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Creating the anticipation of an encounter can be almost as important as the encounter itself. I was in the fortunate situation, being the designer, to plan for this building of tension by allotting space for a number of pre-combat mutant encounters.
Reference of critical path through the established pre-combat route.
Pre-combat encounter #1
The next few slides will provide a simplified visual demonstration of the "LOS Spawn Group" system.
In the current slide, the player's start position is marked by the blue circle. The mutant spawn-points are represented by the red diamond-shaped holes throughout the area.
In the current slide, the player's start position is marked by the blue circle. The mutant spawn-points are represented by the red diamond-shaped holes throughout the area.
As soon as the player steps into the combat-space, the spawn-points that fall within the player's L.O.S. become active and the first group of mutants spawn.
The player begins moving along the wall to their left in order to avoid the charging mutants. The player kills the majority of the first wave, but now find themselves facing a whole new collection of spawners.
Mutants continue to emerge in front of the player and attack as long as the predetermined AI threshhold has not been reached.
As you have probably predicted, once again, the player's evasive locomotion has again brought them to a different spot within the combat space, again resulting in a new collection of spawners becoming active.
The core philosophy behind this spawn-system should by now be relatively clear. The player traverses naturally through the combat-space, all-the-while mutants spawn in front of them where they can make an informed judgement about tactical strategy moving forward.
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Conclusions conclusions conclusions....