Massively multiplayer online (MMO) boss battle

My idea is based on MMO boss battles found in some online games, where all players online during that time will work together to defeat this huge boss (with much larger health than normal and intended for all players to work together). Chicken Invaders Universe (CIU) is obviously an MMO game, so I’m thinking this might be an interesting feature.

1. How genereral massive MMO boss battles work

In this section I will describe some general features commonly found in MMO boss battles, before discussing how this should be applied in CIU.

As I said earlier, players online will battle against the boss with extremely high health. However, this boss will only appear for a limited time, usually 60 minutes, and players must defeat it before it “escapes”. The damage that all players deal to it is cumulative, and during the battle, the player usually sees that the boss’s health goes down although the player doesn’t damage them directly, this is because other players are attacking the boss too (I know this is a bit hard to understand).

If a player dies during the battle, they may wait out for (usually) 60 seconds before being able to fight again, or may skip by using the premium currency of the game (why not allowing them to fight again instantly instead?)

When the time expires or when the boss is defeated, whichever comes first, all players join the event receive consolation prizes, while the top players (usually top 10) do highest damage to the boss, as well as the player lands the final attack to kill the boss (if that happens) receive bigger prizes. Some games might also offer prizes to players that deal at least a fixed amount of damage to the boss in different prize levels.

2. Ideas for MMO boss battles in Chicken Invaders Universe

If MMO boss battles in CIU appear in only one timeslot, it will be unfair for some regions around the world because they might not be able to access this feature at all (for example, their bed time). I think the suitable time for an MMO boss fight can be Saturday every week (one day per week is enough), at 0:00, 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM UTC time. Putting three timeslots within 8 hours of each other should be more evenly fair to all players, and fighting at weekend is more suitable because players usually have school or work during weekdays.

The battle will start for all players at the times above and last for 60 minutes. To access it, the mission access screen can be similar to the 120th Anniversary screen, however:

  • The leaderboard displays top 100 players with highest score at that moment (more details on the leaderboard will be stated later).

  • Replace “120th Anniversary!” with “Mega Boss Event” (or whatever better name for the event you can think of). Below the name of the event will be a description of the event.

  • Replace planet Earth with the boss.

  • Somewhere on the screen should display the progress bar of the boss (as its health is reduced by all players), and display the time remaining as well.

  • Obviously there is also a “Fly mission” button, but it’s a rocket instead of a birthday cake. The mission access screen itself can be accessible as a separate button on the galaxy screen, or in the profile screen.

Prepare to battle: It’s not much different between the Mega Boss equipment screen and normal equipment screen, other than again, this is an MMO boss for all players to work together, so the skill level should be locked to Superstar Hero + 100% base difficulty so you can’t customize the skill level. This is the difficulty of the attacks of the boss, because its health has already received an extreme buff.

The gameplay:

  • You start with all items that you have equipped and 9 firepowers (as the difficulty is 100% + SSH).

  • The boss approaches (for the Mega Boss, I think it should either be the Yolk-Star™, Egg Cannon or Henterprise as they have advanced attacks), the progress bar shows the cumulative percentage of damage that all players have done to it earlier, and will progressively increase as all players fight together.

  • Regardless of how many players are also fighting against it at the same time, you will always only see yourself and all boss attacks are aiming directly to you, as a single player. The only thing shared between all players is the boss’s health remaining, bottom-right HUD and the message “Mission Complete/Failed!” when time runs out.

  • The HUD is similar to most missions, with some exceptions: the clock shows the time remaining of the event (counting down) instead of flight time, and the wave shown as 1/1 (wave 1 of 1) as there is only one boss. The keys shown will removed entirely and enemies spawn by the boss will not drop keys (they may still drop other stuff), as keys will now be rewarded based on the score gained from the boss.

  • Scoring:

    • In addition to score gained from presents, firepowers, coins, food, etc. your score will also increase progressively as you damage the boss, 1 HP = 1 point.

    • For example, if you use a Level 9 Utensil Poker, assuming your firepower stays the same through the entire battle and you shoot it two times per second, you could deal up to 15,120,000 HP of damage and gain 15,120,000 points.

    • You will receive a +200% SSH premium boost (and probably a +100% mission factor) as usual and have the score added to your carrer (and advance to higher tiers). At the end of the event, your final score is the total score of all of your attempts during the event.

    • The longer you survive in one attempt, the faster you can damage the boss and gain points as you may receive more firepowers during the fight. (In the case of the Yolk-Star™, it may drop one gift or firepower every 1 or 2 minutes)

  • Ending the mission:

    • If you lose all of your lives, you get the “Mission Failed!” message and a -10% result assessment penalty as usual. The equipments used are lost, as applied in other missions. Surrendering will -20% result assessment instead. You may try again immediately, and the total score of all of your attempts are tracked.

    • If during the mission, any player manages to land the final attack on the boss, the boss will explode (all players will see this, not just that player), and the message “Mission Complete!” appears as the event ends immediately. This is the only way to finish the mission without getting the result assessment penalty.

    • If the time runs out (the clock at bottom-right), your plane will not explode, but instead the boss retreats (seen by all players). While it is retreating, it is invisible so that no one can continue damaging it as the event has ended. The message “Mission Failed!” is shown to all players fighting at that time and a -10% assessment penalty is applied.

Individual rewards after the event:

  • My original idea is to simply reward keys like the Weekly Challenge for the top 10 players with highest score. The original reward was 100 - 90 - 80 - 70 - 60 - 50 - 40 - 30 - 20 - 10 if no one manages to destroy the boss before it escapes, and if the boss is defeated, the reward is increased to 250, 180, 120, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30 keys for the top 10.

  • However, Davoid (reply #7) says that the reward is not worth the effort, which I could agree of because you will not receive any keys directly from the battle and unlike Weekly Challenge, this event can only be played in the selected timeslot. So for a better idea, I think all players will be rewarded keys at the end of the event, and the keys rewarded are tied directly to the score gained from the event. What I’m thinking of (a complex money ladder, and there are some amounts of keys that cannot be won exactly):

Prize level Min keys Max keys Min score Max score Score per key
0 (Consolation) :key:10 :key:10 1 99,999 N/A* (exception)
1 :key:11 :key:19 100,000 4,999,999 500,000* (exception)
2 :key:20 :key:39 5,000,000 9,999,999 250,000
3 :key:50 :key:89 10,000,000 29,999,999 500,000
4 :key:100 :key:199 30,000,000 59,999,999 300,000
5 :key:250 :key:449 60,000,000 99,999,999 200,000
6 (Top prize) :key:500 100,000,000 N/A* (exception)
  • Score is calculated based on the following algorithm:
    :key: = Min keys + (Your score - Min score of the prize level you currently in)/Score per key. Extra notes and exceptions:

    • The calculation above is rounded down to the nearest integer.

    • “Min score of the prize level you currently in” can also be interpreted as “the highest min score on the table above that does not go over your score”.

    • Exception 0 (Consolation): It is intended to be a consolation prize for joining and score under 100,000 points. In order to actually start gaining serious amount of keys you must try to score at least 100,000 points.

    • Exception 1: 11 keys for 100,000 to 499,999; 12 keys for 500,000 to 999,999; 13 keys for 1,000,000 to 1,499,999; 14 keys for 1,500,000 to 1,999,999 and so on… 18 keys for 3,500,000 to 3,999,999; 19 keys (this is an exception) for 4,000,000 to 4,999,999 and 20 keys for 5,000,000 (advances to the second prize level).

    • Exception 6 (Top prize): The highest maximum amount of keys can be obtained from damaging the boss is :key:500, for 100,000,000 points or more. This excludes top 10 bonus and final attack bonus as stated below.

    • Prize levels 1 and 3 are the “average” of players who played for fun (level 0 and 1) and the players who’ve just started taking it seriously (level 3), that’s why the score per key is so high.

    • Example: Player6 scores 52,024,129 points. They would receive a level 4 key prize of
      :key:100 + (52,024,129 - 30,000,000)/300,000 = :key:173 (see table below).

  • Player bonuses after the event:

    • Instead of using a fixed amount of keys rewarded for the top 10, here’s what I think: the 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st receive +10%, +20%, +30% and so on, up to +100% (doubles the keys they won) respectively.
    • If the boss is defeated before time runs out, the player who lands the final attack on the boss will receive 50 to 100 keys as a bonus.
    • During event time, the 100-player leaderboard will include score and keys, but not the bonus prizes above, for example:
Rank Callsign Score Keys
1 Player1 101,909,745 :key:500
2 Player2 93,778,892 :key:418
3 Player3 80,528,839 :key:352
4 Player4 73,238,963 :key:316
5 Player5 62,389,492 :key:261
6 Player6 52,024,129 :key:173
7 Player7 43,441,940 :key:144
8 Player8 36,029,257 :key:120
9 Player9 25,765,565 :key:81
10 Player10 18,813,994 :key:67
11 Player11 14,404,106 :key:58
12 Player12 9,439,862 :key:37
  • If the event has ended, the bonus keys will now also be included in the leaderboard (final attack seperately, not directly included in the leaderboard), for example:

Final attack bonus: GalacticWarrior19 (:key:100)

Rank Callsign Score Keys
1 Player1 101,909,745 :key:1000
2 Player2 93,778,892 :key:794
3 Player3 80,528,839 :key:633
4 Player4 73,238,963 :key:537
5 Player5 62,389,492 :key:417
6 Player6 52,024,129 :key:259
7 Player7 43,441,940 :key:201
8 Player8 36,029,257 :key:156
9 Player9 25,765,565 :key:97
10 Player10 18,813,994 :key:73
11 Player11 14,404,106 :key:58
12 Player12 9,439,862 :key:37
  • Concerning boss health:

    • What is the exact health that bosses should have? If 250 players fight together and continuously damage with a max level Utensil Poker with two shots per second, they will deal 5,130,000,000 damage.

    • I think that for all events, the base health of the boss should be 5,000,000,000 HP, and reduced by 1,000,000,000 HP for the next event if it is undefeated (minimum health 1,000,000,000 HP), or reset back to 5,000,000,000 HP if it is defeated, and increased by 1,000,000,000 HP each time it is defeated again.

CHECKLIST (from Plan Update #02)

  • :white_check_mark: How well does it fit into existing game mechanics? Hopefully it fits the game as it uses many of the existing game mechanics.
  • :white_check_mark: Is your idea fresh, or is it an incremental evolution of an existing one? Strictly saying, yes and no. Although the mechanic is new, it is intended to be a massive evolution of a known boss fight.
  • :white_check_mark: How fully is it fleshed out? I have explained the mechanic quite well, definitely not perfect, but it’s to the best of my knowledge.
  • :x: How popular is your idea with other players? Not yet. There are too many players and it might be hard to join together.
  • :x: Is it an original idea? It is based on some other online games, so no. Are there any other MMO games that use the similar mechanic that you recommend to me?
  • :white_check_mark: How well does your idea fit within the game’s framework? I don’t think this feature will affect the game graphics at all.
  • :x: How hard is your idea to implement technically? I would say…very hard to implement without causing lag if there are too many players. My computer is not that fast and sometimes I even have trouble playing slither.io because the gameplay isn’t smooth.
7 Likes

Given that the Egg Cannon and Henterpriſe ſpawn lots of chickens, I have an important queſtion: is the individuäl chichen health alſo booſted? If not, boooring. If ſo, then this boſs wouldn’t really be implementable until after multiplayer was added (which may not happen at all).

1 Like

If Egg Cannon is used, it definitely needs modifications as it is too easy compared to the two other bosses, for example, it should always use all 5 attacks back-to-back instead of a new attack after 20%. Henterprise on 100% + SSH is actually quite difficult without losing lives or special weapons, especially the two horiztonal phases. Infinite-spawn chickens don’t need a health boost as they give only 1 point anyway, and they are not that hard to avoid bumping into (as I said above, you continuously gain points equal to the damage you’ve done to the boss).

Ummm…was that really his point? I’d assume that the point is the fact that this attack will literally do nothing with lots of players on the screen if the chickens have the same amount of health as they normally do. It’ll be as if the attack isn’t even there,because all the chickens will get wiped out before they even show up fully on the screen!

At least according to the other online games I’ve played, although all players are trying to reduce the boss’s health together, you will only see yourself on the screen and the boss attacks will always aim for each individual player as they fight (it would be extremely hard to implement otherwise, there can’t be hundreds of players on the screen at the same time). I’ve added this detail in “The gameplay” before “Scoring” section.

Well, this depends on the implementation, which was part of my point. If the chickens appear for each player independently, it’d probably be eaſiër to implement, but at that point the chickens would need to not have a health booſt. But if the chickens don’t have a health booſt, there won’t be much of a difference between this and a normal egg cannon, and people will quickly loſe intereſt.

1 Like

Not really a massive evolution, just… longer.

Because that’s fair for that one person out of hundreds. Also how do you even calculate that?

Just the top 10? JUST THE TOP 10? FOR A 1 HOUR MISSION? This is ridiculous! Why even bother playing this for just losing your lives?
The rewards are so measly for such dedication there’s no point in playing even if you’re number one. But since there’s little people trying, you’re not gonna reach that reward! It’s not like you could play some exciting boss rushes or normal missions, when you can just fight the same boss for 1 straight hour… sounds funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
(Ignore my Moron Railgun runs)

6 Likes

@Davoid I totally messed up with my calculation of both scoring and key rewards…

  • If you use Utensil Poker :zap:20, shooting 3 times per second, you could get 30,780,000 damage, -10% result assessment and +200% skill premium = 89,262,000 points, which is even less than Weekly Challenge. I think we can add an extra +100% mission factor bonus to make it better.

  • Other games do offer prizes for the final attack, but I do agree that awarding keys for the top 10, and nothing (except points) for all other players would be a messed-up mechanic. Probably the key rewards should be for all players base on how much damage you have done to the boss: for example, maximum reward is 90,000,000 points = 400 keys and every 300,000 points = 1 key (you can only get up to 299 keys if you don’t get at least 90,000,000 points).

4 Likes

Reminds of an event in a mobile game but instead of all players it is per guild.

Squadron Ops as a new type of event. But no cause I have no squadron yet.

There are “squadron-only challenges” on the list, hopefully it will be added soon (shared boss battle?).

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