Quote:
Originally Posted by Steril707
My original idea was to simply start each level stripping all weapon upgrades from the players ship, and design the level to accommodate that you need to get through it in one row, with all 4 possible weapon upgrades happening in each level, so you get to the end boss fully equipped.
I got some people who tested the game whining about this as not being "old school" and them feeling robbed when they started the new level with their advanced weaponry gone..
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Arghh..please, don't!
I'm not sure, if it's "old school" or bad design, to me it seems rather logical that you get to keep the upgrades. It's not only some sort of progression/achievement but also makes sense on the role-play level. Of course you could also invent some narrative reason for why the weapons are taken away, but I feel it'd be just cruel...
This dilemma is present in the overwhelming majority of arcade games, and occasionally can ba a PITA but it also creates high tension and some nice gameplay dynamics. It's also not entirely impossible to solve, because a lot of games manage to deal with it, I guess via combination of sensible checkpoint placement and power up distribution (some games give you a lot of them and then convert into points once you max out the firepower).
EDIT: RPGs are a different beast, and grinding is much demonised - it's only a grind if a combat system sucks and you can't move an inch without a random encounter. But it's a topic for another thread I guess.