Lyf How to solve hard/deadly levels? (Part 2)

Hi all,
After having solved 120 deadly levels, I would like to write something of my personally opinion about how to solve hard/deadly levels, for players who feel frustrated on them. Hoping it is somewhat helpful :-)

 

4. Editor

Many have said the importance of using editor to remove objects to the places you want. Then you can start to try if some trick can work. If it is not work, you can observe whether our tank is late or early then go on to use editor. The pivotal situation that you designed can help you a lot to save your resource of brain.
I take Ch-II#831 for example. Click Editor. Remove B3-->G5, B4-->G14, B15-->G6, B16-->G16, O16-->H16, O2,O3,O4-->M5,L14,H15, then close editor and go up to see what happens.
You can also take this way in some levels without timing tricks like lasertank.lvl#0501.
Please have a good study of tutor.lvl.

5.Shortcuts

Everyone is bound to make levels containing shortcuts. If the number of the shots of some GHS is much less than the author’s, there is probably some shortcut.(maybe except the levels containing many rotary mirrors)
I take Ch-III#0002 for example. The GHS holder’s shots is 217 while the author’s is 263. Yes there is a shortcut. Can you find it?

6. Thinking like an author

Objects were put on the map by the author for 4 reasons: (1) useful. (2)Beautiful. (3)misleading. (4)special hobby. In many cases they are useful, especially when some object(s) are weird on the map. Ask yourself “Why is it there?” And you may get more.
I take Ch-III#1493 for example. It was rated medium but I think it deserves hard because it is like one of Kheper’s classic levels and at least as hard as it. I scratched my head when trying it. Finally I noticed that I hadn’t taken any use of A13 mirror. Why there is an A13 mirror?? Then I know the idea.
Ch-V#0186 is also a good example. Please observe the size of the ice square. So…
Ch-IV#781: A piece of * should be made good use of, which seems to be useless.
There is a phenomenon which happened time to time: you thought for many hours on some hard/deadly level and have made good progress. You overcame many difficulties and were very near to win. However, near the end of the logic, you met a hidden trouble that seems unsolvable. How far away is the right solution from you? Generally it is not far away(of course there are exceptions and no suggestion is universal). Give priority to keeping your former strategy and consider if all the possibilities, from the beginning to the end, have been thought of. Why? Let’s think as an author: It must be very hard for him(maybe not hard for Iron) to design a very delicate strategy which seems feasible but wrong, while he also needs to design a right strategy which is “hard” or “deadly”.
    I take Ch-II#1525 for example. Someone once mailed me to say that he was stuck near the end: The problem is about “H2 is ice” and an up-pointing antitank. The answer is to change the destination of an FMO by only one step in the middle of the strategy.

7.Thinking priorities

I strongly agree with what LFE the FLE(Sahan) has said in the massage #8971. Some are:
For most players, a trick would be the last option to solve a level. You try all the simple methods to solve the level, either working forward from the starting position or working backwards from the ending position. And you encounter something you can't get past. As a last resort you consider the possible tricks. Probably not the most efficient method.
But if you've seen a particular layout before, it becomes much easier (and you have the rating issue).
Similarly, please try enough easier levels before hard ones if your basic skills are not very good.

This tutorial is written by Li YiFeng nick lyf.