The z-space problem of displaying sprites

[DerVVulfman]

Something at once overlooked, and at once... not.

The above window may not look like much at first glance, but do glance at a few things which I will point out.  First is that Aluxes is not wearing shoes and he seems to have a mythril blue sword in his right hand.  Then, glance at a buck-nekkid Basil. Hopefully that shield is covering enough.

When one creates a visual equipment / paperdoll system, it is the save file window that tends to be forgotten. Or perhaps coders decline to do so as it involved tampering with the list of game data objects (Game_System, Game_Switches, etc.) that are copied into the save-files themselves.  Tampering with those is a very... very... delicate procedure.

However, to render the heroes with the appropriate gear and appearance, I had need to access the list of actors within each save-file, and this included their currently equipped gear so the updated bitmaps with their weapons and armor could be rendered.

Again, this is a tricky thing.  But ... well... When have I paid attention when someone said things cannot be done?  They used to say you can't make a new database object that gets saved without messing with the Marshalled list of data objects.  BAH!  What do they know?  Not much as I proved them wrong...  Years ago, I worked out a technique that can save 'extra data' into Game_System.  And since Game_System IS one of the already listed files stored within the save-games, no change to the list was even done!  No harm... no foul.

Oh, and more advances???

What is that in Aluxes's hands?  TWO WEAPONS?  Indeed they are!

As of now, the work I have will also work with my MultiSlots system.   This means, that the script can allow you to use all five equipment slots, and whatever extra slots you wish to include... even HIDDEN slots.

For example... the odd character with no face or hair under the tree has a set of wings assigned to 'Hidden' Equipment Slot #8.  Hidden slots can be fun if you wanna put some item that is irremovable from the actors in your party...

As of now, I can't think of other contributions to be made to this setup.  So some graphic work for demos will be made. And then code cleanup and instructions down the line.