Is it possible, or planned that there will be elevation added to tiles? I was thinking along the lines of the tiles in Secret of Mana.

I think you'd be able to do it pretty easy actually! In this picture, elevation is a fictitious construct, visual candy if you will. Essentially, the only real difference between an elevated space and an island is the sprite used to distinguish it.

Really all you are doing with an elevation difference is separating two areas of walkable terrain with an area that is acting as a barrier that you are arbitrarily defining as an elevation difference. You could extend the same exact same principle to create a force-field, a wall, a stretch of water, whatever you wish. Amusingly, the area doesn't even need to have the mathematical property of area, it could just be a line!

If you want to make it a bit more interesting, you could think about the barrier you are defining as "elevation difference" as a one way barrier in the down->up direction. Or what if it is not even a barrier to movement, what if it's just an area that applies a penalty to move speed or to attack damage when crossing from the wrong direction?

Alternatively, it could give a damage bonus to any particle that passes through it going the correct direction, and a damage penalty to any particle going through it the wrong direction!

What I am trying to say is it is very much doable, just try looking at what purpose you want elevation to serve in the game, and the implementation will be a breeze from there :)

I don't know if we'll have it in the overworld, but it sounded from Casey's description of the "layered tiles" like we'll be able to have segments that literally coexist in the same space as other tilemaps but are only accessible from explicitly defined "ladders." Which would imply the possibility of non-handwaved elevation!

If I recall correctly, Casey mentioned that he wanted it to be obvious to the player whether a shot hits or misses, rather than have some kind of false-3D thing going on. Perhaps elevation could be introduced in a way that stays true to that goal, but it strikes me as something that will take a lot of time to get right without adding a lot of value to the game. I think more interesting features would have to be sacrificed to make time for it to be implemented.

StarchyPancakes
I think you'd be able to do it pretty easy actually! In this picture, elevation is a fictitious construct, visual candy if you will.

Yes, that example is simple enough, since it is actually fake elevation as you say. But what if you wanted to be able to walk below it?

julealgon

StarchyPancakes
I think you'd be able to do it pretty easy actually! In this picture, elevation is a fictitious construct, visual candy if you will.

Yes, that example is simple enough, since it is actually fake elevation as you say. But what if you wanted to be able to walk below it?

That's what I was referring to with tiles existing in the same space -- a "ladder" could just be a land bridge or something.

I'm making some assumptions, but based on Casey's description, it seems pretty likely.

StarchyPancakes
I think you'd be able to do it pretty easy actually! In this picture, elevation is a fictitious construct, visual candy if you will. Essentially, the only real difference between an elevated space and an island is the sprite used to distinguish it.

Not quite. In Seiken Densetsu 3 (the game in the picture) and Secret of Mana, you are unable to hit enemies on a higher or lower elevation than you.

Not quite. In Seiken Densetsu 3 (the game in the picture) and Secret of Mana, you are unable to hit enemies on a higher or lower elevation than you.

Did you read past first paragraph of my post? Literally the next sentence I say that it is acting as a barrier. In the fourth paragraph I mention particles.

I call them paragraphs (I guess they technically do qualify) but it's safe to say that they probably only loosely coincide with what one would colloquially consider a paragraph. For lack of a better word I'll stick with paragraph but if anyone has a better suggestion for a replacement term I'm all... well, eyes, I suppose.

Back to the matter at hand, I have not played the game and so was unaware that the specific implementation of the mechanic is as you mention. Even so I think I covered the contingency explicitly enough to preclude the necessity of your comment.

StarchyPancakes

Not quite. In Seiken Densetsu 3 (the game in the picture) and Secret of Mana, you are unable to hit enemies on a higher or lower elevation than you.

Did you read past first paragraph of my post? Literally the next sentence I say that it is acting as a barrier. In the fourth paragraph I mention particles.

I call them paragraphs (I guess they technically do qualify) but it's safe to say that they probably only loosely coincide with what one would colloquially consider a paragraph. For lack of a better word I'll stick with paragraph but if anyone has a better suggestion for a replacement term I'm all... well, eyes, I suppose.

Back to the matter at hand, I have not played the game and so was unaware that the specific implementation of the mechanic is as you mention. Even so I think I covered the contingency explicitly enough to preclude the necessity of your comment.

I did not get that meaning from your previous post.