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[Criptfeind]

This is happening in about 2 hours right?

[Araph]

This is happening in about 2 hours right?

No, sorry! I forgot to clarify that there won't actually be a game today since I started redoing a bunch of stuff to add in traps.

[Araph]

List of things that are no longer hopelessly screwed up:
- Movement
- Doors
- Inventories

I've moved over most of the game's GUI to Unity 4.6's new UI system, which is neat. It lets you place UI elements in the game world, so you can, for example, put a big red circle around triggers when you're linking them to traps so you can see what can and can't be reached by the trigger. The inventory system is also much nicer now.

Traps are coming along nicely. They can't be placed yet, but the system allows you to link triggers to traps and sets off the traps when the monster trips the attached trigger. On the monster's side of things, explosions now stun and blind the monster for a bit.

There's one problem I've noticed, though. Stuns and blinds are good and all, but there isn't that much of a lasting impact of traps so far. There will be at least one type of trap that acts as an alert, and another that slows the monster for a longer period of time, but beyond that there's not much variety. If anyone has ideas for debilitating effects, I'd love to hear them.

[MikaTheCrazy]

Being able to string up coils of barbed wire that slow and possibly damage monsters walking over them, could also hurt a monster attempting to destroy them. Strapping a bunch of glue bottles to an explosive to blind the monster for a longer period. Fuel traps, to make a monster easier to set alight. Also, not a trap, but maybe the ability to craft makeshift bolas (two weights on either side of a rope, used to trip things.) that can be used to trip up an approaching ground monster, possibly giving the human player a chance to escape. Maybe, for some monsters that regenerate, e.g. werewolf, damaging them conventionally cannot kill them, but can slow weaken and slow them until they regen.

[Aseaheru]

Ooh, you are already working on a new one? Well, Im game for testing it and recording snippits.

[Araph]

Maybe, for some monsters that regenerate, e.g. werewolf, damaging them conventionally cannot kill them, but can slow weaken and slow them until they regen.

That's an idea I actually hadn't considered: giving the monster a health bar of sorts that won't kill it, but will continually debilitate it until it heals. It could slow them down, make their movements louder, hinder their vision, all kinds of irritating things. I'll look into adding that!

Ooh, you are already working on a new one? Well, Im game for testing it and recording snippits.

Yay! I hope you get some workable material from it!

Also: traps now work in game. You can lay down tripwires and explosives, link them together, and have monsters set them off. When they're set off, the monster is stunned and blinded, and I'll work on adding in a more extensive health system for them. Adding more traps should be fairly straightforward now, which is always nice.

[GentlemanRaptor]

This keeps sounding better and better. Slowing traps and blinding traps sound great, especially with the health bar idea. Some sort of interface screw less debilitating than blinding might also be in order - maybe it interferes with the monster's ability to track players, if it has one, or just causes visual/auditory hallucinations (which I know you can do. Fucking creepy-ass sound effects from Warden almost made me jump out of my chair.) Other than that, maybe disabling the monster's attack for a very short period, or just area denial traps - traps that completely block off an area for both the players and the monster for a short time. Those could backfire on the players though, especially if you lay one thinking that the monster is on the other side of it when he's actually coming from the opposite direction entirely.

[Araph]

So, I tried the game again with a couple friends last night.

IT WORKED

Better than before at least! Rewritten movement works, doors work, traps... almost work, and the win conditions work. That said, it's A) pretty bare-bones, and B) needs drastic level design changes. But hey! It's playable!

This keeps sounding better and better. Slowing traps and blinding traps sound great, especially with the health bar idea. Some sort of interface screw less debilitating than blinding might also be in order - maybe it interferes with the monster's ability to track players, if it has one, or just causes visual/auditory hallucinations (which I know you can do. Fucking creepy-ass sound effects from Warden almost made me jump out of my chair.) Other than that, maybe disabling the monster's attack for a very short period, or just area denial traps - traps that completely block off an area for both the players and the monster for a short time. Those could backfire on the players though, especially if you lay one thinking that the monster is on the other side of it when he's actually coming from the opposite direction entirely.

The friends I played the game with and I talked a bit about stuff like this. I'm thinking the monster could have limited night vision and a indicator that shows the general direction of the nearest player, both of which are damaged by traps. So, while barbed wire would cause the monster to move slower for a while, an explosive trap would cause the monster's darkvision to be severely damaged (which would take several minutes to fully recover from). That would give the players an incentive to use one-shot traps in non-emergencies as well as giving the monster a big reason to avoid traps.

Area denial traps could be interesting; they could act as a temporary door of sorts, which the players can't get past but the monster can smash down? This merits thinking on. There could also be some sort of magitek EMP-esque trap that screws up vision instead of removing darkvision, or possibly plays sounds that could mask footsteps.

[Aseaheru]

Having the ability to hear everything (both as a player and as a monster) damaged by loud noises would be interesting...

[Araph]

OH MAN I JUST DISCOVERED TONEMAPPING

Oh man I am so excited so guess what

There's an image effect in Unity that lets you simulate eyes adjusting to lighting conditions, which means that having lights directly affect gameplay (helping players hide or set traps) is a thing that is possible now.

I am very excited about this. We'll have to see where it goes.

[Parsely]

PTW.

[Araph]

I've been thinking about Warden and Barricade.

What if (and this is just tossing ideas around, nothing concrete yet) we merged the two concepts into a different game, where the players have some Warden-esque abilities (darkvision, mostly) and the ability to make traps, but instead of being survivors, they're professional monster-hunters? They wouldn't use magic directly like the Wardens did, but they would have their arsenal of equipment and the ability to MacGyver their surroundings into the sort of defenses you'd see in Barricade. The monster would have different weaknesses depending on what it is (like in Warden) and the protagonists would have to exploit those to kill it before it can kill them.

For example, instead of destroying random altars, you might have to find an altar placed by the monster before the game starts if it's a poltergeist, or you might have to track a vampire back to its coffin or what have you.

Combine that with giving players the ability to design their own maps and it might be better than Barricade would turn out on the course it's on now. Just some random ideas, but any feedback would be appreciated. The game is still early enough in the development process to allow for big changes, so this is still a possibility at this point.


Extended ramblings:
One problem I noticed testing Barricade was that people would find hiding spot and turtle, which would be fine for the monster (once it has a means to track the players), but the monster can only be in one place at a time, meaning the other players would be left bored. Having the players trying to directly kill a deadly juggernaut would force the players to actually work together as well as give everyone something to do.

[Fniff]

This is taking a bit from Knock Knock. How about instead of being able to kill the monster, the only way you can stop them is by destroying their entrance into this world? So the monster has to keep the players away from their portal/doorway/whatever while the players have to work together to get to the door and close it.

[Araph]

This is taking a bit from Knock Knock. How about instead of being able to kill the monster, the only way you can stop them is by destroying their entrance into this world? So the monster has to keep the players away from their portal/doorway/whatever while the players have to work together to get to the door and close it.

I like that idea. It could vary between monsters, too; a fay creature might have a doorway, a demon might have an altar, and then something entirely physical (like a werewoof) might actually need to be killed.

[sjm9876]

I quite like the mix up idea. The players are monster hunters, hunting a monster shockingly enough. One monster, but there are multiple players. At the start the monster would choose their type, and depending on type, would get an opportunity to place their items (if any) on the map before the players arrive. For a vampire this may be a coffin, which would have to be destroyed, or for a demon an altar, which would have to be consecrated. You could have a werewolf or something which regenerates rapidly out of combat.
 Allowing some monsters to have abilities would also be great. Perhaps the vampire isn't all that much stronger than a player attackwise, but can build traps to defend its coffin. A player could stumble upon the coffin, notice the traps, and instead collapse the roof on it with an explosive charge of sorts.
 The main downside to this would be getting players clustering together and camping, but I think the ideal solution to this would be a fear mechanism. Perhaps light items are scattered around the map, and slowly burn down. When in darkness, fear kicks in, and the players start hallucinating - perhaps they hear footsteps, or random blurs dash across their vision. If it was really bad their hands would start shaking, ruining their aim (which would work somewhat better in a modern based game, but ah well.) Thus they're encouraged to move.

.....Anyway, idea dump over