The VanClan Lemmings Pack - Top 10 Discussion

[Tim]

Ok as you all know, my new pack of levels are bigger than everybody's packs that I have seen. Located under the name "VanClan_Lemmings", the pack contains a massive 100 levels for you all to try out.

I know that I have just added it to the Lemmings File Portal, so I am hoping for this topic to be a long term project for everyone and long lasting.

First, try having a go at as many of my levels as posible before participating. The pack contains all the graphics sets of Lemmings, Oh No! More Lemmings, and Holiday/Xmas Lemmings, so the pack would be hopefully different to most packs that other people have created.

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I would like to have different Top 10 categories for my levels, as I would very much like to know what you think of my levels.
We will start off with a few categories, and then when new ideas arise, anybody can make suggestions for new Top 10 categories.

Of course, if Top 10 lists are too difficult for specific categories, we can make it Top 5 instead, or even just a single winner.

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Ok, now we come to the categories part of this topic. Remember, if you have any more suggestions for categories, please post them:

1) Top 10 Best Level Layout
2) Top 10 Best Level Name
3) Top 10 Most Complex Level

Those will be the starter categories. I do not know how we will work the Top 10 lists, but I would love to have suggestions and ideas from everyone to make it work. You can post a couple of levels you really like, a personal Top 10 of your favourites, or just one level you are addicted to.

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I really hope this topic will work out for everyone. Plus I hope my levels are at least half-decent. I guess I will find out soon.

Tim Fox.

[Fleech]

Anyone have any ideas on how to get these levels to work in Lemmix? The Oh No! ones work fine, but the ones using the original graphics sets won't load with the right set. I've tried changing the level pack viewer style, but it makes no difference.

Guess I'll just have to play through them in order, but I really do miss being able to fast-forward and use replays...

Good job anyway Tim. I'll post something more constructive at some point :winktounge:

[tseug]

Change the path for the Custom Lemmings style to point to VCLem.

[Tim]

Hi everyne,

I am not sure if you have all managed to download my level pack correctly, or can even play them correctly.

Will you all be able to let me know if any of you can play the levels or not? If there are any problems trying to play the levels or download the pack, please tell me. I am getting nervous waiting to see if you like them or not!

Tim.

[Mindless]

I've downloaded them and played the first few Tame levels.   I like them.  A lot of those levels have a box-like appearance, though.

@ccexplore: If we hadn't the version of Oh No! More Lemmings that CustLemm is based on, I think we've found it now.  VGALEMMI in "Van Clan Lemmings" requires a mounted cdrom drive.

[chaos_defrost]

The one thing I notice about a lot of your levels is that they contain a bit too much straight building and not really enough "puzzle" element to them. I recall one level in particular which was just two long gaps and a couple of structures where the purpose is obviously to start your build platform low enough to not hit the top of the screen before you reach the platforms. Without fast forward, there's really no way to circumvent the waiting.

Now, there were quite a few fun levels in the set; I'll have to go back through and pick those out to comment on them... it just seemed that there was a bit much building and time-bombing for my tastes.

Oh, and if you want to check out all the levels in the set... Remember that the levels are in an ONML shell, and the codes work similarly... including the "skip levels" cheat password.

[Tim]

Yes, SKIPLEVELS is the cheat for the Original Lemmings Game. Since my levels have replaced the Oh No! More Lemmings levels, the code is SLAMRACING. If any of you require the actual codes for the levels, please let me know and I will get them to you.

Mindless is correct: the packs I have have been modifying are copied from a CD-ROM version of lemmings. I didnt know that my levels require a CD-ROM drive to work. Sorry if that has prevent anybody from playing them.

I am not annoyed with anyone if they dont like a level because of its high level of difficulty, length, or excessive use of one skill. I expect this to occur. I try to do a range of different types.

Tim.

[ccexplore]

@ccexplore: If we hadn't the version of Oh No! More Lemmings that CustLemm is based on, I think we've found it now.̆ VGALEMMI in "Van Clan Lemmings" requires a mounted cdrom drive.

Interesting.  I'll take a look later tonight I guess.

[Tim]

Im getting a little worried now. It has been over two weeks since I made my lemmings levels available to everyone. But I have barely received any feedback on what everyone thinks of the levels!

Has anyone tried the levels? Do you like any of them? Anything! Gimme something to work with!

Tim.

[Mindless]

It probably would have been better if you had released level packs instead of an entire game full of levels.  Right now, I don't really have time to do anything Lemmings-related.

[Shvegait]

I forgot about these levels. I just started, but only got through Tame and the first few Crazy so far, and of course those were all easy. Your version of Tame is almost as bad as Tame in ONML  :tongue: But of course I can't comment really until I get to the harder levels, which might be a while, I'm busy this week.

[Shvegait]

Ok, I've passed all of Crazy. It took a while (~2 hours), not because any of the levels were difficult, but because so many of the levels are long and involve just straight building. "The Mexican Wave" is the worst offender here: all you do is build, build, build with no thought necessary and it takes 9 minutes.

Even if you'd choose to keep many long builder levels, at least put breaks in between. They're tiring and tedious, so it's better to split them up with some shorter levels interspersed.

I don't want to be all negative feedback here, so I'll mention that I liked Crazy 17 (I forget the title).

I do hope that there are fewer builder-intensive levels in Wild, Wicked, and Havoc, although Wild 1, Wicked 1, and Havoc 1 are all builder levels, which didn't restore my hopes  :tongue: The point isn't that builders are inherently bad, there are plenty of good builder-intensive levels. It's that they are often used in excess to make up for a level with no puzzle. For example, "The Swamp" has no puzzle element, it's just long. You don't usually see levels that involve no building and have no puzzle element. They exist, but they don't pretend to be difficult and/or are over in a minute, so you forget about them.

EDIT:
Finished with Wild. The levels here (esp. 1-8, the repeats) were a bit better than the Crazy ones, though still a number of puzzle-less long building ones. From this rating I liked Wild 3 "5 Ways To Get Through", just because  :tongue:

Also, a couple of bug notes. Tame 4 and its repeat Wild 4 are bugged (game hangs). Wild 14 is also bugged (sound + visual glitch, exiting level hangs the game). These bugs are usually caused by objects out of bounds or invalid objects.

[Tim]

I just tried Tame 4 (Up Up UP They Go) and its repeat (Get Up There), but I have found no bugs or other problems with those levels. I am not sure why the levels appear to be bugged to you. Is it because of your operating system, or the layout of the levels are different on your computer?

Wild 14 (Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Wall...) has no problems for me either. Have you tried playing those levels more than once, or does the problem still occur? If it does, I am going to have to make a note of every level that has a bugged problem or layout problem, ie. too much building. I will do something about these errors once I get used to Lemmix (I have just upgraded to a Win XP machine and now LemEdit does not work). Maybe even get rid of the boring levels like "The Mexican Wave".

Tim.

[Shvegait]

I'm sorry, I meant Tame 3 and its repeat (Wild 4), Bomberman levels. I've tried them multiple times, it hangs right before the window opens. (Maybe it detects no valid windows, or something, maybe the Z value of the window is less than 16?)

The sound effect + graphical glitch over the exit (there's like some blue lines that flash) + not being able to get back to the game after finishing or quitting the level I have seen before in one of someone else's levels, but I forget the exact cause of it. Maybe someone else remembers the cause?

[EricLang]

I cannot find anything wrong with the Tame 3. What is the matter here?

I played the tame levels now. They are ok for Tame I think.

Two things:
1) I saw a few levels which are one screen wide and located at the utmost left side. Maybe it's better to center this.
2) Your levels sometimes tend to be a bit symmetrical.

I'll play the rest in the coming days.