No health bar but warning messages

Classic319

<div class="IPBDescription">for marines</div>For aliens, it looks perfect to have THAT hp bar(?).

But it's still for me a bit oldfashioned to see marines having 0 to 100 health bar.

I know it's placeholder, but how about not showing hp with numbers?

It's no sense because it's oldfashioned as i mentioned, and most importantly, marines die when gets just about 3 hits.

So how about not having any hp bar but showing as sci-fi like WARNING sign with SOME WORDS that change how damaged marine is when hit?


DAMAGED - DANGEROUS - HAZARDOUS(gas maybe) - CRITICAL - PERILOUS for example.. with beeping red/blue sign(when about to die when gets just one more hit).

Kouji_San

It being oldfashioned is not a valid reason. As far as I know, oldschool still trumps newschool in most things that actually make sense :) Spores for instance require some kind of knowledge on how much HP you have left, to try a dash trough it. Not just some vague "hey you're about to die" kind of thing...

whoppaXXL

"Hello User. Our System is detecting serious damage on your upper body part. Your current chance of survival is below 25%. Please seek out a medical station immediately ."

Pirates, Vikings and Knights for Source had a cool system for showing the enemy's left health.
It was cut in 5 damage levels which the last below 20/100 hp would be "About to be pushing up the daisies" and the first "Not a Scratch"

I would favor a system like this, it's more immersive that way.

IeptBarakat

Needs to be even more old school.

Doom face on the bottom of the screen. That gets bloodier in relation to how damaged you are.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/RIl4o.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Bacillus

<!--quoteo(post=1873486:date=Sep 7 2011, 05:17 PM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kouji_San @ Sep 7 2011, 05:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1873486"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It being oldfashioned is not a valid reason. As far as I know, oldschool still trumps newschool in most things that actually make sense :) Spores for instance require some kind of knowledge on how much HP you have left, to try a dash trough it. Not just some vague "hey you're about to die" kind of thing...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah. NS1 is pretty heavy on the HP math. At least I tend to have a very strong idea how much punishment I can take even when there's a dozen harmful things flying around you. NS2 is probably going to be quite a lot complex with spikes, hydras, alien weapon upgrades and all that in even greater numbers. It's definitely beneficial to see the very exact HP and armor values.

Sewlek

would be cool if you could see somewhere you pulse :)

<img src="http://www.pulseofflorida.org/PULSE_of_Florida_Patient_Safety_Advocates_Logo_op_600x600.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

if you are injured it gets faster:

<img src="http://jonellg.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/pulse.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Somewhere you could still write a number to show you health, and an armor bar

l3lessed

I personally agree with classic, but I feel you would need to rework the health and armor system some to make this work properly. As another poster stated, right now the health and armor system is so complex you have to know your exact numbers because certain attacks do more damage to armor while others do more to health while others are equally applied.

I don't know if the dev's would want to, but they would have to simplify it so either attacks damaged only armor first then health or only health and not armor. None of this weird distribution formula where some damage is absorb by armor while other goes through to health. I personally don't like it because its much more complex then it needs to be.

An example of what I mean: Right now if a marine gets bit by a skulk, his armor absorbs some damage then the rest goes towards his health. In a revised system, the bite would only damage the armor, then once it got through the armor it would damage the health. While at the same time, Lerk spores would only damage health and not armor at all. It's either armor or health, but never does a attack take away from both.

One, I think this would make things far easier for players to understand. Either an attack ignores armor or it is absorbed by armor completely. none of this crazy distribution formula that requires some complex algebra to figure out.

Two, you could then get rid of the hp and armor meter and replace them with a very simple vitals and armor status. As armor get's lower, the message gets more severe in some way. As your health gets lower, your vitals get worse; your heartbeat increases and gets more irrigular, you maybe begin to cough every few minutes, your vision starts to tunnel a tiny bit from loose of blood, and so on. I personally enjoy this because it is more immersive and simplistic. Player's don't need to know their exact health. They only need to know if there next hit is going to kill them or not. It doesn't matter if their health is 20, 15, or 10 if the next skulk bite is going to be their death.

Nixxen

Have to say I disagree with you blessed.

While it may be a bit complex, it also give the game more flavor and you have more defined weapons/lifeforms for different situations in the game.
Take GL for example. Fantastic structure damage, granted it was buffed a while back, but still. Now imagine if that structure damage was transfered to health damage and all structures had health instead. This would leave them with the same sort of health system as lifeforms, and eventually the GL has to be nerfed since it's just too powerful(structures with much higher hp than lifeforms, and a few grenades to kill a structure would mean around 500-1000 damage per grenade. Now imagine a 300hp fade, from 200hp+100(?)armor earlier, being hit with that grenade. Instakill). Then the problem comes where the GL is useless against structures because of the nerf to damage - the one area it is supposed to shine - And you have practically no players going for the GL as the weapon of choice.

This example is probably the most extreme since GLs right now has high structure damage, but other weapons are affected in a similar way.

Each weapon has it's own structure damage% and some are better vs structures while other are better vs lifeforms. In the end a nice mix of all weapons is what is needed to take down a well defended hive.

I do see the point you try to make, but simplifying the weapons would only further imbalance the game. These imbalances could be solved OFC, but that will take time. Time we don't have right now.

l3lessed

Nixxen, based on your scenario, there is no reason you couldn't simplify it and still have specialized weapons. Either you could just give the structures low health and high armor and make the grenade launcher ignore armor and go straight to the health thus still making it good at blowing apart static structures.

Or you could add an armor type of structures only that is not applied to players. This way you could still make difference between players and structures, but players will never really notice it. All they'll know is, grenade launcher takes down structures.

I'm just saying the simplest solution is usually the best. I don't personally think having a super complex health/armor formula is the best way to get defined roles and diversity.

Kalabalana

I'm a pretty big fan of the BC2 health system, and in game status indicators (The smart but-difficult-to-figure-out way to relay ingame information.). Since there's no regeneration for marines, I'm fine with the HUD health/armor display, as you can just chalk it up to "technology" or something to justify it. For aliens, I actually believe they shouldn't have any personal always-on HUD display. Health can be done like BC2 where the screen outlines in red and/or your model can bleed the closer to death you are (more intuitive, less distracting, and less screen obstruction), for armor, maybe changing the first person view models? E.g. Show the skulk's mouth with some broken teeth displaying your armor's state? As for adrenaline, have a view model animation/sound for when your bar is full after recharging, and another animation showing when your adrenaline is nearly out, again with a skulk, maybe flex the tongue in a certain way that is visually distinctive of what your adrenaline state is at. I think this would class the game up on a level with AAA titles, and also modernize it, as this is the direction games are heading in.

twiliteblue

The trouble with "fuzzy" information is, NS2 is designed to be a strategic game, where resources are scarce.

Dying in fast paced death match games such as BC2 and CoD is not such a big deal. Whereas in NS2, dying as a Fade or Onos due to a health miss-estimation carries heavy consequences.

Align

<!--quoteo(post=1873496:date=Sep 7 2011, 06:32 PM:name=IeptBarakat)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (IeptBarakat @ Sep 7 2011, 06:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1873496"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Needs to be even more old school.

Doom face on the bottom of the screen. That gets bloodier in relation to how damaged you are.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/RIl4o.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/axfs6q.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />