[NeoLemmix] Lemmings: Hall of Fame [Difficulty: Medium - Hard]

[Strato Incendus]

After over five years in the making, it is finally done:



Lemmings: Hall of Fame is a NeoLemmix take on Lemmings 2: The Tribes: There are 10 levels for each of the 12 Tribe tilesets. However, the Tribe styles don't remain the same back-to-back, as they do when playing through an entire tribe in Lemmings 2. Rather, just like in classical Lemmings, there are 30 levels for each of the 4 ranks, for a total of 120 levels - just like original Lemmings.

The focus is on those NeoLemmix skills that overlap with Lemmings 2: The Tribes (Jumper, Shimmier, Slider, Laserer, Swimmer, Fencer etc.). Had the Spearer and Grenader made it into NeoLemmix, they would feature on a few levels, too. (There are a couple levels in here which used to feature Spearers and/or Grenaders briefly, during the time in development when they were available.)

There is of course still the option to convert this pack to SuperLemmix, once there is a stable version - or create a second Hall-of-Fame-style pack for SuperLemmix. Some of the physics already differ quite a lot between NL and SLX (such as Shimmiers being able to turn upward corners and transition to Climbers, which is possible in original Lemmings 2: The Tribes). Thus, some of the Hall-of-Fame levels may end up with new backroutes, or become unsolvable, if they are simply converted to SuperLemmix as they are. One way or another, I definitely want to create Lemmings 2-style levels including the Spearer and Grenader eventually (I already have a few I prepared earlier). While Lemmings 2 didn't have the Grenader per se, the Bazooker or Mortar came somewhat close, and the Spearer of course does exist in Lemmings 2, albeit in a somewhat different fashion.

The music, much like on Lemmings World Tour and Lemmings Open Air, are my self-recorded versions of the Lemmings 2: The Tribes tracks. Most of these are rock versions again, though I did resort to MIDI files for the orchestra pieces (Space and Circus), to make sure the orchestra instruments played all the right notes (which were then once again fed into the Garritan Personal Orchestra 4 VST instruments). The Classic Tribe track is a combination of two of my Lemmings World Tour tracks - the same two that Lemmings 2: The Tribes combines for the Classic Tribe (tracks 02 and 04 from the original rotation). If I ever manage to complete a Lemmings 2-inspired pack for SuperLemmix, you can be sure I will re-use these tracks, the same way Lemmings Open Air re-used the tracks from Lemmings World Tour.

The link can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/774ehjwsqfaiud773oduq/Lemmings-Hall-of-Fame.zip?rlkey=v358v519pb94zeb69jepfn6xa&dl=1

A brief development history

Lemmings: Hall of Fame began development in June 2019; it was delayed multiple times, due to several skills being introduced during development - skills which I definitely wanted to feature in this pack (most notably, the Slider and the Laserer). I also took my time recording the music for it, though most of this was done last year in summer. kaywhyn's testing of the complete pack began in September 2023. Shortly afterwards, however, I moved house, so a bunch of other things had to be organised, only occasionally allowing me to look at tester replays, and fix the levels accordingly.

The final two delays were caused by a) Baldur's Gate III (that's on me  ) and b) the announcement of NeoLemmix 12.14; I was ready to release the pack for 12.13 when the 12.14 Release Candidate dropped. This brief delay however gave kaywhyn and me the opportunity to thoroughly patch up one particular level on the Gold rank, "Lemplars of steel" - and I think I can speak for both of us when I say the level is better for it now.

Finally, I just noticed while creating the level thumbnails that one of the Beach levels still had a black background - they're all supposed to have the blue background from L3 Egyptian, since the Beach levels in Lemmings 2 have a blue background, too. I hope I didn't forget changing the background on any of the Beach levels - if you still catch a black background on one, please report!

Once again, the level titles are all based on song titles, this time songs that somewhat match the mood or topic of the respective tileset.
There are four ranks, ordered by the kind of award your music might earn:
Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum

With all of this out of the way: On to the tribes!

Due to the size of the level images, I put them in a spoiler tag

BEACH

Sunshine Superlem


Lembada

OUTDOOR

Wild frontier


Welcome to the jungle

EGYPTIAN

Can you feel the Lems tonight?


Go down, Moses

CLASSIC

The Well-Lempered Clavier


Lemmings was my first love

CIRCUS

Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite


Blue Monday

MEDIEVAL

Avalon


Ai vis lo lop

HIGHLAND

Highland Lemmy


Bonny Portmore

POLAR

Trapped under ice


Black winter day

SPACE

Ziggy Stardust


Anywhere in the galaxy

SHADOW

Bad moon rising


In the air tonight

CAVELEM

Bright eyes


Back to the cave

SPORTS

Start me up


Another one bites the dust

The pack should be compatible with both NeoLemmix 12.13 (stable) and NeoLemmix 12.14 (Release Candidate).

Many thanks to kaywhyn for the extensive testing (as well as to ericderkovits for early testing).
With that, I can finally once again say: Let the show begin! 

[kaywhyn]

@Strato

Congratulations on finally releasing the LHOF! It was an absolute honor to test another level pack for you, after having done so previously for another level pack of yours, Lemmings Open Air I most certainly enjoyed myself while doing so when playing these levels, and I especially enjoyed some of these L2 music remixes of yours!

To everyone else, LHOF definitely promises to be harder than LOA, as it should be, being the next pack of Strato's to be released, after LOA was released nearly 4 years ago. That being said, please provide Strato replays and feedback on the difficulty of the levels if possible, especially as there is at least one level I'm kind of on the fence as to whether it needs to move further down the rank due to it possibly being too difficult for its position currently. Strato and I decided to wait for further feedback from other players to see if levels need to move around depending on feedback on the difficulty of the levels. Of course, feedback on other aspects, such as what levels you enjoyed, are more than welcome for Strato as well Just like LOA, I will most certainly be following along in players' quests to solve all of LHOF

With this, good luck, have fun and enjoy!

[Strato Incendus]

Thanks for your kind words and recommendation, kaywhyn!

While you had already told me Hall of Fame is even harder than Open Air, the difference wasn't sufficiently tangible for me to buff the difficulty up to "Medium - Extreme". As the design philosophy "based on Lemmings 2" means most levels offer a lot of skills, they also offer many degrees of freedom. It's usually the levels with the tightest skill set that are the most difficult, as they leave no such wiggle room - unless somebody manages to create a level with a large skill set, where still all the skills are accounted for. (Such as Nepster's infamous "Final Frustration".)



Indeed, the level order is more flexible this time, as there is no fixed music rotation - in Lemmings World Tour, back in Old Formats, I still had to set all the tracks manually myself, as relying on the rotation feature would always include all of the Oh No! More Lemmings tracks. Hence, due to the need to manually pick the track for every level file, whenever somebody proposed a level should be moved, a bunch of other levels would have needed to be edited, too, if only to change the track playing on them.

In Lemmings: Hall of Fame, in contrast, the music tracks are tied to the tilesets, just like in Lemmings 2: The Tribes — and, for that matter, in Lemmings 3D.

This means the levels in "Lemmings, Drugs, & Rock 'n Roll", which is inspired by Lemmings 3D, will be just as flexible in terms of level order. (Lemmings, Drugs, & Rock 'n Roll started development around a similar time as Hall of Fame, so I predict its development time will be even longer in total - that pack is still kind of a mess at this point in time.)

In other words, whenever a level changes position, it won't affect the track playing on it - I can simply move its position in the level order. It also won't affect the level name, since those are ordered by their position within the tileset style. Back in my earliest packs (Paralems and Pit Lems), I still included the level position in the file name.



Moving a level position will however affect the players, as the level numbers on replay files from before the change in level order will no longer match. This is why I prefer my replays to be named after the level titles, not the numbers - which happens automatically when playtesting levels in the editor. As for playing levels in the NeoLemmix player, I'm pretty sure there is a way to switch the replay-naming scheme to "level title", rather than "level number", but I don't know how?

In Lemmings Open Air, meanwhile, while the rotation could be specified outside the individual level files, I had deliberately picked the graphic sets in the same order as they appear on original Lemmings (mostly). This is the reason why e.g. Symphony of destruction, arguably the hardest level in LOA, appears as early as it does on the final rank: It was the last possible position a Fire level could appear, based on original Lemmings.
Of course, the final level of LOA is a fire level, too, but this particular level (and song title) was set in stone early, as the climax of the Hardcore rank. Thus, it effectively still substitutes "Rendez-vous at the mountain" in original Lemmings.

[kaywhyn]

While you had already told me Hall of Fame is even harder than Open Air, the difference wasn't sufficiently tangible for me to buff the difficulty up to "Medium - Extreme".

Agreed that LHOF doesn't go up to "extreme" difficulty despite most of these levels being overall harder than LOAs'. I did think about this pack going up to "very hard" on the upper end, but yea, I think Medium - Hard still fits fine here

As for playing levels in the NeoLemmix player, I'm pretty sure there is a way to switch the replay-naming scheme to "level title", rather than "level number", but I don't know how?

Indeed there is. It's right in F3/settings => General Tab. At the bottom of the pop-up window is "Replay Options." The option to save by title is the second one in the drop-down menu

edit: It's possible to save without timestamps if you wish. This tutorial by namida explains how:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5458.0

[Strato Incendus]

Thanks, I guess I'll set my NeoLemmix player up this way in general, then!

[Gronkling]

Hi, this pack came out pretty much at the same time as I decided to start playing lemmings again so I played through it! I attached my solutions... I think a lot of them are backroutes though. 

[Strato Incendus]

Thanks a lot for your replays, Gronkling! Since kaywhyn was the only one who volunteered to test the whole pack, I guess the first post-release players will find themselves as "field testers". Meaning, I'm not surprised you still discovered some more backroutes.

Sounds like I have a lot of stuff to watch... 

[kaywhyn]

Since Kay when was the only one who volunteered to test the whole pack...

Oh dear (to the part I bolded)

[Strato Incendus]

Wrote it from my smartphone, so I guess that's what auto-correct makes of your name... 

[kaywhyn]

Wrote it from my smartphone, so I guess that's what auto-correct makes of your name... 

I suspected auto-correct was in play here, because it really does look like the post was written on a mobile phone instead of on a PC. Thanks for confirming and for correcting my username in the post, and yes, auto-correct is to blame here, not you! The auto-correct feature of phones is all the more reason I type my posts on a PC instead! I type far faster with a physical keyboard than I do on touchscreens anyway  

[Strato Incendus]

@Gronkling: I've watched your replays for the Bronze rank thus far. No serious backroutes aside from the first Circus level, yet still some things I plan to fix (such as going underneath the airlock traps on "Walking on the moon").

I just wanted to notify you that your replay for "Back to the cave" (Bronze 7) is not functional for me. At one point, the Basher hits the air, cancels immediately, and every skill assignment after that seems to be off. Did you play this on an older version than NeoLemmix 12.14? Because I'm running it on the release candidate. Perhaps it has something to do with the Fencer hitting steel, because that's where NeoLemmix 12.14 introduces a minor physics fix / consistency update.

Hence, I assume once you update to NeoLemmix 12.14, your replay for Bronze 7 will break for you, too. (As will any other replay that involves a Fencer hitting steel.)

[kaywhyn]

I just wanted to notify you that your replay for "Back to the cave" (Bronze 7) is not functional for me.[/b] At one point, the Basher hits the air, cancels immediately, and every skill assignment after that seems to be off. Did you play this on an older version than NeoLemmix 12.14? Because I'm running it on the release candidate. Perhaps it has something to do with the Fencer hitting steel, because that's where NeoLemmix 12.14 introduces a minor physics fix / consistency update.

Hence, I assume once you update to NeoLemmix 12.14, your replay for Bronze 7 will break for you, too. (As will any other replay that involves a Fencer hitting steel.)

Confirmed that Gronkling's replay works on 12.13 but breaks on 12.14RC due to the fencer hitting steel on the latter and hence he turns around. On the former, the fencer doesn't hit the steel and therefore continues to the right instead of taking that detour. The rest of his solution is

Spoiler

bash to the right below the exit and cancel midstroke with the walker and then he mines the crowd out as usual

So, Gronkling simply just needs to tweak when the basher/walker assignments happen and then it'll be functional again for 12.14