Enemies and Player Tension

-- NOTE: To be formatted

Tension?

Giving players new ways to engage with the world and take actions serves to give them new agency in their environment. Player progression is our main way of accomplishing one of the pillars of design. We give the players choice and options, while allowing them to see it's effects on world.

Overview

"Progression" in this case means quite a lot, in this case because it is a fairly large and complex system Both seen and hidden systems exist here to build out a diverse progression system. Some elements of this system have only a few visual representation in-game, yet are a core part of how things are built internally This is to ensure that the systems built, and content inside of it, are cohesive and complimentary.

Bosses, Waves, Variants, Expansions, Raids

Bosses

Bosses are named specific enemies that are difficulty to fight, drop specific gear, and may contain special mechanics. These will have some special progression mechanics included, such as rare materials and artifact unlocks. They will also drop named items or gear. Certain boss types will begin spawns at higher tiers, and each bosses can scale partially in and out of certain tiers

Base Busters

Base destroying bosses, strong against turrets and weak against players. These enemies are better defended by player characters, rather then typical base set-ups. Core boss type that spawns, no specialized mechanics beyond their resistances and health.

Assassins

Assassins are fast moving bosses that specifically target the player, although they are countered by strong basses and turrets. They focus on speed over health and their ai is heavily focused on players.

Summoners

Summoners are the first higher tier type of boss, signalling the start of the mid-game. These bosses will spawn other enemies and hordes to support them in fights against the players. These should server as a large power spike initially.

Spawners

Spawners are an end-game boss type that works in a very different way from normal bosses. They are enemy spawners, meaning they do not move at any point. They will however spawn vast amounts of enemies and relentlessly attack the player until killed. Their scale increases over time, and if not contained, they will either break the player or break the game.

World Bosses

World bosses utilize the same types of core bosses from before. Instead of spawning on specific triggers or shrines, they just exist out in the world.

Boss Mechanics

Mechanics can refer to almost anything related to boss logic and interactions. Mostly, this is to cover the broad combat capabilities and interactions available to different bosses. It is important to categorize and list these out, so we can ensure there is a clean introduction and progression between a bosses and their mechanics. Early bosses will focus on few mechanics to showcase their interaction and provide the player with practice. Later bosses will combine many mechanics to increase complexity and difficulty in a more interesting way.

Mechanic Introduction -> Difficult version -> Combination with others

Hives

The least complex mechanic, and the one least tied to progression overall. Hives tied to a boss will spawn when they spawn(in most cases). This is a good way to add more chaos, enemies, and targets to deal with. This also allows for more control in the overall difficulty, loot dropped, exp gained, etc... from an encounter. Hives can be considered(or are) bosses on their own, so they may layer even more complexity to the fight than simply enemy spawns.

Minions

These are a list of enemies that spawn with the boss. Their ai commands are tied to the parent boss. These can create an initial horde, or group of enemies, that change the initial interaction of the fight. Where a hive may provide more sustained interactions, minions provide a burst adjustment that heavily impacts the early part of the fight.

Specials

These are specialized attacks based on a script trigger. They are defined on a per boss basis, but it provides you with the flexibility to run any script on attack/reaction/etc... These are grouped together here, as they are not traditionally created like other actions. All special boss mechanics can be modified based on the script written for it. Shifts/rotation adjustments, health % requirements, etc... can be used to filter when it is used.

Bi/Tri/Quad Attack

A multi directional attack from the center of the boss. This creates a zone of attacks and projectiles that are not as directly aimed at the player.

Bullet Hell

These are less intentional and less specific attacks similar to the bi/tri/quad attacks. Creating large groups of slow moving projectiles to simulate a bullet hell game. For a more intentional mechanic, I recommend using a special attack. These may be unavoidable and inconsistent, so they're better for low consequence attacks.

Smokes

By generating smokes we can create pretty variable aoe attacks. These can be done in 2 core ways, directly on the player, or clusters in front of the boss. These create strong areas of denial, or strong areas of ally support for the boss.

Summon

This basically turns the boss into a mobile hive. Ai of the spawned enemies is shared with the boss. Ai can be spawned at high intervals, and any unit can be spawned as needed. They can still spawn with hives and all the other typical mechanics. Leads to a very add heavy engagement that requires dealing with many moving/attacking entities.

Stickers

Although mostly intended as decoration, you could use the sticker system to provide the bosses with some additional interaction. For example, a smoke that follows the boss around and when you walk inside it hurts you.

Waves

Patrols

Player targeted waves of enemies that spawn near the player and head towards them. Standard sets of enemies, with slight variations. Difficulty adjusted vaguely on tiers.

Start at tier 1

Invasions

Similar to patrols but intends to attack player bases, not really the player. Slightly larger in scale, more difficult, and scale closer with tiers.

Start at tier 2

Hordes

Large and extreme spawn of enemies that are target towards the player and spawn a good distance away. These are medium->end-game spawns that should be a decent difficulty spike. Scales heavily with tiers.

Start at tier 4

Variants

Variants are simple variations of existing enemies with slight alterations and visual changes... We may define some unique mechanics here if needed, but for now they serve to add diversity to encounters.

Expansion

Raids

Raids are end game content that serves as a long term goal and challenge for those who have completed the core game.

Art and Sounds

Art

Currently custom art is limited, so the main focus is utilizing every tool we have to help better integrate varied art styles into factorio.

Smokes and particles can allow us to help ease the look and visuals of imported assets. Smoke helps cover animations and positions of specific elements on enemies. Particles can be useful to help integrate attack animations. Color grading and tinting objects can also help things look less out of places, so they don't stand out as much.

This section will need to be updated if art in factorio's style is available to implement.

We also try to utilize existing art to create new enemies, but we've avoided overdoing this. Creating too many variations of a single entity will take away from the experience, more so then clashing art styles(if done properly).

Sounds

Sound design for enemies is broken down into a few core categories. The design goal for audio was to help fulfill the idea of tension. We cannot rely on music directly, so we must do a good job of providing new enemies with a dynamic range of audio.

"Auras"

The design idea here comes from dead by daylight, by having each enemy utilize a unique music/audio track based on distance to the player. It is critical that these are horror inspired and the range on audio is pretty high. This helps provide the player with information on where enemies are, how close they are, and what could be happening.

Running

Each enemy should have a chaotic running sound, which help layer with the aura, and with other audios happening during combat. This helps scale tension over time if done correctly. A player hears the aura first, and as the enemy moves, sounds become louder and more chaotic, until they reach/see the player.

Attacking

Simplest of the audio formats, this is more just an indicator to the player that something has happened. This can help the player track attack rate, damage output, and scale. This is combined with attack animations, ammo_type sounds, and particles, to help make things readable and predictable.

Projectiles

Enemy projectiles overlap with the broader design principles of all projectiles. So their personal attacks and projectiles will have audio/visual triggers to help track what is happening to the player. This also serves to add more chaos as things layer together.