something bold/crazy mechanically that takes Metroid combat and exploration from the ground to the sky
FOR EXAMPLE
I shared this idea at gamefaqs. I'll try to articulate it a little differently here.
I don't know if I'm using the right term here, but here it goes. Hover Over/Hover Box - description displayed as a result of hovering a cursor over a button. For example. Hover cursor over Start button and see "Start".
Try to imagine Metroid Prime 4's world and its inhabitants infused with Hover Actions. Anything you target will feed anywhere from 1 to 8 unique actions to you to be accessed via the control palettes (like in Metroid Prime, Xenoblade Chronicles 2's Arts and Blades Palettes, and so on).
The actions are based on the abilities you start with and upgrades you'd acquire throughout the game, but a group from the development team would be tasked with imagining a crazy amount of ways for Samus to use these abilities.
Many actions would be fed consistently. Many combinations (actions fed as a result of actions used merely a couple of seconds prior to) would also be consistent. But there would be a TON of surprising "Rare" actions that happen as a result of meeting all the right conditions in combat or in exploration.
Those conditions can also include how Samus is equipped. How would you ever get an action that depends on Level 1 Ice Beam if Ice Beam is disabled? Enter that idea of Equipment Sets and being able to swap between them instantly enough to make it critical to advanced chaining of actions.
There's also the concept of Lock-Ons to Queue Actions and Execute Sequence. Here is a small example involving two Locks.
-target side of mountain
-1 of 8 options becomes "Hyper Dash Sequence"
-lock on (1st Target)
-*see squad of floating enemies off in the distance you'd pass by running along the side of the mountain*
-lock on to one ("Single Missile" - 2nd Tartget)
-lock on to another ("Freeze" - 3rd Target)
-switch equipment set and hover over final enemy of squad
-lock on to it ("Morph Ball Bomb w/ Icy Wind Propeller Effect")
-Press _ to Execute
Now watch the sequence you crafted from all the actions you could have chosen.
If you're not locking-on, then actions are only available to you for the time you are hovering over something that would make those actions available to you. The best example is some of the unique ways you can attack an enemy. While pointing at the enemy, you may have a Rapid Ice Beam option. The moment you point at something else, that and all other 7 or so actions become something else on the action palettes.
Well, that's the gist of it, at least. It's important to me that players not be given SOLUTIONS to "maze" problems (exploration). So with that in mind, there's a big challenge to all of this. If by simply pointing and being told you can Hyper Dash or some 7 other actions, that means you didn't have to think much about using Hyper Dash as a solution to making progress. I want to think more about that because one of the things I'd also want out of Prime 4 is a VERY difficult maze. I mean I want to be STOMPED frequently (not always, but so often that the experience becomes a pleasant memory for all the times (because the satisfaction of figuring it out is that good). i don't know. Maybe one solution is in the concept of "Queued Solutions" (the actions you choose to queue in sequence).
Eh. I know this is getting messy now, but I hope this post is understandable.
