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[Hollow-Headed]

I've changed the character to a slightly more human-like shape. I'm not ready to give them actual details yet, but it's a step in the right direction. Also, it isn't very noticeable, but I've tweaked how the hands and feet move, in order to adjust to the new shape, limiting how far they extend, how fast, etc.

[Hollow-Headed]

I've added a TV to the game, which can be interacted with in order to turn on and off. While it's on, it will make noise that nearby enemies will hear and investigate, ending with them turning it back off.

This can be used as a distraction in order to divert an enemy from their usual route.

[Hollow-Headed]

Before now, any time someone would get knocked down, their weapons would be holstered, but not dropped. In order to avoid situations where they might end up unarmed, since they didn't have any melee attacks back then, they would simply pull them back out once they got back up.

Now that enemies can punch, I've made it to where enemies will actually drop their guns if knocked down, and they will then pick it back up once they're back on their feet. If they can't find the gun, should the player pick it up, for example, they'll continue their routine unarmed, and will move to pick up any other gun that they find.

[Hollow-Headed]

While bodies are in a falling motion, such as from being shot or thrown, they will now move over short walls and objects. If they hit any part of a window in their travels, the glass will also shatter.

I've also changed enemies to be different colors based on their behavior, so that there is a visual indicator to tell them apart. Patrolling units are red, stationary units are yellow, and hybrid units are orange.

[Hollow-Headed]

Bottles have been added to the game. If you pick one up, you can throw it at walls and enemies, causing them to shatter upon impact. When they shatter, they make a noise which nearby enemies will investigate, and if you hit an enemy directly, it will knock them down for a few seconds.

They serve as a middle ground between guns and knockouts, providing a means of knocking enemies down from a distance, but at a cost of making noise and breaking after usage. They do not inflict any actual damage onto enemies, and will shatter if hit by a bullet, as well.

[Hollow-Headed]

Silent But Deadly is now on Greenlight!

If possible, please vote and share!

[Zireael]

One punch and they're flat? That's one OP punch!

[Hollow-Headed]

One punch and they're flat? That's one OP punch!

He works out, just look at those arms!

I was actually considering making the punch just a temporary knock-down, and then needing multiple punches while they're down in order to kill them, but I'm not entirely sold on it yet.

[Zireael]

One punch and they're flat? That's one OP punch!

He works out, just look at those arms!

I was actually considering making the punch just a temporary knock-down, and then needing multiple punches while they're down in order to kill them, but I'm not entirely sold on it yet.

I believe this is a better solution

[Hollow-Headed]

I've improved the options menu, making it more organized and adding some options.

A difficulty menu has been added, which covers things that specifically aim to make levels easier or harder. Most options were simply transferred from other parts of the menu, but the ability to disable the accuracy gauge is new.

For the display menu, an option to disable the weapon clipping has been added, which is when a weapon is cut off, so as not to clip through walls. An option to change the player's primary hand has been added, as well, letting players choose which hand holds the gun.

In the audio menu, an ambience slider has been added, which controls the natural noise that occur outside of buildings, like rain.

The keyboard menu has been split into two, with the first part housing the option to disable zoom correction, which is the mouse maintaining a set position relative to the world, rather than the screen, while your view is in the process of zooming in/out while aiming. Under that, the keyboard controls can be found.

Like the keyboard menu, the gamepad menu has also changed, now with a slider to adjust how far away the cursor sits from the player, with its controls menu under that.

Finally, the debug menu, for turning off enemy aggression, as well as showing certain inner-workings of the game, like enemy vision or their pathing.

Going through all of these, there are actually a few things that I've never actually covered before, and yet they've been in the game even before I started showing my work. If there's any interest in seeing examples of anything, just let me know. I definitely need to show how the AI vision works, and now that I can capture video, the sound system itself needs a proper showing, as well. Also, please vote on Greenlight!

[Hollow-Headed]

I believe this is a better solution

You think so? Just to be clear about how it works you're completely defenseless while unarmed, so there isn't an actual attack button, so to speak. If you get caught by an enemy while you're unarmed, even an unarmed enemy, you won't win a direct, face to face fight. In order to pull off the hit, you must get behind them, which then lets you deal the knockout.

I think it can definitely work, but at the same time, I'm a little hesitant, since it sort of feels like it takes away some of the reward of actually getting the hit in... but I do like the idea. Since the attack uses the interact button, which is also how you pick up the bodies after they're disabled, what it would be is: interact with enemy, knocking them down, interact again to knock them out, and finally, interact once more to pick them up. Since the initial hit would send the body falling a bit away from the player, and they wouldn't be able to be interacted with until after they land and stop moving, that could create situations where maybe the player can't land the second blow, or they might get interrupted, so it would certainly add more depth to the process.

I'll try it out and see how it goes. Thanks!

Edit-
Alternatively, it could be done to where a face-to-face interaction would do the knock-down, and the from-behind hit would still do a knock-out, but I don't really like the idea of any sort of direct approach, since it would probably become too easy to just rush into a room and knock someone down and out, since enemies require a delay before attacking, so as not to just kill you without a chance of getting any shots out, yourself. I don't really see this one as too viable of an option.

Another edit... sorry-
It also doesn't need to be just one extra hit. Each hit could increase their downtime, with the nth hit finally leading to an official disabling. I actually sort of like this idea even more.

[Hollow-Headed]

A riot shield has been added to the game. It will absorb a certain amount of damage from frontal attacks, and then break when it reaches its damage limit. Unlike body armor, headshots cannot bypass these, if the shot contacts the shield. It will also block thrown objects, such as bottles, but will not protect against door slams.

To fight the shield, you must either break it or land shots from the side or from behind, which will contact the unit as usual. The shield is usable by both the player and enemies, so if you disarm an enemy without breaking their shield, you can pick it up. Like all other items, the shield will occupy your secondary hand, and can only be used in conjunction with small guns.

[Hollow-Headed]

Sneak attacks have been changed from one-hit knockouts to normal hits, similar to getting hit by a door or bottle. This means that if you hit someone, they will eventually get back up, but you can still disable them by hitting them a few more times while they're down. The one-hit knockout will still be around, but I want to make it an upgrade, rather than the default.

I've also added a knockdown timer as an option, which will count down to when the unit will get back up.

[Hollow-Headed]

Sneak attack strength is now adjustable via the upgrade menu. Applying points to it will increase the amount of time that it takes for enemies to recover from a punch, and once it is maxed out, punches then become a one-hit knockout, like how they used to be. This is meant to bring a bit of a balance to the one-hit punch, making it still possible, but no longer having it as the standard, since now you must earn and apply upgrade points to it, in order to have the ability.

The upgrade only applies to the punches, so things like door slams will still only cause the standard amount of delay, regardless of upgrade level.

[Hollow-Headed]

In an attempt to make the characters a bit more human-like, I've introduced things like clothes, skin color, hair style, and hair color.

All enemy clothing is based on the level, so they'll all be wearing the same thing depending on that particular level's environment and situation. In this case, they're all wearing suits, so this would be a level where you might be dealing with someone's personal security. Other traits like skin and hair are randomly selected, so each enemy will have a slightly different look. The hair styles and costumes are somewhat limited at the moment, but its enough to get the ball rolling. They'll be expanded on over time, but I don't want to add too much too quickly, because any changes made to the general character design would then require each thing to be adjusted, as well.

As far as the player goes, I have him wearing an inmate outfit simply because that's the only other costume that I've made so far, and I wanted him wearing something different from the others, especially since bald guy in a suit has already been done. I want the player's character to be completely customizable, so that will be the next step with this, making it to where you can choose what outfit is worn and all that.

One thing you may notice is a lack of facial features. Attempts were made but I honestly think I made things look worse with them. I'll continue pursuing it, but this is a good first step.

[j-swan]

Graphics are a little simple. Cool concept.

[Hollow-Headed]

Character creation is done, which allows the player to customize their character's skin, clothes, hair style, and hair color. This will follow any progress made in character design itself, so if/when faces are introduced, those will also be changeable, along with any new clothing and hair styles that are added.

I could see this potentially leading to unlockable outfits, strictly a cosmetic thing for fun. Say a mission takes place in a hospital, you unlock a doctor's outfit upon completion. Maybe even a clown costume or a chicken suit, things that wouldn't really fit within the realm of what any enemy would wear, I would hope, but just something to let the players have fun with.

On a more technical note, this also introduces a new type of option, a sort of cross between the upgrade menu and the drop-down list. This would work well for things that may potentially have too many options to fit within a list, and is something that will likely come in handy down the line.

[Hollow-Headed]

I've added a new difficulty option, something that adds a bit of suspense to levels. You can now choose to have rooms hidden away until they're revealed, making it to where you can't see any enemies or items within them until then. You'll still hear footsteps, if enemies are walking around, but you won't be able to see anything directly.

Rooms are revealed by being near them while having an unobstructed view, either through windows or open doorways. Once a room is revealed, the room stays visible, even after leaving it.

[Hollow-Headed]

As part of an upcoming update, I've been reworking how levels are put together. So far, this involved improving upon the automation that is used to define specific rooms within levels and applying lights, flooring, and more within each of them. Most of this is simply for optimization sake, but it also now allows me to modify flooring much more easily than before.

In this example, one single wood flooring template is being used throughout the entire building, despite each room showing different colors of wood. In order to do this before now, I would have needed to make many variants of the same image, each with the desired color, and the more variants there were, the more tedious it was to change the actual template's design. Now, though, the floor color is handled outside of the images themselves, so that the template is much easier to improve upon, while offering more color possibilities.

[Zireael]

If I were to play, I'd play only with obstructed rooms on. Makes the game feel much more realistic.

Also, randomized outfits/hair and floors made the game really come alive! <3