jcokeinfinity
CYA
For several months now, I've been designing a complex 2D Space Combat game, and I'm unsure about what I should implement in part of the game, so I thought I should ask a real gamer user-base.
In my game, you have a main Capital Ship that you can control, and I'm considering have a refueling system, but I'm torn between three different methods.
So, I have 4 different scenerios that I could implement:
1. Fuel Tank / Energy Tank and Weapons drain energy and/or fuel:
This scenerio means that you have a Fuel/Energy tank onboard your ship which contains fuel and generated energy. You also have a reactor onboard your ship which (when on) will use fuel to generate energy.
Energy and Fuel are used in multiple places in game mechanics, your engines burn fuel and your shields need energy to repair damage. The more powerful your engines and shields, the more fuel/energy you use. Weapons also use energy and/or fuel, such as plasma weapons using energy and flamethrowers using fuel. More powerful weapons not only have a longer fire delay, but also require more energy/fuel.
pros: Weapon Strength is balanced by the amount of fuel or energy you must use.
cons: It costs fuel / energy just to combat your enemies, fuel is also a commodity that must be purchased, what if you run out of money?
2. Fuel Tank / Energy Tank
Same as above, except weapons don't drain energy or fuel.
pros: You'll never hit a bad moment as long as you can still fire your weapons. Gun delay also is the only thing you need to worry about when firing weapons.
cons: Really powerful weapons are harder to balance and may seem to OP.
3. Forget Fuel / Energy Tanks
This idea is making something more complex than it needs to be, just scrap the idea and delete the code.
pros: Easier game experience, gamer has less to worry about when he/she's being pelted by plasma blasts.
cons: Fuel tanks already have code to fire fuel blobs from a nozzle on them, once in space, if a fuel blob is hit by a weapon, it immediently bursts into flames (igniting things around it) and becomes a hazard. This would remove an interesting (and fun) weapon and game mechanic.
4. Your Idea
After all, you guys as a userbase are more apt to tell me about what people want, rather than me alone. C'mon, there's no bad ideas.
pros: I can make my game more appealing to a gamer-base.
cons: I know what would be easy to implement, and what would be a complete nightmare (unfortuantly in game dev, sometimes the two aren't too far apart), so I might get some great ideas that could be almost impossible to implement.
This idea is open, put what you'd think would be best in your opinion, your input is much appreciated, there are no bad ideas, and congratulations for reading this far.
In my game, you have a main Capital Ship that you can control, and I'm considering have a refueling system, but I'm torn between three different methods.
So, I have 4 different scenerios that I could implement:
1. Fuel Tank / Energy Tank and Weapons drain energy and/or fuel:
This scenerio means that you have a Fuel/Energy tank onboard your ship which contains fuel and generated energy. You also have a reactor onboard your ship which (when on) will use fuel to generate energy.
Energy and Fuel are used in multiple places in game mechanics, your engines burn fuel and your shields need energy to repair damage. The more powerful your engines and shields, the more fuel/energy you use. Weapons also use energy and/or fuel, such as plasma weapons using energy and flamethrowers using fuel. More powerful weapons not only have a longer fire delay, but also require more energy/fuel.
pros: Weapon Strength is balanced by the amount of fuel or energy you must use.
cons: It costs fuel / energy just to combat your enemies, fuel is also a commodity that must be purchased, what if you run out of money?
2. Fuel Tank / Energy Tank
Same as above, except weapons don't drain energy or fuel.
pros: You'll never hit a bad moment as long as you can still fire your weapons. Gun delay also is the only thing you need to worry about when firing weapons.
cons: Really powerful weapons are harder to balance and may seem to OP.
3. Forget Fuel / Energy Tanks
This idea is making something more complex than it needs to be, just scrap the idea and delete the code.
pros: Easier game experience, gamer has less to worry about when he/she's being pelted by plasma blasts.
cons: Fuel tanks already have code to fire fuel blobs from a nozzle on them, once in space, if a fuel blob is hit by a weapon, it immediently bursts into flames (igniting things around it) and becomes a hazard. This would remove an interesting (and fun) weapon and game mechanic.
4. Your Idea
After all, you guys as a userbase are more apt to tell me about what people want, rather than me alone. C'mon, there's no bad ideas.
pros: I can make my game more appealing to a gamer-base.
cons: I know what would be easy to implement, and what would be a complete nightmare (unfortuantly in game dev, sometimes the two aren't too far apart), so I might get some great ideas that could be almost impossible to implement.
This idea is open, put what you'd think would be best in your opinion, your input is much appreciated, there are no bad ideas, and congratulations for reading this far.