Paper Prototype for grouping enemies

I decided to base my paper prototype work on remis’s work from previous weeks. This work has captured the teams imagination and they seem to be running with the idea so I’ve made my own one altered slightly the original.

Mine is lanes as opposed to lines they work exactly the same way it’s just easier to visualize things in their own sections instead of on lines.

In this paper prototype I have been charged with seeing how groups of enemies can be implemented into the game without causing to much trouble, testing out the various ways a horde can gather in a level without creating a que of enemies waiting for a fight. 

So first I started by making my new outline to start testing with. Then I started thinking about the characters and their amount of health as with a horde of enemies, especially if they are in a que it is important that they don’t take to many hits, but enough so that the player doesn’t feel to superior to the enemies. i.e. groups of enemies dying after one hit.  In my experience it can leave the player feeling cheated and make the game a button basher.

So thinking this through in my head especially when the player is surrounded by the maximum amount of enemies, 8, the player can take up to 8 damage per-second, so the player will need recharging health and at least double that amount in maximum health to be able to stay alive and have enough time for the player to fight their way out of the situation.

I tried a quick play through in my head with movement with the player (Logan) the same as the NPC’s (Fodder). But if the player was in danger they had no way of escaping if they could not out run the NPC’s so I changed the movement ratio to 2:1. This made escape much easier while not giving the player to much speed so that they can run rings around the NPC’s.

So using this ratio I tested the game again and in most situations it was possible for the player to fight their way out of the group in time to not get beaten to a pulp. Assuming that there are fifteen to 20 enemies.  We’ll have to focus test upon making the groups and implementing the script just to make sure to make the amount of enemies interesting, challenging and fun not overwhelming and hard. Unless that’s what we decided we are going for.

With regards to queing, I’ve decided that after the player has been surrounded by enemies as new ones continue to come they should get behind enemies in turn. 

When the player is surrounded it will look like this.
X = PC
O = NPC

OOO

OXO

OOO

Once the player has been completely surrounded they I propose they start adding to the pack as follows.

   OOO

   OXO

OOOOO
Bottom left then right

  OOO

OOXOO

OOOOO

Middle left then right

OOOOO

OOXOO

OOOOO

Top left then right.

Watch the flash video I have made for you to get a better understanding of what I mean. (I’ve E-Mail the files to Daryl)