[SUGGESTION] [EDITOR] [TEMP-FIXED] Remove Zombie/Ghost gimmick

[Nepster]

Status: As a temporary measure, I've turned Zombies and Ghosts options on by default for all new NeoLemmix levels. This makes no difference to the final level if they don't contain any ghosts and/or zombies. They can still be disabled for cases where, eg. one wants to have zombies / ghosts in one level, but not in another level that oddtables from it (example case: Perplexing 29 / Playtime 14 from Lemmings Plus Omega).

[Nepster]

Both the Zombie and the Ghost gimmick, do not change existing game mechanics, but add new level components (with their separate rules). In particular, turning these gimmicks on for a level that does not use zombies/ghosts has no effect at all. So there is no sense in requiring specifically turning on the Zombie/Ghost gimmick each time, when one wants to use them. Adding zombies/ghosts is not straightforward in any case - no need to make it even more complicated.

Suggestion: Remove the Zombie/Ghost gimmick from the gimmick list and allow zombies and ghosts in each level.

[IchoTolot]

Suggestion: Remove the Zombie/Ghost gimmick from the gimmick list and allow zombies and ghosts in each level.

I agree, this would be a bit simpler to handle.

[namida]

The one time this can be useful is when a level uses zombies / ghosts, but has a repeat / previous version that does not. However, this can be handled differently (eg. having them enabled (if any are present) as default option, with a "Disable Zombies" / "Disable Ghosts" option), which is probably more user-friendly.

[Nepster]

The one time this can be useful is when a level uses zombies / ghosts, but has a repeat / previous version that does not. However, this can be handled differently (eg. having them enabled (if any are present) as default option, with a "Disable Zombies" / "Disable Ghosts" option), which is probably more user-friendly.

Do we really need extra options for such very special cases, especially as one could simply have two levels instead of oddtabling? I remember only one level in LPOmega where this might have been useful. And having an option just for one level in several hundreds is a very bad trade-off, in my opinion.
Moreover people will not understand why one has these "Disable Zombies/Ghosts" options and wonder...

[namida]

Do we really need extra options for such very special cases, especially as one could simply have two levels instead of oddtabling? I remember only one level in LPOmega where this might have been useful. And having an option just for one level in several hundreds is a very bad trade-off, in my opinion.

I could see it being important during development; maybe not so much in a final product. If one needed to change the level somehow, they would have to take care to apply the exact same change to both versions - the exact thing oddtabling is intended to avoid. The other thing is that the option in a way already exists - it would be as simple as turning those two options on by default (especially now that they wouldn't cause gimmick music automatically), and turning them off in levels with the "disable" option - essentially, it needs only an interface change in the editor, no change to the underlying level format or the player. For compatibility reasons, I'd rather do something like this for as long as the current level format is kept.

[namida]

For now, I've gone with simply enabling them by default in new NeoLemmix levels. I feel this is acceptable because it has no effect if you don't actually place any zombies or ghosts in your levels (as recent versions of NeoLemmix no longer automatically apply gimmick music, except when playing NXPs built prior to this change; and if you don't place any zombies/ghosts, none will appear).

Seperating this into a seperate option is something that can possibly come later; while any change in terms of the level format itself is probably best saved until a text based format is implemented.