Progress to next level without getting back to menu

[geoo]

I see the points either way, and at this point I don't really know which I prefer, but there are three reasons why when you first changed it I found it a bit jarring.

- Game just stops when the last lix dies but you haven't saved enough. The indication of what is going on is just a small text in the task bar, and I was confused at first. I generally also used to restart the level and fast-forward rather than step back a few seconds, so the advantage of having the latter option wasn't really of much value to me, though objectively I guess it should be considered as a plus. I think back when the dialog appeared, I was used to just pressing Space to retry, and now I have to press a hotkey that's slightly more out of the way, but this is a personal issue and shouldn't be held in favor of or against this.
- It's definitely less evident where the stats from your last try are displayed. The menu already has so much information that it stands out less, and because the context is wider, it is probably also less clear what it actually means. ("99 Lix saved" is reasonably clear, but strictly speaking could also refer to your personal best or something like that.)
- Data loss. If you don't have auto-saving enabled, the "Save replay" button is similarly hidden like the stats. Easy to miss and once you swap to a different level, your replay is lost.

[Simon]

Thanks.

Game just stops when the last lix dies but you haven't saved enough. The indication of what is going on is just a small text in the task bar, and I was confused

Yes, this is a visibility problem. I'm happy to point more egregiously to backstep and to restart. I'd like to avoid a dialog here.

The menu [singleplayer level browser] already has so much information that it [result of recent attempt] stands out less,

Right, this is the most serious push towards a dedicated end-of-level dialog. I'm contemplating to reintroduce a dialog already to avoid clutter, and still cleanly distinguish between finished attempt and player's record.

Data loss. If you don't have auto-saving enabled, the "Save replay" button is similarly hidden like the stats. Easy to miss and once you swap to a different level, your replay is lost.

This is hairy.
 
If we introduce an elaborate end-of-level dialog, e.g., with preview of next level, we risk burying the button again. On the other hand, since winning replays are autosaved by default, I'd rather not prompt with a second dialog for the data loss, nor make the single dialog small only for this.

-- Simon

[namida]

This is hairy.
 
If we introduce an elaborate end-of-level dialog, e.g., with preview of next level, we risk burying the button again. On the other hand, since winning replays are autosaved by default, I'd rather not prompt with a second dialog for the data loss, nor make the single dialog small only for this.

A dedicated end-of-level screen would resolve this though, because it wouldn't have many other buttons - "Next Level", "Restart Level", "Go To Menu", "Save Replay". I'd think this is noticable enough? Perhaps the "Save Replay" button can be disabled and change text to "Replay saved" if the user has either clicked it, or has auto-save turned on.

[Simon]

elaborate end-of-level dialog, e.g., with preview of next level, we risk burying the button [to save replay of previous attempt] again.

A dedicated end-of-level screen would resolve this though, because it wouldn't have many other buttons - "Next Level", "Restart Level", "Go To Menu", "Save Replay". I'd think this is noticable enough?

Right, I now believe that the save-replay button in an end-of-level dialog will have enough visibility. Also, with mixed-end-of-level-into-menu, were the previous attempt clearly segregated from the menu, save-replay would have enough visibility.

It will merely be much easier to (clearly segregate previous attempt from next levels) when we don't have to conserve screen space.

We'll help it further by clearly segragating between previous attempt in top half of the end-of-level dialog, and putting progression in the bottom half (to next level, or to menu).

-- Simon

[Forestidia86]

The show score board in lobby issue (#242) seems to be connected with the decision about an end of level box. Although in this case (multiplayer) it could be judged differently and be solved as intended in the issue.

[Simon]

Yeah, for singleplayer, end-of-level box will happen.

I'm 50:50 about an end-of-level box for multiplayer.

Dedicated end-of-multiplayer box will finally make room for the bar graph (#242 as you linked). And it can display extra stats (who stole how many from whom, etc.) that the game doesn't yet collect yet, but would be collectable without physics/networking changes.

-- Simon

[Simon]

Happy 30-year anniversary for Lemmings 1.

To celebrate, I opened a branch in Lix and ripped the last-game stats from the singleplayer browser and the replay browser. 5 files changed, +10 −288 lines. The last-game stats would often go over some of the other existing information, e.g., obscuring the number of skills in the best attempt. Good riddance with clutter in the browsers.

The result isn't yet releasable, Lix won't save any new stats yet, but this will be the baseline for a dedicated end-of-singleplayer box.

-- Simon