Rolling Back
Once again, playtesting served as a wonderful source of information. Not only on the sessions I managed to organize in person, but after seeing all of the AM2R Demo playtrhoughs on YouTube, I noticed something... Nobody ever switches the ice beam off. The beam system was planned to be a little more complex than the original Super Metroid stacks. There's a base damage value, that goes up every time you get a new beam, and some modifiers, that are part of each beam's features. In theory, this gives the player many ways of approaching situations. Having Plasma Beam enabled makes the beam hit multiple times, but the damage is lower. Spazer spreads the base damage on each beam, and with some extra damage, you'll need at least 2 beams hitting an enemy for an actual damage boost. It was getting a little painful to balance. On each revision the beam combinations went from really impractical pea shooters to extremely overpowered. And, in all cases, having all 4 beams enabled ...