Lemmings Packs I have Beaten, Currently Playing, and Thinking of Playing

[kaywhyn]

All right, I have solved Strato's LWT Old Formats pack up through the Legend rank. I still have two more ranks of 40 levels each to play, but I'm going to take a temporary break from the pack, since he still needs to release an update for the Encore and Groupie ranks. No rush Strato, take your time. This will give Strato the perfect opportunity to fix up anything for the pack, and also give me the perfect opportunity to work on other Lemmings-related stuff, including resolving United, the contest levels and solve any unsolved levels I wasn't able to, and test LOA. I definitely plowed through the pack much faster than I thought I would, although my progress slowed significantly with the more recent difficult levels. Still, very nice pack and I'm definitely enjoying it way more after getting past the boring stuff in the Noisemaker and Amateur ranks.

[Strato Incendus]

Congratulations, kaywhyn! You can definitely expect the Encore rank to be easier than what you've played so far - especially because you've played the complete set of Paralems, Pit Lems, and Lemmicks before Lemmings World Tour. So Encore will basically just be a rehashing of old levels for you.

Groupie, on the other hand, might still have some nice tricks up its sleeve. Especially those that I've learned from other players / level creators...

[kaywhyn]

Congratulations, kaywhyn! You can definitely expect the Encore rank to be easier than what you've played so far - especially because you've played the complete set of Paralems, Pit Lems, and Lemmicks before Lemmings World Tour. So Encore will basically just be a rehashing of old levels for you.

Groupie, on the other hand, might still have some nice tricks up its sleeve. Especially those that I've learned from other players / level creators...

Thanks a bunch for the kind words, Strato! So, are you saying with how I finished the Legend rank, the tour is essentially done and so I'm pretty much done with the main part of the pack? I think I can see that, considering what the post-text said after solving Legend 40.

[Strato Incendus]

Indeed, Encore is a selection of levels I pulled from the earlier packs - not selected primarily for quality, but for them being song titles as well, therefore going along with the rest of the levels. That said, I wouldn't have made an entire rank of them if I hadn't considered at least a good majority of them worthwhile puzzles.

Groupie, on the other hand, are entirely new levels. So you can of course just play them as regular puzzles, without any background knowledge. However, how much additinal value you are going to get out of these levels beyond that depends to some extent on how many packs by other players you have already played - so that you can recognize their tilesets, the skill tricks they like to use, and the references in the level titles that give hings which forum member which level is dedicated to .

[kaywhyn]

It was a very long and difficult journey, but I have finally done it: My solutions have all been accepted by Icho, and so I have officially 100% resolved all of United! A year and a bit over a month since the 1 year anniversary of when I started taking on United. Just getting the official confirmation from Icho himself earlier today nearly got me teary-eyed. So, I have officially completed one of the hardest level packs out there, although not without a bit of help along the way in the form of subtle verbal hints on a few levels.

Interestingly enough, I'm currently taking on LWT for Old Formats, and this pack barely inches out in the lead for largest number of levels solved in a pack thus far. I have completed 240 levels in LWT, while United is at 238 levels, so just two levels ahead. There's still two more ranks of 40 levels each in LWT that I still need to solve, but I'm currently awaiting a pack update. Hence, proceeding with the rest of the pack is currently on hold until that happens. In the meantime, I will be solving/resolving contest levels and playing other packs, as well as test LOA, in the meantime. Whereas for what pack I'm going to tackle next, I have yet to decide. Most likely another pack for Old Formats.

I have updated the OP to reflect total completion of United.     

[Strato Incendus]

There's still two more ranks of 40 levels each in LWT that I still need to solve, but I'm currently awaiting a pack update.

I'm going to be in hospital on Thursday / Friday, but just for something that's comparatively routine for me. I basically only have to stay there for one night for surveillance after the procedure, to be on the safe side. I'll have my laptop with me, so I'm going to have lots of time to look at IchoTolot's replays for Encore and Groupie, and then fix as many levels as I can. Thankfully, WLAN is now also free at the hospital - they used to have this thing where you'd have to pay per day.

[kaywhyn]

Oh man, is everything all right, Strato? Or do you mean you're doing hospital work?

[Strato Incendus]

No, no, I'm going in as a patient, but don't worry, I've had this procedure several times this year already. It's more or less a prophylactic thing. I've also had it done ambulantly once, but usually they want to keep you there for one night to be on the safe side.

I just hope the hospital doesn't regard this as a "new source of income" so that they keep inviting me back in after short intervals...

[kaywhyn]

Oh, I see. Well, I hope everything goes well while you're there on Thursday and Friday. I'm sure it will. I'm not familiar with the medical terms "prophylactic" and "ambulant." I had to look them up. Must be a chronic illness that I'm not familiar with, but I'm not going to press you on the matter, especially if it's a sensitive and private matter and you're not comfortable sharing about it.   

[Strato Incendus]

Oh, I don't mind sharing that stuff - it's more of a question whether you want to read about it ...

"Prophylactic" (=precautionary) and "ambulant" (=you go home after having the treatment done) are general terms that don't refer to any particular medical condition.

[kaywhyn]

Sure. I have a brother who works in a medical office in NorCal (fancy way of saying northern California here in the U.S). It's not through him that I have acquired extensive knowledge of the medical field, though. I acquired most of it from reading and human anatomy programs growing up

[Strato Incendus]

I see. Well, then I guess you can ask your brother how he would say "I'm going to rip you a new one!*" in physician's speak, and then you're getting pretty close to what this particular medical procedure is about.

*Well, not exactly a new one. It's still the same one. The German way of uttering this "threat" is more accurate, actually.

One of the things that Crohn's disease can cause, btw.

[kaywhyn]

Yes, both the saying "tear you a new one" and Crohn's disease are things I've heard of, although the latter I'm not too familiar with. I've seen and heard of it in various places online and the media. I'll be sure to ask my brother what the equivalent saying is in medical speak then haha.

[kaywhyn]

Another pack completed. Updated the OP to reflect completion of GeoffLems for Old Formats. All my replays work for the New Formats version as well, although 6 of them failed, and one was undetermined, but I fixed them and attached my updated replay collection for the New Formats version in the level pack topic. I might just do brand new solutions for the levels later on down the line, but if the Old Formats replays work, might as well just use those, especially since all the levels are the same and none of them needed to be changed in order to still be solvable.

[kaywhyn]

Thanks to the recommendation for a first pack to LP by Proxima and Strato, I have solved another whole level pack: Lemmings Migration. I have updated the OP to reflect this.