Many old games went with the 1-hit you die system, which graduated into a 2-hit you die system in where the 2nd hit could be recovered (or up to 8 hits). The mechanic of taking damage all the time was only introduced into games that were born from D&D / RPG mechanics, along with the concept of healing.
Healing on the fly during combat isn't that common in games when you think about it (outside RPG based games). Many boss fights have a mechanic built into their behavior to provide the player an opportunity to heal, or to recover hits, but seldom do you have a healer by your side pumping your life up every second with little thought to the 'healing' aspect of the fight. A good example of this I think is Super Metroid, with those encounters there's opportunities to regain health, and it's not simply freely given to you.
I think the hallmark of a good boss fight is the ability to dodge then counter. The problem with WoW-type bosses is the 'dodge' is an ability you hit to counter a damage spike (You seldom actually avoid the damage entirely), all the while you have constant incoming damage with constant incoming healing. Which ultimately begs the question: What's the point?
In arcade side-scrolling games, there was no 'healer' and everyone was in the role of "Make things die/explode." Very few mini and action games have the mechanic of constant incoming damage and constant healing. Well okay Gauntlet comes to mind with the so and so needs food badly, due to the constant ticking down of your health, but that's not a boss mechanic. It's just a personal opinion that the auto-attack/unavoidable damage mechanic for a boss fight is unnecessary for the majority of game types. Hell, it's sort of an unnecessary mechanic for the player to have as well since a lot of games it was "Press button to deal damage"
The Final Boss for Smash TV 2010 is quite impressive indeed. I certainly believe that it could be put together within the duration of the contest, and the polish to it is amazing. The boss fight I threw together took me maybe 2-3 hours (not including the learning time for creating dodgeable projectiles)
Though I find it a bit ironic that the bosses least resembling WoW bosses are the ones that are being received better.
I'm at a loss at how to apply the behavior. I created a search to look for the missile to apply the behavior, but I can't seem to tag them. I created a buff to apply a slower time scale to confirm I was actually able to effect them, but I can't get that to register. Tried to apply the search effect through the persistent, then tried to apply it through a set search, neither approach did anything.
I find this a rather frustrating problem to deal with as the 'solution' is scattered everywhere and I'm still at a complete loss at what's missing.
I have the search effect withing the launch missile one and it doesn't work. (It was one of the things I tried)
As far as the effects go in terms of order, the ability starts the persistent which periodic effect is to launch the missile, the launch effect does the search which then applies the damage.
Granted completely possible that what I have isn't in the correct order.
I've searched the forum and came across two separate solutions to having a missile grant it's kill effect to the unit caster. One involved giving the search effect to the launch missile effect, and the other involved searching for the missile and applying the KillToCaster behavior. In both instances I've failed to get the source unit to receive credit for the kill, and both instances still ended up with the suicidal projectile receiving the credit for the kill.
Any insight as to how to get the kill credit to show up on the originating unit would be appreciated.
As I said, I only started playing around with the editor not long ago. I've been learning about actors/behaviors and the like from scratch, and everything else I've Frankensteined together from stuff I've pulled here and there from the site. I'll probably fix things up when I have a better handle on what I'm doing. Currently I'm trying to figure out the veteran system among other things.
From a boss design stand-point, I think too much inspiration draws from WoW-centric designs: Tank and spank. The most interesting boss fights in WoW from a personal stand point are the ones that don't need a tank (or the tank is a just there to justify a person rolling a tank spec), like say the Shade of Aran in where it was about actively reacting to what he was doing. The main inspiration from my boss design was from old school 'bosses' that you'd see on side or top-down side scrollers. Games in where you were lucky if you were able to take more than one hit and not die, and tended to spray the screen with bullets of death.
When you think about WoW boss mechanics, they rely on the tank/healer/DPS trinity. Many old games it was more about temporary invincibility, shields/powerups to allow you to take an extra hit, extra lives, and on the go power ups; and when it came to bosses memorizing their attack patterns. Designing a boss in where the player is expected to die in a handful of hits as opposed to creating a boss that is to overcome healing done to it are different creatures.
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Many old games went with the 1-hit you die system, which graduated into a 2-hit you die system in where the 2nd hit could be recovered (or up to 8 hits). The mechanic of taking damage all the time was only introduced into games that were born from D&D / RPG mechanics, along with the concept of healing.
Healing on the fly during combat isn't that common in games when you think about it (outside RPG based games). Many boss fights have a mechanic built into their behavior to provide the player an opportunity to heal, or to recover hits, but seldom do you have a healer by your side pumping your life up every second with little thought to the 'healing' aspect of the fight. A good example of this I think is Super Metroid, with those encounters there's opportunities to regain health, and it's not simply freely given to you.
I think the hallmark of a good boss fight is the ability to dodge then counter. The problem with WoW-type bosses is the 'dodge' is an ability you hit to counter a damage spike (You seldom actually avoid the damage entirely), all the while you have constant incoming damage with constant incoming healing. Which ultimately begs the question: What's the point?
In arcade side-scrolling games, there was no 'healer' and everyone was in the role of "Make things die/explode." Very few mini and action games have the mechanic of constant incoming damage and constant healing. Well okay Gauntlet comes to mind with the so and so needs food badly, due to the constant ticking down of your health, but that's not a boss mechanic. It's just a personal opinion that the auto-attack/unavoidable damage mechanic for a boss fight is unnecessary for the majority of game types. Hell, it's sort of an unnecessary mechanic for the player to have as well since a lot of games it was "Press button to deal damage"
0
The Final Boss for Smash TV 2010 is quite impressive indeed. I certainly believe that it could be put together within the duration of the contest, and the polish to it is amazing. The boss fight I threw together took me maybe 2-3 hours (not including the learning time for creating dodgeable projectiles)
Though I find it a bit ironic that the bosses least resembling WoW bosses are the ones that are being received better.
0
@BumpInTheNight: Go
That was one of the posts I ran across, but I couldn't get it to work.
In general I know the concept and the logic behind it, but for the life of me I cannot get it to execute.
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@RileyStarcraft: Go
I'm at a loss at how to apply the behavior. I created a search to look for the missile to apply the behavior, but I can't seem to tag them. I created a buff to apply a slower time scale to confirm I was actually able to effect them, but I can't get that to register. Tried to apply the search effect through the persistent, then tried to apply it through a set search, neither approach did anything.
I find this a rather frustrating problem to deal with as the 'solution' is scattered everywhere and I'm still at a complete loss at what's missing.
0
@RileyStarcraft: Go
I have the search effect withing the launch missile one and it doesn't work. (It was one of the things I tried)
As far as the effects go in terms of order, the ability starts the persistent which periodic effect is to launch the missile, the launch effect does the search which then applies the damage.
Granted completely possible that what I have isn't in the correct order.
0
I've searched the forum and came across two separate solutions to having a missile grant it's kill effect to the unit caster. One involved giving the search effect to the launch missile effect, and the other involved searching for the missile and applying the KillToCaster behavior. In both instances I've failed to get the source unit to receive credit for the kill, and both instances still ended up with the suicidal projectile receiving the credit for the kill.
Any insight as to how to get the kill credit to show up on the originating unit would be appreciated.
0
@Bibendus: Go
As I said, I only started playing around with the editor not long ago. I've been learning about actors/behaviors and the like from scratch, and everything else I've Frankensteined together from stuff I've pulled here and there from the site. I'll probably fix things up when I have a better handle on what I'm doing. Currently I'm trying to figure out the veteran system among other things.
From a boss design stand-point, I think too much inspiration draws from WoW-centric designs: Tank and spank. The most interesting boss fights in WoW from a personal stand point are the ones that don't need a tank (or the tank is a just there to justify a person rolling a tank spec), like say the Shade of Aran in where it was about actively reacting to what he was doing. The main inspiration from my boss design was from old school 'bosses' that you'd see on side or top-down side scrollers. Games in where you were lucky if you were able to take more than one hit and not die, and tended to spray the screen with bullets of death.
When you think about WoW boss mechanics, they rely on the tank/healer/DPS trinity. Many old games it was more about temporary invincibility, shields/powerups to allow you to take an extra hit, extra lives, and on the go power ups; and when it came to bosses memorizing their attack patterns. Designing a boss in where the player is expected to die in a handful of hits as opposed to creating a boss that is to overcome healing done to it are different creatures.
0
I'll throw up what I put together here. I only got started using the editor a few days ago, so it's not exactly a clean execution.
The file that's held together by duct-tape http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/smash-tz-tank-boss/