Infiltrator Part 33 - Design Explanation #2

There are some pretty sweet updates and features brewing to talk about for the next session summary, but I want to throttle back and discuss the design a bit more before it gets stale. Or maybe it already is stale. Doesn't matter.

Last time we talked about the weapons, controls, and thesis of the game, so let's start off this time with an explanation of the enemies. I'll give you mission briefing style descriptions of them. I'm keeping things relatively simple so there will only be five enemies.

First, we have the Drone. The drone is the weakest and most foolish enemy. It just moves toward the player using pathfinding and fires it's yellow pulse cannon at regular intervals. It's puny shield level of 20 will get torn through rather easily, and it's pulse cannon only does 8 damage on impact. This enemy is weak in all fields.

The second enemy, the fighter, is a major upgrade. The fighter has a danger avoidance system which will attempt to stay out of the player's line of fire. The weapons are also no small amount more powerful, combining four laser cannons which fire together to create a powerful volley. Each laser cannon will only do 6 damage, but the combination of all four will do 24 total damage if totally absorbed. The shields are also upgraded to level 60, making this enemy a genuine threat, even if a small one.

Next is the Shredder, which is an undebatable pain to deal with, especially in groups. These enemies use complex AI programming which enables them to act unpredictable and use different tactics and strategies to destroy the player when they find it. This enemy is equipped with a rapid fire gatling gun, each bullet of which does 5 damage. Fortunately, the shields on a shredder max out at 120, which while not small isn't big either. All of these features combined make this enemy a high priority to take out when dealing with mixed enemy groups.

The fourth enemy, the heavy warrior(or just warrior for short,) is an entirely different can of worms. It's more of a turret with thrusters strapped on than a ship. This thing is slow as dirt but has huge shields and massive firepower, sporting dual missile launchers. Fortunately, a good circle strafer can probably toast a single one of these. In a big room. Alone. When warned first.

Last but certainly not least, we have the assault master. The assault master is as it sounds. Equipped with the same swarming homing missile system as the player and a railgun capable of piercing heavy armor and shields, the assault master can handle any situation. Granted the only situation it will ever need to be handle is that of assaulting the player, but it is well prepared. In contrast to the heavy warrior, this enemy is actually capable of moderate mobility. It also has a good amount of armor.

You may have noted that detailed numbers are not yet available for the warrior or assault master. This is because I only have a few numbers in mind that I won't commit to anything until I can see them in action. I will update this design with missing numbers once I solidate them. Hopefully the game designer in all of you enjoys these posts. ;)

    --LazerBlade