Alien/Critter Overhaul
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 12:55 pm
First of all, I just want to say this game had me hooked the second I saw YogscastSips playing it. It is very well designed for an alpha build and is a whole mess of fun that I enjoy immensely. Please keep up the excellent work. The trailer was a piece of art that I must have watched a dozen times while downloading the demo and the demo itself was just enough to get me interested.
Second, the "Critters" I speak of are the Aliens that you fight throughout the game.
There are five points in this idea.
1. New Critters.
2. Critter variants
3. New critter buildings.
4. Critter Stronghold
5. Endgame critter.
1. NEW CRITTERS:Just a few.
A. A flying critter(Swarmer). It ignores walls but is smaller then the ground variants and thus, weaker. Should come in large swarms for theatrics. Is mowed down by all turrets and weapons.
B. Someone already mentioned this but a burrowing critter. Rather then have it able to circumvent your entire wall it should only be able to go underneath one tile of wall, if there is two tiles it should go under the first and attack the second layer. If it destroys this layer it bursts free of the ground and is free to either damage the structures around it or burrow under more walls.
C. Teleporting Critter: Now I know what you are saying; Legion, a teleporting critter? That's ridiculous! To which I reply ho-ho-ho my friend they are Aliens and dont care none about our physics and reality. When this critter gets hit by any source of damage it should immediately teleport a random number of tiles in a random direction. This critter should have a set amount of teleports available per minute, refreshing every minute. Could have less health then normal critters. Has a deep blue hue.
D. Invisible Critter: Hunts the player, is invisible to turrets until it reveals itself mid attack. Does high damage. Doesnt harm structures. Adds an element of terror. Possibly add an item/structure that has a CHANCE to detect them. Possibly add a statement of "You feel a dreadful gaze settle upon you." when it enters the players view. [If you do add this critter, please dont inform anyone you are actually putting it in the game, only hint at it etc etc, it will make for an excellent/hilarious surprise.]
E. Jumping Critters: Extremely fast, roaming critters. Very weak, doesnt directly hunt down the player/'s base, simply wanders the landscape in small packs. Hates trains.
F. Drones: Dont leave their hive zone, run the hives infrastructure. Small. Weak.
Each of the types should be categorized in terms of danger level and added to the players map after set amounts of time. For example, you dont want to be swarmed by a horde of invisible critters when you are still using burner drills. These critters arent supposed to be ultimate threats to well prepared and well stocked factories, they are simply meant to be nuisances and to add more content to the game.
For example, Jumpers keep on harrassing your train lines, you need to add turrets every dozen feet to keep them safe. Burrowers keep on ignoring your walls, you need to make them deeper. Swarmers keep on getting past your defenses, you need more turrets etc etc. This should encourage expansion and add yet another sense of accomplishment to the game; not only did you build a completely badass and functioning factory with attached train line, you keep them safe from ravening hordes too!
2.CRITTER VARIANTS. Variations on all critters.
The first variation I can think of is adding more sizes. Huge, Gargantuan and Epic, as well as maybe one more size that requires a special and dedicated effort on behalf of the player to spawn.
These sizes should only spawn when you reach a certain pollution level. They should only actively hunt you when you reach an even HIGHER Pollution level. This prevents you spawning in next to something that blocks out the sun and thinks you might make a nice toothpick.
Other variants.
Exploding/acid/: Explodes on death, contact with a structure. Extremely weak.Susceptible to bullets, not lasers. The critter has yellow insides and emanates a sickly yellow glow. Does a fraction of the damage it deals to structures when harming other organics (Players, critters, biological buildings)
Tank/Armoured: Resistant to basic bullets (1/4 damage). Armour Piercing ammo does twice its normal damage. Lasers do half. The critter has a sharp silhouette/appearance, with blacks shaded with grey/iron for colour.
Noble/Praetorian/Leader/Boss etc: Boosts the base stats of critters around it. Has a crown of spikes behind its head to mark it out.
Polluted: Only spawns near high levels of pollution, very slow but huge amounts of health. Mutant. Think shambling monster H.P. Lovecraft
The same as the new critters, these variants should be introduced gradually throughout a single game/the campaign.
3. CRITTER BUILDINGS.
The aim of a freeplay game is to build rocket launchers to shoot down alien missiles. Where do these missiles come from? Possibly add something to do with that?
Try to think of an alien hives infrastructure/ecosystem, they have to eat something, sleep somewhere, drink something. What do they build with? So we would be looking at three/four basic buildings.
A spawner.
A hive. (Living zone, food collection area)
Sunken Pool (Critter building for food. Fish. Water)
Biodegrader (Critter building that slowly devours natural resources nearby, wood, iron, coal, players, copper. Strengthens and enlarges any hivezone it is attached to. Terraforms the ground around it into a more hospitable zone for critters, this adds more diversity and content to the games background and gives a visual cue to the player of "This place be dangerous". Maybe only add to stronghold areas?)
4. CRITTER STRONGHOLD.
A large, fortified, hive built off the remains of a destroyed factory/consists of several large critter structures as well as Biodegraders. Is the main source of attacking critters. Contains rare alien artifacts. Contains a Queen critter.
To make this concept a more daunting assault task for the player, maybe add infected structures? I.E Walls/An infested gun turret that shoots bio-toxic bullets at a slow rate that do huge amounts of damage to bare flesh. Things like that. Infested robo-port spawns hostile robots. If you destroy some of these buildings you gain rare material used to build a special item/building that allows the easy manufacture of said material.
5. CRITTER ENDGAME
The basic idea is that there is something, somewhere that is sending these large waves of hostile critters after you. It is intelligent and should appear so, maybe a larger braincase etc. It should be very very dangerous but nothing a military exoskeleton backed up by a robo-fleet can't handle in an intense fight. Think fast, dangerous and intelligent.
Looping back to the 2. VARIANTS section, Gargantuan and Epic creatures should be truly challenging tests of your factories defensive capabilities, slow but packing a huge punch, occupying dozens of tiles and having several ways of attacking. These should only spawn with a high enough Pollution level and should look the part. Sickly, mutated and rotting in some parts. Defying nature by their very existence, that sort of thing.
The majority of these additions hinge on which direction the devs will want to take the games style and general theme. If they want to maintain the wild-west theme they have going right now (which is brilliant) then several of these things would detract from that atmosphere. The sense of an untamed wilderness waiting to be conquered will be reduced if there is a giant queen behind all the attacks on your base.
These are just a few thoughts I had after the 13 hours of playing this fantastic game.
If you like my ideas, please say what your favourites are, brainstorm over new variants, sizes etc.
If you DONT like my ideas, please dont just say "This is dumb", give reasons to why something is dumb. Criticism is good as long as its constructive and isnt just being rude. Thanks!
Second, the "Critters" I speak of are the Aliens that you fight throughout the game.
There are five points in this idea.
1. New Critters.
2. Critter variants
3. New critter buildings.
4. Critter Stronghold
5. Endgame critter.
1. NEW CRITTERS:Just a few.
A. A flying critter(Swarmer). It ignores walls but is smaller then the ground variants and thus, weaker. Should come in large swarms for theatrics. Is mowed down by all turrets and weapons.
B. Someone already mentioned this but a burrowing critter. Rather then have it able to circumvent your entire wall it should only be able to go underneath one tile of wall, if there is two tiles it should go under the first and attack the second layer. If it destroys this layer it bursts free of the ground and is free to either damage the structures around it or burrow under more walls.
C. Teleporting Critter: Now I know what you are saying; Legion, a teleporting critter? That's ridiculous! To which I reply ho-ho-ho my friend they are Aliens and dont care none about our physics and reality. When this critter gets hit by any source of damage it should immediately teleport a random number of tiles in a random direction. This critter should have a set amount of teleports available per minute, refreshing every minute. Could have less health then normal critters. Has a deep blue hue.
D. Invisible Critter: Hunts the player, is invisible to turrets until it reveals itself mid attack. Does high damage. Doesnt harm structures. Adds an element of terror. Possibly add an item/structure that has a CHANCE to detect them. Possibly add a statement of "You feel a dreadful gaze settle upon you." when it enters the players view. [If you do add this critter, please dont inform anyone you are actually putting it in the game, only hint at it etc etc, it will make for an excellent/hilarious surprise.]
E. Jumping Critters: Extremely fast, roaming critters. Very weak, doesnt directly hunt down the player/'s base, simply wanders the landscape in small packs. Hates trains.
F. Drones: Dont leave their hive zone, run the hives infrastructure. Small. Weak.
Each of the types should be categorized in terms of danger level and added to the players map after set amounts of time. For example, you dont want to be swarmed by a horde of invisible critters when you are still using burner drills. These critters arent supposed to be ultimate threats to well prepared and well stocked factories, they are simply meant to be nuisances and to add more content to the game.
For example, Jumpers keep on harrassing your train lines, you need to add turrets every dozen feet to keep them safe. Burrowers keep on ignoring your walls, you need to make them deeper. Swarmers keep on getting past your defenses, you need more turrets etc etc. This should encourage expansion and add yet another sense of accomplishment to the game; not only did you build a completely badass and functioning factory with attached train line, you keep them safe from ravening hordes too!
2.CRITTER VARIANTS. Variations on all critters.
The first variation I can think of is adding more sizes. Huge, Gargantuan and Epic, as well as maybe one more size that requires a special and dedicated effort on behalf of the player to spawn.
These sizes should only spawn when you reach a certain pollution level. They should only actively hunt you when you reach an even HIGHER Pollution level. This prevents you spawning in next to something that blocks out the sun and thinks you might make a nice toothpick.
Other variants.
Exploding/acid/: Explodes on death, contact with a structure. Extremely weak.Susceptible to bullets, not lasers. The critter has yellow insides and emanates a sickly yellow glow. Does a fraction of the damage it deals to structures when harming other organics (Players, critters, biological buildings)
Tank/Armoured: Resistant to basic bullets (1/4 damage). Armour Piercing ammo does twice its normal damage. Lasers do half. The critter has a sharp silhouette/appearance, with blacks shaded with grey/iron for colour.
Noble/Praetorian/Leader/Boss etc: Boosts the base stats of critters around it. Has a crown of spikes behind its head to mark it out.
Polluted: Only spawns near high levels of pollution, very slow but huge amounts of health. Mutant. Think shambling monster H.P. Lovecraft
The same as the new critters, these variants should be introduced gradually throughout a single game/the campaign.
3. CRITTER BUILDINGS.
The aim of a freeplay game is to build rocket launchers to shoot down alien missiles. Where do these missiles come from? Possibly add something to do with that?
Try to think of an alien hives infrastructure/ecosystem, they have to eat something, sleep somewhere, drink something. What do they build with? So we would be looking at three/four basic buildings.
A spawner.
A hive. (Living zone, food collection area)
Sunken Pool (Critter building for food. Fish. Water)
Biodegrader (Critter building that slowly devours natural resources nearby, wood, iron, coal, players, copper. Strengthens and enlarges any hivezone it is attached to. Terraforms the ground around it into a more hospitable zone for critters, this adds more diversity and content to the games background and gives a visual cue to the player of "This place be dangerous". Maybe only add to stronghold areas?)
4. CRITTER STRONGHOLD.
A large, fortified, hive built off the remains of a destroyed factory/consists of several large critter structures as well as Biodegraders. Is the main source of attacking critters. Contains rare alien artifacts. Contains a Queen critter.
To make this concept a more daunting assault task for the player, maybe add infected structures? I.E Walls/An infested gun turret that shoots bio-toxic bullets at a slow rate that do huge amounts of damage to bare flesh. Things like that. Infested robo-port spawns hostile robots. If you destroy some of these buildings you gain rare material used to build a special item/building that allows the easy manufacture of said material.
5. CRITTER ENDGAME
The basic idea is that there is something, somewhere that is sending these large waves of hostile critters after you. It is intelligent and should appear so, maybe a larger braincase etc. It should be very very dangerous but nothing a military exoskeleton backed up by a robo-fleet can't handle in an intense fight. Think fast, dangerous and intelligent.
Looping back to the 2. VARIANTS section, Gargantuan and Epic creatures should be truly challenging tests of your factories defensive capabilities, slow but packing a huge punch, occupying dozens of tiles and having several ways of attacking. These should only spawn with a high enough Pollution level and should look the part. Sickly, mutated and rotting in some parts. Defying nature by their very existence, that sort of thing.
The majority of these additions hinge on which direction the devs will want to take the games style and general theme. If they want to maintain the wild-west theme they have going right now (which is brilliant) then several of these things would detract from that atmosphere. The sense of an untamed wilderness waiting to be conquered will be reduced if there is a giant queen behind all the attacks on your base.
These are just a few thoughts I had after the 13 hours of playing this fantastic game.
If you like my ideas, please say what your favourites are, brainstorm over new variants, sizes etc.
If you DONT like my ideas, please dont just say "This is dumb", give reasons to why something is dumb. Criticism is good as long as its constructive and isnt just being rude. Thanks!