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

[kaywhyn]

Another level pack that I have 100% solved: Doomsday Lemmings. Modified the OP to reflect this.

[kaywhyn]

And, the biggest pack that has ever been released so far has finally fallen by my hands and been completely solved by me: Lemmings World Tour for Old Formats! Yup, all 320 levels solved. I definitely would had had all of the pack solved quite some time ago, but it was advised for me to wait for an update to the Groupie rank before I started solving the pack again. So, after I had finished the Legend rank, I took a hiatus, only to later continue playing the pack about a month or two later and play the Encore rank when it was said that no backroutes surfaced from Icho's playing of the rank for New Formats except for possibly Twilems, which Strato said he might patch.

Modified the OP to reflect the completion of the LWT pack.

[Strato Incendus]

Congratulations for being the first one to beat the Old-Formats version, kaywhyn!

That gargantuan pack was definitely a one-off on my part. Especially the Encore rank probably could have been left out by me in hindsight. Sure, Flopsy included his entire MegSEBytes pack in SEB Lems - which is what inspired me to do the same with (most of) my previous song-title levels - but the MegSEBytes levels were of much higher average quality than my Encore rank. In general, the structure of LWT, being divided into a "main part" and two "bonus ranks", was very much inspired by SEB Lems. So when I attempt SEB Lems again, I would definitely also split it, first trying to solve everything up to the end of the Rapture rank, and then taking a break before I look at the rest.

Anyways, I'm still trying to determine where the sweet spot for pack size is. Usually I like them at 100 levels at least - original Lemmings had 120, ONML had 100, and with regards to custom packs, NepsterLems clocks in at 111, which is also quite a nice number. With my current packs, I try not to go above 120 levels per pack.

Paralems was probably already too much from my side with 150; Lemmicks had even more, at 170, though I felt it was more justified in that case because the constant change of gimmicks kept mixing things up. The player needs some time to get used to the different mechanics on each rank, after all.

Lemmings United of course is pretty huge as well, and I believe it's the second largest pack, i.e. after Lemmings World Tour. That said, what's deterring me from that pack is not its size, but it's sheer difficulty, of which I have already gotten a taste when playtesting just the first rank. It definitely seems to be the optimum of level quantity and quality among all packs currently released (that is, if you equate "quality" partly with "difficulty" ; but I definitely can also see the huge amount of effort IchoTolot put into designing the terrain landscapes. So that I have some pretty level pictures to admire, even if I can't solve them ).

[kaywhyn]

Thanks for the kind words, Strato! It was extremely satisfying solving the entire pack.

Lemmings United of course is pretty huge as well, and I believe it's the second largest pack, i.e. after Lemmings World Tour. That said, what's deterring me from that pack is not its size, but it's sheer difficulty, of which I have already gotten a taste when playtesting just the first rank. It definitely seems to be the optimum of level quantity and quality among all packs currently released (that is, if you equate "quality" partly with "difficulty" ; but I definitely can also see the huge amount of effort IchoTolot put into designing the terrain landscapes. So that I have some pretty level pictures to admire, even if I can't solve them ).

You can do it, Strato! I believe in you. It's definitely a huge commitment though, no lie. So many of the levels ended up taking me hours or even days/weeks/months. Yet, I kept coming back and persevered and pushed myself to get past the roadblocks, even when I had nearly given up on solving the pack several times during the Genocide rank, the 5th and final main rank of the pack. And yes, there always is the excellent artistry of the United levels to admire

[kaywhyn]

Another pack for very Old Formats, i.e, v1.43, all solved: namida's Recycle Bin Pack. The reason for the two numbers but especially 138/140 is due to 2 levels being broken since the intended solution for them relied on a mechanic, direct drop, that is now disabled. I have attached working solutions for them in the level pack topic IF direct drop worked. In other words, I have technically solved all 140 levels of the pack, although one of the broken levels was quite difficult due to the one skill per lemming gimmick.

Modified the OP and added namida's recycle bin pack to the "completed" list.

[kaywhyn]

Another pack to add to the "completed" list, Yippee! More Lemmings. My LP for the pack is also ready. Link is in the level pack topic itself

[kaywhyn]

Just like that, in quick succession, another pack completely solved: Sammings 1. Added to the "completed" list in the OP.

[Minim]

Wow. Seems like you've batted away every ball that's thrown to you. Keep it up!

I'm just wondering, because of your quality and experience, if you feel like doing something like this one day, reviewing user's level packs after completing them. I think you'll be quite good considering how long and detailed some of your posts are, but it's up to you.

Edit: I've just realised you've already done something similar to that here. Reviewing it onto the pack's thread. Maybe that's a more helpful idea.

[kaywhyn]

Wow. Seems like you've batted away every ball that's thrown to you. Keep it up!

I'm just wondering, because of your quality and experience, if you feel like doing something like this one day, reviewing user's level packs after completing them. I think you'll be quite good considering how long and detailed some of your posts are, but it's up to you.

Hey Minim, thanks for reminding me of this. I've been thinking about doing such a thing, and absolutely, I'm totally down to do this one of these days. Should be a great way for me to recommend packs to others to play too. I definitely think the authors themselves have appreciated the super detailed feedback I've given.

[kaywhyn]

Another level pack completely solved: WillLem's Lemminas. Added to the completed list in the OP

[kaywhyn]

Another pack completely solved: Arty's Sublems pack for New Formats NL. Added to the "completed" list in the OP.

edit: Ok Old Formats version of Sublems completely solved as well. Modified the OP to reflect this as well.

[WillLem]

@kaywhyn One thing I've noticed whilst watching your LPs is that you very rarely, if ever, use Clear Physics Mode.

Although I totally respect you for playing the game old school, I have to say that CPM would probably save you a lot of time, given the way that you approach solving the levels.

You use what I affectionately call the "picture puzzle method," which basically means that you tend to spend a lot of time with the level paused and formulate as much of the plan as you can before executing it. Nothing wrong with that, of course; all the best solvers use this technique, and CPM is a match made in heaven for it!

The problem with it, of course, is that you can often make incorrect assumptions about things that you can only discover by either letting the level play, or by using CPM. I've noticed that there are many times when you question whether something is steel, or terrain, where the trigger areas are, and/or various other things that a quick flick of the CPM switch would give you your answer and save you having to find out the hard way.

The "blinking unicorn" graphic (from Lemminas) is a good example of this (although, to be fair, since that graphic is animated, simply unpausing the level would tell you that it's an object! )

You're easily shaping up to be one of the best solvers on the forums, so maybe getting used to using CPM to speed up your game a bit would take you to that next level. I never thought I'd find myself promoting CPM, but... here we are!

[kaywhyn]

@kaywhyn One thing I've noticed whilst watching your LPs is that you very rarely, if ever, use Clear Physics Mode.

In case you haven't noticed, the urge to resist using CPM is deliberate and intentional. I pretty much play the levels as they're originally intended in regards to, say, hidden traps or to see where the trigger is for hidden exits. I don't mind them on occasion, and certainly they're fun when they all of a sudden trigger out of nowhere when you least expect it, but I will mind if they're used too much in a row. I'm quite cognizant that I can use CPM for a quick check of potential problems (steel, non-steel, background, etc), but again my resisting to activate it is deliberate. More than anything, it's pretty much all about familiarizing myself with the tilesets. There's many tilesets that I have yet to play levels on, and therefore the surprises that catch me off-guard is simply due to that: I am not familiar with the objects/traps of the tileset since I've never seen what they look like in a particular tileset that deviates from the usual appearance of one. Your tilesets in which you made your Lemminas would be good examples of this. I did wonder after all whether that's an updraft, since it looks a little different from the usual. More time on a level also means more time to take it in and appreciate the design and possibly even the puzzle itself. How do you supposed I got through United despite that it took me an entire year to completely solve? By being willing to sit through and solve them and taking my time, even if it means getting stumped and stuck badly!

You use what I affectionately call the "picture puzzle method," which basically means that you tend to spend a lot of time with the level paused and formulate as much of the plan as you can before executing it. Nothing wrong with that, of course; all the best solvers use this technique, and CPM is a match made in heaven for it!

Truthfully, I hate how I have the game on pause a lot when I'm LPing. I figure that viewers want to see the action, not hear me talk planning out the solution while the game is paused for a long time. Then again, I mentioned that I don't want to bother with video editing, since I'm no good at it. Instead, what I can do is simply work on making my videos shorter. I admit that I have a problem in that if I'm building momentum by having long solving bursts where I solve several levels in a row, why stop? At the same time, I should probably try using a stopwatch/timer when I'm recording, since I generally don't pay attention to the time before I start recording.

The "blinking unicorn" graphic (from Lemminas) is a good example of this (although, to be fair, since that graphic is animated, simply unpausing the level would tell you that it's an object! )

Yes, the blinking unicorn. Again, the best way to get around this is to simply put it "out of the way" where it won't interfere. In the same way I suspected the fairy was background, but most of the time you had it "out of the way" so that whether it's solid or background (it's the latter, as I found out in a level in the Pandemonium rank) was never an issue. Or, as you said, activate CPM to quickly confirm that it's background even though the blinking animation gives it away that it's background.  However, keep in mind there's a lot of inconsistency in regards to whether something is background or solid. The clouds are a good example. The clouds of the Highland tileset are solid, but the clouds of the Shadow and Beach tilesets are both non-solid even though there's no animation. Again, best thing to do in this case is to simply put them "out of the way."

You're easily shaping up to be one of the best solvers on the forums, so maybe getting used to using CPM to speed up your game a bit would take you to that next level. I never thought I'd find myself promoting CPM, but... here we are!

Thanks for the kinds words, WillLem! I also appreciate your comments on my LP videos very much, and I'm glad to see that you're enjoying them Hopefully you're learning and taking some things away by watching/hearing my thoughts/solving process

[kaywhyn]

Another pack completed: Gigalem's Holiday 2015 pack. Added to the "completed" list in the OP.

[namida]

I admit that I have a problem in that if I'm building momentum by having long solving bursts where I solve several levels in a row, why stop?

This is not incompatible with a maximum length; in the majority of my LPs (Lemmings and otherwise) I've usually recorded at least two, if not more, videos per session. This was especially frequent during my Grandia III and Hollow Knight LPs, where I'd often record as many as seven or eight videos in a row.