So I have been on a business trip to Southampton for two days. During what little time I had on the trip and evenings I have been scratching my head over this lighting bug I had with my power ups. Finally figured it out, which is a good thing because without the light they where hard to see. : )
As I got back to develop something new instead of solving bugs the first thing I added was limited ammunition. Ammunition will now deplete quite rapidly so that a lot of turrets (what the power ups give you) won’t immediately make you the winner without any skill. The Cod (the player’s ship) has a higher fire rate that the turrets and will deplete it’s 100 bullets quicker than them. When a power-up is picked the Cod’s ammo is replenished and a new turret with full ammo is added. Old turrets are however not reloaded.
All of this needs to be tested but the idea is that while a player will benefit a lot from finding upgrades, the player can easily lose that advantage by not aiming well. A good player with few turrets might still win by outsmarting the other player (fooling that player to dispense its bullets while avoiding them) and then take down the player with a few but loaded guns. Used up turrets still function as shields, but it gives the possibility to let the player use them up in some offensive move if that is more useful than a passive shield. The game is starting to get some interesting choices. : )