Mini-Game Thruster..? I Barely Know Her!

This is a minigame I'm working on, a ricochet variant. First tests happened last night. It's not going to blow your mind with an amazing new mechanic, but it is incredibly fun and fast-paced without spilling over into pure chaos.

Originally I had intended to make a zero-G ricochet game, but unfortunately ricochet balls don't behave in grav zones (they go nowhere when you throw them). This is the next best thing. Everybody has 200% jump and 75% gravity, so your leaps will take you high in the air and leave you there a long while. You also have 120% movement and thruster packs, so mid-air evasions are key. The oddball carrier can use his thruster as well. What's more, there are mancannons everywhere, half directed at each team's goal; they're aligned so that you can chain them together, starting at your end and bouncing off three in succession to get to the opposite goal. These are used frequently and require constant monitoring. Finally, the weapon set includes scattershots and pulse 'nades, with each team having a binary rifle as well that can be picked up and used for long-range defense; and damage resistance/damage done have both been tweaked to make the 'nades and scattershots far more brutally effective, while the binary obviously doesn't change.

Thrust Stadium also offers some nice amenities in the form of an upstairs observation deck that can only be accessed by spawning in as a non-red-or-blue team. Gold, purple, etc. spartans can watch the game unfold below, and if they get bored they can enjoy two banquet tables full of weapons to kill each other, or visit the hangar, grab a banshee, and go explore the galaxy.

Pics:













The observation deck:

 

Thanks for the feedback, Fauch - yes you have to walk in (or jump/thrust in) to the goals. I did say that before the game but I know you don't hear a lot of what we say in the lobby. Too bad ricochet doesn't have a visual indicator of which kind of goal is which; it not only makes it hard to figure out how to score in a game with only one goal type, it's doubly hard to make a map with both hoops and endzones, and have players understand which is which.

The mancannons can't really be any higher because of the player jump height. Since your jumps take you so far up, it would be really tedious and annoying to try to jump into the mancannons; you have to be able to walk into them instead. Hopefully as people get used to the layout they won't walk into them accidentally very often. I think in both games I only did that by accident once or twice.

 

Thanks SP. I don't know how much people will really use the observation level but I had the idea and it seemed like a fun thing to build - and I had plenty of free budget to do so. Even with all that, the whole map is still well under $8000.

 

Thanks to all who have helped test this so far. After last night I'm thinking of a couple changes:
1. Turn off motion trackers. They're barely needed anyway, and just distracting when guys are running around on the observation deck.
2. Maybe make it so that you can only pick up weapons in the first 5 seconds after respawn. I already have respawn traits active to prevent spawn killing (important on an open map with binary rifles!). Maybe this way I can ensure that the two binaries stay on their appropriate sides. If you go into enemy territory and kill the guy with the binary you won't be able to pick it up; it will reset eventually and then only be able to be picked up by someone who just respawned. It's a theoretical notion but I'm going to try it - just hope it's not too confusing.

Other than these things I think this game is almost ready to release. Next week may be the last test. It is a rare minigame that magically worked exactly like I hoped it would.

 

Hmm. I see your point, but I'm not sure it's necessary; you can only spawn literally right around your own goal, and most of the game the enemy is not near enough to you that it makes a real difference. The main reason I put the invincibility in is to prevent what happens so much in grifball - uninhibited spawn-rape. Really hate that, it sucks all the fun out of minigames, it de-emphasizes scoring (in fact people will just hold the ball instead while their teammates spawn kill), and it's especially dangerous when everyone has essentially 1SK weapons.

Right now I've got an OS effect on respawners so you can at least tell that they're protected. Thought that was a fair trade-off.

What would you think of making them not actually invincible, but just shielded enough to survive one binary shot or one scattershot shot? That might be good enough.

It would definitely change the pace. It's worth testing, you're right. I really love that bounce-bounce-bounce though. We were doing a crap job of defending it last night - your team was way better at melting my face right after I hit the last mancannon.

 

Man, I love that idea, but I'm not sure there's a setting for it. I'll go check though.

 

Actually, I wanted to do that initially, until I realized that the gametype doesn't give you distinct waypoints for the two goal types. A goal you run it into looks exactly like one you throw it into. Maybe I'm just OCD, but that makes me crazy, having to explain that every time I play it. It seemed easier to just limit the game to where you have to run it in.

That's one of the only things I think is wrong with ricochet, really. There should be a "hoop" waypoint and an "endzone" waypoint.

 

I thought about that. The problem is that it's on 120 now and the next step up is 150, which feels too fast and slippery to me, and makes it very hard to stop people from scoring. Wish there was a 135 or something.