THQ's Homefront 2/Exotic Player Abilities

**Document Status: Green [Ready for implementation]**
**What is an “Exotic” Player Ability?**

* An action that falls outside of the standard move, shoot, crouch, jump, and prone feature set

Goal

* To outline potential exotic player actions for HF2 and define how they’d work

## Vaulting / Climbing

*SP & MP*

What is it?

* The ability to step onto / over or climb onto / over objects fluidly

How does it work?

* Press ‘jump’ when in proximity of a marked object
* Object height range for Vaulting: **0.875m – 1.25m (waist high)**
* Object height range for Climbing: **1.5m – 2m (head high)**
* Depending on the thickness of the object the player will either vault / climb onto it or vault / climb straight over it

Why have it?

* Adds a natural, free-flowing feeling of movement to environment traversal
* Provides more options in both combat and navigation

## Drop Down

*SP, MP TBD*

What is it?

* The ability to vault down to a lower level, reducing any damage taken

How does it work?

* Standing near the edge of a raised platform (such as the opening City Hall building in the image top-right), will present the player with a context-sensitive option (most likely involving the ‘jump’ button)
* Pressing this button the player will visibly put their left hand on the lip of the ledge and vault down to the floor below
* If an enemy is standing on the platform below this could become a form of enemy takedown anim? (see ‘Takedown’ slide later in this presentation)

Why have it?

* Adds an extra interactive element and “human” grounding to our environment navigation

## Crouch Cover System

*SP, MP TBD*

    What is it?

* The ability to aim and shoot over low walls

How does it work?

* Pressing LB / LT (the iron sight button) when crouched behind a waist-high object will result in the player popping upwards to iron sight over that object
* Releasing the iron sight button will lower the player back down behind the object again, as will moving away from the object

Why have it?

* Brings cover into the combat experience

What about vertical cover?

* Due to issues with the controls (pressing a button on the left of the controller to pop out to the right of cover could feel unnatural in-game), as well as issues with the camera (a tilt on the player camera is great to signpost leaning out of vertical cover but makes aiming really difficult), the proposal presented here is to change the cover system to become crouch height only

## Peek System

*SP Only*

What is it?

* The ability to look over or around objects without fear of being seen by AI

How does it work?

* When near the edge of a surface (such as crouching behind a table or standing near a door frame), the player can hold a context-sensitive button (the ‘reload’ button) to “peek” over or around that object
* When peeking the player character will lower their gun and put their left hand on the edge of the object, with the camera moving out to allow AI to be monitored
* Releasing the context-sensitive button will return the player to their starting position

Why have it?

* Allows the player to monitor AI in stealth situations without needing to consult a radar
* We have cool-looking player character hands!

## Climb Through

*SP Only*

What is it?

* The ability to climb under or through an enclosed space (such as the broken fence in Samaritan right, or a similar broken wire mesh fence in Intro B)

How does it work?

* When near the small opening the player can hold a context-sensitive button (the ‘reload’ button) to traverse through that object
* The player character will lower their gun and put their left hand on the edge of the object, with the camera moving down and through
* Upon reaching the other side the player will re-equip their weapon
* Any openings like this will be the same size, requiring only a single animation

Why have it?

* Adds an additional interactivity with our environment traversal
* Great for funnelling the player to a particular point in SP levels

## Takedown

*SP Only*

What is it?

* A context-sensitive instant kill takedown move

    How does it work?

* Pressing the melee button (right stick click) when standing within proximity of an enemy will perform a takedown action
* There are 4 types of takedown:
	+ **Front**, **Rear** and **“Drop Down” Takedown** – When facing, behind or on a platform above an enemy
	+ **Environmental Takedown** – Context-sensitive animation when near specific level geometry
* Front and Rear Takedowns will either be **Stealthy** (considered, silent) or **Aggressive** (fast, loud) subject to the stealth state in which they’re used. Would be great to see some variants of these anims too
* There are 2 types of Environmental Takedown: when an enemy is standing near a **Wall** (head slam?), and when an enemy is standing near a **Waist-High Object** such as a table or console

Why have it?

* Adds a visceral element to combat and it’s cool! (CXP focus group feedback was extremely positive)

## Controls (SP) - Infantry

*Purely to sanity check these abilities...*