----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2009 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] The future of Blastbay Studios
Hi Yohandy,
No, your situation isn't all that unique. I've often wondered why so many
VI gamers have problems playing games like Shades of doom when I don't
have any serious navigational issues with it. One factor could be that
Shades of Doom was intentionally designed as a complex maze which isn't
the best introduction to an FPS environment, and the other may be just a
lack of 3d special orientation. I often attribute my abilities in this
regard to having had vision for many years so I have very defined 3d
special orientation that comes in handy in those types of games. I
actually feel a bit confined when playing 2d games like side-scrollers as
they lack more complex movements and realism than a full FPS game offers.
Take targeting as an example. In a side-scroller you have up, down, left,
and right for your directions. For the most part all you have to do is
face the right direction, shoot a weapon, and you'll hit your target. In
an FPS game you actually have to calculate a 3d trajectory to the target.
So not only does the character have to be facing the right way you also
have to raise or lower the weapon accordingly in order to sight the
target, lign it up, and hit it. In this way a FPS game more accurately
simulates firing a gun, bow and arrow, whatever. I really dig stuff like
this, and would like to see this kind of realism in more VI games. Not
even Shades of Doom has gone far enough to include this degree of realism
in the game yet.
Cheers!
this actually brings up a point I've been thinking about a lot recently.
In a side scroller like Mega man or metroid, enemies weren't just always on
the same level as you. Your character was roughly one vertical tenth the
hight of the playing area. you'd therefore get enemies coming at you not
just from the side, but from above, below, or on diagonals, many of which
you'd have to carefully time your jumps in order to be in a position to hit
them.
then, while many enemies tended to damage you if you touched them, many also
had projectile or other attacks, and often you had to jump or dodge
these, ---- frequently you had to do quite a bit of dodging in order to get
close enough to the enemy to hit them.
Take the cobrat enemies from mario brothers 2. They would jump out of a pipe
intermitantly, and chuck bullits at a diagonal angle upwards. if you were on
the ground next to the pipe, you'd be fine, ---- however if you were in the
air above the pipe you'd get hit, ---- or indeed if you tried to jump past
the pipe while the cobrat jumped at you.
One thing I've noticed is that enemies in games like shades or Gma tank
commander have various attacks which must be avoided, ---- eg, guns they
shoot at you when your at a distance, bombs that have an area spread, as
well as close range attacks.
In all the side scrollers we have though, it's just that a case of, --- as
you said yourself tom, turn towards the enemy and shoot it left or right.
i'd personally love to see more enemies with different styles of attack in
an audio side scroller, ---- and indeed methods of actually avoiding enemy
attacks.
in a game like mota for instance, enemies could attack either in the air or
on the ground, causing you to either need to duck under or jump over them.
Some enemies could fly in the air and attack only vertically undernieth
them.
some, could be like the falling spaceships in space invaders games, and
descend (or ascend), to your character's level before either shooting at or
flying at you (the metroid series was famous for such).
the airial bats in Q9 were a vague step in the right direction, --- but as
with many things in audio games it strikes me there's far more here to tap.
Personally, i'd much rather have games constructed in such a way that if the
player is good enough, he/she could (allbeit with amazing difficulty), get
through the game without taking a single hit, dodging everything!
Playing Night of parasite made me remember this, ---- sinse if there's one
thing i really dislike in nop, it's the way that being hit is so
unavoidable, as the moment you here the enemy attack, you've been
damaged, ---- which just doesn't seem correct to me at all.
Just my thoughts.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
---
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