Got done fully implementing a system that's been sitting around otherwise unused for the past three months, here's two screenshots, both of a different aspect of it:
Whoa, what's that mysterious new status bar cluttering my precious HUD? And why is the HP bar half-green with another bracket on it? And why does that one enemy in that Ultra-WIP environment have golden trimming on his uniform instead of crimson like everyone else?
That brings me to Psychosis Level, and Officers - Psychosis functions similarly to two things from two different games, "Rank" in the 2D Metal Gear games prior to Solid 2, and Chaos in Dishonored. Like with the former, the higher it is, the higher your power - Your HP cap will rise, you will gain Mana regeneration when below a certain rising threshold, and Magic will become more powerful. However, like with the latter, a higher value will lead to certain consequences. Tighter patrols, more serious Backup called in during Alerts, and an influence on how certain story beats play out.
And for the other side of this coin: Officers - There are ten enemy Officers (Corresponding to ten levels of Psychosis) located around Inaro's capital-city of New Heaven - Anyone who's played Metal Gear might remember a certain mechanic involving rescuing Outer Heaven's captives, which would increase Solid Snake's "Rank". Officers are functionally similar - However your mission-objective here isn't "Rescue", it's "Kill or Capture". Killing them will raise your Psychosis by one - Capturing them won't, but doing so has benefits of its own. If an Alert is triggered, these guys won't fight and will instead choose to run for the nearest exit, leaving their lackeys to deal with you instead - They also can't be knocked-out when Alerted, leaving your only option to be killing them instead until the Area is reset. If you want to stay Nonlethal with these ten, your best bet is to sneak up on them and whack them into a coma like Batman with your Stun-Prod or gas them with an anesthetic.
Now, that's not to say that 0 Psychosis is the Good Route and 10 Psychosis is the Evil Route - There's a tad bit more nuance here than a Karma Spectrum, and in fact it may very well be tied to how specific Officers are dealt with rather the number of them you Executed or Arrested.
Now, on another note... One thing on my mind stressing me out is populating the world with props. Where Metal Gear took place in a militarized base and had excuses to be clean and tidy, REDFOXES takes place in Occupied civilian areas, which means a significant amount of the tidyness excuse is... Gone. However, unfortunately my Pixel Art skills are Atari-2600 tier (A bit problematic for a presentation that's supposed to be a mix of MSX2 and PS1) when it comes to objects not made from primitive shapes, and I just don't have the budget right now to be commissioning professional pixel art left and right for anything that fancies me. Is there any advice anyone here can offer on this subject? Are barren environments that only use Props designed to constrict enemy line of sight ala MSX-Gear "acceptable" in 2017?
