Is it unreasonable to make all the sprites in a CCSpriteSheet have a z-order within the manager? I noticed that if you have a child on a CCSPrite, it's the same z-order as the sprite itself. However, it makes more sense (in most of my contexts) that the child have a higher z-order than other sprites on the screen. A possibly DIFFERENT z - order than its base.
So you have sprite A with top a. A is z=0 and a z=1. Then you have B where z=0 and z=1;
EDIT: the graphic is getting mangled. Sorry, can't fix.
<quote>
------- --------
| | | |
---| child |--| child |
| |a_______| |b_______ |
|A | |B |
|parent | |parent |
|________| |_________|
</quote>
Not possible?