Backroute-judging feature when saving replay?

[Simon]

Hi,

There are days/weeks between creating the replay (during a longer play session) and submitting the replay. By then, I've forgotten my feelings for the replay.

On saving a manual replay, I want buttons for quick annotations:

I suspect that this is the intended solution.
I suspect that this is an acceptable alternative.
I suspect that this is a slight backroute.
I suspect that this is an egregious backroute.
Add/remove/reorder quick annotation.

How do the powerful solvers in NL handle the problem of remembering feedback for later submission? You submit many replays in one post/PM. When you were playing, did you put feelings in your filenames to remind yourself? Do you re-watch replays before submitting them for accurate feedback?

For a Lix feature: Should we put the feeling in the filename or should we put it into the replay format?

Even autoreplay can get these annotations, but they're optional, you don't have to provide one.

The same feature would be for level authors instead of level players. The authors will put a final judgement in the format/filename, whereas players will put suspicions of what the author's judgement would be.

-- Simon

[Dullstar]

I love this idea already.

I would say that even when manually saving it should be optional, and there should be a simple way to go back and modify it later.

I don't manually save replays very often, so I don't know if Lix allows choosing a filename or not. If it doesn't it definitely should. But you can of course type your suspicions in fairly easily without too much effort, so I don't think the buttons would provide a lot of value relative to the amount of UI space they would require if it just inserted it into the filename. If automatic filtering is used (for instance to prioritize checking just the replays that are suspected backroutes), then you'd have a lot more value for the buttons, as it could handle the insertion of the information in the expected format, in which case I'd suggest including it in the format (giving significance to the syntax of a filename of something users would want to share around and potentially manually organize sounds like a bad idea).

[Apjjm]

Would this be like dropping text on the level as you solve using a hotkey or something that is done post-recording? If it is done at the same time as play then it could also be used to just jot thoughts down when coming back to a tough puzzle maybe?

[Simon]

Dullstar: Right, such annotations/judgements should always be optional.

Apjjm: I imagine it purely after the play, at the same time when we tell the program to save the replay. This happens within a minute after finishing the level. At this time, the replay and the feelings are still perfectly in our mind.

Apjjm: Jotting notes during play, this would be a separate idea. Such notes sound like it shouldn't be tied to any single replay. But I'd imagine pen and paper superior for notes than any in-game notepad. Solution ideas tend to be best jotted by drawing pictures. Unless the jotting feature allows you to draw lines on the screen -- that would be a wonderful idea for the backburner, in case I make networked puzzle solving (= play a singleplayer level with teammates), and transmit such pointings/lines to the teammates.

Dullstar: So far, Lix doesn't allow choice of filename for manaul replay, but that is a leftover design crutch from when I crammed end-of-level into minimal space inside the level browser. I don't mind creating a dialog for manual saving later.

Dullstar: Yeah, the filename is already precious and I already abuse it for on-the-fly reverse-associating levels to a set of replays. Let's not cram too much extra info into the filename. Yeah, whether filename or in-format, it's nice to have the computer detect or filter these replays. You can watch only backroutes. And you could put backroutes in your proof collection and Lix could guarantee that this backroute fails the fixed level.

-- Simon

[namida]

The old-formats NeoLemmix pack toolkit had a replay manager tool. I want to reimplement this as a feature in NL itself at some point, perhaps even in the next major update. This allowed you to collect replays and assign them any labels you want, with "Backroute" being one of the default options (along with "Intended", "Alternate", "Attempt" and "Talisman", IIRC). This is one feature that I have at times really felt the lack of in new-formats.

[Simon]

Thanks for the sentiment. Looking forward then to cross-pollination from the two parallel developments.

I'm not dead-set on the default alternatives either, e.g., it's already a stretch to force the player to judge whether his solution is intended or an acceptable alternative.

I'll see how quickly I come to do this, it'll have to be after the remaining end-of-level screen work. I'm happy to have the idea already on the forums early.

-- Simon

[Simon]

This won't be in 0.9.39 with the end-of-singleplayer screen yet. It's time to get the solid screen out of the door as it is; a lot has been cooking since early 2021.

I'll keep this backroute judging in mind.

-- Simon