[Suggestion] Inherited Layers

This is one of my whackier suggestions, to be sure. However, I think it would vastly improve the flexibility and usabilit of C2 in large-scale projects.

An "inherited layout" is one that shares the charactaristics of other layouts. I would envision it would work on a "tag" system - that is a layer with the same tag as another would be identical, e.g.

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1378330/c2InheritedExample.png" border="0" />

This suggestion is to address something I've found when creating a game with many levels. If I make a change to common elements (such as the player's user interface) or introduce a mechanic that require a new object (which then requires a prototype to be present in the level), I must then make that identical change to every layout. This quickly becomes unsustainable when you have 30+ levels, and means I cannot make changes on-the-fly to common elements.

I understand that this is probably not possible, but I think it would be a valuable feature if it is.

WOW very radical idea. Could work, but Scirra would really have to put some time into developing such a feature. Plus, I am sorry to say that this would be very hard, if not impossible to do... but i like your thinking! :D

They have something like this in CC - inheritance layers. Basically you enter the name of a uniquely named layer from another layout, and the layout acts like that layer is in the layout at runtime, with all of its objects.

I don't want to speak for Ashley and confirm anything, but because it was in CC, there's probably a good chance this will show up in C2 eventually.

Inheritance layers are indeed useful for UI recurring stuff like pause menus or even the players HUD.

I'd love to see this feature soon, but if there was another of those "what to do next?" I'm not sure if I would vote for it :P - positioning the items in a layout and setting a separate event sheet that can be included already does the trick for me :P

Added to the todo list.

Ah, yes, the good old todo list ;)

I know the to do list is huge, I'm not trying to rush anything here. I was just wondering how close to the top of the to-do list this had moved to :)

I know this has been discussed in other topics but thought I would bump the original for an update if possible. I'm really struggling to complete my game at the minute, implementing a pause menu over multiple levels, as making the smallest tweaks and changes to the menu means I need to replicate it over and over again. It's quite time consuming.

Does anyone know another way of achieving this effect I can use for now while we wait for this function to be added?

If that's for the menu, which is available on every level of your game You could try making it using global object (set them up on one layout and they will show up on every other layout) and one common, included event sheet.

You could make an event sheet include that spawns / updates all the UI elements - it'd be a good half-way place, though a little more work setting up, as you'd position things with code rather than visually.

Got the separate event sheet set-up for the menu and set it to include on my main event sheet. I've tried your idea JohnnySix but it's so long to go through every object in my menu and set the co-ordinates with code. Especially with my game being a work in progress so things are constantly being adjusted.

Might give the global objects idea a go. Still though... <img src="smileys/smiley13.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Any thoughts Ashley?

There are still over 50 things on our todo list. We're working as fast as we can.

Thanks for the response. Much appreciated. I've found a solution in the meantime. I've just opened up the XML files for each layout and copy and pasted the addition layers into the other layouts. It's not pretty but it gets the job done.

Hi, Iv been making a physics/puzzle game and think I have finished the mechanics of gameplay. I am currently holding off duplicating the default level to make each level. Has this feature made it closer to the top of the Todo list and how have others been handling layouts with many of the same objects.