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(+1)

Sorry about the delay. itch.io was down.

Ok. I see that some of my design decisions are leading you to these questions. I'll address them one-by-one

The stack when selecting

When you start selecting something, the tool gets everything that is in the 2D plane of the mouse. In other words, regardless of what is on top of it, it gets everything that is part of that position on screen. That is done by Ren'Py's internal undocumented API.

Think like you have an A2 size table with lots of A4 sheets of paper. Then you get a knife and pierce through all sheets anywhere on the table. The ones the knife pierces through are the ones part of the stack obtained. That's basically what this does.

The background image (more exactly, Displayable) is just an image like any other, for Ren'Py. There's no way to distinguish. Also, if it's always covered, it would be impossible to select it without hacks or annoying processes. So I ended up going with this process.

It is both not trivial to know when the thing you selected ended and when the next thing starts. It is possible to have some tricks that usually work but not in the rare times which is usually when it's most frustrating.

Sorting of the stack

The way the stack is sorted is just a UX decision I did. It had to be sorted in some shape or form. I decided to go from bottom to top due to how the levels look like and are build, so it's increasingly "upwards" when looked at in the UI but also, first select the "closest" to the mouse. If you have a better idea, I can take it into account.

Going all the way when trying to select in the opposite way

When I need that, I usually just press Esc and then m again. However, rule of thumb with this tool is to edit 1 or 2 things at a time and then edit in the source code which makes it reload. However, in this case, it seems like what you want is to move the button and then the text, for example.
One thing I can consider is that if you move more than some small amount or some time passed, the next to be selected resets to the first one when you press, in this case, m again. Would that help? Or would having a button to go the opposite way help more? Using n while in move mode, perhaps?

Rough pos each time

You mention:

The tool helps me getting the rough pos each time

The tool is designed to get the exact position you want much more fast than with editing in your editor and reloading. Is it failing to do that for you?


Offtopic:
I read the Ice cream culprit. It was really good and funny! Keep up the work! I'm a fan now.

No problem at all!

1. The stack when selecting: I see. It sounds quite complicated for me haha, but I think I get the idea. Many times I think Ren'Py works just like CSS/HTML, like how the background(-image) and the image(img) are different.

2. Sorting the stack: I can't think of any new ideas for now, but I think making it as close as how it visually looks like would be more UX friendly. In this case, the buttons which are in front of the background is stacked first, and the background is stacked later. Depending on whether I understand how this tool works, this suggestion may or may not work.

This reminds me of how Ren'Py's native inspector tool (Shift+I) is displaying information.

3. Going all the way when trying to select in the opposite way: I think this is related to the first two topics. 'n' and 'm' to move back and forth sounds interesting, I wonder how hard it is to implement it. Probably not hard? XD

4. Rough pos: aah sometimes when I just want to move a few pixels, I just change the number manually myself. I know I could have used the tool to shorten this process. Like, looking back, isn't this tool meant to speed up that process? Integrating this tool to my Ren'Py coding is very new so I have to adjust that workflow... I guess it's time to familiarize myself with it. So, nevermind haha. >.<

And thank you for playing Ice Cream Culprit!! I hope you get a nice ice cream (or any sweets) of your liking as well haha.

(sorry. I answered outside the thread)

  1. Yeah. I'd say there's some inspiration from HTML+CSS when Tom did Ren'Py's code architecture for the UI. However, there's clear simplifications all around whenever it was feasible. This is one of them.
  2. I'm not sure what do you mean... Do you mean to have the reverse order for the list that appears? This is actually the same API that Ren'Py uses for the inspector Tool to work.
  3. Yeah. That's fine to implement at some point. N would only work after pressing M but I think that shouldn't be a problem.
  4. No problem.

No, you're right. I should have replied on the main post! I'll continue there! :D