Working with Layers

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by Lord Sephiroth

Just my take. I've never really seen the need for layers. In my opinion the layer editor is just a cop-out for LATs that don't know how to be creative with one layer.

That's silly. It's an advancement of technology in terms of Graal. That's like saying GS2 is a copout for those who can't figure out how to be creative with GS1. What about those who ARE creative with one layer? Wouldn't more layers just mean more creativity? Also, even if it is a copout, if it achieves something above the skill level that they would achieve with only one layer, isn't that good too?

Layers don't just offer more possibility with levels, but it simplifies tiles. You no longer need to use tons of images to draw things over tiles. No need for treetop images. No more need for tons of tiles for each grass, dirt, water or whatever a corner of the house will be drawn over. And for the lazy, it means that it will just look better because players don't have to see such simple tile errors.

Also Fry, I had to work with Gonstruct earlier to edit scripts in a layered level, and I noticed a very annoying bug: Every time you opened a level in Gonstruct, it appends an empty line to each NPC's script. So after opening a level a few times, each script ends up with a ton of empty lines. The level I was working with had like 70 NPCs in it... so ya, that was a ton of empty lines to clean out and actually made me resort to editing the level via notepad instead.