Health bars/Combat Floaties

Really disappointed in the community on this one. I think the team had a great idea in trying to make the combat system more intuitive.

Last time I checked, almost no one plays text based games anymore. So why do people want a bunch of text spamming on the screen during combat?

And health bars. This community didn't even give it a chance. Combat in R4 was absurdly straightforward. You basically could not die and the most "powerful" mob (the liche) didn't even attack? It's shameful really. One release of nearly non existent combat, that's ridiculously easy, and people can't "discern" status. More like they did not even bother trying.

How hard is it to figure out a colored dot?

sigh...

 

I think this is just temporary until they get the system ready - it works better this way - folks will complain otherwise .. the system without visual cues was a bit disorienting (to test - we need to know we are hurtig something to know if skills work)

 

I have to agree totally here. I remember a comment that damage feedback of some kind was needed. Since visual implementation was harder and more time consuming, they went with an easy win; combat text and health bars. Personally I found it helpful at this stage in testing to ensure that damage was being done, when it was being done, and if skills were working a advertised.

 

Floating combat text is the norm in an MMO.

The health bars are optional. They turn on and off with nameplates when you hit H.

 

There are a lot of us here that want a "non-traditional" mmo experience ... and the option to click on / off is a point of contention among certain features because it impacts gameplay

A stated goal is to move away from max - min mentality ... having "numbers" / "outright" hp bar goes against that ...

Judging damage by "sight" is immersive and follows said design goals

 

Moved to R5 feedback.

 

If you don't want health bars/combat text during combat, hit N to turn off overhead names. It also turns off health bars and combat text.

 

I'm not that hardcore - so if its an option not a big deal for me - but will this be final in game?

 

Problem with this is that those who enable the health bar and combat texts get an advantage. Imagine a PvP fight. One uses the health bars and combat texts, the other doesn't. The one with the health bar enabled has an advantage and the other one is forced to enable it in order to compete, even if he doesn't want to. The same with group adventures. If you want to contribute effectively to the group you are forced to enable health bars and combat texts...

One idea would be the "Neverwinter approach". There you have the option to enable health bars, names and combat texts only by focusing on NPCs/monsters. So health bars, names and combat texts are only displayed while you focus on an NPC or monster. While not focusing an NPC or monster there is nothig displayed.

But I really hope that the implementation of health bars and combat texts is is temporarly only and the devs manage to get in the visual feedback for damage by showing wounds on enemies as Richard Garriott suggested. Otherwise one unique feature would be taken out of the game.

 

Next time read few post below too. Starr pointed that there will be no floaties or bars, this out almost immediately after the initial post. I jumped the gun too tho.

@Lord_Darkmoon no worres for PvP since no such thing

 

Thank you for the feedback. I'm all for it as a testing mechanism as I really am hoping this game will be an amazing experience. I think that's what most of us want or we would not have kickstarted it.

Basically what Margard and L_D said. I feel as though RG and the team are attempting to get away from the traditional MMO and IMO many of them are nearly unplayable. Part of the reason this experience has been so exciting thus far is the hopes of getting away from the traditional cookie cutter market. The same game has been re-bundled a thousand times over with a different label slapped on the cover.

We'll know more further down the road, but as L_d stated, I don't want to see a unique feature pulled from the game just because people think I can press "N".

EDIT: Thanks for moving this Koldar, sorry I had it in the wrong spot xD

 

In the future I'd like to see more granular options for each in an options menu.

Some people may just want names or just want health bars.

 

It was stated elsewhere that this is simply temporary. The goal is to remove these things from the game, but until they have their planned systems in place for showing damage it's too difficult to tell what is happening. So it seems like nothing is happening in combat without them and it's just a guessing game.

 

I like getting spammed with text! I want to know what's going on.

How can you know what attack is most effective unless you actually see the damage numbers?

 

I hope they keep everything as a possible option. If you don't like it, turn it off.

 

I hope when they get the whole system read and hide the floaties that they go to verbal descriptions of injury, like in the earlier Ultimas. "Stag grazed" / "Stag critical" / etc. instead of "Stag takes 5 points of damage."