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The Red Orb of Health - Suggestion for improvement

rungardrungard Member Posts: 1,035
in Guild Wars 2

The red orb of health is a throwback to diablo 1, and i have an improvement on it i think players will enjoy immensley that would be simple to incorperate to the game.

From all the videos ive seen thus far, which is quite a few, something stands out to me. The truth is that when you immerse a player into a world where things are exciting and not static, you can actually hear the glee in the voices of the video makers. I think players have somewhat overcome the requirement to mechanize the game down to a statfest and crave a little more immersion  in their mmo.

 

Since GW2 is supposedly big on breaking the mold, please consider the following suggestion.

 

We will take away that little red ball and replace it with a little red heart. It doesnt have to look like a real human heart, but it does have to beat like one. Rather than display how many hitpoints you have, it would simply beat faster. If you took enough damage you would drop to the ground as they have already implemented. This idea originated in the  TRS-80 game" Dungeons of Dageroth" and it was awesome then (well over 20 years ago) and would be awesome now.

this mechanism has a few advantages.

1) it takes your mind off the stats and allows more immersion to tbe added to the game at very low development cost.

2) You never know when youll drop, and the benifits of this mechanism cannot be underestimated. You will have an idea of when, but not know exactly when, and this factor of the unknown will produce anxiety/excitement ( the good kind) when you are "low on health", which translates into more fun for players and less mechanical dissection. Since everyone in GW2 is largely responsible for healing themselves, i think it would be a great boon to the immersion factor.

a little unknown can go a long way to making things exciting and my opinion is to always show things graphically instead of statistically whenever possible.

Comments

  • Shroom_MageShroom_Mage Member UncommonPosts: 863

    The borders of your screen "bleed" as you take damage. The more you've taken, the stronger the effect is. There's your immersion.

    The rest of us would like some actual data to work with.

    "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,509

    Heh, I remember that rapidly beating heart from Dungeons of Daggaroth....and when it would suddenly go flatline and you were dead.

    I understand where you are coming from, for some of us we miss the days of surprise and wonder in MMO's, when they were virtual worlds that we tried to live in.

    But there are other breeds of players, the min/max crowd who dissect MMO's into the sum of their numbers, and this would never satisfy their needs.

    No reason to post this in the GW2 forum though, that title's design is pretty much set in stone at this point, with the only question now is how much might get left out prior to launch due it not being quite as polished as it needs to be.

    Maybe in the next one, who knows?

     

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    Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm

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  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    I loved that part of Diablo really and Diablo had the same lead designer as GW2 had the first 3 years.

    So, no, I don't like the heart idea, sorry.

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Originally posted by Kyleran

    Heh, I remember that rapidly beating heart from Dungeons of Daggaroth....and when it would suddenly go flatline and you were dead.

    I understand where you are coming from, for some of us we miss the days of surprise and wonder in MMO's, when they were virtual worlds that we tried to live in.

    But there are other breeds of players, the min/max crowd who dissect MMO's into the sum of their numbers, and this would never satisfy their needs.

    No reason to post this in the GW2 forum though, that title's design is pretty much set in stone at this point, with the only question now is how much might get left out prior to launch due it not being quite as polished as it needs to be.

    Maybe in the next one, who knows?

    it works in the right combat mechanics but in that case you should get rid of the hitpoints and make a more realistic damage mechanics with wounds and so on.

  • Lord.BachusLord.Bachus Member RarePosts: 9,686

    Throw back? for a graphical implementation?

     

    Actually it works quite well, having your healthbar in the middle of the screen

     

    Why are people so afraid of change, even the smallest thing different from theirfavourite MMO is treated with criticisme and being cursed as a throw back for the whole genre...

     

     

    I think i might even start a guild named after it :  "Knights of the bloody orb" or even better " Clan of the blood red Orb", "Worshippers of the holy red orb", "Fellowship of the failing red orb"

    Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)

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