This can work. Though make sure the Lems in hatch number is always visible.
Sometimes it disappears behind terrain, or out of the level if hatch is too close from the borders.
Maybe force it to display clearly when player mouses over the hatch ?

Hum hum, this is starting to be kind of crazy how we can turn around for a thing that does not look that important! I'd say the main point is : "display SaveRequirementMinusAlreadySaved on screen at all time".

You're the coder and the one who handles the CE, and I'll be glad any method you choose as long as the main point is fulfilled.

So I'll just give what would be my personnal preference, then what I'd say would be a good compromise with what you suggest, and will leave the decision to you !

OPTION Guigui: :lemming-icon: TotalLemsAvailable [SPACE] :hatch-icon: LemsInHatch [SPACE] :flag-icon: SaveRequirementMinusAlreadySaved (stays at 0 when clear, switches to +ExtraSaved)


OPTION Compromise: :hatch-icon: LemsInHatch [SPACE] :lemming-icon: TotalLemsAvailable [SPACE] :flag-icon: SaveRequirementMinusAlreadySaved (switches to +TotalSaved)

Agree with Simon that total number of Lemmings is more important than already spawned. So in the case of :
* 99 lemmings total
* 3 spawned, 96 still in hatch
* 99 to be saved
* 0 already saved
I'd rather see those numbers and in this order :
99 -- 96 -- 0 -- 99

However, I'm not sure the proposed solution is easy to read for newcomers. Removing an icon space sure allows to display one more number, but displaying the total required which does not change during the whole level is not a big gain imo. I'd stick to the following 3 displays :

Icon - Total Lems -- Icon - Still in hatch Lems -- Icon - Still to be saved Lems (turns to extra saved Lems if any)

I have to agree with you here will, except maybe with the immediate switch.

When player reaches the required number, I'd say the display should turn green and remain at 0, following the logic of 'this number is what I still have to save'
Then switch to positive only when player saves extra lemmings.

Also switching for 0 to total saved makes sense, but creates a discontinuity in the display that can be hard to interpret if player has forgotten the required number. I'd rather see +1 +2 and so on but this may be just me.

Also why not changing the flag icon to a victory icon when requirement is met ? This could clarify the interpretation of the number next to it.

Good job for clearing the pack JawaJuice 

I love how you take your time to give optimal solutions, like in Max 5 Sky Of The Night where you demonstrate how to slightly isolate a Lemming from the crowd to fill the tiny gap before the crowd comes, of Val's Fire Burn More where you dig at the precise place that allows the pioneer to come back and free the crowd.

Sure you did not solve all of them the way the kids saw it, but we loved to watch your clever solutions, thank you.

My kids watched too much of me creating levels ! So they wanted to try to create levels of their own, and somehow succeeded.

Here is a compilation of 11 levels made by them that are awkward for sure, but actually enjoyable to solve. One may even need some thinking to do so ?

The .zip file is a bit heavy because it includes a very important soundtrack for one of the level, kids music tastes are what they are... Just unzip in your main NL folder.

The levels were 100% created by them, I just helped them using the editor and finding english names for the levels.

The pack is split in 2 ranks :
* Val from the first 3 letters of the name of my 7yo kid. He likes fire!
* Max from the first 3 letters of the name of my 10yo kid. He likes teleporters!


Here are two screenshots for you to taste their ingenious level design :

Val's Fire Burn More :


Max's Boat :


We hope you can spend a nice 20 minutes solving those levels and have fun deciphering how kids brain work.

I do agree with Dominator_101 here : display required only with positive red number. Turn it blue or green once it reaches 0, then display "+"extra_saved before it if it goes over the requirement.

As for the order of the displays I dont really know how to explain. It would just make more sense to me to have a decreasing sequence at the beginning, like for instance :

Total=100  --  Still_in_hatch=80 -- To_be_saved=98

This may be just me, and is not important at all actually.

Thanks for the explanations, and sorry for making you write them all over again !

Now that I played a little more and think about it, the "already saved" number is not that important while playing. The "remaining to be saved" is much more important. This is certainly why the negative saved count had been used in the first place.

In this sense, having the "already saved" displayed on screen may be nice, but not to the point of having to rework the whole skill panel. This is also why I was kinda disappointed by the new display offered where you only see this "already saved" and have to mouse over to see the "remaining to be saved" which is the true needed info.

Out of the possibilities you listed, I can only see 2) viable, but now I'm not even sure this would be worth implementing. Finally the negative count was not that bad, except that this negative number is still weird. Why not just putting the required number as a positive number next to the flag, and decrease it as player saves some.

Also a thing that disturbs my brain is that the "in hatch" number is displayed before the "total" number. The other way around would make more sense to me. So all in all, my little opinion would be to display like this :

Lem_icon (space) total number -- hatch_icon (space) remaining in hatch number -- flag_icon (space) positive remaining to be saved

This is almost the same as in vanilla NL, except total and in hatch are switched, and the required saved does not have the minus sign.

Great, thank you for the explanation and fixing the issue.

As of now, the link in the OP return a 404 file not found. Link is (EDIT: link removed)

Sorry if this has already been suggested, I could not fin it.

As a third alternative to show the number of lemmings already saved compared to the required number, why not use a "saved/required" syntax in the skill panel ?

So for instance in Just Dig if you have already saved 3 lemmings, the panel would show "3/10".

The negative saved count in vanilla NL is nice, but still kind of weird to use a negative number. And the alternative offered in CE forces players to mouse over the saved count to see the required count. With "saved/required" you see all infos at once.

Oh my bad, I understand now.
I thought this was the CE edition of the editor but it is just the regular editor improved.
I see no reason to have both indeed.

why not renaming the exe file NLEditorCE ?
The CE suffix would allow this editor to not overwrite the regular editor exe if they are run from the same folder as you're currently working on.

I am currently playing this pack and making some progress.

I just cleared Not Fun 11 : Toil. Replay joined.
It was a roadblock for a lot of time to me considering the huge number of possibilities, mainly to get through that chain at the middle.
In the end my solution is backroutish because I am left with a bomber and save an extra lemming.
This is certainly due to how I do this chain part : precise timing that allows to both free the crowd with minimal casualty, and allow the athlete to get back to the left part of the level.

Now I'm stuck on the Sorting Factory that's next, but I guess this level can be possible too.

Quote from: Guigui on January 29, 2026, 11:39:29 PM... I can not remember a moment where I thought that I was better in vanilla NL ...

Oh well, can I actually express my ocd here ?

Why is that indentation wrong on the result screen ? The "you needed" line is not properly aligned with the 2 others as it used to be in NL and the games of my childhood. My eyes and heart hurt every time...