Creating A Boss

By Will Fox

4/7/2023

Hey everyone!

After a little break from development, I decided that I would work on creating a fun and interactive boss. This was definitely a lot more difficult than I had imagined. The original boss I was working off of was named the Lich Boss which was quite literally a bigger version of the Lich enemy. There really wasn't anything unique about it. It simply summoned some additional enemies to hit you, shot some fireballs your direction, and created a couple of fire tornados that would just go in one straight line. This version of the boss was super easy and simple and - to be honest - was quite boring. The only difficulty was its massive health pool which was 1000 hit points. On top of that, the base slime that the player plays as only does 10 damage per hit. So, it takes 100 total left clicks to take down this boss. But, that wasn't all. The original boss was also invulnerable for its entire attacking phase. Between attacking phases, the boss would become vulnerable for 10-15 seconds. That was the only opportunity the player had to do damage. So, long story short, this boss was extremely OP and boring at the same time. Not a good combination if you ask me.

Having seen the flaws of this boss, I decided and override would be necessary. I began this by coming up with some unique attacks that only this boss could use and could not be seen anywhere else. Here are some of the abilities I decided on. 

Of course, the boss will have its basic attack which is just a fireball. However, compared to the other abilities, this was pretty insignificant. The ability that the Lich uses after a couple of basic attacks is the fire tornado. Yes, the original Lich boss had fire tornados. But those ones spawned directly on top of the boss and moved in a straight line. These new fire tornados spawned relative to the players location and would follow them around. This would make sure that the player could never stand still. Following this, the Lich would use his next ability, fire rain. When this ability is cast, a massive cloud appears above the arena and begins to rain down fire balls. This lasts for around 15 seconds. So, although this ability isn't accurate, its the duration that makes it lethal. And finally, the last ability that the Lich can use is called the "void." My group member Zak created this ability and really pulled this boss together. The void ability will suck in anything that is too close and completely immobilizes them. This makes it super good for combining abilities together. 

The Void Ability

This void ability is super powerful, so I didn't want the ability to be used regularly in the ability rotation. So, instead, I made it so that the Lich Boss would only cast this ability when it is below 50% HP. Essentially, whenever the Lich Boss used fire rain when under 50% health, the fire rain would actually follow the player around. In order to make this more dangerous, the Lich would also toss out a void. If the player gets stuck in it while running from the rain, it is almost guaranteed death.

Fire Rain Cloud

Unfortunately, there are still a couple of bugs and kinks that need to be worked out. For starters, the fire rain when it follows the player acts extremely strange whenever the player moves after the ability gets cast. Obviously, this is bad because the entire point of the fire rain is to follow around the player. And if it doesn't act as intended, then the ability isn't as dangerous as we'd like it to be. To explain what happens, when the fire rain is summoned above the player - when below 50% hp - a consistent line of fireballs is poured down directly on top of the player. However, when the player moves, the fire rain becomes extremely random and the rain seems to go wherever the player isn't. It's very strange but hopefully I can debug it soon.

The logic that checks if the lich is below 50% health

Another issue that I have ran into is trying to make the Lich activate his more powerful abilities when he's under 50% health whenever he wants. To be honest, I have really spent too much time debugging it, but I am aware that it is an issue that will definitely be off putting to the player. To further explain, the Lich Boss has a set line of abilities he is supposed to use in a certain order. Basic attack, fire tornados, fire rain, basic attacks, break, and then start over from the beginning. But, here's the thing. If the player does not drop the Lich's health bar below 50% hp until after the break, the Lich will not use his new abilities that rotation. The logic set up for "break" is what checks to see if the Lich is below that threshold. If not, then the Lich will continue like normal until the next rotation. I don't think this is too big of a deal, but, it is definitely something that would make this boss a lot more fun. But, that is about all I have to share for this week! Thanks for reading.