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If you're using MV I recommend using TileD - it allows for as many layers as you like and grid size changes~

It does take a little getting used to, though.

I think it was to make the mapping system more user-friendly, in the sense that instead of actually planning what tile you want to use on each layer, you have your layers restricted to only certain kinds of tiles and anyone can just auto-draw stuff without having to think much. Of course, the obvious downside is that none of the newer RPG makers can match XP in how unrestricted its graphic assets can be.

Like, XP did a hell of a lot of things wrong, primarily with its stat and battle system, but made up for it with its flexibility in how you can use assets.

Yeah, I loved having three layers in the MV trial. I've never really used XP, even though I have it. (I'll have to do a project in it one of these days.)

@Ratty: Another thing I think of is, that with two layers, you already have a lot of mapping errors that you miss on the first few play through. Oh my goodness, how about the mapping errors I'll have with three layers?

You can always just use Tiled to make the different layers, export each layer as different images and then use Modern Algebra's Fix Picture to Map script to apply them (since it allows for picture manipulation on the z-plane, meaning that you can have a picture between A and B sheets or have a few between Parallax and ground layers and the like).

That's a bit like saying that Ace would be nothing more than 2k3 without Ruby - not quite true.

MV brings stuff to the table that Ace doesn't outside of scripting, and vice-versa.