http://youtu.be/SDiYzEYQjIo
What is HTK, anyway? HTK is a game programmer term referring to the number of hits it takes to kill something in a game. It comes from D&D, which is “Dungeons & Dragons”, invented by two friends in the sci-fi fantasy realm, Dave Arnesson and Gary Gygax, both of whom became millionaires just prior to passing to the Next Realm in the Sky.
Hits to Kill makes it possible to achieve game balance, when taken along with armor, amount of life-reduction per hit, dodging and a few other factors. You should be able to dodge missiles by jumping over them or slipping sideways as they pass; this makes for an interesting and long-lasting game.
I’ve been setting all the public release games at HTK=1 to allow noobs to find an entry-level game they can enjoy. Unfortunately, that strategy leaves good players out, so I’m now going back into prior releases to see what I can do to make them more hellish, as requested.
Part of that Hellishness is raising the HTK of dungeon monsters by several points, to wit:
Zombies, Grunts, Ghosts, Ghouls & Dragons — Anywhere from 5 to 10 HTK in Hellish Challenge Games, 5 to 50 in Chaotic Hell Games.
Level Bosses — They will require anywhere from 10 to 50 HTK to get past them.
It sounds terrible, daunting, impossible, but think about it…this gives the dungeon monsters an even chance to come back at you, if you’re first on the attack. With 1 HTK on a dungeon monster, it has no chance to do anything. Assigning higher HTK to monsters will make a better game for better players. Meanwhile, no worries, nothing lost — the Normal Challenge will still be 1 HTK for all monsters except Level Bosses, and they’re set at a mere 5 HTK except for the Final Boss, set at anywhere from 20 to 50, which is right & proper, I think, for the Final Boss. You don’t want the Final Boss to be too easy.
Armor issues are another thing entirely. You’ll notice that in most of my games, you won’t lose life as long as the armor holds out, and there are armor upgrades and powerups, protective runes and charms, as well as magic weapons and counterspells. Most of my games are not actually “shooters” in the sense of firearms — I tend to supply magical weaponry and protective spellcraft in the majority of my games.
Death is another issue that I work with a little differently. In some games, you’ll experience a respawn as a shocking thing; in most of my CTF Capture-The-Flag Games, you’ll note that the weapons tend to be quiet and magical, and that rather than dying, your char will simply be sent to “jail” in their Home Base for a few moments to cool down before re-entering the game.