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Im sick of damage numbers.

CastillleCastillle Member UncommonPosts: 2,679

So Ive been playing Dead Island  recently and one thing annoyed me.  The damage numbers.  I mean...I hate it.  I turned it off and even turned off the enemy hp bars.  Turning it off made the game so much more fun for me.  No longer do I try to look at "ZOMG 5k crit!" or anything like that.  I just run around, bashing zombies face in and chop their head off when theyre down (just to make sure theyre dead). 

I tried borderlands 1 again this morning and the god forsaken damage numbers and hp bar annoyed the living !@#$ out of me -.-

Death to damage numbers and hp bars! DEATH!!!! Oh and death to the name above the avatar thing too.  That is so annoying. DEATH TO NAME ABOVE THE AVATARS! o.O

Edit : Its annoying how your finger can stick out while hiding behind a tree and all of the sudden your name appears to the d00d youre hiding from. 

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Comments

  • AmarantharAmaranthar Member EpicPosts: 5,785

    Heh, I can agree with that.

    I've always wanted to see the physical damage, either on the avatar or on a Paper Doll. More blood means more damage, and to where (limb, torsu, neck, etc.). And damage that can cripple or mame. And blood spouts mean damage over time.

    And then add skills to fake it, and a chance to surprise the enemy then.

    There's more excitement of you don't know when exactly your target is going to drop, or what exactly is currently happening.

    Names need work too, agreed there also.

    Once upon a time....

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775

    nah .. i do want to know how much damage i am doing.

    in fact, that is why recount is such a popular add-on for wow, and theorycrafting popular in many games.

  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247
    Originally posted by Castillle

    So Ive been playing Dead Island  recently and one thing annoyed me.  The damage numbers.  I mean...I hate it.  I turned it off and even turned off the enemy hp bars.  Turning it off made the game so much more fun for me.  No longer do I try to look at "ZOMG 5k crit!" or anything like that.  I just run around, bashing zombies face in and chop their head off when theyre down (just to make sure theyre dead). 

    I tried borderlands 1 again this morning and the god forsaken damage numbers and hp bar annoyed the living !@#$ out of me -.-

    Death to damage numbers and hp bars! DEATH!!!! Oh and death to the name above the avatar thing too.  That is so annoying. DEATH TO NAME ABOVE THE AVATARS! o.O

    Edit : Its annoying how your finger can stick out while hiding behind a tree and all of the sudden your name appears to the d00d youre hiding from. 

    Make characters with smaller hands.

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
    "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre

  • ElphyiElphyi Member Posts: 14

    Simple Fix to Damage Numbers.

     

     

    Turn it off in Options.

     

    Wasnt that simple?

    lol

  • CastillleCastillle Member UncommonPosts: 2,679
    Originally posted by Amaranthar

    Heh, I can agree with that.

    I've always wanted to see the physical damage, either on the avatar or on a Paper Doll. More blood means more damage, and to where (limb, torsu, neck, etc.). And damage that can cripple or mame. And blood spouts mean damage over time.

    And then add skills to fake it, and a chance to surprise the enemy then.

    There's more excitement of you don't know when exactly your target is going to drop, or what exactly is currently happening.

    Names need work too, agreed there also.

    That would be awesome! And yes I would prefer seeing the damage on the enemy instead of the damage on their healthbar. 

    For MMOs, sure you can turn them off but aside from looking at numbers theres not much else to do...And doh I posted it on the wrong page x.x I meant for it to be in general gaming.

     

     

    ''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni
    ( o.o)
    (")(")
    **This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**

  • AxehiltAxehilt Member RarePosts: 10,504

    The issue is progression.  Games with progression at a minimum need to visualize the relative effectiveness of your Shovel vs. a Level 5 or a Level 25 zombie (because that same shovel is going to probably take more than 2x as many hits to kill the second zombie -- possibly way more than 2x.)

    While this doesn't require damage numbers, numbers are the absolute clearest way of communicating precise effectiveness -- you see you're still doing 10 damage against a zombie which has 100 hp (level 25) instead of 50 hp (level 5).

    In a game where basic zombies always died to 5 hits, you wouldn't need any visuals at all -- neither healthbar nor numbers -- because the game would always behave exactly the same.

    "What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver

  • VahraneVahrane Member UncommonPosts: 376

        Go play Darkfall! It has visual damage representation and no numbers above peoples heads when you've landed a blow. The incredible amount of flaws in its design might turn you off though.

  • QuirhidQuirhid Member UncommonPosts: 6,230

    Atleast camouflage hasn't been used succesfully in videogames. Not that I've heard anyway. There's always a way to adjust your graphics settings or modify your opponent's model (or delete the skin entirely). And making sure people haven't made any adjustments or modification can prove tricky if its even possible. Not worth the effort, I think.

    I'd say hiding, if implemented, pretty much needs to be the lame invisibility style hiding to be abuse proof.

    Still, using as small model as possible and as neutral colors as possible has a small advantage against regular players. Why did I pick a female model in an FPS game? Because its a smaller than the bulky male character. Even if they had the same size hitboxes the female character would be slightly harder to spot. Size matters.

    I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky

  • CastillleCastillle Member UncommonPosts: 2,679
    Originally posted by Axehilt

    The issue is progression.  Games with progression at a minimum need to visualize the relative effectiveness of your Shovel vs. a Level 5 or a Level 25 zombie (because that same shovel is going to probably take more than 2x as many hits to kill the second zombie -- possibly way more than 2x.)

    While this doesn't require damage numbers, numbers are the absolute clearest way of communicating precise effectiveness -- you see you're still doing 10 damage against a zombie which has 100 hp (level 25) instead of 50 hp (level 5).

    In a game where basic zombies always died to 5 hits, you wouldn't need any visuals at all -- neither healthbar nor numbers -- because the game would always behave exactly the same.

    I kinda get it but I kinda dont because if you were using a level 25 shovel youd usually be able to kill the level 25 zombie in 4-6 hits and youll be able to kill the level 5 zombie with 5 hits from a level 5 shovel.  So like...Whats the point aside from yknoe....staring at higher numbers/different color pallete? >.<

     

    As for playing darkfall..Idk...Isnt that getting a reboot or something? I  might try it after the reboot o.O Im waiting for Star Farer though (or somefing....)  The graphics guy for Terraria is making that with a 7 or so person team! @_@ Block building ftw.

    ''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni
    ( o.o)
    (")(")
    **This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**

  • AxehiltAxehilt Member RarePosts: 10,504
    Originally posted by Castillle

    I kinda get it but I kinda dont because if you were using a level 25 shovel youd usually be able to kill the level 25 zombie in 4-6 hits and youll be able to kill the level 5 zombie with 5 hits from a level 5 shovel.  So like...Whats the point aside from yknoe....staring at higher numbers/different color pallete? >.<

     As for playing darkfall..Idk...Isnt that getting a reboot or something? I  might try it after the reboot o.O Im waiting for Star Farer though (or somefing....)  The graphics guy for Terraria is making that with a 7 or so person team! @_@ Block building ftw.

    Well progression isn't always justified.

    For example, in Dead Island I felt having progression was a bad choice and the game would've been better if done more in the style of L4D.

    But if you have progression then that implies everything isn't progressing at the same rate (if zombies level at exactly the same rate as your shovel, why have progression at all?)  And when zombies don't level at the same rate as your shovel, you need some indication of where you're at in terms of progression -- and trial/error can be pretty frustrating because it's not transparent to players why they did crappy against this zombie when the last one died in 4 hits.  And that's what healthbars and/or HP numbers do for players: gives them transparency into what's happening.

    "What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by Castillle
     

    I kinda get it but I kinda dont because if you were using a level 25 shovel youd usually be able to kill the level 25 zombie in 4-6 hits and youll be able to kill the level 5 zombie with 5 hits from a level 5 shovel.  So like...Whats the point aside from yknoe....staring at higher numbers/different color pallete? >.<

     

    Precision? Knowing the average vs variance? Curiosity?

    What if sometimes you kill with 5 blows and sometimes 6? People will want to know the average .. and if they track the data, and work the numbers out, you may was well give it to them.

    People want to know. If you look at WOW, it does NOT display numbers in its early incarnation. What happened? Add ons are created to track and estimate the numbers. So Blizz finally gave in and put the numbers there.

    People want to know if they are doing 5% more DPS if they swap a piece of gear. That is why tools like RAWR and recount is popular. That is why Blizz put in DPS calcuation in D3.

     

  • IndromeIndrome Member UncommonPosts: 292

    Agreed, OP. I once designed a damage-system without numbers or health bars for an old (dead) MMO named The Chronicles of Spellborn during its beta.

    It relied on "color coding" the enemy's and your own status via visual cues overlayed over the textures (from green to red on various spots) or an optional "health orb" that gradually changes colors from green (healthy) to red (damaged) as well.

    The system was supposed to give the "impression" of determining your enemy's condition like you would in a real fight - by looking and watching, not by reading.

    Sadly, it wasn't picked up. The damage numbers and health bars stayed. I wish there was at least ONE good game to explore the possibilities of leaving those out. (Skyrim has them, GTA has them, any AAA MMO has them...)

    image

  • ZooceZooce Member Posts: 586

    Usually prefer to see all the numbers floating around myself, but the option should be present to hide such clutter when players seek a minimalist experience.

  • QuicklyScottQuicklyScott Member Posts: 433

    I really don't think floaty numbers are neccessary in a zombie survival fps game. I was over joyed when I first hit a 10 in Runescape though.  Bad with some; great with others.  It has to be used in the right context, otherwise it's goofy and not needed.

    image

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