Leading zeroes: make game option or cull, not flexi option [FLEXI / PLAYER]

[Simon]

BitBucket: https://bitbucket.org/namida42/neolemmixplayer/issues/23/less-variation-in-skill-counts

When you have 0 of a skill, the skill bar shows empty field, 0, or 00.
When you have n of a skill, 0 < n < 10,  the skill bar shows n or 0n.

Pack designer chooses leading zeroes in the Flexi toolkit. Player cannot change the display in the game. Yet leading zeroes distract the player from important information.

Expected instead: Game doesn't display leading zeroes by default. On 0 skills, game shows empty field. The game may allow to opt into leading zeroes, I don't care if some people want them.

-- Simon

[IchoTolot]

This is a good idea! 
Either make it a game-option or cull the leading 0's completely.

[Proxima]

Also, since skill numbers are shown on a black background, the empty field for 0 should be black, not the current "white-out".

[namida]

The reason it's currently a per-pack choice is because packs may use custom digits that are more suited to one or the other. Lemmings Plus III was the first to use such an option; it had custom digits. Packs have since been seen which use the center option on non-custom digits.

I don't see much reason for a user option for this. Either the per-pack option to allow the custom skillbars to be as the author intended them; or a change to constantly use one option or the other in all cases.

[Nepster]

The reason it's currently a per-pack choice is because packs may use custom digits that are more suited to one or the other. Lemmings Plus III was the first to use such an option; it had custom digits. Packs have since been seen which use the center option on non-custom digits.

Can you give some example of custom digits, where leading zeros look better than centered single digits without leading zeros?
And why is "center option with non-custom digits" any problem? Wouldn't removing leading zeros automatically lead to this way of displaying numbers?

I don't see much reason for a user option for this. [...] or a change to constantly use one option or the other in all cases.

I agree that there is not much reason for a user option: Just force all players to live without leading zeros.
I recently read a bit of the blog "Joel on Software", and he explains in this blog post pretty well, why it is sometimes much better to decide things for the user, instead of giving them options. The upshot is (as I understand it): One should only provide options that users will care about because they change some core aspects of the product.
Translated to NeoLemmix this means: Reading the skill count is not a core aspect of the game, so there should not be an option. So it falls to the designers (i.e. us here) to optimize readability and then force our solution upon the players.
Due to the same arguments, I feel that we should remove the option to choose between displaying "0" and whiting/blacking out the skill counter as well.

Also, since skill numbers are shown on a black background, the empty field for 0 should be black, not the current "white-out".

Very good suggestion, because the white rectangle catches the eye of the player for something utterly unimportant, while a black background encourages players to skip over this spot.

[namida]

Due to the same arguments, I feel that we should remove the option to choose between displaying "0" and whiting/blacking out the skill counter as well.

We tried this once. Many people were unhappy with the result, hence why an option was added to revert to the non-chosen behaviour.

Also, since skill numbers are shown on a black background, the empty field for 0 should be black, not the current "white-out".

This idea makes sense. I think the whiting out, rather than blacking out, is very much due to tradition.

[Simon]

I'm okay with no user option. Bonus clampoints to Nepster for digging up Joel on Software. Without the user option, no leading zeroes should ever be displayed. This means empty field for 0 skills, and single digit for < 10 skills.

Due to the same arguments, I feel that we should remove the option to choose between displaying "0" and whiting/blacking out the skill counter as well.

We tried this once. Many people were unhappy with the result, hence why an option was added to revert to the non-chosen behaviour.

Tried what once? You removed the option, what choice did you make mandatory?

empty field for 0 should be black, not the current "white-out".

This idea makes sense. I think the whiting out, rather than blacking out, is very much due to tradition.

Yep, blacking out sounds best, to make other skills' white digits stand out.

-- Simon

[namida]

I've pushed a commit which changes the white out feature to black out, so the next experimental version should have this change. Depending of course on the feedback from actually seeing it in practice, it is very possible it'll become a permanent change.

Nothing has been done in regards to the leading zeroes as of yet. (EDIT: Per a suggestion of including both at the same time, since they can easily be reverted (independently of each other) if need be, I've pushed a commit which never displays leading zeroes too.)


The exact nature of these changes (at this stage is) that the whiteout option is replaced with blackout option, so the user can choose either "display a zero" or "black out". For the leading zeros, there is no option whether pack-side or user-side, they're just never displayed.