next »

[Dr.Electro]

Hey folks!

I wanted to ask you if you have any suggestions about calculating a level score in a hack'n'slash game where the levels are proceduraly generated.

The game i am talking about in particular is my Hack'N'Slash game Runic Rampage. Check out this gameplay to get an idea.

What i want to achieve is adding more replay value by adding a "rank"-achievement per level, so the player can try to beat it's previous rank to achieve rank gold.

What is (nearly) equal in every level is the amount of enemies (type can differ) and level length. So my current implemented score calculation consists of:

- percentage of monsters killed
- found a hidden shrine
- highest combo chain (a bit wonky atm)
- time to complete

But my feeling is, its too complicated and while playing the player can't realy predict how good he is actualy playing the level. - I am stuck.

Whats your opinion about that and/or do you have any suggestions how i could generate a score which makes sense to the player?

Cheers!
Alex

[IBOL17]

Hi, Alex,

It seems to me that you don't really need to score it just at the end.

you know how many monsters there are, so just assign a point value to each one.

giving score based on combos is cool too. just have a point value for each # of moves (probably increasing), and only award the score once for each "level" of combo achieved.

if you want a "knowable" completion time bonus, just show it on screen. at first , it's a steady 5000 (or whatever), and then, after [absolute best completion time], it starts to tick down. And a zero value is possible, and the player will see that.

[Dr.Electro]

@IBOL17, thanks for your suggestions!
I thought about counting the score up while playing and base it on kills and combos... but what if you die?
Should i discard the score?
I always thought that it's a bad idea that giving a player something (like adding up gold and/or score) and take it away later on because of death/failure.

Please take a look at the current stats screen:





(Well the numbers in the screenshots are a bit strange but you get an idea).

So currently, even if you die you can keep the gold you earned and get a score.
What do you think about that?

[The Translocator]

Try doing score based on enemies killed but giving them half of that if they die.

[DanglinBob]

Well, I don't think you should worry much about if the score calculation is too complex. You don't WANT the player to know if they're 10 points behind their best run ever, you just want them to know they're doing well... and by the sounds of it that will be pretty obvious.

What I'd wonder is if you can actually add a little more spice to the mix, finding the careful balancing line where killing EVERY enemy is actually NOT the best way to get the best score in some cases. I don't know the game obviously so that may not make sense, but maybe using the score mechanism to give players some different ideas on how to actually play the game vs. button smashing their way from start to finish as quick as possible.

[Kolba]

I don't see what is so complicated, so long as you make sure there is a hud to display the timer, current highest combo, etc.

It's good that you're basing ranking on the things which remain consistent.

However with something like combo, you have to be very wary. The type of enemies, and I presume their placement, will change every time, so on some playthroughs the theoretical best combo might change. That is what you want to avoid.

Same with a point system. If different enemies are worth different amounts of points, their random selection will make the theoretical best score always change.