When you talk about cluster bombs, are you referring to just plain bombs? Or maybe the possiblity of cluster missiles, that split into multiple smaller homing ones after a certain amount of time after firing them? Say maybe 10 - 20, but of course, they won't deal as much damage or have as much range, but they'd create some nice visuals, not to mention great distraction. Hey, we can always use some cool classical missile shower style combat like in the Macross animes.

We have Cluster bombs right now, they are dropped, and after their timer runs out, they burst into 10 smaller bomblets. We made a cluster rocket that was essentially what you described, but we removed it because it was too similar to te bombs.

The cluster bombs we have now looked pretty cool when they exploded, until I removed my old particle system, now they look like crap, but we're working on it.

A cluster, or rapidly firing missile system could be interesting and neat eye-candy. Also, it would make it a good, advanced weapon as it is hard to dodge, but perhaps, based on the uncertainty of where the projectiles will go, harder to fire and hit accurately(reserving it for more advanced/experienced players i.e. higher levels of the game).

Cluster or "Carpet Bombs" are always a good way to go as well, since who doesn't love absolutely turning a place into a nice flat surface absolutely? Let's see your bulldozer get that kind of efficiency!

Anyway, I'm trying to think of other options, but I'm totally drawing a blank, and it's past my bed time so I'm getting goofy but that's neither here nor there. I think you could always go by the good ol' standy "KISS": Keep it simple stupid! (since I don't want to call you sweetheart)... Adding complexity simply for the sake of having complexity is not necessarily a benefit to your game, and maybe even four well thought out weapons will be better than double or even triple that of hurriedly applied weapons only for the sake of having more than you have now.

Make sure each new weapon you implement adds something valuable not only to the playability of your game, but the scope of the storyline and also make sure that it has something to benefit the player. Old games like space invaders and whatnot had multiple weapon types, but they always made the game easier once you got them (so to speak as the game got harder as you went), so heck yeah you could win the game with your single-shot, slow firing gun, but then you got the "machine gun" upgrade, or maybe the "spray" gun, or whatnot. Everything was basically the same gun only with different types of firing, but those small differences made all the world. Of course, nowadays, players expect more than a change in color and the way a gun fires, but then again, isn't a missile just a really big bullet that blows up when it hits something? That might be something to think about.

But I digress (Like I said, once it's past my bedtime, I get wierd...), make you game fun to play first, then make your weapons so that they make the game just that much easier (i.e. the player that much deadlier to their enemies) and you'll have all you need. If you have two bombs that basically do the same thing only one has a reach of X+1 and the other a reach of X+2, is that really a distinguishing factor that we need? Or is it just overly complex and one is pretty much just as good as the other, afterall, who's going to use the (X+1) Bomb when there's the (X+2)?

More stuff to think about, I think. But I'm going to bed.

Vopisk

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Original post by Prinz Eugn Thanks I googled those games, but they all seem more fantastic/futuristic than our game, which is set 30 yrs in the future.

If you are planning on selling the game, then DEFINETLY pay more attention to those games I listed. That is what your target audiance, the hardcore players, likes, that is what they are playing, that is what they spent thier money on.

The settings, and story in these types of games ALWAYS takes a backseat to the gameplay. Nobody plays Mars Matrix for the graphics. Its about mastering the ships four weapons (available to the player from the start, and each fired through a single button), its about dodgeing enemy fire, its about scoreing high scores, its about the player constantly challangeing themselves to improve. It ISN'T about the story, setting, and realistic weapons...you will bore the target hardcore audiance to tears focusing on that side of things.

Now obviously you guys arn't fans of this particular game genre, its a nitche market, totaly understandable...Maybe this is your first game, just starting small, working your way up to makeing that RPG, MMORPG, FPS, RTS of your dreams. Which is a wise thing to do...But realise that places like Real Arcade are full of these types of games, that arn't developed by fans of the genre...and thier lack of insight into the genre shows.

But if you arn't planning on makeing money from this game, more power to you...just realise there are freeware games like Warning Forever out there that your games target audiance would rather be playing.

Well, I haven't played many games like this, but here are some weapons that might be interesting.

Neutron Buster- Basically a small neutron bomb. When it detonates, it kills all living tissue within a certain radius, it also leaves no fallout. Realistically, it would be a bomb that you have to drop over an enemy base. It kills the enemy but leaves their buildings and equipment for later teams to take over.

Attack Drone- A small robotic aircraft you release. It is outfitted with a weapon you choose and helps fight enemy crafts. When it runs low on ammo or fuel it can re-dock with your craft. To re-use it you have to land and have it restocked. Either that or you could have it automatically restock using your aircrafts fuel and ammo.

ThunderBird- A missile that emits specially tuned microwaves. While it causes virtually no damage by itself, if it is fired into a cloudbank it sets off a chain reaction that starts a thunderstorm. The rain and thunder disorient enemy planes and random lightning bolts can destroy them and mess with radar.

Electron Cannon- An EMP condensed into a fine beam. Once activated, it emits a continuous beam in front of your craft that instantly destroys enemy craft and missles, after several seconds it runs out and must be replaced.

Decoy- A robotic drone that flies off to the side and emits radio waves to attact enemy fire to itself and away from you. It's fast and good at evasion, occasionally it can even trick missles into hitting enemy aircraft. Unfortunatly, it shows up as a huge blip on your radar and your own missles will lock onto it if you aren't careful.

Minigun armed with self-adjusting bullets - bullets that try to adjust their trajectory to the "painted" one. The painted one is where you are targeting/lasersight.
Mines?
Laser - heating up your enemies engines/melting the ship

The Shadow Nose-
You have some cool ideas, drones (both as decoys and as independent attack units)
were something I hadn't thought of before, I'll have to talk with Sir Sapo (he's the programmer) and see if that's possible. We could even have a recon drone you could launch to scout out the level, which could be very useful.
I think I mentioned something like a microwave beam that made the enemy units go crazy earlier, but I think things like that would be too hard to really control and fight at the seme time.
Having your guys take over stuff had been an idea we had thrown out as being too complicated(for Sir Sapo, I mean).

sirGustav-
The play area is too small and the bullets too fast to make that minigun idea worth it, but mines would be kind of cool. We could have a mission like "destroy the convoy" where you can lay mines and sit back and watch the fireworks, or alternately go after the remaining vehicles with your other weapons.
Sir Sapo and I were talking yesterday (see his dev journal for details) and came up with the idea of a big laser armed airplane carving it's way past ground defenses for you, but in exchange you had to protect it from enemy MiGs.

Thanks for all your ideas, guys, it's always nice to be inspired after falling into a rut.