I remember that the inside markings (C in the image) are for walkers, and I don't use the outside markings. I assume both outside markings (A, B) are for climbers.
I don't know if the red bars (C, D) at the ends are inclusive or exclusive. I use the ruler for rough measurement, and if a single pixel counts, I experiment. (= I let one splat and rewind.)
-- Simon
I remember that the inside markings (C in the image) are for walkers, and I don't use the outside markings. I assume both outside markings (A, B) are for climbers.
I've had some ideas regarding alternatives to this system: Use the skill shadow system instead.
Suppose the player places their cursor over a falling lemming. What about a shadow that traces out the path of the falling lemming, starting out grey before turning red after splat fall distance is reached?
Interesting thought, but I don't like this as a replacement for the splat ruler, because it's very often useful to know whether a particular fall will be fatal or not when planning a route, whether or not you have a lemming nearby.
The obvious solution is to offer multiple splat rulers and have a plain one as default
Consider also that NeoLemmix has rewind capabilities. Suppose a lemming falls from a window and splats. This usually happens immediately at the beginning of the level, and so the player thinks "aha - need to fix that". Usually this is part of a level's puzzle anyway. In this case, the window splat marker is useless
Why not have both? The splat ruler could be changed to remove the climber/window behaviours, and the skill shadow system would cover those cases by itself.
The hatch drop is 100 % local and doesn't need a mobile ruler. You can stick the splat marker for a hatch into the hatch's hover-during-clear-physics information
All we should need is one simple stick/line.
(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/splatrulermarker-a.png) | (https://www.lixgame.com/etc/splatrulermarker-b.png) | (https://www.lixgame.com/etc/splatrulermarker-c.png) | (https://www.lixgame.com/etc/splatrulermarker-d.png) |
Clearly wrong | Maybe correct? | Maybe correct? | Clearly wrong |
(but still wrong) | (indeed correct) |
Thus: Let's ditch all 1-pixel thick markings. You can still have a complex ruler, e.g., by making the climber extension thinner (across its entire extra length) than the main ruler. But no 1-pixel thick markings.
I've attached one possible lo-res ruler.
even my 63px "fall distance only" ruler is incorrect
top of the ruler aligns with the lemming's foot position whilst they're still on solid ground (i.e. they haven't fallen yet, so it's actually fall distance + 1px).
What should be incorrect here?
It's a distance in pixels, not a number of pixels. If I sit on Just Visiting and I roll a 10, and I tap the pawn on each space along the way to Free Parking, yes, I'll have touched 11 spaces during the turn. But that should be irrelevant.
Or do you want to measure the first deadly fall?
I found this new problem with the white triangles in my proposed ruler. Look carefully at the highest row of the ground: I've stuck the ruler 1 pixel deep into the ground, which is a mistake. The ground is light, and that's common: Bricky tilesets often have such bricks with lighting from the top-left or top-right.
Curiously, the 1-pixel red line would have prevented this accident.
incorrectly placed the ruler because of the colour of the block?
If the latter, couldn't that potentially happen with any colour of ruler? If we make the ruler red or blue, for example, it's similarly difficult to use with a red or blue block.
Yes, this will happen with any single-colored tip. To prevent that, my idea is now to make the tip multi-colored
...
2023 NL's ruler with the red line would have prevented that even in a red block
Rather than making the end multi-colored, I think a better solution ... would be to make the colors change
First hunch from the video: This constant color rotation makes it harder to see where exactly the ruler is.
Now, the ruler moves on the screen even after you take your hand off the mouse entirely
Does it? ??? If you're referring to the video
you mean something else?
It's a physical property of LCD monitors. When the ruler is green, it must be elsewhere (physically on the monitor) than when it was red.
why is there such a difference between dangerous fall distance bewtween walker/climbers etc? And if im playing a level that relys on such precision, im very likely to stop playing said level or pack. Thats bad level design imo
More pointedly; why is there such a difference between dangerous fall distance bewtween walker/climbers etc?
And if im playing a level that relys on such precision, im very likely to stop playing said level or pack. Thats bad level design imo
Because climbers stop when they hit their head on a ceiling, but splat height is measured by how far the feet fall. In other words, the fall distance is the same but the smallest fatal distance from floor to ceiling is slightly more than the splat height.