adding depth to the core gameplay experience of killtest

Intro --

I'm very interested to see how auto-firing is implemented with killtest as it is probably the only way to facilitate fluid movement and shooting simultaneoulsy in a natural and intuitive way on a touchscreen device, however with auto-firing you basically knee cap the depth and complexity of a FPS experience and what you end up with is something that is relatively easy to control but lacks skill and competativeness and while it might be fun at first after a while i imagine it will begin to feel shallow as there is really no player skill involved when firing on an opponent as its just basically randomness that gives you an edge over the competition.....thats where i come in :)

Active Reloads --

while i havent actually tested the game or know if there is even a manual reload option i can only imagine that ensuring that you always have a full clip when you get the drop on someone is definitely a crucial part of taking out an opponent effectively....so why not make it even more important by adding a mechanism for active manual reloads that requires some timing and skill to pull off and if you land it right your clip gets a small boost in damage/accuracy but if you mess it up your gun gets jammed for X amount of secs similar to how it works in Gears of War?

blocking

since it is a sci fi based FPS im sure it will not be to hard to explain the concept of blocking incoming fire with a kinetic shield in the background of the story so why not implement a mechanism for blocking incoming fire? especially since auto firing doesn't require that much skill instead effective use of the kinetic shield would and a mechanism like that would add that much needed depth and make it more competitive in nature since the shield itself only has so much charge and basically you control weather you shoot at an enemy or use a shield basically deciding between offense and defense in split second situations can really add a huge level of depth while at the same time you gotta keep an eye on the shield energy levels which deplete when absorbing incoming fire but regenerate after X amount of time

character types/system -- character specific not armor/weapon specific

i think i read/heard that you guys where going to do this on some level via upgrades to weapons/armor however i think instead of an open system where everything revolves around the weapons/armor lock it down to 2-3 arch-types with each only being able to wield a particular set of weapons and wear only 1 kind of armor with X amount of points that can be assinged to specific attributes by the gamer or just automatically assigned if the gamer doesnt want to customize them.

here are some example arch-types

brute -- big guns/ heavy armor slow powerful and can take lots of punishment

fleet-foot -- fast agile, expert in using small arms and grenades

tech -- average speed, average power/defense but is the only class that can utilize both small and big guns simultaneously as well as devices like mines

the way the point system should work --

when you start off you are given X amount of points and you can choose between 2-3 different arch-type characters each with their own base points assigned to certain attributes so the points you have are extra points that you can assign to whatever you want (speed power defense ect), when you level up you earn more points but they are not character specific so if you want to switch it up and choose a brute instead of a fleet-foot all of your points come with you and you are able to apply all of the extra points you have earned on top of the brutes base points and if a brute fits your play style and you want to stick with the brute for a while you can just assign more points as you level up....easy as that

i think a system like that will be perfect and add to the depth of the core game play experience because if the arch types are designed well even tho the cosmetic appearance is comstumizable the gamers will be able to immediately recognize the character types and what they are up against and instantly know what strategy they need to take however if its weapon/armor specific (especially if with cosmetic customizations) it will not be immediately obvious and they will have to memorize each piece of armor/weapon and what each of them do before they can recognize what they are up against in a split second and a system like that is still capable of delivering in app purchases for purely cosmetic customizations, and these cosmetic customizations can represent clans or have a social media/network effect tied along with it...hint hint *

targeting system--

i havent tested the game so again i dont know what you guys are thinking

but what happens when multiple enemies are in your view does it go by where your reticule is pointing or is there even a reticule on screen at all? for situations like that you need a good targeting system

the targeting system will work by tapping the enemy that is in your view to lock the target, to unlock simply tap again to unlock, to change targets simply tap on another enemy to change targets on the fly

there is a few reasons why i prefer a targeting lock system over an on screen reticule driven auto firing system

the first is when you lock a target you can use that as a way to let the gamer set the camera to auto pan/fix to keep that locked target in view, of course you can still manually move the camera around but when you lift up your thumb it will instantly pan back and fix the locked target back into view this will free up that right thumb so you can use it to manually reload/active reload or change/unlock targets and of course while locked on that right thumb can control the shield mechanism

secondly it will be a great visual way to represent when you have an open or good/better/great shot by color or size of the lock reticule and the character will only auto fire when there is an open shot the better the open shot the more accurate or the more damage just a cool way to add more skill to auto firing

lastly i think a targeting lock system will be more efficient for switching targets and tracking/tailing targets then moving a reticule on screen with right thumb/camera pan to drive the auto firing mechanism for switching targets by tapping on them will be much more easier then trying to gracefully guide a reticule to their position and it will be much more strategic, and when trailing/tracking an enemy if you have a reticule on screen you have to avoid landing the reticule on them which i imagine would be kinda awkward and counter intuitive with a target lock system you can just follow the enemy worry free and when you have an opening and just tap on them to lock the target which will then unload on them and you dont have to worry about accidentally landing the reticule on them revealing your position to early but you need to watch out a soon as you lock on a target they will be warned with a lock alert

anyways im interested to see how the auto firing concept is implement.....

will you go with a sticky on screen reticule driven auto firing system meaning you have to actually move a reticule around by panning the camera and put it on an enemy before your character will actually auto fire at them or will you use a targeting lock system like the one i came up with above?

D