Dai-X Weapons Layout

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Crash
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Dai-X Weapons Layout

Post by Crash »

It seems to me that X-Bomber and Dai-X pose different problems when it comes to integrating all their weapons seen in the TV show into the game.
On one hand, X-Bomber has a vast variety of weapons that can easily be grouped together because they all appear capable of sustained fire; an important characteristic for a main weapon in a shootemup.

The following weapons can therefore be listed for the player to select:
1. Pulse guns x2 - (Ep.02 asteroid field, Ep.22 kamikaze),
2. Yellow Laser Torpedo - (Ep.16 minefield)
3. Laser Machine-guns (x3) - (used frequently)
4. Pink Laser Torpedo (x4) - (Ep.08 escape, and other episodes)
5. Neck Lasers - (also used fairly frequently)
In addition to these X-Bomber possesses rear-lasers, which now fire automatically when needed and X-Impulse, which serves as an awesome finisher.

In order to fix a few practical problems, the game will feature a new, upgraded X-Bomber and a more original version whose weapons will work a bit differently as follows:
1. will work and look more as it did in Ep.04; firing faster, smaller shots in any direction, determined by moving the ship while not firing, rather than being forward-fixed.
2. may remove extra turret shown in comic
3. will fire single, white tracer as in the game's alpha (the actual bullets are never shown in the show)
4. Torpedoes will converge infront of the ship as in the show rather than firing 4 individual beams. (Making them converge made no sense originally because it effectively duplicated the neck laser).
5. Neck laser will operate in pulse-fire mode as in Ep.05.

The Dai-X on the other hand has fewer weapons but they are more evenly split between 'standards' and 'finishers'.Standards:
1. Super Cannon, which  changes from green to yellow to red over the course of the series. This is accounted for in the game.
2. The Eye Lasers are fairly straightforward.
3. It would be nice to punch the enemy repeatedly when you run out of ammo (not implemented yet).
4. Chest Cannons (problematic because the don't really correspond to the diagrams:

In the show it looks like a giant shotgun and in the plans it looks like a missile launcher.Finishers - A problem because there are two and there's only one finisher button [X].

1. Missiles (no real problem there but I'd like to introduce different warheads and types like the bombs in Raiden and other shooters)
2. X-Tracer (there are three versions in the show: yellow beam, white tracer, white tracer with blue beam)

In order to fix most of the above, I plan on making the Ammo/Missile reloading powerup one of three colours; red, blue or green. Picking up the powerup would increase your ammo and set the ship to one of the three modes.You can then have one Missile type, one X-Tracer type and one Chest Cannon type for each, which basically solves your problem.
At the moment, the game decides whether to fire X-Tracer or Missile when you press [C] (it should be [X], I know, but the barrier shield is on [X] at the moment) depending on whether you have more energy for the X-Tracer or more Missiles but it's it's still not quite a satisfactory solution.
Dream big and bold and daring.
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Crash
Posts: 1920
Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2002 8:16 pm
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Re: Dai-X Weapons Layout

Post by Crash »

I'm coming back to this topic because it dawned on me that, despite the fact that Dai-X has some great special weapons, its integrated weapons are basic compared to X-Bomber.

At the moment, I have things set out as follows ...
Primary weapons:
- twin pulse guns (right arm)
- eye lasers
- special weapon

Secondary weapons:
- nuclear missiles (left arm, 4 missiles can be carried)
- x-tracer
- chest cannons


Does anyone have any ideas where we can expand the Dai-X's range of standard weapons?
I think it would be good to have a melee attack as a primary.
I could also combine the eye lasers and arm pulse guns into a single weapon and have them fire at the same time.

The x-tracer also has two different firing modes in the show; a yellow beam and the x-tracer attack itself. One of these could be a secondary and the other a primary.

A similar thing is true of the chest cannnons. In the show they seem to fire like a giant shotgun and I plan in implementing that more accurately.
In the illustrations by Steve Kyte, the weapon is multi-cell missile launcher.
Again, one mode could be a primary and the other a secondary.

I also want to change the rear-firing laser so that it fires two shots; one large, one small since LegTrax has a larger and a smaller gun on its right foot.
Dream big and bold and daring.
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