Not sure where I should post this so I am posting this here. Basically I am making a game where it’s everyone versus one boss. The boss tries to eliminate a certain target (which is a player) each round for 4 rounds. The weapon system is build so that each player can use their abilities without stamina or any major limitations besides reloading and cool-downs for special attacks.
Now the reason I created this is to get ideas and suggestions on how I should structure the game and some methods of balancing the action and damage so that the players aren’t too weak but don’t overpower the boss in greater numbers. Yes I do realize that this is a weird topic to answer with little details as to what I mean but I do want this to be a little bit secret so that no one copies my game. Here are some things that I want your ideas on:
1. Balancing Health and Damage Players can overwhelm the boss if in greater numbers but the boss can overwhelm the players if he can deal a lot of damage all at once. I have found a semi-solution to this by increasing the boss’s health per player by a set amount which is the amount of health a single player can deal in the total 4 rounds. What I am concerned for however is players who get special abilities the others don’t can wipe out the boss easily. What I am also concerned about is making the boss too powerful and can wipe normal players away without them getting a fair amount of action per life. Here is some starter ideas I have:
Chaos Health: Chaos health is health that is suppose to be extra health per number of players. This is added on to the amount of health a single player can deal in the total 4 rounds in case the players naturally form a strategy that prevents the boss from eliminating the players dealing the most damage AKA overwhelm him.
Damage immunity: Damage immunity is where if players band together and deal a huge amount of damage that would usually cripple the boss’s health and end him easily. The damage would be reduced to a point where it’s not overpowering the boss. This would either replace or go with the other solutions.
2. Map Structure This is ideas for maps that everyone is fighting the boss on. The map should be detailed but not to the point where players can exploit certain structures so that the boss can’t reach them. I want basic map structures that allow the target player to move from point A to point B without the boss gaining on them constantly. You can imagine the boss going to their position constantly. Basically the map isn’t closed off or has bounties that trap the player if they get cornered. But not structured so that the boss has to direct away from obstacles. What I am basically asking for is a map that is big and structured so that the target isn’t getting cornered constantly with the boss moving toward them. Templates or maps that have the requirements that I can get ideas off of. (I am not asking for you to build a map I am asking for a general concept structure that works) Other information:
The boss is half the speed of the player. Which is a walk speed of 8.
The boss is constantly moving toward the player
This topic is just for general tips I don’t expect anyone to go too in detail and I will probably figure it out as I go along. I just put it here because its how I want to go about making the maps.
3. Boss behavior and general play-style The boss is focused on the target and deals damage to those nearest to him. The boss does have attacks that deal damage to a specific area as well as attacks that focus on the target. The play style is players surround the boss and try to prevent him from attacking the target. So basically where the boss is is where the fighting happens and there are no minions to distract the players from the boss. This topic is for ideas on what you think should be added or things to consider. Here are some things I think should be added
The boss should have some attacks that deal damage to the player(s) that are dealing the most damage
The target should be drawn to the center of battle and not hide from action by getting special abilities that make them a key part of the battle.
This is suppose to be a discussion of what you think I should consider when making the game. I want to make sure that the idea and general structure is solid so any advice is very much appreciated.
The idea you have for your game is quite interesting. I have a couple questions though. How many players are you thinking per server? As players are quite a big factor as the players are the target/opponent for the boss, and for the players, the boss is the target/opponent. Also, as players will have some sort of “abilities” to use to go against the boss, how much damage will the players do to the boss?
A game about fighting a giant dinosaur like a baryonix would be fun.
For a health and damage balance, don’t get too technical. The game should give the players a feeling of challenge, based on what your game is about, and giving them an easy challenge can turn it boring, but a hard challenge can be frustrating. So, basically…
If the game is based on rounds, I believe you considered this, but make it harder for every round that passes. The first round is an easy one, a round that introduces the players in the game to the mechanics of that boss, like a tutorial, but with nothing marking it as a tutorial (an invisible tutorial). If the boss is an AI, it could get hard to do such thing, but if the boss is a player, then it will annoy them to have 7 people all attacking the player like mosquitoes. Nobody likes mosquitoes, yet the players feel like ones. So I’d consider making it less frustrating or annoying to play as the boss, maybe killing those that are annoying (the ones that hit and hit and the boss only misses because they dodge 300 times) will punish them with longer wait times based on how much damage they’ve dealt, or just get them out of the match, unless that you want to have all players engaged and not waiting for long rounds because they died without being able to do anything fun.
The bosses animations must be slow, they can’t just be moving their feet at the same speed of a roblox character. Turn the animations slower, making it feel like they can’t move as much, but don’t make it too easy to dodge.
For a map structure, you can think of a round-shaped arena, nothing special but nothing fun. If you’re planning on a design of an arena, think about a plaza playground, or a skate park, or a small village if you think of medieval zones. Those are small in size, good for a place for some players to hide, but because the boss is strong, it can destroy them with fists or their tail or their bombs or whatever destruction tool it has.
In the map, you could make it closed with walls, but the walls don’t corner people, they don’t make people start to panic unless that they get cornered, which just makes them go under the boss’ legs. That’s not how the map should go. If I were you, I’d make an area, a circular area that tells the safe area, the area players can be in, because if they’re outside of that area they will start to get hurt until they die. So if a boss can kick them and fling them outside the area with a leg kick or a fist punch, the players must keep on running to get to the safe area. Be careful, though, roblox has some bugs with players getting flung from one place to another very fast, so I’d put a sphere outside of the area which the players can’t get through.
If I were you, I’d make the boss eat the players they kill, and in turn it heals the boss, so the boss has a reason to kill other players and not just go for the objective. Give bosses a reason to kill other players
A map could be about an industrial area, an area about factories, which can throw flammable gas that blows up when a fire user just throws gas, and in turn it damages all players, mainly the ones near that gas.
About the map and the boss. What about making that round area the one that belongs to the boss? So the boss is the round area, and the players must be near him and not hiding, and when the boss moves, the area goes with it.
Abilities are key to the boss, one that should be in is thermal vision, seeing fire and players, so none can hide
Covering that “annoying players that are like mosquitoes” thing, I’d put two bosses, one that is the bigger one, the one the players must defeat, and another one which is smaller but more agile, not stronger than the boss but 3x the strength of the players. Like the king and the queen in chess. For some inspiration, think about a big person that is agile. I said mosquitoes before, that reminds me of a character that looks like one, is agile and bigger than the average person. This would give some inspiration, as it is about that.
Chess could give you some ideas for player’s playstyles…
Roblox is all about simulating the game mechanics to make your own games with those mechanics. Use the parts destruction in your game: make some of the map props usable, some buildings destructable, make it dangerous to go anywhere in the map unless that you fight the bigger boss.
Some ideas for bosses are: Demons, Dinosaurs, Giant dragons, Robots, Snakes, again, Mosquitoes (I have one going around my laptop, its getting annoying), A character based around the rubik’s cube. If you don’t have many inspirations, try and check the roblox packages that the platform gives. It can give you something to use…
Around 30 players per server max. The players do around 1000 damage with weapons (Not all weapons) to the boss because I want their shots to be effective so it doesn’t look like the boss is invincible.
I was trying to say the target is a player and the boss is a NPC but I can see the confusion. As for the Map having destructible and usable parts does give me some interesting ideas. The boss is slow to begin with as it has a walkspeed of 8 which is half the player’s speed and the animations are slow but can be dogged sort of. The map where the players fight the boss is not the lobby where the players respawn in but they are protected when they first enter. Thanks for the feedback though and I will keep this in mind.
If I were to add something to an npc boss is a huge variety of attacks.
If you play any boss game in roblox you can see that at some point the attacks get generic, and you can predict what the NPC will do, which is not fun because you’re not supposed to predict the moves, you just have to react at the moment the action is done. If the boss was unpredictable, it would be more challenging and more fun, at least personally.
I don’t like fighting a boss that does a routine of actions. Like the main attack is punch, then wait 3 seconds, then kick, then wait 3 seconds, then throw bomb, then wait 3 seconds, then punch again, and repeat. That gets predictable and it’s boring.
Make their actions unpredictable, not because it’s an AI, but because it’s a boss.
There’s a video out there about what makes a good ai that covers the AIs in common games, but it’s more about crowd civilans you kill once than challenging bosses… It’s this one. It specifically says that good AIs are predictable, but that’s because they should be an easy job that you can imagine the outcome, like in a stealth game you have to make distractions so you predict the actions of an AI, but if you do that to a huge boss, you get your audience repeating the same 3 moves in order because they predict the boss’ moves, not the boss thoughts. It’s also a good channel, game maker’s toolkit, it gives a lot of info about games, and for a platform like roblox, which allows for making games an easier way and without the need of huge teams, many people can use those philosophies of games in practice…