Lemmings Forums

Site Boards => Site Discussion => Topic started by: Minim on March 29, 2021, 06:17:46 PM

Title: Tooltip Text for in-game levels
Post by: Minim on March 29, 2021, 06:17:46 PM
It's important to be aware that, unlike the original games, [NeoLemmix] packs may be updated by their creators/compilers at any time. To make things run more smoothly, if you have any records to share, please observe the following protocol:

* Refer to levels by name, not just position! Records without level names will not be added to the opening post.

This singular rule has inspired me to come up with a proposal. Currently all Smileys have Tooltip Text when hovered over (Like this one, :)). However, by surrounding the Level's Number or Name in Tooltip Text (TT), users can just hover over the level with the mouse and find out information about this level instantly via a Hint Box.

For example, if a user writes Mayhem 1 in TT (say it's something like [t]Mayhem 1[/t]), a box will show that the level is named "Steel Works", the platform is from Amiga and that the game's from Original Lemmings. As another example, NeoLemmix's Redux pack has a level called "Save Me". This could be written like [t=nl]Save Me[/t] with "[t=nl]" being a NeoLemmix version of the level. Or we could sort it out by difficulty rating, in other words [t=lr5]Save Me[/t] meaning this level is from Redux in the Lunatic difficulty rating, the fifth rating in the pack. Whichever way, the help box would come up with information like "NeoLemmix, Lemmings Redux, Lunatic 29, Save Me".

The majority of users (if not all users) in Challenges refer to a certain level as the level's number. Sometimes the rank is used alongside it. We prefer doing it this way because it's a natural habit of us to cut tedium. Adding TT to them would eliminate all the potential questions that new users (and old) could ask about.

The hard part I guess is how (and whether) TT can be implemented into the forums. We may also need to come up with a TT icon that shouldn't be too similar to Teletype, the existing one that uses the ["tt"] function. Another question is how should it look in the preview, One of my suggestions is a superscripted Question Mark on the right side of the level's number, etc. Finally the possibility of a printer friendly version of it? As that last bit is unlikely to happen though, we could make a level list on a separate thread for people to print.

If TT implementation is successful, I'll see if I could apply this to the Challenge board of the Original Lemmings games first, because at least they're guaranteed to be unchanged. Once we're confident with that then we can try other things. Anything that needs clarifying please let me know. Thanks.
Title: Re: Tooltip Text for in-game levels
Post by: namida on March 30, 2021, 01:35:31 AM
The functionality already exists via the acronym tag - I believe there was another tag that has the same behavior too with a more "generic" name, but I forget what it was. There simply isn't a button (I think?) on the quick shortcuts.

The Great Lemming Caper
[acronym=Original Lemmings / Mayhem 13]The Great Lemming Caper[/acronym]
Title: Re: Tooltip Text for in-game levels
Post by: Proxima on March 30, 2021, 01:45:10 AM
The functionality to have tooltip text may exist, but the functionality to automatically give the correct level name when a position is referred to (or vice versa) does not -- if we wanted to add tooltips to every mention of a level in Challenges, it would have to be done manually, and that would take up a huge amount of time that could be better spent on something else.

It's not really that hard to look up a level (https://tle.vaarties.nl/) if you're not sure which one is referred to.