I'm wondering what kind of healing system would be the best for an Action RPG game like Aliens?

 

Instant healing system similar to magic potions or medpacks?

 

Some examples being KOTOR series, your typical D&D games and Fallout which the potions instantly recovers your HP per use.

 

Or

 

Gradual healing system like drugs and bandages that works gradually?

 

Some examples being The Witcher, Jagged Alliance 2/Silent Storm where your HP recovers gradually or through the means of bandaging and additional off-screen treatment. Though the former would be a better example since its a real time game.

 

So which healing system do you all think would be preferable for a fast pace action(My assumption that its fast) RPG game like Aliens without affecting the pacing too much as well as not sacrificing in-game tension?

I think gradual healing would be more appropriate. I'm not married to the idea, it's part of a large number of interacting factors and should never be seriously considered alone. But I like it as a concept. I consider gradual heal to be a bit more realistic as it seems less magical. Though gradual heal can often encourage a player to stand still for periods of time and that can hurt the pacing.

 

In the Witcher, I notice that I do stand still for periods of time. And also, I presume this to be a consequence of the gradual heal system, Geralt does not seem to get damaged too often. And in combat I'm usually less focused on my health than in other games. Because there's not a lot I can do about my health right now (though there are instant heal potions, I just never used them) and my character often takes less damage than I expect in other games.

Gradual healing leaves you weak for periods of time, being weak makes you vulnerable, being vulnerable makes you afraid, being afraid is what the game's all about.

Gradual healing leaves you weak for periods of time, being weak makes you vulnerable, being vulnerable makes you afraid, being afraid is what the game's all about.

 

Steve says it better than I can, as usual.

i wonder if they'd do something with the alien acidy-blood-ness

 

like if you kill an alien at close range and get splattered with alien goop

 

could be rather ouchie.....

KOTOR healing was fine in-combat - even with it being instant, the 1 use per round holdover meant you typically couldn't keep up the kits to the damage when you actually did need them.

I've recently come to appreciate the constant regen of health rather than utlitizing health pickups or inventory items. Crysis for example uses constant regen compared to Farcry which used medkit pickups. On the surface it would seem that constant health regen is too gamey to be taken seriously in game that is attempting to be immersive, but I've found the constant regen approach of Crysis to be considerably more immersive as well as more tactically interesting than the health pickups of Far Cry. I've played both games back to back in the last few weks and the differences in game designs are quite noticeable that way.

Heres something crazy, no visible hitpoints, no health bar. A gradual decrease in performance and eventually movement instead. Some panting and vincing in pain. I think this corrolates rather well with the instagib nature of the damage you take.

I'd love to see the limb degeneration system adopted to something like Aliens; I've long believed that it's the way to go in most RPG combat, instead of a singular HP system. A generic example: as part of the main GUI you have a little picture of a body, divided into Head, Torso, Arms, Legs. When you are hit on a particular region (and a la Fallout, you are more likely to be hit on Torso/Arms rather than Head), that region degenerates, which involves a minor loss of effectivity regarding that region (arms: using weapons, legs: speed, head: magic or skill success, torso: poison/etc endurance?); and with greater levels of degeneration there is an increased possibility that a hit would have a severe impact on the limb, e.g. crippling it (loss of capability). So, in Aliens, for example, the Alien might take some swipes at your arm, resulting in normal degeneration (e.g. gashes and bruises that hurt and you can't swing that crowbar as hard or shoot as accurately); then the Alien lands a criticial hit or something, and calculating the chances against your already debilitated limb, the arm breaks altogether and your weapon clatters to the ground (or into the inventory I guess). In this scheme, the degeneration would probably be healed through 'medkits' and/or natural regeneration, but if you are careless or unlucky and let your limbs be severely damaged, you will need specialist healing (e.g. doctor or medical 'station').

 

The advantages of such a system would be that it is realistic, it lends itself to the more visceral styles of RPG combat (e.g. Witcher, maybe Aliens), and you have a situation where you can heal minor damage 'on the go', but you cannot replenish your condition completely with 'items' when you are stuck in the middle of somewhere with Aliens all around you. This would mean that the longer you fanny about in an Alien infested area, the more risk you are at of rendered useless or severely handicapped, and this gives you an added sense of risk and fear. You can't go gung ho against any Alien trusting that you have thirty medpacks in the inventory - if they manage to break something you're going to have to hobble back to a safe area and hope no other aliens get you in the meantime. Obviously, this would dictate a gameplay / level design where highly dangerous and alien infested levels are interspersed with safer 'spots' where you can to a reasonable extent take a breather and get your shape back, but I can see that working well with Aliens anyway - a level design where you are jumping frantically from safe spot to safe spot, trying to accomplish your objective inbetween, rather than beginning in a big 'town' area, clearing several levels of Aliens in one go then returning with a wagon of loot.

 

So fundamentally I think its less a dichotomy of instant v. gradual healing, than immediate v. remote healing; once the player takes into account the fact that he/she will have to travel through dangerous areas bearing an injury they can do little about would be a good gameplay bonus, I think.

Gradual Heal sounds better. Instant heal would feel a bit weird in Aliens...

 

Well, in any case, Gradual Heal works better if it's an "action RPG", but so far we don't know anything about that...

Heres something crazy, no visible hitpoints, no health bar. A gradual decrease in performance and eventually movement instead. Some panting and vincing in pain. I think this corrolates rather well with the instagib nature of the damage you take.

Did you ever play Bethsoft's Cthulu game? As close as you could get to a HUD-less game. It was more aggravating than anything, mainly because without a HUD they had to make the character incredibly weak, lest they create a need for health displays. You don't need one when it takes 2 hits to kill you, but you do when it takes 10 or more.

Its actually Headfirst Productions who made Cthulhu:DCoTE.

 

Bethesda only acts as a publisher and was in the end directly responsible for Headfirst Production's bankruptcy. Bastards.

Heres something crazy, no visible hitpoints, no health bar. A gradual decrease in performance and eventually movement instead. Some panting and vincing in pain. I think this corrolates rather well with the instagib nature of the damage you take.

Did you ever play Bethsoft's Cthulu game? As close as you could get to a HUD-less game. It was more aggravating than anything, mainly because without a HUD they had to make the character incredibly weak, lest they create a need for health displays. You don't need one when it takes 2 hits to kill you, but you do when it takes 10 or more.

 

Your sir, missed the point of that game.

 

You are a tiny mortal caught in the machinations of gods, of course you're weak.

 

Also I loved the way that game was presented. It was brilliant.

And Bethesda only published it

I think both could be implementable ala Witcher.

 

There you had a healing-over-time potion in Swallow (best potion in the game IMO), and an instant healing potion in White Rafford's Decoction. The latter was tempered with the side-effect of high toxicity so balance was more or less retained.

Maybe they could use inspired drug related usage during the Vietnam war in the gameplay, considering the Marines in Aliens are based on Vietnam gun-ho attitude marines afterall.

I think both could be implementable ala Witcher.

 

There you had a healing-over-time potion in Swallow (best potion in the game IMO), and an instant healing potion in White Rafford's Decoction. The latter was tempered with the side-effect of high toxicity so balance was more or less retained.

White Raffard's was also hard to come by, the recipe was rare and making the potion took a lot more resources than Swallow.

 

I'd like to have this kind of graded, controlled methods in Aliens as well. Like in SS2, you could have healing units spread out around levels that would fully heal you, stick your broken limbs and burst livers, but would cost a lot to use(like time or credits) and besides those have some kind of temporary healing methods, like gel-casts for legs and bandages or some kind of clotting insta-glue for wounds. The idea being that these methods might only stop bleeding and maybe allow the characters to ignore wounds and pain(psychoactive meds!), but wouldn't save them in the long run. Silent Storm actually had this kind of mechanic, not full healing in the field.

 

Heh, this kind of complexity might be too much though, but it's fun to imagine.

As a matter of taste, I prefer the stuff of Jagged Alliance 2. You can do quick repairs and prevent yourself from bleeding to death on the field, but for real healing/recovery, you need medical attention buy a skilled person (a doctor). It is your choice then, whether or not you can be bothered to drag the otherwise no good doctor and his equipment along with the rest of the team.

 

Edit: JA2 also has targetted shots against heads, legs etc. for some funny situations.

No-good doctor? I had a merc with both doctor skills and a sniper rifle.

No-good doctor? I had a merc with both doctor skills and a sniper rifle.

Well, if you've got the money to spend

I like Gorgon's idea of what Tigger calls 'limping' health degen. However, it wouldplace an immense burden on level design, unless some meta design features of such a model were established.