by tomasz » Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:15 pm
Bomberman is a great idea!
In my opinion power ups and teleports would make programming complex and simple minmax solution would still be useful.
I would rather add timers to bombs.
Player can place a bomb and set, how many rounds it takes to go off (i.e. ranging from 1 to 10 rounds).
Other players see where the bomb is placed, but they don't see when it will go off.
One bomberman can only set one bomb at a time.
This opens room for strategic play and eliminates "best solution" without adding much programming complexity.
For example:
1. Player can set up bomb to explode after 10 rounds and hope, that enemies will stay away in fear, that it can go off in next round.
2. Player can suicide one soldier, and set up bomb to go off after one round, just to destroy enemy bombs and push with more units or he can wait, until other player mines go off.
3. Hardcore players can use some math and probability theory to predict, how other players set their bomb timers.
4. Or they can search nearest bombermans. If nearest bomber is 9 moves away, the bomb has to explode in the next round.
To make things even simpler, I wouldn't put food on the map. I would rather spawn new bomberman every n rounds.
I would also eliminate fog of war.
Ants were brilliant, because player had to balance between spreading (to gather food) and crowding (to fight).
In bomberman, you have to spread your soldiers (otherwise, they will kill each other) and you have to coordinate to trap and kill enemies.
There is one thing, that I would steal from ants and it is anthill. Place, where new bombermans are created, that can be destroyed for points. However, I am afraid, it could be too easy to destroy by a suicide-bomber. I think, it should have something like 20 hp points, that regenerate (i.e. 1hp per round) and one bomb takes 10 hp. This way enemy has to coordinate two bombs at the same time or at least three one after another.
I know, I know, this is complex, so if anyone has a better idea, let me know!
