Post by Bobik on Jan 23, 2016 9:14:07 GMT
In this thread you can discuss what changes would you like to be made to the Luxor series if a new Luxor game came out. Here's what I would change:
Reduced particle effects like sphere destroying and animations of bonuses. These can be really disorienting and they're getting more and more annoying in each game. For example: luxor 4. Every time you collect a slowdown or stop powerup there's a white mist covering most of the screen for a while. Or when you destroy sphere group, the explosion is really big when compared to original Luxor game. The score, combo, chain etc information should also be displayed on the info bar, not above the spheres.
Scarabs speed: on every luxor game, scarabs are running really quickly through the whole track until they reach near a pyramid where their speed is cut by 2/3 or something like that. That means 90% of gameplay on harder levels comes in the danger zone. You can't even hear the normal music because always when you manage to clear the way to the pyramid, there are next scarabs coming into danger zone. So it doesn't matter how twisted the track is in the beginning or the centre - if the danger zone is a straight line on the bottom of the screen, then this level can be qualified as "easy". This happens to levels like "Threading Cleopatra's needle", "Lair of the jackal god" or "Reigns of the heretic king" and others. My thought then, is to reduce scarabs' speed on the main part of a track and simultanously reduce the speed loss in the danger zone to compensate. This way levels would be more balanced and not taking place only near the pyramid.
Spheres: Due to the above change, it would be also good to remove the sphere color matching to a color of a last sphere in a scarab's train. I mean: when balls enter the danger zone, you will be given to shoot only spheres that match to those closest to the pyramid. That can be more annoying than helpful sometimes, especially when you want to get a certain colour to shoot but it won't come because you have other spheres in danger zone.
Sphere trains: The trains should be shorter but they should come more often after each other. Instead of a time limit between spheres incoming, bring back the system from older games where next train comes after the first one reached around a half of the track. If there's only one train on the board, it will move faster, then, when a next one appears before the first one is destroyed, that newer train will move a bit slower to balance the difficulty and prevent too many scarab crushes.
Bonus after destroying a scarab: one jewel, no matter how close to the pyramid the scarab was. That's because it doesn't matter for the gameplay where the scarab was destroyed and the fact that you killed a scarab in the very beginning/near the pyramid doesn't mean you played good/bad. I think it's more important how long did it take you to finish the whole level. That's why, a similar system as in Zuma would be welcome, with an ace time set and an appropriate bonus if you made it in time.
Information bar should be placed on the bottom of the screen. It's more visible there because your shooter is also there. It would also get rid of an annoying problem when you accidentally press the menu button and the game pauses!
The idea of lifes was abandoned in luxor 3 and 4. Instead of lifes, you were able to buy upgardes for your ankh coins. I think it's good there aren't lifes anymore but I'm not so confident about the upgrading. I mean: the game should get harder as it progresses but (my situation from luxor 3 and 4) if you buy all the upgrades the game is too easy! One scorpion can destroy twenty spheres at once and a well placed fireball can destroy the whole train of spheres! Also, after buying everything in the store, there's nothing to actually do with the coins - they don't have any other purpose than upgrading bonuses in shop (I won't be buying ball sets or shooters because they don't change anything). My thought is that the upgrades should be much smaller. Or maybe the powerups should be rather buyable that upgradable (you start a game with only four powerups: stop, slow, reverse and accuracy, and then you can buy more powerups for your coins).
Shooting speed should be increased to at least the speed you are given when collecting accuracy powerup. I personally think that the delay between the shots is definitely too big. But increasing the speed would also reduce the importance of accuracy powerup. I think that the aimer seen in luxor 2+ should be removed and appear only when you collect accuracy powerup. Another option is that you could upgarde your shooter in the store - every upgrade would increase shooting speed as well as change shooter's appearance and size (the bigger the shooter the more bonuses and powerups you can collect).
Powerups should come randomly, like they did in Luxor 1, 2 and Amun rising. I don't like the idea of bonuses coming out only from certain colours. Also, a powerup should be spawned when you make triple combo or a triple chain. In Luxor 3 and 4 you just have to destroy three sphere groups (example: double combo and a chain will spawn a powerup. Why? I don't know). I think it would also be a good idea to give players the ability to choose which powerups they want in the level.
Some bugs should be fixed, like destroying whole train with a lightning bolt or reversing scarabs with incomparable speeds by activating two chain reactions in a single train (you may say it's a "skill shot" but for me using this bug is simply cheating).
Tracks - I don't have any wrongs about levels in Luxor 3 and older. The thing is about luxor 4 and 5th passage. The tracks there are simply boring and repetitive - nothing original. Also, some of them are too short - in these levels their look is more important than the gameplay. The thing that only appears in Luxor 3 is gates. I think they are a good addition to levels, although sometimes there were problems with them (sometimes a train bumped into another from other route). I don't know why were they scrapped in Luxor 4 and so on.
Some changes should be made with powerups. One powerup shouldn't be able to spawn two or more times in a row. Reverse and stop shouldn't spawn from the last match in a sphere train (to avoid new spheres being rolled back or stopped before even entering the board). Scorpion shouldn't disappear when a sphere train is destroyed before it reaches it.
The danger zone should have two parts - closer and further from the pyramid - and be set by developers idividually for each level. The danger music will not play when spheres are entering the part that is further from the pyramid but it will start playing if they enter the part that is closer to the pyramid. The danger music will stop playing when there are no spheres in both the part closer and further from the pyramid. That is to prevent constant music changes in harder levels.
No accuracy system. It is unnecessary because players may want to do tactical shots to make big combos/chain reactions and the accuracy system prevents them from doing so because the 100% accuracy bonus is much higher than any chain reaction or combo you could make (which is not fair).
That's all I can think of now. Please post which changes do you agree with or disagree with and if you have your own ideas on what should be improved in the Luxor series - don't hesitate to post!
Reduced particle effects like sphere destroying and animations of bonuses. These can be really disorienting and they're getting more and more annoying in each game. For example: luxor 4. Every time you collect a slowdown or stop powerup there's a white mist covering most of the screen for a while. Or when you destroy sphere group, the explosion is really big when compared to original Luxor game. The score, combo, chain etc information should also be displayed on the info bar, not above the spheres.
Scarabs speed: on every luxor game, scarabs are running really quickly through the whole track until they reach near a pyramid where their speed is cut by 2/3 or something like that. That means 90% of gameplay on harder levels comes in the danger zone. You can't even hear the normal music because always when you manage to clear the way to the pyramid, there are next scarabs coming into danger zone. So it doesn't matter how twisted the track is in the beginning or the centre - if the danger zone is a straight line on the bottom of the screen, then this level can be qualified as "easy". This happens to levels like "Threading Cleopatra's needle", "Lair of the jackal god" or "Reigns of the heretic king" and others. My thought then, is to reduce scarabs' speed on the main part of a track and simultanously reduce the speed loss in the danger zone to compensate. This way levels would be more balanced and not taking place only near the pyramid.
Spheres: Due to the above change, it would be also good to remove the sphere color matching to a color of a last sphere in a scarab's train. I mean: when balls enter the danger zone, you will be given to shoot only spheres that match to those closest to the pyramid. That can be more annoying than helpful sometimes, especially when you want to get a certain colour to shoot but it won't come because you have other spheres in danger zone.
Sphere trains: The trains should be shorter but they should come more often after each other. Instead of a time limit between spheres incoming, bring back the system from older games where next train comes after the first one reached around a half of the track. If there's only one train on the board, it will move faster, then, when a next one appears before the first one is destroyed, that newer train will move a bit slower to balance the difficulty and prevent too many scarab crushes.
Bonus after destroying a scarab: one jewel, no matter how close to the pyramid the scarab was. That's because it doesn't matter for the gameplay where the scarab was destroyed and the fact that you killed a scarab in the very beginning/near the pyramid doesn't mean you played good/bad. I think it's more important how long did it take you to finish the whole level. That's why, a similar system as in Zuma would be welcome, with an ace time set and an appropriate bonus if you made it in time.
Information bar should be placed on the bottom of the screen. It's more visible there because your shooter is also there. It would also get rid of an annoying problem when you accidentally press the menu button and the game pauses!
The idea of lifes was abandoned in luxor 3 and 4. Instead of lifes, you were able to buy upgardes for your ankh coins. I think it's good there aren't lifes anymore but I'm not so confident about the upgrading. I mean: the game should get harder as it progresses but (my situation from luxor 3 and 4) if you buy all the upgrades the game is too easy! One scorpion can destroy twenty spheres at once and a well placed fireball can destroy the whole train of spheres! Also, after buying everything in the store, there's nothing to actually do with the coins - they don't have any other purpose than upgrading bonuses in shop (I won't be buying ball sets or shooters because they don't change anything). My thought is that the upgrades should be much smaller. Or maybe the powerups should be rather buyable that upgradable (you start a game with only four powerups: stop, slow, reverse and accuracy, and then you can buy more powerups for your coins).
Shooting speed should be increased to at least the speed you are given when collecting accuracy powerup. I personally think that the delay between the shots is definitely too big. But increasing the speed would also reduce the importance of accuracy powerup. I think that the aimer seen in luxor 2+ should be removed and appear only when you collect accuracy powerup. Another option is that you could upgarde your shooter in the store - every upgrade would increase shooting speed as well as change shooter's appearance and size (the bigger the shooter the more bonuses and powerups you can collect).
Powerups should come randomly, like they did in Luxor 1, 2 and Amun rising. I don't like the idea of bonuses coming out only from certain colours. Also, a powerup should be spawned when you make triple combo or a triple chain. In Luxor 3 and 4 you just have to destroy three sphere groups (example: double combo and a chain will spawn a powerup. Why? I don't know). I think it would also be a good idea to give players the ability to choose which powerups they want in the level.
Some bugs should be fixed, like destroying whole train with a lightning bolt or reversing scarabs with incomparable speeds by activating two chain reactions in a single train (you may say it's a "skill shot" but for me using this bug is simply cheating).
Tracks - I don't have any wrongs about levels in Luxor 3 and older. The thing is about luxor 4 and 5th passage. The tracks there are simply boring and repetitive - nothing original. Also, some of them are too short - in these levels their look is more important than the gameplay. The thing that only appears in Luxor 3 is gates. I think they are a good addition to levels, although sometimes there were problems with them (sometimes a train bumped into another from other route). I don't know why were they scrapped in Luxor 4 and so on.
Some changes should be made with powerups. One powerup shouldn't be able to spawn two or more times in a row. Reverse and stop shouldn't spawn from the last match in a sphere train (to avoid new spheres being rolled back or stopped before even entering the board). Scorpion shouldn't disappear when a sphere train is destroyed before it reaches it.
The danger zone should have two parts - closer and further from the pyramid - and be set by developers idividually for each level. The danger music will not play when spheres are entering the part that is further from the pyramid but it will start playing if they enter the part that is closer to the pyramid. The danger music will stop playing when there are no spheres in both the part closer and further from the pyramid. That is to prevent constant music changes in harder levels.
No accuracy system. It is unnecessary because players may want to do tactical shots to make big combos/chain reactions and the accuracy system prevents them from doing so because the 100% accuracy bonus is much higher than any chain reaction or combo you could make (which is not fair).
That's all I can think of now. Please post which changes do you agree with or disagree with and if you have your own ideas on what should be improved in the Luxor series - don't hesitate to post!