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f13.net General Forums => Game Design/Development => Topic started by: Vaiti on September 27, 2011, 01:19:19 AM



Title: Experience points in a Cannon Fodder like game
Post by: Vaiti on September 27, 2011, 01:19:19 AM
So my current company is working on a Cannon Fodder like game for iOS.

We have a base squad of 5 soilders and have capped their levels a 9.
There are 25 missions total planned so far.

We're playing around with different ideas at the moment for how levels/experience should be allocated. Should it be per kill divided among the entire squad? Should it be mission based and a static value? A hybrid of the two? It's a Cannon Fodder games, so we don't really think any one solider should last more than perhaps 5 missions. We don't want the lax level to be too easy to achieve either.

Way I'm seeing it, if theoretically all 5 of your soilders somehow survive to the end of a mission, they shouldn't have enough experience (or just enough) to level.
That way if only 1 guy makes it to the end, he isn't magically level 5 with everyone else level 1 in the next mission.


Title: Re: Experience points in a Cannon Fodder like game
Post by: Stabs on September 28, 2011, 04:59:17 PM
One of the high water marks of squad-based experience gain was Xcom. I'm thinking of the first one particularly. It was quite similar in that it was unusual for a soldier to survive 5 missions.

I definitely found as a player it was valuable that the game differentiated between individual squad members. So I felt an attachment to a particular squad member who had survived several missions, had got some key kills and I had an almost superstitious sense that the soldier was lucky.

They also had names, genders, ranks and appearances so it was easier to relate them to fictitious hero. I remember when one female soldier with a hispanic name did well that I started to conflate her with Vasquez from Aliens.

So I think there's some psychological value in individualising squad members even if there's high attrition. I think players are very likely to construct attachments to squad members if they see them as people, as individuals.


Title: Re: Experience points in a Cannon Fodder like game
Post by: jasonjackup on July 12, 2012, 06:11:19 AM
My company has also made same kind of game, Cannon bubble. It has 60 level game play, all are tough enough to grab your addiction.
Superb graphics with awesome game play concept. You can get it from blackberry apps world.


Title: Re: Experience points in a Cannon Fodder like game
Post by: Xuri on July 12, 2012, 06:37:08 AM
Yay, spam.

In the original Cannon Fodder - I started over if I ever lost Jools or Jops in anything less than an epic death :P
Also, in X-ComUFO: Enemy Unknown I would get attached to certain characters and do a time-consuming Save/Load-routine every time those special characters would perish.  :oops:

Edit: DOH! I didn't see the date on the original posts ahead of the spam-post. I failed. :facepalm:


Title: Re: Experience points in a Cannon Fodder like game
Post by: schild on August 23, 2012, 03:08:53 PM
Why do you have levels in a Cannon Fodder like game anyway? I loved Cannon Fodder, but units are meant to be expendable. Gaining levels means getting attached, getting attached means permadeath is bad.


Title: Re: Experience points in a Cannon Fodder like game
Post by: MediumHigh on August 26, 2012, 01:54:40 PM
Why do you have levels in a Cannon Fodder like game anyway? I loved Cannon Fodder, but units are meant to be expendable. Gaining levels means getting attached, getting attached means permadeath is bad.

Levels aren't bad cause it encourages actually playing a tad tactically instead of ramming your head at the problem over and over again. Which means that difficulty can actually be pretty high instead of low. Well that's me theocrafting.


Title: Re: Experience points in a Cannon Fodder like game
Post by: Vaiti on November 11, 2012, 04:41:26 AM
Why do you have levels in a Cannon Fodder like game anyway? I loved Cannon Fodder, but units are meant to be expendable. Gaining levels means getting attached, getting attached means permadeath is bad.

I'm freaking slow with responses. Trying to get back to posting and reading these forums more regularly.
The levels are meant to be more like ranks from Cannon Fodder. But between you and me? I agree personally. It doesn't have the same feel, and our biggest complaint from players tends to be frustration over perma-death.

There have been some tweaks to the way we handle things to try and make that death not feel so impactful to the point you want to quit the game, but not sure we did enough.