View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0010467 | Valley 2 | Gameplay - General Complaint | Jan 25, 2013 1:44 pm | Jan 25, 2013 1:58 pm | |
| Reporter | Dash275 | Assigned To | |||
| Status | considering | Resolution | open | ||
| Summary | 0010467: It is not apparent enough you are being damaged, and damage is hard to avoid after being damaged. | ||||
| Description | I'm liking how the game is coming together, but the platforming is still suffering from Sonic 1 syndrome, in that you are never given much chance to "learn" you are being damaged. In Sonic 1, you had no invulnerability period between damages, so if you stood on top of a spike set you would die the moment after your rings dropped. I suppose back then the Sonic Team thought it was thematic to do so, but it was highly problematic for when you were in situations where you accidentally got yourself into a situation where you would be damaged repeatedly, since some levels had places you could fall off into these spike sets. While you could get out of them before dying, it was usually pretty hard to do so. Sonic 2 introduced the blink period that gives you a quarter of a second to react when you take damage. Valley 2 not only suffers from this because if you are being damaged you risk taking lots of it, there is no apparent sign you are being damaged if you are. Most of the time in platformers, I am not looking at myself, so me looking back at myself to see the damage numbers I'm taking is rare, and thus I get steamrolled many times because I keep assuming I'm doing fine, but really my health is approaching zero very quickly. Platformers usually avoid this problem of not knowing when you'll die by making sounds when you take damage or are close to death. Even if Sonic 1 had a problem where your death was made too certain, you at least got a terrific money bag drop sound when you did get hit, so you could at least look back and assess the situation you've gotten into. Some platformers go even further and have a Zelda alarm bell (singular or constant ring) if your health approaches zero or you are in great danger of dying. Some go really far and do what modern FPS's do: Put visual cues that alter the entire screen enough to alert you, such as red screen edges. If there is a damage sound for the player in this game, either it's too quiet or it's not noticeable enough, because there have been times I've marched over yards of spiky grass and later wondered why I lost three hearts. In short, I think there needs to be prominent audio / visual clues that the player can easily take notice of when his or her life is being endangered or taken. I also think a split second blink period might be helpful for damage taken that is not environmental (so you would take constant damage in lava, but not from enemy shots). | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Internal Weight | Feature Suggestion | ||||
