) the challenges from that link you posted.
We (mostly wafflem) came up with new names.
It's my belief that the "no bashers" is a typo on Clam's part. His own replays for that pack reveal his challenge solutions and in that level I think he uses no bombers, so he probably meant bombers instead of bashers. In any case I just didn't feel a repeat of this one was worth it.

Yes, Humane9 was changed.

Humane 22: yes; this is the easier version (with multiple solutions).

Arcane 10: these changes were necessary if the level was to be included; in the original there are gaps which bashers avoid but also need to be dropped through in that intended solution. This behavior no longer works in NL.

Insane10: Thanks for pointing that out! I'll look into it!

Insane17: The time limit is supposed to give a subtle hint to part of the solution (having to wait a while for lemmings to sync up). I might shorten it a bit thought since it's way more than necessary.

No; I am not 100% certain of Clam's intended solutions for sure because he's no longer active.

[kaywhyn]

Hello mobius,

I have finished solving all of Clammings. Replays attached. I already gave you the link to my LP of the pack, but I'll go ahead and link it here as well.

LP link: Kaywhyn's LP of Clam's Clammings. Enjoy!

Thoughts on the Pack

At the very start of the LP, I mentioned that I haven't ever played any of Clam's levels before. However, this turned out to be very wrong, as I ended up recognizing many of the levels from the other pack you compiled, RotL. I think I might had ended up playing some of Clam's 10-level Dos packs from a long time ago, as I recognized far more than I thought I would. Because of this, it wasn't a complete blind LP as I thought it would be. However, a lot of time has passed that I pretty much don't remember solutions to any of his levels. Even then, that doesn't matter, as I still ended up being able to solve all of them, even if many of the levels took me a while.

This is a very well-done pack from start to finish. This appears to be a "best of Clam's levels pack," as the levels are taken from his various packs. It appears that Clam was huge on glitch levels, and so many of the levels had to be reworked in order to work properly in NL, since it eliminated all glitches. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I believe that's how the challenges for Lemmings and ONML got started? I'm guessing Dos/Lemmix was used and he ended up discovering a lot of glitches that initially weren't revealed but they later became well-known to this community. It's quite unfortunate that he's been inactive for a very long time and so I might not ever get a chance to meet and know him. He seems like a decent and great fellow from all the posts I've been reading from him during the times I have come to the Forums to read the discussions.

Regarding the difficulty of the pack, it starts off very easy with X-of-everything levels, but then the pack drops this at about the halfway point of the first rank. Once that happens, the pack immediately gets difficult and stays hard until you finish solving the pack. There are still some easy levels here and there, but for the most part progressing further into the pack the levels get quite hard. For that reason, despite being a 75-level pack, it gets hard very fast. It was then that I realized the pack wasn't going to be as quick of a solve as I thought it would. I ended up taking longer on the Arcane rank than I thought, and similarly with the Insane rank. Several levels ended up needing multiple videos to solve. Except for Sammings 1, this has been true for all the LPs I have done so far, where every pack I have LPed has at least one level that needed more than one video to solve. I suspect this will be true for all other packs I LP.

I absolutely loved the challenges that awaited me in the pack. I felt they all challenged me appropriately, especially since some of the hard levels felt extremely satisfying to solve once I was able to figure out the solution and get them to work. I've noticed that a lot of the levels were quite small in size, but don't be fooled. Most of them turned out to be hard levels. As has been true with most of the packs I have LPed, smalls levels give the appearance of being easy, but in actuality turn out to be hard, mostly due to the skillset. What makes them not as hard is due to how there isn't that much happening, though there are exceptions.


Humane Rank Feedback

Since the first several levels are very easy X-of-everything, I'm just going to do feedback on the ones that weren't. As was previously mentioned, the rank starts off easy but already starts getting difficult around the halfway point. That was the biggest sign to me that the rest of the pack wasn't going to be a cakewalk and not be a quick solve. The only levels I will remark on are Humane 9 - Web 3.0 and Humane 10 - Diagonal Construction. The former is probably the most difficult X-of-everything in the pack, although it's more due to navigating the top, but it's still an easy level due to the very lenient save requirement. The latter I thought is an excellent level due to how it encourages mixing up different skills to use instead of using just one skill over and over, e.g, some areas are better suited for platforming instead of using builders despite generally being better to get higher using builders.

 Some Humane Levels Feedback

Humane 13 - The endless steps This is the first of Clam's levels that I recognize and remember. I believe it's in the RotL pack. Nice and easy level.

Humane 15 - Play Bridge IIRC I believe this was somewhat a huge step up in difficulty for the Picnic rank of RotL. Granted, it's just spamming builders, and you can certainly choose to lose some if you wanted, but if going for a 100% solution like I did, that's far harder to do, though still not very hard.

Humane 16 - MORE WEE CREATURES! Obviously the title is a reference to POOR WEE CREATURES from the original Lemmings. Here, it's a 1 screen level and much easier, though there is a harder repeat later on in the pack.

Humane 18 - Works on so many levels... I also remember playing this level before. As seen in the LP, I struggled with this level much longer than I thought I would. Builders might seem plentiful, but they run out very fast, so you can't really waste any. It's still a difficult level to wrap one's head around, especially with planning out and executing the solution. Definitely the hardest level in the rank up to this point.

Humane 20 - Lemming Pachinko I think this is the very first level to break the long streak of levels that I have played before by Clam. This definitely wasn't in the other engines due to the stoner skill, since it is a NL exclusive skill. Solution looks great on the screen, but it's quite sad that every lemming from the top entrance dies. Not a hard level at all with an easy solution, just somewhat difficult to execute.

Humane 21 - Times four (circular clicking) Nice concept, although I consider it pointless since once you know the solution to one sector you simply copy it 3 more times in the other quadrants. This one took me longer than I thought it would. First level to use music from Lemmings Revolution, I think. I definitely dig some of them.

Humane 23 - Lem Squared I also remember playing this level before. Somewhat a hard level, but not too much. The hardest part is the starting platform, especially with how to release the blocker later on. The end part with the climber bomber is precise as well.

Humane 24 - Guns blazing Probably my favorite of the rank. Easier than some of the surrounding levels. Very nice solution here.

Humane 25 - The turnaround Compendium This was a difficult level for me, as it took me a while to figure out. However, I feel my solution isn't intended, particularly since I allowed the bottom most lemming to simply fall off and die.

Arcane Rank Feedback

The pack is done playing around, and it only gets harder from here. Pretty good mix of challenges here.

Some Arcane Levels Feedback

Arcane 1 - Barrel o' laughs Nice easy level to start off the rank. It can still be somewhat a huge step up in difficulty due to the digger cancelling, although with only two skills it shouldn't take players long to discover that it's possible to do so in NL. I've been aware of digger cancelling for quite a while, although I don't always spot it easily to use it.

Arcane 3 - Lord of the Rungs Took me longer than it should had. I initially thought it wasn't going to be a fun level of bunching up lemmings together with walkers in the middle in order to bomb and get down safely, but it turns out I simply went about the level the wrong way. Nothing fiddly about the level at all. Nice level with a somewhat difficult to spot solution of separating lemmings into the left and right sides to bomb to get the remaining ones in the middle down safely.

Arcane 4 - Interval Training Nice concept of turning up and down the RR at various times, but I would consider this a pointless level. It requires too much trial and error to find the right timing to do so in order to have the crowd turn back to the left just before the miner breaks through each time. Easy solution, but quite difficult to pull off.

Arcane 5 - Sandy Knolls I really like this one. Easy one too. I mentioned in the LP that the level is a bit naughty in showing off bare woman boobs, where the sandy terrain kind of resembles them

Arcane 6 - Catch your death I also remember playing this level before. Much easier to do in NL due to untimed bombers. It's also a lot easier than I remember, although it's likely due to the untimed vs timed bombers.

Arcane 7 - Sand Me Down I completely overcomplicated this at first and thought it was going to be very fiddly with releasing a miner with a climber. It's possible to do so, but it's extremely hard to do. Turns out this was completely wrong and unnecessary, as all it requires is a climber to turn around in the miner tunnel and mine down to the left while the right facing one simply mines to the exit. Definitely took far longer on this level than I needed to, especially since this one is another easy level of the rank.

Arcane 8 - Get Out of the Pool! Pointless level, although I was told by Turrican that this was originally a glitch level. I probably made the level much harder than it needed to be, though, as my solution feels extremely fiddly.

Arcane 9 - The Christmas Rush Nice, easy level! I'm one of the few who doesn't mind time limits in this game. Amazing it can be completed in just 1 minute.

Arcane 10 - About Face! I was also told by Turrican that this level also slightly changed from the original in order to work properly in NL. The solution is interesting, although I'm not much of a fan of levels where one needs to spam the same skill repeatedly in order to save lemmings. These get annoying and boring to me very quickly. It's also somewhat of a huge leap to come up with bashing into steel to turn lemmings around, especially for less experienced players. Most probably won't even think of bashing open air into steel to do so. Hence why I generally don't like levels that require this. Just a personal dislike of mine. The level still took me a while. I might had played the level before, but I don't remember.

Arcane 11 - Mont Blanc Tunnel Much easier and a nice one too. Nice concept of using miners to get a basher lower. I have never seen that before, although I have seen using diggers to get a basher lower.

Arcane 12 - RABBIX This one took longer than I thought it would, but I simply was overthinking that time. Turned out to be easy. Nice looking level, though! I have played this level before as well.

Arcane 14 - Square Squabble Somewhat harder repeat due to no basher. The start is still difficult, but it's all about realizing that you can't permanently contain the crowd up there, only temporarily. Once you figure that out, the rest of the solution is the same as the original, except miners are used to get the crowd up.

Arcane 15 - Crevasse Somewhat fiddly, but very nice level nonetheless. I've definitely played this level before.

Arcane 17 - Coming down alive I managed to save 9 builders, although my solution seems very fiddly.

Arcane 18 - Go Fetch! Looks to be a very big backroute. I'm not sure if the trap triggers are misplaced.

Arcane 19 - A.T. on an angle Interesting twist on the original I Am A.T. using miners instead of diggers. Once more, I'm not a huge fan of levels where the same skill needs to be spammed repeatedly in a short amount of time

Arcane 20 - Who lives...and who dies This was my favorite level of the rank. Somewhat difficult, but more tricky than hard. Very nice solution!

Arcane 21 - Flotilla I remember this one being annoying to pull off. I don't remember if this is in the RotL pack or if I had played the Dos pack. In any case, the solution is easy, just the execution is hard.

Arcane 22 - Turning the Screws Took somewhat a while, but the only hard part is the middle entrance. I'm already aware of the trick of turning fallers in midair with blockers. The level is quite precise with the bomber placements.

Arcane 23 - The Dying Seconds Solution is obvious, execution is a bit difficult and somewhat fiddly. The timer is the main enemy here. I had to play around with the RR to ensure not running out of time.

Arcane 24 - Over and Under and Out By far the hardest level of the entire rank. This is also the first level of the pack that needed more than one video to solve. In the end, my solution seemed extremely luck based and very timing heavy. I later watched your solution after I had solved the level, and I can't believe I missed the much easier solution in your replay

Arcane 25 - Lem ramp scam I remember the level being harder than it actually is, so the fact that I have all the blockers leftover must mean this is a very bad backroute. Also, you can tell I got taken by surprise upon learning the tiny pixel on the left is actually steel and hence the lemmings weren't freed from the holding pit.

Insane Rank Feedback

More hard levels await. Solving time slowed considerably in this rank, much more than the Arcane rank. Most of the time I could only solve 1-2 levels per video. Some videos dedicate just a single level! A lot of these were extremely satisfying to figure out and solve.

Some Insane Levels Feedback

Insane 1 - Hello, Goodbye Great and somewhat easy level to start off the rank.

Insane 2 - Dig this! This seems to be a backroute. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be this easy.

Insane 3 - Bumpy Ride I remember this one was very annoying to pull off, possibly either in RotL, Dos, or both. I don't remember where I have played the level before or if I played it on both if it's also in RotL. The time limit isn't the main problem, the execution with the top entrance is. Very fiddly.

Insane 5 - Escape from Alcatraz! Ok level, it was pretty boring. Can be a bit difficult, but it's not too hard.

Insane 6 - Leaky Building Syndrome I remember playing this level before. I think it was RotL. It took me longer than usual due to not remembering the solution. Even then, I was still able to figure it out. Great level, and I somewhat remember solving the level the way seen in the LP.

Insane 7 - Spiralling Snowstorm My favorite level of the rank up to this point. Very satisfying to figure out the solution and then to see it all come together quite nicely. The only thing I don't like is how it's not clear if the fall is splat height with the fall on the right where the builder staircase is needed.

Insane 8 - Hall of Stalling The easiest level in the entire rank. It's a completely pointless one, and so it's likely simply filler/breather.

Insane 9 - Nothing to lose I also remember playing this level before. I remember it being annoying to pull off. It is somewhat of a tough puzzle, especially since it's all about figuring out which lemmings to build with. The hard part is knowing whether or not you can afford to use more than 1 builder in the same place even though one builder is enough for the gap. It will be necessary due to the RR.

Insane 10 - Urban-ledge-end Nice level, although I wasn't too much of a fan of repeatedly spamming the blocker in the same place over and over so that he doesn't walk into the water. It took me a long time to figure out what the many blockers were for. The level has a problem in that once the music goes quiet it doesn't play again. I thought I had accidentally muted the level when it happened. It's really cool with the background different from the default the shadow tileset uses.

Insane 11 - Pick Me Up I have never ever played a level in this tileset before. It looks pretty cool. Easy level, with the only hard part being to make sure the builder successfully builds to the ceiling. I already know the trick of using miners to make the builder avoid hitting his head and stopping the builder bridge short.

Insane 12 - Rounds and Swingabouts This was a pretty difficult level. Builders might seem plentiful, but they run out very fast. Same thing with the destructive skills. Very hard to find solution in several places. I don't recall if I ever played this level before, although I think I remember using compression for the end to get past the sucker traps with minimal losses, so it's possible that I have played the level before.

Insane 13 - Evacuating a Retirement Home This was also a difficult level. In some of the early attempts, it would had been a working solution had a lemming been able to be contained inside the digger tunnel along with the tunnel, but it's not possible due to the very high RR. However, this was quite satisfying to figure out. Using a builder for a step to appear past the wall was difficult to spot. Seems that the digger must be placed precisely for it to work. Very nice level! I don't recall if I played this level before at all.

Insane 15 - OH NO! MORE WEE CREATURES! Almost the same as the original, but the biggest difference is no bombers. The level is slightly harder as a result. Here, one cannot hold either crowd back at the top. Also figuring out how to make the exit route available without closing off from either side is difficult.

Insane 16 - Switchback Symmetry The hardest level of the pack at this point. It took me more than hour to figure out and solve. There were plenty of times where I thought I had the level figured out, only to be 1 skill short in th end. Turns out I had the error of later blocking on the same level as where the lemmings fall out of the entrance was wrong and I failed to realize that for a long time. Not to mention that I had a bunch of other wrong ideas, especially in regards to how to release the blockers or that the blockers on the right side near the wall in the middle being doomed when they're in fact rescuable.

Insane 17 - Santa's Workshop In my unsuccessful LP attempt, I originally said this level was pure evil due to what I thought was an extremely fiddly trick where one needs to pull it off 3 times in a row on the left side. This would also be the very first time I slightly raged in an LP video. Amazing it even took me that long, after having had finished 7 prior LPs. Of course, I went about the level completely wrong. I remember the solution coming to me while I was taking a 1-2 hour break. It had occurred to me that I was supposed to send a lemming from the bottom entrance to be a climber instead of assign one to a top entrance lemming. I even played a United level that requires catching a climber with platformers, so I'm not sure why this completely escaped me for a long time.

Thus, I take back what I said about the level being pure evil. This is a very good level with a great solution. I definitely figured out the meaning of the huge time limit with getting the lemmings to sync up in my unsuccessful attempt, but I needed to go a bit further than that. Definitely doesn't require anywhere near 25 minutes to complete though.

Insane 18 - Lemming Recycling Plant I remember playing this level before. I believe this is in RotL. It still took me a while, but didn't take me as long as some of the previous levels to solve. It's definitely great working out and seeing the solution come together.

Insane 20 - Training Zone Alpha Hard level, but very satisfying to figure out. The only hard part is the beginning/starting area. I really like this level!

Insane 21 - The Square Root of Lemming Somewhat hard, but it's still an easy level. The only hard part is getting a lemming to block at the end of the first bridge going to the right on the last square at the bottom on the far right and making sure no one slips by. Building up in that area is also a bit difficult, but it does allow the lemmings to be able to get up to the exit. I only thought it wouldn't work due to how it had failed by a pixel or so a few times.

Insane 22 - Fill the Floor Somewhat difficult, especially since it requires very good timing and the need to mess around with the RR to ensure the platformer gets far enough ahead to completely seal the gap before anyone falls through. I believe I have taken more time than the time limit that's put in the level, and hence my solution would had failed if it was present here. The difference here is that a platformer is used, but in RotL the builder is used due to only being able to use the classic 8 skills.

Insane 23 - The Floodgates Open Thank you for not making this a 3 minute level, just like the early NL version of RotL. Said version is extremely brutal and hard due to the very strict timer. I did solve it eventually, but it took a very long time. Even with 2 additonal minutes, the level is still pretty hard. Time still came down to the wire, finishing with only 3 seconds left. Working out when to release climbers is not easy at all. Same thing with working out who should be floaters and who shouldn't be. Planning the right sequence of actions is difficult.

Insane 24 - Builders' Cracks Nice and easy level. I really like this level, as I like how the solution comes together quite nicely. Of the final 3 levels, I figured this one out the quickest. Building in the exit area is probably the most difficult part, especially since it's quite similar to OH NO! MORE WEE CREATURES! with making sure not to block the route to the exit with builders. The builder wall at the end to turn lemmings back towards the exit is quite clever. I think I remember playing this on Dos before.

Insane 25 - From the Brink Nice partial nuke solution. Took somewhat long to figure out, but that's because I kept having trouble figuring out which lemmings to place as blockers in the middle above the exit and the incorrect assumption of staggering the bomber holes so that the blockers above didn't have that far to fall once the blocker below explodes. Then I realized the floaters and can use them to float the two released blockers into the exit. The very top one has to almost be right on top of the exit, as he'll have no chance to exit before exploding if he isn't. It's all about figuring out the right timing to release both crowds at the top to sync with activating with the nuke. I honestly don't remember if I have played this level before.

Clam did a great job with these levels, and again I absolutely enjoyed solving this pack. It was very satisfying figuring a lot of these levels out. The levels especially got hard in both the Arcane and Insane ranks, but nothing too overly hard that I wasn't able to handle. Thank you to you and Wafflem for converting the pack to New Formats and keeping Clam's legacy alive. It would be nice to meet Clam, but I'm not going to keep my hopes up that he will eventually come online here, not after having been absent from here for years.   

[Proxima]

Great review! I just wanted to reply to a few points....

It appears that Clam was huge on glitch levels, and so many of the levels had to be reworked in order to work properly in NL, since it eliminated all glitches. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I believe that's how the challenges for Lemmings and ONML got started? I'm guessing Dos/Lemmix was used and he ended up discovering a lot of glitches that initially weren't revealed but they later became well-known to this community.

The original challenges thread was started by LemSteven in 2005. I had a look back just now and was surprised to notice that the 35-page thread ended in February 2006; all that work and all those discoveries happened in less than a year! Although other people (including me) posted, virtually all the discoveries were made by LemSteven, ccexplore and tseug, with ccexplore in particular discovering most of the glitches. In this period, new glitches were largely kept secret in case their discoverers wanted to use them in new custom levels (yes, that was seen as legitimate back then).

Clam joined the forum in 2008. All the major glitches had been found by then, but were still secret. As far as I can tell, Clam managed to rediscover all the glitches by himself (though obviously with the help of hints from knowing what challenge results had been achieve with them), and he was the first to reveal all the known glitches.

Humane 15 - Play Bridge IIRC I believe this was somewhat a huge step up in difficulty for the Picnic rank of RotL.

This level was incongruously placed among the skill tutorial levels in RotL, just because it uses builders only. Obviously, I will be moving it to later in the rank for the new-formats version of RotL

Humane 20 - Lemming Pachinko I think this is the very first level to break the long streak of levels that I have played before by Clam. This definitely wasn't in the other engines due to the stoner skill, since it is a NL exclusive skill.

Actually, it's originally a Lix level. NL's stoner isn't exactly the same as Lix's cuber (the cuber makes a square of terrain, and can't be assigned in mid-air), but they are similar enough to be interchangeable in many cases.

[Turrican]

First of all , great job on beating the pack , and on your LP!

To add to what Proxima said , several of the glitches and non-glitch tricks , the participants of the challenge boards had discovered , would also make it on custom levels they have made (assuming that they were active in the custom levels scene too , not all of the participants were).

So in that case you could find glitch levels , amongst other levels in their levelpacks , but in any case the number of glitch levels was moderate , because when you create a small 10 levels pack , you don't have the luxury of dedicating a large part of a pack to a single type of level.

Clam if I remember correctly , had two glitch levels in his main packs ( "Get out from the pool!" , and "Rise through the ranks" )

But most of his glitch levels could be found in his CSTame packs ( CSTame 1 + 2 ) .

The CSTame packs were two packs , Clam made in 2009 , and their purpose were , to make the Tame levels from onml much more challenging. These packs were practically "challenges:The levelpack" , because they contained 20 challenges ( 1 for each Tame level ) , tranformed into custom levels.

The players here had two options: They could load the two packs and try to complete the levels , or they could load the dos version of onml , and try to complete the challenges there.

Because the challenges needed to work the same way in onml , things like what Willlem did in his pack ( like adding additional opening hatches ) , were not allowed in these packs. You are not allowed to make a single change on the terrain , when you design these levels/challenges , because every solution needs to also work on dos onml , exactly the same way. And for that reason , the concept of backroutes doesn't exist for these levels/packs.

As a result some of these Tame-based levels ended to be some of Clam's hardest levels (probably harder comparted to the levels that exist here in Clammings).

And also some of these levels , ended as some of the most high quality glitch levels that have ever appeared in dos/Lemmix ( levels like "Now you're stuck" , "The squares fight back" and "LemmisXVIII" ) .

Also several of the levels had a very strict time limit because they were practically speedrun challenges ( with most notable example the final level , called "Speed run challenge!" , which required you to save 100% in Tame 20 in 30 seconds. you had 1 minute time limit , but you needed to beat it with 30 seconds remaining on the clock ) .

[kaywhyn]

Thanks for the useful info, gentlemen! Especially to Proxima for linking the glitch topics.

The original challenges thread was started by LemSteven in 2005. I had a look back just now and was surprised to notice that the 35-page thread ended in February 2006; all that work and all those discoveries happened in less than a year! Although other people (including me) posted, virtually all the discoveries were made by LemSteven, ccexplore and tseug, with ccexplore in particular discovering most of the glitches. In this period, new glitches were largely kept secret in case their discoverers wanted to use them in new custom levels (yes, that was seen as legitimate back then).

It's understandable, considering that they didn't want others to know about them just yet, if ever.

Clam joined the forum in 2008. All the major glitches had been found by then, but were still secret. As far as I can tell, Clam managed to rediscover all the glitches by himself (though obviously with the help of hints from knowing what challenge results had been achieve with them), and he was the first to reveal all the known glitches.

This definitely explains why a lot of his levels are so hard, because he did a really good job of using glitches and enforcing them in his levels. Even if they weren't glitch levels, they're still quite hard anyway, as I found out from my LP of Clammings

Humane 15 - Play Bridge IIRC I believe this was somewhat a huge step up in difficulty for the Picnic rank of RotL.

This level was incongruously placed among the skill tutorial levels in RotL, just because it uses builders only. Obviously, I will be moving it to later in the rank for the new-formats version of RotL

Well, it's not hard if you allow yourself to lose some lemmings. It's definitely much harder going for the 100% solution, although it's still not too hard. Even then, I don't think I'm the only one to say that the level's a big step up in difficulty.

First of all , great job on beating the pack , and on your LP!

Thanks for the kind words, Turrican!

But most of his glitch levels could be found in his CSTame packs ( CSTame 1 + 2 ) .

The CSTame packs were two packs , Clam made in 2009 , and their purpose were , to make the Tame levels from onml much more challenging. These packs were practically "challenges:The levelpack" , because they contained 20 challenges ( 1 for each Tame level ) , tranformed into custom levels.

The players here had two options: They could load the two packs and try to complete the levels , or they could load the dos version of onml , and try to complete the challenges there.

As a result some of these Tame-based levels ended to be some of Clam's hardest levels (probably harder comparted to the levels that exist here in Clammings).

And also some of these levels , ended as some of the most high quality glitch levels that have ever appeared in dos/Lemmix ( levels like "Now you're stuck" , "The squares fight back" and "LemmisXVIII" ) .

Also several of the levels had a very strict time limit because they were practically speedrun challenges ( with most notable example the final level , called "Speed run challenge!" , which required you to save 100% in Tame 20 in 30 seconds. you had 1 minute time limit , but you needed to beat it with 30 seconds remaining on the clock ).

Thanks for the useful info. I have yet to try his ONML Tame levels, but I'm doubtful I would be able to solve them myself. As familiar as I am with the Dos version having grown up with it, there's plenty of glitches I don't even know about, let alone be able to work them out and get them to work.

[Proxima]

It's understandable, considering that they didn't want others to know about them just yet, if ever.

That doesn't answer the question of why they [mainly ccexplore] didn't want others to know about the glitches. The only excuse that was given at the time was "I might want to make custom levels requiring these glitches, which people therefore won't be able to solve", which felt weak even at the time; it feels crazy looking back, now that culture has changed and we understand that glitch levels are not much fun because it's like being asked to solve a puzzle when the rules are hidden from you.

And this was a time when Lemmix was the primary engine for custom content. Designers who weren't aware of the glitches still had to live in fear of having their levels ruined by glitch solutions, which were considered to be valid backroutes. Sharing knowledge of the glitches would have been a huge benefit to the designing side of the community, but as I said, it didn't happen for years after they were first discovered.

I don't want to sound like I'm attacking ccexplore, who has always been a great community member. I just never understood this particular decision, and still don't.