Designing 20+ Upgrades for a Multiplayer Co-op Shooter

Constraints, Design Space and Design Goals

Constraints

  • No Projectiles - Only basic hit-scan shooting.

  • No lingering conditions, buffs or debuffs

  • No additional UI elements.

  • New systems would need to be justified

  • Upgrades would have 3 Tiers of effectiveness, scaling in power with each tier.

Design Space

  • Basic values could be altered: Firing Speed, Ammo, Bullet damage, Reload Speed, Crit and Miss Chance, Interaction Speed.

  • Movement Speed, interaction with hazards.

  • Gold

  • Simple area-of-effect sphere casts

  • Firing extra bullets

  • Stunning enemies.

Design Goals

  • Have synergies between upgrades.

  • Encourage teamwork between players

  • Have upgrades geared around the three main aspects of the game: Combat, Exploration, and Survival.

My Process for Upgrade Design

Creating Five Roles for Upgrades Based on Different Play Patterns

  • Point Damage: Defeating single or few enemies quickly.

  • Horde Control: Defeating large hordes of enemies.

  • Survivability: Avoiding getting downed by enemies.

  • Support: Aiding and supporting your ally.

  • Exploration: Exploring the map and completing the mission.

  • Economy: Gaining funds to purchase more upgrades.

Creating Synergies for most common roles - Damage and Support

Though there were seven roles in the game, there was not enough room or need for synergies for each category. Damage and Support were the biggest areas where upgrades could be combined in interesting ways.

  • Point Damage Synergies

    • Critical Hits: The Critical hit system would allow players to score extra damage when hitting a weak point on an enemy. Boosting critical hits would allow a skilled player to take out enemies very quickly - though hitting weak points on a large horde would be much more difficult.

    • Hip Fire: The hip fire system allowed players to combat enemies while staying mobile.

    • Damage Boosts: Any upgrades which boost damage would be generally useful for Point Damage, as well as Horde Control.

  • Horde Control Synergies

    • Firing Speed: Synergies based on firing many shots.

    • Ammo and Reloading: A faster reload speed and ammo capacity would allow players to spend more time firing into hordes and less time reloading.

    • Area of Effect damage: Synergies based on dealing damage to many enemies at once.

    • Aiming Mode: Aiming mode was a more focused mode where players would have less movement, but be able to fire more accurately and see further. Players dealing with hordes may stay in Aiming mode for long periods of time, so synergies which enhance it will enhance their Horde Control capabilities.

  • Support Synergies

    • The Mark System: Though it would require an additional system; allowing one player to ‘Mark’ an enemy to give their ally bonus damage or trigger additional effects was a system worth exploring, as it would enhance the co-op nature of the game.

Upgrades

Point Damage

  • Scopes

    • + Critical Hit Damage

    • + Range

    • Allows players to engage with enemies from farther away, taking out individual threats before they become a problem.

  • Lucky Charm

    • + Critical Strike Chance:

    • + Crits while hip firing: Can critically strike while hip firing.

    • Gives a chance to score a critical hit while hip firing or not hitting a weak point.

  • Bigger Bullets

    • + Bullet Damage:

    • Boosts bullet damage. A generalist upgrade that is useful for combat overall.

Horde Control Upgrades

Horde Control was overall the largest part of the game next to exploration - and it was the main usage of upgrades.

  • Belt-Fed-Magazine

    • + Firing Speed while in Aiming Mode

    • + Reload Speed while Aiming Mode

  • Extended Magazine

    • + Weapon Ammo Per Magazine

  • Weapon Grease

    • +Reload Speed

    • -Jamming Chance

    • Weapons have a chance to Jam in this game, and this upgrade reduces that, which was a natural addition to an upgrade centered around ensuring players spend more time firing.

  • Chamber Splitter

    • +1 Extra projectile per shot

    • Extra projectile would spread out with a slight deviation, hitting enemies to the sides of the target.

  • Piercing Shots

    • +1 Bullet Piercing

    • Projectile would hit enemies past the initial target - Piercing Shots and Chamber Splitter would manifest extra damage to hordes in different ways.

  • Ricochet Bullets

    • +Chance for bullet to bounce to new target.

    • Ricochet bullets was a flashy upgrade which could cause massive damage, though it was more luck based.

  • Defibrillator

    • +Firing Speed

    • +Resuscitation Speed:

    • Resuscitation Speed was an ability I wanted to include to enhance teamplay, but it would not be powerful enough on its own. This seemed a flavorful way to add in the effect while still retaining usefulness.

  • Concussive Shots

    • + Chance of firing a Concussive Shot, briefly stunning nearby enemies and dealing minor damage:

    • Stunning was a great way to prevent enemies from overwhelming the players, and could be used in a supportive way, firing a concussive shot at enemies surrounding an ally.

  • Steam Vents

    • + Chance of releasing a burst of steam when firing, damaging nearby enemies.

    • This was a useful synergy with Firing Speed, and could allow the player dealing with a horde some self-protection from enemies approaching from the sides and back.

Survivability Upgrades

In this game, there was a very strict damage system. Players could only take a few hits before getting knocked down. The survivability upgrades were designed to allow some forgiveness for mistakes - not make players live out a damage tanking power fantasy

  • Standard Issue Body Armor

    • -Vulnerability duration

    • In this game, once hit you had a window of vulnerability. If you took damage once more, you would take a hit, and either get knocked down or suffer severe penalties. The body armor would lessen this time, and allow more forgiveness for mistakes.

  • Weapon Stabilizers

    • +Movement Speed while Firing

    • While shooting, you would slow down, and make yourself vulnerable to attack. This upgrade lessened that penalty.

  • Pneumatic Jacket

    • Release a damaging burst of steam upon taking damage.

    • Would take out nearby enemies upon getting damaged, giving players some breathing room.

  • Pneumatic Footgear

    • +Movement Speed while not firing

    • Creating some distance between enemies was an important defensive strategy.

Support Upgrades

  • Defibrillator

    • +Firing Speed

    • +Resuscitation Speed:

    • The Defibrillator fits into both Damage and Support categories.

  • Steam Launcher

    • If you would hit an ally, instead consume all ammo and Stun all enemies near that ally.

    • A powerful tool to get enemies off of an ally, with a steep cost.

  • Scanner

    • Every 1s, Mark an enemy your reticle is over.

    • Allies deal critical damage to Marked Targets.

    • Cross-Synergy with Critical hit synergies.

  • Air Support

    • Every 4s, Mark up to 5 nearby enemies.

    • When ally hits a marked target, call down an airstrike which deals damage to enemies in a random line.

    • Air strikes would just be bullets cast from above, so no new systems would need to be developed - although some visuals may be required.

  • Target Spotter

    • Mark enemies you hit.

    • Allies deal bonus damage to marked enemies.

Exploration Upgrades

  • Pneumatic Footgear

    • +Movement Speed while not firing

    • Movement speed was the main vector for exploration.

  • Recon Visor

    • +Object Search Speed

    • Another main part of exploration was searching interactable objects.

Economy Upgrades

  • Golden Bullets

    • +Chance for enemies to drop double normal Gold.

  • Metal Detector

    • +Pickup Range

    • +Every 1s, chance to gain Gold.

    • Since players were always on a timer, standing idle to gain gold was not a viable strategy.

Additional Flavorful Upgrades

  • Steam Repeater Deluxe

    • +Bullet damage.

    • +Firing Speed

    • +Ammo capacity

    • -Requires Gold to fire.

    • This upgrade was geared around the flavor of the game, which involved tempting the players with power at the cost of money, which they are working hard to acquire.

A Schema for advancing Upgrades to Higher Tiers

Upgrades were separated into 3 Tiers; getting an upgrade of the same type increased its Tier instead of adding its value. This schema would allow for easily tuning values for upgrades of different tiers.

Upgrade Tier Schema

Tier 1: Base Value and Cost (Ex. +40% Bullet damage)

Tier 2: Double base value + Bonus value (Ex. + 90% Bullet damage.)

Tier 3: Triple base value + Triple bonus value. (Ex. +150% Bullet damage.)