Looking back and comparing this prototype with the first one, one may think there is not that much difference at the surface, beyond the enemy movement and collisions. This is sad considering all the hours of hard work I've put into it over the scope of ten months. The truth is that the original system present in P1 was stretched to the point of snapping before that release, and the first and most important task post-P1 was to gradually redesign it to expand further. This redesigned system is now up and running, purring like a kitten at the core of P2. The sad part, if any, is that while P1 was burning its system through the floor, P2 is hardly using any of its potential, like modular Lua scripts chaining together with entities and components to form complex ingame events and objects. It's like a V8 fit into a scooter. I had to cut development before I could use it properly.
So, here are a number of things that I had planned but had to cut out of P2:
- A new 'Interceptor' enemy type that resembles the ones in P1, i.e. a fast chaser that follows and guns at the player and then falls back to a safe distance for another run.
- A new 'Latcher' enemy type. Small pesky things that attack in swarms and latch on to the player to drain his shield. Once they latch on thy don't let go easily. I've toyed with a few ideas for weapons/abilities that would damage/detach them or that flying at high speed would do the same.
- Yes that is right, Shields for all able ships, which drain energy to regenerate. Energy should also be used for weapons, thereby placing a bound on how much the player can fire.
- Repair powerup. As long as the game is in this "survival" mode I think regular powerups would be nice. A repair powerup would be as simple as restoring hull integrity when picked up.
- Shield nova powerup. When the player picks this one up a nova is released that overloads and dissipates the shield of any enemy on screen. Then a fraction of the shiled points drained is returned to the player to regenerate his shield.
- Physical obstacles and enemy ship derelicts. Leaving debris on the field of battle will eventually create a sort of terrain to make the fight more interesting.
- A half-dead effect to indicate when damaged ships reach half their health. I don't want to have health bars on enemies ingame but I miss the indication on which ones have been damaged. If they begin to emit smoke and flame at a given point it would be easier to read.
Well as of now this is a snapshot of what to expect from P3 I guess. These things would make the game more interesting, by a lot. The coming months I'll be working a lot more on gameplay and presentation that on engine and system. If P2 was a celebration to architecture and stability, then P3 will be a celebration to what this is all about at the end of the day: fun.
Regards.
- Staffan
