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Project Started:	26th January, 2010	Last Update:	25th March, 2010
Project Owner:	HitmanN	Project Members:	Asholay
Project Type:	shmup, contest entry	Project Progress:

Online hi-scores, soon

Posted 18th Feb 10, by HitmanN

Even though the 20 event compo isn't even over yet, I'm already working on the planned Online Hi-score board edition. It's being tested currently, so expect a download very soon. There's only a board for Marathon mode for now, since Mission is too short and the results are affected by luck too much (lots of spawn = lots of potential points). Marathon mode is long enough to require some planning and evasion skills to be suitable enough for competing over. Online scores can be submitted after a Marathon game is over. To make submitting fake scores harder, any scores you have achieved before this edition cannot be submitted, only new ones right after achieving them.

No gameplay changes for now, but some sort of Nightmare/Survival mode may still make its way to the game in future updates. If you have any ideas or suggestions regarding this, then fire away! It should be good and fair enough to have its own scoreboard though, so not too many random variables.

Also, the next build will be in HWA, using Direct3D 9, so those who experienced slowdowns with the previous release might find the game more playable now.

More info soon!

(Screenshot shows my offline best and and online best at this time. Quite the difference. xP)

Posted by Asholay

18th February, 2010

Yo Hm - seeing as the event limit no longer applies, you could increase the value of the game by adding ship upgrades.

Perhaps have a small toolbar of items you can upgrade as you progress, e.g. weapon cooling system, shield system (armour), ship engines (speed), etc

You could either pick these up randomly (each pickup raises your item level by one) or you could introduce a monetary system, and allow players to purchase upgrades at the end of each level.

Also, as you're moving to HWA, you could increase the pace massively, and potentially implement some of my previous suggestions from testing - i.e. reduce HP of enemy ships and increase their numbers...

Posted by HitmanN

18th February, 2010

Asholay:
For more content, I'm actually considering a proper sequel, built without limitations from the ground-up. I'm already experimenting with HWA effects.

For the first Hanuro Hawk though, I'm not looking to add much new content, beyond game modes. And like you said, increased pace with more enemies is pretty much what the Nightmare mode would be like, should I implement it. The enemy HP wouldn't be much or if any lower though, but there'd be tons more enemies for a much more hectic shootout. Could start with LV5 weapon too.

As for ship upgrades, I dunno. They introduce more randomness and could thus effect the scoring massively, making hi-scores even more dependent on luck. I suppose Mission Mode could be turned into a mode with some powerups though. Maybe 2-3x the level lengths, and some sort of small transport ships could fly past sometimes, and if you're quick enough to kill 'em, they'd drop a random upgrade or powerup. This would make Mission and Marathon slightly different from each other. Marathon should stay relatively the same, so that hi-scores remain stable.

Posted by Asholay

18th February, 2010

What about the classic 'chains' of enemies, and killing all of them rewards you with an item / weapon drop?

Posted by HitmanN

18th February, 2010

You mean like an event 'spawn 10 enemies in row' and IF all 10 killed THEN spawn bonus from the last?

I suppose. Maybe one such event for each level, and it happens at a random time. Each chain would spawn a random upgrade, with there being three of them (cooling, shield, speed), and the same bonus won't spawn twice, so you'll always collect all three if you defeat all chains. Each chain would be harder, so getting all three upgrades would be challenging. If applied to Marathon, it would be potentially harder each round, so getting the chains as early as possible would be important. Since there's no limit one events here, the chains could even be enemies from other levels. Maybe in Area 1 the chains would have a bunch of bombers, and in Area 2 it could be a row of kamikaze ships. In Area 3 it could be two simultaneous cruisers or somesuch.

Hmm... not necessarily a bad idea. It's worth experimenting on.

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