As per Toaster's suggestion, I've implemented Dual layer mode in the Designer. Please note that at present this has not been implemented in the Player but I've released it early so you can get a jump start on working with multiple layers. There's also a bunch of other improvements in the Designer which I thought were worth making available.

Single Layer mode

This is how the Player rendered the board image and filled areas previously and will still be supported. In this mode the layers are arranged like so:

Territories      <-- TOP
Fill Map
Fog Map
Board Image  <-- BOTTOM

i.e. in Single Layer mode the fill territories sit on top of the board image. The fill map is generated automatically by the Player based on filling the contiguous areas of uniform color under the territory position.

Dual Layer mode

In this mode the order of the layers is different:

Territories      <-- TOP
Board Image
Fill Map
Fog Map         <-- BOTTOM

i.e. the filled territories are exposed by areas of transparency in the board image. In this case the fill map is provided by the designer.

In addition you can now also define a custom fog image - my thinking behind having this was that you could actually define a fog layer that includes parts of the board image so the board appears to reveal itself when the fog is cleared - plenty of scope for fun stuff here. Note that the fog is exposed through the transparencies in the fill map (when a territory seat is fogged it is filled with transparent color).

I hope the above makes sense, I probably need to draw some pictures to illustrate. Enjoy!

Awesome, but it seems to not be working...

http://www.wargear.net/boards/designer/615

It appears the designer is still trying to fill on the image layer.

Did you set it to 'Dual Layer' on the front page and upload the fill layer separately?

yes

and yes, i saved it that way. i did this 3 or 4 times this morning before i left for work just to make sure it wasn't pebkac

the bigger problem might be that its not saving the dual layer setting

I don't get it. Is this saying that we can create an image that will be shown during fogged games to create a real feel of fog. So let's say it's a AWESOME looking map of Brazil and you start in Rio, you can only see just Rio and as you start attacking the slums all around it (which are magically beautiful) you start seeing them also but otherwise, the map is a blank canvas as far as you can see based off of an image layer the map maker created as an overlay?

Oops - fixed. Sorry missed a file upload.

RiskyBack wrote: I don't get it. Is this saying that we can create an image that will be shown during fogged games to create a real feel of fog. So let's say it's a AWESOME looking map of Brazil and you start in Rio, you can only see just Rio and as you start attacking the slums all around it (which are magically beautiful) you start seeing them also but otherwise, the map is a blank canvas as far as you can see based off of an image layer the map maker created as an overlay?

Yes, in theory you could do that. In practice noone's ever tried this (including me) so I've no idea how well it will work in practice :)

The other interesting part of this change is that there can be complete disjoints in the visible fill area for a territory - e.g. a sequence of islands in the sea could all be part of the same territory. As long as the fill image behind the territory is contiguous it will work.

Next question then, well the map info show the continents and everything? Meaning that we can't really hide stuff in the map. So given my example of the worlds most graphically beautiful map of Brazil, if we give a bonus for every Thong collected, could we make a map where you don't know where the thongs are until you take the territory even if you use the map info screen to see the bonuses?

No the continent bonuses structure still stays the same so you can't hide bonuses - this is really just a visual change, nothing else behind the scenes.

http://www.wargear.net/boards/designer/615

tom, do a test fill and see if you can tell me what's happening here?

Ok this should be working properly now. You will need to re-upload the fill image

Sorry testing lapse as usual

Well I got it to work I think but it didn't do what I wanted it to or thought it was supposed to do. I made a fill layer like normal and then I created a layer to go over the top of it. When I played a test game it seemed to work but when I took over a territory that was covered by the Fog Layer the territory didn't appear on the map, it just let me take it. Is that the way it is supposed to go?

The Player doesn't implement the dual layer mode yet Risky!

Will this all be available to view when viewing maps on the Board browse page and possibly the Board Info Board page?

I'd say the board browse / info pages would show the combined image - i.e. all three layers combined together.

I can't seem to find the dual layer option...

It should be on the first page of the board designer - if it's not there, try doing an F5 or CTRL F5 to force a refresh of the page - maybe your using an old version of the code.