There are two aspects to scoring that are equally important but also equally separate. It's important to distinguish between the two early on.
- Meter Level - this describes the current value of the "score meter", which determines the score multiplication bonus, game over status, and how many special effects are kicking in.
- Score - this is a straight up point value that represents how well the player has done. it will be what is recorded on the high scores table.
meter level
for now, I suggest that the Meter Level™ has a range between 0 and 120. The following levels correspond to the different score multipliers:
- 0 - game over
- 25 - 1x multiplier
- 50 - 2x multiplier
- 75 - 3x multiplier
- 100 - 4x multiplier
these line up with the markers on the meter in the game background. A Meter Level™ of 100 should fill up the bar too 100%. Capping the level at 120 allows the player to keep a 4x score multiplier with the gradual decay of the Meter Level™ as described below.
adjusting the meter
whenever a cat is let into the club the Meter Level™ is adjusted based on their attributes. There are three categories to consider:
- the cat has at least one attribute on the "not allowed" list
- the cat's worth starts -5 Meter Level™
- additional 5 Meter Level is subtracted for each bad attribute for a maximum of -20 Meter Level™
-5 - (5 * numberOfBadAttributes)
- the cat has no matching attributes on the VIP list, good or bad
- the cat is worth -5 Meter Level™
- the cat has at least one attribute on the "required attributes: list
- the cat is worth +5 Meter Level™ for each matching attribute for a maximum of 15 Meter Level™
5 * numberOfGoodAttributes
note that a single bad attribute makes the cat worth negative Meter Level™. also, the Meter Level™ is unaffected by the score multiplier - it goes up and down at a constant rate.
meter decay
in order for the game to apply pressure the Meter Level must go down continuously. I'm not sure what a good rate for this is but maybe start at -1 Meter Level™ a second and we can balance from there. This gives the player a few seconds to make a decision and also accounts for a string of bad luck. As the game progresses this rate can increase to force the player to make faster decisions.
score
scoring should be a one-way street, as in the player's score never goes down. I'm thinking that a good way to track score is a cat's Meter Level™ modifier multiplied by the score multiplier before the Meter Level™ is adjusted. Take the following example -
Meter Level: 70
Score Multiplier: 2x
Cat has 3 matching attributes: 15 Meter Level
Total Score: 15 * 2 = +30 points
Meter Level increases to 85
Score Multiplier increases to 3x
combos?
maybe each consecutive scoring cat can be worth an additional 5 * (theCurrentCombo - 1) points. this would mean that, for 3 cats in a row that are each scored for 5 points individually they are actually worth 5 + (5 + 5) + (5 + 10) = 30 points, with combos also being affected by the score multiplier. I think this should be considered polish though, and may need some more thought.
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