Truer words were never written. And I think that I was pretty clear in my statement that I think you've done a great job in incorporating the theme you were trying to utilize (a roguelike) and its dystopian world and nature. I also indicated that, for me, it's just not my cup of tea, if indeed tea is something I want to be drinking in the first place.
I guess my main difficulty is in the idea (and again: this is true to form for the theme) that few things are actually changeable by the player, or that the player, through selective shooting, can alter the way things score or how things play. They're just *static*, for the most part, and in many ways the scores of this game change even less than EMs of yesteryear, in that even with those, completing drop target banks or standup banks or what-have-you, would allow for increased scoring or awards here and there on the playfield. You could count on those reliable ways of trying to boost your scoring if that's how you wanted to play (and indeed, that's really how they were designed/intended to be). With RITR, all scores remain static at all times, except when ghost items are collected which help (sometimes in a timed fashion) boost scores in certain areas, but the player must always *WAIT* for ghosts to appear, hit a target to raise the scoop, then shoot the scoop, and *hope* that the item will allow for bigger scoring, a better scoring opportunity in the form of multiball, etc. There's no set way for the player to get multiball going on their own, by making certain shots, target banks, etc. There's no self-starting, really...it's all timing-dependent, sort of ethereally "out there", never knowing when/if it will appear, and if it will help you (which to be fair, as you've stated, it usually does). Still: it's the inability to self-start better things that sticks in my craw a bit.
You know, allowing for the side targets to be completed to light locks? Allowing for them to multiply scores? Those kind of things?
And again, I understand: we're kind of hamstrung on the theme, because that's kind of the *nature* of the roguelike...exciting self-starting success isn't necessarily a part of the show. It's hard for me to rail too hard against it because you're basically nailing the theme on the head. I'm kind of left shaking my head, not because you've necessarily made a bad thing at all, but because you've made a thing that would be bad for *me*. And who am I? I'm a guy who isn't into roguelikes! Is it fair that I should be projecting my desires or likes on everyone else? Yeah, probably not...::sigh::, but I still kind of feel like I sort of need to, even if I darned well *know* that it's not really a thing made for me.
I've probably overthought it too much, and I'm *certain* that I've overtyped too much.