Airstrike bonuses

[Eero Tamminen]

BONUSES
=======

"Bonus machine" at the top of the screen creates a new balloon every
30secs.  When balloon "breaks", a random bonus appears in it's place.

Currently only bird bonus does anything. It makes birds to follow the
object which got the bonus, but I've thought to remove that because I
like it more when birds follow each other. Then they don't clump
together. Also, IMHO bonuses should affect only planes, not other
objects existing on screen.

Here's a suggestion about what bonuses there could be and how they
would work. I'd like you to comment on them and suggest new bonuses
before we get into actual implementation:

Balloon
  All the bonus balloons follow player until player's plane dies.
  (eero)

Bomb
  Player gets one (or two) more bomb. (ulf)

Cannon
  Cannon does not shoot if player's plane is on the way. (ulf)

Cloud
  Cloud appears from either side of the screen and disappears when it
  floats off the other side. (eero)

Heart
  Computer plane stops shooting the player and just chases his/her
  plane, trailing hearts, until player's plane dies or 15 sec has
  expired, whichever happens first. (eero)

Parachute
  Pilot gets a claustrofobic fit and jumps off the plane with parachute.
  You have to hit the hangar to get a new plane (with full energy &
  bombs), otherwise you die. (ulf)

Plus
  Player energy is restored back to maximum. (ulf)

Ufo
  Ufo appears from the top and starts shooting "heat-seeking" missiles
  at the player. It stops / disappears only when either player's plane
  or the ufo die. (ulf)

Zeppelin
  A new zeppelin appears which starts to follow the player until
  either zeppelin or player's plane is killed. (eero)


So, Ufo bonus is dangerous, zeppelin, parachute, cloud and balloon
bonuses could be annoying and others are beneficial.  Do you think
this is good balance so that player got enough incentive to try to
catch them (and accidentally get the nasty 'ufo' bonus :))?


Also, I've thought that there could be two variations of some of these
bonuses, First variant would affect the player who got the bonus and
the other variant the player's opponent. Meaning that you should check
e.g the color of plus/energy bonus before catching it...

(There are already images (no code) for most of the above bonuses in
Airstrike game, but I'm going to redo the graphics a bit when I have
time.)


      - Eero