Boss Ideas

Okay, I have come to a bit of a creator block in my Legend of Maui level. Now, I am going to have a boss battle against a volcano. As far as the Volcanoes attacks go, eruptions, emiting enemies etc will be fairly easy. I have an easy system to create different "stages" for the battle, so I can make attack patterns easily.

What I am having problems with is how the player will damage the boss. I don't have the MGS pack, and brains won't work as the volcano is largely stationary. What am I looking at? Either a grab switch attack, or preferably, a sticker switch system.

I am thinking of having sticker switch sequences, where you will have 20 seconds or so to make your move. You will be able to select basic attacks, an attack that will give you a shield and do little damage, etc.

Basically, I want ideas for attacks, or another way of damaging him. Jetpacks are out of the question, as are swords like in Azure Palace. Any help will be appreciated.

I can do almost anything regarding technical wizardry, so don't worry about that!

Ok, check this out. I have no idea how this will work but this is a sweet idea: After you get through a set of attacks, or kill previously mentioned emitted enemies, the volvano should emit some sork of large rock or block or whatever to fit the fight's looks. On the block have a custom sticker, so the sack boy/girl has to use the sticker popit, remove it from the block and place it on a sticker switch before the block dissolves. This way you can set the life time of the block, and maybe the sticker goes away with it? Not sure. If not you can do something like in the first stage of MGS pack which you don't have, you use a bullet sticker and "shoot" moving objects as they fly in and out of view... the switches can be attached to a HUGE X way and gate, where X is the number of hits to kill the boss, and the output of the and gate should be set to one shot, and attached to a protected brain to kill the boss in the end.

You will need some sort of sheltered area probably since you are defenseless when in the pop it menu picking stickers and what not. Still this would be fun to play.

Problem is sticker switches are one use only. Having to use a sticker more than once will require different areas to attack and even then it's very easy just to expand the sticker to get inside all the trigger radii.

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Originally Posted by Shermzor

Problem is sticker switches are one use only. Having to use a sticker more than once will require different areas to attack and even then it's very easy just to expand the sticker to get inside all the trigger radii.

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That's not true (if I understood you right). If you put a second trigger-sticker on top of the first, you'll see that the switch is triggered again. You can even re-use the first sticker by using your sticker-decorations-tool! Perhaps you got another impression because in the story levels, sticker switches always seem to be combined with permenant switches. But anyhow, from experience I can say they can be triggered any number of times.

*Edit: brilliant avatar Luckyshot*

the gunshot sticker from the MGS pack would work perfectly with fighting a boss.

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Originally Posted by LuckyShot

Ok, check this out. I have no idea how this will work but this is a sweet idea: After you get through a set of attacks, or kill previously mentioned emitted enemies, the volvano should emit some sork of large rock or block or whatever to fit the fight's looks. On the block have a custom sticker, so the sack boy/girl has to use the sticker popit, remove it from the block and place it on a sticker switch before the block dissolves. This way you can set the life time of the block, and maybe the sticker goes away with it? Not sure. If not you can do something like in the first stage of MGS pack which you don't have, you use a bullet sticker and "shoot" moving objects as they fly in and out of view... the switches can be attached to a HUGE X way and gate, where X is the number of hits to kill the boss, and the output of the and gate should be set to one shot, and attached to a protected brain to kill the boss in the end.

You will need some sort of sheltered area probably since you are defenseless when in the pop it menu picking stickers and what not. Still this would be fun to play.

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That is a good idea.

Come on guys! Can any of you think of better ideas. I'd preferably like to go without sticker switches, and use grab switches instead, in some shape or form. Or something to do with a magnetic key.

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Originally Posted by Wonko the Sane

That's not true (if I understood you right). If you put a second trigger-sticker on top of the first, you'll see that the switch is triggered again. You can even re-use the first sticker by using your sticker-decorations-tool! Perhaps you got another impression because in the story levels, sticker switches always seem to be combined with permenant switches. But anyhow, from experience I can say they can be triggered any number of times.

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So you have to remove the first sticker then re-use it? Still seems pretty inefficient but what about if you had a thin layer on top of what was being destroyed, would that ignore the infamous massive sticker of doom because it's on another layer?

Good question. I'm not defending the efficiency of sticker switches though. I once tried to make a moving object controllable with a s-switch and that didn't works so well indeed. The camere starts getting in your way if you open popit and the cursor is pretty slow. So, Dkjestrup, you should try it for yourself on some test-object before you build a whole boss around it.

I'd definitely recommend making the goal to drag objects to the mouth of the volcano while dodging attacks. Drop them in the hole to stop the volcano. Could work with or without a jetpack, although a jetpack might be more fun.

Do you want the boss to disappear (volcano vanishes) or just go dormant (stops attacking) at the end of the fight?

For the first case, I recommend using a hidden, protected brain inside the volcano. Attach a switch set to once on the brain. Sackboy's goal is to activate that switch, which destroys the volcano. For example, the switch could be a magnetic key switch in the volcano's mouth. Drop an object into the volcano's mouth with a magnetic key on it. The key switch activates, pops the brain and kills the volcano.

Otherwise, you can place the attack emitters on dissolve material to accomplish the same thing. Alternatively, you can attach an on/off switch to the attacks so they stop when the objective is complete.

You can also make it require more than one shot to finish off the volcano. An easy way to accomplish this would be have the mouth of the volcano lead to a narrow pit. Partway up the pit have a magnetic key switch set to directional and wired to a piston. The piston has a magnetic key on it with a switch at the maximum extension of the piston. This switch is set to once and attached to the brain or mechanism that stops the emitters from operating. What will happen is the objects will fall into the mouth of the volcano and down into the pit. They will pass the magnetic switch and activate it briefly. The piston will expand but not finish expanding because the object quickly falls past the magnetic switch. Since the switch is set to directional the piston will then contract. However, once the pit is filled to the proper level, the magnetic key is permanently activated causing the piston to completely expand and finishing the fight.

Dropping rocks in the volcano could be an idea.

I would like more ideas on HOW to attack it. I can do the switches, and the attacks, but as far as HOW the player deals damage, I'm not sure.

maybe, since volcanoes are pretty big... you can run up and down his sides, pulling rocks out of the hillside?

also, if you can think of a way to do it, putting something waterlike in the mouth of the volcano would work. perhaps you could make a common garden watering can emit paintballs into the top of the volcano. you could make the watering can emit a paintball when you tip it, as a one-shot.

also, you might consider plugging the top of the volcano with something, bananas from the monkeys, for instance. or on the same note, you might "sacrifice" a lot of bananas in order to make the volcano happy.

my first thoughts for fighting a volcano was. having the use of explosives create your own dynamite stic to the side of the volcano while dodging dangerous objects. run back for the dinamite trigger boom! volcano loses pressure.

have maybe 4 places to do this and the last one makes the volcano go kaput.

thats just a main objective you can make add more to it to make it more challengiing/interesting.

Maybe once you get to a certain stage in the fight, an object is emitted that can bounce back the rocks from the eruption. Kind of like the Construction Site battle. After a certain amount of rocks fall back in, the volcano blows itself up.

When you talk about volcanos, the first thing that came to my mind was throwing sacrifices into it. - Like that bad movie back in the day "Joe Vs. The Volcano"...

You could toss little sack people in...

Or modify a paintball to be a water balloon... - you could build a catapult they have to pull around to shoot lava flows with paintballs, or something.

Maybe you can make the volcano out of stone AND dissolve. Like rigged lines of dissolve that look like jagged lines running down the side of the mountain. Of course you have to sticker these lines of dissolve so they aren't green. So as far as the fight: Either avoid attacks and be rewarded with a rock to stick in the mouth of the volcano... OR you can somehow reflect rocks that fall from it erupting BACK into the mouth. Like maybe palm trees that SPRING rocks back if you time a switch sequence right. Anyway my awesome idea here is that when you get 3 rocks in it's mouth, it gets stuffed - then you can use an earthquake effect (See my Nature Tech Demo level PSN: LuckyShot for a free earthquake camera) to show that the volcano is trying to erupt. But since it's stuffed, instead of erupting, it blows up! A couple perfectly triggered explosives and a switch on the dissolve previously mentioned would cause the whole volcano to topple to the ground. Game, set, match.

I've decided:

Stage One: Boss emits enemies. After you kill both, the boss emits a rock, you put in a crossbow/cannon type thing, hits boss, does damage. x3

Stage Two: Boss emits basic attack pattern, then one enemy. Then emits the rock. The rock has a thin layer of dissolve on in, which is on fire. You must use your water attack (sticker) on it to dissolve the fire, and place it in the cannon/cross bow. Repeat x2

Stage Three: Parts of the ground turn into geysers, turning on for 3 seconds and off for 7. The boss uses an advanced pattern, no enemies. Then he emits the block. The boss destroys the cannon, so you must get the bird to fly up the rock, and drop it in. X2 for the win.

Boss will be downsized to be able to fit on screen, with a semi-comic appearance.