Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Vector Tanks 2.0 progress

Hhere's my current plan for the enemy tank spawning logic for Vector Tanks v2.

Drone tanks are basically the tanks that are in version 1.0.
H6 stands for the "Heavy Sixer" tank [atari 2600 reference] and is a turreted tank that is much more dangerous than the Drone tanks and can even drive directly over mines and the playfield obstacles and crush them. Mwahaha.

This will be for single player and 2 player cooperative. 2 player
head-to-head will be a completely different ballgame (v2 will only include single player - multiplayer is still under development.

  • practice level (enemies do not fire on you) - 1 drone / 1 H6 tank / 1 jeep / no helicopters
  • skill level 1 - 1 drone / 0 H6 tanks / 1 jeep / no helicopters
  • skill level 2 - 2 drones / 0 H6 tank / 1 jeep / no helicopters
  • skill level 3 - always at least 2 tanks - randomly either a H6 tank or a drone tank / 1 jeep / no helicopters
  • skill level 4 - always at least 3 tanks - randomly either a H6 tank or a drone tank / 1 jeep / random helicopters
  • skill level 5 - 4 H6 tanks at all times - randomly a drone tank instead (so you can "virus powerup" it) / 1 jeep / random helicopters
  • InSaNe mOdE! - 6 or 8 H6 tanks at all times (need to see how the hardware holds up - may need this to be 3GS specific here) / 1 jeep / random helicopters
The helicopters can not destroy you but fire at you with machine guns, reducing your shield level. You can destroy the helicopters only with the Nuke powerup.

Virus powerups will let you take over an enemy Drone tank and he will "fight for the user! [tron reference]" (you) - attacking other enemy tanks until it is destroyed (the other enemy tanks will target it as well as you - so it also diverts fire away from you).

Shields are now based on how many impacts they protect you from, rather than being timer based as it is in v1. Each Shield powerup will charge your shield level 1 unit. Each hit removes one unit. And as mentioned, the helicopters attack your shields.

Rapid Fire is now based on "rounds" (each powerup gives you more), rather than being timer based as it is in v1.

I'll likely end up nipping and tucking to get things balanced out of course.

And there are other aspects going on here too - the tanks speed up as
the game progresses, reload faster, etc.

Your feedback is solicited!

2 comments:

  1. All sounds really good. I think the biggest problem I have is having to tap the center of the screen to fire. It's difficult when you are trying to use the controls then let go.

    Have you considered accelerometer controls as an option?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Resuming a game after pressing the home button. Pause! I don't mind the accelerometer part, this way of controlling is more retro-ish... The accel. would mean faster moving, thus an easier game.

    ReplyDelete