Difference between revisions of "Spaceship Shenanigans"
(→Gameplay) |
(→Scoring) |
||
| Line 88: | Line 88: | ||
==Scoring== | ==Scoring== | ||
| − | Cash is awarded for each Wasp destroyed in any phase. Bonus cash is awarded for collecting cargo boxes. A special cash bonus is awarded for defeating the Wasp commander at the end of the level. | + | Cash is awarded for each Wasp destroyed in any phase. Bonus cash is awarded for collecting cargo boxes. A special cash bonus is awarded for defeating the Wasp commander at the end of the level. (The actual values of the cash will be determined along with the Colony Simulator design) |
Revision as of 13:48, 13 June 2008
Contents
Summary
This game resembles the arcade game Missile Command, and tests distribution and shifting of attention, and the effect of multimodal (auditory and visual) stimuli.
Premise
The WSS White Giant is under attack! It is your job as Tactical Officer to guide the defense system to aid your fighters in shooting down incoming squadrons of enemy Wasp aircrafts as well as colony against the attacks from the Wasp commander itself.
Objective
Protect the WSS White Giant, destroy all enemy Wasp aircrafts, and defeat the Wasp commander.
Characters
Cheetah C-24 Fighter: See Meteor Madness
WSS White Giant: The colony that needs to be defended. It is armed with a Mobile Laser Defense Turret (MLDT) as its primary means of defense. It also gets support from the various C-24 fighters it carries.
Wasp Fighters: Basic Wasp aircraft. They attack WSI ships in waves and kamikazi into the colony to take out its defenses.
Cargo Box: This rewards resources and warps in right next to the colony.
Wasp Commander: Enemy commander who's impervious to almost all attacks. After the main Wasp force fails, directly assaults the colony.
Gameplay
Colony Defense
The player defends the WSS White Giant, the Colony, in the center of the screen, floating somewhere in space. This colony is armed with a mobile laser defense turret (MLDT) capable of firing charged lasers from the colony to the edge of the screen. The MLDT hovers around the edge of the colony and sweeps clockwise (right arrow) or counter-clockwise (left arrow) along the circular defense perimeter.
As game play progresses, various enemy alien aircrafts, Wasps, appear from off screen and dive at the colony in the center of the screen in an attempt to destroy it. Later on in the game, friendly ships, C-24 fighters, will appear from off screen as well, though less frequently. They will then begin to assist in the attack on the enemy alien aircrafts, which will fight back against the C-24s.
In addition to enemies, cargo boxes appear. Cargo is warped in directly next to the colony. When this is about to happen, a cue signal is sent out by the colony letting the player know from what direction the cargo will appear.
Shooting
Releasing the spacebar fires the turret laser. Pressing the spacebar will stop the ship and holding the spacebar down will charge up the laser to increase coverage area. There is no cooldown on the laser. The laser shoots to the edge of the screen.
Cargo
In 20% of all stages (this proportion may change), a cargo box materializes right at the defense perimeter (how often?). It will appear either to the left, right, above, or below the colony. An early-warning system displays a large, 10 hz (50% duty cycle) flashing arrow at the center of the display, in the middle of the player's base. The arrow appears either 100 ms (one flash) or 800 ms (eight flashes) prior to the materialization of the enemy ship, and remains until the cargo materializes. The player then has until 800 ms after the cargo materializes before it warps out.
The early-warning system is fallable. 20% of the time, it indicates a sector 180º away from the cargo's actual sector. In addition, in half of the trials, the arrow is accompanied by a klaxon (100 hz square wave modulated at 10 hz in synchrony with the arrow), and in the other half there is no klaxon. This aspect of the task combines a variation of a centrally cued Posner attention paradigm (testing effects of cue validity and cue-target onset asynchrony) (Posner et al. 1987) with a test of multi modal cueing advantage (visual only or visual and auditory).
Phases
Phase 1
Enemy ships fly in from off screen and fly toward the base. Enemy ships might vary their path slightly and move at a constant speed. Enemy ships aim to crash into the perimeter to weaken it, increasing the base's vulnerability to attack and decreasing(?) the player's energy resources.
Stage 1
1 enemy ship spawns 2 seconds after the player clicks 'Start'. Enemy ships spawn one at a time 2 seconds after the previous ship is destroyed. A total of 10 enemy ships will spawn.
Stage 2
2 enemy ships spawn 2 seconds after the player clicks 'Start'. Enemy ships spawn two at a time 2 seconds after the last visible ship is destroyed. A total of 20 enemy ships will spawn.
Stage 3
1 enemy ship spawns 2 seconds after the player clicks 'Start'. Enemy ships spawn one at a time every 3 seconds. A total of 10 enemy ships will spawn.
Stage 4
2 enemy ships spawn 2 seconds after the player clicks 'Start'. Enemy ships spawn two at a time every 3 seconds. A total of 20 enemy ships will spawn.
Phase 2 (Distractor Session):
Friendly ships (distractors) fly in from off screen and orbit the base. Friendly ships randomly(how random?) fire at enemy ships. Enemy ships randomly(how random?) fire at friendly ships. When completing the game, the more friendly ships left alive, the more resources awarded (how much?). This is a positive incentive.
Reaction time within this paradigm measures the player's ability to distribute attention across a broad field in the presence or absence of distractors.
Phase 2 repeats the same stages as phase 1 in regards to enemy spawning.
Friendly ships spawn 20% of the time each enemy spawns. A friendly ship can randomly spawn in any of the four quadrants with equal chance.
Boss Battle
Based on the basic five-box test from J. Townsend et al. - Brain Cognitive Research II.
After enough(?) waves of Wasps have been destroyed, the Wasp commander appears above the colony and starts to attack it. The Wasp commander is a large floating head with several eyes (5 or 7), sharp pointy teeth, and antennas that the commander shoots lasers at the colony and MLDT from. The player must continue to use the MLDT in order to kill or(?) at least drive away the Wasp commander while dodging the laser blasts it emits.
In order for the player to actually be able to damage the commander, they must shoot at its weak point: one of its eyes (the attended location). The vulnerable eye will be colored slightly different from the others which will let the player know that that is their target, all other eyes simply pose as distractors since a successful shot at one does nothing to the commander. Only one eye opens at a time (the stimulus). When the player fires the laser, it will automatically aim at the target eye. When no stimulus is visible, the MLDT fires at the impervious exoskeletal armor of the commander, essentially doing nothing.
Scoring
Cash is awarded for each Wasp destroyed in any phase. Bonus cash is awarded for collecting cargo boxes. A special cash bonus is awarded for defeating the Wasp commander at the end of the level. (The actual values of the cash will be determined along with the Colony Simulator design)
