I'm currently undertaking a major self directed flash based project for uni.
My intention was to create a visually rich 2d shooter with dynamic bitmapdata based enemy damage and a dynamic physics based ragdoll system for enemy deaths.

I have both of these features working, albeit in their early stages.

My problem is that even in these early stages flashplayer is already beginning to struggle and I can forsee that it will completely choke if/when I try and combine these features with multiple bullets and enemies all at once.

Here is an example of one of my bitmapdata damage prototypes:
http://www.timdrew.com.au/shooter.html
Gun follows the mouse, Ctrl = shoot, A,S,D - movement, Space = jump

Try shooting the head.

it is set to run at 20fps but isn't achieving that, atleast not on my computer anyway.

The way it works is by creating a bitmap of the head image which is gradually erased. This is just the head, so I would need separate bitmaps for each body part (head, body, arm1, arm2, leg1, leg2) even more if you want the limbs to be able to bend.
So every frame youve gotta do a hittest between each of those parts and a bullet along a number of intervals along the path of the bullet. Repeat for every bullet thats been fired then repeat the process again for every extra enemy onscreen, dont think its gonna happen.

For the sake the game actually being playable I think I'll have to tone it down considerably, abandon the bitmapdata, probably the physics too cause it wont be worth doing without the rest and go for something much simpler.

I'm thinking something like the Madness Interactive game, which is great, but has only superficial damage, simple character models and deaths.

I think I might have been aiming a bit too high before, I could do it but not much point if its running at 5fps.

I'd love to hear comments, suggestions, wise words from ppl who have dealt with processor intensive flash content b4 or better yet a solution that would see me salvage my current game idea ^_^ but thats probly not going to happen.

As I'm most likely going back to the drawing board with my game i'm open to suggestions, ideas etc about topics, content, gameplay, gametype etc
whats a good sort of game to make with flash keeping in mind it has to be a project of substantial size.

Thanks ppl