[?][SUG][PL] Use "saved/required" instead of "negative saved" or "saved" count.

[Guigui]

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.

[WillLem]

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 ?

Simply: space is at a premium on the skill panel.

It has been suggested before, and I've explored the possibilities significantly.

Levels can have hundreds of lemmings, and even in levels with 99 or fewer lemmings, "nn/nn" takes up 5 characters on the panel. At present, the skill panel allows a total of 38 characters, and they are currently assigned as follows:

Chars 01 - 12: Lemming action. We need to be able to fit (at least) "PLATFORMER n" here, which is all 12 characters.
Chars 13 - 14: Replay icon, space.
Chars 15 - 20: Hatch icon, space, 3 chars for number of lems in hatch, space.
Chars 21 - 26: LemsOut icon, space, 3 chars for number of lemmings active in the level, space.
Chars 27 - 32: Exit icon, space, 3 chars for number of lemmings saved, space.
Chars 33 - 38: Time icon, space, 4 chars for time limit (n-nn).

Our options are these:

1) Truncate the skill actions to some amount of characters, and take what we need from the 'Lemming action' area. The athlete info only needs 7 characters, and it could be acceptable to display "PLATF n" instead of "PLATFORMER n", for instance. That would buy us 5 characters.

2) Remove the space between each icon and its corresponding values. That buys us 4 characters, and just about covers the cost of "nnn/nnn" (which would need to be supported even if we set the position of the digits dynamically).

3) Don't display 'lemmings active', or incorporate 'lemmings active' into 'lemmings in hatch', displaying "iii/nnn" where i is the number of lems in the hatch, and n is the number of lems active in the level. This could work, but there is also potential for confusion, especially since n can update without i updating (for example, if the RR is slow and a lem is lost). Nonetheless, removal of 'lemmings active' as a separate display buys us an extra 6 characters, which is significant.

4) Extend the width of the skill panel. This was done in SuperLemmix, bringing the total available skills up to 14 and adding a Rewind button (whilst also removing the half-buttons for framestepping, direction select, etc). It could buy us a significant number of characters, and we could add some more buttons (or increase the number of available skills). This would increase the minimum window width for NeoLemmix CE though, and would require a decent amount of community support to go ahead.

5) Make the skill panel hi-res only. This effectively doubles the number of available characters to a whopping 76, albeit in smaller font (see the display in RetroLemmini for how this might look). Plenty to display whatever we wish, but very difficult to get people to agree to.

I'm not totally against any of the above options, but nor do I think any of them are better than what we have now (i.e. a well-spaced panel that makes the best of what's available and does ultimately display all the most significant information).

If someone can come up with a better suggestion, or voice support for any the ideas presented here, displaying "saved/needed" is by no means off the table.