[SUG] Show "total play time" as a separate statistic to "time to reach SR"

[WillLem]

When fixing this bug, I noticed that "time taken" is never shown when test-playing a level from the editor (via F12), even if the level is successfully completed in the test-play.

This has now been updated so that the time result is shown in this particular case, but, a question occurs: should we also display time taken when the level is failed? Perhaps not for normal gameplay, but it could be useful information when test-playing.

Thoughts?

[Herby]

Yes. It's grat idea! Please, Add this in 2.7.

[namida]

What time would you show?

The time upon successful completion (if this is unchanged from NL) is the time at which the last required lemming exited, not just the time at which the player hit exit (or ran out of lemmings).

[Herby]

What time would you show?

The time upon successful completion (if this is unchanged from NL) is the time at which the last required lemming exited, not just the time at which the player hit exit (or ran out of lemmings)j.

The time at which the player hit exit (or ran out of lemmings) and don't show penalty time (when there is a ''Sleeper'' state.).

[WillLem]

What time would you show?

That is indeed the question!

I'm leaning towards total in-game time spent playing, so that would be when gameplay exits to postview for any reason, and doesn't include real-world time (for example, whilst the game is paused). Anything else feels a bit more arbitrary. We could even have it displayed as "Total play time X:YY:ZZ"

Which leads to the inevitable suggestion of whether this could be another thing to display on the postview screen in general: players might want to know how long it took to save 100% on a <100% save requirement level, for example.

I've changed the topic title accordingly, thoughts welcome.

don't show penalty time (when there is a ''Sleeper'' state.).

If we go with "total in-game time until gameplay ends", then overtime would be included. Is there any reason this is undesirable? It may be useful information to the player...?



EDIT: It's occurred to me that players may actually be interested to know their total real-world time for solving a level as well, particularly if it has taken several sessions. This isn't something to display on postview though; instead, a statistic tracking the total real-world time spent playing any particular level could be displayed in the Level Select screen. Just a thought!

[WillLem]

OK, it's definitely possible to show the total play time if a level is not successfully completed - no problem.

However, it may be necessary to provide further clarification for exactly what time is being shown out of (time to reach SR) and (time to end of gameplay).

Here's 3 possible ways the time value can be listed:







None of them jump out as being exactly the right one to use. Also, the "Record" time isn't clarified as being a (time to reach SR) record as opposed to a (time to end of gameplay) record.

Another possible solution is to add an extra line, so the time values could be shown as:

"Time to reach SR X:XX:XX"
"Total play time X:XX:XX"
"Record time to reach SR X:XX:XX"

This would be clearest, and there may even be enough horizontal real estate to print "SR" as "save requirement" rather than abbreviating it. In cases where the level is not successfully completed, we'd then only show the "Total play time" line, and no other.

[WillLem]

And here's the result:



At some point it might be necessary to reformat the postview screen text again, but for now this seems OK (if a little bit wordy).

Thoughts?

[WillLem]

A full example postview screen. Current thoughts are that this is far too wordy:



Ideas and suggestions welcome.

[WillLem]

Better:



Implemented in Commit 798035af2, but will likely be revised further at some point.

[WillLem]

Even better:



Or do we perhaps prefer this?

Spoiler

EDIT: Decided to go with the first one. Implemented in Commit 816d7b2.