Archive: 5 posts

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Back in the humble LBP1 days, I played a lot of random yet inspiring levels. One kind was the standard jetpack deathmatch. For those who don't know what those are, you have an untethered jetpack on, and you're carrying around weapons that you fight other players with. I played a bunch of them, and then after playing them over and for about a month, I decided to make my own, because I saw a lot of them were unfair, gave you unlimited, and had no system to identify which player won the match, which to me, largely defeated the purpose of a 'match'. So I made my own rendition of the genre, adding in parts like a customizable timer, an attempt to balance weapons, and a simple system to decide who had won a match. I tried to fix serious issues, but it wasn't without problems. Firstly, the timer was faulty, resulting in some players having five second matches, and others experiencing issues of endless matches. The technical problems were largely fixed though. What was left the clear gameplay issues. The gameplay in retrospect was horrible for a number of reasons which were hard to control. Firstly, every level in LBP1 had a shared camera (aka cooperative). This is not the case in LBP2 versus levels, so this is no longer an issue going forward. Secondly, all the guns auto-fired, and the heads of each melee weapon were constantly lethal. I had easily fixed the problem through the use of sackbots and controlinators. The player must press a button to cause guns to fire (a single shot at once), and they must also press buttons to (temporarily) lethalize the head of any melee weapon. The third problem is one that is not yet fixed. Mindless gameplay. The first happy buddy battle show had it in spades. I had played it with quite a few people and once they learned you could just mindlessly charge at someone with any weapon, they did. Regardless of all attempts to make a kill require skill, people still mindlessly threw themselves at other players, and had a 50/50 chance of getting a kill or getting killed, regardless of how they went about it, or what weapon they were using. I had attempting to play with the weight distribution on certain weapons which was a process of making certain key parts of weapons heavier than other parts. Playing with the weight did little to stop the mindlessness of players throwing themselves at other players and hoping for the best. I'm out of ideas to fix the issue, and I've already put in a lot of work into an LBP2 iteration of the level. I'd rather not let it go to waste. Some people don't like deathmatches, and I do understand why they're not everyone's cup of tea. However, I think sometimes, it's just the absurd mindlessness of them that detracts from them. I would like some feedback on how I might be able to remedy the mindless nature of the deathmatch. Keep in mind, the one I have currently published is no mark of what could be done, but it is somewhat of a starting point. So, what can I do to make the next, LBP2-based iteration less mindless, and require some use of skill.

2012-01-19 02:37:00 Author: TheLawnStink Posts: 98

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Make it tactical somehow I guess. Introduce a single power up that pops up in the centre I.e . Shield/weapon upgrade that a player can grab, but risks getting hit by the other one in the process. Different damage values on the weapons? A small dagger that pecks away vs a huge hammer that wipes out the other player but can only be used once? You could also use an old school risk/reward by having players collect letters that spell out 'bonus', and if they collect them all without losing a life, they get a bonus nuke. Or something.

2012-01-19 02:44:00 Author: julesyjules Posts: 1156

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thank you for the suggestion. I do have some risk/reward with the 'Super Happy' weapons I have made. The weapons that belong to the 'Super Happy' class of weapons are the most powerful of their respective weapon types. For instance, the Super Happy Magnet Ray is the fastest firing gun weapon in the entire level. It fires 4 electrified every 0.1 seconds, but only if charged for 29 seconds. The less time you charge it, the slower the firing rate is, and if you don't stop charging after 30 seconds, the weapon blows up, killing its user. So for the whole time you're charging the Super Happy Magnet Ray, you are a target, and you can't defend yourself against oncoming attack.

2012-01-19 03:39:00 Author: TheLawnStink Posts: 98

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Are there obstacles/enemies or just the players fighting each other? I imagine some very simple enemies (a slow follower) would be interesting, and some traps/obstacles to prevent players from moving freely around the map would prevent people from just 'mindlessly' flying into the other players....? You are using jetpacks, yes? If you make your own 'jetpack' design, you could add logic so that each weapon has a different movement speed. Using an advanced mover with analogue additions to provide the bottom input makes this possible. Also, try to make the visuals perfect. It seems like visuals slight trump gameplay in the minds of players. Also, it's easier to see how much work was put into a level by its visuals, whereas logic... no one can really understand how complicated it is.

2012-01-19 15:02:00 Author: SSTAGG1 Posts: 1136

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I've actually had to ditch the jetpacks in the current iteration in the making and replace them with flying sackbots since it seems as if sackbots can't use jetpacks. Sackbots are needed now, since the weapons now have a form of manual control. As for obstacles and traps, the match takes place with an enclosed area, and the walls and floor are lethalized. I have thought about the potential of splitting the arena into separate rooms, and having hallways in between them. The hallways would act as chokepoints, where in the limited hall space, it would be hard to attack other players without bumping into walls. Likely, all the walls going forward will be electrified, and some may bounce pads. Very simple enemies might be added. They won't be very smart, but it could add some variety. I also have power ups in the works. stuff like moon gravity and coffee. I am attempting to make the overall visuals way more colorful, and zanier, given the Japanese Game Show theme.

2012-01-19 17:43:00 Author: TheLawnStink Posts: 98

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