Layers all have the following properties, with some exceptions:

Default Layers are the Layers that are present for all Cards. Their names and Priorities cannot be changed.

Back and Base images are located in img/CGC/bases, all other images are in img/CGC/art.

This Default Layer also does not have an image component because Cards contain multiple highlights at once to ensure a smooth transition between states of highlight. This Layer represents all Highlights.

Default Layers, like all layers, can have their values overridden through Skill Notetags.

You can define your own Layers which have their own images, offsets, and conditions. These layers will not appear on Cards automatically but instead can be added to specific Cards through Skill Notetags.

Additionally, Custom Layers can be defined entirely through Skill Notetags.

Layers can be added to or changed for a Card using the following Skill Notetag structure:

<Card Art Layers>
Layer1
Layer2
Layer3
</Card Art Layers>

Layer properties can be overridden inside these notetags with the following syntax:

<Card Art Layers>
LayerName (Priority): ImageName | X Y | Condition
</Card Art Layers>

Each one of these components are optional. If a component is not present the Layer will use the default values defined through plugin parameters. The | dividers are still neccessary to override a later property if you aren't overriding an early one.

Example:

<Card Art Layers>
Dragon
HidingDragon (110)
AboveText: Red Dragon | | user.level > 5
SideDragon (410): SideDragon | 60 -10 | true
</Card Art Layers>

In the above example, the layer “Dragon” is using all of the values defined through the Custom Layers plugin parameter, so no other components need to be written out.

The “HidingDragon” layer has its Priority set to 110, which is above the Base Layer but below the Art Layer, overriding whatever previous values were set in plugin parameters.

The “AboveText” layer is overriding the Image and Condition components but leaving the Offset component to its default values.

The SideDragon layer is defining each individual component. In this case, SideDragon does not need to be defined through plugin parameters.

Now, in this above example, the Default Layers are not present in the list of Layers. They do not need to be as they are always present on the Card. However, you can include them in the notetags to override default values.

Example:

<Card Art Layers>
Base: DragonBase
Art: Dragon | 40 40
Highlight: | | false
</Card Art Layers>

In this example, we are overriding the images for both the Base and the Art Layers. We are also moving the Art Layer 40 pixels down and to the right. Finally, we are making the Highlight layer invisible. These changes apply only to the Skill in which these notetags are present.

Badges are special components that have an image property and a text property. Instead of having a Priority, they're associated with a Layer and are placed directly on that Layer. Badges have the following properties:

The Text property is not a simple text input, but instead code which evaluates into text. In programming, a string of text, referred to simply as a string, is formatted with quotation marks. So if you want static text, you should format it like this:

“Hello World!” ← would work

instead of like this

Hello World! ← would NOT work

This property is code so that it can display variables more easily.

Example:

user.mp + " MP"

This example would display “3 MP” while the owner of the card had 3 MP.

There are three variables you can use in the Text property to make referencing variables you want easier.

user - The Actor that owns the card.
card - The Card object itself.
skill - The Skill that the Card is a copy of.

Examples of how you might use these:

"LVL " + user.level
card.origin().toUpperCase()
skill.mpCost

If you're using MYTH_CGC_IndependantCardVariables you can use:

card.cardVar(1)

The Condition property determines whether a Layer or Badge is visible. If it returns true, the component is visible, and if it returns false it is invisible.

Note that because Badges are attached to Layers, if a Badge's parent Layer is invisible, it will be invisible too.

Just like with Badge Text, you have three variables you can use to make this evaluation more flexible:

user - The Actor that owns the card.
card - The Card object itself.
skill - The Skill that the Card is a copy of.

The two plugin params - Refresh Layer Visibility? and Refresh Badge Values? determine whether or not Cards will reevaluate each layer and badge's visibility and text after each action in battle.

Depending on the needs of your project, you may prefer to set one or both of these to false. If you have many layers and badges, and many cards, the impact that refreshing has on performance increases exponentially.

On the other hand, a project that has only a few layers but badges that display valuable information may want to disable refreshing for layers and keep badge refreshing enabled.

This plugin makes the spawning of Card Sprites more expensive, and more likely to impact performance. We have found that for projects with a medium number of cards in play at a time (40-90) that setting all Zones' “Show Cards?” parameter to “Behind image” or “In front” mitigates this issue.

This frontloads the spawning of Card Sprites to the beginning of battle, during the loading screen between the map and battle. Once loaded in, all cards stay loaded in and do not impact performance.