You'll be wishing i made it smaller when the first insta-kill beam nails you.
But seriously though, you might be on to something. I'll see how it looks in game, and adjust accordingly.
Thanks! I was thinking that it would add a sort of third playstyle, rather than all out attack or defense, a bigger focus on speed and evasion.
I've been playing this a lot lately, and while I love the spread/splinter combo I'm beginning to thing it's too easy to get. That isn't so much of a problem at the game's current length, but if players can basically be blockade destroyers after level four, things have gotten a bit too lenient. I'd suggest making them more expensive or else making them only available after a certain stage, since I really don't want you to make the combo worse.
Both are interesting points. I was kind of worried that the speed upgrades would be redundant or even counter-productive, since they don't actually give you increased control the ship (already has instant response) to go with the higher speed, which could lead to crashing into both enemies and shots. A hitbox upgrade might solve that issue, though! (and that's on top of the armor and shields you're likely to get as well)
And on the topic of hitboxes, a slight issue with the shield might be how its hitbox is actually much larger than that of the ship; it goes all the way out to the edge of the circle, and thus catches shots that might not hit you otherwise. Whether to keep that or shrink the actual hitbox to a more managable size (roughly the same as your ship, maybe a tad bigger) is still subject to contemplation though, since the bigger hitbox of the shield could be advertised as a slight downside to the otherwise very useful upgrade.
Also, as for the upgrades, maybe like have the last three tiers only get unlocked after the respective boss fights (so 3rd last gets available after first boss and so on). It would also encourage people to spread their cash out a bit more, since it gets really hard to hoard cash after the first few levels (especially because your money-gaining ability is directly proportional to how many aliens you can kill). Although this might raise a bit of an issue with people who'd just sell back old upgrades to get the really powerful ones, i'll make sure to deter people from doing that.
(exhibit A: spread shot is very powerful, but it absolutely fucks you over if you lack the damage to back it up)
The tricky part comes with the last tier of upgrades, though. They should definitely be very powerful, considering that you might not get them before level 16, but they shouldn't be outright gamebreaking. Then again, you'll definitely be facing some harsh late-game opposition, so maybe you'll actually NEED what would otherwise be a gamebreaker to get through. That'd be a really good wake-up call, showing both how much more fierce the opposition has become, and how much more buffed you've become. But here comes another issue: Is the player supposed to have every upgrade by the end of the game? I'm leaning towards a yes, because i've already noticed my own sadistic tendencies with both bosses and mooks, but some input would be lovely.
Also pardon me for rambling so much without showing any progress, i've been a smidge preoccupied lately. I intend to resume fairly soon, but getting me and my co-programmers' files synced up would be nice before i do anything drastic. That, and it's not my only pastime. :U
Author
Topic: Angry Laser Space - v1.1 is a go! (a game by Shook and Chartle) (Read 57831 times)