"Fencer" skill?

[namida]

Jumper and Laser Blaster may be skills that can be considered in the future; the former in particular, whatever the answer is on "Will this be a worthwhile addition?" will be much easier to determine (at least in theory) due to that we can take examples from how useful it's been (or not) in Lix, which has had it for quite some time. On the downside, Jumper would also be one hell of a pain in the ass to code (Laser Blaster on the other hand would be quite simple to implement, but instantly accepting a new skill just because it's easy to implement would set a very dangerous precedent).

I don't see enough value in Rock Climber to consider it. Except for maybe a very small number of puzzles based on using them together with regular climbers, I'm not sure what potential exists for them that isn't covered by regular climbers, apart from perhaps some puzzles that involve both types of skills in the same level with some rough walls and some straight ones.

Shimmier, I can't say much as I don't remember what this skill does (keep in mind, I was never too much of an L2 fan).

But for now, let's assume that no new skills are going to happen outside of this one maybe. I'm not saying this as in "It will never happen, no matter what", but more as in "For now, let's just worry about this one potential new skill, and also keep in mind that the primary goals at the moment are (from highest priority downwards) fixing the existing physics, switching to friendlier file formats, improving the UI, and improving performance; not introducing further new features".

[namida]

The discussion seems to be quite 50/50, while the poll results show a bias - albeit a slight one - towards "yes".

Since I myself am leaning towards "yes" (although I myself did pick the "Unsure, leaning towards yes" option rather than the outright yes), and the votes too are leaning that way, I feel that we should at least give the skill a chance.

The next stage - which may not be for some time yet - will be to create an experimental version that contains a kludgy implementation of a Fencer skill, allowing people to experiment with it in practical situations. Based on the results from this, I'll decide whether or not to go ahead with a proper implementation, or discard it. Then, if the decision is yes, we can decide on the finer details of its implementation.

I definitely think a practical trial is nessecary - and would be so even if the votes were overwhelmingly for "Yes" - as there have been some good counterarguments against it, and culling a skill that's been included in a stable release is something I want to avoid like the plague.

[mobius]

Considering NL and Lix together, my favorite new skills are:
runner, jumper, platformer, (maybe) stacker, swimmer, glider, disarmer

The ones I don't like, mainly because I think they are too powerful are:*
walker, stoner/cuber, fling bomber

I would also support removing above mentioned skills I'm not fond of.

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Overall I'm not sure this new skill would make an enormous difference in gameplay, say compared to other ideas I have that you know I'm always trying to push on people But I'm not against it.

The main reason I prefer adding new objects verses new skills is I think it's easier to learn for a player how an object works versus a new skill + a new skill comes with more baggage. (e.g. how said skill interacts with all the umpteen other skills).

*I should note that this is all considering the current type of game NL is. In L3 for example, I really like having the walker there.

[namida]

As some of you may have picked up on by now, either by accidentally discovering references to it in places, suspecting from the one-way-up arrows that are now supported, or by playing the latest version of the LPO2 demo which features a level that uses it; V10.12.XX of NeoLemmix has added a Fencer skill.

I don't want to get too many levels using it until it's been through some more testing, which LPO2 will be the initial test ground for. However, if you are interested in playing around with it, contact me via PM and I'll let you know how to add it to your levels (this isn't a matter of messing around with a hex editor, but just a fairly easy-to-do method to unlock a hidden option in the editor). Due to the fact that the skill may still have bugs or need adjustments for other reasons, I will not be revealing it at this stage to anyone who has a reputation for not updating their levels when NL updates have broken them. The option will be made available (and non-secret) in general once I feel the skill is fairly stable.

(It is not likely that the skill will be outright removed anymore, just that the exact physics of it may change.)