Remove the Hard Border on the Map Edges

[toxic anchor]

Running into the edge of the map is awkward, especially for the faster ships.

I think the other games in this genre get around this by using the player character as the unmoving origin point for their coordinate system and moving everything around them, instead of having the player character as an object moving around a map.

Could try:

• making the map wraparound to save on map generation.
• keeping map generation running as you move.
• making the map even bigger.
• making the edge of the map like a rubber tether, so that you and the enemies still move relative to each other but the background below and temples and things stay fixed until you turn around

[weary pendant]

a) Making the map wrap around would be fine, though limiting the difficulty a bit. Some enemies spawn all around the map and converge on you from all directions, forcing you to shoot your way through. This would be neutralised if they instead mostly came at you from one direction (because enemy pathing is mostly towards the player rather than in a fixed direction).
b) Keeping the map generation running as you move would interfere with one of the final bosses, and would generally be to the detriment of the player, increasing the chances you don't pick up scrap on the map. Builds focused on running away would get further... until they meet a hard damage check with the final boss
c) Very similar to point b, except your now guaranteeing a miserable experience for slow ships that have to chase enemies further to get their scrap
d) Probably the least bad suggestion, but it makes it easier to keep running away instead of limiting your options. Personally, I think that roguelikes are like art - they're all about overcoming the limitations 😉

[toxic anchor]

A) Good point, if you made the map wraparound you'd have to center the spawn circle relative to the player ship, instead of around the map.

For B & C, do you pin enemies against the map edge? That's a strategy I haven't had the opportunity to use, it's always been a problem I have to deal with.

Running away and losing scrap is already a tradeoff, I've gotten chased away from big scrap piles by overwhelming swarms a lot, and I've never had to chase the enemy down, they do a good job of swarming me.

If you have to opportunity to run away instead of being cornered, hunting scrap is your motivation to do insane shit like charging directly into a swarm , and greed is the cause of so many roguelike YASDs.