I thought that after not posting here for a very long time, I'd thought post some ideas that could come in handy for the next Plazma Burst title.
Now, I do realise that some of you might not like those suggested ideas, therefore those idea flavours could be optionable (Enable/Disable) in the level editor or as an some sort of custom difficulty level setting for those who want the more classical Plazma Burst gameplay.
Melee Combat
Now, obviously I'm not asking for more realism, but I'd thought that it could be good to suggest some flavours that could enchance the melee combat in terms of gameplay and graphicaly, because personaly, I feel like that the melee combat currently just feels weak and underdeveloped.
Now to my melee combat idea, my suggestion is to make it a combo based combat, like in Elsword or Kurtzpel, but obviously only for the melee combat aspect of the game.
This is how I'd imagine the melee combat in Plazma Burst 2.5:
You will get 2 sword blocking abilites and 2 sword slice attack types. You should be able to execute an sword melee attack by pushing a keyboard button even if you wield a gun in your hands, so switching to swords should not be required (Unless you want to specialised melee attacks or self-boosting...)
When melee'ing another player (Or NPC if you play singleplayer), it's character would be stunned for a half second, he would be unable to make any attack/movement action during the stun effect, however if it has pretty good situational skills, the enemy could be able to pull his sword (Melee) attack or to block your attacks.
Blocking with swords will able to block a few amount of enemy shots (Reflect) or block a few enemy sword damage. That means your sword blocking ability is not infinite.
* Regular Melee attack
Regular sword attack, for quick melee attack.
* Heavy Melee attack
A more heavier (not in terms of damage), slower paced attack, usualy used to break enemy sword/shield blocking.
* Melee Block
Regular stable melee block, allows to reflect enemy shots and block enemy melee attack.
* Portable energy shield
A more heavier, less stable (Less attacks required to disable it) melee block, usualy used to block heavier projectile shots like rockets, plasma balls, does not block Railguns, Ray-rifle or Ray-gun shots, also ineffective for blocking melee attacks.
Also, executing those melee attacks in slow motion (Singleplayer) should be at the same speed as when in non slow motion.
Armor
Not to be confused with Portable energy shield.
Basicaly another Health bar, but just named Shield or Armor instead.
It may be useless to suggest such idea, but it could be used for particular settings;
Example you can make in the map editor that only your Armor/Shield will regenerate, but your health will not, or vise-versa. Obviously you can enable/disable this feature if you dont want your characters to have a second armor bar. You can also give it your own name.
It could be epic also to regulate in the map editor what projectile types the armor could be effective/ineffective at blocking, for each character ofcourse which will allow to create different classes of characters/enemies.
Items/tools
An non-weapon equipment type that the player can equip and use it.
For now my ideas for tools are this;
* Grapple hook
Self-explanatory. I'm sure you know what to use it for.
* Riot Shield
Equiped on your back when you are not wielding it, blocks damage from your back (Like in battlefield Hardline), you could use it to block frontal attacks, but you will be unable to use your weapons (Melee including). It also can be destroyed after many shots obviously.