there are many reasons to let the shadows turned on since they are extremely useful and help avoiding annoying readjustments. They're one of the few features that are dearly missing in Lix (at least singleplayer).
I'm only suggesting that it be an option, not that skill shadows are removed entirely. I would likely keep them on most of the time, tbh, but it would be good to have the option to occasionally play without them.
I would argue that skill shadows making NL way more inclusive as they help and support the player without changing the core gameplay and it is immidiatly clear what they display. They can even support the player with displaying new skills.
Good point! If implemented, I'm sure that the default option would be for skill shadows to be kept switched on, and I'm sure that most players would choose to have them switched on most of the time (myself included), so these benefits wouldn't disappear if they were made optional.
We've got skill shadows and we should assume that players know when to use them. I don't want a mere option limit the design possibilities.
I think there's been a misunderstanding - I'm not saying that level designers
should design with the skill shadow option in mind, I'm just saying that it
might affect some people's design decisions, and I've listed this as an argument
against including the option.
As the default setting would be on though, I think this should not be the case.
Agreed.
No skill shadow playing is mostly a side effect of wanting to recreate nostalgia. We've already got that covered with the original games, no need to cover it again and again, especially if NL follows a different philosophy. We don't need countless nostalgia options in the menus.
To be quite honest, I don't think it should be a menu option at all, I think it would be better implemented as a Hotkey, in the same way that CPM can be toggled on/off or be temporarily enabled by holding down your chosen Hotkey. If skill shadows worked the same way, then they could be used momentarily, when the player chooses, rather than always being an intrusively visible feature of the game.
It isn't just about nostalgia, it's about wanting the game to look its best as well. I'd likely want to play some of the custom content with the shadows off, not just the original levels.