ShapeCircle alpha setting ignored for fortress zones

[Luke-Jr]

zFortress always uses ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER for its alpha value, even if the map file specifies an explicit alpha level.

Hint: use applyVisuals method to set ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER as a default colour.

[Manuel Moos (z-man)]

Problem is, applyVisuals is a 'take the whole color or leave it' business. It doesn't know whether the alpha level in particular was set. And I wouldn't want to multiply the map alpha with the setting alpha, that wouldn't fit me well in the long run.

Not that there's anything wrong with ignoring ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER as soon as any bit of color is set, mind you.

[Manuel Moos (z-man)]

Oh well, done what I said. Any map color disables ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER now. Not perfect, but what is?

[Luke-Jr (luke-jr)]

eh, I don't see what is wrong with using applyVisuals... the zFortressZone as I had it will change its colour anyway, but leave the alpha alone..

[Manuel Moos (z-man)]

zFortressZone may do that, but the others don't. Ideally, behavior would be this:
- if no alpha is set in the map or by a derived class, alpha should be ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER
- if an alpha value is set otherwise, it should be used.
In the long run, we do want to phase out visual preference settings in favor for a more scalable approach (css is the current winner), so setting the alpha value to "whatever is in the map" * ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER is undesirable; it will lead to a jump on servers using ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER once that setting is eliminated.

Right now, however, the behavior is that ZONE_ALPHA_SERVER is only used if the map sets no color component at all, because applyVisuals lacks resolution. Not that I'd want you to change that, hell no, it's fine. It's just that the behavior right now is not exactly optimal and I'm not fully happy with it. Happy enough to forget about it, though.