I've been working on new combat system for a month now and I feel like it's time to show what I've done, before continuing combat overhaul.
It's an early version, a mere prototype of a new combat system, so beware of unfair difficulty, poor balance, unfinished graphics, unfinished abilities, wrong sound effects and glitches!
So, what is exactly different in test version?
Difficulty.
I'm trying to make combat more interesting, more complex and, automatically, more difficult.
Enemies now can use really powerful abilities, that could easily destroy unprepared player!
Right now game is very hard, even unfair, but I intend to lower difficulty at least a little in future.
Controls.
Now you move spaceship using arrow keys and activate abilities by pressing or holding 1-9.
Shields.
Now player and enemies can activate shields. Shields soak all the damage, which means that while shield is active, you don't take damage!
Activate your shield by pressing 3, when enemies fills screen with more missiles than you can avoid! To remove enemy shields, press 4. This ability is also useful for destroying probes.
Ability unleashing.
Now abilities have chance to be unleashed, if they are upgraded to level 5 or higher.
When ability is unleashed, it's behavior changes, for example, your basic attack ability will release additional missiles, doubling or even tripling damage dealt by that ability! Currently only 2 of 5 abilities can be unleashed. In future every ability will have unleashed form! This is like critical hits in other games, just more interesting.
Attributes.
Attributes work like uncapped passive abilities. They increase damage, reflect chance, unleash chances and armour.
Destroying breakable enemy segments matters.
Destroy them to weaken enemies.
Ability cooldowns.
Abilities now have cooldowns instead of ether cost. In future abilities will also use ether, but for now cooldowns are enough.
New part properties.
Parts now can increase ability unleash chances and attributes.
Tips?
Use ability 2 to deal a lot of damage to enemies. Keep it for hard enemies, because it has long cooldown.
Ability 5 repairs your spaceship, use it as often as possible.
Use shield ability only if necessary!
It protects you only for 3 seconds, so you don't want to waste it on attacks you can avoid.
And that's all!
Don't forget to tell me what you think about new combat system, because it's the main reason why I started this combat test! Especially if you played Sector Six before.
PS.: You cannot do tutorial and most of the missions in the test version. Simply because they are incompatible with new combat system yet.
