Alright. We just covered enemies and obstacles in the last two episodes. Now I’ll talk about drops – the final and least interesting type of entity.
Purpose
Drops are like obstacles in that they basically just scroll past the screen. However, instead of dealing damage, drops reward the player for flying into them. Drops make the game more interesting in a few ways:
- They give the player something different to do other than blowing things up
- They create the chance of something rare and awesome happening (like picking up a super valuable drop)
- They require the player to think about which drops they pick up (more on this in a minute)
During the mission, drops are either generated by the mission itself or by blowing up enemies and obstacles. The player can then pick them up by contacting them with their ship, then cash them in (or in the case of items, equips them) after the mission. But here’s where the strategy comes in.
Cargo
Each drop the player picks up takes up one cargo slot on the ship. The number of cargo slots on a ship is determined by its Cargo Space stat. The max number of cargo slots, like other things, is limited by the menu at 15, but it’s very rare to find a ship with 15 cargo slots. So depending on the player’s available cargo slots, they may decide not to pick up a less valuable drop in the hopes of finding a better one later in the mission.
Types
There are two types of drops: material drops and item drops. Material drops basically just have value that the player gets for cashing in the drop after the mission. Item drops, on the other hand, contain an item that the player can view, then equip or sell. Here are the drop presets:
- Carbon: a chunk of very cheap material
- Titanium: a chunk of cheap material
- Platinum: a chunk of valuable material
- Berillium: a chunk of very valuable material
- Diamond: a chunk of precious material
- Adamantium: a chunk of very precious material
- Item Capsule: a capsule containing an item
And here’s what they look like:
Rewards
Drops only have a few characteristics: level, faction, and rarity. These are then used with the preset to determine the value of the drop or its item. Each material drop preset has a minimum and maximum value, and the value chosen is determined by the drop’s level. That chosen value is then multiplied according to the rarity, like so:
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// Check if the drop is an item capsule if (drop.preset.key == "item-capsule") { // If it is, attach an item to it drop.item = ItemFactory.item(level, faction, rarity); } else { // Otherwise set the drop's value var levelValue = normalize(level, minLevel, maxLevel, minDropValue, maxDropValue); drop.value = levelValue * rarity.dropValueMultiplier; } |
The chance for a drop to spawn after destroying an enemy or obstacle is based on the entity’s preset, with larger, more powerful enemies having a higher chance for a drop. The entity factory then picks a preset based on the chance each preset has to spawn, just like rarity, so the more valuable presets have a lower chance of getting picked.
Cashing In / Bounty
As for cashing in the drops, the player is presented with a drops menu option after the mission (if they completed the mission and picked up any drops). I did this because I thought it would be fun and satisfying for the player to reveal what they collected during the mission.
I also created a bounty system that works in the same way. Instead of instantly giving the player a reward for destroying an enemy or obstacle, I just add that value to the mission’s bounty. This allows the player to view their total reward at the end, which is more satisfying, but also prevents the player from keeping the money if they fail the mission.
Other Ideas
I also dabbled with letting the player shoot and destroy drops, which would make the player more careful of where they’re shooting. But this seemed too annoying for the player, especially since drops are created after blowing up enemies and obstacles.
It was also hard to decide how to convey a drop’s value to the player through its appearance. I tried using glows and outline sprites, but I eventually just tinted the drop according to its rarity.
As for the items, I initially had the player choose between equipping and discarding the item, but I figured they should be compensated for finding an item even if they didn’t want to use it. I also wanted the drop’s value to be consistent with other drops, so the player only gets a fraction (about 10%) of what they would pay to buy the drop from a vendor.