Summary:
In which the encounter in the Crystal Moon is reworked; continuous-beam weapons are implemented; the boss-fight with the liche sees some changes; and the save-icon is replaced.
Greetings and salutations!
This week's screenshot shows a somewhat-neon revision to the encounter in the Crystal Moon!
Between scheduled power-outages where I live and a family matter that rather impacted me, the week just past was, I feel, slower than most. Still, some things did get done:
First, as shown above, I've once again reworked the encounter in the Crystal Moon.
As much as I liked its previous iteration, I had found that it was all too easy to simply hew to the outer perimeter of the level--and indeed, that the concentration of fire near the centre of the level incurred a pressure to so do. As a result, the encounter was easier than intended, and encouraged the player to act in such a way that they largely didn't see or engage with the patterns described by the crystal-creatures' weapons-fire.
I gave this matter quite a bit of thought, and considered a few possible solutions. In the end, what I settled on was this: Now the crystal creatures fire not bolts but beams--this makes the patterns formed a little more easily discerned, I feel. Further, said creatures now rotate, in fixed patterns, thus varying the pressure applied to the player.
I may yet make further changes--I'm not happy with the enemy that chases the player just yet, and the patterns of placement and rotation are works in progress, for two things. Still, I think that it's improved already! ^_^
And part of this was the implementation of a new type of weapon: continuous-fire hitscan beams!
(I did already have a basic form of hitscan weapon, used for melee attacks, but it was somewhat limited, I think.)
This actually went through two iterations:
In the first, I attempted to design it such that it worked with the extant weapon-related classes, allowing me with fair ease to make things like spreadfire beam weapons, and so on. And indeed, this did work, and I found it quite neat--but it was clunky, and likely inefficient.
So I reworked it, making it now separate from all but the base "Weapon" class. Its flexibility then comes via a system of adding individual "beams" to a given beam-weapon, each having its own offset, direction, damage, and so on.
And since this isn't required to fit the design of the classes used for projectile weapons, I was able to design it in what I think is a rather more efficient manner.
As with the encounter in the Crystal Moon, the boss-fight with the liche saw revision in the week just past. A number of changes were made: a reduction in the frequency of bone-walls; lower health for the boss; a new pattern of skeleton-summoning; and miscellaneous other tweaks. All aimed at making it more fun and less frustrating than I fear that it was.
And I may yet make further changes--I'm not yet sure that I'm happy with the fight. (And indeed, I have at least one more idea that I might try.)
On the visual side of things, in the week just past I replaced the old save-icon. Further, I changed its animation: in place of the old pulsed transparency, it now spins! And I'm rather happier with this new icon, I do believe!
On the level-design side, I've begun work in earnest on defining the Vertical Slice Moon's "Hall of Secrets". And indeed, on figuring out--I hope!--quite how to go about these early stages of designing a level.
And finally, there were various changes, tweaks, and fixes made in the week just past that don't seem worth detailing here! (Including a cleanup of some old, now-unused elements.)
That then is all for this week--stay well, and thank you for reading! ^_^
