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Ship Variants and Upgrade Mechanic

Ways to incorporate ship variants as a mechanic

Ships can be incorporated in the following different ways -

  1. Idea 1 - Merely skins with no additional effects.
  2. Idea 2 - Different advantages / disadvantages depending on which one is equiped.
  3. Idea 3 - Just one ship which players can keep upgrading with materials to give themselves new advantages for later levels. At every upgrade the ship looks a bit different compared to the previous variant.
  4. Idea 4 - Similar to Idea 3, players have just one ship but they can pick and chose which features they want to add to their ship similar to how players chose where they want spend experience points in a role playing game. This would add variation and let players try upgrading their ships in different ways in different playthroughs.

Idea 1 -

Mockup of how the ships could be presented if they are just skins with nothing special about them -

Mockup which shows how the player may purchase a locked ship (by tapping on the locked ship they will receive a confirmation of purchase message depending on if they have sufficient materials) -

Mockup which shows the players attempting to purchase the same ship without sufficient materials to do so -

Ship Variants (Idea 2)

Different Ship Types

1. Default (DXX3-430M)

No special attributes.

Mockup of how this version of the feature could look like in the crafting menu (more ships can be viewed by scrolling similar to how more powerups can be viewed in the window by scrolling) -

2. Heat type 1 (BXRN-100)

Increases the range of fire type powerups by 50%.

3. Shield type 1 (BAR3-490)

Increases duration of shield type powerups by 30%.

4. Cold type 1 (FR0ZA-320)

Increases duration obstacles are frozen by 30%.

5. Cold type 2 (1CE-201)

Increases duration obstacles are slowed down by 50%.

6. Water type 1 (FL00D-999)

Increases pushback from water type attacks such as the Spacial Ocean powerup by 40%.

7. Light type 1 (RAY-101)

Default projectiles from ship have a 10% chance of piercing obstacles and hitting the obstacle behind them.

8. Heat type 2 (MAGM4-500)

Every 10th default projectiles from the ship will cause obstacles of any type to explode and destroy nearby obstacles as well.

The downside of this ship is that if players accidentally shoot something very close to the ship it will cause a loss of life due to the explosion being near the player.

9. Cold type 3 (1C!-896)

Default projectiles from ship have a 10% chance of leaving frost field area after destroying an obstacle which causes incoming obstacles to be slowed down in that area.

10. Shield type 2 (BL0CK-001)

Gives the player 1 extra life once per round when they use a shield type powerup.

11. Cold type 4 (FR0S-324)

Once per round, if the player has successfully destroyed 5 cryogenic obstacles, the next time they should lose a life all obstacles are frozen for 10 seconds instead.

12. Heat type 3 (HE4T-765)

Once per round, if the player has destroyed 3 vulcanian obstacles, the next time they should lose a life a small explosion occurs near them destroying nearby obstacles.

Note - Was wondering if slowdown related effects should be given to a different material type such as "Gravity" or "Tar" and "Ice" related effects could only inlude freezing of obstacles.

Similarly thought something that pierces through multiple obstacles or barriers could be in the "Light" or "Metal" material family.

Ship upgrade progression (Idea 3)

An example of what the progression for the ship's features could upgrade as -

  1. Players start with the default ship.
  2. Shield type powerups have an increased duration by 5%.
  3. Default projectiles from ship have a 3% chance of piercing obstacles and hitting the obstacle behind them.
  4. Getting a streak of typing 10 words correctly gives players a 5% chance to gain a life back.
  5. Increases duration obstacles are slowed down by any attack/powerup by 5%.
  6. Players max lives available increase to 4 from base value of 3.
  7. Increases pushback from water type attacks such as the Spacial Ocean powerup by 5%.
  8. Increases duration obstacles are frozen by 5%, etc.

Beyond this the next 7 upgrades could be similar to upgrades 2 to 8 but with better values.

Sample progression of what upgrades 9 to 15 would look like -

  1. Shield type powerups have an increased duration by 10%.
  2. Default projectiles from ship have a 5% chance of piercing obstacles and hitting the obstacle behind them.
  3. Getting a streak of typing 10 words correctly gives players a 7% chance to gain a life back.
  4. Increases duration obstacles are slowed down by any attack/powerup by 8%.
  5. Players max lives available increase to 5 from base value of 4.
  6. Increases pushback from water type attacks such as the Spacial Ocean powerup by 8%.
  7. Increases duration obstacles are frozen by 10%, etc.

Mockup of what the screen for Idea 3 could look like -

Above mockup shows current ship and what the next upgrade would look like along with cost information and upgraded game stats on the right side.

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