Posted January 16, 2018
Hi devs,
After having finished Vaporum on brutal difficulty with a dozen builds I think you could (if that's possible, obviously) make some improvements to the game to make it more challenging and increase its replayability, like for example...
1) make the items and/or puzzles more random. For example, the crates puzzle in level 3 (the room where you retrieve the golden key), you could rearrange the objects in that room so that whenever a NEW GAME is started a different arrangement of the crates is randomly generated from a collection of... I don't know... 50-100 different arrangements. Being the isolated room it is I don't think it will cause too much problems in the overall coding of the game, and it will help immensely with the randomizing aspect of the game, because each time a new game starts a new puzzle is generated on the spot, so that the (poor soul of the) player will have to waste another 20-30 minutes on that puzzle alone :D
Now, making only this modification to the game will probably draw more hate towards it then enjoyment, as players will want to get over this puzzle ASAP so they can finish the game. BUT... with many other small changes like I'll mention below the experience will be almost completely new for each game, and it will feel like we are actually playing a different Vaporum game. Think about it! If you only make 1-2 random events per level + random items in the secret areas we get a totally new feel of the game.
Also, the traps room in level 8 (the one where you have to step on the tile that is being illuminated in order to move on to the next illuminated tile)... again, you could rebuild this puzzle so that each time a new game starts a different set of illuminated tiles will be chosen from a preset collection of 50-100 possible combinations (or whatever number you feel is good for the enjoyment of the game). This randomizing of the puzzles might not work well for level 11 (the traps puzzle that lead to Rike's room, although it would be great to random those, too, as well), but there are some puzzles in this game (most tiles puzzles for example) that could be improved by randomizing them. For example, the traps room in level 8 like I said, also the the crates puzzle in level 3, also the tiles puzzle in level... um... I forgot the level, but it's the puzzle in the room where you find the Unity shield. Anyway, you get the idea: all of the tiles, traps, and crates puzzles that can be randomized should be randomized to increase the replayability of the game. That's one thing...
The second thing... the regens (repair kits + energy vials) are too many. I mean, even on brutal difficulty I end up with 30 repair kits and over 15 energy vials if I use the heavy rig. And the thing is that after I beat Lora I still usually have 10-15 repair kits left. Of the 20-30 times that I've played on brutal so far I think only once I had left with only 8 repair kits, but that was once. The more I play the less repair kits I use in the game. Ok, the energy vials are used fully all the time, but even so there are many of them. You should probably re-think the difficulty levels and make it so that on brutal you never find more than 10-12 repair kits in the entire game, and like 5-6 energy vials, and even those only if you are lucky (remember the randomizing aspect of the game). That will make the game really brutal, which is what the purpose of the difficulty should be anyway :)
Third thing (still related to difficulty levels, though)... something else you could do to make the game more difficult is to condition the happening of various events based on the player's stats. For example... a player who moves lots of time, takes little damage, hits the F9 key rarely, doesn't use repair kits and/or energy vials, and plays on brutal difficulty is obviously a good player, or someone who has mastered the game. You could mix and match these things in such a way that a player with these stats will rarely (like 10% of the time) find something in the chests (apart from the notes, phonodiaries, bullets, and gadgets obviously), and/or in secret areas. That way, on brutal difficulty people will really really REALLY have to think their actions twice before making a movement or a hit, or whatever. If they know they will have to fight Lora with 5 repair kits only, 2 gadget slots, 4 energy vials and having the exo-rig at level 13 when they enter the battle they will be more careful with their fights, equipment, saves, and everything else. To make it even more brutal, limit the number of slots in their inventory, so that on brutal difficulty your inventory slots are only 50% of what you'd get on casual difficulty. Furthermore, you could also condition the equiping of weapons based on the circuits they have. You want to use handguns? You better put a point in handguns. I noticed that each time I finish the game my inventory consists of the same items that I like but never use cause I'm limited to only having 19 CPs. So, what's the point of carrying all those items if I never use them, apart from wanting to have them in my inventory. I know that I could simply not carry them with me throught the game if I know I'm not gonna use them, but... it will be better if I am being forced into using maximum 2 types of weapons the entire game. It's a small thing to do, but - when combined with all other elements that I mentioned - it will make the game much more difficult and replayable.
Fourth thing... make it so that, regardless of difficulty, there is a chance that we get 1 or 2 circuits fuses randomly throughout the game. It will be nice to get the chance to randomly uncover 1-2 bonus circuit fuses (the blue tubes that give CPs) in every new game we start (again, regardless of the difficulty we play). For example, at levels 5 and 9 (or whichever levels you choose) we have a 30% chance of finding a circuit fuse in one of the secret areas. These small, but important bonuses will bring a lot of enjoyment to the gameplay, especially on brutal difficulty where negatives are too many anyway.
Hmm... I had more things to say but I forgot them lol... I'll post them as soon as I remember. These are enough for now, for a future update, or... why not... for a Vaporum 2 game? :)
Cheers!
After having finished Vaporum on brutal difficulty with a dozen builds I think you could (if that's possible, obviously) make some improvements to the game to make it more challenging and increase its replayability, like for example...
1) make the items and/or puzzles more random. For example, the crates puzzle in level 3 (the room where you retrieve the golden key), you could rearrange the objects in that room so that whenever a NEW GAME is started a different arrangement of the crates is randomly generated from a collection of... I don't know... 50-100 different arrangements. Being the isolated room it is I don't think it will cause too much problems in the overall coding of the game, and it will help immensely with the randomizing aspect of the game, because each time a new game starts a new puzzle is generated on the spot, so that the (poor soul of the) player will have to waste another 20-30 minutes on that puzzle alone :D
Now, making only this modification to the game will probably draw more hate towards it then enjoyment, as players will want to get over this puzzle ASAP so they can finish the game. BUT... with many other small changes like I'll mention below the experience will be almost completely new for each game, and it will feel like we are actually playing a different Vaporum game. Think about it! If you only make 1-2 random events per level + random items in the secret areas we get a totally new feel of the game.
Also, the traps room in level 8 (the one where you have to step on the tile that is being illuminated in order to move on to the next illuminated tile)... again, you could rebuild this puzzle so that each time a new game starts a different set of illuminated tiles will be chosen from a preset collection of 50-100 possible combinations (or whatever number you feel is good for the enjoyment of the game). This randomizing of the puzzles might not work well for level 11 (the traps puzzle that lead to Rike's room, although it would be great to random those, too, as well), but there are some puzzles in this game (most tiles puzzles for example) that could be improved by randomizing them. For example, the traps room in level 8 like I said, also the the crates puzzle in level 3, also the tiles puzzle in level... um... I forgot the level, but it's the puzzle in the room where you find the Unity shield. Anyway, you get the idea: all of the tiles, traps, and crates puzzles that can be randomized should be randomized to increase the replayability of the game. That's one thing...
The second thing... the regens (repair kits + energy vials) are too many. I mean, even on brutal difficulty I end up with 30 repair kits and over 15 energy vials if I use the heavy rig. And the thing is that after I beat Lora I still usually have 10-15 repair kits left. Of the 20-30 times that I've played on brutal so far I think only once I had left with only 8 repair kits, but that was once. The more I play the less repair kits I use in the game. Ok, the energy vials are used fully all the time, but even so there are many of them. You should probably re-think the difficulty levels and make it so that on brutal you never find more than 10-12 repair kits in the entire game, and like 5-6 energy vials, and even those only if you are lucky (remember the randomizing aspect of the game). That will make the game really brutal, which is what the purpose of the difficulty should be anyway :)
Third thing (still related to difficulty levels, though)... something else you could do to make the game more difficult is to condition the happening of various events based on the player's stats. For example... a player who moves lots of time, takes little damage, hits the F9 key rarely, doesn't use repair kits and/or energy vials, and plays on brutal difficulty is obviously a good player, or someone who has mastered the game. You could mix and match these things in such a way that a player with these stats will rarely (like 10% of the time) find something in the chests (apart from the notes, phonodiaries, bullets, and gadgets obviously), and/or in secret areas. That way, on brutal difficulty people will really really REALLY have to think their actions twice before making a movement or a hit, or whatever. If they know they will have to fight Lora with 5 repair kits only, 2 gadget slots, 4 energy vials and having the exo-rig at level 13 when they enter the battle they will be more careful with their fights, equipment, saves, and everything else. To make it even more brutal, limit the number of slots in their inventory, so that on brutal difficulty your inventory slots are only 50% of what you'd get on casual difficulty. Furthermore, you could also condition the equiping of weapons based on the circuits they have. You want to use handguns? You better put a point in handguns. I noticed that each time I finish the game my inventory consists of the same items that I like but never use cause I'm limited to only having 19 CPs. So, what's the point of carrying all those items if I never use them, apart from wanting to have them in my inventory. I know that I could simply not carry them with me throught the game if I know I'm not gonna use them, but... it will be better if I am being forced into using maximum 2 types of weapons the entire game. It's a small thing to do, but - when combined with all other elements that I mentioned - it will make the game much more difficult and replayable.
Fourth thing... make it so that, regardless of difficulty, there is a chance that we get 1 or 2 circuits fuses randomly throughout the game. It will be nice to get the chance to randomly uncover 1-2 bonus circuit fuses (the blue tubes that give CPs) in every new game we start (again, regardless of the difficulty we play). For example, at levels 5 and 9 (or whichever levels you choose) we have a 30% chance of finding a circuit fuse in one of the secret areas. These small, but important bonuses will bring a lot of enjoyment to the gameplay, especially on brutal difficulty where negatives are too many anyway.
Hmm... I had more things to say but I forgot them lol... I'll post them as soon as I remember. These are enough for now, for a future update, or... why not... for a Vaporum 2 game? :)
Cheers!