Feel free to flame me if I've gotten how tiles work in Coldstone massively wrong. I was wondering whether changing a type of tile changed all instances of that tile. (So that if I suddenly decided that every grass tile in my entire map was slightly too green I wouldn't have to go through and manually replace each one.)
Sorry if that was a bit incoherent, I wasn't sure how to phrase it.
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Originally posted by Catfish_Man:
**Feel free to flame me if I've gotten how tiles work in Coldstone massively wrong.
**
OK. /me warms up Flamethrower. 
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**I was wondering whether changing a type of tile changed all instances of that tile. (So that if I suddenly decided that every grass tile in my entire map was slightly too green I wouldn't have to go through and manually replace each one.)
Sorry if that was a bit incoherent, I wasn't sure how to phrase it.
**
Hmm... I think I understand what you mean. If you use a tile in Coldstone, say a grass tile, and you make a map with it, but then decide you wish to change it, you want to know whether there is a 'search and replace' function, or whether you'd have to put the map back together manually.
Now, don't quote me on this, but I think there is no way to automatically replace each instance of a tile, as Coldstone imports the image into itself and stores it in it's own data file, not in the external image file. I don't know what would happen if you replaced the image file in the CS data file, and it might indeed work, but I would hesitate to say it would.
Bottom line is get it right the first time, or hopefully find out from Dee or a tester. I'll bow to their judgement and superior knowledge.
-Andiyar
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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"
Hmm, Andiyar- I'm going to go out on a limb, with zero information, and guess the opposite.
Based on looking at the beta screenshots available in the Coldstone gallery, it's clear that graphics retain a strong association with their source files- in the status bars and library windows, they seem to all have filenames with extensions (tree.pct, etc).
Similar authoring programs, like Flash and Director, import graphics into internal libraries but retain the ability to update from the original file. I'm guessing Coldstone operates along those lines.
Consider: Let's say you want to work with temp art, which you import and start development with, so that you and your artist can work in parallel on your project.
If instances didn't update across the board, you'd have to import the new art and then replace it in every single occurence- and specifically delete each and every bit of the temp art.
Considering that both Beenox and Ambrosia are experienced game companies, I doubt they would build a tool (that they themselves use) with such a serious flaw.
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marc siry
century city, usa
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Originally posted by marcsiry:
** < snip >
**
Very well then. I don't want to argue the point, because I was merely having a rather tired guess. Your reply seems far more logical, and until proven otherwise, I'll assume that you are right, and I was wrong.
-Andiyar
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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"
Yup, Andiyar and macsiry are right, to change any graphic in coldstone, all you have to do is edit the source file, and it'll use the new graphic in every occurance that you have used the old one. Make's sense really. if you're using grass.jpg and place it everywhere, then modify it, Coldstone isn't going to reject the modifications, it won't even reaslise it's been changed.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know we have something special for you at
Birdland this evening. A recording for Blue Note Records...
"Actions have reactions, don't be quick to judge, you may not know the hardships people don't speak of,
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Very nice. Interesting thought too.
/me wonders about changing the grass to..uh..other stuff...hmm... 
a bit too obvious, /me deletes pic
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Co-Creator of clan #ev3 of Starcraft
Diablo 2 main charactor-Dysteria
(This message has been edited by Desert Fox (edited 12-12-2001).)
Excellent! My game idea uses several variations on one main map, this makes it so that instead of making multiple copies of a similar map I can just change the tilesets and tweak it a bit.
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Originally posted by Catfish_Man:
**Excellent! My game idea uses several variations on one main map, this makes it so that instead of making multiple copies of a similar map I can just change the tilesets and tweak it a bit.
**
I might have misunderstood you, but I still think you will need to make multiple copies of a similar map to acheive that effect. I beleave what they were refering to was the ability to, say, change "Grass.jpg" to a revised "Grass.jpg." But that wouldn't be ingame, that would be during development. There would still only be one Grass.jpg, and the comp could only make use of one. If that makes any sence...
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"Lions don't molt! "
"But Penguins do! Ha!
I run circles around
you logicaly!"
wb frosty
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(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum48/HTML/000767.html")http://www.AmbrosiaS...TML/000767.html(/url)
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Originally posted by Neep:
**I might have misunderstood you, but I still think you will need to make multiple copies of a similar map to acheive that effect. I beleave what they were refering to was the ability to, say, change "Grass.jpg" to a revised "Grass.jpg." But that wouldn't be ingame, that would be during development. There would still only be one Grass.jpg, and the comp could only make use of one. If that makes any sence...
**
Yeah, my post gave the wrong impression. What I meant was, I can make several copies of one map and modify them to have several similar maps.
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