How many of the cases of precision you speak of were ones that skill shadows can directly help with, though?
My point was more that Skill Shadows being able to help with precision isn't a reason to have precision in a level (i.e. whether or not they can directly help with said precision), just like CPM being able to help with hidden objects isn't a reason to have hidden objects in a level.
Also, since CPM is optional (in the sense that you can turn it on and off when needed), so should Skill Shadows be. EDIT: I'd also compare Skill Shadows to the Splat Ruler: both tend to be most useful whilst the game is paused, so accessing them via a Hotkey seems the best way to implement them.
with skill shadows, a few frames of framestepping while hovering over the lemming will find the correct placement pretty quickly
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Level designers should be encouraged to use the skill shadows, too, because the reason they help line up precise assignments can also help identify spots where a precise assignment can cause a different result than the one the designer intended.
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They can also help line up certain types of interactions when the game mechanics themselves demand some degree of precision to make a certain trick work at all.
I agree that Skill Shadows are useful, and time-saving, especially when combined with Framestepping. I also agree that Skill Shadows are remarkably helpful when it comes to finding and preventing backroutes. I
also agree that there's no better way to precisely judge an intended trick.
However, I still think the player should have some degree of control over when they're visible, ideally via a Hotkey so they're always accessible in-game.
As I mentioned, if someone turns off the skill shadows early on, by the time they need them, they may forget the option is there, particularly if it's buried away in the hotkeys menu.
I'd have to agree that it would be unfortunate for a player to disable Skill Shadows initially (perhaps because they find them off-putting), and then forget they are still there as an option.
However, if a player is bothered enough by them to turn them off, they likely won't forget about them. They're a
very unique, noticeable and gameplay-affecting part of the NeoLemmix platform; I think a more likely scenario would be that a player would turn them off initially, then once they feel more comfortable that they are able to control their experience, they'd probably turn them back on to see what it's like to play with them enabled,
then make the choice to either keep them on or switch them off. By this point, they're very unlikely to forget that they exist as an option.
That said, after discussion/consideration I now believe that making Skill Shadows either permanently enabled (default)
or hold-to-assign via a Hotkey (like the Splat Ruler) would likely be the best solution to all scenarios, rather than offering the option to turn them off altogether.