[+][SUG][PL] Improve colour scheme for panel stats (lemmings, to save, time)

[Simon]

CE 1.1.2

During play, in the panel at the bottom of the screen, above the skills:

Number of lemmings turns red when it's not sufficient for winning. Okay.

Clock turns red at arbitrary time (1 minute? 15 seconds?) and turns purple when it's not sufficient for winning. Instead, ditch the arbitrary threshold. On different maps, different thresholds will feel like too short anyway. Consistently use red for insufficiency.

Save requirement is printed in blue? Blue makes it hard to read; the digits 5, 6, 8 look similar. And the blue makes the panel look more colorful than necessary. This removes the meaning of other colors. Practically every number is now a funky color at whim.

Clock is yellow when it is a time limit. Okay, we must pay attention. And it matches the yellow hourglass. (As said, don't put a blue save requirement; it makes the yellow blend in, the yellow becomes yet another irrelevant color next to the blue.)

Lemming count is yellow when there are neutral lemmings. Why is this important? Why do we have to pay attention? I would understand it becoming yellow when there are only neutral lemmings left.

Lemming count also becomes cyan in some cases? When and why?

-- Simon

[WillLem]

Clock turns red at arbitrary time (1 minute? 15 seconds?) and turns purple when it's not sufficient for winning. Instead, ditch the arbitrary threshold. On different maps, different thresholds will feel like too short anyway. Consistently use red for insufficiency.

Purple is essentially 'overtime' as opposed to 'insufficient time to win'. It's only there because gameplay doesn't end when time is up, and it might be useful for the player to know by how much their attempted solution exceeds the time limit. Red could be confusing here, especially since the timer counts upwards at this point.

Instead, red is used to mean 'time is nearly up'. We could adjust when this happens depending on the total time limit, but it seems better to keep it consistent for all levels.

Save requirement is printed in blue ... This removes the meaning of other colors

Save count is printed in blue until it is met, then it changes to green. Yellow probably makes a bit more sense but then visually blends with the time limit counter when it is yellow. Could we try teal instead?

Lemming count is yellow when there are neutral lemmings. Why is this important? Why do we have to pay attention? I would understand it becoming yellow when there are only neutral lemmings left.

Agreed, this has never fully made sense to me either. Let's make it change only when neutrals are left.

Lemming count also becomes cyan in some cases? When and why?

This is when there are only neutrals left (I think...?).


Bottom line: agreed, we can look again at the panel's colour scheme.

[WillLem]

After a cup of tea and a think, here's a suggested scheme:

GREEN = State is OK / Normal

Use this for: hatch count, there are regular lemmings in the level, save requirement is met, time limit is infinite


TEAL or CYAN = Pay attention!

Use this for: cut future replay actions warning (the recently-added 'CUT N TASKS'), only Neutrals remain, save requirement is not met but there are enough lemmings remaining to be able to meet it, time limit is finite

 
RED = State is critical

Use this for: there are not enough lemmings remaining to meet the save requirement, time limit is about to run out (15 seconds is good for this)


BLUE = Information only

Use this for: lemming actions when hovering over a lem, panel button hints, overtime


No other colours.


The only issue I can see with the above is that { lemming actions when hovering over a lem } is currently Green, and this is what people are used to. We could also do with differentiating it from { panel button hints }, as both could be - for example - 'BASHER' (the former for a lemming performing the Basher action, and the latter for the Basher skill button).

We could either:

a) Use Purple (or some other colour) for one or the other

b) Continue to use Green for { lemming actions when hovering over a lem } and accept the slight inconsistency in the proposed scheme

c) Some other suggestion (please post if you have one!)

[Simon]

TEAL or CYAN = Pay attention!
Use this for: save requirement is not met but there are enough lemmings remaining

It's normal to not have yet met the save requirement. Keep it green, it shouldn't stand out.

The abnormal state is having won the map. That should be non-green, assuming anything here will turn non-green-non-red. Pay attention, you've won.

I suspect that you want your section for paying attention to be only about problems (bad stuff is about to happen), not for general noticing (bad or good stuff). Fine with me, you can accomplish that by a green unsatisfied requirement and a green satisfied requirement. Convey it via better icons, winning the map swaps the flag (without checkmark) with a big green checkmark (no flag).

Alternatives: Remove all other green across the whole panel. Or invent, e.g., white for winning, even though that clashes with the green checkmarks in the menu. I value non-screaming panel colors more than avoiding such a clash.

-- Simon

[Simon]

Purple is essentially 'overtime' as opposed to 'insufficient time to win'.

Overtime is one case of having insufficient time to win. It's even the only condition where you can tell for sure that it's insufficient.

Fix the design bug where the engine guesses that 15 seconds is somehow an important threshold. Ditch the entire threshold feature. Zero is the important threshold. Either you can win (depending on other things) or you can't win. When you can't win anymore based on the clock alone, you have a reason to recolor from yellow to red.

It will be consistent across all levels to never guess a threshold other than 0.

It's only there because gameplay doesn't end when time is up, and it might be useful for the player to know by how much their attempted solution exceeds the time limit.

Right, for the same reason we don't stop after we've lost too many lemmings to win. Certainly we'll continue playing with red lemming count.

Red could be confusing here

I believe we're talking about different things.

#1 Existing:
yellow > 15 seconds
red > 0 seconds, < 15 seconds
purple < 0 seconds

#2 I agree that this is confusing:
yellow > 15 seconds
red > 0 seconds, < 15 seconds
red < 0 seconds

#3 But what is confusing with this?
yellow > 0 seconds
red < 0 seconds

I assume you're arguing that #2 is confusing. Certainly, #2 would be annoying with red for winnable and unwinnable, and the clock counts down during winnable, then back up during unwinnable. Instead, I meant #3 in both the OP and I mean it today.

It's hard to argue when the point is so vague. Instead, people should write down the supposedly-confusing situation in full, and an example of a second situation, and a reason for why a user will confuse the two. Sometimes even a reason for why the confusion is a problem. Prod me when I make this mistake and ask for examples.

especially since the timer counts upwards at this point.

Print a minus sign!

This will be sensible regardless of anything else in this topic. The timer will count in the same direction, down. And you'll be independent from any coloring. Design without color, and then use color on top of the color-blind design.

Lemmings 1 separated minutes from seconds by a dash (1-30), replace that dash with a colon (1:30) and you won't have awkward clashes such as −1-30.

If space is a concern, stop printing the minus sign after −10 minutes.

-- Simon