13 replies to this topic

[Radien]

Some people seem not to know that the very first combo in the combo list is supposed to be reserved for an entirely transparent combo; walkable, with no combo properties.

ZQuest uses this combo for many different purposes. The most noticeable is that whenever you lay down a tile on an empty screen, it will fill the rest of the screen with combo #0. It also treats empty screens as having only that combo (even though empty screens may appear to be a different color).

The reason some people are unaware of this is because it is common to use old tilesets, and new tilesets spawned from old ones. Though it is mentioned in the Help file, the feature has not been around forever, so many tileset makers didn't notice its implementation. Be sure you notice it; it will definitely help you in the long run.

[Hergiswi]

Really? I never knew that. Thanks for telling me - now I can set that when I'm making that organized GB tileset.

[Lonemind]

Yeah, I found that out as I was building my tileset. I used a ground tile in combo #0 and came to find out that any layers I used covered the entire screen. Ugh. It took me a while to figure that out.

[SwordOfSeals]

Really? That explains things, but why should I care? Is there an advantage to it?

[link3505]

it's just a helpful tip

I noticed this too, especially when I was working on my ST tileset. about a month before I released it, I changed that combo to a transparent combo (which messed up most of the screens). I aslo use this in Fragments

[Radien]

Really? That explains things, but why should I care? Is there an advantage to it?

Yes, there is. If you assign a layer to a screen before placing any tiles on that layer, the opaque combo will blanket over the layers below it until you replace the tiles with your transparency. Since you almost always need transparent tiles on every upper layer, it is usually the best default.

You might also run into the "obscuring" problem if you accidentally delete a screen that is being used as a layer for another screen. Do this, and you might have an unpleasant surprise when you go to that screen in the ZC player, as everything will be obscured.

This next possibility is unlikely, but if your first combo is unwalkable, then that will cause ten times as much trouble. Accidental warp errors will frequently cause the player to become stuck and unable to move.

It's just one combo. You might as well.

[LinktheMaster]

I noticed this too, but on my new project ZQuest sort of adapted to this and started using combo #1.

[/M/]

Yeah most tilesets forget that. It's really annoy to use layers like that.Thanks for the tip Radien.

[Radien]

I noticed this too, but on my new project ZQuest sort of adapted to this and started using combo #1.

Huh?... I have never seen this before... Just to be sure, by "combo #1," you do mean the second combo in the list, don't you?

In any case, it's usually best if whatever combo it uses as a default is transparent.

[LinktheMaster]

Yes, I was talking about the second one. And, yes, I quickly fixed the problem.

[Radien]

Well, I can't really explain that. :\ I just know it usually uses the very first one. I'll see if I can figure out why upon closer inspection.

[/M/]

So, can that mean you can change the combo postion? That'll be cool. LTM, how did you fix it? One of my quests had the same problem so I started a new one.

Edited by cool mike, 19 January 2005 - 05:00 PM.

[LinktheMaster]

I simply made both of the first two combos transparent. You could also switch the 1st and 2nd combos. Either there is some way to adjust this, and we simply don't know it, or we are activating something in ZQuest that shouldn't be activated.

[Radien]

...Something just occured to me that might answer the last question that came up.

When I was working on Master Quest, I was using the old BS1st tileset. It has a ground tile for combo #0. This meant that empty screens appeared red -- I assume that's because the ground combo looked red in CSet 0.

Anyway, if I assigned a layer before the screen was created, it would come up as an opaque red that obscured the whole screen. However, everything would become transparent the first time I placed a tile.

I might be remembering wrong. But if I'm not, it suggests that ZQuest sometimes uses blank transparency automatically.... eh, I dunno. just set combo #0 as a blank transparent and you won't have to worry about any of this. >_<