Ramond streams lemforum, 2022-12

[Simon]

Ramond's list of episodes down here in this thread.

All video are preserved for 14 days on his main stream page:
https://www.twitch.tv/paramondox

-- Simon

[Simon]

Blocked by a Snowball, Climb to Freedom: Two snow levels, they look similar to each other on first sight, and they're immediate successors. Let's consider to separate them.

Beneath the Lab: Rank slightly higher. You can't do much, but it's a trick nonetheless.

Ferry Tale:
1. Rank at least into Quirky. Nontrivial, and invites wrong solutions. Quote Ramond: "What is this doing in the first rank?"
2. Fix the backroute where you cluster the lix and bat them with the landing floater. This saves 8/10. Can we do clearer than merely raising the save requirement to 9/10?

You'll Get Over It: The second-hardest in Lovely. Probably okay where it is.

Road Goes Ever On: First tree's branch doesn't catch falling lix, but only barely. Make it clearer.

One song (which? Will fish it from the 5 in-level tracks) sounds like it loops/restards wrongly in the beginning.

Can't Reach It: Uprank at least slightly.

Box Set: Ramond didn't attempt it near the end of the stream, felt out of energy, and this looked precise. It's not hard in theory, but it's fidgety to solve without insert-into-replay, and Lix doesn't support that yet. Candidate for slight upranking if we need another one.

-- Simon

[mobius]

nice! I didn't know Ramond was German. I don't have time to watch all of that now or maybe ever. Please let me know if any major issues are seen.

He solved "Slaughterhouse" in a sligthly unintended way... I might do something about that.

[Simon]

I've fixed the "trolling" tree branch in The Road Goes Ever On, and its repeats Any Way You Want and Just Stop the Bleeding.

The bug was: In The Road Goes Ever On, The first tree's branch didn't catch falling lix that went over that tree. The lix looked like they would land on that tree branch, but the lix fell by ever so barely.

Moved the branch further right by 4 pixels and up by 2 pixels, and z-ordered it into the background. Now, the branch catches the lix and you can build from it.

Earmarked for 0.10.2.

mobius, yep, Slaughterhouse is a slight backroute. I'll take any fix you send me.

So happy with all the Lix work these days. We had three singleplayer streams: darkshoxx's, mine, and now Ramond's. When I'm not busy at my day job or sleeping, I'm working on these long-standing Lix singleplayer issues that everybody exposed. Delightful.

-- Simon

[mobius]

thanks. Well I lied and ended up watching most of that, even if I can't understand most of what he's saying I've spotted some issues I'll post in the coming days.

Can't Reach It: I don't know why that level's so difficult.... it looks really simple; it *is* really simple once you solve it... yet it took me forever..

[Simon]

Can't Reach It

Yes, Can't Reach It hides things in clear sight. Nothing is unfair, but several skills are multi-purpose, and the purposes aren't classical.

From IRC earlier today:

15:04 <Ramond__> last stream i sat 30 mins on Snowjump and couldn't wrap my head around it before I moved on
15:04 <Ramond__> now I went into the level and 5 seconds in i try something new and it is the solution
15:04 <Ramond__> the brain works in mysterious ways

16:32 <Ramond__> and Watch Ye Step! in Cunning is definitely underranked
16:33 <Ramond__> while I didn't take much too long to figure it out, I was totally lost in the beginning and the solution is very clever, sort of hard to come up with it

-- Simon

[Ramon]

Oh nice, didn't realize you posted about my playthrough in here. Thanks, Simon!

I have had 3 on-stream Lix sessions so far, and I have also highlighted them now so they won't expire.

Episode 1: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1676239466 --- All of Lovely and Quirky, except Quirky 32 (Box Set)
Episode 2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1676239560 --- Quirky 32 (Box Set) and Cunning 1-12
Episode 3: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1676239662 --- Cunning 11 + Cunning 13-26
Episode 4: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1679143789 --- Cunning 27-40 + Daunting 1-6
Episode 5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1679986898 --- Daunting 7-24
Episode 6: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1682701909 --- Daunting 25-34
Episode 7: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1682702085 --- Daunting 35-40 + Daunting 18 (finally!) + Vicious 1-5
Episode 8: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1685074707 --- Vicious 6-21
Episode 9: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1698690404 --- Vicious 21-29
Episode 10: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1709098362 -- Vicious 23 + Vicious 30-40

I might just keep editing in the new episodes as they appear. Might take a while until the next episode.

The reason I didn't want to attempt Box Set is I remember the level layout thinking there were very precise skill placements to be made. But in hindsight I think I probably remembered the "hard" version of it, which will probably come later.

[mobius]

I agree on Watch Ye Step. I was surprised when it was initially place that early in the game.

Also while watching Ramon play this one I noticed the annoytance of not getting the miner right; did you know you can use the replay tweaker; (F4 by default) to change skill assignments; you can nudge them left/right etc. this is a lot faster and really handy!

----
also awesome music you got in your stream And I'm enjoying the streams; hope you're having fun with the pack!

[Ramon]

Just finished Episode 4: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1679143789 --- Cunning 27-40 + Daunting 1-6

The most obvious outlier to me was "Backslash", Daunting 5. It feels way too easy because there hardly is anything but the solution you can realistically attempt with the given skills anyway.
The second one is "Mice in the Pipeline", Cunning 38, which - while being a very cute level - is pretty simple to figure out and more an execution exercise than a brain teaser.

[mobius]

Just finished Episode 4: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1679143789 --- Cunning 27-40 + Daunting 1-6

The most obvious outlier to me was "Backslash", Daunting 5. It feels way too easy because there hardly is anything but the solution you can realistically attempt with the given skills anyway.
The second one is "Mice in the Pipeline", Cunning 38, which - while being a very cute level - is pretty simple to figure out and more an execution exercise than a brain teaser.

I agree I think Backslash is good but could be much better if the solution was hidden within a larger/more elaborate layout.

oh and btw: brilliant solution to Tick Toxic!
I recommend leaving that one in.

[Simon]

Thanks!

Mental Process: It's possible that your first attempts ran into airwalk, which I consider a bug but which has been forever in both Lix and Lemmings 1. Haven't come around to removing it so far.

outlier to me was "Backslash", Daunting 5. It feels way too easy because there hardly is anything but the solution you can realistically attempt with the given skills anyway.

I'd be happy downranking Backlash by, hmm, 0-50 levels. Yeah, the lack of red herrings helps.

"Mice in the Pipeline", Cunning 38, which - while being a very cute level - is pretty simple to figure out and more an execution exercise than a brain teaser.

With Mice, I'm not so sure.

Reason: (spoiler)

Right, as soon as you see that you must bat climbers, it's all execution; I've tried to remove everything from Mice other than spotting that you must bat climbers.

But how hard is it for a new player to realize that you must bat the climbers? I assume that the new player has played Lemmings 1, but knows no custom levels besides what came earlier in lemforum. In particular, let's assume he doesn't have your inclination to cluster and bat.

oh and btw: brilliant solution to Tick Toxic!
I recommend leaving that one in.

Happy to leave it in, even though it's moderately far from the proof replay. If you want to find a different solution: Solve it with the proviso that the batter may hit at most half of the total lix in the level.

-- Simon

[Ramon]

Episode 5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1679986898 --- Daunting 7-24

Did not solve mobius' "Lixes in Motion" (Daunting 18), will attempt it again next stream!

Most levels here feel good with their position in the pack. I don't think I had anything special or out of place happen this session.

[mobius]

do you keep records or playlist of the music you used in your stream? In particular I'm curious about the second song that played; during Variety Day.

I just now noticed the marquee under the video!

[mobius]

Re: Lixes in Motion.

Let me know if you want hints.

Back then I didn't expect people to find this level this puzzling!

[Ramon]

Episode 6: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1682701909 --- Daunting 25-34
Episode 7: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1682702085 --- Daunting 35-40 + Daunting 18 (finally!) + Vicious 1-5

Yeah I finally had an epiphany and did it! Thanks for the offer though. It is easy to get on the wrong track and lose your thought process within.
Of these levels, there was just one I think felt out of place (too simple), which was Vicious 4 (Low Profile).