Restart-preventing nodes

[ZacharyB]

I just had this thought, need to leave it here for any developer:

Many players will engage in scoring runs in modern shmups. But a single mistake on a high score attempt, even late into the run, will result in a ruined run. The player's effort for that run is wasted.

In order to prevent wasted effort (and wasted time), a developer could incorporate "restart-preventing nodes" into stages, which would only activate if the player reaches a certain high score during the previous stage, but fails to meet the high score requirements for a checkpoint in the current stage.

These "nodes" could be pocket dimensions (like the small bonus areas in XOP Black) in which the player has an opportunity to reclaim their run.

Ideas for this:

--Nodes provide only enough score to get back on track. Because players will always be aiming for higher and higher scores, the node will provide enough score to beat the last highest score.
--A failure to make use of the node in the current stage will result in an even more difficult/more lucrative node in the next stage.

They could be anything: a bonus stage; a mini-boss fight, a chance to exercise the scoring system; an intense enemy rush... all with stacking difficulty and scoring opportunity based on how many node-chances the player has missed.

This way, all the player would have to do for a failing run is attempt to survive to the next stage, and the next node.


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As a corollary to this, I just played Dragon Saber by Namco. After dying, the player is given the option to select the restart point. This is another way to make better use of the player's time. The player's score could even be saved at each point.

[mjclark]

There are earned restart-preventions in Super Star Soldier and Super Aleste, are there not? Although nowhere near as sophisticated as what you're suggesting here.

[worstplayer]

Unless you balance it properly, this could cause even more restarts trying to reach as high score as possible while still triggering the node, or even worse, it could make any score accumulated before the node worthless.

Now, if higher score made them harder (but not impossible) to reach, that could work. In theory. I don't think there's any game that does this.

[Udderdude]

With most shmups having stage select and/or savestates available, I don't really see the point of this other than to make you feel better for fucking up.

A chance to redeem yourself with a greater challenge sounds like an interesting concept though. I would only personally hand those out if the player made a big mistake (eg. dying)

And they would have to be just good enough to recover your score, not go over what you would get otherwise. Or you would have people dying on purpose to unlock the bonus scoring potential.

[ZacharyB]

Yeah, that's it. It's an important concept for the modern player, since it means that they will always be able to challenge their previous high score, as long as they can survive.

[Drum]

This thread gave me an idea for a variant of this. If you fuck up your scoring, a lot of the time the first thing players do is stop flyng their ship and wait to die. This system runs with that: You can sacrifice a life to go back to the last checkpoint with your score reset to what it was when you passed it and the chain meter intact. All you have to do to activate this is sit still and not shoot for three or so seconds, then die. Basically, by sacrificing a ship you give yourself a chance at redemption.

[Udderdude]

This thread gave me an idea for a variant of this. If you fuck up your scoring, a lot of the time the first thing players do is stop flyng their ship and wait to die. This system runs with that: You can sacrifice a life to go back to the last checkpoint with your score reset to what it was when you passed it and the chain meter intact. All you have to do to activate this is sit still and not shoot for three or so seconds, then die. Basically, by sacrificing a ship you give yourself a chance at redemption.

Players only do that if that's the only way to start over, and in that case they're playing on an arcade cab w/o access to the reset switch. If a player pulled the "Oh well I'll sit here and die" in my games, I'd be more likely to make a big "lawl" message appear on the screen or something. Because you can just hit ESC and try again.

[Drum]

>:( It's a gameplay mechanic!

The LAWL idea would be a good addition tho.

[Udderdude]

I understand that it's a gameplay mechanic, just that it wouldn't work unless your game had no other way to reset than sit there and suicide all your lives away then drum away on the continue screen. :3

[Drum]

>:3 Well, you could still press Esc.