This feature surrounds the systems needed for a full implementation of loot dropping from enemies and chests.
What loot currently does and why it needs improvement:
Loot is currently very static and rigid in appearance. When an enemy dies they drop a single sprite of loot that stays on that tile and floats until collected.
When it is collected, it just vanishes and there’s only a very loose connection to UI such as numbers counting up for a second.
This experience needs to be improved as it’s such a consistent and frequent aspect of playing the game. Right now it doesn’t feel or look rewarding.
Loot Pinata’ing and Physics Driven Scattering:
When enemies are destroyed I’d like for them to release their loot as one or more 2D sprites object that also contains a physics collider.
Some objects such as treasure will be small and multiple objects. (eg: 1 treasure value = 1 sprite) With high levels of distance deviation away from the originating tile.
Some other loot objects will be singular and not deviate much from the original tile. Dropping to the floor quickly and being picked up just as quickly if the player was still standing there.
This physics collider will drop the items to the floor in a dynamic way and these loot objects will bounce a few times before coming to rest on the floor.
These objects will bounce off and not occupy environmental objects such as pillars, walls, and tables.
Once the loot object comes to rest it will no longer move around until it is picked up by the player.
Player Loot Collecting:
The player character will have a “Loot Collection Radius” around them that will determine how close they need to be to loot in order to collect it.
The larger the radius, the more area the player the player can pick-up loot without needing to travel to each tile.
This size radius will be a tweakable value that the player will be able to improve as the player progresses through the game.
Picked up Loot Traveling to a UI location:
When loot is picked up by the player, the 2D object sprite that represents that loot will transition into becoming a UI object and then travel from it’s current world location to a pre-selected location on the UI.
This pre selected location will correspond to the type of loot that it is. ie: Treasure Loot will travel tot he treasure UI location. Health to Health. Etc.
This should have tweakable values such as speed of travel, the “Curve” of travel the loot takes to hit the UI, etc. So the designer can experiment and find the right conditions.