400 metres 1 -
Jasmine O.o one of my favorite Disney princesses from a really awesome Disney movie
Very nice level with an image of Jasmine on Carpet. I definitely remember some Aladdin levels from your The Lemmings Have Grown pack
Quite honestly, this one was a bit more frustrating than it needed to be, though I admit that I quite likely self-inflicted a lot of extreme precision here. Now I'm really curious what your intended solution is here, in regards to the other slider skill you provided which I didn't use, similar to Armani
The very end is quite messy what I did
400 metres 2 -
Purple rain The only special thing here is bombing away terrain so that you can platform and clone, but otherwise isn't anything special. Also there aren't that many possibilities at all here, so this one was a pretty quick solve.
400 metres 3 -
The infernal moat Another case of a level that's way too difficult for its position this early in the rank. This one managed to stump me very badly for a few days. There are so many possibilities here that look like they can work but they don't: I've tried to bomb the very top of the pillar in order to get a shimmier all the way across in order to build to get a climber to the top exit, interrupting a destructive skill midstroke so that you can seal off the 1-pixel gap with a builder so that no one else can follow, but then you run into problems with dealing with the "just" splat height with the shelf coming back to the right, as well as not being able to build twice in order to use the underside to shimmy to get to the upper exit, and I've even tried tunneling underneath the OWW from the right side to see if I can create the situation of allowing a swimmer to climb up the pillar but instead he always dives underneath and gets back into the tunnel he makes. Most importantly, I kept falling for the use of mining in order to turn everyone back to the right where the bottom exit is. All of these make for an extremely deceptively difficult level
Ultimately, it's really just an extension of the previous level, just with the miner to do so in order for the builder to keep going uninterrupted. It's really interesting, as one night I was wondering, "what if the pillar wasn't there, would it be possible to build on top of the OWW in order to reach the upper platform?" So I tried it and indeed it does work, you just need to place the bomber very carefully and also get the miner timing right. All in all, a really nice solution with so many red herrings, and who knew that you do indeed go through the OWW with a basher from the right side
But yes, this level absolutely needs to move further down the rank! 400 metres 4 -
Queen's palace (episode 11) Somewhat of a breather (in general these Queen palace levels serve as nice breathers in between all the really hard levels
) but still a nice one. I have a climber left, but I'm sure its purpose of delaying the other Lemming to give the main one enough time to do the work to keep the other safe is the same as how I used one of the climbers. Then again, one can do the left part easier with RR manipulation.
400 metres 5 -
Bash and dash This one very much reminds me of a level from LPO2, except this one involves keeping a basher going in the other direction with only stackers, rather than a fencer and platformers and stackers to help with it. In a way, I guess I didn't have to really complain here, as the fencer is far more easily cancelled compared to the basher in NL, but this one is still very difficult to set up correctly and therefore it's just very hard in the execution. Indeed, my reaction was, "oh hell no, David did not just go there with this one"
However, I'm told that David has decided to replace this with another level, which I think I'm fine with
The big saving grace here is David at least provided a lot of surplus skills for once so that running out of skills while setting up the super fiddly situation is never a problem.
400 metres 6 -
Cloning lab Another hard level but a pretty good one. The most difficult part of the level was seeing the use of the blocker, which is for bombing another one in order to release the blocker but still providing him a way to get into the bomber hole in order to bash at the very top. At least in my solution it's very precise, but Armani shows that my way isn't the only way to do the upper left area. Another hard part was getting a non-glider to do the bashing, as a glider would walk into the trap in the upper right corner. Also I'm not sure why it took me some time to see that you can just mine from the left side at the bottom rather than need someone to come from the other side to do so. In a way kind of reminds me of Crane's "Cloning Vats."
400 metres 7 -
In the library Not as hard as the previous level but still challenging. This one was a quicker solve, with the only hard part being how to cancel the digger without actually assigning anything to the digger. The answer is to use a faller to bomb in order to stop the digger. Only this way allows you to have the necessary skills to get the level solved. I do believe this is the first custom Lemmings level that completely enforces this bombing a faller trick to stop a digger. Nice!
400 metres 8 -
Queen's palace (episode 12) Pretty much another extension to 400 metres 2/3 in that it's another case of keeping a builder going uninterrupted both times. The zombies are a non-problem completely here.
400 metres 9 -
The lifts Another really hard level but is one of my favorites of the pack
A lot of red herrings here and quite a deceptively difficult level even with just mostly bashers/builders. At one point I thought maybe the ceiling route is the way to go as I couldn't quite figure out how to get a non-glider to the bottom middle area to build to stop the glider from getting into trouble, but you don't have enough skills to do so, especially as the basher isn't able to destroy the floor to allow the others to drop down to the exit. They would need help from the right side to do so. Also I kept fiddling around for a really long time with stacking in front of the teleporter and then finding the correct basher placement to make a hole so the others can step up from the left side while no one else besides the swimmer/glider uses the teleporter, but I couldn't get it to work and gave up in frustration after a while. Turns out that's a completely wrong way to go about the level and other than the extremely difficult timing in the bottom middle area to build and stop the non-gliding shimmier, the level has a very clean solution. Well done with this level, David!
400 metres 10 -
After the space shuttle explosion The concept is cool and all (stacking underneath the receiver in order to keep the laserer going uninterrupted, as well as using a blocker to turn the laser in order to free all 3 neutral groups, but this level was super frustrating to do, as most of the time I didn't have a Lemming nearby at the right time in order to bash away the stack to stop the laserer so that the left-most neutral group does not go out to the left to fall down and splat
If this trick of stopping the laserer with a nearby basher isn't important, you could always provide another walker so that the timing is completely eliminated. Or, if you still want to keep this part in (part of me says yea, keep it), maybe you can make the walkway smaller so that there's less walking and therefore a higher chance of having a Lemming close by at the right time. Yet maybe another option is to simply increase the Lemming count slightly (maybe anywhere from 15-20
) so that the timing isn't as frustrating, as most of the time I kept running out of Lemmings to do the whole lasering and blocking to turn him.
Also another frustration that resulted was making sure no one uses the teleporter coming from the right side before the worker was done platforming up the gap. This took a while to figure out how to do, especially with it involving a lot of RR manipulation. This is heavily compounded with the very small Lemming count and when these are combined resulted in a lot of frustration.
In summary: Great level, just very frustrating to execute because of the Lemming count and how most of the time the player probably won't have a nearby Lemming to bash the stack to interrupt the laserer at the right time. Also, I'm not sure how the game determines who to teleport first, the laserer or the blocker. I had cases where the latter happened before the former, which cannot happen because the laserer would had stopped long before the teleporter is ready to take him. I don't think there's anything you can do about it to always guarantee it will take the laserer first every time, though. So, no fault of yours at all
400 metres 11 -
Lemmings go shopping (episode 2) Far harder than the original episode back in the 100 metres rank and which Armani accurately describes as "hit or miss" in that you either get the level solved very quickly, or you're quite possibly stuck here for a really long time (like I was
) or forever otherwise. Indeed, some set of 3 pickups get you very close but ultimately doesn't result in a solve. Instead, you really need to think outside the box and realize that you must collect 4 sets of pickups. I think eventually after a while I realized if I had another of this skill yada yada yada it would be level solved, and then I was able to make the connection that you somehow need to get out of one of the pits to collect more skills. I originally thought to build and then jump, but he will always hit his head when doing the latter. Then it finally dawned on me after a while that that's the whole purpose of the stacker. It doesn't play any role in the main solution with the crowd, just on the far left side to collect pickups. The rest was easy after that, but you still need to determine the best sets of pickups to collect. Really nice level here, though!
400 metres 12 -
Queen's palace (episode 13) Another nice one, especially with sending up another climber while the first one builds at the top in order to bash away the staircase so that when the builder hits his head to turn back to the right he can drop down and build to the OWW to bash away the bottom portion of it at the top. Reminds me of I believe a level from MobiLems.
400 metres 13 -
You have to charm the snakes! Pretty much the only level of the rank that I consider a breather, though I'm not sure if 400 metres 3 needs to move this far down (the only other possible candidate I think is 400 metres 7, even though it doesn't really extend the concept used in 400 metres 2). I'm already aware of stopping a miner midstroke so that you can use the nook to platform and therefore get up the miner tunnel. Same thing with platformers still being able to disarm traps, that's not new to me either. The hardest part was just timing the climbers in order to get the glider ahead at the right time in order to drop down and disarm the snake trap so that the platformer doesn't get interrupted so that the next time you assign the skill he can close off the gap completely. Overall, the solution is quite easy to see here, just the timing can be tricky to get correct. But yea, pretty much a breather level.
400 metres 14 -
The impassable walls Good level up until the use of the blocker to turn a basher but the former also gets released. For some reason, I didn't think it was possible to still be able to make a staircase when doing this. I'm probably just not remembering it correctly, because I think I always had it so that the basher always makes a full stroke or never makes a step up. Even then, regardless of how it's actually done, I personally don't like the basher/blocker trick, as it's very unintuitive and doesn't make much sense IMO. After completing the pack, I didn't realize you adopted Armani's solution as the new intended one for the end part. I think yea you can revert it back to your original solution, as it's still pretty difficult this way but it at least won't rely on this very obscure behavior that would escape a lot of players, as they will very likely not even think of it at all or try it.
400 metres 15 -
Dexter's lab Wow, really hard one but yet another favorite of mine!
That is a very long shimmier, which I realized very quickly but it was very hard for me to realize how to set it up. The small detail I missed was being able to bash to the right at the top without needing to also invest a digger. I kept doing it from the right side, which absolutely requires a digger too. The timing is really difficult to get correct here, but that seems to be the whole purpose of the walker skill. If anything, probably more walkers can be provided, but it's not absolutely necessary. Even when I finally figured out the correct setup, the only other thing I forgot about was not lasering the top left area before the shimmier gets there first. In my solution, I needed the digging to be done at a time where I wouldn't get anyone to fall out going to the left and therefore get trapped at the bottom on the wrong side. This required a bit of tweaking, though probably with some RR manipulation it can be done way more easily every time. Well done with this level, David!
By the way, was this level in any way inspired by my "Don't Stop Shimmying Til You Get Enough"?
Very similar concept, just without one-way force fields
400 metres 16 -
Queen's palace (episode 14) Very nice concept with extending a basher with builders so that when he uses the teleporter he continues to bash through the wall in the upper left. However, this proved to be frustrating, due to what I think is a bug in that Lemmings can get infected before the receiver door opens, as they get zombified when the animation of the receiver starts when a zombie is in front of the receiver trigger. Luckily, the solution still works even with this "bug," but yea, I found it very annoying that I'll submit a NL player report to namida/the community later on about it.
400 metres 17 -
You have to go find a disarmer! Hard one too but another great level! I especially love the use of the shimmier jump in order to get on top of the platformer bridge on the far left. Interestingly enough, the hardest part of the solution for me was bashing and then interrupting midstroke so that the disarmer can still go through to the right while not allowing the crowd to go out to the left to their deaths. Maybe the precision can be reduced there a bit, but probably not necessary since one can just adjust the positioning of the basher. Also one needs to realize the trick of bombing a Lemming trapped between two closely placed blockers in order to release both the blockers and the crowd all in the same direction. That one I realized very quickly, but you also need to keep in mind it works only with an odd number RR.
400 metres 18 -
The building site Ok level but not exactly one of my favorites due to how much fiddling you need to do in order to find something that works. In particular, I tend to be quite bad at solving levels when there are a lot of stackers provided
You don't need to change the skillset, though. I think plenty of players here aren't good at using stackers to solve levels. I do like the start with platforming where the builder is working in order to turn him around to build across the gap before the others turn back around and arrive too early before it's done, though!
Open-ended level, it seems, as there seems to be multiple ways to do the level. Not sure if it's possible to have any spare skills, though!
400 metres 19 -
Angkor temple Quite possibly the hardest level of the pack, along with 400 metres 11. Indeed, for a time I was wondering how the heck do you get out of the starting area, with the answer only coming to me when I noticed a Lemming descending on those yellow tiles. Now that I think about it, I do believe one of GigaLem's levels make use of this, so I must had forgotten about this since
Even after figuring the start out, my biggest problems come from the bottom middle area with the splat pad. I kept having trouble figuring out how to turn a worker around, as for a really long time I kept thinking that you need to use a blocker in front of the locked exit. It's probably not possible, as you need to get up the middle to be in place to bash the blocker at the start free from the right side of the thin steel blocks. The part that took me the longest to figure out was that you can actually bash back to the right in order to leave a builder step past the steel that the neutrals can land on and then fall the rest of the way down safely, though this is pretty much safe by just a pixel. Consider giving more leeway and making it clearer that the rest of the drop isn't fatal
This should had came to me earlier, as the 3 yellow tiles in the starting area pretty much all serve as "hints of sorts."
Other things I kept thinking must be the answer is bashing away the terrain so that the neutrals don't drop onto the trigger of the splat pad (really good red herring!) but then I don't have a way to turn around the worker at all. Complications also came from being able to get into the neutral area to get the button due to the blocker, as I think I kept running out of the interruption skills, along with bashing through the square from the right side. Before I realized the builder past the steel wall trick, I kept thinking the worker needs to climb up the left side, not the right side. Great level in the end which is pretty much the final really hard level of the pack (the only hard ones after this IMO are both One minute 9 and One minute 10)!
400 metres 20 -
Queen's palace (episode 15) A very quick solve but a really nice level to finish off the rank. Just another case of "extending" a basher.