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Flash Party Official
What's this about a shield mechanism?
87 View2021-09-07Happy Monday, Party peeps! Did cha guys have a fantastic weekend?
Today, we’d like to discuss another system we’re currently testing and looking to introduce to the game: the Shield Mechanism! Many of you guys have also been requesting for this, and we thought to share our progress and some challenges we faced/are facing with the system.
Why is there no Shield mechanism in Flash Party?
Frankly speaking, we have had - and are still in ! - in a super long and fierce internal discussion on whether we should add a shield mechanism to Flash Party.
(An example of clashing opinions on adding the Shield mechanism)
Our initial objective is to make Flash Party a simple game so that players can quickly learn and play it anytime, anywhere on mobile devices.Thus, we didn’t design too many buttons on the screen but used “screen-swiping” controls instead, making it more convenient for players to perform skills and fast combos. However, the last thing we want to do is create too steep a learning curve for what is meant to be a traditional fighting game. As such, we eventually decided to add the 3-stage jump as a defense-oriented feature to help players more effectively evade opponent’s attacks.
So why decide to add a Shield mechanism now?
Since more heroes joined Flash Party and more adjustments were made, we realized that it is increasingly difficult to design new heroes and to make sure their abilities are relatively balanced at the same time. When Stickers were first introduced, many people were unhappy about the Danmaku-style gameplay, where there are many flying objects that need to be evaded during the fights, especially in Brawl mode. Furthermore, heroes like Mikko and Sivi have one overpowered skill each: Playful Mikko and Rocket Assault respectively. As long as jumping is the only way of evasion, we have many players spamming these particular skills to force their opponents to react in predictable manners to secure easy K.O.s. Planning a counterattack in these situations would require you to calculate the distance and angle precisely, otherwise you would not be able to cause enough damage to your opponent after the jump.
This is also the biggest problem for novices when they start playing the game, where they may understand the logic behind spamming these OP skills yet have no choice but to follow the same way of ‘evasion’. On the other hand, we can see in pro games that waiting and looking for an opening to attack your opponent is always the best solution. Instead of rushing towards your opponent and getting inside their range of attack, counterattacks are more effective and less risky. As a result, pros spend most of the time jumping repeatedly just to test their opponent and wait for them to make a move first.
What issues can be resolved by adding a Shield mechanism?
Since this will be a mechanism that can be used anytime during battle, it will help reduce the effectiveness of your opponent’s counterattacks. The player who attacks first will have several choices (the mechanism allows players to defend counterattacks while they advance), and have a good chance to dominate the battle. For OP skills like Sivi’s Rocket Assault and Mikko’s Playful Mikko mentioned above, we now have a simpler and direct way to deal with them. For long-range attacks that can cover a large area (flying objects, such as Magician’s cards/flying hat, Cupid’s arrows, Heracles’ meteors, etc.), there is now another method to defend other than jumping, which makes it easier for us to make adjustments to balance heroes’ abilities.
How would the Shield mechanism affect gameplay?
For now, the shield mechanism is designed such that when in battle it can be triggered by overloading the joystick - hard-swiping it to the edge of the button. We envision this system to increase the speed at which players are fighting in battles. At the same time, we want to make sure it does not make your controls too complicated. Unlike conventional skills for counterattack, e.g. Sophia’s Down Special – Home Base Comeback, the Shield mechanism will not trigger an attack automatically, or increase the power of follow-up attacks. Rather, it will used to create more opportunities. Making use of these opportunities properly will also require extra time to respond as a cost. Therefore, we will continue to monitor and optimize the control and handling, and cater to the needs for players at different levels:
- Novice players: Able to use the shield mechanism as a simplistic method to deal with all OP skills. Will have minimal effect on the overall experience if they cannot use it.
- Mid-range players: Can use the shield mechanism and increase the diversity of counterattacks. Will have a clear impact on the battle.
- High-end players: Combine the use of shield mechanism with skills to outplay the opponent and increase the pace of battles.
Our current concerns and future directions:
The addition of the shield mechanism will undoubtedly affect the overall balance of heroes’ abilities. For instance, it will weaken OP skills (e.g. Rocket Assault, Playful Mikko, etc. ) or reduce the tactical advantage of flying objects. Even Alice’s Magic Claw may or may not be able to break the defense! There are many remaining issues for us to look into, and we will do our best to find solutions that are satisfactory for all of us.
Have any ideas you’d like to share regarding the shield mechanism? Leave your comments below and let us know!
Till next time,
XD
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Comments
View desktop siteTapTap looks better
on the app 
FIX THE PING FIRST INSTEAD
2021-09-07
Hi Kim, may I know which country you are currently in? Could you log in the game and send us your network test (in settings)? Right now if you can not find a match within your region, our matchmaking server will expand the search scale to other regions. Matches across different regions can lead to high ping and bad connections.
2021-09-08
Shield still takes damage but does not knock back or shield weakens if it continues to be attacked. Or maybe the shield is only able to take 100% damage per life. If it reaches 100% the shield cannot be used. or imitate ssBross mechanic.
2021-09-08
That's why 1vs1 not my priority mode to play. Becoz they wait for chance to counter attack. Thats make game to boring.
2021-09-07
Me too
2021-09-08