Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Elephant Parade]

That's definitely not a bad idea, if we are to implement more upgrades. At the moment though, we have other priorities.

@MZ: Of that i am in no doubt, however i'm not sure i even WANT to put in more upgrades. :I

oh yeah also hello hi



still subject to change

Personallly, I'd condense all the sets of two upgrades into single upgrades, and make them upgradeable more times. The game gets a lot less engaging once you have all the upgrades, in my opinion.

[Shook]

The main problem with that, however, is that it's already a VERY delicate balance. Adding more upgrades to the player without nerfing the previous ones could easily make the game a cakewalk, and i want the late game to be difficult. Also, can't remember if it's new in v0.9, but i've generally lowered the cash income for the player, so you probably won't have all upgrades before the last few levels. It is also at this point that you will notice that upgrades alone aren't going to save your hide. :U

Make no mistake though, i can see the problem with not having further upgrades past a certain point, and we might well NEED a third tier of upgrades later on. We're planning to make a New Game+ mode at some point, which will let you replay the game with your current upgrades against upgraded foes, but in order to keep that interesting, we'll need more upgrades. For now though, we should put the finishing touches on v0.9. :U

@Xantalos: But with a ship that already has instant response time, how'd you upgrade speed/maneuverability beyond increasing movement speed? Perhaps... Perhaps the Dash skill should be dependent on a ship upgrade as well. That could be pretty cool. I suppose it would be possible to have multiple levels of upgrades crammed into one button, but that just raises the question of how in the world to fill up the now twice as numerous upgrade spots. BUT THAT IS FOR LATER THOUGHT, for now we're pretty close to v0.9!

I'm glad and thankful that you guys offer so much input though, you've given us a load of great ideas to work with. In particular have i begun thinking on how to expand the upgrade system now. c:

[MaximumZero]

You could always just increment each upgrade by N, and let it ride infinitely. That way, I can pump all my points into LAZORGUNZ and SPLOSIONS.

[Darvi]

So I got bored...

[Twi]

Time for my pre-playing Touhou-fan-who-hasn't-played-any-touhou-games opinions/ideas!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Arcade Mode: Once you beat a level, maybe have option to play it individually again? O: With all the settings tweakable and maybe even something for upgrades and skills (set skill point allotment?)

Ships and stuff: If you want to have bonus ships, turn the enemies around. I assume some of them already do some turning, no?
And yes, that includes Wedges. special skill= immune to collision damage?


Weapon ideas/upgrade ideas/stuff ideas!

Flame-er, plasma thrower: Self explanatory.

Weapon that follows the cursor when fired? Snakesnakesnakesnakesnake! :3

Ship-based artillery: since you're already doing it for enemies. Why not.


Damage aura: Hurt enemies that come close to you? Could be combined with weapon/ability to lay down TRAPS OR SOMETHING?

okay I'm done now

probably not

[Darvi]

Oh man I want to be a wedge!

Angry Laser Space: Ramming Your Face Into Everything Edition

[MaximumZero]

So I got bored...

This is glorious.

[Elephant Parade]

Upgrade ideas!

Reduced collision damage?
Exploding shots?
Very slightly homing shots?
Maybe different skills that change your charged shots to stuff like shots that boomerang back to you or bounce around the screen?

[Darvi]

Half of those are already a thing.

[Shook]

Reduced collision damage? Crash armor exists. :v
Exploding shots? Will be in v0.9, rockets do splash damage instead of piercing enemies.
Very slightly homing shots? I think the enemies are numerous enough that you won't need homing shots at all. :U
Maybe different skills that change your charged shots to stuff like shots that boomerang back to you or bounce around the screen? This might be a possible thing, it's always fun to customize your shootas!

Arcade Mode: Once you beat a level, maybe have option to play it individually again? O: With all the settings tweakable and maybe even something for upgrades and skills (set skill point allotment?) Might be possible to do that, now that we can save variables in INI files. Then y'alls can start from wherever you want with as much dough as you want!

Ships and stuff: If you want to have bonus ships, turn the enemies around. I assume some of them already do some turning, no?
And yes, that includes Wedges. special skill= immune to collision damage?  Well yes, but the player ship now has 4 additional frames for turning to the sides. The enemies don't have that, and it'd be a gigantic amount of work to make them do so, unless you're cool with them not doing that neat tilting animation. Not gonna lie though, it would be fun to play as a wedge. :U

Flame-er, plasma thrower: Self explanatory. Very self-explanatory indeed. It also makes me think of being able to customize ones special weapons on the run, so you can select between things like regular super shots and HOT FIERY ANGER THROWER and what not. Might require a fairly vast restructuring though, so it's not going to be in v0.9.

Weapon that follows the cursor when fired? Snakesnakesnakesnakesnake! :3 Although cool, i think it demands too much attention from the player to effectively use such a weapon while dodging all the boolets. BUT MAYBE!

Ship-based artillery: since you're already doing it for enemies. Why not. Indeed, although the rocket super already has very significant blast damage. It can't hit very well in the middle of crowds, however, so a quick artillery shot might be a cool thing!!

Damage aura: Hurt enemies that come close to you? Could be combined with weapon/ability to lay down TRAPS OR SOMETHING? Potentially, but the thing about this is that it'd either let you rush face first through a crowd of wedges, or not really do enough damage to be worth the money. Also, if it was strong enough to destroy a wedge reasonably quickly, it could trivialize red wedges, which are a major instrument of terror against people who like to hug the sides. :I (although i suppose i could just make them resistant to that)
OR MAYBE it could be like a teslacoil that will bumfuck the first enemy that gets close to you, and then require a recharge before being able to fire again. This would make it able to deal with tougher enemies, and make it able to keep the occasional red wedge at bay, but not everything that gets close to you. And maybe CHAIN LIGHTNINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG if the lightning bolt overkills, or something.

You could always just increment each upgrade by N, and let it ride infinitely. That way, I can pump all my points into LAZORGUNZ and SPLOSIONS. I don't think infinite increments would be very wise, since that'd allow lots of funky things that could break the gameplay. Up to a certain point, however, it could be pretty cool!

Answers in BOOOOOOOOOLD of doom!!

also oh man

So I got bored...

darvi you sexy beast this is amazing and awesome

much lube from denmark <3

[MaximumZero]

You could always just increment each upgrade by N, and let it ride infinitely. That way, I can pump all my points into LAZORGUNZ and SPLOSIONS. I don't think infinite increments would be very wise, since that'd allow lots of funky things that could break the gameplay. Up to a certain point, however, it could be pretty cool!

So, increment them to the point where shit starts to get crazy (say, 5 levels,) and cap it there. Add 5 more levels to the cap for each run through New Game+.

[Muffindog]

So I got bored...

Yes! I knew it was only a matter of time...

[Twi]

Ships and stuff: If you want to have bonus ships, turn the enemies around. I assume some of them already do some turning, no?
And yes, that includes Wedges. special skill= immune to collision damage?  Well yes, but the player ship now has 4 additional frames for turning to the sides. The enemies don't have that, and it'd be a gigantic amount of work to make them do so, unless you're cool with them not doing that neat tilting animation. Not gonna lie though, it would be fun to play as a wedge. :U

Well, it'd probably be easy to do the metal boxes (Sentries) because METAL BAWKSES! do not need to turn.
Or Leviathans.

Playing as a Leviathan would be...interesting.

[Shook]

Interesting indeed, but also a monumental amount of work needed to make it work.
Also, sentries don't move at all, that's why they pass the screen so slowly. :U

You could always just increment each upgrade by N, and let it ride infinitely. That way, I can pump all my points into LAZORGUNZ and SPLOSIONS. I don't think infinite increments would be very wise, since that'd allow lots of funky things that could break the gameplay. Up to a certain point, however, it could be pretty cool!

So, increment them to the point where shit starts to get crazy (say, 5 levels,) and cap it there. Add 5 more levels to the cap for each run through New Game+.

I mean like literally break the game, not just upset the balance. Gatling upgrade is a flat reduction of fire delay, and i have NO idea what would happen if it fell below 0. It would also get disproportionately powerful once you reach 0, since you'd be firing a shot EVERY SINGLE FRAME, which would actually make your guns more powerful if you ran at a higher framerate. Also, if the speed upgrade gets too high, the shots might skip past enemies without colliding with them, due to how Game Maker handles such collisions. I think. I'm not opposed to the idea of incremental upgrades, though!

also confirming apeshit bosses



but that's what you get for playing at full apeshit

or for being an unlucky sod

:U

[MaximumZero]

You could always just increment each upgrade by N, and let it ride infinitely. That way, I can pump all my points into LAZORGUNZ and SPLOSIONS. I don't think infinite increments would be very wise, since that'd allow lots of funky things that could break the gameplay. Up to a certain point, however, it could be pretty cool!

So, increment them to the point where shit starts to get crazy (say, 5 levels,) and cap it there. Add 5 more levels to the cap for each run through New Game+.

I mean like literally break the game, not just upset the balance. Gatling upgrade is a flat reduction of fire delay, and i have NO idea what would happen if it fell below 0. It would also get disproportionately powerful once you reach 0, since you'd be firing a shot EVERY SINGLE FRAME, which would actually make your guns more powerful if you ran at a higher framerate. Also, if the speed upgrade gets too high, the shots might skip past enemies without colliding with them, due to how Game Maker handles such collisions. I think. I'm not opposed to the idea of incremental upgrades, though!

You know what you must do. For ‼SCIENCE‼ In all seriousness, though, if all else fails, make the increments smaller.