I think it’s time for a huge mechanic change, don’t you?
I’ve been thinking about how the game plays and I haven’t been very satisfied, so I thought about it a while and decided to simplify some things. When I introduced the different ships, it made my job a lot more complicated because each ship has different speed multipliers, which makes balance a huge pain – the movement has never felt quite right. Also, the speed levels usually felt too slow or too fast – there was never the “just right” feeling. And now that the giant explosion is in there, I have a few new options for gameplay and decided I’d try something new.
Here’s a list of the mechanic changes in this version:
- The only way to die in this version is for the explosion to catch up to you.
- Health is disabled. (It shows up, you just don’t lose any health.)
- You start the game at what used to be speed 3.
- You speed up a bit each level. At level 10, you’re moving at what used to be speed 5.
- When you’re hit, you drop to what used to be speed 2 for about a second, then return to full speed.
- When you’re hit, the explosion gains on you.
- When you pick up a booster, you increase your distance from the explosion.
- Each level increases a multiplier applied to the explosion’s speed. There’s currently no maximum speed for the explosion. The multiplier increases by 10% of the base speed each level, so at level 10, the effect is doubled, and at level 20 it’s tripled.
- Each level decreases a multiplier applied to your boost speed. Your boost speed decreases by 5% of your base speed each level. The minimum is 10% of the full effect at level 18.
There are a lot of things that will change as I figure out how to balance everything again. In the end, each ship’s speed stat will determine their base speed. Faster ships will be easier to play because they’ll get a bigger boost from each booster. I don’t know if health will return. I think having health and this new boost mechanic conflict with each other, so it’s likely health will disappear entirely. If that happens, several of the mutators will have to change, but I’ve already got ideas on how to modify them to make them work again. (I didn’t bother making any changes to them in this version.)
And here it is: Tunnel Racer v25a