Lesson 00
How the editor draws a tank
Barrels, parts and auto turrets are stacked in layers, and the body splits what draws over it from what draws under it.
What you see
Every custom tank is a body plus a stack of layers. The Layers panel on the left lists them; the Tank body row in the middle of the list splits what draws over the body from what draws under it. Drag a layer across that row and it changes sides. Within each side, the layer higher in the list is painted on top.
There are three kinds of layer, and that is all there is:
| Layer | What it is | Fields that place it |
|---|---|---|
| Barrel | A rectangle or trapezoid that can fire. The only straight-edged shape you get. | Angle, Offset, Length, Width at base, Width at tip, Gap |
| Part | A regular polygon, a circle (Sides under 3) or a star. | Sides, Size, Angle, Offset X, Offset Y, Rotation |
| Auto turret | A disc that turns on its own, and carries barrels and parts with it. | Offset X, Offset Y, Base size, Facing, Range, Arc |
Units the editor uses
- The body is a circle of radius 50 at level 1 (Body size). The whole tank grows as it levels, so a maxed one is about half again that.
- A standard barrel is Length 95 and 42 units wide. Width at base and Width at tip are multiples of that width: 0.5 is 21 units wide, 2 is 84.
- A part's Size is centre to corner. A polygon body draws at 1.3 × its Body size (an octagon body of 44 looks like a circle of 50).
- Angle and Facing are degrees, clockwise, 0 pointing where the tank aims. Offset X runs along the aim, Offset Y across it to the tank's right.
- Everything gets a dark outline about 7.5 units wide, 72 % of its fill colour. A part under about 8 units across shows only its outline.
- A part's Rotation is one of With the aim, Fixed (keeps its angle in the world, lesson 20) or Spins. Spin speed is rotation per tick, 25 ticks a second: 0.0628 is one turn every four seconds, and the slider stops at ±0.5.
- A part or a barrel can also ride an auto turret, a barrel or, since October 2026, another part (lesson 19). Its offsets are then measured from what it rides.
Gotchas
- The editor keeps 32 parts, 32 barrels and 8 auto turrets per tank and drops the rest without a word. Everything a tank's projectiles carry counts too, up to 96 pieces in all (lesson 15).
- Name every layer (double-click it). The names in these lessons are what you will see in the real editor after importing the pack.
- Fit zooms the canvas to the whole tank. Holding Shift while dragging snaps to 10 units and 15°.
- Parts default to Border grey, barrels to Cannon grey. Every lesson says which colour it uses by the editor's swatch names; since October 2026 any colour box also takes a hex code with an opacity (lesson 21).
- Only the body and parts marked Collidable have a hitbox, up to eight of them per tank since October 2026 (lesson 12). Everything else is picture.