[SUG][PLAYER] Toggle panel view to show how many skills you've used so far

Started by WillLem, December 23, 2020, 05:27:06 AM

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Proxima

Anyway, back on the subject of toggling the silly view to show how many sausages we've used....

WillLem

Quote from: namida on April 12, 2021, 07:21:05 PM
we don't have a dedicated shitposting board

:crylaugh:

Quote from: mantha16 on April 12, 2021, 11:28:12 PM
+1 for namida is a silly sausage

:thumbsup:

Quote from: Proxima on April 12, 2021, 11:57:59 PM
Anyway, back on the subject of toggling the silly view to show how many sausages we've used....

Yes, indeed!

Thinking about it, Silken's idea of being able to toggle individual buttons might also be useful (for example, if you want to see how many Bashers you've used and how many Miners remain simultaneously), but if the idea gets implemented as a panel-wide-only thing, that's also brllliant.

Anyone else have any other thoughts on this?

namida

There would need to be a lot of support, and some good reasoning, for me to do it as a per-skill thing. My current expectations are (a) this feature will likely get implemented, but (b) only as a "all or nothing" rather than per-skill thing.
My projects
2D Lemmings: NeoLemmix (engine) | Lemmings Plus Series (level packs) | Doomsday Lemmings (level pack)
3D Lemmings: Loap (engine) | L3DEdit (level / graphics editor) | L3DUtils (replay / etc utility) | Lemmings Plus 3D (level pack)
Non-Lemmings: Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined (a Commander Keen fangame)

Simon

If you want to see both a limit and a usage, x/y is a common way.

I'd avoid colors as the only denotion of some meaning. People can be color-blind and the meaning is rarely clear from color alone.

The lo-res panel isn't well-suited to printing more than two digits. In hindsight, I'm surprised how long it has fared nicely lo-res-only despite all the existing UI bells and whistles.

-- Simon

namida

QuoteI'd avoid colors as the only denotion of some meaning. People can be color-blind and the meaning is rarely clear from color alone.

There would be the additional signal given by the feeling of holding down your "show used skill count" hotkey. :P
My projects
2D Lemmings: NeoLemmix (engine) | Lemmings Plus Series (level packs) | Doomsday Lemmings (level pack)
3D Lemmings: Loap (engine) | L3DEdit (level / graphics editor) | L3DUtils (replay / etc utility) | Lemmings Plus 3D (level pack)
Non-Lemmings: Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined (a Commander Keen fangame)

WillLem


Proxima

The suggestion is that the panel should say, for example, "10/25" to mean "10 builders available, you started with 25".

I'm strongly against this; it doesn't work for NeoLemmix. Firstly, the skill panel buttons only have room for two digits (and no, I know you love your hi-res, but namida has made it clear that NL will never move to hi-res only).

More importantly, information on the number of skills used is a niche feature that's nice to have, but definitely doesn't merit being always-on and taking up screen real estate. The extra numbers would make it much easier to get confused when looking at the number of each skill you have left, which is the really important information you want access to at all times.

Silken Healer

Quote from: WillLem on April 15, 2021, 10:07:06 AM
Quote from: Simon on April 14, 2021, 06:21:34 PM
If you want to see both a limit and a usage, x/y is a common way.

???

Please elaborate :)

I think Simon means 'x' would be the skills used and 'y' would be the total skills

Silken Healer

Quote from: Proxima on April 15, 2021, 01:01:31 PM
The suggestion is that the panel should say, for example, "10/25" to mean "10 builders available, you started with 25".

I'm strongly against this; it doesn't work for NeoLemmix. Firstly, the skill panel buttons only have room for two digits (and no, I know you love your hi-res, but namida has made it clear that NL will never move to hi-res only).

More importantly, information on the number of skills used is a niche feature that's nice to have, but definitely doesn't merit being always-on and taking up screen real estate. The extra numbers would make it much easier to get confused when looking at the number of each skill you have left, which is the really important information you want access to at all times.

I agree with the first part, but not with the second. I think it would be nice to have it on screen.

Silken Healer

Quote from: Simon on April 14, 2021, 06:21:34 PM
If you want to see both a limit and a usage, x/y is a common way.

I'd avoid colors as the only denotion of some meaning. People can be color-blind and the meaning is rarely clear from color alone.

The lo-res panel isn't well-suited to printing more than two digits. In hindsight, I'm surprised how long it has fared nicely lo-res-only despite all the existing UI bells and whistles.

-- Simon

I agree that there should be some other way of showing the skills would change, but not by using x/y. Btw, all types of colourblindness would still show that the colour has changed, and at the time of writing it wouldn't clash with any other colours because the only possible colours it can be is white.

Silken Healer

Quote from: namida on April 13, 2021, 06:36:54 PM
There would need to be a lot of support, and some good reasoning, for me to do it as a per-skill thing. My current expectations are (a) this feature will likely get implemented, but (b) only as a "all or nothing" rather than per-skill thing.

If you were to implement it as a per skill thing, would you use my idea?

namida

Quote from: Silken Healer on April 17, 2021, 06:11:09 PM
Quote from: namida on April 13, 2021, 06:36:54 PM
There would need to be a lot of support, and some good reasoning, for me to do it as a per-skill thing. My current expectations are (a) this feature will likely get implemented, but (b) only as a "all or nothing" rather than per-skill thing.

If you were to implement it as a per skill thing, would you use my idea?

While useful in some situations, this is a very niche feature. It is not nearly important enough to justify giving it a clickable button, especially considering that either the panel would need to be made larger, the minimap smaller, or another button replaced (or two buttons merged into a top/bottom split similar to dirselect / frameskips) in order to fit it. Even if I was going to do that, there are features far more deserving of a place there.
My projects
2D Lemmings: NeoLemmix (engine) | Lemmings Plus Series (level packs) | Doomsday Lemmings (level pack)
3D Lemmings: Loap (engine) | L3DEdit (level / graphics editor) | L3DUtils (replay / etc utility) | Lemmings Plus 3D (level pack)
Non-Lemmings: Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined (a Commander Keen fangame)

Silken Healer

Wait I thought an "all or nothing" thing was that. I thought a "per-skill" thing meant the toggiling individual buttons thing? ???

namida

Quote from: Silken Healer on April 18, 2021, 02:29:37 AM
Wait I thought an "all or nothing" thing was that. I thought a "per-skill" thing meant the toggiling individual buttons thing? ???

Okay, to avoid confusion, let me spell out exactly how I see this working:

It will be possible to assign a hotkey the behavior of "Show skills used". When the "Show skills used" hotkey is held down, the skill panel will change from showing remaining skill counts, to showing the used-so-far count for every skill. The skill counts could also change color to reinforce that this mode is active - this is something to be decided. It will not be possible to show this for just one skill at a time. There will be no default hotkey assigned (you must assign one yourself), and there will not be a clickable button on the skill panel to activate this.
My projects
2D Lemmings: NeoLemmix (engine) | Lemmings Plus Series (level packs) | Doomsday Lemmings (level pack)
3D Lemmings: Loap (engine) | L3DEdit (level / graphics editor) | L3DUtils (replay / etc utility) | Lemmings Plus 3D (level pack)
Non-Lemmings: Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined (a Commander Keen fangame)