So essentially, just a temporary triathlete?
No, way much more than that. Just a few of the ideas that have been mentioned which would make the state more than "just a temporary triathlete": can destroy steel, can be assigned infinite skills, can bomb without being sacrificed, is immune to traps, can survive any fall, etc.
I don't think they should have infinite skills. Both the level designer and the player have to count up how many skills each [however long the invincibility lasts for] second section would use, and then figure out where you need to utilize them to finish with enough skills. That just seems like it would get annoying
Yes, I've realised that. In the post immediately before yours, I said "it wouldn't even be too hard to design a limited-skillset level and then have a "hidden skillset" within the invincibility mode which is required to complete the level - yuck, this is not what we want invincibility mode to become!"
It's paraphrasing, but I think we both mean the same thing here; I fully agree, granting temporary infinite skills could mean that designers make annoying levels which the player would have little to no chance of figuring out. To mitigate it, the invincibility state would need to be even
more unpredictable; one idea would be to allow the invincible lem to be freely moved around the level using the mouse - I believe this could solve the problem to
some extent, but is perhaps a bit too drastic a measure.
If it does have infinite skills, maybe it can still only be assigned levels [ed - skills?] that are actually on the skill panel as part of the level's skillset. This would keep the original integrity of the level's design at least a bit
Yes, I should have been clearer about that - if invincibility means infinite skills, this would only be
infinity-of-each of the currently available skills in the level. So, if the level only provides Bashers, invincibility would grant infinite Bashers.
invincible lemmings shouldn't be able to blow up or become stoners. If you think about it, in reality, it wouldn't work unless the lemming actually died
...
100% no on destroying steel. Steel should be indestructible above all else; that's the whole point of steel.
The invincibility state doesn't need to care about reality - in fact, the whole point of it, in my opinion, would be that these sorts of rules can and absolutely should be broken, otherwise - what's the point? You'd end up with, as you originally stated, "just a temporary triathlete" that can survive traps/falls. Boring, not worth the effort.
Also, Stoners aren't part of SuperLemmix any more. We now have the Freezer skill instead. See
this discussion.
make the skill less overpowered, and create more puzzle opportunities
The whole point of invincibility mode, from my point of view, would be to make the lem overpowered, and to subvert the puzzle element of the game.
Perhaps, then, we don't want this?
the invincibility timer could be blinking gold, and the bomber timer could gradually go from yellow to red for aesthetic purposes and to tell which one is which.
Yes, good idea, I suppose both timers could display at once. Another way to do it would be to flip between the two, which is what happens with the Timebomb timer and the Highlight arrow when using the Highlight Lemming feature.
I don't see any reason why they should walk past the exit.
I can think of three:
1) Perhaps there does need to be
some limitation to the invincibility state - if not in terms of ability, then in terms of time and interaction with objects. It makes sense, then, that if it ignores trap triggers, it also ignores the exit trigger. This could also be extended to teleporters, splitters, and even buttons.
2) It makes sense that the player would
want to keep the invincible lem active in the level for as long as possible, so it would actually be a
good thing that they don't exit.
3) It introduces some puzzle potential which wouldn't be too tricky for a player to figure out - e.g. requiring the lem to Jump/Build/etc from the position of the exit's trigger, requiring the Timebombing invincible lem to walk past the exit in order to detonate at some point after it, etc.