In this update I would like to share some basic details on enemy ships. Enemies are probably one of the most important aspects of a good shmup, so let's start with it.
Generally, each level player attacks a space caravan, in hope to get lots of loot from it (or, at first, just to stay alive and grab something valuable in the process!
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All enemies are divided into 3 general classes:
1. Pivotal Ships. These are the most important ones. Most often, they are transports, or in some cases - mini-bosses and bosses. They are important in technical sense, as they are literally pivots that are used to generate the rest of the level around them.
2. Guardians. Generally pretty powerful and tough ships, their primary purpose is to protect Pivotal Ships. Guardians often have advanced AI tactics, they are able to do such things as tactical grouping and retreating when damaged. Once guardian appeared on the screen - he won't go away, he'll need to be killed.
3. Attackers. Light and numerous ships that serve fire support service. They are easily killed (usually by 1-2 primary weapon shots), but they may be pretty dangerous when they concentrate their fire. In contrast with Guardians, Attackers usually don't have any advanced AI, they fly in waypoints-based formations. Also, in contrast to Guardians, Attackers spend limited time on the screen, and if player doesn't kill them - they will leave and never come back.
A few more details on Attackers. They are divided on two sub-classes - Ranged and Melee. Obviously, Ranged Attackers use a variety of weapons (generally, each Ranged Attacker ship type has 1 weapon), while Melee Attackers designed to deal damage by colliding with player ship. (A side note: more on this later, but the Battle System includes advanced collision damage calculation, that takes in count colliding objects' velocities and how each ship is suited for dealing melee damage, so as a result, in a similar collision player will suffer more damage from Melee Attacker, than from some other, non-melee ship).
During level generation all Attackers are distributed in squadrons, then squadrons are distributed in time. Each squadron is given a waypoints-based formation, randomly chosen from a sub-set. There are separate sub-sets for Attackers with different weapon types: guns, rockets, melee, etc. Each formation is an algorithm, designed with some weapon type in mind. We plan to include a good variety of formations, as they greatly contribute to the level generation diversity.
Ok, ok, enough text, time for some content
First, a couple of mockups showing Attacker ship models on a temp background. Models are still WIP, with temp materials.
Also, a video showing a fight with 2 Attacker squadrons. First squadron ships are armed with guns, while second squadron ships are armed with rockets. Notice how player utilizes Shotgun along with primary weapon. Actually, Shotgun, being a secondary weapon with very limited ammo is way too powerful for such weak ships as Attackers, so in actual game player will more probably use it to kill Pivotal ships and their Guardians. Also note that this particular level was generated specifically for Attackers showcase purpose, so it does not contain all the chaos of the real levels!
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