bzr 5958.
There is a problem in the way the game decides which graphics should cover which other ones.
This can be see most noteably with the quarry, but the problem is also with animals and immovables, and to some extent also to houses and fields.
When returning north, the stonemason seems to go underneath the stone pile.
To reproduce: play the game. Any map, any world, any tribe.
Build a quarry positioned north of a stone field. Watch the stonemason go to and return from his work.
Could somebody please identify and understand the code, and in conjunction with the graphics department
discuss ways, how irritating Z-layering could be avoided, or its characteristics be use advantageously.
Perhaps the code could even be altered to allow more flexibility in the way workers and animals
approach immovables and retreat from them, when they need to go north.
I'd just want to add a short comment: I recently played through the Settlers 2 demo again, just to see how it is compared to Widelands these days. Anyways, I noticed at least in one place where a carrier walking on a diagonal road would have his head displayed beneath the corner of a nearby house.
So I think it is safe to say that dealing with the z-layering is a known issue, and probably pretty hard to fix completely. That said, we should of course strive to minimize the impact of this problem, and at least deal with the most obvious places this could cause a problem.
A question for the programmers; how is the engine set up? Would it be possible to delay drawing any workers until houses have been finished, so that workers would always be shown in the front at least?