Shmup ability ideas?

So I've been dabbling in Actionscript 3.0 for a while now, and fairly recently I developed a blitting engine so I could take things to the extreme and get the most out of Flash's performance. (No I'm not doing it in C++) Because I like tackling programming challenges and whatnot, I eventually ended up with something that could be used for a shmup game, and I figured why not actually make a game out of this? If not for my enjoyment, then to get my brothers to shut up about me and my passion for games xD

I've been looking at a lot of shmups and indie games to get inspiration on how to build the engine and whatnot. I also want to do some extra mechanic or ability that's beyond "bomb" and basic shot weapons. But I'm not entirely certain which ones I want to do, since I want the game to be enjoyable by many people, not just me. Plus, I'm no shmup expert.


Things I do like:

-- Hyper mode (DoDonpachi Daifukkatsu)
Activate hyper mode to get an increase in power and the ability to countershot most enemy bullets. I'm not entirely satisfied with the current one in Daifukkatsu, but it's a good start. Plus it's more or less a panic button that can be refreshed over time.

-- Hybrid HP and life system (Deathsmiles, Akai Katana Shin)
Not everything has to be the end of you. Let's face it, it's kinda silly that small, microsized bullets can 1-shot you and for game purposes, behave exactly the same as some of the more devastating attacks.

-- Score playing a role to your performance
The most basic thing that comes out of this is getting extends (1up). But in a few cases, such as Battle Garegga, scoring well is necessary to finish the game. But in general, I don't like having something that only sits there looking pretty.

-- Autobombs
Got hit, but still have bombs? Use a bomb to prevent death instead, but at reduced effect from what a manual bomb can do. This is good when the player isn't good at video games, and it is forgiving on lower difficulty levels.


Things I don't like:

-- Convoluted scoring systems
I'm all for racking up points and getting huge numbers, but I'll be damned if I have to deal with a scoring system that involves doing unintuitive things. It's not like I'm obligated to score (and I usually don't), but it's wasted effort and silliness imo.

-- Item hunts and obscure unlock conditions
Face it, a bazillion bullets, bonuses, and explosions will cover up the screen, you'll always have the weapon button jammed down, and you don't observe everything going on. To cite a specific example, if you destroy a large tank before it runs over a silo, the stage 1 midboss teleports in and fights you (extra goodies). But how would you know to destroy the large tank within a very brief time frame?


Neutral feelings:

-- Options (those satellite things that defend/shoot)

-- Enemy laser weapons (DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu, Akai Katana Shin)
Even with the reddo gauge and mechanics of Daifukkatsu, the lasers felt really inconsequential. The large lasers were fairly overpowering if you didn't know what to do though. However, the lasers in Akai Katana seemed to strike me as the right kind of thing, because while they do damage (not necessarily kill you), they're not everywhere, and you don't have something that's readily available to make them obsolete.


I'm looking for ideas on what awesome things I can do for a shmup game. Let me know what you guys think would be awesome, and why!

Score=performance is the most important for me. The better you are doing, the more crazy pomegranate you are capable of doing. Basically, a sort of cascade effect that makes awesome players feel even more awesome and encourages terrible players to get better so they can get that feeling too. Not 1ups, that's boring. I'm talking about the higher and longer you hold a combo without getting hit/running out of time on it, the faster you move/stronger your attacks get, with the negative (for a bad player) being that more and stronger/faster enemies spawn. bonus point if it lowers or even removes cooldown on any dodge skill that may be in place after a certain point is reached; at that point, the screen should be almost filled pixel by pixel with damaging elements, but the potential score multiplier would be equally insane. I've played a few comiket games that implemented that pretty well, but I don't remember the name of the one I played the most...and it was from C72 or something so it's really old and probably not hosted anywhere anymore ;_;.

Oh, and skimming enemies should give bonus points! That makes it so perfectionists like myself are constantly forcing near-misses so they can max their score out!

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Originally Posted by Flonne

Score=performance is the most important for me. The better you are doing, the more crazy pomegranate you are capable of doing....

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I thought about doing this as an incentive to score more, so you can become more powerful, so you can score more, so you can become more awesome, etc.

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bonus point if it lowers or even removes cooldown on any dodge skill that may be in place after a certain point is reached;

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My idea was for a "hyper chain", where first activation gives you a temporary invulnerability period. During hypering, you'd gain an additional set of weapons that allow you to either counter bullets and/or damage enemies. Enemy bullets have varying strength/damage required to counter. Normal hyper charging applies, separate from your current hyper mode's hyper charge. Hypering ends when you trigger it to, or when you run out of your current hyper charge. In either case, when hyper ends, a small sort of explosion happens, which cancels all enemy bullets around you. Bullets countered in this manner add to your next hyper charge.

I'm trying to think of appropriate incentives to not ending hyper early, other than the lack of survivability due to prolonged intense enemy fire. It could range from introducing a short cooldown at the moment you ended hypering, to bonus points from a naturally expiring hyper. Or even a larger hyper explosion, depending on when you ended hyper mode, with a bonus radius length when it naturally expires.

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Oh, and skimming enemies should give bonus points! That makes it so perfectionists like myself are constantly forcing near-misses so they can max their score out!

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That... doesn't sound fun. It's just so arbitrary.

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Originally Posted by KajitiSouls

That... doesn't sound fun. It's just so arbitrary.

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In some games, skimming gives about a second of iframes, which is part of what I was referring to, if you don't like that part don't use it, these are just suggestions and all.

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Originally Posted by Flonne

In some games, skimming gives about a second of iframes, which is part of what I was referring to, if you don't like that part don't use it, these are just suggestions and all.

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I know it's just a suggestion. But for full clarity, can you link to a video example or something? I'm not entirely understanding what you're saying here. "second of iframes"? @_@

Look at ideas that aren't from the genre. Look at weapons/items from other games and try to implement them in a SHMUP environment, maybe from games that have a lot them like Zelda, Megaman, Kirby, etc.

For example, make a Boomerang shot, similar to a Link to the Past. The Beam ability from Kirby games.

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Originally Posted by KajitiSouls

I know it's just a suggestion. But for full clarity, can you link to a video example or something? I'm not entirely understanding what you're saying here. "second of iframes"? @_@

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I'll try to find a video; basically what I'm explaining is, in some games when you force a near-miss on enemies/bullets, you get a very small frame of invincibility each time; when you chain this, you can technically be invincible for the entire battle, but it's not easy to do obviously. Yet another skill incentive.

I wish I could remember the name of that comiket game I played so I could link it to you...I think it came out in 2006-2007 but there's so much stuff to sort through when looking for comiket releases, lol.

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Originally Posted by Flonne

I'll try to find a video; basically what I'm explaining is, in some games when you force a near-miss on enemies/bullets, you get a very small frame of invincibility each time; when you chain this, you can technically be invincible for the entire battle, but it's not easy to do obviously. Yet another skill incentive.

I wish I could remember the name of that comiket game I played so I could link it to you...I think it came out in 2006-2007 but there's so much stuff to sort through when looking for comiket releases, lol.

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it reminds me of this game, i need to play it though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbaA1...ure=plpp_video

also, OP you know of the ikaruga system? i also like touhou's system, where the battle kind of goes with the music.

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Originally Posted by ShinkuDragon

it reminds me of this game, i need to play it though
-snip-

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Yes, like that!

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Originally Posted by Flonne

Yes, like that!

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Ooh, I know it as grazing! I can't think of a cool way to implement invincibility, but it's on the table. I definitely don't like the way Psyvariar does it though, as to progress in stages (especially on harder difficulties) you absolutely have to grind on bullets rather than destroying enemies. Wth? It's not intuitive.

@Loose, the boomerang and beam ability suggestions seem to be more in line of different weapon styles. The difficulty comes in balancing the difficulty of levels when you have radically different weapon shots. But when you mentioned Kirby, I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to add a small little RPG element to it when the player "evolves".

@ShinkuDragon, yes I've actually played Ikaruga. I never really quite understood why enemies had to explode bullets, but it's not my game xD Still, the polarity mechanic is really cool. In my opinion, chapter 4 had a rather ridiculous difficulty spike.

I was going to mention Ikaruga's polarity system, but you seem to have that covered. (The enemies exploded into bullets so you can use the bullets to charge up your super meter.)

Ideas

controlling 2 ships

mad skills :f5:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToBdzV7w5Pc

controlling way more than 1 ship / multiple paths

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-JQx3gD9oM&feature=relmfu

melee weapon that can be use to attack and defend against small projectiles.

The ship has many different projectile weapons, but the person playing is only using the sword to beat the game.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAQ3fw6Xe-g