Preferred SHMUP Style for Enemy Collisions

I'm creating a SHMUP for the Wii U and am debating whether or not I should have enemy ships collide with the player or not. I've seen it done both ways in various SHMUPs, but was wondering what others thought about this issue.

 

Yes. It's what I'm used to. Never played one where you don't.

 

Well, apparently, in Mars Matrix you can't collide with enemies. And some games, like Ikaruga have such a small hit box that it's virtually like enemy collisions don't exist. So, what about a hit box that encompasses the entire ship and not just a small area of the ship? I guess that's what I'm essentially asking.

 

What I've typically seen is the ships body itself collides. But any collected bonuses or add ons don't.

Adding and removing colliders is hardly a difficult exercise. I'd suggest playing with both options and seeing which works.

 

Since I don't have much of a clue what the pro's and con's are, it's hard to say either way. I would imagine it's mostly dependent on what the visuals are like. If the enemies stand out well, then it should be your fault for hitting them. Otherwise the only reason I can think to care of is whether it's possible to damage enemies by colliding (in a mode or something).

 

I think this would mainly be a decision you make based on whether you're going for a sort of bullet hell shooter with tons of things that can hit the player on screen most of the time (use a tiny collider) or you're going for a smarter shooter with less things that can damage the player but each of them is more effective (use a fuller size collider). Basically.... more things on-screen to harm player smaller collider, less things on-screen to harm the player use a larger collider. Never larger than the player itself of course.

 

I'm used to taking hits from all enemies, bullets, and even explosions/shards in some games. I also believe that most players will by instinct avoid enemies as they are likely used to it. As long as things are fair, and slightly favor the player(due to hit box fairness), you should be fine that way.

 

There was that mechanic in Raptor where if you got a phase shield your hit box expanded to cover the entire area covered by the shield. While it never made sense to play without a shield, it did mean your shields drained slightly faster then your regular armour.

 

I think just in terms of basic usability, if you can be killed by hitting an enemy bullet, then it sort of implies that you should also get killed when you hit the enemy itself ... it doesnt have to be that way but that's probably what most people assume. Most shootemups focus on 'avoiding hitting bad things'.

 

Those both sound completely terrible (no collisions and tiny hit boxes). I hope I never play a shooter like that.

I think "normal" games have a hit box the size of the ship.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. It looks like I've been on the right track all along.

 

Uhmmm Ikaruga is probably one of the best "mainstream" shmups there are. Also, tiny hit boxes are actually extremely common in bullet hell games, otherwise it'd be pretty much impossible to avoid all the bullets. See: mushihimesama, all the touhou games, etc.

 

I suppose that's true, but Frontier Guard is definitely not a bullet hell style game. So, the hit box, although not the full size of the ship, is closer to it. I'll adjust it as the game progresses and playtesting indicates changes would make it more survivable. So far, it seems to be working well as-is.

 

Must be a recent (read: after 1990 lol) thing. Zanac's hit box was the size of the ship, and that's definitely bullet hell. It's not impossible to avoid all the bullets, but it takes skill.

I would feel like I'm cheating if I noticed the hit box was smaller than the ship, and that would make me dislike such a game for that fact.

 

For bullets if they are tiny, just make some center bullet coordinates test against player ship hitbox.
You can use many degrees of collision checking if the player ship is detailled and not a box like testing collision against player ship general box collision , if the test occurs , then test in detail if the collision happens with player ship sub parts.

I prefer player ship to collide with ennemies ship it makes more sense, like Raystorm player ship don't collide only when ennemies are not in the same horizontal plane and coming from a deeper plane background.
Or you would be making a new original shooter where player ship would be like some ghost only damaged by bullets and not by ennemies ships, why not ?