Angry Lemmings (easy to medium)

[ericderkovits]

I think maybe something is wrong with your neolemmix directory. I just made a new directory. installed a new fresh 12.9.2 neolemmix player in it then extracted this pack into that new directory. started game. level 4 and 21 has no problems. try installing a new fresh neolemmix player and extract this pack into that directory. it should work. only thing is when you get to levels with non-default styles it will ask you if you want to add them, just say yes. level 4 has 10 swimmers and 10 jumpers.
also Namida has played my first 15 and he would have mentioned a problem in level 4 if there were one. so just install a new neolemmix player directory. also level 21 every icon has a number. I played the level also checked and played both level 4 and 21 in the editor with this new extraction. both levels are correct.

[messedupface]

Ahh, that`s probably it, I haven`t updated neolemmix. Thank you

[ericderkovits]

Done with the Tricky levels now on to the Taxing

[namida]

Just a suggestion - when you do release updates to the pack, edit the first post rather than putting them in a reply (but, still reply too to say "there's an update" - just put the download, itself, in the first post - or in both). It makes the download easier to find, especially for newcomers to the topic.

[ericderkovits]

Man a  few of the tricky levels when I tried to retry them, I forgot how to solve a few. but now I have the replays. I'm afraid the taxing ones I might forget how to solve so I might have to do 10 at a time. the first 2 taxing ones I can tell already are much harder than anything in Fun or Tricky. (of course I'm Not the greatest puzzle solver).

It would be cool if when using the editor to make levels, it would save a replay for a particular level so when you go put all levels in a pack you would have the replays already. I don't know if it would be possible to have this in the editor. I only think this would be cool because I forget how to solve some levels especially more difficult ones and when there is a whole pack it's easy for me to forget the solutions on the harder levels.

[namida]

Unless you've turned it off, NeoLemmix does auto-save a replay whenever you successfully complete a level. This is a property of the game, not the editor.

When doing testplay mode from the editor, the replays will be saved in Replays -> Auto, with the level's title + the timestamp as the filename. When playing a level in NL, the replays will be saved in Replays -> [Pack name] -> Auto; the filename may either be the rank and level number + timestamp (if the level is in a group where the levels are specifically ordered), or the title + timestamp (if not).

If you have turned this off, or it just appears to not be happening, check the NeoLemmix options menu. (Note that while you CAN open the options menu at the preview / postview screens in test play mode, any changes only apply until you exit testplay mode. If you want to change it permamently, you need to launch NeoLemmix standalone, change it there, then exit.)

General advice: As soon as you make a single level, save a replay for it. Of course you aren't forced to do this, but it's a process that most (if not all) of the regular content creators follow, for good reason. Keep these replays somewhere safe - not inside your Replay folder where they are very prone to getting mixed up with other various replays, or possibly cleared out periodically. Personally, I keep my levels and their replays in a Git repo, but this could be a bit more advanced than some people feel comfortable with - just keeping a copy in a seperate folder (preferably one backed up to a cloud backup service, to reduce the risk of losing your levels if your PC dies) should be good enough for most.

[ericderkovits]

ok awesome when the level is to the point of being solved just to save hit 'U' to save the replay. it works in the editor. I think thats great will save me lots of time. thanks

[namida]

ok awesome when the level is to the point of being solved just to save hit 'U' to save the replay. it works in the editor. I think thats great will save me lots of time. thanks

You shouldn't even need to do that. When you complete the level (and reach the preview screen, with enough lemmings saved), a replay should save automatically.



Okay, so, played the rest of your Fun update.

Feedback

16 "Don't Do Anything Without Thinking" - Sorry, but this is a bad level. It's an example of the levels you might've heard referred to as "builderfests" - levels that basically come down to "hold back the crowd with some trivial means, then repeatedly do the same / very similar thing until you reach the exit (usually, but not always, building and/or platforming)". Think back to Taxing 14 "Hunt The Nessy" in the official game - boring level, right? This one might look different, but it's the same idea - just build, build, build.

17 "Not so easy when you don't know how" - This one is much better, though! However - while this is a pretty good level, it's far too hard for the position; I would suggest moving this to somewhere later in the pack. The other suggestion I'd have here is - most of the bottom is just waiting around. This could likely be cut down significantly - just a couple of traps then the exit, no teleporters needed. The key thing that tripped me up at first wasn't "go back through the teleporters", it was "don't open the exit too early" - and that still works without the teleporters. But yeah, overall - great level here!

18 "Let's block and disarm" - Another not so great one. It's pretty obvious what to do here, and there's a lot of waiting around once it's done.

19 "Provide for my Lemmings" - Another builderfest. Skipped. (Sorry - I've played through too many of these to bother sitting through more than one or two, at most, per pack.)

20 "The Eagle Has Landed" - This one, too, was really just "do the same obvious thing over and over", though at least it wasn't building this time.

21 "You Live With 1" - This one had far more variety, but still, it's just a matter of "whenever you get a pickup skill, use it right away", no real puzzle to speak of. This is fine right at the start of a pack; on the other hand, 20 levels in, things should be at least a little bit more complex than that.

22 "A feast of a level" - This is more interesting! I get the impression there's many ways to solve this one, and there's no immediately obvious "just do this" that jumps out, even though it's still a fairly easy level overall. This was another good one!

23 "T marks the spot" - Pssst, that's a reference to Taxing 17's name, not Fun 23's (which was originally "I've lost that lemming feeling"). Also, the screen start position needs adjusting here - the screen starts focused on the exit, not the entrance. That aside, the first half of the level is somewhat interesting, but the second half just feels like filler.

24 "SEGA Lemming san" - First - PLEASE move that entrance so that it's visible without having to wait for it to open first! If it really needs to be at that exact height for any reason that I'm not seeing - make the level taller so it fits. Also, the preplaced lemming seems to serve no purpose whatsoever - he's just there to let him die. The mass shimmier assignments at the start seem to just be filler, but except for that part, this is a VERY GOOD level - but this is also at least Taxing difficulty IMO, not Fun. It probably took me longer to figure this level out than the rest of Fun 16 - 30 combined, and in particular the way to release the crowd is a pretty advanced trick.

25 "Lemmings Lemmings Not Everywhere" - I majorly backrouted this (unless you intended for this to be an option), though it doesn't look like the intended way would have been particularly interesting either.

26 "Nightmare on WillLem Street" - And a very similar backroute actually works here, too.

27 "Don't have to be too careful" - While the underlying idea is alright (though not particularly amazing), there's a lot of issues IMO with the finer details on this one. For starters - why make the entrance face left? All that does is add half a minute of waiting time at the start. EDIT: Scratch that particular point; after taking another look, I see what the intended way here, and left-facing does make more sense for that. However, at the same time, for that route - move the entrance further to the left, or perhaps make the level narrower in general? Likewise, the idea works just as well with only 5 or 10 lemmings; having 30 just means more clicks needed to assign all the permanent skills / shimmiers (and it would be even worse if I had to assign the climbers too - but I found a solution that doesn't need them). But the biggest issue is that 1px gap on the right - on a large level like this, which will likely be played a bit more zoomed-out than usual, that gap is quite tricky to spot until a lemming walks into it. It's not hard to deal with because the player will almost certianly have a spare builder, but at the same time, it also wouldn't harm the level to make it slightly wider so it's noticable. Overall though, this is better than some of the other second-half-of-Fun levels here - it just could use some further improvement.

28 "If only they can survive" - Any level with hidden traps is a terrible level. Don't hide traps (or any other not-purely-decorative object) in terrain. Yes, it was a surprise twist when you encounter one for the first time in the official game. By the time you've played as many custom levels as most of us has, it's just blatantly annoying to run into one. On top of that, all there is to this level is "assign one disarmer to the first lemming". Even without the hidden trap aspect, this would still be a pretty boring and trivial level; except for the disarmer it solves itself.

29 "Worra Lorra Egyptians" - I suspect this wasn't the intended way to solve it, unless it's meant to be open-ended, but this one was a pretty decent level either way. Similar to 27 though, it would have been better off with fewer lemmings.

30 "Unlock your lemmings" - This one's also fairly decent, although again it could have done with fewer lemmings. In this case it does need more than 5 for sure, but 10 or 15 would have worked.

Overall - I think that what I said before still stands. You've got some work to do here, but you definitely have good potential too. And don't take this criticism too harshly - most of the highly-experienced level creators agree that creating good easy levels is actually really hard to do; it's much easier to create a good hard level, and in some ways I see that reflected here - most of your best levels are also the ones that are a bit hard for their position. This is certianly a very decent pack (so far) by the standards of people's typical first packs, especially if you've only ever played the original games and not looked at custom content much prior to this.

EDIT: I forgot to attach replays before. Fixed that now.

[ericderkovits]

Thx for the Input.
17 I changed the lemming count to just 10 lemmings-at least the level took me only 2 1/2 mins
20 I will remove 1 builder

Note: I didnt like that solution for 22 so
22 I put 2 steel blocks to the right of deadly flower so one can bash to the right. also made barrier left of exit steel so can't be bashed.
and
put a small single steel block on left left shimmy rod so if one shimmies to the right there he will fall before relanding near dog
23 I changed the name to Not such a Lemming feeling instead of T marks the spot.
yeah your right I moved the start position to show the entrance. also decrease lemming count to 10 so not as much lingering of lemmings.
24 I resized the level so now looks better- also removed that lemming at the right top that has no function- I just thought maybe newbies would think there was a way to save him.
25 and 26 put steel underneath so one could not get to buttom level by not intended routes.

Note: didnt like that solution either for 27 so put a steel barrier left of car so cant go right there.
27 decreased lemming count from 30 to 15
28 Yes ok, I will replace this level with an entire new one
29 added a few small steel spots so fencer can't fence in those spots to get to lower level early
30 decreased lemming count from 30 to 12




I know even experienced level makers have to keep updating backroutes(sometimes it takes players to tell the makers backroutes) so I appreciate this. I try my best but sometimes there is so much other things going on in the levels, sometimes the obvious is not so obvious

and I know even the lemmings games had some bad levels like you said (ie hunt the nessy, but since this is supposed to mimic those at least in a small way some levels like 16 are hard to get away from)
yes and your right FUN levels are not so easy, plus they tend to be boring. and of course I'm not a great artist either in making maps(my first time)

But I do really appreciate critisizm. thats how one becomes better at making levels.



Great thanks for your replays so I can see spots to fix

levels 22 25 26 27 29 hated your replays so see above fixes I made  for those levels and resend those level replays

level 25 and 26 I already figured those ones had major issues. again I made these kinda late so was tired. see above fixes for 25 and 26

your other level replays are good.

thx Namida. when I finish this pack Hopefully your do the same with my other ranks levels

[ericderkovits]

Hi here are my Fun and Tricky levels
still have to replace Fun 28 with a new level so Namida ignore that one.

Namida please Play these and send replays so I can fix the Tricky ones.

I fixed some issues in the Fun ranks

-Mod edit: Changelog in the post above.-

UPDATE: there was one missing music track please replace with this one


UPDATE: Replaced FUN level 22 with a new one as the original was Namida and Kahwyn thought it shouldn't be in the FUN rank

[ericderkovits]

Here is the replacement level for fun 28(If only they could survive). just overwrite the one that's there with this one.

[ericderkovits]

had changes in Tricky levels

Level 6 had to add a few spots of steel so miner couldn't mine to below area and removed 2 miners.

level 10 had to do minor terrain fixes and subtract 2 jumpers and lowered pickup stacker count from 8 to 4 to prevent a backroute.

level 11 had to add a bouncing ball trap in spot past high on wall so floater couldnt float down before platforming there. made
             it so he had to use swimmer and shimmier and use 2 more stackers (backroute fix).

level 25 made a backroute fix. removed 1 blocker and 1 platformer but added a walker. thus making save requirement 40 of 40 instead of 39. also just widened level a tad so right most edge of screen one can see the whole rightmost conveyor belts.

Please update to this one. thx

NOTE: to have correct music download old version which includes music (2 posts up then update the levels with this one)

[namida]

As I mentioned before - I strongly suggest making sure the original post of the topic has a download of the latest version - in full, not "add this to a previous version from a later post".

It's not a bad idea though to split this into two downloads - a music download, and an "everything else" download.

I've had another look at the levels, but so far haven't managed to solve the new version of Fun 22. It's definitely way too hard for Fun now (unless I'm overlooking something obvious, which to be fair, is very possible knowing me). Note that this doesn't in any way mean it's a bad level; just that it's too hard for its position in the level order. Keep it - just move it to later in the pack.

[ericderkovits]

really, I thought it was easy, I could make it feast of a levelII(mayhem) but it's too easy for that one. if You need a hint or replay let me know.

[kaywhyn]

Don't think too hard on this one. As a matter of fact, I found two different solutions for Fun 22, both of which aren't difficult. However, I do agree that it's difficult for its position, so consider moving it further down the rank.