In my recent endeavors with making maps, I have decided to try a genre that has not been explored to a very far extent, which is many bullets on screen for players to dodge.
I know that in the past there have been a few maps that tried to use either wwzones with the aid of the wwzones plugin or simply world weapons that were setup purposely to try and make players dodge a set of bullets. This was all fine and good, but did not keep players enthused very long, or in some cases, did not impact the game in any manner.
The first goal of this map was to create a system where I can easily specify "waves" or "patterns" of bullets that stream over time. I did this via a plugin so that the plugin can keep track of multiple levels, which wave the map is currently on, and what bullets it is supposed to shoot at what precise times. After some time spent making a few interesting bullet patterns, I have completed what I will be using as Stage 1 of the Dodger stages at this point. I plan to include 9 stages total, so what you will see is the easiest version of this map. While my goal is to make the map interesting and challenging (Maybe too much so), I hope that players will be able to get better at dodging bullets with the map too!
Note that I based many of these ideas from the "Touhou" series of games (Which is why I use "Signs", as the game used the sign cards to initiate special magic attacks). If you have never heard or seen such "bullet hell" shooter games, you should check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnwC5gNW ... UL#t=3m40s. (Full screen for clearest detail)
I have created two basic levels for each stage, one named "Normal" and one named "Hard". For most players, Normal will be the route to go as the bullet patterns will slowly increase in complexity. Hard is for those players who are extremely experienced in dodging who really need that extra challenge to try and dodge bullet patterns.
Any player that joins (Not an observer) can initiate the waves using /start level, replacing level with either normal or hard to start the game. New players that join hop right into whatever session is currently running. I would like to point out that when not all players are spawned (Such as after someone gets hit), or someone is paused, the waves stop in courtesy to prevent spawn killing and so that players aren't missing out on the action.
Eventually I will have a 5 lives system implemented for each player per game. So if a player loses all their lives, they must wait until either everybody dies, or any remaining players beat the 9th stage before trying again. This may or may not be the best way to do this at this, and it would be nice to have feedback on that. Players jumping in using "continues" could work, with their scores resetting. At the end of each stage, survivors are awarded one extra life.
I hope to implement a score counter that will increase the player's score based on the length of time they survive, and on what level they are surviving for that particular timespan. Going deathless on special waves will give the players bonus points. Highest scorers will be announced over time of course.
Still not convinced? I suppose a video of this in action may help! I ran both the Normal and Hard versions of Stage 1 and placed them side by side in the video for comparison and analysis. The waves for this stage are rather simple compared to ones I have planned.
I highly recommend viewing it in 1080p HD to see the full details, since I squished two videos side by side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=telZgr28JQA
And if you would like to try some dodging action out yourself, the private server located at sigonasr2.servegame.org at port 25000 will allow you to try this out for yourself! (Once the level finishes, all players may leave and return to reset the server for another play.)
My overall goal with this is to make dodging fun and an adventure for everyone. The implicit patterns will allow players to enjoy the different shapes created while being provided a challenge.
Finally, I would like to ask if any players have any bullet pattern ideas for future levels, because I know some of you out there can get extremely creative with these, and just like the Touhou series of games, there are some really awesome looking bullet pattern designs we could probably create.
Here are some that have already been suggested:
Bullets Shot out from other Bullets (Bullet Bursts)
Bullet Spiral (Bullets spin in a circle, you may be required to follow the spiral around)
Laser Attacks (Using thief as a warning sign before lasers get shot, would make for some interesting traps.)
GM burst (As GM travels along, it releases more bullets itself.)
Time Warp (Bullets are created frozen, then abruptly start moving after the sequence.)
There are many creative ones we can think of. Try to think "Anything Goes", as I do not want impeded ideas just because you think there is a limitation in BZFlag to prevent it. We may be able to make it work or generate more ideas from it.
Ideas? Suggestions? Comments? Thoughts on the first stage?
Maybe you want to develop your versions of waves or send me a direct code version of a wave you created? Private message me if you want the map and plugin. I made the wave system easy to develop if you are interested in writing some code for it.
