THQ's Homefront 2/Health System

Document Status: Yellow [Requires a revisit post-Gate 3]
File:HF2H1r.png
==Goals==
*Give clear feedback to the player for all health states but in a contextual manner
*Not to handicap the player too much when in a critical state
*Avoid situations where the outcome of future gameplay sections is hindered by ‘poor’ player performance in a previous section
*Convey a sense of self-preservation in the player
*Avoid a reliance on health pick-ups and subsequent difficulty spikes / balancing issues
==Proposal==
*It would be preferential to use a regenerating health system as a foundation due to the issues of managing a finite reserve of health
*Health regeneration (rate and delay) is generally slower than in most other games
*Players can regenerate to full health over time providing they are not taking damage
**Potentially the regeneration rate could be greatly reduced in combat scenarios
*In addition to regeneration player’s can supplement health restoration by using Battlefield surgery at any time (rather than on death)
**Battlefield Surgery will quickly restore the player to full heath (very fast regen)
**Specific Battlefield Surgery animations are used based on player health bracket (the lower the health bracket the longer the animation)
File:HF2H2.png
== Feedback System ==
* Screen effects and a HUD display are used to convey the current health state to the player
* A combination of a blood mask screen effects and a condition (heart monitor) style HUD display with absolute health amount (%) would be preferable
** No health bars
** No monochrome effect
** No full screen blur or occlusion
* Additionally, non-linear blending of the screen effect would help avoid situations where the player has the blood displayed on-screen for too long
* A heart monitor style display could also be used to help convey the regeneration rate, the more relaxed/optimal the heart rate the better the health regeneration (e.g. improved regen when out of combat)
** Colouration could indicate this stress level
File:HF2H5.png
File:HF2H.gif
==Multiplayer==
*SP and MP health systems should be as consistent as possible
*SP regeneration is likely to be faster than MP
*Only the medic class has the ability to perform Battlefield Surgery (Heal)
*MP healing systems:
**Standard health regeneration (slow regen)
***E.g. Health regains slowly over time
**Revive interact (instant full heal)
***E.g. Medic revives a fallen team mate
**Heal interact (very fast regen)
***E.g. Medic heals an injured team mate
**Passive heal object (fast regen) – finite health kit/station
***E.g. Injured team mate heals in proximity to a placed object
== Body Armour ==
* Body armour is an equipment item craftable by the player from salvaged materials 
* When equipped it acts to reduce a percentage of the amount of incoming damage
* It is gradually degraded by receiving damage, when it becomes too damaged (zero health) it will be discarded by the player
** Body armour will provide full effectiveness until it is destroyed
* When equipped the player will receive audio/visual feedback of an equipping animation in addition to a HUD icon
* When receiving damage with body armour equipped the audio feedback of bullet hits will be subtly different
* Upon the body armour being destroyed there will be a distinct discarding sound, if the player is not performing another action this will be accompanied by a quick animation
* If used for MP body armour would need distinct bullet hit audio feedback to help convey that the target is wearing body armour.