crushers such as The Hammer, The Wall Crusher, The Boulder Drop, etc. can be in sort of “wind-up states”, as i call them, where the player effectively has to wait before anything ‘useful’ happens and/or they are able to toggle another setting on the crusher. for example, immediately after clicking the red “retract” button on The Wall Crusher, looking exclusively at the control panel, there is no distinction between mid-retraction and full retraction/being able to extend. this is despite the fact that, in one state, the player can successfully initiate the extention, but in the other, the player can click the “Extend” button, and nothing will happen. while, yes, the player can literally just look through the window to see the current state of the crusher, there are scenarios, such as when toggling the Hatch on The Launch Pad, where it’s difficult to visually distinguish between states (the car roof may block the player from looking up), and so the player would have to otherwise rely on the indicator lights above buttons.
i propose that, for situations where a “wind-up” state is induced and the player is unable to toggle the action until completion, the indicator light above the most recently toggled button turns yellow, and (if applicable) the opposite one stays red until completion, whereupon the most recently toggle button turns red.
in scenarios where the player is freely able to toggle between states without a “wind-up”, other aspects of the crusher may be represented with the yellow indicator light as applicable. for example, The Acid Chamber [ok i actually misremembered that you could interrupt the draining and begin re-filling but this scenario might still apply to future added crushers and/or current crushers could be reworked to allow this so don’t correct me on this portion] can freely be drained and (re)filled, but the chamber door will only open when the chamber is fully drained. in this example, the red “Drain” button would have a yellow light above it until the door fully opens, despite the fact that the green “Fill” button can be activated and interrupt the drainage.
this feature would also mitigate the potential issue of internal consistency where developers have to decide whether or not to have the indicator lights change on the falling edge (after completion) or rising edge (immediate upon activation), as, if this suggestion be added, there will be corresponding indications for both; no decision required.