The series on Halo borking its own sandbox lead naturally to my work improving the broken, or at many times underwhelming sandbox in Escape From Epstein Island. However, before we get into that, I wanted to highlight a massive visual clarity improvement that really ought to have been implemented earlier.
Fast bullets were previously almost impossible to see. Add a trail, and not only are they legible, I think they look pretty neat. While not as crucial, this effect is also very nice for slower moving projectiles. It looks even nicer for projectiles that track the player, but you’ll see that when I show the other enemy reworks.
Projectiles that change velocity and accelerate look even better.
Before I could rework the FBI Agent, I had some technical housekeeping that needed doing. I had noticed that enemies often got stuck when pathing, a fairly common bug, yet very difficult to reproduce. It would take longer to explain this now bug than the length of this entire article. In short, it’s fixed.
Which is good, as the level geometry is probably going to get more complicated moving forwards. Contrary to what we discussed with Halo, cowering behind cover is not usually overpowered in EEI. If anything, it makes sense to mix in enemies that push the player into cover. I can already see certain levels, even if just as a change of pace, featuring those types of enemies in bunches, along with more generous allotments of cover.
It’s also interesting to see the knock on effects on balance. Grenades are massively more powerful when we add just a few more pillars to the level. This is partly because the confined spaces lets the AoE do work, and partly thanks to a feature I programmed wherein they bounce. Previously that had little gameplay utility, being a largely visual effect. However, if you’re trapped behind cover it’s your only way to attack the enemies without exposing yourself, which you can do if there’s something appropriately placed to bounce the grenades off.
To a lesser extent, it’s also a buff to the sniper rifle. If the enemies have shields or poise, the ability for the sniper to hitstun them is very useful, as using the plasma rifle almost ensures you’ll take damage. Also, the time necessary to reload the sniper is less painful if you’re waiting behind cover.
As for the FBI agent themselves, they were given more sophisticated semi-leading firing patterns, which make them very dangerous at mid range. They were also given a toned down version of the spreading or flanking behaviour I developed for the trash mobs.
I kind of like the rushdown version which just swarms the player. However, not shown on the video is how weak they are to melee. If you pop out of cover and smack them they’re pretty much toast. The second version, where they try to maintain a midrange distance and punish you when you move out, should theoretically be more interesting, but more work and experimentation is required.
There’s no point in obsessing over the details right now. I’m going to rework all the enemies in passes, so as to avoid lacking a certain niche, or going too far down a dead end. So we’ll blitz through all the other enemies, then circle around back to the start.
