I just used the Flexi Toolkit for the first time and following the tutorials it worked really well
! Not a single error message!
But there are still a few places, where I feel that the Flexi Toolkit could be improved. None of the following is a serious issue, so if anything needs more than changing a few lines in the code, it is probably not worth the effort.
1) File - Save...
Currently it is not clear, what is saved if one just clicks "Save...". As I first thought it would already save everything as a .exe, it might be good to replace it with "Save System.Dat" or something like that. (Yes, I know: there is a "Build exe" as well, but a stupid user like me reads "Save" and thinks this is, what he wants it to be...)
2) Settings - Options Default
Please force the user to confirm that the options should really be reset. The buttons are rather huge (at least compared to all the checkboxes), so it is easy to hit them accidently. On the other hand, I don't think they these options are needed often, so hitting "OK" one more time should not be too annoying.
3) Settings - System.Dat
At the moment, you must hit "Export System.Dat" in the Flexi Toolkit, then go to the NeoLemmix Editor to actually edit the System.Dat and finally go back to the Flexi Toolkit to import the changed file again. This is quite much work for changing a few more options by checkboxes. So why is it necessary to change all that in the NeoLemmix Editor? Why not letting users make these changes already in the Flexi Toolkit?
4) Levels - Adding Ranks
When I first got there, I hit "Add" (rank), and the Toolkit did... nothing
! Well, at least nothing visible. That was very confusing, as I intuitively thought, that I had to enter a rank name first, then click "Add" to create a rank with that name. So:
Important change: On adding a rank, give it a generic name (e.g. "Rank 0") and do not leave it blank.
Optional additional change: If the user has already entered something in "Rank Name", give the newly created rank this name automatically.
5) Levels - Buttom naming
You have two buttons "Add", "Delete", ...; one for ranks and one for single levels. I would prefer to change this to "Add Rank" and "Add Level" on the buttons. This might mean making the interface slightly bigger, but that should not be a big problem.
6) Musics - Special Level Settings
I have several levels with the music setting 253 (arbitrary music track even though gimmick "Deadly Sides"). However in the .exe level 1 always plays track 1, level 2 always plays track 2, ... In other words: The music setting in the .lvl file is not respected! I haven't yet tested what happens when specifying a usual track number, but at least "253" gives problems.
7) Musics - Restart Standard Rotation
Why is it preset to "1"? When creating the first .exe, I missed this option and thus all levels played track 1. My suggestion: Leave this empty by default and identify "empty = total number of tracks loaded".
And I have a few wishes for additional setting options. They are mainly meant for the V2 incarnation of this Toolkit, as they likely require bigger changes in the source code for the toolkit or even the player itself:
8) Optional Talisman display
If a level pack does not have Talismans and one does not plan to include them ever, the display of the Talisman review in the main page of the player only confuses users. So there should be an option to remove the ability to see the talisman count. Alternatively one may implement it in the player itself to display the Talisman option only if there actually are talismans available.
9) Cheat mode automatically enabled
Currently I haven't found an option in the Flexi Toolkit to create a player, where the cheat mode is enabled by default. This is important to me, because I want to encourage players to skip levels they do not like.
10) Customizable option menu
Many current options are irrelevant in a full player. Some like the "Steel Debug" or "Look for lvl-Files" option are even actively harmful in a finished player. Why not having an advanced menu, where one can remove certain options for the final player?
On a related (and off-topic) note: Why is the Music and Sound option in the player combined? Wouldn't it be clearer for the user to have "Music On/Off" and "Sound On/Off" as two separate options?