Furbot Enemy

[datahead8888]

This is a task to create a furbot enemy. It requires both artwork and coding.

I think creating some more industrial / mecha enemies will offer some interesting possibilities.

Perhaps we can eventually get enough assets created to create industrial/factory levels. I'd be really interested in doing the monster factory as described in the story document I wrote.

[Bugsbane]

By "furbot" you mean a robot version of Furball?

[datahead8888]

Yep. I would imagine him mostly being made of metal, but I'm open to exploring different possibilities. He's inspired by the IRC chat bot we have.

A good question, though, is whether he will simply walk like the other furballs or have some other movements. @default0 had pointed out we need more variety in enemy behavior. I'm not seeing this as a jumping enemy, though. We could maybe give him a laser gun :)

On another note, we now have one factory song committed, which means we may be on the way to having some factory levels!

[Bugsbane]

we may be on the way to having some factory levels! Woot!

If we're after an enemy who does more than walk back and forth, and he's a robot, what about giving him a jet pack? As far as movement goes, when he hits a turn marker (or whatever they're called) instead of turning around, he would fly diagonally up. When there was something underneath him, he could turn the jetpacks off and drop down. He would only turn around when he hit an actual wall (as opposed to a turn marker).

I'm not sure what, but it seems a robot should take more to kill, too. Maybe shooting / jumping on him just knocks him back, and he dies by dropping off the screen, the star, or falling a long distance. If we wanted to keep it simpler though, we could just make it, he needs 3 hits (jumps, fireballs etc) instead of one.

[datahead8888]

Enemies with jet packs seems semi-climatic for a later world in the game, when the action's heating up. It's a good idea. I'd still like to explore a "foot soldier" variant, though. Perhaps we could do both eventually.

I'm leaning towards 3 hits to kill the enemies. Knocking them down a pit or something like that might work but only in levels with an appropriate structure. We could have multiple versions of the enemy or make it configurable via scripting.

Knocking them down a distance actually is an interesting idea, but you would need need a way to rise up high enough to stomp them. This might work best with a power up or device that shoots you upwards.

Ultimately we may want to consider coding AI for some of these enemies. I don't really have this skill yet, but we might see if anyone else on the project can tackle it.

[Bugsbane]

What about something like bats? Have them hang still until you get close, and then slowly fly towards you.

I think I even had a sketch for a bat idea somewhere on the old forums.

[datahead8888]

Bats would be a good idea, but we'd probably want them filed in another task in github. Post any artwork you have.

Having some more cave enemies is a great idea.

[Quintus]

If you want something to die by falling down a long distance, we would be inconsistent if we did not implement fall damage for the hero previously. Which has been discussed earlier in IRC, and I do like that idea. (I’ll open a new ticket for that one).

Vale, Quintus

[Quintus]

(I’ll open a new ticket for that one).

It’s #220.

Valete, Quintus