"force solving levels" vs "allow skipping levels"

[ncrecc]

what is the difference between these two settings? it sounds like they imply the same thing, but one of them is inversed (e.g. if you aren't allowed to skip levels, then you're forced to solve them. but if you aren't forced to solve levels, you're allowed to skip them).

what does having "force solving levels" and "allow skipping levels" both enabled entail (allowed to skip levels, but forced to solve them)? what does having them both off entail (not forced to solve levels, but not allowed to skip them)?

[Holger]

Yes, these two settings may look a bit confusing at first (and maybe they are confusing).

They are used to accomplish the following restrictions (or their absense) when playing levels:

- "force solving levels" set to "off": You can simply select and play every level of every level set, just as you like. Use this if you don't care about harder levels that have to be solved to play the next level. (The setting "allow skipping levels" obviously has no use in this case, and does not make a difference.)

However, if "force solving levels" is set to "on", the game works similar to the classic originals, which usually enfoced solving the current level to be able to play the next one. However, even if you like such a challenge, there may be certain levels which are simply too hard, or are no fun at all (or are even unsolvable, which should not happen, but may still be possible with some of those old levels converted for R'n'D). For these cases, use the other option, as follows:

- "allow skipping levels" set to "on": You can skip the current level, but you will be explicitly asked if you really want to do that. Therefore, you cannot skip unsolved levels by accident if you generally want to solve them all and keep the challenge of solving a level before being able to play the next one. This combination of both settings work similarly to the classic Supaplex game, where you are also able to skip a few levels, but with the difference that you could only skip up to three levels, while R'n'D allows to skip an arbitrary number of levels.

- "allow skipping levels" set to "off": This one is for the hard-boiled who want to have the same challenge as player had back in the days of Emerald Mine, which worked the same. You have so solve each and every level to continue playing, and there is no way around it. This can result in a rather frustrating playing experience, and is most probably not what most people want nowadays.

The default (if I remember right) is "folce solving levels" set to "on" and "allow skipping levels" set to "on", too, so there is some good challenge in playing levels, but without the frustration of not being able to go on if a certain level drives you crazy of is just too hard (or maybe even unsolvable).

Hope that makes sense!

[ncrecc]

makes sense now.

maybe, to make it more intuitive, these two settings could be replaced with two new settings that have different logic but the same effect: "allow skipping levels" and "ask on skip level". if "allow skipping levels" is false, then you have to do levels in order, otherwise you can skip levels, but if "ask on skip level" is set then it asks you to confirm (like how it is currently when "force solving levels" and "allow skipping levels" are both on).

the states of the old settings to the new settings would map like so:

skiptable3.png (7.12 KiB) Viewed 4009 times

and of course "Allow Skipping Levels: OFF" means the value of "Ask On Skip Level" is irrelevant

(i guess this is now a "new ideas" topic)

[filbo]

It would be a lot less confusing to make these into a single user interface setting with >2 values (doesn't matter whether these are then internally translated into the current 2 settings or not):

Skipping levels [menu]:

- no, solve in order
- ask before skipping
- skip around freely

... or whatever wording works :)

[ncrecc]

It would be a lot less confusing to make these into a single user interface setting with >2 values (doesn't matter whether these are then internally translated into the current 2 settings or not):

Skipping levels [menu]:

- no, solve in order
- ask before skipping
- skip around freely

... or whatever wording works

if it needs to fit on a single line, perhaps "Allow Skipping Levels: No / Ask / Yes"

[Holger]

It would be a lot less confusing to make these into a single user interface setting with >2 values

if it needs to fit on a single line, perhaps "Allow Skipping Levels: No / Ask / Yes"

I think both variants are far better and at the same time much more intuitive than the current implementation!

The first variant would have the advantage of being a bit more verbose (and I think I quite like the example wording), while I'm surprised how the second one is really short and nice and simple, and still very easy to understand (at least I think so)!

I will think a bit about those two variants, and will then implement one of those two!

Thanks a lot for your help with improving the user interface and general usability of R'n'D! I think that this setup option (or two options at the moment) are quite important, but always had comprehensibility issues (especially in the past when using the term "handicap", which apparently was very unclear and hard to understand what this might do or not). I think your suggestions are really good, especially for someone who has been staring at those options for decades, which makes it hard or impossible to see where usability issues might lurk for new (or even regular) users of the game!

[Holger]

if it needs to fit on a single line, perhaps "Allow Skipping Levels: No / Ask / Yes"

It's so simple, yet pretty clear!

It will be used in the next version, replacing those confusing previous two setup options!

Thanks again for this improvement!