1) If we display "required - saved / out + hatch" how do we count cloner skills? My intuition says: "required - saved / out + hatch + cloners".
1) Same gut reaction, add cloners. But I haven't thought deeply about it. The main idea is to count how many you may still lose, so adding cloners seems correct. I believe they should also be counted with the "number of lemmings:" on the preview.
Downside: If it shows 3 lems out, and you find only 2 on the map, how fast do you realize that he missing lem out comes from the skill? Is this situation likely to run into, after saving most of the horde?
2) [...] cloner skills left. Should these be automatically added to the saved count?
2) Gut reaction: No, don't add, but fix the underlying UI problem that makes 2) a problem in the first place.
The UI problem is that you cannot edit the current solution after the level has ended automatically. If you start the level afresh, all your replay data is gone. The only workaround is to save it to a file immediately before clicking anything out of habit, restart level, reload replay from file. Since the issue 2) seems to come up every once in a while, this workaround is impractical.
Depending on what happens with this UI problem, I'd suggest different solutions for 2). The player should always be able to easily score Cloners near the exit, even if the game has ended.
After thinking some more: My combined idea of 1) add cloners, 2) don't score cloners, is idiotic. We'd end up with a level void of lemmings, but displaying lems left equal to cloner skill count left. This idea implies they should be scored automatically. Or not be counted with the out count. Whargh.
Maybe the level must not terminate until all cloner skills have been applied, or the level has already been won without them. Then the time limit shouldn't terminate the level either, for there exist people like me who mash the time-skipping key until the level terminates after the crowd has arrived.
Hnn yeah, why is this all in one thread, instead of one for the panel issue? I lack mod rights to separate the posts appropriately...
I want to meet Nepster in real life someday. :-]
One thing I dislike about Lixes interface is that the lettering is smaller and there is more of it; means more difficult to read; particularly in tense situations, not often a case in single play, but sometimes.
Print is too small: This is an interplay of small print and low-contrast choice of colors. I'm hesitant to use full white to not distract from the skill counts. On the other hand, I hate low contrast print. It's concerning.
I'd suggest you wait for the D port in a few months, once that has reasonably testable singleplayer. That will support arbitrary windowed resolutions without looking uglily scaled. Let's see whether the text will be still hard to read there.
-- Simon
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