[SUGGESTION] [PLAYER] [ADDED] V1.36n - Replay saving, data loss by default

[namida]

Okay, I've implemented the behaviour as mentioned in post #13.

#1 and #3 are already options; there's now an option for #2 and #4 as well (though I still need to make them actually appear on the config screen).

Additionally, auto-saved replays will go into a seperate subfolder, and will be marked with "_FAILED" if they do not complete the level. (They won't have any mark, other than the timestamp, if they're successful.)

Is there anyone who feels these options are inadequate?

[Simon]

You prefer the modal box (add a checkmark to remember setting!) to prevent clutter, but then you auto-save failed replays, which produces more clutter than auto-naming instead of modal box.

Don't save failures. That's what manual save is for.

-- Simon

[namida]

Automatic saving is disabled by default. If the user turns it on, _FAILED is added as a way to distinguish them from successful attempts (re: Nepster's suggestion on why marking the successful ones might not be a good idea).

[Simon]

Distinguishing them is not enough. Don't save them.

Who wants them? You shun usability theory, so please link to posts where, in very practice, people have wanted automatic replay of failures. I assert they don't exist.

Even Nepster's post (you've referenced it right now) suggests we shouldn't save failures.

-- Simon

[namida]

I don't know that I completely want to remove it. Perhaps "On" "Off" "Only on success" options...? Though if there really is no one who thinks they'd use that option, I could just change the behaviour to "only on success".

Also - does anyone still want to see the "Save Replay As..." hotkey, or are these new options sufficient?

[Simon]

In the stable version, auto-replay saves everything, failures and solutions, without annotation. This is not what people need. I didn't know NL does it like that, and therefore have interpreted möbius's replies completely wrong.

Auto-save only successes, and timestamping them, is most likely exactly what pack designers need. At the very least, they should try this again in the next release.

This makes manual saves way less important, and therefore manual saves should also be timestamped, not overwriting, and not popping up the modal box.

-- Simon

[namida]

The discussion of how auto-saving should work is somewhat outside the scope of this topic's intended purpose. I'm going to create a new topic for it, and ask that all discussion related to how auto-saving should work be redirected there. http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2365.0

This topic is for the discussion of avoiding data loss when manual saving. Since that matter appears to be resolved, I'm closing this one now.

EDIT: Err... well, I forgot to actually close it. Nevermind. But - keep discussion of how to handle autosaving to that new topic; keep this one for discussing the problems (and solutions thereof) with manual saving.

[Nepster]

Could you please elaborate a bit more on the options you implemented? Just to satisfy my curiosity, I would like to know the following:
In option 2, there is a "possibly" in the description. Did you (for manually saved replays) include "SOLVED" or did you include "FAILED" or none?
In option 4, when asking for confirmation: Is there a possiblity to manually change to name of the replay file if one wants to save the file, but not overwrite the old one?

PS: I will most likely use option 2.

[namida]

In option 2, there is a "possibly" in the description. Did you (for manually saved replays) include "SOLVED" or did you include "FAILED" or none?

_FAILED is appened to autosaved replays where applicable (_SOLVED is not). It is not in any case to manually-saved ones.

In option 4, when asking for confirmation: Is there a possiblity to manually change to name of the replay file if one wants to save the file, but not overwrite the old one?

Yes. If the replay file doesn't already exist, it works the same way the auto-naming does in all previous versions. If it does already exist, it pops up a dialog box saying "Replay already exists. Overwrite?"; if you click "Yes" it overwrites, if you click "No" it pops up a save file dialog box to ask you to choose a filename to save to.

[namida]

Based on feedback from some people using it hands-on, the default option will be to append a timestamp, rather than to use a timestamp-less name and confirm before overwriting (the option for the latter behaviour still exists; it's just not the default).