All You Need Is Lemmings [Difficulty: Medium-Hard]

[NieSch]

No one you can save that can't be saved...



All You Need Is Lemmings

- For NeoLemmix v12.12 (or higher)
- 22 levels (no ranks) and 5 gold talismans for extra challenges
- Styles and music: Lemmings 2, original and SMS
- Difficulty: medium - hard


Beachcombing/Season's Greetings


Splash or Splat


Snakes & Lemmings


Wee Walk in Winter Wonderland

Thanks to everyone who played the (contest) levels that I released earlier.

Enjoy!

Latest update: April 8th, 2024:

[Armani]

Here're my solutions to first half of the pack.

Absolutely love your sense of art. I can see you put in a lot of effort into details to make levels look beautiful Especially I like the looks and the concept of level2.
Nothing feels too off but I found two different solution to level5 and both of them have some leftover skills. You might want to check them.

[NieSch]

Thanks for the kind compliment and the replays, Armani!

Your solutions to level 5 (your first solution) and level 6 are the backroutes that I tried to fix for now in a V1.1 V1.2. See the first post. I´ll soon make some more small updates.

Edit: I also fixed your backroute solutions to levels 3 and 10 in the latest update V1.2

[Armani]

I resolved all the updated levels + second half of the pack!
I smelled some backroutes here

[NieSch]

Thanks a lot!

Backroute fixing was easy. Most of your solutions are intended or otherwise perfectly fine. I only fixed two levels for V1.3 V1.4

- Level 10, your solutions 1 and 2 (2 is still fine, the intended solution is easier I think) Edit: I changed my mind and increased the RR to 80.
- Level 19, I removed the red pillar piece here (and I also removed the gold talisman since this also affects kaywhyn's "no shimmiers" solution):


The L-Team (Part II)

[NieSch]

Added to the first post is an attachment with intended solutions for the pack.

Edit: I updated the solutions zip file. Snakes & Lemmings didn't work in the previous file.

[kaywhyn]

Hi Niesch,

Took a while, but as promised I finally got around to going through this pack of yours and possibly spot some backroutes, and I have solved all the new non-contest levels that I haven't played before. My replays are attached. Other than one of the new levels, I don't think any of these are backroutes, but I'm almost never certain of it. The contest levels should all be good, especially as I've played all of them during the playing phase of the LDC's where they came from and was told my solutions are fine. The only ones that need to be checked are the 3 I needed to resolve (see below).

General Feedback

All You Need Is Lemmings is Niesch's third level pack, after Yippee! More Lemmings and Long Live Lemmings. While LLL only had levels featuring the slider, one of the two final skills added to NL, this latest pack also features the laser levels and hence features all 21 NL skills. However, unlike the previous two level packs, which featured 4 ranks that had the exact same names as L1's, this pack has no ranks and instead is 22 levels in the order defined by the levels.nxmi file in the pack's folder. I think before they might had been arranged by alphabetical order, but there's a defined order now.

Some of the levels are new, but some are contest levels of Niesch's, most of which are quite recent and which I have already played and solved in their respective LDC playing phases. The only one that isn't recent and is from several LDC's ago is "Aerial Antics." This and "Let's Go For Gold" and "The L-Team (Part II) were the ones I needed to resolve.

I was asked by Niesch if I wanted to pre-test the pack, which I agreed to, but the pack ended up being released before I could play more than just "A Silly Place Called Lemlot," which was originally the first level of the pack, when they were just in ABC order. I wasn't completely in a Lemmings playing mood heavily at the time and hence why it took me a while to get around to playing through these levels. If Niesch plans to release more packs in the future, I be more than happy to do pre-testing if he approaches and asks me again, and hopefully I'll be able to do so

Out of the new levels, I officially declare "Who Wants to Be A Pioneer?" my favorite and the best one of the pack which most certainly earns my nomination for LOTY2023! The close second for my favorite would be "A Silly Place Called Lemlot." Both are quite difficult levels IMO, but they're excellent. Well done on these!

Feedback on the new levels

1 - Up for a Challenge? Nice medium-ish level to start off the pack. I got the talisman without seeing what it was first, as in a way I mostly still internalize going for a save all whenever possible. This has gotten me into trouble with some levels where you're allowed some losses, but it's not too hard to achieve on this level.

2 - Crazy Golf A bit harder than the previous level but still nothing very hard. The main difficulty comes from how the skillset is much more restricted and therefore is less open-ended than the first level. I really love the design here, especially with the numbered holes. Also nice ring in the middle level area.

3 - Beachcombing I actually had to come back to this one, because I was stumped. I couldn't figure out how to make a path for the other lemming after we collected the builder pickup. Turns out that I went for the wrong one and instead didn't realize there's another one on the far left. I think you're already aware, but most in the NL community will tell you to make the builder pickups visible rather than make them hidden in the terrain. The biggest clue that there's a hidden builder pickup is how you start with none in the skillset. Also, it should be obvious that I played the level without ever activating CPM, which explains why I was stuck here far longer than I needed to be

4 - Full Moon and Busy Paws Looks difficult due to the very restricted skillset, but yay for tunneling underneath as much as possible to get through plenty of the obstacles

5 - Just Keep on Digging I don't know if this is a bad backroute or if it's still an acceptable solution. Save all FTW

6 - Giant Leaps for Lemkind Nice open-ended medium-hard level. There were a few things I tried before I successfully found a way to get lemmings to the upper right corner. The rest of the solution kind of fell into place after that.

8 - Season's Greetings Nice somewhat easy level. Another one where I really like the design, especially with the pre-placed blockers being the Christmas ornaments on the tree.

9 - Please Keep Your Distance Nice level. The hardest part here was figuring out how to release the crowd. I have a swimmer and climber left, but my solution still finishes under 1 minute. Sounds like my solution isn't anywhere as tight on time as Armani's, so it sounds like he might had overcomplicated it a bit.

10 - A Silly Place Called Lemlot Ok, I was stuck here when this was originally the first level of the pack and when I agreed to do some pre-testing. Even though I was unsuccessful, it was most definitely way too hard for its position, so it's good to see that it has moved to about the halfway point of the pack. When I finally did get this solved last night, I must say this is an excellent level! If it's intended, I especially love the stacking and lasering it and the castle pillar simultaneously to delay them to give the platformer enough time to reach the other side. Very clever! In my first solution, I originally used all the skills, though one of the stackers was simply used to turn everyone back towards the exit when they bounced off the blocker near the exit. The replay I attached spares the stacker, as apparently the laser is quick enough to free the blocker before anyone can turn around and hence would drown if they did.

12 - Who Wants to Be a Pioneer? The best level of the entire pack IMO! Very hard level, especially as there's so many possibilities here and appealing distracting red herrings that look like they can work but they don't. For example, I kept thinking to use two lasers to avoid the first rope trap, but then I wouldn't have enough to stop a shimmier near the exit AND to access the exit later. The lightbulb moment for me was to platform twice from the laser tunnel to get the others to the exit later. What's especially clever is that the laser makes a tunnel near the ceiling to turn a shimmier around to do it. This allows the others to avoid the trap by going underneath it and through the laser tunnel when the crowd is released. The rest of the solution came somewhat more easily after that. The turnaround for a shimmier with a laser is used again near the exit. The next hardest part for me was figuring out how to turn someone around to make a splatform for the others near the exit. It wasn't easy to figure out how to do. Also you need to realize that the shimmier who makes a path to the exit with the laser cannot be a glider. This was also hard to figure out, how to get a lemming into position to make the exit accessible. I originally thought the shimmier needed to go to the very far right area and then laser at a spot so that the climber is able to climb up the pillar and get into tunnel, but then you would need to assign the glider at the right time, and that wouldn't work, since one of the other athletes is a climber and therefore would die to the needles trap. There's a lot of things that can catch you off-guard here and a lot to think about, therefore making for a really hard level. As mentioned before, this is one of my absolute favorites!

13 - Strictly No Swimming Another deceivingly difficult level despite there being only two lemmings. Once again, most here will tell you to make the traps visible, especially as I got taken by complete surprise by both the weasel and evil eyes trap. I think I can understand why they're hidden since the tree looks better this way, but even then hidden traps are pretty much frowned on by the NL community. If my solution is intended, the stacker is very pixel precise. It was very hard to figure out how to get the swimmer pickup while being able to have the skills necessary to solve the level. I originally tried stacking with the first lemming, therefore I can get the swimmer for the second lemming who does slip by the stack. However, this wouldn't solve the level, as then I would need to invest a destructive skill for the stack but then there would be no way to get him to the far right side of the level due to the grass vine trap because I already used the jumper for the first lemming to reach and avoid it. Also, I incorrectly kept thinking to platform up the water gap. Eventually it dawned on me that the level would be solved if I can laser from the far right and then the other lemming fences up to the laser tunnel and therefore stops and can exit. Then I realized the platformer goes near the start and so the remaining problem left was delaying the second lemming long enough for the pickup to be collected and he gets assigned the swimmer skill before he drowns completely. A pretty nice puzzle, just ruined by the use of hidden traps which caused me to not like the level as much as I should. Once again, it should be obvious that I played the level without activating CPM, so really I brought the surprises onto myself

14 - Have a Blast Not too difficult, just can be hard to wrap one's head around. Some of my earlier attempts had me a jumper short for the lemmings that climb to reach the top of the level, but that's because I originally thought to make 5 jump to reach the exit in the middle. Then I later realized oh wait, I can just have lemmings glide to reach it from the left side instead, therefore resolving the problem of being a jumper short. I let the lemming who pushes the button close to the middle exit splat, but even if I did save him with a jumper I still would save the requirement exactly. Ok level, just the type that happens to be one where you need to repeatedly assign the same skill to a lot of lemmings, which I tend to not be a fan of. Just a personal dislike of mine is all    

Great pack and just like the previous two, I can definitely recommend this!  

[NieSch]

Thanks a lot for your replays and feedback kaywhyn!

You found two solutions that I consider backroutes. I updated these levels in V2.0:

Spoiler

Level 5. This area is wider now.



Level 9. I changed the white bars here so that you can't move a level lower without using a swimmer like you did.

I also added a "thanks to Armani and kaywhyn for finding backroutes" credit and updated the solutions file.

[kaywhyn]

Resolved levels 5 and 9. The former looks a bit closer to intended but still a bit backroutey, while I'm very confused by the change for the latter, as I can still do the exact same solution as before, I just needed to tweak my previous replay a bit so that it works.

Looks like you were right with me helping to find backroutes and I therefore would had been quite helpful with actual pre-testing

Thanks for the credit, Niesch!

[NieSch]

Fixed! Level 5: spike trap added. Level 9: 1 pixel more between the white bars so that you can't do that clever trick of yours.


Just Keep on Digging

[kaywhyn]

More resolves. Level 5 should be 100% intended now, as I now use all skills and I do what the level title says now with the digging. Great level! Level 9 seems a bit hackish though is probably acceptable, particularly since I now use all skills except for one bomber, which was the sacrifice I was allowed. Also no one denies me the "clever trick" I used the previous two times

[NieSch]

Level 5 is intended, well done! Level 9 is not intended but I would never think of a solution like that so I think my intended solution is easier to find. In other words: perfectly fine solution, no backroute, you can keep your clever trick.

Out of the new levels, I officially declare "Who Wants to Be A Pioneer?" my favorite and the best one of the pack which most certainly earns my nomination for LOTY2023! The close second for my favorite would be "A Silly Place Called Lemlot." Both are quite difficult levels IMO, but they're excellent. Well done on these!

Thanks for this! I'm afraid you can't nominate "Who Wants to Be A Pioneer?" for LOTY2023 because I released it some years earlier in the random level sharing topic. No problem of course, I'm glad you like the level.

[kaywhyn]

Level 5 is intended, well done! Level 9 is not intended but I would never think of a solution like that so I think my intended solution is easier to find. In other words: perfectly fine solution, no backroute, you can keep your clever trick.

Good to hear, I'll make sure to check your solutions to the ones I'm curious about then.

Thanks for this! I'm afraid you can't nominate "Who Wants to Be A Pioneer?" for LOTY2023 because I released it some years earlier in the random level sharing topic. No problem of course, I'm glad you like the level.

Actually, I think it's still eligible for nomination. Back when it was released as a single level, it was eligible for LOTY2022, but it wasn't nominated that time, so the fact that you now released it as part of a pack earlier this year shouldn't affect its eligibility for LOTY2023. We can always ask Icho just to be sure, though

At least if I'm understanding this post correctly, in particular conditions 1 and 5:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6131.0

[NieSch]

I stumbled upon a Twitch account (here) playing these levels. It was fun to watch and I also learned from it that the pack isn't "easy" at all so I changed the difficulty to "medium-hard".