Hi Zeke, thanks for the valueable input! I see what you mean with getting to the top of the leaderboard as the challenge when you have more lives, it's what all my other levels are based on and I completely agree with that!
But, before I even began making this series, I had already made plans to base it on only having one life, which is hard and not for the casual player or anyone who isn't intrigued with taking on a tough challenge.
It's meant to be a difficult task, and it's supposed to be played again and again, each time you get better and beat a level, so does the series- in a sense.
However, this level is, most likely as you say, going to fast and with the near unpredictable attacks it throws at you just becomes a grind. I'll make some changes to the timing and slow things down since it's such a wacky and somewhat incomplete idea. I wish I could display the lasers on screen without their hitbox collision being a problem! Maybe I can? I'll do some wizardry in the editor ;)
KittyBeast - I just replayed it a few times but failed. I keep buying the farm after the third set of lasers. I haven't figured out where I need to move to when they go out and the ship returns. Things are happening too fast for me to make an intelligent assessment of what's going on.
We see the "challenge" differently.
If a novice can't beat this with 1 life, they never will enjoy the whole level or get any satisfaction. If they have unlimited lives, they may beat it with x lives if they are enticed enough, and at least get to see what the level was all about.
While they might not make the top ten list, they at least have that satisfaction, and can then opt to replay it until they do. That's the challenge to me. To get the fastest time with the least lives lost.
There are a lot of "1 life" levels here. You can tell by the number of plays vs. the names of the successful players that people lost interest, and just opted not to play the level again.
On the other hand, I have played incredibly difficult levels with infinite lives that have a full top ten list. And the lives expended range from 0 to whatever it took to get to the end and still qualify for the list.
I'd venture to guess that the players who got see it out to the end were more satisfied with that level than those would played the 1 life level and lost and could never complete the level. And the ratings reflect that. Although ratings are a whole other can of worms. :-)
At any rate... You're an exceptional designer, and I don't think you should change the level if you are happy with it.
BTW... It would be great if Lingading and/or Azathoth Core would weigh in with their comments.
Update: I decided to remove most of the "surprise" guns towards the end of the level, and I decided to nerf the lasers' spread. This should make it more of a skill based level rather than a "hope I don't get hit by a random bullet from point blank"-level
Thanks for the feedback, Zeke! I'll consider increasing the amount of lives, but I'm a little hesitant to do so since the series is supposed to be a "challenge mode" where the idea is to play against progressively harder and harder levels.. considering that you, who is a zeta flow veteran, is having some grinding issues then perhaps I should
KittyBeast - If you find that players are too challenged by the limited number of lives, perhaps you might consider increasing that. I have been an advocate of unlimited lives. It gives even the most novice player an opportunity to see a level to its end. They can at least have the satisfaction of beating the level, even if it's at a high cost of lives.
That topic has come up in the past, and I know there are plenty of opinions on both sides.
Hey KittyBeast - I didn't mean that to sound negative about the level.
I was indicating that I found it to be REALLY challenging. And that's a good thing!
Lingading will probably not require as many tries. :-)
Yes, the lasers location pattern seems to be my issue at the moment, but that's okay too. It's my challenge to figure that out.
And yes, it's a little bit of a grind but I'll figure it out! Ha-ha-ha!
I think I've already said this elsewhere, but this is a great series.
Thanks for that!
Hi Zeke, could you please tell me what keeps you in a grind? It shouldn't be a huge step up from level 6, although if I were to guess: the invisible guns and short reaction times makes the level more of a pattern recognition level, rather than having somewhat predictable weapons and being able to react?
I struggled to balance this one out, and it might still be too difficult because I know the patterns so well.
KittyBeast
2019-01-10 01:08
But, before I even began making this series, I had already made plans to base it on only having one life, which is hard and not for the casual player or anyone who isn't intrigued with taking on a tough challenge.
It's meant to be a difficult task, and it's supposed to be played again and again, each time you get better and beat a level, so does the series- in a sense.
However, this level is, most likely as you say, going to fast and with the near unpredictable attacks it throws at you just becomes a grind. I'll make some changes to the timing and slow things down since it's such a wacky and somewhat incomplete idea. I wish I could display the lasers on screen without their hitbox collision being a problem! Maybe I can? I'll do some wizardry in the editor ;)