Drox Operative 0.916 blog

[Shadow]

I still have a bunch of help work left to do, but the big thing I'm planning on working on next is the monsters.

On paper, most of the monsters are pretty unique. They use various weapons, use different buffs/debuffs, fly at different speeds or in different ways, some have armor and/or shields, and many have special abilities. However I don't think that's coming across as well as it should yet. I suspect I just need to make the differences more significant, so that everything that is already there is more apparent. After that I can decide if they need more unique touches

Before I get too far into changing things, which monsters do you guys like? Which monsters are especially memorable for you? And probably most important, why?

[thorgrey]

They're all fairly memorable, graphics wise, I couldn't tell you most of their names but show me a picture and I'll recognize it. I don't think memorable looking enemies are the way to go though, I'd rather remember them as "that thing I should be careful around because it shoots all those damn missiles" or "that one what shoots all those lasers and I should probably be ready for that"

In respect to their image, why should our enemies all be spaceships? Space is dangerous enough, how about some more abstract enemies that have to be fought in more creative ways? A black hole that you have to train enemies into to kill or else it wreaks havok in the sector? Solar flares that on occasion burst out and disable ships if not dodged? Pulsars that rotate a beam of damage, forcing you to stay mobile? Space worms that have to be destoryed in sections? I was attacking a giant pod and thought "man, that would make a great boss if the enemies colonized it and turned it into a giant carrier of sorts.".

[goodgimp]

Purely from a looks point of view, the one that stands out to me (and the name escapes me at the moment) are the females who grow larger and larger in size. That looks really cool and is memorable, but I don't really notice them become particularly more nasty or anything, so making things more distinct is probably a good idea and one I would support. Visually I recognize them all, but I couldn't tell you what differentiates them (other than some have armor, others shields, etc).

[Shadow]

At the moment I'm mostly concerned about gameplay.

[Chumpy]

The only monsters where I connect their look and what they do are the ones that fire the three missiles, and I don't remember what they're called. Also the ones that fly at you and explode later on. And Backlashes.

I remember patchworks and stunners too, but I couldn't tell you what they look like without looking it up.

Other than that I have no idea. I guess some monsters have fly speeds of 200 and some don't? Some of them avoid mines? No clue.

I wonder if monsters could have separate turn speed and acceleration/topspeed. (Heck, that might be good for players too; it would expand the possibilities of items.) You could have a superfast enemy that you'd have to swerve to avoid.

Or how about an enemy that explodes when killed, damaging everything nearby. You know, like the barrels from Din's Curse.

Or a close range only enemy, like with a lightning field or "melee" attack or something.

A slow enemy with speed boosts.

A boss enemy that eats other enemies for food.

An enemy with high explosion resistance that attracts missiles away from other enemies.

I like the idea of a giant pod acting as a carrier. Monsters could retreat inside to recover health, which would give the player more incentive to invest in single-target damage.

You could maybe even have monsters that use empty planets the same way, as long as the player can damage those planets already.

Sun monsters that come out when someones damage the sun and just attack everything, but generally don't move too far from the center.

[thorgrey]

The sun monster, that sounds cool. Being able to attack the sun, forcing a monster way too tough for the area to pop out who drops good loot and also wins you the sector. That way, when you're down to 5 minutes on the loss timer and you're in panic mode you can attack the sun in a last ditch effort to win, maybe the boss could be 10 levels higher than the zone. Maybe make it only available during a loss timer.

[ScrObot]

Many of the monsters do "feel" similar even with their differences. There are some standouts, mostly based on weaponry, as mentioned previously.

I think that the enemies that launch drones are too few and far between.

Originally Posted by Chumpy

I wonder if monsters could have separate turn speed and acceleration/topspeed. (Heck, that might be good for players too; it would expand the possibilities of items.) You could have a superfast enemy that you'd have to swerve to avoid.

The idea of a monster with a top speed of like 300 but a really poor turn radius is awesome. It'd come zipping through your screen and you could only get a couple shots at it before it took like 6 seconds to circle back around (usually offscreen) for another pass.

[Chumpy]

Would also be nice if race ship combat were more interesting — maybe this could go hand in hand with a revamp of the tech system?

[RoboAV]

The Spiroc Teleporter could use a buff. It's neat, but it's teleport doesn't cause kinetics or missles to lose track of them. It should. I don't know that they use the ability all that often, either.

[ShaggyMoose]

I think the monster behaviour is pretty well differentiated. Some do divebomb missile attacks, some charge straight at you, a lot of them have special attacks/capabilities that force different responses from the player. I think one place where it breaks down is when you just end up with a 100 monsters tailing you around the map to the accompaniment of a Benny Hill soundtrack...