Then please tell me a use case that (hatch, out) serves better than (hatch, available).
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You never need to know (out) directly for anything.
A level requiring 10 bombers to be used before the 11th lemming spawns? I'm not sure, I can't think of any to be honest. So, I'll redirect your question back to you: can you think of any? I realise that the burden of proof is generally on the person arguing the existence of something (in this case, a need for an "OUT" stat to be displayed), but can you prove that it
isn't useful?
My main reasoning for wanting the OUT value to be displayed was because of the wording "IN, OUT, HOME" which you discuss here:
IN and OUT are terrible names. Ditch immediately, or at least give it less weight in the argument about what numbers are important.
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I have no good idea for better short text
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To conserve space, I'd use the icon.
Agreed, I don't really like IN and OUT either. But, they are short and concise words which any player can reasonably interpret from looking at what's going on in the level in front of them. And, I too can't think of any better ideas for short text which conveys the same or a more exact meaning.
Icons are the most ideal because these save space, aren't language-dependent, and can potentially convey meaning even more exactly. The thing is, Charles has made the Enhanced status bar (with icons)
optional, since people may prefer the more traditional "OUT, IN" display for nostalgic reasons (SuperLemmini aligns itself with Lemmings nostalgia, for the most part). So, there still needs to be a viable text-based status bar
(EDIT - if the community agrees, then icons could become the standard and text could be scrapped. Personally, though, I like the fact that it's currently optional).
Maybe Available, Saved/Required would be better. SuperLemmini
almost does this anyway (the OUT figure is lems spawned - lems dies or exited, it just needs to be tweaked to show max lems - lems died or exited). The Hatch number can then be saved for the Enhanced bar only, giving it another good reason to be chosen over the text bar.
So, normal (text): Available, Saved/Required.
Enhanced (icons): Hatch, Available, Saved/Required.
NL had massive space problems in the typesetting with the gigantic DOS letters. (saved − required) came from the need to save space and declutter the UI.
It can be printed as two separate numbers, but in the same space on the status bar, by displaying it as a fraction (Saved/Required). I think that's the best overall solution, and it works nicely for percentages as well.
Consider to invert the option to "Show save requirement as percentage". Reason: UI guideline to always word boolean options as a positive
+1 for this. If I get time I'll have a look at that part of the code and see if I can invert it.
I can't help observing: your mock-up shows that space is too tight
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If you want to show four stats and keep the "WALKERS 2" counter, you will have to use icons instead of "IN/OUT/HOME".
Yes, agreed (and discussed above in response to Simon's comments).
If the "IN" number in your version is "max lems - lems on level", then this is equal to (hatch + died + exited), not (hatch) alone
I know what you mean, but the SL code contains two values to show "lems on level":
numLemmingsOut and
numLemmings. The former is the number of lemmings that have spawned, the latter is (number of lemmings that have spawned - number that have exited or died). So, the hatch number is correct.
Meanwhile, I think (max lems - lems exited/died) should work to return a value for
available lems. I'll try that out soon.
tl;drIcons are better, but SuperLemminiToo offers the option for both, and I'd personally like to keep it that way.
I can agree, then, that
Available, Saved/Required is a better readout for the text-based display. This just requires tweaking the original OUT value to return (max lems - lems exited/died), which should be simple enough.
I still need help with changing the colour of the font, if anyone can offer any guidance there. I'll come back to this soon.