In Game Upgrade Costs #2

The best idea I have had in the last week was to plug in some numbers and try them.

WOW, duh!

My experience in making games tells me that I should do certain things. Like not bite off more than I can chew, and my intuition also tells me that I should probably not spread myself so thin mentally. Yet time and again I make the same mistakes, only usually I get over them faster each time. This was not one of those times. Still, here I am with new numbers plugged in.

What I got was information, some great stuff, like my powerups were coming in way too slowly, and also, that they were too powerful once bought. From this information I was easily able to go to the next step.

I broke down my powerups to give me more granularity. So for example I had two bullet sizes, now I have 3. Also I have rate of fire and damage, which now both sport 3 levels of upgrade. This allows me to sell more packages to a player which is more interesting, and also be able to balance the progression through the game better as each upgrade is not phenomenal. Cost wise it is great to make the bottom tier so low, but then ramp up the costs as the player really progresses. In the game the number of gems you can earn per level goes up with level as well to match.

I am still tweaking the new cost table I have created, but one more pass should see the peewee fire options and ancillary options set. Then I will move onto multiway fire I reckon. I will post the table once that part is stable. I also have the issue that although the game ramps up in difficulty really nicely, the ramp is simply too steep, and by level 11 it feels more like level 30 difficulty.. argh!

On a side note, I still do not have my 4th firepower type, though I do have several ideas I am not exactly happy with.

Laters
Da Voodoochief