The Level Solving Contest #1: Results

[Minim]

1. ccexplore: 80 Lems, 76 SS, 5:09.53 TT
2. Nepster: 80 Lems, 75 SS, 2:13.12 TT
3. Ichotolot: 80 Lems, 75 SS, 2:37.29 TT
4. geoo: 80 Lems, 74 SS, 3:26.76 TT
5. Minim: 80 Lems, 71 SS, 3:39.41 TT
6. Simon (w/ Forestidia): 80 Lems, 69 SS, 3:53.65 TT
7. Flopsy: 80 Lems, 60 SS, 3:24.18 TT
8. SQRon188: 80 Lems, 48 SS, 3:17.59 TT
9. MandelSoft: 80 Lems, 46 SS, 4:55.47 TT
10. Nessy: 79 Lems, 75 SS, 3:55.82 TT
#. ccexplore (Post Deadline): 80 Lems, 77 SS, 3:10.47 TT

First of all, I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in this contest. I've been going extensive lengths as to how I can make this game popular again. It's certainly not an easy thing to do. And with your support and participation, you're only helping to make this great game better.

So, the results are out! While the vast majority managed to save everyone, the tiebreakers meant the level turned out to be a remarkable success! Especially when you take into consideration the different number of skills involved.

Oh, and also, congratulations to ccexplore for winning the contest! He can select the next level for a competition, or if he doesn't feel like it, nominate someone else to.

I've sent each of the submitters a comment about their replay. If you haven't received one, or if a mistake was made please let me know. I thought that I'd give my thoughts at the end of the contest rather than during it, because every time a message pops up during the contest I'd rather be shown a replay, not just the message. Speaking of which, as ccexplore posted a replay six times (and once more after the deadline), maybe we should add a new criterion and limit the number of submissions?

If you've missed out on the deadline then don't worry. You can still upload your replays any time you want. Those that didn't get the top prize just won't be eligible for it; and also, the (Post Deadline) caption will appear next to your name on the leaderboard for any late submissions.

Now, I've renamed the replays (Some of them have a number to the right side of their name based on the number of attempts) and compressed them in a zip file. The file I've attached below includes all ten replays that counted towards the result, along with one of ccexplore's updated replays that was sent to me after the deadline (i.e. No. 7, the more recent one is further down the thread).  Enjoy the wonderful gallery!

[ccexplore]

Speaking of which, as ccexplore posted a replay six times (and once more after the deadline), maybe we should add a new criterion and limit the number of submissions?

Well, keep in mind I could easily just wait until the last moment to post the best replay I had thus far.  Posting after (almost) every improvement is just in some ways more convenient for me, hope it wasn't too much of a hassle for you.

It was definitely a very good level with many possibilities , including some that I obviously initially dismissed too early (hence the post-deadline submission).

I have been quite out of touch with recent levels in either NeoLemmix or Lix, so I'd like to nominate someone to pick the next level, and seeing that Nepster got second place I'll nominate him [edit: and also transfer the right for him to nominate someone else instead if he so chooses].  Sadly I also probably won't participate in next few rounds, since free time can be hard to come by once the holidays are over.

[MandelSoft]

I've been checking the replays and I see a lot of things I didn't taken into consideration, or tricks I didn't know they exist. I've set my initial goal too low, probably, by just saving 100%, and I was not trying hard enough to save skills. But the replays have been quite a nice learning experience. I like some of the tricks I've seen; the way Simon & Forestidia saved the worker lemming from falling into the pit was a really clever trick

I'm looking forward to the next competition and I hope I'll try harder next time

[IchoTolot]

Congratulations to ccexplore!

The top seems a very cramped together in terms of skills used and time!

Comment on the solutions from ccexplore and Nepster:

Spoiler

I declared the lower underground climber route for too expensive, how wrong I was. That would have saved me a skill!

I've attached a little "Afterthoughts solution" with the new gained knowledge, using only the 24 skills and 3:01:53 TT. This isn't optimised for time still, I bet you could easily go under 3 mins here.

I had a lot of fun with the contest and hope for more in the future!

[Nepster]

Thanks a lot for the great level, Minim!

I, too, would like to pass the honor of choosing the next level along to whoever has a nice level (either for NeoLemmix or for Lix), that they would like to submit. I am currently far too busy to get shimmiers to stick to their ceilings and not drop for no reason at all

PS Minim: I didn't get your PM.

[Proxima]

In that case, as a "neutral" in the current contest, could I step up?

[IchoTolot]

A neutral level would be fine with me, if nobody has any objections.

[SQron188]

I've really enjoyed this contest level, pretty much a perfect one here: moderately challenging while open to all kinds of solutions. Each of the participants had to use every single Lem, skill and frame of animation to their advantage in the hopes of beating the others' results.

I sure look forward to the next installment of this contest!

[Minim]

Speaking of which, as ccexplore posted a replay six times (and once more after the deadline), maybe we should add a new criterion and limit the number of submissions?

Well, keep in mind I could easily just wait until the last moment to post the best replay I had thus far.  Posting after (almost) every improvement is just in some ways more convenient for me, hope it wasn't too much of a hassle for you.

I'm sorry I had to mention that. I was a bit hassled during today. Because the PMs were connected to my email address I got annoyed when those emails kept popping up hour after hour which meant I had to constantly go back and check the latest replay. I think I can still turn this feature off if I want to. Maybe I'll do that the next time I'm the host.

Thanks a lot for the great level, Minim!

PS Minim: I didn't get your PM.

You're welcome. Also, I sent you the PM.

In that case, as a "neutral" in the current contest, could I step up?

Taking a look at everyone's comments so far. There's nothing to stop you from stepping up.

[ccexplore]

I'm sorry I had to mention that. I was a bit hassled during today. Because the PMs were connected to my email address I got annoyed when those emails kept popping up hour after hour which meant I had to constantly go back and check the latest replay. I think I can still turn this feature off if I want to. Maybe I'll do that the next time I'm the host.

Ah, sorry about that , I don't use the email notification feature so it didn't occur to me.  I guess it'd work better if we self-limit the PMs to no more than once per day or so after the first submission.  The other possibility is, I guess you could set up a separate account like we do for Family Feud, possibly even linking it to a different email address if you still prefer the email notification feature, but then you have to do a separate login to check all the contest stuff which seems less convenient.

[geoo]

Thanks for hosting the contest! This was a really interesting level with a lot of possible approaches.
A lot of variety in the solutions that people submitted, too. The right half seemed to be pretty much the
same for everyone (with two variations to rescue the top hatch both taking up the same amount of skills),
but the left half really was very open-ended.

Somehow I discarded the idea of going below as well as my mind is not conditioned to basher staircases anymore
after they were culled from Lix long ago. I was also surprised of the hang gliders clipping through terrain and
landing in the little nook when digging at the right side of the girder above the exit, especially in consideration
of the strangely sensitive foot check for builders.


One musing for the next contest: It could be interesting to score by minimum skills first, with maximum saved
only as the tiebreaker (and maybe discard time as second tiebreaker to save people tedious micro-optimizing).
I think this might make things more open-ended as it's not a priori clear what's the least amount of skills possible
(while it's often easy to determine the maximum amount of lemmings that can be saved), and even once you've
settled for a number of skills, it's probably still less clear what's the total number of lemmings that can be saved
with that amount of skills.

[Simon]

Fun ideas by everybody.

ccexplores's solution #6 (the one that was submitted in time) is technically the most interesting. This filters swimmers from climbers with the edge of the water pit: Climbers' pin (effective coordinate of a lemming that, in NL, is below the foot) is inside the wall, not inside the water trigger area anymore. The basher preparation below the water is pixel-precise to align the tunnel tip with the wall. Excellent physics abuse.

Icho let gliders fly over a digger hole at the very left of the map, that saved an unnecessary plugging of the digger hole.

Mandelsoft may have used more skills than everybody else, but they exploited the swimmer's upwards movement that we didn't see, that would have 2-3 skills off our solution.

-- Simon

[ccexplore]

I've managed to lower the skills count by 1, so the record is now 23 skills used, ie. 77 SS.  Since it's just a minor variation of my post-deadline solution, to see the one and only interesting new part that makes the record possible, go to the level bottom area right of exit when the timer's at 1:18, frame-step to see what happens with the basher(s).  An unusual usage of a blocker is the key along with some timing.

[IchoTolot]

I was aware of the basher+blocker cancel trick, but I did not thought it was possible to get another partial basher stroke by the blocker lemming in there, so that the blocker is the stop condition for both bashers! Great find!

This is very precise timing wise though.