The Blizzard of Lemm level pack

[jkapp76]

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZsLaNVZ2AeNSdhd8qBO30cmQyN3SVzPRdfy

This is a level pack I put together in 2015 for Super Lemmini, updated for NeoLemmix/SLX.
This is 65 levels of Snow/xmas themed levels in four ranks made by members of the Lemmings community
long ago. I originally wanted to make this because I created the santa suit lemming animations for Super
Lemmini and wanted a level pack to come out at the same time.

Lots of thanks to Kaywhyn for converting the Super Lemmini pack so I could get this all working.

Update: I added a music file if the one included doesn't work.

[jkapp76]

Updated this pack to 1.3 today.

Found 7 levels that had issues, mostly traps missing the lemming.
It's been 8 years since I've played these and a couple have taken me a bit of time to remember how to win.

It now requires the Style willlem_xmas to play. This makes the traps art match the red suits.

*Updated to 1.4 One more trap was not connecting with the lemming

[messedupface]

Thanks for this, I am no expert & this is about my level.

I've attached my replays. I await an expert to show me how to complete the 3 levels I am short

[jkapp76]

The last time I played those levels was in 2015 using superlemmini. (Other than some quick tests after conversion)
Your snow palace solution was very good.

I couldn't figure these out quickly, that's for sure. I believe Kaywhyn has beaten all of these levels somewhat recently. I can't remember if he played this on superlemmini or Neolemmix though.

The levels are:
Drift 2, Hit the Slopes
Drift 4, Icy Tombs
and Whiteout 7, Center of attention

Your Whiteout 4 solution was somewhat backrouted, the steam trap failed to hit the lemmings. I fixed and attached the updated level here. Your same method should work It'll just need the blocker repositioned.

[kaywhyn]

I couldn't figure these out quickly, that's for sure. I believe Kaywhyn has beaten all of these levels somewhat recently. I can't remember if he played this on superlemmini or Neolemmix though.

I played the pack on SuperLemmini a very long time ago. I unfortunately don't have any replays, but I know I have verified that they're all solvable except for "The Snow Palace" on that engine. If you go the natural way of building to get over the top near the exit, you run out of time before you even get up there. However, if an extra minute is added so that the time limit is 11 minutes, then it's solvable, though it really comes down to the wire on time. That appears to be the change you made for the NL version, as I think that was what I saw from a quick skim of the pack when I downloaded it for NL. I believe that was around the time I PMed you asking if the level is possible under the 10 minute timer from a few years back.

@messedupface

I have not played the NL version of the pack yet, and I have plans to eventually do so, but I know that all levels are possible from the time I played the pack on SuperLemmini several years ago. I don't have any replays for the levels on that engine, but I can get a solving replay for the three levels that you weren't able to solve. From what I recall, these levels don't need any fancy tricks or anything (none of the pack does IIRC), especially given that this is a classic 8 skills only pack and that many of these levels are ones others have made and that Jeremy simply collected them and made any changes he thought necessary to make his own pack.

[jkapp76]

Blizzard of Lemm was a collection of snow levels that were considered old back in 2014. They all needed modded because superlemmini made a change and lems walked over the exit and not into it.

The community placed all these old levels into zips and put them online to preserve them. I took out the snow levels for the pack and updated them to work with the new superlemmini... because the xmas suits were coming out soon.

These are old levels. I wish I would have saved the whole archive now, snow and classics. They probably disappeared with the old geocities or something.

[Armani]

@messedupface
Here are the working replays for the leftover 3 levels.
So I guess every level is proven to be solvable now

[messedupface]

Thanks for all the replies & replays guys, it's really appreciated

Whiteout 4 attached, hopefully not backrouted

[kaywhyn]

@messedupface
Here are the working replays for the leftover 3 levels.
So I guess every level is proven to be solvable now

They were always possible. I didn't save any replays back when I played this pack on SuperLemmini all those years ago because on that engine there's no option to auto-save solving replays, meaning the user would have to remember to save a replay each time.

[sift]

hi Jeremy. the music files for this pack do not play because the included music.nxmi file instructs neolemmix to search in music/Blizzlem for them, whereas the files are loose in the music folder after being extracted.

[jkapp76]

Sorry about this. I must have forgot to update the pack. Here's the correct music file from my game.

[kaywhyn]

@Jeremy

I know it's not the place for it, since it's for SuperLemmini, not NeoLemmix, but let's keep everything about the pack in one place, so might as well be here

So, I finally managed to get Whiteout 13 - The Snow Palace solved last night. Replay attached but if you don't have SuperLemmini set up on your machine, I do have a video solution posted:

https://youtu.be/Sx4kASx7qTE

So, it is possible under the 10-minute time limit after all and hence I have finally proved myself wrong from this post:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=1793.msg92128#msg92128

I have checked on NeoLemmix and my SuperLemmini solution will NOT work, as it seems you would need one more digger in order to get through the second-to-last obstacle. It would appear then that this simply due to how Lemmings on SuperLemmini can walk further into walls before turning around than they can on NeoLemmix and would therefore explain the difference in digger mechanics on the engine vs NeoLemmix. I don't think it has anything to do with the digger pits being wider on one than the other.

Even if you did have an additional digger, I think you would unfortunately be a few builders short, especially as what I do at the start needs more than 2 builders. However, since you said you don't remember what you originally intended for the level, let's just keep the current increase to 11 minutes for the time limit as the only change you made for NeoLemmix

[jkapp76]

Good job!

It's cool to see people still kicking this ancient compilation pack around.

[kaywhyn]

Hi jkapp76,

I solved all of the levels of this pack and so I just wanted to attach my replays! These were all done in v12.14.

Also, link to my LP:

Kaywhyn's LP of The Blizzard of Lemm (New Formats NL) Enjoy!

General Feedback

The Blizzard of Lemm is a compilation pack by jkapp76 originally for SuperLemmini when he made the Holiday Lemming sprites. As mentioned in the OP, with my assistance I took the SuperLemmini level files, mass converted them to .lvl files, and then cleansed them in a really old New Formats NL player in order to get the levels into an up-to-date NL format to send them all to jkapp76 for him to put this NL pack together The levels in this pack are the same ones as in the SuperLemmini version, though in an update jkapp76 needed to fix a few misplaced trap trigger areas on some levels. They're all Snow levels that jkapp76 collected from the Lemmings Level Database.

Many years ago (can't remember when, maybe 2017 or so since that's when I started using SuperLemmini), I played the SuperLemmini version of the pack and was able to solve all of the levels except for Whiteout 13 - The Snow Palace. I thought there was a mistake with the time limit or level, since there's not enough time of taking the normal route of building up and over at the very end. Then I believe in 2020, I PMed jkapp76 asking if he knows the level is solvable, for which I was told that it wasn't certain since there probably wasn't enough testing and/or he couldn't remember what was intended there. So, it seems that it was impossible the way it is but that it would be possible if the time limit is 11 minutes instead of 10. It would still cut it very close on time but the normal route described would be possible.

I finally had a breakthrough last year when I was able to solve the level on SuperLemmini and therefore prove myself wrong on the level being impossible! Video of my SuperLemmini solution posted here:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6294.msg101337#msg101337

Not sure why I didn't think about this unorthodox solution much sooner. It cuts it very close on the time, but it doesn't matter on the one or two that don't make it to the exit on time since you would save more than enough at that point.

Much later, I checked on Lemmix/Dos and NL and the SuperLemmini solution I found last year works on the former two but doesn't work on the latter, apparently due to the NL digger mechanics working differently than on Lemmix/Dos/SuperLemmini. Similarly, there were some builder issues in the starting area that you would need to use more than two builders and the head check for builders before hitting their head and stopping seems to be much stricter on NL than on Lemmix/Dos/SuperLemmini. As a result, for the purposes of my LP, I decided to make minor edits to Whiteout 13 so that the SuperLemmini solution works under the original 10-minute time limit. I also found out recently that this level is by Dragonslover, and so it's them I would need to ask what's intended, but this looks to me to be intended, since without the time limit or if it's high enough like with the 11-minute time limit change jkapp76 made before I modified it and changed it back to 10 minutes, one can just build up and over at the very end while sparing all those digger skills.

I've attached the modified Whiteout 13 level. The most notable change here is an additional digger and builder provided so that you now have 51 builders and 11 diggers. The extra digger is simply to be able to get through the area at the very end because the original skillset of 10 diggers isn't sufficient. There are also minor edits to the terrain at the start and near the very end so that the number of builders used in my SuperLemmini solution is the same.

Now that I've played through these levels again after so long, I definitely remember this being a great pack I also recognize some of these levels from some of the Dos packs I used to play on Custlemm or Revenge of the Lemmings packs. However, a lot of these levels are easier than I remembered. I guess the differences between the SuperLemmini and NL engine really shows here, as I definitely remember a lot of frustration on the former due to no skill shadows or rewinding in case of slip-ups which might explain why these levels all felt easier than they should be on NL. In particular, I think I remember spending way more time on both the Drift and Whiteout ranks on SuperLemmini back in the days.

That being said, there were still some difficult nuts to crack here. IMO, I found Snowfall 3, Snowfall 6, Snowfall 7, Snowfall 8, Drift 2, Drift 8, Drift 12, Drift 13, Drift 14, Whiteout 7, and Whiteout 15 to be the hardest levels of the pack.

Sleet 12, Drift 4, Drift 15, and Whiteout 11 I remember being far harder than they should be. In the case of Sleet 12, jkapp76 told me he modified the skillset and this therefore explains why it's easier than I remembered. Indeed, I checked on Mobilems and this level is in the final rank and I showed him my Lemmini solution. So, in an update we can change the skillset to 6 builders.   

For Drift 4, I checked my Revenge of the Lemmings LP and there is an additional icicle trap on the left side, while it's absent here and also the SuperLemmini version. No wonder it felt easier this time! According to this post here https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4582.msg94410#msg94410, it seems the original never had an icicle trap and therefore was added for the New Formats RotL pack. Plus if jkapp76 got this from the Lemmings Level Database then yea, Yawg's level was just left the way it was. So, no change needed, especially as I don't think anyone knows what Yawg intended here. However, in RotL it's definitely an appropriate spot in the final rank of Armageddon, especially if Armani thinks trying for one of the other exits is harder than the other!

For Drift 15, I first played this on Dos back in the days and oh boy was it frustrating! Due to no directional select, the bashing was the most difficult. Not only that, the time limit is your biggest enemy, as the solution itself isn't hard to find. Because NL has directional select and you can assign skills while paused, it's not as frustrating, but it's still a hard level because of the time limit.

Whiteout 11 is a similar story, as I too first played it on Dos and I remember it being really difficult and frustrating. Even moreso because of the 1-pixel ledges and hence getting the skill assignments to happen on them on Dos is way less forgiving. I think I also remember the time limit being a huge problem too even though it looks generous. Finally, because of the Spanish level title, it would seem to point that it's either Fernando or maybe Juanito Juanjo. I can't remember who it's by, but the Spanish level title is the biggest hint here for the author.

Finally, jkapp76 gave me his blessing to allow me to do with the pack as I please. However, I've decided that I'll leave jkapp's NL version the way it is and have him just use my modified version of Whiteout 13 in the next pack update. Instead, if I ever do decide to do something with the pack in the future (and I probably will), perhaps I'll just post a new pack, especially if I end up adding new levels, and to find as many of the authors to these levels as I can. In particular, I'm thinking of simply expanding the total number of levels in each rank to 20 so that it's an 80-level pack. The pack will still retain its theme of all Snow/Holiday levels, meaning this would require me to find 15 additional Snow levels. Then of course there's the matter of reordering the levels to make the difficulty curve better. I think this is a pretty good plan, but again, I may or may not end up doing this. We'll see, so stay tuned and keep an eye out for any possible updates!

In any case, thanks jkapp76 for this level pack and for giving me permission to update the pack if I want to in the future Now, off to go through the SuperLemmini version of the pack again and get solving replays for them to upload to my channel, as I didn't save any from back in the days!

[jkapp76]

Great job on the replays and the LP!

I updated the download. It has the same version number, but the updated 313 level is now included. The download link is the same, I just updated the ZIP in the cloud.