Lix ingame UI (skill panel)

[Forestidia86]

Recently in another thread it came up that the skill panel could have too many buttons.

I'm actually fine with the skill panel but others find it cluttered, ugly and like a "Korean washing machine".

I think the advantage of the current skill panel is that you see all skills that are generally available, so you know at once which skills to expect in the game.

I would speak against a scrolling mechanism since it takes the dynamics of the game and is obscure.

[Nepster]

As I mentioned in the other thread:

I prefer the NeoLemmix system over the Lix system of always displaying all skills, because the Lix system means lots of grayed-out buttons (because the skill is not used in the level) and less flexibility regarding additions of new skills.

However this was written from a NeoLemmix perspective with the question in mind: Should we copy the Lix skill panel for NeoLemmix? For Lix itself, I have less problems with the current skill panel: Lix simply has less skills than NeoLemmix and Lix does not plan to add new skills (like the NeoLemmix shimmier and jumper) in the near future.

[Simon]

Yeah, Lix has fewer skills than NeoLemmix. Displaying all skills means that every new skill fills the UI further.

I've considered hiding skills that aren't available in a level, but NaOH wanted to always show those unavailable skills. Reason: It's easier to find a skill when it's always in the same absolute spot. Downside is of course the cluttered UI.

-- Simon

[namida]

I've considered hiding skills that aren't available in a level, but NaOH wanted to always show those unavailable skills. Reason: It's easier to find a skill when it's always in the same absolute spot. Downside is of course the cluttered UI.

Being able to find the same skill in the same spot like that is very important for Lix's multiplayer mode (high-tier players use hotkeys, and newbies likely have to look anyway, but for those in the middle it's invaluable), and beyond that is a matter of consistency between single-player and multiplayer. NeoLemmix has no multiplayer mode to worry about, so skill-position-is-same is less critical there - though I do feel the relative positions should be consistent (or in other words: there should be a fixed overall order the skills appear in; with unused skills not displayed).