[Bontz-team] development plan, tile system

[Owen Swerkstrom]

> would you prefer tiles or text?  i can work on
> either, but probably not
> both at the same time.

Let's go from the ground up, getting the tiles going
first.  For the sake of the fish race we probably
don't need scrolling, but you might prefer to tackle
that all at once, I'll leave it up to you.  Text can
wait, for sure.  Does the following order of tasks
make sense to you?
+ multi-layered backgrounds made from tiles
+ system for having sprites atop those tiles
+ system for scripting movement of those sprites
+ text system for messages and menus

That will actually take care of the whole minigame. 
Stuff to keep in mind during the tile work would be
that we'll want to specify "can walk here", "can't
walk there" and "this is a door to xyz map" etc for
the main game, though we certainly don't need to worry
about implementing that stuff yet.  Just so it's
possible to add.

> i am still thinking on how i want to define a map. 
> how to place the
> tiles, portals/doorways that linke to other maps,
> placement of objects,
> and npc's and so on.
> 
> the map needs multiple layers, and probably allow
> for varying degrees of
> elevation of the land, and non-crossable terrain.
> 
> any good ideas for that?

I know very little about how you're going to want to
load in each graphic and how SDL likes to deal with
them, but maybe something like:
---start of example---
#00 is always "nothing"
01=tile/outdoor/grass-a.png
02=tile/outdoor/grass-b.png
03=tile/outdoor/grass-c.png
04=tile/outdoor/grass-d.png
05=tile/outdoor/water/,70
#a possible way to specify to loop-animate a folder?
#or maybe
05=tile/outdoor/water/info
#and have it learn how to animate based on that?
06=sprite/npc/shmoe/info
#would/could an info file contain movement patterns?
07=maps/snobville2003.map,14
#"door" type spot? the ,14 is to where within the map

layer 0  #bottom layer - water
05 05 05
05 05 05
05 05 05
05 05 05

layer 1 #next up - grass
01 02 04 03 01 02 04 03 01 02
04 03 01 02 04 03 01 02 04 03
01 02 04 03 01 02 04 03 01 02
04 03 01 02 04 03 01 02 04 03
01 02 04 03 00 00 00 00 00 02
04 03 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 03  #see the crappy lake?
01 02 04 03 00 00 00 00 00 02
04 03 01 02 04 03 01 02 04 03
---end of example---
all just ideas, and it reminded me of something
slightly ugly: the water stuff is bigger than the
other tiles, and to boot it's twice as wide as it is
tall.  should we be able to deal with different-sized
tiles or should I chop everything up into 64x64
pieces?  maybe something like...
---start of example---
layer 0
tile/water/info
0,0 256,0 512,0
0,128 256,128 512,128
0,256 256,256 512,256
0,384 256,384 512,384

layer 1
tile/outdoor/grass-a.png
0,0 256,0 64,256
tile/outdoor/grass-b.png
64,0 320,0 64,192
tile/outdoor/grass-c.png
192,0 448,0 64,64
tile/outdoor/grass-d.png
128,0 384,0 64,0
---end of example---
well i got sloppy/lazy on the layer 1 stuff but you
can see where I was going with that.  That's about all
the ideas I have for now.  I kind of like this latter
one, as theoretically we can put things anywhere, not
just at multiples of 64x64.  It's harder to visualize
by looking at the text though.  Also, for "can't walk
here" stuff, maybe that's all in an "info" file too? 
that way the map file could just point to an info
file, knowing to place the sprite/prop/whatever it is
at some given location, and the info file could
describe how to actually display/animate it and what
bits of it should block player movement.  is it
sensible to put that extra stuff in the info file?

> ok, it doesn't matter to me, what do you want me to
> do first?  a text
> engine or tiles?  it almost sounds that a text/menu
> engine may be a bit
> easier than tiles

I'm sure it will... but what the hell, let's get the
tiles in and done, we can totally rework them later if
we find out we didn't plan well enough.  (I'm sure
you're really glad to hear that :^)

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