Lemmings Plus Alpha - Release topic [V12.03 update]

[namida]

So, my latest pack is here. A small pack, at only 45 levels, across three ranks, that revisits the official graphic sets. A few of my spare levels have been re-used for this (including some that were remade into suitable graphic sets for this pack), but the majority are brand new.

This is another one of my really hard packs, so it's not for the easily-frustrated... or for that matter, for those of you who value their sanity full stop. With that being said, the pack does, as usual, start off easier - keyword, easier, because even the first rank is still no pushover! So I expect most of you will at least be able to solve a few of the early levels.

Download link (V12.02): https://www.neolemmix.com/download.php?program=51
Solution replays: https://www.neolemmix.com/replay/LemmingsPlusAlpha_Replays_12_06.zip

As usual, any of my packs using the Orig tracks are designed with the Sega Master System music pack in mind.

Special thanks to IchoTolot and joshescue18 for pre-release testing.



Mutilation

Mutilation 5 "For That's The Way Of The Lem"
The first rank... and this should already be no pushover, though most of you will be able to complete it.

Decimation

Decimation 7 "Expedition"
Expect things to get much nastier here. You might make progress through it, but do you have what it takes to complete it...?

Obliteration

Obliteration 9 "Aquadynamics"
The final stand, and it's a tough one. Prepare for unique tricks, extreme precision, clever distractions... only the best players will complete this rank!

[namida]

Level Hints

0101 "Keep Your Lemmings Close"

Every skill is assigned to the same lemming.

0102 "Indifference"

Use the left side of the level to get up.

0103 "Easier Back In The Day"

The splatform is not built from the golden platform.

0104 "Jump Scene"

The crowd is released via, but not contained in, the area to the left of the start.

0105 "For Thats The Way Of The Lem"

The last lemming out of the trapdoor should be the first one to get to the bottom.

0106 "Lemming Rotation Club"

The path can be created entirely by lemmings from the top entrance.

0107 "Rockroll"

The lemmings being climbers is critical to releasing the crowd.

0108 "Blitzoff"

A single skill is used to both contain and release the crowd.

0109 "A Cloner Would Be Handy"

Set the release rate to 99 immediately, and don't change it again.

0110 "Twisted Track"

The destructive skills are only used to save the last few lemmings.

0111 "Latent Lodge"

The stacker, if placed correctly, is only one pixel short of blocking lemmings on the right.

0112 "Five Steps To Success"

Bombers can be useful for stopping diggers.

0113 "Mini Mayhem"

Don't try to permanently contain the crowd.

0114 "Started From The Bottom"

Contain one lemming separately from the rest of the crowd.

0115 "Snow Place Like Home"

The basher is the key to making a splatform quickly enough.

0201 "Mastery Of Malice"

The crowd, while contained, remain completely below the entrance.

0202 "The Winning Edge"

Contain one lemming separately from the rest of the crowd.

0203 "Lemming Semantics"

The crowd is only ever delayed, not contained, until nearly the end of the level.

0204 "Oh Blast"

If only you could stop the second lemming for just a few frames...

0205 "Levelly McLevelface"

The lemming that does most of the work, does not live to tell the tale.

0206 "Baby Steps"

The third vertical pipe is handled slightly differently from the other two.

0207 "Expedition"

You must split the lemmings into groups of climbers and floaters.

0208 "Mission Difficult"

There are multiple ways to solve this one. If something isn't working, try something completely different.

0209 "Return To Gemland"

The bombers function partially to stop other skills in progress.

0210 "Across The Sky"

The second cloner should be used almost right away on the clone produced by the first.

0211 "Caving Under Pressure"

Sometimes a fall from the bottom of terrain is survivable even when one from the top isn't.

0212 "A Lot Of Lemming Going On Here"

Preparing for the crowd's release is done before they are even contained.

0213 "Offer Void In Lemmingland"

Basher tunnels will turn lemmings around.

0214 "Bricks Are Heavy"

Reconsider which parts of the level may or may not be decorations or decoys.

0215 "The Longest Minute"

The three horizontal bars near the exit are less tall than a basher tunnel.

0301 "A Severe Case Of Lemmingitis"

The bomber really is just used to get rid of the blocker.

0302 "Good Lemmings Die Young"

Only one skill is used to both get the crowd to their containment area (though a further one is needed to actually contain them) and seperate the workers.

0303 "Lemming On A Prayer"

Climb-bomb is great when you need to gain just a little bit of height.

0304 "White Noise"

The slope near the exit is steeper than a builder's bridge.

0305 "Blessed By A Curse"

A well-placed bomber can stop both diggers and climbers.

0306 "Lemmingz 4 Now"

You'll want to release the crowd as soon as possible.

0307 "What Icehole Made This"

The crowd is delayed for so long they're effectively contained.

0308 "Lemmings And Lemming Accessories"

There are subtle differences between a blocker and a stoner. Know them.

0309 "Aquadynamics"

Bashers don't differentiate between constructive skills and original terrain.

0310 "Dirty Joke"

The crowd is contained in the same way twice.

0311 "Bending The Rules"

The exact placement of the blocker makes the difference between success and failure here.

0312 "The Golden Rule Of Lem"

There are many ways to solve this one, so don't be afraid to try something completely different.

0313 "The Troublesome Trio Go To Hell"

Every lemming plays a key part in the solution, though one does noticably less than either of the others.

0314 "Wasted Talent"

The first skill used is the floater. Not "can be", "is".

0315 "Lemmings: A Theory"

The exact timing of making the second climber is crucial.

Level Name References
0103 "Easier Back In The Day..." - References the old mechanics where direct-drop to an exit was allowed, which would have made this level extremely easy.
0106 "Lemming Rotation Club" - This level (or an earlier version of it, to be precise) was the first NeoLemmix level to contain rotated terrain pieces.
0107 "Rockroll" - A play on Rickroll, although the level has nothing to do with Rick Astley outside of the title reference.
0205 "Levelly McLevelface" - A reference to Boaty McBoatface.
0207 "Mission: Difficult" - This level was originally created as "Mission: Literally Impossible", which was for use in a joke demo and intended to be literally impossible (though someone managed to solve it).
0214 "Bricks Are Heavy" - A reference to the L7 album. Which I actually only know because of one song.
0303 "Lemming On A Prayer" - A reference to the song "Living On A Prayer".
0306 "Lemmingz 4 Now" - A reference to the fictional band "Boyz 4 Now" from Bob's Burgers.
0308 "Lemmings and Lemming Accessories" - A reference to Hank Hill's catchphrase "propane and propane accessories".
0313 "The Troublesome Trio Go To Hell" - The "Troublesome Trio" name has previously been used for 3-lemming levels "The Troublesome Trio" in Lemmings Plus Omega and "The Troublesome Trio Strike Back" in Lemmings Plus Omega II.
0314 "Wasted Talent" - A reference to the Family Guy episode. Also, originally, this level's skillset originally had a very-clearly-useless swimmer, which the name was also referencing - but the swimmer was removed when I realised two builders were needed to make the level work, and thus it couldn't be a 1-of-everything anyway.

[namida]

The level images and stats for Lemmings Plus Alpha have now been added to the NeoLemmix website.

[IchoTolot]

I plan to do another resolving over the next days. Hopefully we got rid of these pesky backroutes.

[namida]

I plan to do another resolving over the next days. Hopefully we got rid of these pesky backroutes.

I discovered yet another backroute in Obliteration 13 after release, but so far that's the only one, and it's relatively minor. I just haven't got around to fixing it yet.

[Nessy]

Manged to finally start this pack So far this pack is definitely the high difficulty it promised with very, very good levels. Even some first rank levels took me a while to solve (and some not even yet).

Spoiler

Keep Your Lemmings Close - Nice level with lots of well placed misdirection paths you can fall for.

Lemming Rotation Club - I might have backrouted this one.

Easier Back In The Day... - Took me a while to spot this one and I love the little joke with the title because of instant drops into the exit back in the day

Blitzoff - This was an excellent level. Once I finally realized that I couldn't actually contain the crowd the solution fell into place.

Twisted Track - This was my other favorite from this rank. This time it was when I realized that I actually couldn't build straight to the top of the twisted tracks of the level the solution fell into place.

Started From The Bottom... - Not sure if this solution was intended but the little trick of smoothing out the rock face for a climber to go up ahead brought back Lemmings Plus I memories where I did the same thing to solve Cavern Of Chills.


"Mini Mayhem" and "Snow Place Like Home" are the ones that I haven't been able to solve yet.

[namida]

Feedback:

Spoiler

0101 "Keep Your Lemmings Close" - This is a little bit more complicated than the intended way, but is more or less the same solution overall. Definitely acceptable.
0107 "Rockroll" - This one is a backroute. On further consideration, your solution does still involve the main trick of this level, just in a different place, so I'm happy to accept this one as an alternate solution.
0114 "Started From The Bottom" - This one is also a backroute.

All others were intended solution (or in the case of 0102 and 0106, they're pretty much "if it works, it's okay").

The two you haven't solved are the hardest two in the first rank (with "Mini Mayhem" probably being the harder of the two), but I'm sure you'll get them.

[namida]

V12.01 update released

(In case anyone was wondering - the "12" is to indicate that it's in NL 12.xx.xx format.)

Backroute fixes:
- 0114 "Started From The Bottom..."
- 0313 "The Troublesome Trio Go To Hell"

Note that the fix to 0313 may break some solutions that were previously considered acceptable; the intended solution, however, has not changed.

[IchoTolot]

Finally had some time+energy to resolve the pack. I feel we still have a few backroutes here.

I attached my replays.

[namida]

Let me know if there's any levels you earlier had the intended solution to that I should look at the replays for.

Replay feedback

0210 "Across The Sky" - Kind of an "anything goes, within reason" on this one, given the situation with it being excluded due to backroutes then re-introduced at an earlier position with the backroutes allowed.
0212 "A Lot Of Lemming Going On Here" - Definitely a backroute.
0304 "White Noise" - A slight, and unblockable as far as I can tell, variation on the intended solution.
0309 "Aquadynamics" - Backroute.
0310 "Dirty Joke" - That's more complicated than the intended solution, but also avoids one of the desired elements of the solution, so will likely block this.
0313 "The Troublesome Trio Go To Hell" - Intended solution.
0315 "Lemmings: A Theory" - Intended solution.

[namida]

V12.02 update released

Backroute fixes:
- 0212 "A Lot Of Lemming Going On Here"
- 0309 "Aquadynamics"
- 0310 "Dirty Joke"

[namida]

Seems this pack's really stumping people.

Anyway, I've added some hints to the 2nd post now. Some may be more useful than others; for some levels it was really hard to come up with any useful hint that doesn't give the entire solution away.

[namida]

I've now posted the intended solution replays (along with some alternate solutions found by prerelease testers).

https://www.neolemmix.com/replay/LemmingsPlusAlpha_Replays_12_04.zip

(12_04 in the URL refers to the NeoLemmix version the replays were tested in, not the version of the pack itself.)

[Nessy]

Made a little bit more progress on this pack.

Spoiler

Mini Mayhem - Finally figure this one out... and it's amazing I did read the hint for this level but I was already thinking along the same lines. All I had to do was figure out where the blocker actually went and everything else slowly fell into place.

Snow Place Like Home - Still can't figure this one out despite the hint.

Mastery of Malice - Not 100% sure if this one is intended but still a good level.

[namida]

Your solution to Mini Mayhem is 100% intended, and your solution to Mastery Of Malice has all the intended elements, just in a different order.