[NeoLemmix] SubLems

[kaywhyn]

That's perfectly fine. Take as much time as you need. I prefer to make my solutions as simple as I can, although I myself, like you, sometimes overcomplicate them. Many solution videos I watched had me going, "Wow, I feel so dumb that I didn't see that before, because my solution is way more complicated." Sometimes, though, it's the other way around, where I felt the person in the video who solved the level did his or her solution more complicated than the way I did mine. In any case, I don't consider myself a puzzle solver at the level of the experts here, just good enough that I'm able to beat difficult packs on my own given enough time. In the 50 packs that I have beaten, I did it all without looking up solutions before I have beaten the levels myself first and without hints, as I myself don't like asking for hints, so I allow myself to be stuck and stay stuck however long it takes, until I either finally figure it out or I just jump between different packs. That can probably be something you can do, where it definitely helps to get away from a level you're stuck on for a time, as the time away will allow you to start anew and with a clear mind. I know it has helped me tremendously from time to time with the more difficult levels.

I know you can beat this pack!

[Colorful Arty]

I'm glad this pack is garnering interest.

Nice solution to Chaotic 14! Completely different from every other solution I've seen, but still a perfectly valid one! Nice job using all of the skills.

It seems Chaotic 12 is causing a lot of people trouble. I'll move that higher in the rank. Perhaps I'll also make it more obvious the left side won't work.

Chaotic 13 it seems kaywhyn found a backroute to. Easily sealed though, and you found the intended solution in the end if your comments mean what I think they mean.

Good luck with this pack Shmolem! I can already tell you that Insane and especially Hellish will be really difficult, as there are a few really evil levels in there. Don't be afraid to skip around the ranks a bit if you get really stuck on a level, although I'd save the boss fights for after you've beaten every other level in the rank. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask. I'm happy to give hints wherever I can!

[kaywhyn]

Sweet, 100th post!

My solution for Chaotic 13

I used the left crowd. Bash to the right, made a lemming a climber to go ahead and climb the middle pole to dig it away, then block when it's on the same level as the crowds on either side of it. Then I released both entrances with a digger each, thus I have two diggers leftover.

[Shmoley]

I'm on Chaotic 19! The lack of destructive skills is a bit difficult. I've been debating where I use the basher specifically. And I'm not sure if I should build over some of the big structures or go through most of them. Edit: Replays!

[kaywhyn]

I remember this Sandopolis level being in Superlemmini with the exact same title. However, I just checked, and this level is named Sandopolis Act 1 in Superlemmini. Despite this one being Act 1 while the Neolemmix level is Act 2, they both have the exact same layout. Another thing I just checked is the Sweet rank in Neolemmix, and both Act 1 versions in each engine have the exact same amount of skills: 20 of everything except builders, where there's 30.  Interestingly enough, there is also an Act 2 level in Superlemmini that's in the Chaotic rank, but the difference is that the level is only a screen wide and the level only shows the right side of the level, with the pyramid at the left edge and then everything else in the level is new. Thus, I'm seeing the harder version of Superlemmini's Act 1 level for the first time in Neolemmix. I just solved Chaotic 19 in Neolemmix, so it is 100% possible.

Spoiler

You may be extremely limited in destructive skills, but you do have a lot of builders. So, it might be helpful to first eliminate routes that are impossible for sure first. Sometimes, you can eliminate certain downright impossible routes right from the start before even taking them, but sometimes it's difficult to tell for sure, and so this is where trial-and-error experimenting on the level comes in.

[Shmoley]

Yeah this really looks like a trial and error type level. It's kinda overwhelming because there are so many different ways you could potentially do things it's hard to know where to start. The very beginning where the lemmings are trapped is annoying because it forces you to use one of your
already limited destructive skills. I also notice that by the end of the level I don't have enough builders to clear that last little part.

[kaywhyn]

Large levels have the tendency to be overwhelming, especially when skills are very limited. These often are difficult levels, and most of the time they do a great job of appearing to be a difficult level but sometimes they're simpler than they appear to be. Conversely, small levels tend to look easy but they can be deceptively difficult. From experimenting it sounds like you have eliminated one of the paths. However, it sounds like more thinking out of the box is required for the beginning.

Spoiler

You have all three types of destructive skills for getting out of the starting area: one appears to be the most obvious choice, another appears to be not as helpful for getting out of the starting area, at least at first, but you'll be surprised that it may be more helpful than it seems to be, and finally the last one is clearly obvious that it's not going to help to get out of the starting area at all. You also have bombers to help with terrain destruction, but the terrain removed has limited range and it kills the lemming too. That's not a problem, since you can lose up to 5. Finally, sometimes terrain that appears to just be scenery and are often out of the way can be more helpful than it appears to be. You might be able to find a way to use it to your advantage to solve the level. 

[Shmoley]

My main problem now is that I'm running out of builders closer to the end.. it feels like you'll have plenty of them but in reality you don't. I guess it's all down to where the builders go at this point

[kaywhyn]

Spoiler

If you're taking the route I think you're taking, by the time you run out of builders, you are nowhere close to the end. You'll see that no matter what you do, you'll going to need like 20 extra builders or so in order for this route to work.  Even with 50 builders, the other issue is the time limit. While I don't know for sure if this route will end up running out of time, even if it doesn't I can imagine that time would be extremely tight.

That being said, 30 builders is way more than enough. In my solution (most likely very different from the route I think you took), I have 8 builders remaining.

[Swerdis]

Hey Arty,

playing through your SubLems pack at the moment, I finished the Insane rank recently and I thought I give you some feedback. I will restrict myself on the levels of that rank. Generally said, I enjoy this pack pretty much so far. The learning curve isn't too steep and the difficulty, at least to this point, moderate. Not many levels caused me real problems. Moreover, I absolutely love the fact that every level got it's own music. I didn't like all of the tunes, though, but that's normal.

1. Things are heating up!

No problems here at all since I used the same solution as in its predecessor. I don't know if this is really intended.

2. Ice cream dream

This is a great level! One that could well be a major obstacle for a novice player. I also had to think a little about it, especially how to do all the things necessary in the right order.

3. Lemmings about town

Though it was clear from the beginning that climbers play a major role here, this was not an easy one. I especially liked the way how to turn the Lemmings in the end, preventing them from climbing the steel wall.

4. Polly Pimple

The 50 climbers didn't fool me. A very nice one that didn't take me too much time. Which was a good thing since my wife found the music in this level very annoying

5. Mini level marathon

I am not the biggest fan of taking the original levels as basis for new ones, nor do I like disjunct unions. So this one was not a level for ME - but I give you credit for forcing the player to rethink the original solutions - because, by using them, this level can not be solved.

6. Block-O-Tron mark II

A very short one. I don't know if this works really well as an one-of-each-skill-level since I only used half of the skills available. But maybe it's a backroute (I'm not so sure, though)

7. The Greater Lemming Caper

A very nice variation of the original concept. One of my favourites of this rank, though not particularly tough to beat.

8. BridgeWorks

Another favourite of mine. It was a bit fiddly to work this out, but then it went surprisingly well. Some "inside knowledge" about the Neolemmix mechanics is necessary here - this level could very well be big roadblock for untrained players.

9. Next stop... Lemming penthouse

While I'm not a big fan of time limits, it's absolutely appropriate in this level since it's part of the puzzle. I personally like levels like this one - when several Lemmings have to prepare the path for others simultaneously by doing different things. The first NeoLemmix packs I ever played - Namidas Lemmings Plus I and II - contained these "No Time to Die"- Levels which worked in a similar way. That's what I felt remembered here.

10. Failure after failure...

That's a very good level as well. I like the way the miners have to be used here - the solution was pretty funny. I also like the title of this level!

11. Crazy Christmas Crossing

This one took me a while. Not because the solution was so hard to find - but because of the pixel precision necessary here. Nice concept!

12. Play it like a flute!

At least for me, this was one of the hardest levels of this rank. Maybe that's because it's not a type of level I'm particularly good at - symmetrical stuff with lots of hatches. In the end I found a solution. But I can imagine there are more than this one. Again, a very nice title! (I like good level names)

13.  The best-laid plans

The return of the mice In my first attempts, I tried a lot of pointless stuff here. Then I realized that this level should be solved in a straightforward way and that it was actually designed around timing. So I just had to find out the best moment to release the crowd - to make them land safely in the digger's hole in the end.

14. Firewall of fame

My intuitive first decision to bash all the way through at the bottom turned out to be right.

15. Blame it on the chain

At first I had no clue at all how to save this level - it seemed pretty impossible to me. I tried it to the left exit, to the right exit and to the central exit form the left side with no success at all. But then, as you can see from the video, I found a way by not using a climber at all. So I guess I backrouted it unless the climbers are red herrings.

16. Lemmings of the Lost Ark

I already played this level in Lemmings Redux with a different skillset and I found your version easier. Some pixel precision was necessary, though.

17. Farewell, my Lemmings

I guess, every rank needs a breather Nice basic idea (I would never have come up with this), but totally easy to figure out.

18. No time for Lemmings!

When I saw the skillset I knew immediately that I could solve this level - then it took me longer than I thought. This level is a playground for using skills in an unusual manner - stretching bridges, mining upwards and so on - and it gives the player a lot of leeway instead of requiring pure pixel precision. Maybe that's why I like this level very much.

19. Balance Beam Bunker

This level looked pretty awe-inspiring in the beginning, even increased by the music. But then it wasn't that bad. The biggest difficulty was to bring exactly two Lemmings to the other side.  But, after playing so many packs, we know how to trap a crowd by now

20. Boss Battle 4: Molten Monster

This monster looks really good. And I like the concept to finish every rank with a Boss Battle. The level itself isn't that great in my opinion - just as the Boss Battle in the previous rank. At least for me, searching hidden exits is not fun - but I know that this is a matter of taste.

The hardest level in your pack for me so far ist still "A matter of traps" in the chaotic rank. But I think this will change when I play the final rank which will happen soon. I'll give feedback then. Thanks for the pack, I enjoy it.

Bye, Swerdis.

All solutions can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Vidusaka/

[Shmoley]

Uhhh soooo... I finally solved that level I've been stuck on for WAY too long.. But I think I found a backroute... There's no way this is the actual solution.. Edit: Just solved the boss battle first try! Onto Insane now...

[kaywhyn]

Hey Shmolem, congrats on finally passing Chaotic 19. I just saw your replay, and yup, that's exactly it! That's exactly what my hints were trying to get you to do:

Spoiler

Use the ceiling route. It is the only way to pass the level, because there just isn't enough builders to go the normal way through all the obstacles. Also, you didn't have to block on the stairs and simply had more than enough builders to seal the gap to the right.

In the original version, it was an x of everything level except builders, which you had 30 of. You were given way more than enough to solve it the normal way. In this version, you are severely limited in the destructive skills, given only 1 of each, but still 30 builders. Because of this, to someone who hasn't really had any experience with the game, this may appear to be an impossible level, but that's why I gave the hint of "you can sometimes use terrain that appears to just be scenery to your advantage to solve the level." However, I understand why you think your solution is a backroute:

Spoiler

You used the ceiling. However, solutions that use the ceiling aren't necessarily backroutes. They can be very interesting solutions, though!

In any case, you finally made it and can now press forward. Good luck in Insane, and, if you manage to get through that, Hellish.

[Shmoley]

The first level of Insane is already showing it's going to be difficult, I think I can solve it with a bit of time though.

On Chaotic 19 I remember just looking at its ceiling and just having a hold up.... WAIT A MINUTE! Moment. It felt magical.

[Shmoley]

Observe. As I literally out of COMPLETE NOWHERE! Become the Albert Einstein of Lemmings.. But in all seriousness I have no clue how I solved all of these so fast.

[Shmoley]

EVEN MORE REPLAYS!! Seriously. I've already completed half of insane in one evening. I don't even know how I did it!