So, I wasn't extremely productive today but I did manage to get the flier AI basically tidied up, they fly around in random patterns. No attacks yet but that isn't actually planned for the next demo anyways.
@p
When you shoot them, they leave a kind of glowing spark (will be changed to some kind of sphere thing) which is really a gem you can collect. I have to make it so the type of gem they leave depends on how strong of a monster they are; also, so that how much HP they have also depends on that. But I can worry about HP later.
@p
My basic idea is that each monster will have 3 possible gems they may leave, each one quite less likely than the previous to be chosen. So that, they have a normal, rare, and ultra-rare prize. The normal prizes aren't worth that much but at least gives you something to collect rather than just giving nothing. The rare and ultra rare are worth quite a lot. So, you will know what to expect from a monster after killing only a few, this will encourage the player to find NEW monsters on new planets because they may leave better presents for you.
@p
Need to fix the item menu, so that it scrolls properly. Not a huge deal but sort of a pain in the ass. Right now you can only see your first 7 or so items. I also would like to group items by how many you have. This is especially important for items like gems that you will tend to collect a lot of. Then, the item list should have a small icon describing the item type beside it, and be sorted on item type so that say, the gems are all at the end.
@p
The gems are the "base" of the game's economy, basically they function as kind of hard currency that you can sell for real money, use to manipulate relationships with people, trade, what-not. They are actually quite useful, some gems will be required for certain weapon upgrades, perhaps.
2004-04-08