Author Topic: Enemies, we need more!  (Read 7800 times)

Offline Misery

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Enemies, we need more!
« on: January 26, 2016, 07:56:59 am »
Okay, so, we're at post 1.0, and there's some stuff that could be touched up a bit to improve things:  One of those things is enemy variation.

After some internal discussion with Chris, enemy variation has basically been determined to be an important thing right now.  Some enemies are just appearing too often!  Which means that their category needs to be filled out more.  For example, those things that fire the green angled beams?  Yeah, those are EVERYWHERE.  As a rule, it's low-category enemies that are having this issue.  Like, the local guards or the small wanderers or whatever.

Now, I myself am not good at coming up with "simpler" enemies and actually keeping them INTERESTING.   Something like that bulldog thing, for instance:  I like that one alot, but I *never* would have come up with it.   I"m good at making things go bonkers and am going to try to focus a bit on getting in some more high-end things like Fearsomes or 5x5 chaos adders.  You know.... so that Sideshots arent appearing QUITE as often.  Haha.

But yeah, we need more of these interesting little guys.  For all floors of the game, though the absolute lowest floors are the most important at the moment.  And in a couple of cases, if we get more enemies in certain categories, there's certain already-existing enemies that I'd like to shift upwards in terms of floors.  Those green angled things, for instance.  Get that category a bit more filled out, and I'll probably move them up a bit so they're not on floors 1/2.

So..... yeah.  Obviously, you all that's into the modding stuff here and submitting things dont have to do any of this, I just figured I'd let you all know what we most need right now.  And I'm going to be taking a stab at a few of the small guys myself even though it's not my specialty.   Surely I can think of at least a few things.  That wont then become Blaze Cannons or Chargers.

Of course, that being said, we'll still be looking at any submissions, really.  XML stuff or rooms, or whatever.   This is just what seems to be most needed right now.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2016, 08:56:49 am »
Yeah, not my cup of tea either. 

That and I've got my own project Mech and one more I'll probably do.  I've still got a boss idea to attempt and puzzle rooms to try and make.  So much stuff I still have to learn about in XML (I'm slooow).
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Misery

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2016, 09:10:48 am »
I have actually mentioned to Chris that you've been doing the mech thing, and once it's done I'm going to have a full go at it myself, and then send it his way to test out.  I, personally, think that if we could get the game to, say, 9 mechs instead of 6, that actually might be a very helpful thing for replayability.  6 seems a bit low to me. So.... if you are enjoying making those, there's no reason to stop!  I think you're the only one working on these right now.  They're definitely out of my realm, that's for sure.  And nobody on the dev team is doing this right now.  We're all focused on.... every aspect that isnt mechs.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2016, 09:38:33 am »
Lol.  If I can get Nova balanced, that might be an ok addition.  I probably need to chat with Chris about what I should generally do and not do.

I'm actually uploading a vid now that has Nova vs Warden.  Sigh...

Ptarth mentioned that a sword n board mech might be neat.  That's going to be the next combination I try (though it might just be for him if it turns out wonky).
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Tolc

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2016, 01:08:21 pm »
Ptarth mentioned that a sword n board mech might be neat.

Yeah, I had the idea of a melee mech as well and it might be quite interesting.

@enemies: Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll try to wrap my head around that XML stuff sometime time this week, before I got to learn for exams again next week. No promises, though.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2016, 01:16:57 pm »
Ptarth mentioned that a sword n board mech might be neat.

Yeah, I had the idea of a melee mech as well and it might be quite interesting.

@enemies: Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll try to wrap my head around that XML stuff sometime time this week, before I got to learn for exams again next week. No promises, though.

I already have a concept and theme written up for one.  I'm 99% sure it would be a hit. I just want to finish Nova before starting to work on it.
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline ptarth

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2016, 02:27:14 pm »
  • Did someone ask for low level enemies? This is the moment I was made for!
  • Do you have some art that would be used for these you can show us to see if anything catches are attention?
  • I get a lot of inspiration by looking at shots and art.
    • Hence my Chomper Mech, which is hilarious.
    • I also saw a shot that made an awesome gold fish, which is coming.
    • There are a strange lack of beam weapons too. I wanted to create something with a continuous firing beam that sweeps over areas, but haven't managed much luck on that front.
Note: This post contains content that is meant to be whimsical. Any belittlement or trivialization of complex issues is only intended to lighten the mood and does not reflect upon the merit of those positions.

Offline PokerChen

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2016, 04:06:47 pm »
 Um, can you or Chris make available the ships images that are "on reserve" at the moment, somewhere?

 Looking through some of them, might give me ideas. I'm not sure if you guys have circular, asymmetrical or symmetrical designs in addition to the bog-standard bilateral symmetric images.

Offline Misery

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2016, 04:34:38 pm »
I'll ask him about getting you guys image access.   It's stored on Google Drive or whatever and thus requires passwords and whatnot.   There's alot of ship art unused.  Alot of it. 

Offline Pepisolo

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2016, 04:49:52 pm »
Yeah, I haven't done an enemy since Bulldog and Bullrush and I really need to get back into doing some new stuff. The sound effects took a lot longer than expected, and I've GOT to get some hard mode patterns done for the minibosses -- that is way overdue!

Offline PokerChen

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #10 on: January 26, 2016, 04:55:15 pm »
Also, we're still looking to maintain the current quality - quantity balance of the enemy types at the moment?

Just checking to see if the preference is still fewer, more unique enemies rather than actually trying to finish the entire reserve stockpile.

Offline Pepisolo

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #11 on: January 26, 2016, 09:06:25 pm »
Also, we're still looking to maintain the current quality - quantity balance of the enemy types at the moment?

Just checking to see if the preference is still fewer, more unique enemies rather than actually trying to finish the entire reserve stockpile.

Fewer more unique ones, I'm pretty sure. Ones that provide a bit more variety to the gameplay.

Offline TheVampire100

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2016, 09:09:19 pm »
I would do some if I would know how to do them.

Offline Misery

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Re: Enemies, we need more!
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2016, 09:10:51 pm »
Also, we're still looking to maintain the current quality - quantity balance of the enemy types at the moment?

Just checking to see if the preference is still fewer, more unique enemies rather than actually trying to finish the entire reserve stockpile.

Fewer more unique ones, I'm pretty sure. Ones that provide a bit more variety to the gameplay.

Yeah, pretty much.  Dont worry about the number of art bits that are left in there.  Just make whatever comes to mind that you think is good.