Mini-Boss Mechanics

Discussion in 'Mechanics' started by scaper12123, Jul 11, 2015.

?

Good Idea?

  1. Yes! Bosses need more mechanics!

    4 vote(s)
    66.7%
  2. Maybe. Bosses need to be better but not in this way

    2 vote(s)
    33.3%
  3. No! Bosses are fine as they are.

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. scaper12123

    scaper12123 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Many planets in the galaxy, especially high risk planets, tend to have mini-bosses that drop interesting weapons when killed. They're rather easy to defeat and have tactics no different than the normal mobs you see in the world. To remedy this, I suggest adding a variety of interesting mechanics that would be randomly assigned to these bosses as they are generated.

    Firstly, I suggest buffing their health significantly. A random encounter with these things should be something we either fear or look forward to, most of all the latter.

    Next, they need more mechanics to make them varied. I've come up with a few suggestions. Green ideas would occur on any world and red ideas would occur only on risky and above planets, most often on dangerous planets. Maybe you can tell where I got these ideas from.

    Suggested Boss Mechanics:
    • Suction: The mob creates a force of suction that pulls the player close to them. If the player is brought close, they deliver a very strong blow.
    • Agility: The mob is super fast and evasive. Will leap around the battleground between attacks.
    • Projectile shot: The boss shoots simple projectiles which have a variety of random effects. These could be homing, explosions, cause fire, slow the player, ect ect. For high risk worlds: The projectile would be thrown in an arc, and multiple of them could be fired at once. Implies harder to dodge.
    • Mob summoning: The boss calls on stronger versions of the natural mobs to attack the player.
    • Sky Attack: Only applies to flying bosses. The mob would fly over the player and blast a hard-hitting projectile down at them. For high risk worlds: Even harder hitting and repeated several times.
    • Two-Handed weapon: The boss has learned how to wield the two-handed melee weapon of an intelligent creature. It will use this to attack. For high risk worlds: The boss can also throw this weapon and retrieve it to cause damage.
    • Swift Charge: Like the normal charge, but instantaneous (like the FTL dash) and paralyzes the player momentarily. For high risk worlds: These mobs would also have boss mechanics, albeit weaker than the boss itself.
    • Tunneling: Boss digs into the ground and emerges in a different spot a few moments later. It may or may not be directly under the player's feet or on a spot the player may be standing a few seconds later. For high risk worlds: The mob would leap into the air upon resurfacing and fire projectiles at the player before crashing directly into the earth and tunneling again.
    • Levitation: Mobs that normally would be grounded would have some means of levitating without flight. Allows them to peruse the player without fail For high risk worlds: These mobs would also try and avoid the player during the fight, levitating away from them whenever they got too close. They would never be faster than the player but would have to be chased down or shot from a distance.
    • Throwing weapons: The mob would possess some form of weapon which could be thrown and retrieved. This would cause significant damage. For high risk worlds: The weapons would be like boomerangs, flying at the player and then circling around to return to the mob.
    • Paralyzing Leap: The mob would leap into the air and attempt to stomp on the player twice. On the third attempt, they would jump super high into the air and their resulting impact would slow down any players on the ground as well as preventing jumping. For high risk worlds: Failing to avoid this attack would render the player unable to move for much longer, or until they took damage.
    • Projectile rain: The boss shoots a large amount of projectiles into the air that fall slowly onto the battlefield as the fight progresses. For high risk worlds: The projectiles would fall faster and have more difficult-to-avoid falling patterns.
    • Teleporting: Using technology stolen from and adapted to by intelligent races, the mob would teleport around the arena. For high risk worlds: The mob would make a very strong attack just before or just after teleporting.
    • Baby mob: Players must be careful when first exploring a world. Killing a passive boss baby mob would summon a tremendously powerful parent, perhaps two. Suitable scenario for preparing an arena beforehand. For high risk worlds: The baby mob would be able to fight when attacked, as much health as its parent, and could deal a third of the damage its parent could give.
    • Swift dash: The Boss makes short, quick dashes towards the player. The idea would be to try and trap the player between repetitive attacks back and forth and cause massive damage.
    • Earth throw: The Boss stomps the ground and makes rock projectiles come up, then it throws them at the player. This repeats several times.
    • Molten surge: The mob attaches itself to the ground and causes molten lava to spew up around the battlefield, often under the player.
    • Water Weaving: Only applies for bosses in the water in ocean planets. The mob would move haphazardly around the player few times before charging straight through them.
    • Bomb throw: Using weapons stolen from intelligent races, the mob would attack using explosives. Much more impact than simple projectiles.
    • Bomb placement: The mob plants a bomb on the ground which will go off as a result of being attacked. The player can attack this to set it off remotely, but the mob's attacks will also set it off. The bombs can damage the mob itself, but only just slightly.
    • Thunder surge: The mob is struck by lightning, and then shoots an arc of lightning at the player. High damaging and paralyzes.
    • Meteor strike: Somehow (probably because "screw the player, we want them to hurt"), the mob causes meteors to fall.
    • Spike smash: The boss leaps into the air and decends on the player, similar to a normal slam. However, their impact forms spikes in the ground that cause the player continuous damage while standing on top of.
    • AoE summon: Using technology stolen from an intelligent creature, the boss will summon an object that causes a continuous AoE damage effect around it.

    You can probably tell I wrote these for the express purpose of screwing the player over with a broomstick, but in many ways that's the point of a boss and having to deal with two or three of these mechanics in a fight would be interesting. Plus having a large number of them and randomly assigning the abilities would allow for variety. What worked for one mob using a particular mechanic might not work the same for another mob still using the same mechanic.

    The other suggestion I have in regards to this is making a sort of arena for the mini-boss mobs. Fighting on uneven terrain is rather annoying in my opinion, for both me and the boss mob. Perhaps have a system where the camera zooms out and pans to center in on an arena for the boss fight, returning to normal zoom and view upon leaving the arena or defeating the boss.

    Lastly, I would suggest defeating a boss rewarding a weapon that allows for the player to use one of these mechanics.

    Please, tell me your thoughts and suggest more things!
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2015
    STCW262, illuminati168 and Bryancf like this.
  2. Bryancf

    Bryancf Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I totally agree with the changes for mini bosses (except for the arena thing), I think they're too easy right now. Maybe they should also have some way of breaking blocks, so players don't create a "fortress" of blocks around them and kill the bosses without any risk..
     
    illuminati168 likes this.
  3. illuminati168

    illuminati168 Aquatic Astronaut

    (before reading) holy shit thats a lot of words.

    (after reading) holy shit thats a lot of words.

    I think some of the mechanics would be too OP, like the baby having as much health as the boss; perhaps instead of this 1/3 of health and 1/3 of damage

    The summoned mobs would be of similar aesthetic design to the boss itself, and be as powerful as normal mobs. To support this, one of the random species would be the similarly designed boss thing...
     
  4. scaper12123

    scaper12123 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Well maybe not necesssarily an arena, but at least a flat plot of land on which they spawn and wander about. I just get so annoyed fighting powerful mobs on awkward, uneven terrain. Woudl prevent the mob for getting itself stuck in a cave, as well.

    Block breaking might be a good idea but they would need a surface of blocks they couldn't break so that, somehow, they wouldn't end up breaking blocks down into a lava pit.
     
  5. scaper12123

    scaper12123 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Well, the idea is for these bosses to have more OP abilities. It would take some balancing but the idea would be to add a learning curve to the random encounters you'd have on various planets. A boss should be something that tests you, in some cases very hard.

    That being said, these are just suggestions. A few examples to peek a dev's interest. Certainly not saying these ideas should be set in stone. If anything, I'm indicating how big a variety of abilities could be created for randomly assigning to monsters.
     
  6. illuminati168

    illuminati168 Aquatic Astronaut

    Yeah I agree that they are way too underpowered I can one shot them right now.

    In which case, this thread is an amazing idea thank you for making it :)
     
  7. scaper12123

    scaper12123 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Of course! I do my best to share ideas if I think they're nice enough to be shared. uwu
     
  8. LOL BALL

    LOL BALL Existential Complex

    It's funny how every boss is super easy to defeat except for the first one...
     
    scaper12123 likes this.
  9. scaper12123

    scaper12123 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    The big reason why I liked Dreadwing was how handy my shield became. I had to protect myself against both Dreadwing and his militia. It was really cool slowly edging my way towards the enemy troops as they constantly hammered me, then to tear them apart with my sword. Dreadwing himself was a challenge. Lucky for me I had an awesome rocket launcher by that point in the game.
     
    LOL BALL likes this.
  10. illuminati168

    illuminati168 Aquatic Astronaut

    Was I supposed to use my shield? I pretty much did suicide missions without the suicide. No shield needed?
     
  11. scaper12123

    scaper12123 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I don't know about you, but having a shield to guard against the onslaught of gunshots helped significantly.
     

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