Rooms, yup, I was thinking about allowing more internal squares, but someone else can code that. ;-)
Half height collisions I like. Windows would be a neat use for this (either attack a room with a full frontal assault, or sneak round the back and lob a grenade through the window). I suspect the best means of achieving this is some further info in the collision layer. Maybe convert it to a bitwise indicator? Again, not likely to get a chance to do this if I'm working on objects / objectives.
Doors, I also agree that you shouldn't in general be able to destroy doors. However, it might be nice to keep the generic doors that will open without any key as destructible - if only as a means of penalising trigger happy players! Also allows for more interesting scenarios in levels - e.g. make the player think they need a key that they can't find, when actually the only way through is by force. (we'd have to drop a few hints to make this fair of course! But I like games that lie!)
Objects: having the script in a lookup OBJ file or in the map layer itself makes little difference. Other than that the map layers are all ints at the moment, not strings. So a part of my reasoning was based on a 'minimal change' ethic. The template bit is a nice to have, but potentially a very useful one IMHO when we design levels.
Anyway, which bit are you saying is over-complicated? The OBJ lookup file compared to converting the existing OBJ layer to a script layer (just two ways of looking at the same thing really)? The idea of a template OBJ file for creating level specific objects (a handy shortcut, but admittedly not a necessity)? Objects whose state you can switch on, of, and back again (One thought I had was switches which might turn lights on / off in a given area, and have enemies that do / don't like the light / are killed by the light). The If construct? On the latter, I really like the idea of an If construct. For example, this could enable levels where you have to shut down the reactor by doing four separate things. Or, if we have NPCs in some form, more complex conversations based on actions you've performed.
Anyway, I'm not likely to make a real start on this aspect for a day or two, so we've got some time to thrash it out!
Half height collisions I like. Windows would be a neat use for this (either attack a room with a full frontal assault, or sneak round the back and lob a grenade through the window). I suspect the best means of achieving this is some further info in the collision layer. Maybe convert it to a bitwise indicator? Again, not likely to get a chance to do this if I'm working on objects / objectives.
Doors, I also agree that you shouldn't in general be able to destroy doors. However, it might be nice to keep the generic doors that will open without any key as destructible - if only as a means of penalising trigger happy players! Also allows for more interesting scenarios in levels - e.g. make the player think they need a key that they can't find, when actually the only way through is by force. (we'd have to drop a few hints to make this fair of course! But I like games that lie!)
Objects: having the script in a lookup OBJ file or in the map layer itself makes little difference. Other than that the map layers are all ints at the moment, not strings. So a part of my reasoning was based on a 'minimal change' ethic. The template bit is a nice to have, but potentially a very useful one IMHO when we design levels.
Anyway, which bit are you saying is over-complicated? The OBJ lookup file compared to converting the existing OBJ layer to a script layer (just two ways of looking at the same thing really)? The idea of a template OBJ file for creating level specific objects (a handy shortcut, but admittedly not a necessity)? Objects whose state you can switch on, of, and back again (One thought I had was switches which might turn lights on / off in a given area, and have enemies that do / don't like the light / are killed by the light). The If construct? On the latter, I really like the idea of an If construct. For example, this could enable levels where you have to shut down the reactor by doing four separate things. Or, if we have NPCs in some form, more complex conversations based on actions you've performed.
Anyway, I'm not likely to make a real start on this aspect for a day or two, so we've got some time to thrash it out!