2 things I want to know
1.Can there be a "Classic Preview" button where you can view the level way you can right now or the way before? (Post and Preview texts still included)
and
2.Will stuff like this still be possible? (Big image)Spoiler (click to show/hide)
1) I agree, that whole packs and ranks should be selectable (currently only ranks are). I would prefer that they go to the main menu of the pack, not directly to the first unsolved level. Only when one starts a level, the preview screen of the first unsolved level of the pack resp. rank appears.
2) I would prefer lazy loading of pack infos: Only load the packs upon opening the level selection menu. Only when viewing ranks or single levels, they are loaded. Currently it takes several seconds until the level selection menu appears. At first I thought it wouldn't do anything...
3) The default pack should not only being the last one played, but even the rank and current level should be opened already, as changing this will probably occur much more often than changing packs.
4) I very much like your key layout for the level selection menu. But I would like to be able to select packs/levels by double-clicking on them or pressing Enter. Currently one has to click on the "Ok" button (or tab to there). Moreover I would expect that one first tabs to the "OK" button, and then to the "Cancel" button, not the other way around.
5) Probably already on your to-do list: I would like to have the check-marks for solved levels, again.
6) Regarding what to display as an info: A minimap view would be the best, but only if it doesn't take too long to produce. When moving through the level list, I don't want to wait a second every time I go to a new level. Otherwise I would like the following info:
- Pack name, rank name and title again.
- Number lemmings, save requirement and max saved lemmings of previous attempts.
- Time limit or infinite time.
- Some small talisman icons, if there is one. But not the actual talisman description.
I am not sure how useful the skill count would be, as they are not something I tend to remember. The used tileset may be confusing for levels that mix styles or that have selected a completely different main style for some weird reason.
7) Perhaps we should display some infos regarding packs, too? Like their ranks and number of levels within the ranks. Number of already solved levels in the rank?
I can see the logic behind this for selecting the pack as a whole (in fact, I had been considering this already and simply hadn't implemented it yet), but are we sure we want it for ranks too? I'd think first unsolved level makes more sense here.My gut reaction was going to the main menu after selecting a rank, but I cannot give a compelling reason for this. So going directly to the level might work, too.
I thought about this. A preview image will take a while to display, but would be nice to have. It could probably be saved somewhere when it's generated, so that next time, it can check the modified date of the NXLV file against the modified date of the saved image, and if the image is still newer, it just uses the saved image rather than rendering it again.I think ideally the FlexiToolkit and the NXPConverter would already produce small preview images of all levels, and put combine them into one big png file. Then the NL player just has to load this one image and display it after cropping it correctly.
I find it interesting that you want the presence of a talisman to be displayed, but not what the talisman is actually for. May I ask why this is, [...]Where to display this info is a good question, but I doubt the place is the level selection menu.
[...] and what method you'd propose for finding the talisman information from the level select menu - maybe displaying this information on the preview screen itself?If there is enough space on the preview screen, then this would be perfect. Alternatively add something like "Click here for talisman description" to the preview screen that goes to a separate page with the talisman description and starts the level afterwards. Or perhaps even display the talisman info like the custom pre-level text.
Your idea about Flexi generating the images would have worked well (if it weren't for lack of knowledge of rendering) for the current version. Not so much for the new loose-files version, where someone may have modified the level sinceYes, good point. Still I would prefer that the level selection menu displays all other level info together with a placeholder first and remains fully functional, then renders the level internally and when it is finished adds the preview image to the level selection menu. And if the user moves to the next level, the player aborts it's previous try at rendering the level and starts with rendering the new level.
(and there is still the issue of it inflating the download size, which is a concern to me if I plan to eventually allow all content to be hosted on the NL website since costs are determined based on storage and bandwidth used, not a fixed monthly rate).That's actually not so bad. The preview images will probably be roughly 333x160 pixels. If you have 5 ranks with 30 levels each, this makes for a 10000x800 image. When I tested this, it required rougly 2MB. In my experience, png files do a pretty good job on compressing images, if they are very wide but not high.
Here's a picture of the level select menu in it's current state, with progression marks visible.I like the progression marks for solved and tried-but-unsolved. I am not so much of a fan of the dirty brown icon for non-tried, especially if there are lots of them around. How about a dark blue circle instead?
Your idea about Flexi generating the images would have worked well (if it weren't for lack of knowledge of rendering) for the current version. Not so much for the new loose-files version, where someone may have modified the level sinceYes, good point. Still I would prefer that the level selection menu displays all other level info together with a placeholder first and remains fully functional, then renders the level internally and when it is finished adds the preview image to the level selection menu. And if the user moves to the next level, the player aborts it's previous try at rendering the level and starts with rendering the new level.