Different animation for health status?

In D&D 4e, there is a status called "bloodied" where you or your enemies have less than 50% of your hitpoints. It is interesting because it gives you an idea of how much health your enemies have, as well as causing different bonuses or maluses to enemies attacking bloodied creatures.

 

From an animation perspective, it helps you know who's more likely to die too. Wondering if this is something OEI might do from an animation perspective or mechanical one too.

I really liked how they did it in fallout 2. Where a enemy would be called crippled, injured, winded, near death, ect depending on how hurt they were. So if you had a bandit down to 90% he could just be called winded bandit when moused over. I'd say maybe even go so far to only have that appear when paused just to help keep things uncluttered. Then perhaps give access to a perk/skill that let you know the exact number of hit points for those who like to see behind the curtain so to speak.

 

It would be cool to see it visually represent in the animations but I don't know how much time/money that would eat up so I thought I'd suggest this because sometimes I think seeing enemy HP in a neat little bar floating over their heads is a bit unwelcome.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Pshaw

I feel like you shouldn't know the exact HP of any enemy unless you have some sort of divination magic or something. But yeah the crippled/winded thing is nice. I just realized you could possibly have two statuses: one based on stamina and one on health.

The bloodied idea sounds really neat, where enemies with little remaining health would appear so. That could help me prioritize my targets without breaking immersion with health bars. I don't think it would require much dev time either, as you could just stamp a (maybe even the same) bloodsplatter mesh on each character/creature model.

 

As an aside, what would be neat but would also require more dev resources would be to have NPCs react to my bloodied PC (or party).

"I'm ready for a quest, sir!"

"Ready? You're a mess! I like your enthusiam, but I've no need of a martyr. Go and get some rest, and then come back and speak with me."

"No sir! I'm a martyr, a sucker for punishment, and I will not rest until every concievable task in this land is seen to a conclusion!"

"Alright, alright. If getting killed is your wish, I'm not gonna stop you. I need you to ..."

The bloodied idea sounds really neat, where enemies with little remaining health would appear so. That could help me prioritize my targets without breaking immersion with health bars. I don't think it would require much dev time either, as you could just stamp a (maybe even the same) bloodsplatter mesh on each character/creature model.

 

As an aside, what would be neat but would also require more dev resources would be to have NPCs react to my bloodied PC (or party).

"I'm ready for a quest, sir!"

"Ready? You're a mess! I like your enthusiam, but I've no need of a martyr. Go and get some rest, and then come back and speak with me."

"No sir! I'm a martyr, a sucker for punishment, and I will not rest until every concievable task in this land is seen to a conclusion!"

"Alright, alright. If getting killed is your wish, I'm not gonna stop you. I need you to ..."

 

Personally I worry about a bloodied skin really standing out in the middle of combat with attacks and spell effects flying about. Also I think it would probably still be a lot of work to do that for each and every monster type in the game. I'm not against it persay, but if they did go that route I'd probably want it in addition to another way to tell their health level as blood on the clothing might be a bit too vague for my tastes.

 

But I'm all for the second half if they can fit it in. I like it when in skyrim people comment on you looking sick or shop keepers tell you to get out if you're not wearing any clothes. Having NPCs react to your condition in dialogue would be a nice bit of flavor. Even if it was just limited to shouts while walking around town where NPCs you pass close to would have something like, 'hey you really don't look so good, you should get yourself to a healer' pop up over their heads it would be a welcome addition.

The bloodied idea sounds really neat, where enemies with little remaining health would appear so. That could help me prioritize my targets without breaking immersion with health bars. I don't think it would require much dev time either, as you could just stamp a (maybe even the same) bloodsplatter mesh on each character/creature model.

 

As an aside, what would be neat but would also require more dev resources would be to have NPCs react to my bloodied PC (or party).

"I'm ready for a quest, sir!"

"Ready? You're a mess! I like your enthusiam, but I've no need of a martyr. Go and get some rest, and then come back and speak with me."

"No sir! I'm a martyr, a sucker for punishment, and I will not rest until every concievable task in this land is seen to a conclusion!"

"Alright, alright. If getting killed is your wish, I'm not gonna stop you. I need you to ..."

 

Personally I worry about a bloodied skin really standing out in the middle of combat with attacks and spell effects flying about. Also I think it would probably still be a lot of work to do that for each and every monster type in the game. I'm not against it persay, but if they did go that route I'd probably want it in addition to another way to tell their health level as blood on the clothing might be a bit too vague for my tastes.

 

But I'm all for the second half if they can fit it in. I like it when in skyrim people comment on you looking sick or shop keepers tell you to get out if you're not wearing any clothes. Having NPCs react to your condition in dialogue would be a nice bit of flavor. Even if it was just limited to shouts while walking around town where NPCs you pass close to would have something like, 'hey you really don't look so good, you should get yourself to a healer' pop up over their heads it would be a welcome addition.

 

"Why the hell are you on fire?! Get out of my store!"

4e is a travesty imo. The idea of having a bloodied status makes a certain amount of sense the way you describe it and I wouldn't mind if they opted to use a system like that instead of having health bars or something, but when you consider all the other c*ck ups they filled those books with, I would think twice before implementing any 4e based ideas.

4e is a travesty imo. The idea of having a bloodied status makes a certain amount of sense the way you describe it and I wouldn't mind if they opted to use a system like that instead of having health bars or something, but when you consider all the other c*ck ups they filled those books with, I would think twice before implementing any 4e based ideas.

 

Was waiting for this...

 

I don't want them to implement 4e. But you can always take from ideas that you like and let them inspire you. If they implemented 4e then they'd have licensing problems anyway

Wounds, be they a loss in stamina or health, should definitely influence your fighting capacity. I don't need specific animations for that though

4e is a travesty imo. The idea of having a bloodied status makes a certain amount of sense the way you describe it and I wouldn't mind if they opted to use a system like that instead of having health bars or something, but when you consider all the other c*ck ups they filled those books with, I would think twice before implementing any 4e based ideas.

 

Was waiting for this...

 

I don't want them to implement 4e. But you can always take from ideas that you like and let them inspire you. If they implemented 4e then they'd have licensing problems anyway

 

yeah lol, I agree with you, but it had to be said.

It might make sense that a wounded opponent fights less effectively than one in full health - perhaps with a lower chance to hit, perhaps with fewer attacks. Then again, it might be better if such factors depended on current stamina level - basically, as you get tired, you fight less effectively.

I'm not even interested much in the mechanics of being "bloodied," I'd be fine to me if I could just see at a glance which enemies and which of my companions are significantly injured. I think stamina is supposed to mangage the fatigue / injury mechanics anyway.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Pipyui

I like this idea, so long as the extra animation work necessary to implement different status animations for each different race and monster wouldn't consume too much of Obsidian's time and resources.

I, personally, feel that for this type of game the "Uninjured, Barley Injured, Injured, Badly Injured, Near Death" approach works the best. It would be cool to show enemies looking more damaged as the fight progresses. However, I can't see it working too well in an isometric perspective; it would work great in a gritty FPS (think Metro 2033) but I'm not convinced it's a worthwhile idea in P:E.

I like it when they reflect the health status outside of combat via injured character animation. Within combat your party should be able to assess the health of your opponents visually, so health bars may make sense in that circumstance.

I seriously doubt it will be too noticable to be worth the effort. If they can make it noticable, by all means, but I do doubt that.

The BG2 way of the status overlay on tabbing seems better.

 

And I am still pro-changing your character icon to reflect combat status. Less work for animators, even more for the artists though...

I seriously doubt it will be too noticable to be worth the effort. If they can make it noticable, by all means, but I do doubt that.

The BG2 way of the status overlay on tabbing seems better.

 

And I am still pro-changing your character icon to reflect combat status. Less work for animators, even more for the artists though...

 

I agree!

Well maybe when pointing at an enemy with a mouse small icons indicating bloody/cripled/dazed statuses could pop up instead of animations (small blood drop/broken leg/ question mark etc)

I like that idea Hassat. It's nice. I just worry about my character portrait filling up with status changes

While I found bloodied mechanics interesting in 4E, and this would offer good feedback, you have to consider that this is one or even potentially multiple animation sets added to nearly every creature in the game, which is a rather daunting task. "wounded idle" is one thing, but for it to really look right you may have to have a "wounded limp, wounded swing, wounded punch" etc. It adds up very quickly unless your animator can make it look right transitioning from the idle state to any other animation, which takes time.

 

There's a reason DOTA 2 is the only MOBA that does this, and also happens to not have all of these animations implemented at the present time--it's a polish feature that eats a fair bit of resources compared to other forms of feedback (UI elements, sound effects, etc.) Valve just so happens to have resources to spare.

Something like this could be fun, as long as they don't implement interface reflections of the PC's status, that is blood spattered screen, fuzzy field of vision if you get knocked in the head, the screen gets red when if you get close to death and so on. Or, if they do, that it is able to be turned off.

 

I think stuff like this has little place in a tactical iso set up.

love the idea. but no specific body parts like "wounded legs".

slower movement off-combat when injured. some light red glow on character avatar is ok as well. no avatar physical modifications.

Yes to status animations!

 

And u gotta at least start limping with less than 40% hp.

Edited November 16, 2012 by kabaliero

Something like this could be fun, as long as they don't implement interface reflections of the PC's status, that is blood spattered screen, fuzzy field of vision if you get knocked in the head, the screen gets red when if you get close to death and so on. Or, if they do, that it is able to be turned off.

 

I think stuff like this has little place in a tactical iso set up.

 

 

Field of vision reduced, attack speed reduced, movement speed reduced... when near death. And I like the idea about npcs responding to your outer appearance but it should be kept minimum or creative so ot doesn't sound generic. I hear the same comments on my character every 30 sec I walk around in Oblivion that I'm sneaky or something. How did they know I'm sneaky if I'm being sneaky? And keep those comments to yourself! Instead of generic "hey you look (insert name of highest attribute/skill in adjective form)" it could be expressed more subtly like people getting out of your way, occasional gossiping among themselves of my possible* connections to the thieves guild or something.

 

 

Not to rain on the parade, but with an isometric party-game, is "vision reduced" a good idea?

Only if that member is selected, always?

 

It's just something that's really not for RPG's like this...

I can't remember exactly which title was it, but it was isometric and each character had different field of vision based on race/class/skills. Like a dark elf had vision penalty in bright places and characters with night vision had better vision in caves for e.g.

 

And clicking on a ranger to scan for hidden traps, etc.