Chain instantly extends to full length (configurable in Excel).
Multi-hit reduces damage of additional hits (beyond first) to 60% (configurable in Excel).
Overheat time: Done
Damage: Done, but a +20% boost has been applied to compensate for less-than-expected buff (due to instant chain extension). Must collect updated impressions. Hopefully tweaking a combination of base damage multiplier and “multi-hit penalty” will be sufficient.
Finally managed to get “multiple hits per target” working using a fan of rays.
The closer you are to the target (and the bigger the target), the more rays will hit.
Once a beam hits a boss, it can never move onto another enemy.
Client simulation is not 100% accurate (no information about bounce angles), which will cause transient glitches (they’re only cosmetic).
Potentially, all rays (=chains) will hit. Excessive damage? From tests, this is usually not a problem because either (i) targets are small, so subsequent rays generally miss or (ii) smaller enemies interfere so there isn’t a clear shot. Exception: Yolk-Star. Also, could this be a problem even with other bosses if you’re point-blank (being closer is more dangerous, but is it a sufficient trade-off)? Fixed(?) via applying penalty to multi-hit damage.
Notes: Same problem as Swarm: underpowered at low power levels (slow & low accuracy).
Uncertain about rationale behind removing “bio” strength. Is the problem that it’s too overpowered at low difficulties, or too underpowered at high ones? At 100% difficulty, chance of spawning bio-weak enemies is 6% (chicks) and 20% (chickens). 36% metals (weak – perhaps change this to strong?) , 21% elites (mixed: Toxic is strong, Coward is weak), 13% saucers (weak), 6% minibosses (mixed: Chickenaut is strong, Armored & Slob are neutral). Barriers are always strong.
Done. Too many variables have changed – must check performance and revisit this in the next update. Key variables have been exposed for experimentation
Notes:
Exposed “damageSharing”, “timeToCharge”, “initialHeatCost”, and “heatDrainRate” in Excel.
Beam damage is equally split among all hit targets. Controlled by “damageSharing” (0=each target receives full damage, 1=damage is equally split, fractional values are a mixture of the two). Default = 50% due to an oversight, this is 0% in v.53.
Fully charged beam width now depends on power (30-50 native px radius).
Re-mixed firing sound effect.
Each charge level now has a separate sound effect.
Reduced charge duration from 0.450s to 0.350s (can fire 5 shots back-to-back until overheat – note that heat sink affects this, so ~10 shots for best+rarest heat sink).
Damage progression is linear with increasing charge levels (was previously 75% quadratic+25% linear).
Done, but incomplete. Will collect data over the coming month to decide about cooldown/overheat acceleration/other mitigating mechanics.
Notes:
Overdrive on all weapons: Set to 50% (exceptions: Moron, Corn, Absolver) experimentally.
“Cooldown mechanic” would interfere with the current “faster overheat” mechanic. Choose either one, but not both (unless it turns out that overdrive is a net win, in which case a combination might be appropriate).
Reactor controls cooldown strength? How?
Moron is 0%.
Corn is 0% unless the cooldown mechanic is implemented.
Chargeable weapons do not support overdrive (ignored).
Make overdrive equippable? Perishable, or per-use (similar to Damage Amplifier)?
Since you’ve opened it, I’d like to point out that if this is the approach you’re taking, best move it to be a unique property of a ship class. (Muller?)
Well, that is more a fault of pricing and the way ships are obtained in the first place.
Even so, Overdrive as it currently sits, is kinda niche in the way that you have to handle it to get optimum firerate and not overheat. Moving it to a better ship would only be for diversity’s sake, anyway. A “better” ship having this mechanic would…alright, I can’t BS my way out of this one.
So how would you fire normally? Individual clicks? That would (a) invite autoclickers back into the game and (b) result in a different control system for manual/auto weapons, which is bad UX.
Overdrive should be something that you engage in voluntarily, as an alternate mode of firing rather than something interspersed with normal firing patterns. The heat production really messes up manual weapons, whereas in automatic weapons it works because double tapping is distinct enough from holding to make it a comfortable alternate mode of firing. It’s pretty hard for manual weapons to distinguish between a double-tap and continuous fire, and Overdrive performance is quite abysmal on normal waves, so Overdrive is not exactly a priority. It’s also incredibly confusing from a player point of view, because a double-tap clearly falls within the maximum frequency of firing a weapon without overdrive, and the heat produced is just unnecessary. My rationale behind triggering Overdrive on manual weapons by holding down the spacebar is that you have to do something deliberately out of your way to trigger overdrive, as that is the most efficient way of using it to your advantage. Again, for automatic weapons you have to double tap, which isn’t the way you fire it normally. Shouldn’t the same logic be applicable to manual weapons? Overdrive is not something you want randomly turning on on the middle of, say, Spiral of Doom or a similar wave.
Maybe adding a separate button to disable/enable Overdrive could solve this. Additionally, an option could be added for Overdrive to be automatically locked when equipping primarily manual-fire weapons to save time or attention? That way it’ll be flexible for all types of players, from those who’d rather not use Overdrive at all to people who like to switch between overdrive and regular auto/manual fire on the fly to Overdrive lovers.
I’m curious as to what you mean by this. All weapons get the same overheat penalty (more-or-less) when using overdrive.
Manual fire no longer exists in this game. Technically, all non-chargeable weapons can be considered as automatic. Double clicking is exactly as “out of your way” for former automatics as it is for former manuals, the only difference is the fire rate.
I don’t think we should again separate weapons into these two categories just to implement mechanical differences between them.
And regarding the heat penalty: it may stay in the game, or it may not. Right now I’m leaning towards replacing it with a cooldown.
That would add another button into the game. Though that’s the most elegant solution, not sure if iA would implement it for the sake of keeping it simple.
On retrospect, there’s another flaw with my idea I didn’t consider; this solution would work in theory, but in practice most standard mice don’t have 4 buttons, so the Overdrive Lock Button would (comfortably) only work on keyboard.