[SUG][PLAYER] Display Neutral Lemming Count

[kaywhyn]

This was originally suggested by Crane in this 12.7RC NL topic but wasn't ever implemented due to no one else chiming in on it and therefore "no interest" in it at the time:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4444.msg77454#msg77454

To quote Crane from that topic:

• Currently, if you hover your mouse over a neutral lemming, it doesn't display how many there are (like zombies). However, because neutral lemmings count towards the tally and can interact harmlessly with regular lemmings, I think the count should be displayed for neutral lemmings.

I second this suggestion of Crane's. Similar to how the panel displays a count for regular Lemmings when several of them are under the cursor, eg, "walker 5" when 5 Lemmings are under the cursor, I think having a neutral count when multiple neutrals are under the cursor would be very helpful. One case where it would be super helpful is from a level I was testing for Gronkling and I was wondering where my neutral group that's going around as 1 neutral Lemming because the others are all stacked up completely behind him was. I had a few isolated neutral Lemmings going around as well, but mousing over each of them didn't tell me which was the one neutral Lemming going around with all the others stacked up behind him completely.

I think I checked for zombies and it doesn't display a count for them from Old Formats NL onwards, with the last time it did so being the final stable version of very old formats NL, but I only checked with 10.13.18 and not anything in between that and 1.43. So, perhaps the count for zombies can be restored if it isn't already being displayed?   

[namida]

No further suggestions will be taken at this stage. With that being said, since all existing ones have been handled, I will leave topics open going forward so that anyone wanting to develop a fork can take note of them.

[kaywhyn]

All rightie, sounds good!

[WillLem]

@kaywhyn

I think I understand the suggestion, but just to be sure, could you explain in a bit more detail what it is you want to see here please?

Screenshots/pictures would help if that's OK/possible. Thanks!

[kaywhyn]

Screenshots/pictures would help if that's OK/possible. Thanks!

See photos below.



For normal Lemmings, if you place the cursor over where there are multiple Lemmings, it will display a count. In this case, there are 12 of them (all stacked behind one another and hence why you only see 1 Lemming in the picture), thus it displays "Walker 12." Of course, this also works if they are slightly fanned out, and the panel will still display a count when there are multiple Lemmings under the cursor.



Same thing but for neutral Lemmings instead. In this case, there's 12 of them, but when putting the cursor where there are multiple neutral Lemmings, there's no count. Meaning, it doesn't say "Neutral 12" if there happen to be 12 neutrals under the cursor. Currently, doing that will just display "neutral" in the panel.

Crane's suggestion in the linked topic is for NL to display a count for neutrals if there are multiple of them under the cursor. I second his suggestion. In another level, I had a neutral group stacked up like in the photo but I also had a few lone neutral Lemmings roaming around in the level. I was wondering where the heck my stacked up neutral group was, and since mousing over each of the neutrals just gives you "neutral" in the panel, I had absolutely no help in knowing where the multiple neutral group was. Currently, the only way is to simply follow the group around in the level so you always know where it is, but as one's focus can't always be on them depending on the level, the count here would be beneficial. Of course, this is less of an issue if the neutrals are very close to each other and fanned out so you can see there are multiple of them, but displaying a count would still be beneficial.

I've checked with zombies and same thing, the info panel just displays "zombie" even if there are multiple under the cursor. It used to display a count for them back in very old formats NL, but it seems that from Old Formats NL onwards it doesn't. I've only checked with the last version of Old Formats NL, i.e, 10.13.18, which just displays "zombie." It likely didn't in all the other v10 NL players too, but I didn't check with them. 

[WillLem]

See photos below.

Thanks, this helps 

when putting the cursor where there are multiple neutral Lemmings, there's no count. Meaning, it doesn't say "Neutral 12" if there happen to be 12 neutrals under the cursor. Currently, doing that will just display "neutral" in the panel ... I've checked with zombies and same thing, the info panel just displays "zombie" even if there are multiple under the cursor.

OK, thanks for your explanation. This is potentially game-breaking, since the player has no way to know how many Neutrals or Zombies there are under the cursor at any time; level authors could exploit this by stacking multiples in the same spot, misleading the player. It's unlikely anyone would actually do this, but fixing this bug would prevent it from being an issue anyway.

So, this will definitely be fixed in SuperLemmix. The same code can likely then be used for NeoLemmix as well.

From a quick look at the code, the count information is stored in Game.LastHitCount; it seems that Zombies and Neutrals are ignored for this particular variable. This is important for cursor priority and (possibly) assignability, but there's no reason the lems themselves shouldn't be tallied up. I'll see what I can do.

[WillLem]

Fixed in SuperLemmix commit 698963362.

A new procedure (TLemmingGame.GetCursorLemmingCount) now counts all lemmings under the cursor, regardless of priority or type (removed/teleporting lems are still disregarded - thanks, namida! ). This procedure is used to display the number instead of the previous one (i.e. TLemmingGame.GetPriorityLemming, the primary function of which is to determine which lemming under the cursor should take selection priority).

@namida I'd be happy to PR this if you want to merge it into 12.14.