Collecting points as released 'medals' vs just adding them

[nullpointer]

Hi all,

What reasons are there for enemies releasing their score as medals,coins etc rather than you just getting the score added when the enemy dies?

Is it just aesthetic, ie makes the player feel cool to see cascades of gold stuff? In some games there is a slim chance you might not collect the medals released, considering that in most shmups (cave particularly) they seem to get autosucked in. I guess if you die before collecting the medal you lose that score, but this seems a rare consideration. Are there some mechanics im missing? Maybe the visual feedback is better in showing how well you killed the enemy and got a better (bigger medal) score?

As you might sense, im both investigating scoring mechanics and slowly working on my own shmup project, I'll post some vids soon i hope.

[orange]

risk/reward also it adds variety to the game because when you get a medal every x enemies then you're bound to have them appear at different locations while you're playing and you have to adjust

[Udderdude]

The 'auto suck up medals' thing is definitely a modern shmup convention. In the case that no matter what time the player grabs the medal and it's auto sucked in from anywhere on the screen, then yes it's completely superfluous. However in most shmups that doesn't happen. Either the faster you grab it the more points you get, or they don't get auto-sucked up from any more than a small range.

[Jeneki]

In many medal chaining games, there's a lot more to it than "shoot stuff for medals, collect medals for points." You have to destroy things a certain way, hold off destroying more things before collecting other medals, not miss any or it resets a multiplier, etc. Playing the game in a specific fashion versus just shooting and collecting stuff has a huge effect on overall score.

For examples, look in the strategy section for games such as Battle Garegga or the Raiden Fighters series.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

I'll also agree with the risk/reward factor.

Strikers 1945 is a good example. It doesn't have auto-collecting of the gold bars, so the player must collect each one. Just collecting the gold bars isn't that hard but collecting each and every bar at the right time to get the maximum 2000 points is a challenge of its own. Focusing too much on just the right timing before collecting the gold bar might just lead to getting hit by an enemy shot, while just collecting the bars whenever does not maximize score.

[MrPopo]

In Futari the size of the gold is dependent on what type of shot you use (and you need to keep switching). Even though it auto sucks it's nice to see that point difference so that if you are going for score you can get a quick visual indication if you are playing the score system to the max or not.

[agustusx]

the medals in Battle Garegga and Battle Bakraid start off pretty small and can be easy to miss. It feels really good when you have a flow going and they become larger and worth more points.

RFJ medal system is pretty complex and you want to merge the smaller medals into bigger ones to get the max medal so you can trigger the crazy scoring mode.

Basically what everyone else said about the risk/reward and how it changes your play-style.