[LP Series] WillLem Plays Through Just The First Rank Of A Bunch Of Custom Packs

[WillLem]

Welcome to the topic for my all-new LP Series!

WillLem Plays Through Just The First Rank Of A Bunch Of Custom Packs in NeoLemmix!

Episode #1 Lemmings Redux by The Lemmings Forums Community
Episode #2 SubLems by Colorful Arty
Episode #3 Rodents by Ron Stard
Episode #4 TMChallenge by Proxima
Episode #5 NepsterLems by Nepster
Episode #6 Lemmings Plus VI by namida
Episode #7 Sammings 2 by Mantha16
Episode #8 Ski Sloping Lemmings by grams88
Episode #9 Lemmings Migration by Nessy
Episode #10 NeoLemmix Introduction Pack by IchoTolot


Here are the packs I'll be doing, not necessarily in this order (at this point I've arranged the list alphabetically by author):

The Lemmings Have Grown by Davidz
Godlems by Duuddu
Festival Millas 2020 by GigaLem
MobiLems 3: The Lemmings Strike Again! by mobius
Casualemmings 2.0 by nin10doadict
Lemmings World Tour by Strato Incendus
Lemmingzones by LemFan

[kaywhyn]

Nice set of packs there, WillLem! The only one on your list that I've completed is Reverse Lemmings, but it was on Superlemmini, which is what the pack originally was designed for before Colorful Arty converted the pack over to Neolemmix. I'm currently playing through Lemmings United, Nepsterlems, and Casualemmings, the last one I'm currently playing on v.10.13, meaning Old Formats. If you ever get going with Lemmings United, good luck with that. With 41 levels, it might take you a long time, especially since it already starts getting really difficult around the halfway point of the rank. From memory, there are two or three pretty mind-bending, difficult levels in the 30s which took me a while to solve, but they took me nowhere near as long as the rank finisher, which I was stuck on for about a day. It really comes together for the rank finisher, but it's a real eye pleaser level visually and has a really beautiful solution. Of course, don't let the difficulty discourage you. After all, it's only the first rank and is definitely nothing compared to the brutal difficulty in the second rank and beyond. I'm currently a bit more than halfway on the third rank and am currently stumped on a 55 second level in it. For Nepsterlems, I don't think it should be a problem for you. None of the levels of the first rank were particularly difficult, although I can think of two or three that might still be troublesome. Same thing with Casualemmings, although this one should be the easiest of the three in terms of first rank levels. I'm not sure if there are any differences between the old formats and the new formats versions of the pack. I'm only on the second rank, with a rather really infamous level that just seems impossible for me. I'm not certain if anyone has been able to beat it. Strato might had, but I'm not sure. The rest on the list I haven't played, so I can't say much about the difficulty of the first rank in them.

If you're looking for some well-done packs a bit more on the easier side, I suggest Lemmings Reunion, Dovelems, and Pimolems to add to the list. Reunion has a really nice difficulty curve throughout, and pretty much the only time it gets difficult in the first rank is the last few levels. Also there's only 30 levels in the rank, so it probably won't take you too long. The latter two especially should have first rank levels more suitable to your skill level. Both Reunion and Pimolems get much harder after the first rank, but Dovelems tends to have a pretty gentle curve throughout the entire pack. I've played and beaten all three of these packs, which is why I'm able to offer my view on their difficulty.

[Strato Incendus]

No, I also didn't beat "Super Mecha Death Gators" until I asked nin10doadict for advice. The point is, even though he made that level in my style with regards to the traps, the solution is actually very typical of nin10doadict's own level design style, and that is a type of level I have notorious problems with.

Since it's one of the hardest and best levels in the pack, in my opinion, I contacted nin10doadict, telling him that I added the traps in their old form to my strato_generalmd tileset, so that the level could be converted to New Formats. I haven't received any response from him yet, though .

[Proxima]

Awesome project I'm watching the Redux video now and I'll write some responses to your thoughts as I go along. I think it's really important for a pack to make a good first impression by getting its easy rank right, so it's great to have this kind of in-depth look at what goes into making a good first rank.

ericderkovits commented that he would prefer each level to have its original music. While that is just one person's opinion, I will definitely raise the question in the Redux topic to see whether others agree with this.

At the very beginning, when we were still brainstorming wild ideas, I suggested we could go for a completely repeats-free pack by replacing Fun 2, 4 and 7 with Tame levels modified to be tutorial levels for the same skills. No-one liked the idea and we quickly dropped it. In any case, we ended up keeping a small number of repeat pairs outside the tutorial levels.

"A task for bombers" isn't the first level that's been edited (we've already seen removed time limits and reduced lemming counts) but the first one with a major difference

We considered (and rejected) removing the decorative terrain on "Snuggle up to a lemming". Clearly, we made the right call

The Gentle 9 talisman should display as "Save 20 with only builders", and Gentle 16 should display as "Save 50 with 2 of each skill", so there's a bug if this no longer works. I'll look into this.

Nice demonstration of multiple solutions on "Downwardly Mobile Lemmings" And nice demonstration on "CindyLand" that 7 of each skill is still plenty for massively overcomplicating a level

We didn't shorten "A beast of a level"; we took the version of the level from Genesis Lemmings, where it is shorter (because Genesis levels have a maximum size of 511 x 160; this is also why, other than the special levels, levels larger than this were replaced with completely new levels in the Genesis version).

The device you referred to in "Careless clicking costs lives" is called a Newton's Cradle.

[kaywhyn]

No, I also didn't beat "Super Mecha Death Gators" until I asked nin10doadict for advice.

Ah, so the level is possible. Thanks for clarifying. So far, the best I've managed on the level is 21, which is short of the save 25 requirement. I haven't been able to get anything better than save 21, and atm I'm not convinced I can improve my save 21 in any other ways to get a working solution that would ultimately win the level. Guess I'm going to be stuck here for a while. Still, I'm going to keep trying, as I'm not one to look up solutions until I've beaten the levels on my own first.

[WillLem]

If you ever get going with Lemmings United, good luck with that. With 41 levels, it might take you a long time... Reunion has a really nice difficulty curve throughout, and pretty much the only time it gets difficult in the first rank is the last few levels. Also there's only 30 levels in the rank, so it probably won't take you too long

Good shout. I might do Reunion instead, then. It was suggested somewhere else that I do this one first anyway as United is technically a sequel pack.

Ideally I don't want to do ranks with any more than 30 levels for this series, for various reasons mainly involving attention span and solving ability!

We considered (and rejected) removing the decorative terrain on "Snuggle up to a lemming". Clearly, we made the right call

You did indeed! although, I did make a bit of a mess of the demonstration in the video! I'll aim to be a bit more slick in episode 2...

Nice demonstration of multiple solutions on "Downwardly Mobile Lemmings" And nice demonstration on "CindyLand" that 7 of each skill is still plenty for massively overcomplicating a level

Thanks, and... touché! But yeah, fair comment

The device you referred to in "Careless clicking costs lives" is called a Newton's Cradle.

Ah, brill! I'll have to get one of these for the man cave...

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. Glad you enjoyed the first episode. Should have the next one filmed soonish!

[Turrican]

Also another suggestion for your LP series , I think could be to do a comparative let's play of the first rank of Revenge of the lemmings v1 ( it's for Lemmini ) , and the first rank of Revenge of the lemmings v2 (  it's based on old formats Neolemmix , but it has been released as standalone ) .
The first rank of v1 became more  difficult quickly . In comparison ,  the first rank of v2 was much easier ,  but that was because v2 had a new rank between the second and the third rank ( and it had also the bonus rank of v1 removed ) ,  so several of the levels that existed in the first rank of v1 , moved to the second rank , and became replaced by easier levels ( several of these new levels were easier remakes of levels you would encounter in later ranks ) .

EDIT :  Also , unfortunately only one of the pack that I have suggested is for Neolemmix ( Rotl v2 ) , so if you feel that my suggestion is "out of topic" for your LP series ,  plese ignore it .

[Proxima]

I'd like LPers to stay away from Revenge of the Lemmings while the new-formats conversion is in-progress. When it's finished, then certainly, that would be a very interesting idea; but jumping in now would be an annoyance as it would draw attention to the current state of the pack and to flaws that we are aware of and already intend to fix.

[Turrican]

Ok! In that case ,  @ WillLem  :  Please ignore my suggestion , and just try the first rank of the new version of Rotl , when it will be ready for the new formats .

[WillLem]

I'll likely want to get through the packs already on the list before I get to any other suggestions anyways, and the room I usually record LPs in is currently being decorated, so there's time yet!

Saying that, I'd really like to get another episode filmed tomorrow really, so I'll probs set up in a different room for now.

[WillLem]

Episode #2: SubLems by Colorful Arty is up!

[namida]

As far as Lemmings Plus goes, I think Lemmings Plus VI would be the best one to look at if you haven't already. Unless you want to deliberately pick one that'll be an outlier among the series, and go with Alpha...

[WillLem]

Episode #3: Rodents by Ron Stard is up!

[kaywhyn]

I first played through Ron's pack on Superlemmini. I played it up through level 8, where I wasn't able to solve it. I then played the same level in Neolemmix, where I used the exact same thing on Superlemmini here and it works, so apparently the basher checks are way more lenient on Neolemmix than they are on Superlemmini, meaning it's much easier to pull off in the former than in the latter, or, at least for me, right now it seems impossible to pull it off on Superlemmini, as I even tried framestepping with the placements and still couldn't get any position to work. This is my hint for you for level 8. I of course played through the remainder of the levels on Neolemmix and was able to beat them, so pack completely beaten on Neolemmix, all beaten except level 8 on Superlemmini.

[WillLem]

Episode #4: TMChallenge by Proxima is up!!!