Combat Design on PREY: MOONCRASH
When it came to approaching the combat design work I did on Prey: Mooncrash, I wanted to address two issues:
We knew there were issues with the game's combat as it was one of the negative points frequently brought up in reviews. Using information from past playtests and watching people stream once we released, a number of us theorized that the key issue came down a lack of quick mobility options. This meant that when faced against enemies like the Telepath, with their ball lightning attacks that can stun and kill you if not quickly avoided, you were often left at a disadvantage unless you managed to stunlock your opponent. While working on Mooncrash, I created a prototype to test out the new Moon gravity and found that the low-g would only exacerbate this problem. Since it now took much longer to reach the ground from a jump, you were left highly vulnerable with limited mid-air control. So I took it upon myself to address the issue by adjusting one of the game's main traversal methods: the Propulsion Suit. |
The Propulsion Suit
In the base game, the Propulsion Suit allowed you to move around the game's many zero-g levels. However, it was also one of the primary ways to extend your jumps. And in Talos I's highly vertical environments, this was often key to getting around the space station.
You can see an example of the Propulsion Suit in action below:
You can see an example of the Propulsion Suit in action below:
As you can see, the suit is great for extending your jumps, and using chipsets or modifiers you could find later in the game would extend the vertical range you could travel by giving you a small boost. In either case, though, the suit would do little to help with horizontal movement, which made it nearly useless in the middle of combat.
The Pitch
Initially, this was not a problem that we were going to address. But since we had just finished Prey and were just barely starting on Mooncrash, my workload largely consisted of light documentation. So I took it upon myself to write up a pitch to our lead designer and lead systems designer. Along with that, I created a rough prototype for the system using Cryengine's Flow Graph visual scripting language. You can see it below along with the fall rate in low-g, for comparison:
If you've played the DLC, you'll notice that the initial prototype was quite different. It allowed for additional lateral movement, something the original propulsion suit did not, but it was still rather slow. As was pointed out to me, this would still not be enough mobility to make a positive impact on our combat.
One thing that was universally loved, however, was the ground slam seen at the end of the video. This was an idea that I had lifted borrowed from Borderlands: The Presequel, but after seeing how well it worked in the initial prototype form, we decided to further build on it.
One thing that was universally loved, however, was the ground slam seen at the end of the video. This was an idea that I had lifted borrowed from Borderlands: The Presequel, but after seeing how well it worked in the initial prototype form, we decided to further build on it.
The Prototype
Following the initial feedback, I found myself with a lot more free time. As a result, I dedicated more time to make a solid, revised prototype for my proposed propulsion suit changes. You can see the results below:
In this iteration of the propulsion suit, lateral movement is no longer the short, precise bursts of the first prototype - it's fast and broad, perfect for use in the middle of frantic combat. The ground slam has also been updated to feature an explosive landing, allowing you to get back to the ground quickly while blasting enemies away from you in a radius.
When presented to the studio during a studio-wide meeting, the concept gained wide approval, and people were excited to see it code implemented.
As a small side-note, the upwards thrust, which was an iteration on an already existing chipset modifier for the propulsion suit in the main game, was eventually cut. Initially, I intended it as a way to give the player more air in what was going to be a more vertically-oriented game, but it was found to not be very useful after the main hub level, Crater, had a lot of its vertical elements removed.
When presented to the studio during a studio-wide meeting, the concept gained wide approval, and people were excited to see it code implemented.
As a small side-note, the upwards thrust, which was an iteration on an already existing chipset modifier for the propulsion suit in the main game, was eventually cut. Initially, I intended it as a way to give the player more air in what was going to be a more vertically-oriented game, but it was found to not be very useful after the main hub level, Crater, had a lot of its vertical elements removed.
The Final Product
After the initial presentation, though, I found that we didn't have the code support necessary to implement the new propulsion suit as many of our programmers were still working on updates to the core game. Fortunately, I had a very light workload at the time and, not one to give up easily, I fired up Visual Studio and began to learn our codebase.
By coordinating with our programmers for code reviews and feedback, I was able to fully code the new system in a matter of days. Along the way I also implemented some changes to the control scheme for the dodge thrusters, and I worked with our UI artist to make sure it interfaced well with our HUD.
You can see the final version of the propulsion suit as it appears in Prey: Mooncrash below:
By coordinating with our programmers for code reviews and feedback, I was able to fully code the new system in a matter of days. Along the way I also implemented some changes to the control scheme for the dodge thrusters, and I worked with our UI artist to make sure it interfaced well with our HUD.
You can see the final version of the propulsion suit as it appears in Prey: Mooncrash below: