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 Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:46 am
Okay simple idea I've had a long time ago. I won't make it extensively long.
You know Sealab X, don't you? Hulking piece of metal and control chips that obeys only Labtech X's commands of "Blast them with missiles! Blast them with BIGGER Missiles! ANNIHILATE THEIR VERY MOLECULES WITH LASERS!"? You probably beat it at least 4 times in your career? Yeah, that monster!
Well, I'd like to point out its particularity: The arms. The arms are part of the same monster but... not quite. They're also different targets. Different targets in the same entity.
And boy are those arms a waste of design in the long run. Much like a lot of everything in zOMG! it's the only place we get to see it, and it has been done in a way people won't really care about them much. People just go for the body. I mean, if the arms would do a lot more damage, have less HP and regenerate after des- oh I'm getting ahead of myself. But it's where I wanted to go anyways. Adding new mobs that use multiple targets with different design ideas behind them.
Multiple targets in the same entity is a good way to introduce some complexity to foes otherwise impossible. Same way monster spawners have priority over spawns, or smaller creeps have to be dealt with against huge status effect balloons, multi targeted foes usually have priority targets. The body, if you will is the foe itself, what keeps everything together. The arms, if you'd like that name, can serve several other features instead. How the arms work is exactly what makes each monster with multiple targets unique.
So here's some monster ideas. I'm not going to apply them to inanimate object. I'll try to group them according to the arm's functionality, and you can spot the design idea behind them and... well, make your own. Or hit me in the head for suggesting this.
Do be mindful that multi-target monsters would have greater amounts of HP on the body section than the usual foe by default (well, depends). Nothing is more boring/wasteful than an enemy with several limbs approach you only to see all of those destroyed with minor AoE spam.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:47 am
Offensive:
arrow A small, waist sized monster that has two arms the size of its body and a similar amount of Hp. it can attack an extra time in a row for each arm not yet destroyed.
arrow This monster has two limbs with alternate, independant attacks that are very dangerous and will devastate grouping crews. Those limbs are also weaker than the body. Destroying them will give a breather period before the limbs regenerate.
arrow This monster has a ranged weapon in its "arm" it'll try using if the target goes too far. You can target it only whenever it is holding it out to aim at you, to try and flip it out of their hand with enough damage, making it unable to use ranged attacks until it dies. The body is otherwise a normal monster.
arrow The backpack limb isn't required to be destroyed before the body, but at the same time, the limb works as a mob spawner as long as it is up that can bring out nasties of several types.
Defensive:
arrow The body is a tinier monster protected behind a casing. Attacking the casing enough will break it for a few seconds and render it unable to fight, while the monster makes a new one.
arrow The monster is incredibly tall, and its head with fewer HP, the weakpoint, is out of reach. However its body has lots and lots of HP to compensate, albeit moves slowly. The head eye beams down on crewmembers by its feet. You can hit the head directly using ranged attacks only as it'll be impervious to all other forms of attacks. Destroying the body before the head will make it crash down on the floor, incapable of moving, but capable of shooting deadly lasers in a very rapid succession at everything around it.
arrow The monster will occasionally stance in a way it'll bring a always impervious shield limb in front of it. The more you try targeting the body while it's protecting itself, the more you'll charge its attacks until its next defense stance.
Mixed:
arrow A floating mage that has two crystals floating besides and slightly above it. The crystals will be of random colors. When te body attacks (slowly), a crystal will also shine and do an effect. Green ones will AoE heal mobs, Red ones will AoE damage crews, Blue ones will apply a 66% defense buff on all mobs for 6 seconds, Yellow ones will do either critical damage or damage over time to a single crew-member afflicted by the body's attack - sometimes both.
Puzzle:
arrow This gelatinous monster has two bodies stitched together, with two visible cores inside. Unless they both die at the same time, the bodies will quickly regenerate the missing side with full hp.
arrow The monster has three sockets in its large body. Attacking the body directly will hurt it and kill it like a normal monster. A weak spot core will occasionally pop out of a random socket. Attacking it provides a chance to kill the monster faster. However at the same time, it'll also bring out "heal cores" on the other sockets which absorb all your attacks to heal the core and the body.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:49 am
You're right that all of these make much more sense as strong, small-group or one-of enemies (which zOMG! has a tough time with, it seems - the closest we have are Masks and Giftboxes, I think, and in my experience those rarely show up alone), but the ideas are all priceless. I love the last puzzle enemy, personally - and I'm trying to think of a concept that such a monster could use. (Interestingly, the mechanic for the other puzzle enemy is precisely what I proposed for the Von Helson sisters. sweatdrop )
Good stuff as always, though; I'll come back to talk about this some more later, I'm sure... 3nodding
EDIT: One of my first thoughts (which is admittedly similar to your 'Boring' suggestion) was some kind of snake (or the like) covered with poison sacs - when it attacks, it deals a strong DoT with a number of ticks equal to the number of those sacs remaining. It's much easier to 'pop' the poison sacs than to kill the monster directly, and choosing to focus on the body instead could result in a number of very devastating 'bites' out of your Crew... redface
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:01 am
Technically I only put it under "boring" because it's almost the same of what Labtech X is right now, and has a chance of making people focus on the body all the time instead. Also, it's arguably the base design, the least thought up one. I'm not trying to put down the idea of making a monster like that. The second one is the same idea actually, only with a twist. The limbs are weaker but come in constantly. This incentives players to not ignore it. Regardless, both style rank in pretty much the same line of thinking. So yeah, you could apply your snake to either, it all depends on what you want the players to focus on. And how well you are at balancing monsters. As for the last puzzle monster... it was a actually a puzzle boss I was writing for another suggestion I was keeping. I was thinking of bosses that relied on crew cooperation or coordenation, and that one was a design I ended up thinking was too much unlike what I wanted out of it. I just took away some details that made it more boss-like, and there, now a crew can kill it trough dumb force or have someone keep tabs on the weak-point. I could post all the ideas I had for puzzle bosses now but... well, maybe you can have two of the least doable (First is more of a minigame second is... too complex) ones for now: Quote: Puzzle Boss: arrow Several stationary pillars are scattered on the screen. They're completely impervious to attacks and have a screen on them. After a while, the pillars bring out a bomb from underneath, and the screens show numbers. The bombs have to be targeted in order of the numbers before X seconds pass, otherwise for both cases, they all go off, damaging players and releasing animated from the remaining ones. When attacked in the right order, the pillars are damaged and eventually destroyed. arrow Three statues are on screen, around a larger inactive one. One with a shield, one with a club and one with a bow. Shield statues will take less 20% damage and cause sleep. Club statues will AoE around them and cause Root. Bow statues will target anything at any range and Knockback a fair distance. Defeating a bow statue turns it into a shield one with full HP. A shield one turns into a club and club into bow. When all statues are of the same kind, they go inactive and the middle one turns into a larger version of the three statues you had, with heightened effects (Shield with large HP and same damage reduction, Club with AoE on most of the screen and a way to drag crews closer, Bow with the same ability to knockback and occasionally fear) and an additional stronger single target attack on anyone out of their primary's range for club and shield. Beating all three forms of the large statue ends the boss.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:56 pm
Sounds fun! Having multi-segment monsters is nothing new, but it's good to float the idea now and again.
I've been trying to think of where some of these design ideas came from, if perhaps they were inspired by other games. The floating mage sounds an awful lot like the Chaos Sorcerers from Phantasy Star Online, but with new tricks. (Maybe a splash of Final Fantasy lore thrown in?)
How about a Spirit Vase variant? I guess it would fall into the 'Offensive' category. The monster has two arms which it can use to perform AoE spin attacks. If one arm is destroyed, a spin attack will unbalance the monster and render it disabled for a short time. If they're both destroyed, it can spin and retain balance, but its AoE is greatly reduced. Add other tricks as needed.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 9:34 pm
Thard_Verad The floating mage sounds an awful lot like the Chaos Sorcerers from Phantasy Star Online Holy s**t... You're right! That's EXACTLY how they work. Only... the crystals aren't pre-colored and instead gain color when used. I was actually thinking of general concept I know from a lot of places, the dark mage with crystals around t hem used one at a time. In fact, I couldn't remove, a weird picture of my mind of a mismagius in the place of that animated which kind of looks a bit alike in shape to the chaos sorcerer. I kind of picture each in its own way. I even named that other one 'Immortall'. But I don't want to actually say what they're supposed to be like when the general idea could fit a lot of other things as well. edit: Hey, google tells me there's a flash game called ImmorTall. Curious. Quote: I guess it would fall into the 'Offensive' category. Those categories are completely arbitrary. Indeed, it is offensive, since the segments help it attack better. At the same time, a foe that features any form of selective targeting as a method of disabling/killing faster could be considered a puzzle thing. Yet, it's obvious most will be, so what point marks the difference? So yeah, I didn't really make those for anything other than visual appeal. Me likey, btw. It's more enjoyable when foes react to what you do in a pseudo-realistic way.
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