Enemies in Therium-2
In Therium-2, almost all of the levels (not including those that are cutscenes or dialogue only) will involve interacting with the nearby enemies. The level design will allow multiple methods of confrontation, whether it be thru stealth, combat or avoidance altogether.
Because of Overgrowth's limitations, the more enemies there are in a level, the more your framerate will drop - this is unavoidable, so I've had to resort to having a smaller amount of enemies per level. The most enemies you'll see in a level will be seven, but at the same time, that's better then most other Overgrowth maps, so that's fine.
Strategies
The level design will allow two main methods of dealing with enemies:
- Stealth: Almost every level will allow stealth in some way. In certain levels where each guard and enemy is stronger then normal, this is a more important strategy. Stealth will decrease the difficulty from most encounters significantly. There are two ways to approach stealth:
- Evasion: You can sneak by enemies without even being seen/heard by them. Because it isn't actually necessary to kill or knock out enemies for each level in Therium-2, this is a perfectly viable strategy. Just make sure you don't get seen, and you'll be fine. It's recommended you explore the level to find alternate routes & spots with no sightlines to advance without entering combat. There are also a number of new mechanics to assist this, including bushes that you can hide behind & baskets you can jump into to hide from enemies (these might be discarded for being buggy, though).
- Assassination: You can also take out any enemies you come across. Overgrowth allows you to put enemies into a chokehold when they aren't aware of your presence; after about six or seven seconds of choking the enemy, they will drop to the floor unconscious. You can also use small weapons like knives or swords to slit the throats of enemies, which takes way, way less time but also kills them.
- Combat: The obvious and loud approach - this will involve fighting one or two enemies at a time, and in uncommon situations, possibly three enemies at once. To play a level like this, you have to time your blocks with each attack the enemy throws at you, and adapt your fighting style to what the enemy is doing, your position and how dangerous the enemy is compared to you. There are two ways to fight:
- Non-Lethal: Recommended (not out of gameplay purposes, but just for the challenge); you fight entirely with your fists & blunt weapons like the Kendostick, Mallet, Staff and Sledgehammer (though the Sledgehammer has a tendency to shatter enemy spines). When fighting hand-to-hand with enemies, it's recommended you block attacks & duck under high attacks like roundhouse kicks & haymakers. Though, against lethal weapons like blades, you better be good at dodging.
- Lethal: This will involve things like blades, shattering enemy spines, flinging enemies off of cliffs and general bloodshed. It's recommended to kill only when absolutely necessary, but the choice is simply up to you. Using blades & extreme fall damage is easier then Non-Lethal's tactics would be, but if you kill enemies, you might end up with different dialogue that's significantly darker then it would be if you spared your enemies (if I get the script working).
Enemy Types
In Therium-2, there are multiple types of enemies; though most of them are the default 'mook' character, I've tried to add some variety. These new types of enemies will often be paired with the mooks to give an extra edge of challenge to the game.
Every single enemy'll behave the same stealth-wise due to current limitations, but once I can edit the awarenesses of certain enemies, I'll affect the vision of certain enemies:
- Mooks will have the best sight & hearing of all the enemies.
- Because of their time spent in the darkness of the caverns, Beetles will have horrible eyesight, but better hearing.
- The Heavy's helmet will make it extremely difficult to see out of, but that won't count for Heavies that happen to have their helmet off.
'Mook'
Obviously not actually named 'Mook' in-universe, these are the most common enemies in the game. They're equipped with light cloth armor with chunks of leather padding. Their armor design is uniform and repeated for every 'Mook'.
Most of the guard force came from the Cinderbreathe City, while some are either former slaves of the Arliss Empire or refugees from the Mainland. Making enough living wages to get by, the guard force of the Cinderbreathe Empire have been ordered to both patrol their sites and perform construction.
The recent influx of guards able to patrol construction sites is mostly thanks to the season; late spring gives a rise in resources, food and water - because of this, manpower can be more easily distributed to host pet projects of the Empire's. Although, with police manpower being hosted to construction projects held outside of the main city, crime & thievery is more rampant in the City & Slums, leading to mercenaries and revenge more or less replacing the police force.
Beetles
Formerly an entire culture, the Beetles of the Cinderbreathe's guard force are believed to have descended from the last remnants of the Ancients (who formerly resided in the Therium after being forced out for unknown reasons, disputed among Cinderbreathe & Arliss historians). With dark brown, grey and black fur, the Beetles stick out like a sore thumb among the lighter colored northern-born Cinderbreathe rabbits. Before the Cinderbreathe discovered the Beetles, the Beetles lived in a complex 'spaghetti' web of tunnels & caves, with common unnatural formations & stalactites.
A host to discrimination, the Cinderbreathe Empire found them and took the Beetles into their own guard force. To mark them apart further from the others, the Empire issued the Beetles a different color & design of the standard Cinderbreathe Issue guard armor, forced them to wear face paint and strapped knives to their wrists for combat.
During combat, a Beetle can alternate between slower hand-to-hand attacks and perform a quick stab by jabbing their wrist-knives into their opponent's stomach. In gameplay, you'll have to both block their hand-to-hand attacks and dodge the near unpredictable lethal strikes.
Heavies
The Cinderbreathe Empire started issuing the Heavies four months ago, during the civil war to assist combat. While rarely seen nowadays, they're more commonly issued when a specially dangerous opponent of the Cinderbreathe is raising trouble. They're also signed as regular guards for the Cinderbreathe Empry, a place of royalty and political leaders. During the A and C path, as Ghost's notoriety becomes increasingly violent, the Cinderbreathe issue more and more Heavies.
The Heavy's gear is significantly stronger and more resistent then the standard issue cloth & leather, so it's harder to damage and knock out a Heavy. Due to the way Overgrowth currently handles lethal weapon damage, the Heavy's armor doesn't stop big weapons like broadswords & glaives, but will definitely reduce the damage from smaller weapons like swords & knives.
The armor and gear the Heavy wields significantly slows down the Heavy, so movement speed & attacks dealt by the Heavy are somewhat slower then the rest of the force. The heavy's attacks are, however, stronger then normal.
There are also rumors of a 'secret weapon' being held back by the Cinderbreathe Empire, but those are just rumors.
