Kieran's Abandoned Zone (v3)

[kieranmillar]

Sometime in the 4 year gap when Quest From Kieran was abandoned before I came back and finished it, I had apparently started another pack with more of a focus on Neolemmix features like new skills and styles, talismans, and taller levels rather than the purely vanilla affair of QFK. I found these levels earlier today, and so have transferred them over to Neolemmix v12.12.5 and released them now as a tiny pack, because I feel certain that I will never come back and turn these into a full pack.

The levels all use Lemmings 2 styles and music from Jazz Jackrabbit. There are 9 of these levels, that I've ordered into what I think is the proper difficulty order. The levels are much easier than QFK, at least at first, with spare skills and excess save requirements. Perhaps this was a rebellion against my own usual very hard and specific level design, I feel like the first 5 levels are a fine difficulty for most people here, nothing too challenging, with the latter half being the usual Kieran Millar fare.

As a bonus, there is a 10th level at the end of the rank that will look familiar to QFK players, yes, it's another one of those levels, this is one I had replaced with an alternative before anyone else got to see it. Looking back at it, I think it got replaced for either being too precise (sorry in advance) or maybe not distinct enough in its solution from some of the other levels that made it, but well, for whatever reason I replaced it you get to see it now for the first time, another hard QFK level. It also has a unique music track by the same author as the music used in QFK, yes, another distinct variation of this same music piece, he made a lot of these.

I've decided to provide the official solution replays in advance, as I have abandoned these levels and am not interested in making backroute fixes.

Here is some of my own commentary on each level looking back after all this time. Not spoilery but if you want to avoid spoilers at all costs maybe don't read this anyway

Spoiler

• Letting You Down Gently - It's fine? Very straightforward in my opinion and just the most basic way to use these skills, I dunno, clearly my attempt at designing for beginners, and that's fine.
• Low Tide - Alright this level is dumb trash and in a full pack I'd have probably replaced it.
• Stepping Stones - I think this really demonstrates how nice it is to have talismans available, for making nice simple levels a bit more challenging, which I think is good for my content that's usually too hard. A simple but fun level I really like.
• Abseiling - For some reason I feel like this is the first of these levels I made but can barely remember so I might be wrong. But to me it's clear where this level took very hard turn away from the design I'd been doing in the QFK series. A great level.
• Tartan Stack - Eh, it's fine.
• Climbing the Castle - OK, this level right here? A certified Kieran Millar Classic™. Just a really really good level in my opinion.
• Roofer Madness - I really like how the solution that is most obvious to me, that does not get the talisman, plays very differently to the talisman solution in some key ways. Another reason why the talisman feature is great.
• Sink Holes - Bleh. Probably riddled with backroutes, and honestly I don't care if it is. Only OK.
• Final Resting Place - Now this one is a chef's kiss and I really really hope it isn't filled with backroutes. I think this one is phenomenal, just a brilliant level all around. Quite challenging if you don't break it for sure.
• The Ultimate Quest, Take 5 - Yes, I made 5 of these damn levels. Nothing to add I didn't say in the above section outside of this spoiler. I had to update it with various tweaks I made to the landscape for backroute fixes for the QFK levels, but fortunately they didn't change the solution here.

How to Install

Extract the contents of the zip file into Neolemmix's levels folder. Then inside Neolemmix, press F2 to select the level pack you wish to play. If you want the music, extract the files into Neolemmix's music folder, keeping them inside the KAZ folder rather than the music folder root.

[kieranmillar]

Well isn't that typical. After I posted this I suddenly had a thought that Climbing the Castle had a backroute, and yep, there it was. Well I thought it would be a shame if this was left in a broken state forever so soon after posting it, so I made a change. I then checked the other levels, and made changes to Letting You Down Gently and Final Resting Place too. I've uploaded a v2 of the pack and solutions to the original post. Sorry about that!

[kaywhyn]

Hi Kieran,

I have solved all of the levels in this small collection. My replays are attached.

General Feedback

As stated in the OP, Kieran started work on another level pack while being on and off about the QFK pack. Until now, these levels have never been seen by anyone other than Kieran. Honestly, in my experiences I found a lot of these just as hard as the levels in his QFK pack, though I admit some of these I was a really big dumb dumb. For example, NGL, I was actually stuck on the first level for a good half hour or so, and I even thought it was impossible and was wondering how in the world is it possible, after I have officially ran Kieran's official solution for the level through the MRC and it reported as "passed." Turns out I was very dumb and overlooked one critical thing (more details later). Even then, it was also nice to see some of the levels which likely won't ever be put into an official level pack.

Abandoned Rank Feedback

As I recently finished my LP of QFK, I thought I take a look at these rejected levels that were slated for the next level pack that Kieran was making, especially since it's just 10 levels and hence I thought it wouldn't take too long. Turns out to be very wrong, as there were three levels in here that took me quite a while before I solved it. These were Abandoned 1, Abandoned 4, and Abandoned 6. Abandoned 10 also took a while only because of the solution being very precise even though I've realized it very quickly. It probably wasn't a very good idea that I went through this small collection pretty late at night, when I wasn't really at my sharpest

Abandoned 1 - Letting You Down Gently As previously mentioned, I was a huge dumb dumb on this level and eventually thought how in the world is this possible after I ran your solution through the MRC, until I finally realized the key thing I was missing In actuality, it's a very easy level indeed.

Spoiler

The thing I was very confused about is how in the world can they get to the exit if you have to platform to the left and then fence up to the crowd, as because the platformer seals off the gap completely there's no way out. Then, after a very long time, I realized that the floater is supposed to go through the top and float down to the bottom again after that so that he can fence away the platformer bridge and hence allow them to reach the exit. Ugh, I can't believe that went over my head.

Abandoned 2 - Low Tide Not much to say here other than my solution is probably a bit more complicated than the intended one. This one still isn't easy to figure out despite it just being a 2-lemming level.

Abandoned 3 - Stepping Stones Another easy one, and even the talisman solution isn't that much harder

Abandoned 4 - Abseiling Another one I was a huge dumb dumb on, though at the same time it is a hard level, and there's some red herrings here that look like they could work but don't. Nice solution, though!

Spoiler

For some reason, it took me a while to realize that I could platform from both sides with the first gap at the top, where one goes to the right and then another goes to the left a level lower. This would allow the crowd a way out and be able to get down.

Before I found a working solution, I thought to use the dart to bash and then platform and stack to release the crowd with bashing, but turns out you'll be a platformer short this way. Nice!

Abandoned 5 - Tartan Stack Nice medium difficulty level here, though the timing here can be a bit tight, especially as the main challenge is due to how you can only lose 1 after using all cloners.

Abandoned 6 - Climbing the Castle One of the hardest levels in this collection, though I overcomplicated the solution with some very precise skill assignments and timing.

Spoiler

I've learned something new here with the bombing to stop a miner so that he can go the other way and it'll still be possible to platform up the gap and step up. Normally, you would need to interrupt midstroke to be able to platform.

Nice to see that the falling from above to bomb the stack away to release the crowd is intended!

Abandoned 7 - Roofer Madness Nice fun one to figure out. The talisman solution is somewhat challenging, but it luckily isn't too difficult.

Abandoned 8 - Sink Holes Yea, seems quite backroutable

Abandoned 9 - Final Resting Place Backrouted as well, and I've seen the intended solution which is definitely far more impressive than my solution.

Abandoned 10 - The Ultimate Quest, Take 5 Yea, this one is somewhat harder due to the precision needed, though I pretty much had the solution figured out after about 5 mins or so.

Spoiler

I actually tried doing the building in a way so that the climber doesn't turn back but I couldn't get it to work. After watching your solution, turns out that it's very precise and seems that you cannot stretch the bridges at all, which was why it didn't work. I eventually abandoned this and found a very precise digger placement to stop the climber from going back out to the left. The rest of my solution is pretty much the same except I built over the exit and used the steel to bash and make a hole to stop the climber going out the wrong way.

Overall, these levels were still somewhat an enjoyable challenge, even with some still in a backroutable state. Thanks for releasing these!        

[kieranmillar]

Thanks for playing kaywhyn, your demos and feedback are fun to watch and read as always. I appreciate them.

My comments on your solutions:

Spoiler

• Abandoned 2 - Low Tide : I think this level is stupid so whatever. Your solution is fine.
• Abandoned 3 - Stepping Stones : LOL, just jumping up to the last crowd from the exit, of course, it's so simple, and of course you can just cancel miners with jumpers. Yeah, some silly oversights in my design from not being used to these skills. If I wanted to fix these its doable, but would have to rework some parts of the level. Not majorly.
• Abandoned 6 - Climbing the Castle : While not totally intended I'm happy with your solution, it hits all the main points. Glad you didn't break the major idea which is bombing out the crowd with the falling climber.
• Abandoned 7 - Roofer Madness : Nice idea of freeing a blocker with a digger falling out the trapdoor as a way to delay. It's heavier on diggers than my solution so if I cared to make it more like mine I could restrict the spare skills, but I don't feel any need to do so, as I like your solution.
• Abandoned 8 - Sink Holes : Yeah, just loads of ways to cause havoc with the intended solution by saving builders, the two traps at the bottom are very expensive in the intended solution but there's no need for it, this one would need some revamping of the bottom section, which I'm just not going to do.
• Abandoned 9 - Final Resting Place : If any level would cause me to make an update just to fix backroutes it would be this one. I could steel up some areas a bit more. I dunno, maybe I will.
• Abandoned 10 - The Ultimate Quest, Take 5 : The main thing for me to change here if I wanted to do so would be a terrain change to make not having the builder turn around not be pixel perfect, but making the layout different to the other levels ruins the main gimmick. Also I think there may have been a reason not to do that thinking about it now, something to do with the height of the ceiling and the heights of the icicle holes to make other things work, maybe. You've reminded me this area was a problem, maybe that was why I swapped this one for another in QFK after all.

[kieranmillar]

After watching kaywhyn's solutions again on his youtube channel, I figured I really did want to have a stab at fixing Final Resting Place after all, so I uploaded a v3. The tweaks also necessitated a new official solution, so that's uploaded too. While at it, I spotted that in Abseiling the exit terrain was off by 1 pixel which looks like a clear mistake by past me so I tweaked it, but this doesn't impact solutions.

Welcome to Kieran's Increasingly Less Abandoned Zone.

[kaywhyn]

@kieran

As I recently solved Final Resting Place for LOTY2023, I finally got around to resolving your updated Abandoned 9 level Replay collection with the new Abandoned 9 replay attached. Slightly different from your solution but I think closer than it was in the previous version.