Festival Millas 2023 - Release Thread

[GigaLem]

Got it released in January so that still matters, Sorry for being hands off with the community with this but the past few months have been stressful, with that said I present to you

Trailer

24* Levels, 2 New Sets, Some Set updates, A 6th Installment, A Vacation Adventure Awaits!

Flight Attendees choosing to fly for the first time may pick the Following Rank


"Chaos of the Holiday"

Those who'd want a more Quality Experience may pick the next rank


"Life in the Crossroads"

Sometimes, flying across the world is hard work, that's what this rank is for


"Somewhere under the Rainbow" - This Set right here is known as Godorris Isle

For those longing for Luxury, This rank is for you


"Neither Pier nor There" - This Set right here is known as Gilded Bayside

Downloads as follows
Level Pack
Music Pack

How to Attend your flight-I mean how to install
1.Extract the Level pack into the your NeoLemmix Folder, the folders will merge putting everything where they need to go
2.place Zip in here in the music folder inside of the Neolemmix then extract it, if music is too loud (sorry I didn't get to tell plom this) Go to the setting in the program, and adjust the volume of the music

Credits

Spoiler

Project Leader
GigaLem

Level Design
GigaLem, Wafflem

Original Asset Artists
GigaLem & Plom510

Theming Inspired by
Konami, Bemani

S3D Blast Menu Font
Traveler's Tales
Ripped By Record Breaker

FP2 Sprites
Galaxy Trail
Rafael Ventura
Picsandpixels
Daniel Taylor
Tim Jonsson
Lapper

Freedom Planet Series & Characters
Sabrina DiDuro, Ziyo Ling, Galaxy Trail

Lemmings Series
DMA/Rockstar, Psygnosis, Sony, Exient

NeoLemmix Tools
Namida, Nepster

Special Thanks
Plom510 for the Trip, Wafflem for the levels, You for Playing

Music Credits
Asuka Ohta and Hajime Wakai
Naoki Maeda
Sota Fujimori
Hiroshi Watanabe
Takayuki Ishikawa
Kouichi Yamazaki
Taku Sakakibara
Yoshie Arakawa
Ryo Nagamatsu
Philip Morris
Kenji Yamamoto
Shunsuke Sato
Tatsuya Shimizu
Yasuhiro Taguchi
BPRD
Konami, Bemani, Namco, Nintendo, Psygnosis

[ericderkovits]

I finished the pack. Some pretty difficult levels.
Replays attached.

I noticed the 3rd level of the rank "Business" doesn't have custom music; plays a standard one.

[GigaLem]

Not much of an update for the hotfix but as pointed out by Kaywhyn, a song was missing. the download link is the same but the file does fix that issue

[kaywhyn]

Hello GigaLem,

I have completed the pack. My replays are attached and of course some feedback. I've also attached Business 3 that has the correct music track assigned to it. GigaLem says that he uploaded a hotfix for that but I don't see the change at all for it In addition, the switch lever in the plom_neonkishuya style is missing the "doorgate" sound file in the sound folder, which means it doesn't make a sound when the Millas push it by passing through the trigger for it. It seems to have not been included in the sound folder for the download of the pack.

edit: Found it and attached the doorgate sound file now!

Also, link to my LP: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJvPzCXI9CQTm-yZx8N_nXQc. Enjoy! 

General Feedback

Festival Millas 2023 is another level pack in the Festival Millas series by GigaLem, following FM2022. As the title menu of the pack says, it is the sixth volume in the series. The pack's theme is based on a vacation GigaLem had to California that year to visit Plom510. I had the pleasure of meeting up with the both of them in-person that time I must say, it was pretty awesome meeting up with actual Lemmings Forumers in-person. It was definitely a lot of fun even though it was blazing, super hot that time. Even then, we were indoors at an arcade the entire time, but the heat was still pretty unbearable at times. I'll always remember the exact day we met up, because it was the day before my sister's birthday.

The title menu says the pack is by both GigaLem and Plom510, though here Plom510's sole contribution is the graphics and styles. There aren't any levels by the latter in this pack at all. Instead, the levels are all either by GigaLem or an incomplete level by Wafflem and then GigaLem finished several of them up to include for this pack. I must say I'm quite impressed with what GigaLem was able to make with them. I'm sure Wafflem would be impressed himself with them too if he hasn't seen them yet. We here at the Lemmings Forums hope he's all right and that he makes a reappearance sooner rather than later. His legacy definitely carries on, as does that of those who have been inactive for a while too (Nepster, Clam, etc).

Compared to FM2022, FM2023 is much easier IMO. Due to the high difficulty of FM2022, I expected things to get pretty hairy, especially near the end of the ranks, but that wasn't really the case here. Not to mention I'm amused I didn't lose much of my touch with NL even though it's been about 1.5 months since the last time I LPed a custom Lemmings pack. At the same time, this hiatus from Lemmings was only about half as long between my last LP of a NL pack to this one. 3 months away makes a much bigger difference, though that all depends on the difficulty, as my skills rusting up displays far better with the harder ones. Of course, there's other factors too, such as if a difficult level is solid in enforcing its solution and not prone to backroutes, for example.

Overall, I still enjoyed FM2023 very much despite it being on the easier side. There's still some true gems in the pack, and I even found a few levels I consider LOTY2024 nomination worthy! Well done with the pack, GigaLem and Plom510!

Economy Rank Feedback

The first rank of the feedback, there wasn't really anything too difficult here, other than Economy 4 and 5 IMO. These were nice levels overall for a first rank. There is a recurring theme that was seen in the previous FM packs too, in particular excessive climber/shimmier assignments. I personally am not a fan of such levels where you need to repeatedly assign a lot of the same skill, especially if it's in a short amount of time, but luckily this is the only level in the pack where you have to do so, and doing it in a short amount of time is not necessary at all.

Spoiler

Economy 1 - B-line to the Shang Tu Airport Nice level to start off the pack. I especially like the start where it's either jump or platform over and you're not sure which one until you have played the level for a bit. I chose wrong with the jumping My only critique here is the mining at the very far right is a bit precise, but that can easily be reduced with another steel plate. Re-using the fencer tunnel to jump over the exit in order to release the crowd with a basher is pretty clever

Economy 2 - Globe Trotting Paradise Harder than the previous level but a really nice no constructives level. Even with just digging destructive skills it wasn't easy to figure out how to go about each area of the level. Cancelling will be necessary, and that won't be a problem since you have an unlimited amount of the walker skill. Great level!

Economy 4 - Chaos of the Holiday Probably the hardest level of the rank IMO. A lot of my attempts kept running out of skills, though as usual I try to see where I could tweak stuff so as to save skills for later on. There was an approach I thought about doing, I just didn't carry it out properly or far enough to see that it could still be converted into a solve later.

Economy 5 - A Mess in the Vacation Home Somewhat challenging but not as difficult as the previous level IMO. The hardest part here was figuring out how to get everyone up to the exit, especially with just one builder and also to hit all the buttons at the very top of the level. This was still a pretty nice challenge.

Economy 6 - Lifeguard on Duty Nice 1 Milla level who needs to rescue the neutrals and also get the buttons at the bottom. The neutrals make the level challenging by you needing to remember that you must have the pre-assigned regular Milla around to do the building to help the neutrals up, as neutrals cannot be assigned skills. Very nice level to finish off the rank!

Premium Rank Feedback

Levels are a bit harder here but still nothing very challenging.

Spoiler

Premium 1 - Walking off after a Ruff Landing Should be a backroute, considering that I didn't use the far right side of the level, though I initially did but saw that I was a constructive skill short when in fact there's a way around it by substituting the platforming with another skill as I saw from a solution I saw  Still, nice level to start off the rank.

Premium 2 - Moral Neutral Hard level but one of the best IMO. Another recurring theme with keeping a shimmier going for a while in order to accomplish tasks in the level that the regular Milla can't, such as reaching most of the buttons. The hardest part was probably figuring out how to get the constructive skills in place to help the shimmier while also being able to make it to the bottom of the level to release the neutral shimmier. Also with figuring out where to shoot the lasers so that the shimmier doesn't get interrupted. That was a really nice touch with using the teleporter and then making her way back to finally free the shimmier. I made the mistake of thinking that she needs to be released on the first opportunity you're able to get to the bottom of the level The walker skill's purpose seems to just be to able to delay the Milla from the entrance long enough in order to allow the neutral to disarm the trap by the exit. Well done with this level, GigaLem!

Premium 3 - Life in the Crossroads Easier than the previous level. Another recurring theme of extending digging destructive skills which has seen prominence in the other FM packs. Once I figured out what the stoner was for, then it's clear how to extend the miner in both directions with the use of the cloner.

Premium 4 - Dark Ride Difficulties Sorry, very bad backroute Can easily be fixed by making one of the OWWs thicker so that you can't bomb through as easily. Making one of them impossible to get through with two bombers will be enough to stop my backroute

Premium 5 - Uno Sacramento Por Favor Harder than the previous level, though the only difficult part was keeping everyone safe at the start, given the somewhat high RR. Luckily, there was a spare builder and slider to help the second Milla come back towards the right to be contained with the others. Also figuring out that laser in a way that a climber can go over the top to prepare the rest of the way. Everything else was smooth sailing from there.

Premium 6 - The Path is Shaved with Chill Intentions Probably just as hard as Premium 2, though here the biggest problem I had was turning around in order to finish up the other gaps. Later on, I just realized that I could just platform twice at the top in order to land on the raised area which would be a safe drop. It was smooth sailing from there. Nice level to finish off the rank!

Business Rank Feedback

I expected levels here to be far harder than the ones in the previous ranks, and indeed I found this rank to be much harder than the final rank of First Class. Business 2 through 4 were all challenging in their own ways, though I found Business 3 and 4 harder than Business 2, with probably Business 3 being the hardest of the entire pack. Hence, it can definitely fit for the end of the rank.
   

Spoiler

Business 1 - Pilot Light Fight Looks somewhat challenging but it wasn't that bad. The hardest part was just figuring out how to get everyone up and hit all switches while not losing too many. Once more, another nice rank starter.

Business 2 - Somewhere under the Rainbow Hard one. I found it difficult to figure out how to keep everyone safe at the start and then be able to release everyone at the end, as well as how to go about getting all the buttons. Turns out I had the right approach with mining the blockers free, but I did it from the wrong side and instead found a different way to release everyone At the end, the slider was stuck in an endless loop, but I luckily had a spare digger to release her. Looks to be an alternative rather than a backroute

Business 3 - Everyone can clock out Early! Hardest level of the pack IMO. Apparently this took me an hour to get solved!  It wasn't easy at all to figure out how to best use the skills in any part of the level, as well as how to best use the pioneers. Seems my solution is similar to another one I saw, the only difference is just the order of when the tasks were done. Skills are definitely a problem here, and also with preventing climbers from getting into danger with climbing into a trap or splatting. Nice level, but yea, really hard level!

Business 4 - Lotus Road Another hard level but one of the best levels IMO. After playing the level for a bit, it should be clear that you must extend the miner and fencer and therefore the builders both get locked into place. I definitely had some wrong approaches at first, especially with how to stop the splatting at the stop. In particular, I thought to use both the stoner and stacker to prevent splatting, but this turned out to be completely wrong. It would had worked except the glider bounces off the stacker and therefore doesn't go all the way to the far left of the level later on in order to get the bottom left button. Turns out I just need to tweak the stoner position, where using a stoner to stop the splatting is enough, by putting it on the trigger area of the anti-splat pad. Everything else fell into place, and the stacker just needs to be moved somewhere else, though as I later saw the stacker can probably be spared and doesn't need to be used depending on how one approaches the level. Well done with the level, GigaLem!

Business 5 - Satellite Maintenance Much easier than the previous 3 levels, especially as the save requirement is quite generous and there's way more than enough skills. It looks difficult but is easier than it appears. This was still a nice level 

Business 6 - Clockwork Castle Another one that looks difficult but is certainly not the hardest of the rank despite being the rank finisher. Once more, there's more than enough skills here and the save requirement is quite generous.     

First Class Rank Feedback

Being the final rank, these should be the hardest levels the pack has to offer, but as already mentioned, I found the Business rank to be far harder than this one. Business 2 through 4 can easily be First Class rank levels instead, and possibly with the exception of First Class 2 and 3, the First Class levels in the same positions can easily swap with them.

Spoiler

First Class 1 - All of this is too much to Lake Another nice rank starter and one that wasn't too bad either. The hardest part was probably just keeping everyone safe and being able to release them, but even this part isn't hard. I was simply worried that I wouldn't have enough skills to do the rest of the level by doing so. Despite the limited skillset, there seems to be multiple ways to do the level.

First Class 2 - No one lives forever! Hard one for me, though I apparently missed a more straightforward way through the level. It definitely doesn't help that I used the wrong skills at the wrong places and hence that caused me to miss that approach even though I've initially tried it that way. As usual, another nice level with the terrain spelling out the year.

First Class 3 - Nostalgia Pandering Another hard one, with the hardest part being able to figure out how to get up to the exit with the very limited amount of skills, as well as not losing too many. Seems the key here is to get as high up as possible at the bottom before you finally start building. The cloners also seem to be very important in order to help with this. Nice challenging level!

First Class 4 - Haste the Rainbow Looks difficult but it really isn't that bad once I figured out what the walkers, jumpers, and shimmiers were for. Here there's the recurring theme of extending a basher that is prominent in the other FM packs too.

First Class 5 - Neither Pier nor There Can probably be considered one of the hardest levels of the pack along with Business 3, but this one isn't as bad IMO and I also consider quite possibly the best level of the pack! It's another one of those 1 Milla levels but is definitely the hardest one of all the other ones that are found in the pack, such as Economy 6 and Premium 2. The order at which tasks need to be done seem to be the most important here. In particular, while you can bash from either side at the bottom, it seems that the actual solution is to do it from left to right. What really blows me away is the multiple rounds the pioneer needs to do in the level in order to get the tasks done and to finally release the neutrals. This is definitely LOTY2024 nomination worthy! One of the best levels I've ever played in quite some time

First Class 6 - Blaze Through the Resort Party To finish off the pack, this looks to be very overwhelming and hence difficult, but it wasn't too bad at all. However, you still need to be careful with the skills, as although it's an open-ended level, they will run out very quickly even though they look plentiful. Especially when you consider all the buttons all over the level you need to reach and activate to unlock the exit. A very nice level to finish the pack on, and I especially love the touch of the fireworks going off in the background IIRC the final level of FM2018 did this too with the fireworks.

First Class 7 - Thank You for Flying ZAO Airlines Self-solving credits level. 

Thank you for this pack GigaLem and Plom510